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A typical Saturday afternoon at the Squawk involves five barely adults sitting around and talking about anything and everything, most days their topic of conversation lands on music, the military quarantine, the crawls, sometimes they gossip about the younger kids and their own personal dramas. There was even an afternoon where Eddie and Jonathan got the other three high off their asses and just sat and relaxed for three hours.
Today though, the topic was music. Jonathan was on the couch bickering with Eddie and Robin about song choices for her next broadcast. Again. Ever since they took control of the radio station they always found themselves bickering about the music Robin ends up playing on her broadcast, it’s a routine at this point. It was nice, familiar.
Jonathan needed some familiarity.
He didn’t think he would befriend Eddie “The Freak” Munson and “Rockin’ Robin” Buckley so easily but between some similar music taste and their shared enjoyment of getting on Steve’s nerves, the friendship was almost instantaneous and after Argyle had to head back home to Lenora, he’s needed to hang out with people that weren’t his girlfriend.
Speaking of his girlfriend he glanced to the corner where he spots Nancy whispering with Steve about something. Usually, he’d be suspicious whenever it came to Steve and Nancy but after he got back from Lenora, he and Steve actually talked, and the older boy clarified that he and Nancy were strictly platonic now and the look on his face really convinced Jonathan that he was being honest.
However, this is the third time this week Nancy has taken Steve aside to talk to him and the last time this has happened the two of them managed to lower Jonathan’s defenses and cornered him in an intervention about his so-called “weed obsession,” (Jonathan wants it on the record that he was not addicted, just a casual enjoyment that he was now kinda missing.) So, he’s suspicious of the two. They can be conniving when needed.
“Any ideas on what those two are whispering about?” Jonathan’s question causes Robin and Eddie to halt their conversation, all three turning to look at Steve and Nancy in the corner.
“Whatever it is, I’m assuming you don’t trust them?” Robin smirks at him, Jonathan raises an eyebrow at her. Robin laughs, probably remembering the intervention, which gets Steve and Nancy’s attention, there’s a bit more rushed whispering before the two finally join the others on the couch.
“Are you all done bickering about music now?” Nancy asks, settling down next to Jonathan, he rests his arm on the back of the couch behind her, she leans into him instantly.
Steve settles in an armchair and addresses Robin, he points at Jonathan and Eddie, “You should really stop listening to these two about music, Rob. You should play music for everyone, not just Mr. Metal-Head and Indie Supreme over here.”
Eddie snorts and crosses his arms over his chest, “I suppose she should play some good ol’ ABBA then, huh Stevie?” Before Steve could even give a rebuttal, Eddie dives into another one of his rants about how pop music enforces conformity and blah, blah, blah…. Jonathan’s pretty sure he’s heard this exact monologue twice before. A quick glance at the others tells me they’ve all heard this before too.
Before Eddie could go too deep into his rant, Steve cuts him off “Enough! Don’t think we don’t know what you’re doing, man.” Eddie deflates and looks away, clearly ignoring Steve’s words, “You already agreed to this, we’re all here to help, so get your ass in gear.”
It's been about six months since Eddie has experienced a lucky escape from the bats in the Upside Down, since then he's been in hiding, living underneath the Squawk. Problem is he's been going stir-crazy being cooped up in the basement all day every day. Even the kids coming in to play D&D with him on Saturday evenings are barely enough for him. Robin devised a plan to disguise Eddie so he can at least go outside and potentially meet up with his friends, the disguise requires a haircut courtesy of one Steve “The Hair” Harrington and a new set of clothes to make sure he doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb. Eddie sat up, an argument clear on his lips.
“And besides we’ve already started the process, your hair has been bleached, your blonde now, too late to back out now,” Jonathan added before Eddie could add a rebuttal, watching Eddie shrink down again.
“Don’t you want to go see your friends?” Nancy asked him, a smile on her face. Eddie visibly relaxes and nods. Nancy always knows what to say to settle an argument before it happens, it also helps that she has that sweet smile that just makes people melt. Not unlike Steve’s smile oozing with charisma, it’s why those two teaming up is never a good sign, they can make people do anything they want. It’s almost unfair.
Eddie sits back while the rest of us look at him, “Fine but I maintain my opinion that we didn’t have to dye my hair, okay?” he says with a sour look on his face.
“The point is to disguise you, okay.. maybe a haircut would have been enough but we gotta make sure, we can’t risk anyone recognizing you, just think of dying your hair blonde as the cherry on top.” Robin shakes Eddie’s arm lightly as she talks, a reassuring smile on her face. She stands, “Dingus is gonna treat you well, Nance, we should head out now, right?”
Nancy nods as she stands to head out, the girls are in charge of going into town to find new clothes for Eddie and if they fail to find good enough clothes in town they’re gonna have to raid both Jonathan and Steve’s closets to find Eddie some clothes. “Might want to get started, boys. Jonathan, make sure Eddie doesn’t try to escape.”
Steve disappears into the basement leaving Jonathan to wrangle Eddie to the bathroom, Steve returns with a cloth to drape over Eddie. Jonathan takes his place guarding the door, Eddie rolls his eyes, “Y’know I’m not actually gonna bolt right Byers?”
“Not gonna risk it Munson, if Nancy finds out I let you run off on my watch, she’d kill me.” Jonathan gave him a bored look, Steve chuckled using a cloth to wipe the scissors in his hand.
Steve sits Eddie down on the chair and looks at him through the mirror, “Ready?” Eddie takes a minute before nodding. Getting the ok, Steve starts cutting Eddie’s hair, shorter and shorter, taking pauses to style Eddie’s hair this way and that way. Jonathan focuses on Eddie’s face, watching as his pout slowly evens out, he’s relaxing the longer it goes on. Jonathan looks up at Steve who seems focused on Eddie’s hair.
“So.. Steve, how long have you known how to cut hair?” Jonathan asks after a couple minutes of silence.
Steve smirked at Jonathan through the mirror, “I haven’t trusted anyone to cut my hair since I was fourteen.” Eddie and Jonathan locked eyes in the mirror while Steve launched into the story of how he got an awful haircut visiting his grandma in Chicago when he was thirteen.
It was thirty minutes later when Steve finally finished with Eddie and Jonathan’s gotta say, he made Eddie look pretty good. Gone are Eddie’s long messy curls, now he’s got short blonde hair almost military cut, then it hits Jonathan to a movie poster he saw at the theatres last year. “Tom Cruise in Top Gun? Whose idea was that?” He asked.
“It was Eddie’s, I don’t think he even saw it though,” Steve said before turning to Eddie “Right? Doesn’t seem like your kinda movie.”
“Nah, Nancy showed me a bunch of teen magazines and told me to consider picking a haircut from them or else Harrington’s just gonna make the call and buzz my hair off.” Eddie explains as Steve takes the cloth off him, allowing Eddie to stand and run his hands through his short hair. “This doesn’t feel like me..which I guess is the point huh?”
Steve nods and then turns to Jonathan “Alright, your turn, Jonny-boy.”
Jonathan’s head snaps to look at Steve “Excuse me?” Steve just stares back at him, a grin forming on his face, and it clicks in Jonathan’s brain, Nancy grabbing Steve and dragging him to a corner, Steve eyeing him for the past few days, the intense whispering earlier, Jonathan squinted his eyes at Steve “Nancy put you up to this didn’t she? This is what you guys were whispering about earlier.”
Steve chuckled, “I guess we weren’t very subtle.” Jonathan starts shaking his head, “C’mon Byers, look how good I made Eddie look” Steve gestures to Eddie, who admittedly does look good even if it’s not really his style.
Jonathan turns to exit the bathroom only to run into Eddie “My turn to stand guard, Byers, and I will tackle you if you bolt.” He points a finger at Jonathan, a wicked smile on his face. Jonathan feels cornered, which isn’t really fair is it?
“Look, I promised Nance I’d try to convince you, yeah? And I promise YOU that I won’t make you look more depressed than you usually do.” Steve smiles at Jonathan, who gives him an annoyed look in return, but Jonathan has come to trust Steve since everything that happened last year, he’d even say that he and Steve are friends now.
“If you really don’t want to do this, just say the word, okay?” Steve clarified, “I’m not gonna force you.” Jonathan sighs, stops to consider it before he takes a seat on the chair, Steve beams at him, looking like an excitable kid, and drapes the cloth over him. “Alright, Nance didn’t really pick a haircut, but she told me to do what feels right, I have an idea and I won't even have to cut too short, so do you trust me?”
Jonathan hesitates but he really does trust Steve now, so he nods and Steve starts cutting, meanwhile Eddie leans on the wall and starts talking about random topics, Jonathan suspects that he’s trying to distract him from the haircut, which he appreciates. Eventually Eddie brings back the topic of music which prompts an argument between them, all the while Steve’s just cutting and styling Jonathan’s hair.
Jonathan and Eddie talking about their mutual agreement on Steve’s horrendous pop song choices is interrupted when Steve announces he’s done. Jonathan stands to take a good look at his reflection, flanked by Steve and Eddie, he realizes Steve cut his hair just the right amount, the sides of his hair are shorter and somehow he brought volume to the top of Jonathan’s hair. He surprisingly doesn’t hate it and before he can even compliment him, Steve’s already looking at him with a confident smirk, Jonathan kinda wants to hit him now.
For a minute, Jonathan’s insecurities about being lesser than Steve in terms of looks come flying into the back of his mind. Steve notices and shakes him out of it. “Hey, knock it off, man.” Jonathan turns to him and before he can ask anything else, Steve continues, “Nancy asked me to do this because she thought it’d be fun not because she wants you to change so much. She loves you and your haircut, good or bad.” A teasing smile on his face.
Jonathan sighs as he looks at Steve, “Are you a mind reader?”
Steve just smiles back at him, “We’ve been friends for the past two years, Byers, I’ve just learned to read you. I can read Robin and Eddie too, not Nance though, she continues to elude me.”
Jonathan chuckles, “You and me both.”
—
Eddie has wandered into the break room in search of snacks leaving Jonathan in the bathroom with Steve still fussing around with his hair. He’s pretty sure Steve has sprayed so much hairspray in this room that Jonathan’s no longer breathing oxygen.
Jonathan sat still with Steve hovering around him, “You know I’m not gonna be maintaining this myself, right? I don't even know if I own a comb.”
“That’s fine, man, I’m doing this for my own peace of mind.” Steve shrugs a shoulder as he continues combing and spraying. Jonathan feels like a bird being pimped and preened, these are the moments where he misses Argyle... and weed.
“The fair maidens have returned!” Eddie announces, his voice reaching them in the bathroom. Jonathan and Steve can hear excitable chatter from the girls, talking about Eddie’s hair. They hear footsteps approaching when Steve turns to Jonathan and tells him to stay put, Jonathan hears Steve intercept Nancy outside the bathroom. “Woah, Nance, let’s give Jonny-boy some time, yeah?”
“So, he did it?” Nancy asked, “A part of me was expecting to come back and he’d be sitting on the couch pouting.”
“To be fair, he didn’t want to initially, but I convinced him with my charming smile.” Even behind a door, Jonathan can picture Steve flashing that smile at Nancy with the same sorta douchey look and Nancy rolling her eyes at him. Steve knocked on the bathroom door, addressing Jonathan this time. “Alright, Byers, time to show your lovely lady my hard work.”
Jonathan gripped the doorknob, swallowing down his insecurities, and opened it. He sees Nancy’s eyes widened, she walks up to him, her hands reaching up to run them through his hair as his hands find their way to her waist. “Well, you look very handsome.” He melts a little at the smile she gives him.
“Yeah,” he looks down before looking into her eyes. “I actually really like it, Steve deserves his flowers.” He turns to his right expecting Steve to be standing there but he’s given the couple their privacy, already walking off, his arm snaking around Robin’s shoulders as the two best friends casually lean into each other’s spaces. He can hear Robin complimenting his work with Eddie’s hair.
“I hope you’re not too mad that I was conspiring with Steve about cutting your hair.” Nancy’s words bring his attention back to his girlfriend. “I hope he didn’t force you or anything, I told him that if you said no, then it’s a no.” She had a sheepish look on her face.
He smiled at her, “No, Steve didn’t force me, he can be very convincing,” and for a moment they just stood there Nancy just smiling at him, one hand cupping his cheek. They were broken from their little bubble by Eddie bursting into the seating area wearing his new clothes. Nancy pecked his lips and took his hand to lead him to the others.
With the combination of the haircut and the outfit, Eddie did not look like himself. “I’d say the disguise Eddie project is a sound success.” Jonathan smiled at him. “You look practically unrecognizable, dude.”
Eddie looked uncomfortable, dressed in light jeans and a light blue sweater with a white polo underneath, he walked over to the mirror in the corner of the room and inspected himself. “I look blasphemous is what it is, I look preppier than Harrington and Wheeler combined.” The others laugh at his assessment.
“That just means Steve did it right.” Robin points out.
“For once.” Jonathan snarks. Steve flips him off.
“I should’ve shaved your head.” Steve snarks back. Nancy just rolls her eyes at them.