Work Text:
Now - 2020
Steve had always wanted lots of kids, six little nuggets. Nancy had told Jonathan that's what he’d called them. Nancy thought that it was dumb. Robin thought it was kind of adorable. Jonathan had made fun of him endlessly. What he was not expecting was for this to come true.
When Jonathan had started middle school he was not expecting his life to end up this way
When Jonathan had started high school he was not expecting his life to end up this way
When Jonathan had started university he was partially expecting his life to end up this way
When Jonathan had gotten married he knew he was doomed, in a good way, just not to the level which it had ended up true.
Middle School - 2004
Jonathan Byers was going to be late for school. It was his first day of middle school and he was going to be late. He was now in crisis mode. Jonathan lived alone with his mom and they were by no means well off or doing well at all. His dad had left a few months ago which was both relief and also a thing to dread. His dad paid the bills, but his dad hit him. His dad bought food, but made his mom miserable. His dad paid for hospital bills, but his dad was the reason he was in the hospital. The bruises were gone now, leaving only a few scars, the fear had faded leaving only a sense of distrust for authority figures, especially male ones. Adults had failed him before, why wouldn’t they continue? Jonathan had lots of bullies at school but his dad had always been the biggest bully, calling him the worst names, figuring stuff out about him before he got the chance to do it himself. The hospital staff had failed when they'd believed his dad’s clumsy kid story over Jonathan’s horrific one in which his father had done thai to him. His teachers failed him by doing nothing about the kids who shoved him in the hallway, who called him a fairy. His mom had partially failed him and he loved her, he really did, but she couldn’t fill all the empty space. She’d married his father, she’d had a kid, she’d watched that kid get hurt by the monster she married for over 10 years. She’d failed him by not paying the electricity bill, causing their electricity to shut off in their house and make their alarms turn off so neither of them woke up on time. She’d failed him by leaving for work without waking up first. She’d failed him by leaving no food in the fridge. She failed him by giving him no way to get to school other than to bike the 2 miles to school when he’s already late and hungry and tired. So without lunch or breakfast, with no clean clothes and without brushing his teeth-no more toothpaste-he set off on his bike, arriving half an hour late, even if the bike ride only took him 10 minutes.
Walking into his class late was already embarrassing enough, but walking in and seeing Steve Harrington sitting front in center was even more embarrassing. Steve was put together in unstained clothes with bright teeth and a smile to kill for. Steve was part of the richest family in Hawkins. Steve had everything Jonathan would never have, money, status, later on marriage and kids, whereas Jonathan would be stuck here working multiple minimum wage jobs to support his mom. Not that he didn’t love her, but he sometimes wondered if she loved him or just resented him, for ruining her life. Then when she had time she cooked dinner and tucked him into bed or they’d have movie marathons and she hugged him and kissed his forehead, then he was reminded of how much she actually loved him. Right now he wasn’t feeling the love though. When the teacher let him off with a warning, and a threat that he better not be late again, he had to take the only empty seat left. Which happened to be directly behind Steve and right next to Nancy Wheeler, who he thought was a rich priss. Though not as rich as Steve. She had two parents who loved each other, a nice little house on the end of a cul-de-sac and a perfect little sister. He envied her a lot too. Her mom and his mom had been best friends in high school and had stayed in touch afterwards, they’d had kids at the same time. Both of them had hoped for girls that would be best friends and Nancy's mom had gotten her wish of a girl, his mom was stuck with a boy though. Jonathan knew his mom was a little jealous of her old best friend's life too and though Nancy and Jonathan had never been best friends or even friends they had spent quite a bit of time together as kids. Which is how Jonathan knew that all Nancy really wanted was to live a perfect little life, like her mom. Maybe with Steve Harrington. Which did sound better then how Jonathan’s life was gonna turn out because although he had big dreams, big dreams of NYU and a boyfriend and a career in photography and some friends, he knew he’d be stuck in this godforsaken town forever working minimum wage, dead end jobs. Just like his mom. He was never going to have kids. Never going to subject another human being, let alone one so cute and tiny, to the misery, the shitshow, that is his life. At least he got to stare at Steve Harrington’s perfect hair all year long.
Now - 2020
The adoption agency had just called Steve. The adoption agency Jonathan had begrudgingly agreed to sign up for in the hopes that they would get picked for adopting children. Steve’s excitement had outweighed his concerns of fucking up some kid. Well kids now. The agency had called. They had six little two year olds who couldn't be split up into different homes and it seemed no one wanted to adopt six two year olds. Well no one except for the giant hearted idiot Jonathan had married. Steve had been on the phone for over an hour, asking questions, listening pensively and promising to call right back after he talked to his husband. Which was, surprise surprise, him. And the look Steve gave him, the pleading in his eyes made him agree against his better judgement, but now he knew that as long as Steve was around those kids would be loved fiercely and as long as Steve was around Jonathan could love those kids just as much. So when he signed the papers later he was much more sure.
Middle School - 2005
Jonathan was now rocking the seventh grade, if rocking meant barely passing because of limited time and resources to do work. If rocking meant having no friends and simply watching, observing, people in the school yard instead of socialising. Which he didn't think it did, so a better word would be floundering and struggling and nearly drowning his way through the seventh grade. Four words. Six if you counted the and’s. Which he didn’t. He’d somehow managed to get paired with Steve for the English presentation that was due tomorrow. The English project in which neither of them had done any work on, Jonathan was definitely getting an F. There had been no work done because Steve was too busy being dumb and talking to some friends in the class and Jonathan was too busy staring at, admiring, Steve. Seventh grade was nowhere near drawing to a close and Jonathan was already so done with it. In eighth grade he’d be thirteen, old enough to get a job, which would mean more income. Which might mean food more consistently and electricity that was always on. Oh what a life of luxury. Across the room were Nancy and her best friend Barb, both of them working hard on finishing their projects. Nancy was furiously writing cue cards for the oral presentation and Barb reading the assigned book, occasionally stopping to jot a quick note. Suffice to say that their productivity made him feel like shit about himself, which almost made him work, but then he caught a glimpse of Steve’s face, Steve’s beautiful face and all plans to do the project flew out the window in favour of watching the smile jump around on Steve’s face.
There was nothing more embarrassing than eating lunch alone outside in the yard with everyone else. So Jonathan snuck off to one of the unused halls of their school and ate there. By himself. Or at least he had been by himself before a girl walked into the hallway and slapped herself down on the floor across from him, a brown paper bag clutched between her hands. She introduced herself as Robin and Jonathan shook her hand, which was pretty sweaty. Robin had asked him if she could do it with him and he’d said yes, which he did not realise meant that he would no longer have any moment of silence ever. She’d been talking non stop for the past half hour, but Jonathan found that he didn’t mind that much.
“-and then we got escorted out and that's why me and my brother Evan are no longer welcome in the Indianapolis zoo.” When Robin talked she talked with her hands, waving her hands around and making various gestures to punctuate her point. It was pretty cool to watch her awkward confidence. He later learned that there was no confidence, just a complete inability to shut her mouth.
“Do you have any siblings?” Robin asked her first question of that lunch and Jonathan’s eyes shot up to look at her, not used to being asked questions. He looked in her eyes and she seemed genuinely interested so he put aside his pact and answered her. In retrospect it had not been a pact, just a lame consolation to himself for having no friends.
“No.” Jonathan’s answer feels too short and he wants to say more because he doesn't want Robin to go away, the company is kind of nice. “But when I was a kid my mom had two miscarriages.” Why would he bring that up? What a stupid conversation topic. But then Robin’s face had lit up with sympathy and she’d started talking again.
“That’s terrible! My mom had one between me and my brother and from what I can remember, which is not much, I was only two, she was really sad for months after it. Then my dad helped her out of it and she got pregnant with Evan, but she still has to take medication for it and-”
Jonathan is grateful that Robin chose to sit with him, he finds he doesn’t miss the quiet as much as he thought he would. It’s kind of nice to listen to what he now calls the Robin Ramble™ and he found he liked answering her questions because she seemed to genuinely want to know the answer. He likes spending his lunch with her so much that when the bell rings he asks if she’ll sit here again tomorrow and much to his delight she enthusiastically says yes. Maybe 7th grade won’t be so bad.
Now - 2020
Everything worked out, they got the kids, much to Steve’s delight. They were going to get guardianship over them in just over a week and Steve was stressing. Stressing about having enough food and clothes and room and love to give, Jonathan had confided in Nancy about his fears and concerns and anything that could go wrong. Nancy had been told to stop being cynic. In a rather rude manner.
“Oh my god Jonathan! You need to stop being so fucking cynic all the damn time! If you keep thinking this isn’t going to turn out well it won’t! Stop being a goddamn self fulfilling prophecy! Life is going your way for once! So! Don’t! Fuck! It! Up!”
In her defense she’d just pulled two all-nighters in a row working on fixing one of the editors' mistakes at the newspaper they both worked at. That edition had been a mess, though the photos were great if he did say so himself, he did and so did Steve and Robin. Nancy had fallen asleep when he’d shown them the edition, her head in Robin’s lap and her feet draped across Steve. Robin had gotten that lovesick smile on her face that she always got when Nancy did something cute in her opinion. But overall, Nancy was right, he really needed to be less cynical.
Middle School - 2006
Robin hadn’t been at school in three weeks. She hadn’t called to tell him and he’d gone to her house many times but her parents said she was busy. The only logical conclusion to draw is that she hated him. Which sucked. He made his only friend hate him so much that she wouldn’t even talk to him or tell it to his face. She’d probably found out his secret, at least she probably hadn’t told anyone. Yet. At school he was just as invisible as ever, carefully avoiding anyone who could potentially cause him harm. No one in his very conservative, mostly white town would accept him. They would maybe kill, definitely ostracise him, well ostracise him more than they already did. So coming out to anyone was a no. He was destined to die alone and miserable. Everyone in this godforsaken place knew that. His mom was the only one who even kind of cared and if she knew he was gay she’d definitely have kicked him out. Looking back he realises how ridiculous this sounds, his mom loved him for exactly who he was, she also already knew. School had gone back to being practically unbearable without Robin, no one to talk to or sit with at lunch. They’d been assigned a group project and had gotten to pick their own partners. Jonathan had done the project alone because no one wanted to be in a group with the freak of Hawkins middle school. When he later moved into high school he was no longer the freak-that title belonged to Eddie Munson-just a freak, but one with a few friends. Eddie Munson was, coincidentally, one of them.
A week later he saw Robin for the first time again, back in the unused hallway where they first met and she’d told him everything. Four weeks ago she tried to kill herself and her parents found her right in time, they rushed her to the hospital where she got her stomach pumped and they saved her life. Afterwards her parents had checked her into a mental hospital in Indianapolis, it had really helped her and she felt much better.
“-and um, so the reason I did it is, uhhh, it’s because, because…" There was a long pause and Jonathan was worried that she'd decided she didn't want to tell him and actually did hate him after all, but then." I’m a lesbian and this town was killing me. So… uh yeah”
Jonathan had never heard Robin sound so nervous, usually when she talked she got lost in, not using filler words or pausing at all. It was odd to see. And she was a lesbian… oh shit he should probably say something, if he doesn’t she might think he hates her or that he’s homophobic. Oh shit. Oh shit.
“I’m gay.” Why that? Why that? Why that?
“We can be queer disasters together then.” Robin laughed and then started crying quietly.
Jonathan had reached forward and pulled her into a hug holding her while she cried and then he’d started crying and it was the first time in his life he ever felt truly accepted or known. That was the first time Jonathan ever skipped class, skipped a whole afternoon. He and Robin sat on that hallway floor for three hours holding each other and crying and when the crying stopped they talked, talked about the things they were too scared to say before, things they were too scared to say aloud before.
Now - 2020
Steve had made the right call. These babies were perfect and tiny and Jonathan loved them with his whole heart. There were six of them, two girls and four boys. One of the boys had brown curly hair and was wearing a green onesie. Steve had picked him up and now the little boy was talking at him. His name was Dustin. On the floor were two other boys dressed in red and yellow onesies respectively, Lucas and Will, Lucas was the only one of the group with dark skin and Will had the cutest little bowl cut. Lucas was the biggest of the babies and was walking in circles around Will. Will was sitting on the floor, his little legs stretched out in front of him and he seemed to be the only one who couldn’t talk. Jonathan himself was holding one of the little girls in his arms, her name was Jane and she was wearing a purple onesie, she was asleep in his arms and his heart already belonged to her. The last two were sitting on one of the beds that Jonathan and Steve had sat up, both of them had clear looks of distrust in their eyes, looks that should not be in the eyes of two year olds, it made Jonathan sadder than anything. The boy was wearing a dark blue onesie and his name was Mike, the girl was wearing a light blue onesie and her name was Max. The social worker had been very insistent on them not ever calling them Michael or Maxine, even for things like punishment. They’d learned about all the kids from the social worker and it was very sad what had happened to them.
High School - 2007
During the first half of the year Jonathan had joined the photography club at school. There were only 3 other members and two of them were the seniors that founded the club, Adrian and Don. The other was a sophomore named Ocean who was in a gazillion other clubs and was mostly doing this to put o her resume. Jonathan hated Ocean, she was an overachieving, selfish prick with a superiority complex, she was also both Christian and Jewish despite neither of her parents following either religion. Jonathan looked up to Adrian and Don, they’d become close in the short time Jonathan had known them, in a sort of brother way. They’d only gotten more close when Jonathan had walked in on them making out and then had accidentally told them he was gay. It was nice to get advice from someone older and more experienced, someone who proved that things would look up on the other side. This was the only good thing that had really happened that school year. Which really sucked because his summer had been so great, he and Robin sneaking into movies, having sleepovers every night. They’d gotten impossibly closer. Then in August Jonathan had turned 14, which marked the time he needed to get a job. He’d gotten one working at the local burger place, Benny’s Burgers, he’d gotten the job because his mom’s boyfriend was good friends with Benny. His mom’s boyfriend Jim Hopper, the police chief. They’d apparently dated in high school and the old flame rekindled, Jonathan was just thankful it had gotten him a job. For his birthday his mom had gotten him his first phone, it was a cheap flip phone, but it worked. He could message Robin whenever to make plans now, she had gotten her flip phone at her birthday in March.
February had brought the first valentines day he ever celebrated. He and Robin had rented a bunch of shitty romcoms on VHS and watched them all on Jonathan’s couch in his old VHS player that his mom bought 17 years ago. It had been perfect. He’d heard Steve Harrington had gone out with a girl named Brooke who was in his history class. His mind had then betrayed him, thinking about what it would be like if he was Steve’s valentine, he drowned out the thoughts by eating his weight in donuts from Robin’s mom.
March brought Robin’s birthday, they went bowling, just the two of them and Robin’s brother Evan. Jonathan lost and Robin won, Evan scored exactly in the middle of the two it was pretty impressive. After they got giant pretzels and ice cream, Jonathan had never done anything so fun for his birthday. It also brought a week long road trip with Robin’s family during spring break. He and Robin got the entire back row of the minivan to themselves, all the pockets were full of snacks and candy, books and games laid everywhere. Neither of them wore their seat belts and they just hung out, talked and messed with each other the whole time. In the middle row Evan would sleep all day on the road, wake up at mealtimes and then go back to sleep. Robin’s parents blasted music in the front and Jonathan could hear their singing and laughing and he could tell that they were really in love. At night they would get two hotel rooms, one for the adults and one for the kids. Jonathan and Robin would share one of the beds and Evan got the other bed, though he rarely slept. He’d walk around the hotel room or sit on the bathroom floor and read, it was odd.
April brought countless rainy days spent playing board games on the floor of Robin’s living room with Robin and Evan. They took turns playing tapes and picking the snacks. The more time he spent with Robin’s family the more he realised what a functional family was and it gave him hope that one day he might be able to have something like it. That he might get out of this town and have a family of his own.
May brought a new after school school club, Robin dragged him to it but he found he quite enjoyed it. It was a bird watching club run by a junior named Stanley, it was one of the only clubs Ocean was not in, so that was a bonus. Stanley was a calm level headed guy, who had a killer sense of humour when it came to making fun of his friends. His "co-president" was a guy named Richie who had a vulgar sense of humour, co-president in quotation marks because all Richie did was make silly voices and follow people around. Jonathan could tell they were best friends, he also recognised them both from when his grandmother used to take him to synagogue when he was little, before she died. Stanley and Richie had been friends even then. Bird watching it turned out to be very fun, but it required patience and silence, two things Robin severely lacked, so she quit. Jonathan stayed in the club though and when Stanley graduated when Jonathan was a junior he made him president.
June brought summer weather and pain, two things that did not belong together. Jonathan’s father had come back, claiming to be a better man and he got custody of Jonathan every weekend. The first few weekends were fine, Jonathan spent as little time as possible in the house and avoided his dad at all costs. The few moments they did together were awkward, but his dad hadn’t been mean. Then on the third weekend Jonathan’s father snapped, he started hitting him again and Jonathan knew that if he told anyone his dad would genuinely kill him. So he didn’t. He didn’t tell his mom or Robin or even Jim Hopper. He stayed quiet and endured it, continuing to wear long sleeves into the summer, stealing concealer from the drug store in town to cover up the bruises on his face. The adults in the world had failed him again.
July brought a whirlwind of memories Jonathan can hardly remember or place. Feelings, emotions and snippets of conversation coming back when he tried to remember. Pain, stress, anger, so much anger, being yelled at, the moment his mom caught him covering up bruises and drew the story out of him. That had been the most awkward conversation of his life.
August brought courtrooms, photographic evidence of the damage that had been down to him, screaming matches between his parents and finally freedom. Freedom to stop being scared all the damn time. August brought the last time he ever saw his dad and the final words he’d said to him, in his head. He hadn’t said anything out loud, but in his head he’s screamed for half an hour before lowering his voice and saying the words he wished he had enough courage to speak aloud; rot in hell you son of a bitch.
Now - 2020
The social worker had told Jonathan and Steve in detail about what had happened to the children and it had been really horrible. The only consolation was that they were still young and would hopefully forget most of what had happened. The story started with the kids' parents. Will who reminded Jonathan of himself. Will’s mom was also named Joyce and Will’s father was also pretty bad, nothing too bad yet, but Jonathan knew from what the social worker had said that his father would have gotten worse and worse as the years went by. However Will’s mother had cherished him more than anything in the world unlike Mike, whose parents were neglectful.They knew this from whatever information the social worker could gather as evidence and from what Mike had told her. Mike was the best talker of the group, Dustin talked the most, but Mike talked properly and seemed to remember everything that had ever happened to him. Mike’s parents had fully neglected him, making him very independent. Mike knew how to get dressed and tie his shoes and talk properly and he knew how to clean and how to eat with a fork and knife. It was so sad. Mike’s parents had barely fed him or changed him as a baby and he was so clearly malnourished. When they had given him food, if he didn’t eat it properly it would get taken away, if he made a mess he had to clean it or else there would be no food or clean diapers. They wouldn’t dress him or tie his shoes or clean his face or help him do anything, if he wanted something he’d have to say it out loud properly for even a chance that they would listen to him. He learned how to walk and talk by six months old and was incredibly self sufficient. Lucas' parents were wonderful people, truly, they had done everything right and loved Lucas to death, they took care of him properly. Dustin’s dad was not in the picture and never had been, but his mom was pretty good, though not the best parent. It wasn’t on account of lack of trying, she just wasn’t the best person to be taking care of a kid, though she loved him more than anything, except for her cat. His mother tried and didn’t quite make it every time, but was overall a good mother. Jane’s father was a police officer who had already lost a daughter and was determined to not do it again, he loved her and protected her from everything. Max’s father was rarely around and when he was he was either drunk or high as a kite, her mother loved her, but had terrible mood swings that she couldn’t control. Being sweet and loving and caring one minute and angry and yelling the next.
High School - 2008
Nancy had started dating Steve and it was the worst day of Jonathan’s life. He’d walked into the bathroom during fourth period and saw them making out Nancy's back against the wall, Steve covering practically her entire body with his larger frame. Steve’s shirt had been riding up slightly, revealing some of his toned back, not that Jonathan had noticed. As soon as he processed the scene he got the hell out of there, as quietly as possible so as not to disturb them. This was terrible, one it caused Jonathan to have to go all the way to the other side of the school to use the restroom which caused him to miss even more of math, his favourite class. Two the crush that he just could not seem to shake and a friend that is no longer a friend were making out, which confirmed two things. One Steve was definitely straight and two he was definitely going to fall in love with Nancy. Jonathan now had no chance, not that he’d ever had one, but when Steve was single or just hooking up with girls Jonathan had hope. Which was now all gone because Nancy was not the kind of girl you just hooked up with, she was the kind of girl you brought home to meet your parents. His crisis was happening on the floor of Robin’s bedroom while Robin sat at her desk writing an English essay. He could tell she was barely listening, which was quite rude. He always listened to her rant about her stupid crush on Tammy Thompson, which didn't even make any sense, she sounded like a Muppet and was as dumb as rocks. Not that Steve was much smarter, but Steve was hot and Tammy Thompson was not or maybe she was and he just didn’t see because of the whole gay thing. When he finished his rant he turned to her, looking at her back before loudly clearing his throat, she turned to look at him and raised an eyebrow in a what gesture.
“So?”
“You’re a fucking disaster Jon.” She turned back towards her English paper.
Jonathan huffed and waved his arms in indignation and then banged his arm against one of Robin’s bedposts.
“Ow!” He grabbed his arm and started rubbing it just under the elbow.
“Disaster!” Robin pointed her finger at him in an accusatory manner.
“Robin! Jonathan! Evan! Dinner!” He locked eyes with Robin, both of them jumping up at Robin’s mom's call.
They rushed out of the room at the same time as Evan was leaving his and all collided at the top of the stairs. Tumbling down and landing in a heap at the bottom of the staircase where Robin’s mom was still standing.
“All that for some lasagna.” Robin’s mom shook her head affectionately and Jonathan felt the warm feeling of being at home fill his heart.
Six weeks later Jonathan had another friend, Barb. She and Nancy had stopped spending every single second of their time together because Nancy was dating Steve. Which was not a bad thing in Barb’s eyes, she’d told them that she missed spending all her time with Nancy a little, but that it was nice to have other friends as well. She’d also told them Nancy was happy with Steve, which didn’t upset Jonathan at all, not one bit. They’d started hanging out because Robin had caught Barb making out with a junior named Ella. It was an awkward moment so of course Robin opened her mouth and just started talking, revealing in the process that she was a lesbian. Barb had sat with them at lunch the next day, she now eats with them frequently, 2 or 3 times a week. In the new building they’d found an old closet near the gym that was lined with benches and covered up mirrors. It had clearly been a room for getting ready for plays when the school still had a theatre department. They stay there every day.
By March Jonathan had made another new friend, this one all on his own. Eddie Munson. He was a senior who was known as a drug dealer, everyone called him Eddie “the freak” Munson and would ignore him or bully him. Then at parties they’d buy stuff from him and pretend that they hadn’t just been making fun of him and calling him names or slurs. That was something he and Eddie had in common. Eddie was also the leader of a D&D, which was a fantasy game. He was also in a band and had taken it upon himself to teach Jonathan how to play guitar. Jonathan was learning fast. That’s what Eddie said at least and Eddie was a good teacher. Jonathan and Robin had even gone to see Eddie’s band play, courtesy of sneaking out and riding their bikes. The only reason they'd even been let into the club Eddie played at was because Eddie told the owner to make an exception, he and Robin had stood in a corner drinking lemonade and listening to the band play covers of Metallica and a bunch of other bands. It had been pretty fun.
Now - 2020
Mike’s mom, Will’s mom, Lucas’s mom, Max’s mom and Dustin mom had all been friends, that’s why they were all together the day of the accident. Jane’s dad and Will’s mom had a little thing going on the side and had chosen that day to introduce him to the group. All of the kids had been in daycare together, oblivious to the tragedy that would strike them soon. The group of moms had been at a diner, Lucas’s mom brought her husband along as did Mike’s mom, Will’S mom brought Jane’s dad and Max’s father did not come. The group had been enjoying their meal when the building shook once, then twice ten completely exploded all of them died. Leaving them all orphans, except for Max but the court deemed her father unfit to parent. When daycare pickup came and went and no one came to pick up the children the daycare staff became increasingly worried. They had called the police and long story short the children were split up across different people who would temporarily take them in. All of the children panicked and wouldn’t calm down unless they were all together. The social worker had been incredibly desperate when she called Steve, desperate to find a home for the six children together. Now they all lived under one roof with two dads who loved them more than anything, except for maybe each other.
High School - 2009
True to his word, when Stanley graduated Jonathan was made president of the bird-watching club. He’d also been put in charge of the photography club, which meant he worked closely with the school newspaper, that Nancy Wheeler was vice-president of. Shockingly enough, he and Nancy now got on quite well. She and Steve had broken up at a Halloween party three months ago and ever since she’d been sitting with him, Robin, Barb and sometimes Eddie. This day, January 24th, was one Jonathan would remember for the rest of his days. He’d been driving to school in his mothers car, which he was now allowed to drive as long as he dropped her off at work in the morning and picked her up at night. The car had broken down about halfway to school, he’d gotten out, pushed it off the road so traffic could continue and popped the hood, trying to find out what was wrong with it. He was completely lost when a car stopped beside him, Steve Harrington's beamer, with the man himself behind the wheel. He was looking at Jonathan through the window, an eyebrow raised.
“Need a ride Byers? At the rate you're moving you won’t be at school till graduation.” Jonathan heard the lock click open and Steve was looking at him expectantly.
Jonathan internally panicked for a few seconds, the boy he’d had a crush on since middle school just offered him a ride ohmygodohmygodohmygod. Out loud he muttered whatever and tried to look as reluctant as possible when getting into the car.
“After school I’ll help you bring the car into the shop if you want." Steve sounded suave and if you looked at his face you would think he was the most confident man in the world, but his hand that was resting on the armrest was shaking and his other hand was gripping the wheel tightly, nervously.
Jonathan had noticed this and wondered why, he later found it was the prospect of hanging with the boy he liked after school that had Steve’s hands shaking, he did not know this at the time though. Jonathan had shrugged noncommittal and turned to stare out the window. The silence was loud and awkward, tension filling the air. When the car ride was over Jonathan practically jumped out of the car and ran to his first class.
He shared the period right before lunch with Steve, Mrs. Robinson’s English class. Steve sat in the back row, in the center. Jonathan sat two seats diagonal to him, which meant he could not see Steve, but Steve could see him and Jonathan could feel Steve’s eyes boring into the back of his head all class. When the bell rang Jonathan had tried to leave the class as quickly as possible, but was intercepted by Steve at the door.
“Can I sit with you at lunch?” Jonathan looked at Steve, startled by the question, and saw desperation in his eyes.
“Uhh, sure. Why?” Jonathan started to walk and was hyper aware of Steve trailing behind him, curiosity burned in his mind as to why the king of Hawkins high would want to eat with the freaks.
“It’s just my friends are being assholes y’know and I know you and Nance sit together and she’s kind of the only person I like at this school. Platonically.”
So Steve had sat with them at lunch, then drove Jonathan back to his car, called a tow truck to get it to the shop and then when they informed Jonathan it was dead and completely unusable Steve had given him a ride home. When Jonathan told Steve that it was the only car he and his mom had, and how they had no money to fix it, Steve offered to give him rides to school and work, and his mom rides to work in the mornings. And Steve did, he showed up on time every day early enough to Jonathan’s mom to work and then would drive Jonathan to school, if he had work after school Steve would drive him and pick him up and Steve would pick up his mom too, until his mom had enough for a new car, but Jonathan would still ride with Steve. That car was everything. They had their first real conversations in that car, the first time crying in front of each other, they drove to Jonathan’s first high school party in that car, got high together for the first time in that car, had their first kiss in that car.
Now - 2022
The kids had been growing amazingly, now at four years old they were starting kindergarten and Steve was crying at drop-off. This morning Jonathan and Steve had to fight the kids to get out of bed and get dressed. Mike had insisted he do it himself and ended up the first one ready, but was then distracting Max and Will. Dustin had needed serious help, due to his coordination being undeveloped and his speech which was not super comprehensible sometimes, especially early in the morning after having just woken up. Jonathan had to fight with Jane for 40 minutes about wearing one of her princess dresses and with Lucas for an additional 20 about not wearing a camouflage mask to school. After prying Max and Will away from Mike’s story they got ready fairly quickly. It took twenty minutes to decipher what they would eat for breakfast and another twenty for all of them to eat. Then Jonathan made them lunches while Steve took them down to brush their teeth, which took longer than it should have. Two hours after waking up they were in the minivan on the way to school, miraculously on time. Steve was crying quietly and Dustin was attached to his leg, wailing, it honestly broke Jonathan’s heart. Mike, Max, Will and Lucas were clinging to each other and Jane was in his arms, somehow asleep again despite his best efforts to keep her awake. Around them parents were in similar situations, only with one child and one or two parents rather than six children and two parents. Jonathan had to continually shake Jane to keep her awake enough so she could eat, Jane could stay awake for more than like half an hour without food. The teacher came over to introduce herself and started talking about what they were going to be doing, at the concept of learning Dustin calmed and started following the teacher around, peppering her with questions. Leaving Steve with the other four kids Jonathan went to see the teacher. He explained to her about Jane’s predicament and she’d promised to make sure she eats. He left Jane with her and Dustin and said goodbye before going back over to Steve. He and Steve hugged each of the kids before getting up and leaving, only being able to after repeatedly reassuring Mike and Max that they would be back at the end of the day. Which they were and when they came to pick them up the drive home was full of unintelligible conversation as they were all talking over each other. When they got home they decide to put on a movie for the kids, just as a reward for doing so well on the first day of school. Once Moana was playing and all of the kids had settled down Jonathan went to join Stove in the kitchen, Steve was doing dishes at the sink with his apron on. He looked up when Jonathan walked in and came towards him, their lips connecting briefly before he went back to the lunch dishes.
High School - 2010
The day everything in Jonathan’s life changed irrevocably for the better was sunny, the power had gone out again and so his alarm had not gone off. His mom had left without waking up, as she usually does and he would've been late for school if not for Steve Harrington and the spare key under that his mom kept under the flower pot. From what Steve had told him it had been really worrying when he hadn't come outside, Steve had waited twenty minutes before deciding something must have been wrong. Steve had gotten out of his beamer, tried about four different flower pots that were kept on his porch before finally finding the one with the key. He’d unlocked the door and come inside, Steve had walked around for a few minutes before coming to Jonathan’s room, he knocked on the door and that’s when Jonathan woke up. And rolled out of bed directly onto the floor. Because of course he did.
Twenty minutes later they were sitting in Steve’s car at a red light, Jonathan had thrown on the first clothes he could find and rushed out of the door with a granola bar. They were on track and they were not going to be late. That was until Jonathan looked over at STeve and found Steve looking at him, his cheeks red. Jonathan’s own cheeks flushed and he swears he could see desire in Steve’s eyes. So still not fully awake, armed with a burst of confidence that came from having his longtime crush direct that look at him, he leaned towards Steve and kissed him. Almost. Just then the light changed and a car behind honked at them to go so Steve whipped his head towards the road and started driving and pulled into the nearest parking lot. Some burger joint that was closed, the parking lot was deserted and as soon as the car was in park Steve kissed him, for real that time. Jonathan was awkwardly leaned over the center console, but he barely noticed. Stev’s lips were impossibly soft and the way he kissed him made Jonathan melt, so full of passion and love and want. Jonathan had only ever kissed one guy before and it barely counted, so being kissed like this was phenomenal. He felt so loved and wanted and that was when Jonathan decided he never wanted anyone else.
Steve and Jonathan had made out until the burger joint opened at 10, then they’d gone in for burgers and milkshakes, courtesy of Steve. They’d had a conversation about their relationship and he can’t really recall what had been said, just Steve’s insistence to ask him out properly and how happy he’d been when STev had asked him to be his boyfriend. Which was what they were to each other from that day forth, until their wedding day when they’d become each other's husbands. They were late to school that day, very late. Arriving only in time for the last period, which they shared. Afterwards they'd met up with Nancy, Barb and Robin outside and driven to Steve’s to hang out, he and Steve weren’t planning on telling anyone yet, but he’d been talking to Robin and it had sort of slipped out. She started freaking out, of course and had jumped up and fallen in the pool, fully clothed. Everyone had started laughing when Robin came out of the pool spluttering and soaking wet. It was momentarily forgotten as Robin fumed, then she remembered and cried out, in front of everyone. When she’d realised what she said her face dropped and she’d started apologizing so fast, it had been a great day.
They’d all applied to various schools, but Robin, Nancy and Jonathan were hoping, wishing and praying for NYU acceptances. Steve had already scouted for basketball and with Nancy and Jonathan’s help had gotten the grades to go with it. So if the rest of them got in they’d all be together. When the letters had arrived they’d all huddled on Nancy’s living room floor, the rest of the house had been empty because Nancy’s parents had taken Nancy’s little sister Holly to a birthday party. Jonathan had been pressed against Steve, his letter clutched tightly in his hands. They’d all torn them open together and as soon as they'd read enough they all looked up and upon seeing each other's faces, started screaming in delight. When graduation had come around Jonathan had held Steve’s hand underneath their gowns it had been one of the best days of his life. They'd driven out of Hawkins with the Clash playing over Steve’s car speakers, Nancy and Robin in Nancy’s station wagon from her mom on the road behind them. That was the last time Jonathan had ever set foot in Hawkins, since his mom had married Jim Hopper and they’d moved to Montauk. Everything had been great. Everything was still great.
Now - 2025
“DADDY!” At his child’s cry Jonathan jolts out of bed, already running out of the room, almost falling down the stairs.
At the bottom of the stairs stands Jane, she pointing her finger towards the living room, in the living room sits Will on one of the couches his knees pulled up to his chest. He can't see anything else so he walks into the room and is horrified by what he sees. Max is sitting on the floor with Mike pulled close to her chest, there’s blood all over and he can see a wound on his head. Steve walks slowly into view next to him, holding Jane close to his chest.
“Call the police Steve!” Stev rushes out of the room to do so, grabbing Will in the process.
Towering above Max and Mike is none other than Sam Myfield, Max’s father, he’s standing with a part of a broken vase in his hand, the rest of it shattered around his feet.
“Get back! I’m just here for my daughter, then I'll leave the rest of your family alone!” Sam pushes the broken part of the vase forward like he's gonna stab Jonathan with it. On the floor Jonathan sees Max’s eyes well with tears, her little hands trying to stop the blood coming from Mike’s head.
“She’s not your daughter, she’s mine. So I suggest you stay away. The court ruled you unfit to be a parent and based on the scene in front of me you haven't changed one bit.” Jonathan wanted more than anything to rush forward and scoop Mike into his arms, to bring him to the hospital. To save him. But Sam is closer and he doesn't want him to get worse.
Steve didn't share the same rationale and at the moment comes running back in and scoops Mike into his arms, holding him to his chest carefully. Max attached herself to Steve’s leg and they were out of the room, leaving Jonathan alone with Sam.
When the police and ambulance arrived Steve went with Mike in the ambulance and the cops came and got Sam, placing him under arrest immediately. Jonathan was left in the house with the five other kids. Max was still covered in blood, Will and Jane were clutching each other and Dustin and Lucas looked more confused than anything. Hours later Steve finally called Jonathan with an update. Mike was fine. After MAx had calmed down he got what had happened out of her. Apparently Sam had broken in while Max, MIke, Jane and Will were playing sorry on the living room floor. He tried to grab Max, but Mike had stepped in between them and started yelling. Sam had picked up a vase off the side table and swung it over Mike’s head.
Days later when Mike was home and everything was back to normal they baked cookies. As a family. It was the worst idea Steve had ever had. They all ended up covered in flour, cookie dough smeared everywhere. Dustin had spilled the french vanilla all over Jonathan’s pyjama pants and they were now stained. Mike had eaten an entire tablespoon of salt and threw up everywhere. He was happy. Everything was great. When the cookies were in the oven with the light on so the kids could watch them rise Jonathan stepped back and just watched his family. Watched Steve start on dishes, watched Dustin and Lucas bicker, watched Mike and El looking at the cookies in fascination, watched Will and Max draw in the flour that was all over the floor.