ultimatelytired

Latest Posts by ultimatelytired

Support pt. 2

word count: 13,184

Fandom: FNAF Security Breach  Pairing: N/A x Female!Reader Pronouns: She/Her  Relationship: N/A Occupation: Mechanic Ability: N/A

Keys:

[F/N]: Female Name  [L/N]: Last Name [N/N]: Nickname [H/C]: Hair Color

Warnings:

due to the fact that I started playing security breach/ruin while also watching theory videos about fnaf my obsession with this game has resurfaced and I thought of a part two regarding this story.

this has become more than what it was intended for.

there will be a part three because this was supposed to include the gameplay but it spiraled into something else.

that is all.

"Support" pt. 1

"Congratulations! You're being promoted!" [F/N], who was currently hunched over her workbench working on the latest upgrades for the main four, looked up at her boss with exhausted eyes. She blinked once, then twice, then a third before letting a sarcastic yay before flipping her helmet back down and continued working "Didn't you hear what I just said? You're being promoted!" she let out a sigh as she put down her tools and turned back to her boss, pushing the helmet back up with her thumb and wiping the sweat with the back of her forearm.

"I heard, I'm just not excited what I'm being promoted to." as well as the more you're going to dump on me, she didn't say that out loud but her face said it all. She cocked a brow when a mask was presented to her, she recognized it as one of the masks that technicians would wea-- "No, no way." he nods.

"Yes way." he places the mask into her hands and gave a cheery smile "You're being promoted to a technical engineer!" she looked down at the mask then back up at him.

"... but I'm a mechanical engineer, not a technical one." he waved his hand to dismiss her words.

"Pish posh, how hard can it be?" he looked away when her gaze turned scrutinizing, as if four years of studying to obtain her Degree of Mechanical Engineering was easy "If that doesn't color your fancy, not only do you get new tools, you get a pay increase." he smirked when he saw the way she cocked a brow, it was always the money.

"Well, I guess it's fine." she murmured as she flipped the mask over and saw the circuitry on the inside of the mask "Do I really have to wear this though? I'm gonna look ridiculous." he chuckled softly.

"The mask looks like that so when you have to work around the guests, you look family friendly to the kids." she flipped the mask back around to look at the unsettling face, she looked up at him with a really look on her face "Just put the damn mask on." she stared at him for a second longer shrugging and taking her helmet off and finally putting the mask on, nothing happened until it turned on and everything looked... different.

"Whoa, this is crazy." she awed as she looked around.

"Pretty cool, right?"

"Heh, I guess." she was then startled when dialogue appeared in front of her.

[Welcome to V.A.N.N.I., the Virtual Augmented Neural Network Integration Unit. Do not be surprised by your surroundings. You are still in the real world, but Fazbear Entertainment has made it better. With this security mask, you can locate and repair all the pesky security nodes that are locking down the mesh network here in the Mega Pizzaplex! Call me Helpi. You can always count on me because it's my job to help you succeed in your new job!]

"Don't tell me this thing is going to be around 24/-- ow!" she rips the mask off and rubs her head after feeling a stinging pain in her skull.

[Lucky for you, the transponder implant allows me to communicate wirelessly even when your mask is removed. Just another Faz-mazing benefit of being a class b technician. Of course, you will have to put your mask back on to get any real work done.]

"Argh, great. Now I've got a voice in my head, thanks." he grins.

"You're welcome." she rolled her eyes and placed the mask on her bench, he then handed her an odd looking tool "Now this is a Faz-Wrench, it's what the technicians use to charge conduits to grant them access into certain rooms, while in the AR world, it is used to breach security nodes and also reboot animatronics."

"Reboot them, huh? Have they ever needed to be rebooted?"

"Not recently, no. They've only needed to be rebooted when there's been a breach in their programming, but even then that's never happened. But, the best part about the mask is that the animatronics are unable to see you."

"What?" he nods.

"Uh huh. While wearing the mask, you can walk by the animatronics completely undetected. Additionally, the mask can allow you to pass through certain solid objects in the real world or cross AR only bridges, which allows you to access locations that were otherwise inaccessible in the real world." her eyes widened at the information as she looked between him and the mask.

"How the hell is that possible?" he shrugged.

"Fazbear technology." she closed her eyes "Anyways, your additional duties are as I stated. I expect you to be able to adapt to your new tasks with ease."

"How... fazerrific." he pats her shoulder.

"There's the enthusiasm!" he then finally backs away "Well, have a great rest of your day!" she slumped in her chair as she watched him leave then looked back at the creepy mask, why did it have to be so creepy looking? She tossed the Faz-Wrench on her bench while grabbing a cloth and chucking it over the mask, she didn't want it looking at her.

"At least I'm getting paid more..." she sat there for a moment before putting her helmet back on and going back to work, the Glam Gang needed these upgrades for their upcoming show.

[a few weeks later]

"Mum! A lady just walked through a wall!"

"That's nice, sweety. Now, go play with your friends so mummy can talk to her friend."

"But mum, I really saw it!"

"Uh huh, you have such a wild imagination." the child pouts and opens his mouth to insist that what he saw wasn't his imagination until he saw the same woman poke her head out of the wall, he gasped when he saw her bring her finger to the lips of the creepy rabbit mask she was wearing before disappearing back through the wall "Mum!" [F/N] snickered softly when she heard the boy cry out about what he saw before shaking her head and going back to fixing a circuit board, having this mask was so fun. Not only did she get to play pranks and mess around with the animatronics, but it was fun to mess with the children. She doesn't do it very often but she was prone to walking through walls in front of the children just to freak them out a bit, it was hilarious to hear children chatter about the ghost rabbit lady.

"Never gets old." she snickered as she pushed the mask to the side of her head and started working on a arcade machine that started playing up, complaints about how the ticket dispenser was jammed. When she finally got it fixed she put the control panel back in place and smiled when she saw the tickets run out smoothly, she grabbed the handful and gave them to a kid that just so happened to be walking by. She laughed when they took it with great enthusiasm and ran off to tell his friends, she puts the V.A.N.N.I. back on and turned to leave but something caught her eye, she noticed a very prominent purple cable leading to the back of the Fazcade, specifically to where the security office was. She picked up her clipboard and saw there wasn't much on her list so she followed the cable to see where it would lead, surprisingly, it didn't lead into the security office but to the far back where the abandoned arcade games were. When she was finally at the end of the cable she lifted her head and raised an eyebrow at what she found "Princess Quest? I've never heard of this game before." she murmured as she looked at the machine closely, seeing how it pulsated while being surrounded by black glitches. She took the mask off and looked at the machine once more, she tried turning it on but no matter what she did it wouldn't switch on. She then noticed that it said "Princess Quest 2", so there was another one? But where could it be?

"[F/N]? Come in, [F/N]." she glanced down at the walkie talkie strapped to her thigh, she unbuckled the holster and took the walkie talkie out of it just as Vanessa spoke again "[F/N], do you copy?"

"I hear you loud and clear, Ness." she heard the woman chuckle at the nickname.

"I hate to bother you, but one of the security bots that monitors Roxy's Raceway got damaged. Apparently it drove over a couple wires and they got tangled it its wheels. I'm gonna need you to fix it." she salutes her, not that she could see it.

"I'll get right to it."

"Thanks, hope I didn't interrupt anything." she looks at the arcade machine one more time before shaking her head and leaving the room.

"Nah, I wasn't doing anything important. I'm in the Fazcade right now, shouldn't take me that long to get there."

"Thanks, the last thing we need is to replace another security bot. We haven't been needing to do that thanks to you."

"It's what I was hired for." Vanessa laughs once more "I'll radio you once I'm done."

"Good. I'll be by if you need assistance, though I highly doubt you'll need it. See you later." with a new task added to the list, she puts her walkie talkie back in her holster and leaves the Fazcade. She made sure to say goodbye to DJMM before entering the elevator, questioning the odd "true facts" that plays in the elevator, then stepping out into the atrium. She smiled from where she was at the sight of the main four performing on the stage, the songs were repetitive but it was fun watching them rock out. And who do they have to thank for such a wonderful outcome? She mentally pats herself on the shoulder before finally making her way to Roxy Raceway, she ducks under the automatic shutter doors and hears the erratic sounds from the security bot.

"Alright, dingus, time to get you fixed." slipping the V.A.N.N.I. mask on, she deactivates the machine before pushing it over but setting it down gently to get the wires untangled from its wheels. She grimaced when she saw just how tangled they were in its gears so she had to be as careful as she could as to not damage to wires and the bot itself, it took a bit of time but she finally managed to untangle them. She set the bot upright then checked its system to see if anything else was damaged, she didn't see anything but rebooted the machine so that it would instead head to Parts and Service so she could do a maintenance check on it "Head to my workshop, I'll be there to do thorough examination on you." it salutes her.

"Aye, aye." she shook her head as it rolled out and made its way to Parts and Services, she began to follow after it until she noticed the same prominent purple cable she saw back in the Fazcade. She followed it and saw that it was leading into the Glamrock Beauty Salon, she looked back towards the exit before shrugging her shoulders and following it, maybe she'll find another one of those "Princess Quest" games. As she followed it, she would occasionally take off the V.A.N.N.I. mask to see any changes to the environment, the closer she got to more reality seemed to glitch out. She enters the salon and weaved past the security bots monitoring the building before finally finding the arcade machine hidden in one of the backrooms, and just like the last one, it pulsated while being surrounded by black glitches.

"Princess Quest 1, huh? So there was another one, but what's an arcade machine doing here? Maybe this one will work, unlike the other." she takes the mask off and looks the machine over once again, it was unlike any other arcade machine. It was predominantly black with red trim outlining the frame, giving it a bold but slightly ominous vibe. On the side there's a glowing yellow-orange silhouette of a princess, probably representing the character you play as, on the side, holding what looks like a small lantern or magical object "I wonder if it'll sta--"

"[F/N]!!" she let out a scream when the door to the room was suddenly kicked open by Roxy, before she could question why she did it she was picked up by the canine and dragged out of the room. She let out an oof when Roxy placed her on a swivel seat and spun around a couple times before finally stopping in front of the girl, she perked a brow before letting out a sigh when she saw the state Roxy was in "You've got to fix me! A kid got pizza sauce in my hair!" she leaned over and saw streaks of red in her frizzled hair, I guess she tried getting it out herself but only made it worse.

"You didn't make a scene, did you?" she sniffled, her usually perfect eyeliner and mascara now running down her face.

"I-I tried to keep it together, but once I was out of sight I came here as quickly as I could." [F/N] nods as she grabbed a box of tissues and handed them to the animatronic wolf.

"Good job, management doesn't like when you guys cause a scene in front of the guests. Well done, I expected nothing less of you, Roxy." she shook her head when Roxy beamed a little.

"O-Of course, it was me, after all." she nods.

"Anyways, how'd you know I was here?"

"I passed that security bot and asked if it knew where you were."

"Ah, I see." Roxy's ears flickered up when she saw [F/N] stand up and start walking away.

"W-Where are you going? Aren't you going to fix me?" she waved her hand to dismiss Roxy's anxiousness as she approached a jukebox, she saw that it was plugged in so she smack it a couple times before it sprung to life.

"Well, if I'm gonna give you a makeover, we might as well listen to some classics." she said as she cycled through the many vinyl's, she settled for Duran Duran's "Girls on Film" and turned back to Roxy "So, what are we feeling today?" she asked as she pulled out the many makeup sets provided by Fazbear Entertainment "I may not be as good as a professional makeup artist, but I am pretty good at bringing out a woman's beauty." Roxy couldn't help but gleam at that. It's almost been an hour since [F/N] had started when the salon doors were kicked open by none other than Chica, who was in search for Roxy, and she found [F/N] holding Roxy by the underside of her snout and apply a glittery green lipstick to her lips.

...

...

"Are you gals having a makeover... without me?" [F/N] let out a sigh when Chica started crying, she brought the chicken over to the empty seat beside Roxy, who was currently cooing over her newly applied makeup "Do me next..." she whispered softly with a pout, [F/N] deadpans at the puppy eyes Chica was giving her before pulling out a makeup pallet that matched her color scheme.

"What do you want first?" she clapped her hands in glee. She was going between both female animatronics, from doing Roxy's manicure to applying an eyeshadow that was a soft pastel shade of glittery pink to Chica's eyelids. She was fixing up the streaks on Chica's cheeks when the doors to the salon were kicked open once more, this time it was Monty who entered and was staring at the three of them in mild confusion.

"... what's going on here?"

"... don't question it." Chica giggled softly.

"Wanna join?" he took a deep breath.

"... sure." by the time Freddy arrived at the salon he found [F/N] on a stool as she styled Monty's hair into a pompadour with a comb in between her teeth and a can of hairspray in her hand as she shaped his hair, she tossed the hairspray away as she combed his hair the way she wanted before throwing it away as well then getting in front of his face. His glasses were resting on her head so they wouldn't get in the way and he could just briefly see his reflection through the lenses, she then pulled out just a strand of his hair and curled it around her finger.

"There, I always thought you'd look good with a pompadour." she murmured as she jumped off the stool and grabbed the mirror from Roxy's hands and showed him his reflection, he whistled when he saw what she did.

"Wow, I'm looking good! I should come to you more often, cher."

"Hah, I hope this doesn't becoming a reoccurring thing."

"So this is where you lot have been." they all look over at the sound of Freddy's voice, he raised a brow when he saw the three animatronics all look towards [F/N]. She looked at the three of them then nodded her head, he flinched when three eyes gleam in his direction and then he was suddenly grabbed and sat down in Monty's seat.

"It's your turn, teddy bear." Monty grinned.

"You're going to look so beautiful~" Chica cooed.

"[F/N]'s hands are blessed." Roxy praised, he looked past them towards [F/N] and shrieked when he saw her raise her closed fists and in between her fingers were different makeup cosmetics.

"How did I get here?" they couldn't help but laugh at that. When Vanessa finally found them it was Roxy and Chica doing Freddy's nails by filing and painting them, Monty was holding [F/N] by her waist as she wore Freddy's hat so she could do a different design regarding the face paint he usually wore. Freddy was giggling softly at how focused [F/N] was to not mess up the linework, it was only when she finished did Vanessa make her presence known.

"Ah hem." they all look towards the entrance and saw Vanessa, not looking to impressed to find them all hiding in the salon "Care to explain yourselves." they all look back to [F/N], who looked at them all before shrugging.

"What's a makeover before the big show, Ness? Don't tell me you want one too?" they all laugh when she raised her hands and backed away.

"No way." Monty put her down and she all but collapsed into an empty chair, breathing tiredly, while the animatronics gathered around, marveling at their new looks. Roxy couldn’t keep her eyes off her reflection — her face sparkled under the salon lights, glitter catching every flicker and gleam. She traced a claw along her jawline, utterly mesmerized. Chica was squealing with delight, spinning around in front of the mirror, her voice bouncing off the walls.

"Look at me! The pink really makes my eyes pop!" she gushed, fluttering her eyelids dramatically. Monty was admiring himself too, running a hand through his newly styled pompadour, the hairspray and sheen making him look even sleeker and wilder than before.

"Now this is rockstar material," he said, flashing a sharp grin at his reflection. Even Freddy, who didn't have the flashy changeable features like the others, looked pleased. His new face paint, swirled in soft blues and silvers, gave him a warm, friendly glow — like a true superstar.

"Sometimes," Freddy said with a chuckle, "a little paint can go a long way." [F/N] watched them, slumped in the chair, a tired but genuine smile tugging at her lips.

"I'm glad you like it," [F/N] said, her voice weary but firm, "but don't expect this to be a reoccurring thing." She flinched when they all turned to her in unison, a desperate gleam sparking in their robotic eyes.

"Oh, please? You made us look so good!" Freddy pleaded, hands clasped in front of him with surprising earnestness. "I'm sure the kiddos will love our new looks!" Chica chimes in next, nodding so fast her earrings jingled.

"Yeah!" Chica said again, practically bouncing. "I'm sure even management would love for us to have different looks from time to time — so we don't get boring!" Roxy leaned forward, her glittering makeup making her eyes look even sharper.

"W-We could do this maybe, like, once every two weeks? O-Or once a month? Yeah?" she bargained, voice hopeful, ears twitching. Monty threw an arm around Roxy’s shoulders with a loud clank of metal.

"We promise we won't cause a hassle," he said, flashing another cocky grin, "and we'll even make sure our monthly maintenance is up to date!" The others chimed in with enthusiastic nods and hopeful, mechanical smiles. She stared at them — these huge, glittering animatronics who were begging her for makeovers like overgrown kids. She sighed, rubbing her face.

"Fine," she muttered. "Once a month. Maybe. And only if you behave." she holds her hands out to stop them from grabbing her but that doesn't stop them, Vanessa couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of [F/N]'s arms strung over Freddy's shoulders as she was pulled into a forced group hug. Despite her tired and disgruntled attitude, she couldn't help but smile weakly as she returned the hug.

So—

Management did indeed like the makeovers [F/N] gave to the animatronics — so much so that they made it mandatory she continue to do so. At first, [F/N] was reluctant, already stretched thin between her usual duties and trying to survive the Pizzaplex’s chaos. But when they mentioned another pay raise, she quickly changed her tune. Instead of squeezing it into their regular monthly maintenance checks, it became its own event: Every month, like clockwork, the animatronics would parade back into the Glamrock Beauty Salon — excited, chattering, almost childlike in their eagerness. From new hairstyles between Roxy and Monty, to simple touchups to their makeup for Chica and Freddy, it was a peaceful bliss for all five of them. [F/N] liked it because all she had to do for that day was glamorize them then relax the rest of the day, maybe she had to thank that kid for getting sauce in Roxy's hair.

"Skeet, skeet," she snickered to herself as she rolled into Bonnie Bowl on her newly acquired Heelys. Why was she wearing them? Because Monty had bet she couldn’t use them without wiping out — and now, out of pure spite (and style), she was rolling around the Pizzaplex, mocking him each time she zipped past. Why was she at Bonnie Bowl? Well, apparently the pinsetter mechanisms for a few of the lanes were acting up, and it was her job to fix them before morning. She had a rope tied around a few Caution Bots, letting them lead her toward Bonnie Bowl. She cheered when she let go and coasted through the entrance — only to slam directly into the ball rack with a loud thud.

"Alright, let's see if I can get a strike," she muttered, grabbing a ball. Rolling up to the first lane, she swung her arm back and let the ball fly. It barreled down the lane, knocking all the pins clean off their feet. She pumped a fist in the air as she watched the strike and waited to see if the mechanism would fail. When it didn’t, she ticked a mark on her clipboard and moved to the next lane, repeating the process twenty-one more times. She didn’t get a perfect strike every time, but out of the twenty-two lanes, only six had issues with the pin elevators. Not bad. Rolling along the sidewalk behind the lanes, she located the numbered mechanisms and got to work fixing them. She was lucky they were numbered — otherwise she’d be rolling back and forth all night trying to find the broken ones. As she worked, she noticed an awful lot of Caution Bots lingering around in the back. Were they supposed to do that? Sure, they were designed to warn customers about wet floors and other hazards, but these ones were practically nudging her while she tried to work.

"I'd appreciate it if you stopped that, mmkay?" she said, shoving them back gently to give herself some space. They didn’t let up, though — in fact, more kept gathering. By the time she tightened the last bolt, she was surrounded by nearly a dozen bots. Dropping her torque wrench into her belt, she gave them a tired look. "Okay, fine. You've got my attention. What do you want?"

Instead of answering — not that they could — the Caution Bots began pushing her deeper into the maintenance area, further from the lanes. She started to feel a little uneasy. Were they about to kill her? But no — they stopped in front of a boarded-up section of wall. Confused, she looked down at them — just as one of the bots squeezed through a small opening. She knelt down and peeked through the gap, squinting into the dark room beyond. She could make out a cluster of bots surrounding...something she couldn’t quite see. The first bot beeped at her, urging her to follow.

With a sigh, she stood, pulled the small crowbar from her belt, and started prying off the boards. When she finally cleared most of them away, she put the crowbar back and grabbed her flashlight. Shining it into the dark, she still couldn’t quite make anything out — until she stepped a little closer. And then she saw it.

"What the hell is that?" she whispered. There, crumpled on the far floor, was a broken, battered animatronic. She took a step closer and let the light shine on it just to inspect the damage and try to see just which animatronic it was. It collapsed on the ground, limbs twisted and splayed out awkwardly. Its endoskeleton and inner wiring are partially exposed, and what’s left of his outer shell is filthy, cracked, and faded. Its once-bright paint — mainly blue and red — is grimy and chipped away almost entirely in places. Its face looked severely damaged: the jaw is hanging open unnaturally, one eye is popped out of its socket while both were glowing a sickly yellow "There was only one blue animatronic, Bonnie?" her finger gently brushed against his face and it suddenly sprung to life.

"S-S-Strike! Nice go-- going there, k-kiddo! You j-just got a-a-a str-- strike!" she jumped back in surprise when he spoke, but it wasn't really him speaking but a dialogue from his programming. When his body stopped spasming she finally let out the breath she hadn't realized she was holding, she approached him once more and kicked his head just to make sure he didn't suddenly wake up again.

"What is he doing here? The reports said he went missing in Monty Golf," she muttered, furrowing her brows. Her eyes dropped to his chest plate — or what was left of it — and noticed the deep, jagged claw marks tearing through the metal, exposing his inner endoskeleton.

Was he attacked?

She never personally met Glamrock Bonnie, but she knew he had been the bassist before... Monty. Her gaze flickered back down to the vicious claw marks. She shook her head. No — Monty couldn't have done this. It was impossible, right? He didn’t even have those claw upgrades until after Bonnie disappeared.

"... he’s still functioning," she mumbled, watching the faint flicker of life in the broken animatronic. She paused, thinking it over — then shrugged. It's not like she had anything better to do.

The next half hour was spent dragging Bonnie’s broken body — and whatever spare pieces she could find — into a nearby maintenance cart. It wasn’t easy; she was lucky his head didn’t fall off when she hoisted his torso up. Each piece was heavier and more fragile than it looked, and it took several frustrating attempts to get him situated without completely falling apart. By the end of it, she was sweaty, scuffed up, and exhausted — but she managed.

"I am not going to have fun lugging his ass back to Parts and Services," she grumbled under her breath. Before leaving, she grabbed a dirty sheet from a nearby pile and draped it over his broken form. He had been abandoned here for a reason — and she definitely didn’t want anyone spotting him.

Luck seemed to be on her side: none of the security guards, and thankfully not Vanessa, were patrolling the atrium when she rolled out of Bonnie Bowl. As long as no one wandered into Parts and Services, no one would know what she had found. Once inside, she carefully laid out each piece on the worktable, lining them up one by one like she was assembling a jigsaw puzzle. His limbs, his shattered chest plate, even the loose wires — everything had a place, and somehow, she’d figure out how to put him back together. Some pieces from his endoskeleton was missing, which was the worst part of all of this because she was going to have to get pieces from... them.

"Okay... I think I jotted everything down. What's missing and what he needs to power him back online." for a better look she was wearing the V.A.N.N.I mask to see which pieces she needed and wrote those down as well, that was when Helpi appeared.

[Proceed with caution about what you power up, [F/N]. Powering up dismantled machinery often leads to dangerous consequences.]

"Yeah, yeah, tell me something I don't know." she murmured as she waved her hand to dismiss the text, but she started thinking. Why was she doing this? She didn't need to fix Bonnie, he was practically decommissioned and everything about him has already been replaced by Monty, just like Roxy did with Foxy. But looking down at his broken down body, clinging to what little life he still had... she was a mechanic, and it was her job to fix what was broken "Alright, bunny boy. Let's get started."

And so—

[F/N] had started picking up more nightshifts, dedicating nearly all her free time to getting Bonnie back up and running. She spent her days fixing what she could under the radar, and stayed overnight to get in extra hours without raising suspicion.

Bonnie’s outer shell was severely damaged — cracked, and dented — but it wasn’t beyond saving. Fortunately, Fazbear Entertainment still had most of his original parts gathering dust in the basement, tossed aside like forgotten junk. Navigating the basement wasn’t easy though; the place was crawling with old, half-functional endoskeletons. The only way she could get around them safely was by using the V.A.N.N.I. mask — a trick she wasn’t exactly proud of, but desperate times, desperate measures. She set up a separate, hidden room to work on him, far from the main Parts and Services bay. That way, if someone happened to walk in, they wouldn’t see what she was up to. Bonnie stayed hidden most of the time, tucked away safely — she only pulled him out when she needed to use the Cylinder to properly align his parts and test his systems.

"Okay... I think I’ve fixed most of your programming. Most of it got fried by something," [F/N] said as she typed away at the terminal outside the Protective Cylinder, eyes flicking between lines of code.

[Whatever caused Glamrock Bonnie to malfunction has been completely overridden. Good job, superstar!]

"It wasn’t easy. Whatever was inside it was bad." she said as she huffed a laugh while she flexed her sore fingers. "What can't this Faz-Wrench do?" It had taken multiple attempts just to flush out the corrupted data before she could replace it with something fresh. Whatever had latched onto Bonnie's systems was stubborn — outdated, malicious, and deeply rooted. "It was completely outdated. Fitting him with something new should bring his systems back online."

[Very much so. That chip is what all active animatronics are fitted with — though his differs slightly. Since he hasn't undergone the same maintenance cycles as the others, his endoskeleton remains heavily outdated. He will not be able to access the shared network.]

"I see..." she muttered, frowning thoughtfully. "But what can we even do with so few resources for his model?" She pushed the final command. The Cylinder doors hissed open, revealing Bonnie’s partially repaired frame inside. Pulling her V.A.N.N.I. mask up and out of the way, she stepped inside with the small chip in hand. Carefully, she slotted it into the back of Bonnie’s head, following the intercom's calm, mechanical instructions. One by one, she began plugging his limbs back together — reconnecting joints, wiring, hydraulic lines — rebuilding him piece by piece like a forgotten relic being stitched back to life.

[Now, all that's left is for the final touch.]

"Yup." she holds out the Faz-Wrench and watched as it buzzed to life.

[Reactivation: 0 of 1]

...

...

[Animatronic Reactivated]

SAFE MODE...

REBOOT...

SYSTEM INITIALIZATION... CHECKING COMPONENTS... OK INITIALIZING BIOSENSORS... OK INITIALIZING AI ENGINE... OK MEMORY STATUS...

ALL SYSTEMS... OK

Bonnie’s body twitched once — a sharp, sudden jolt — then fell still. A few tense seconds passed before another shudder ran through him. His fingers twitched. His head gave a slow, mechanical tilt. Then, with a sharp hiss of vented air, his eyes slowly flickered open — soft, unfocused glows against the dim room.

"Hmm... optical receptors seem to be operational," [F/N] said, her voice casual but focused. The sudden sound startled Bonnie. His head snapped toward her voice, mechanical joints creaking in protest. He found [F/N] looming over him, studying him closely as she tapped a knuckle lightly against his faceplate. "Only one of his eyes was damaged but I had to replace both with some spares from Monty’s stockpile."

"H-Hello..." Bonnie’s voice crackled weakly to life. [F/N] perked up immediately, grabbing the clipboard she had left nearby and scribbling down notes in a quick, messy hand.

"Voice module’s operational too," she said, grinning a little. "Good — real good. Glad I managed to patch that one up." Bonnie watched her silently, blinking slowly, still trying to make sense of what was happening — and of the stranger who was putting him back together piece by piece.

"Wh-where…?" His voice was weak "W-who are…?"

"Oh, that's right. I'm new to you, but I've been around for nearly a year now. My name is [F/N], and I'm the new mechanic for Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex." Bonnie blinked slowly, the flickering light behind his eye struggling to stay steady. His whole body trembled slightly, like it was taking real effort just to sit up. Without thinking, [F/N] took a step forward and grabbed his arm to steady him. "Whoa, easy there, champ. You’ve been offline for a long time. Gotta let the systems catch up." she spoke, her voice now steady.

"What... what happened?" she shrugged as she helped him settle back down.

"Why don't you tell me? I found you abandoned behind Bonnie Bowl, and might I add, in pieces. It took me forever to put you back together. Your systems were fried, your frame was a mess... I’m no professional technician, but," she tapped her chest with mock pride, "I think I did a stupendous job reprogramming you." Bonnie’s lights flickered faintly as he processed her words. His hands, clunky and trembling, flexed weakly at his sides. He didn’t understand how or why — but somehow, he was here. And somehow, she had brought him back.

"Thank you..." she chuckled softly.

"Don't worry about it," [F/N] said lightly, flipping through her clipboard. "It's my job to fix those who are broken. But you're still not completely patched up yet. You’re missing a couple components that I need to replace before you're one hundred percent operational." She tapped the side of the clipboard with her pen, scanning the list of parts she had ordered — all disguised in the paperwork as "upgrades for the other animatronics." Bonnie shifted slightly, servos whining as he tested the movement in his repaired limbs. He looked up at her, the faintest trace of awe in his voice.

"This is... surreal. The last mechanic I remember was a man." [F/N] chuckled under her breath.

"Yeah, well... that was a really long time ago. Fazbear Entertainment’s been without a real professional mechanic for a while now."

"Really?" Bonnie tilted his head, confused. "How strange." She narrowed her eyes slightly, stepping closer.

"Hmm. I'm sure I fixed your memory bank. Maybe you just need some time. Systems like yours don’t exactly reboot overnight." ," she said thoughtfully, reaching up to lightly tap the side of his head. Her fingers drifted lower, brushing across the newly repaired surface of his chest plate — the metal cool and smooth under her touch. "Whatever damaged you and left you back there... they didn’t want you being found." Bonnie remained still, his glowing eyes dimming slightly as if he was trying — and failing — to reach for memories that weren’t there anymore.

"I apologize." she shook her head.

"There isn't a need, we still have plenty of time to get you back in shape. I'm sure Freddy, the gang and the children will be thrilled to see their favorite and loveable bunny up and running again!" she cheered and that seemed to lift his spirits.

"Yes, yes! I have missed them very much! M-May I see them now?" she gave him a guilty look.

"Unfortunately... not yet," [F/N] said, frowning sadly at the defeated noise that came out of him.

"Oh..." Bonnie visibly deflated at her words, his shoulders slumping with a faint mechanical creak. Seeing it tugged at something in her chest. She sighed, setting the clipboard down and crouching a little to meet his gaze.

"Listen, Bonnie," she began, choosing her words carefully. "I... wasn’t supposed to fix you. I wasn’t even supposed to find you." He blinked slowly, confusion and sadness flickering behind his damaged optics.

"What?" she nods.

"It was a miracle I even managed to, and that’s only because the Caution Bots wouldn’t stop bothering me." She huffed a dry laugh under her breath, but it didn’t reach her eyes. "If management finds out I wasted resources on a 'decommissioned animatronic'..." she hesitated, grimacing. "The worst case? I get fired."

"So... what, then?"

"So... if you want to stay — really stay — I have to bring you back to perfect condition," she said, her voice firming up again. "Good enough that management can’t just write you off. Good enough that they have to let you stay."

"O... Okay," he said, voice crackling faintly but sincere. [F/N]'s face lit up instantly. She reached out without thinking and gently took his hand, giving it a small, apologetic squeeze.

"Good, good!" she beamed. "And I'm really sorry you can't see the others yet — but I promise I'll get you up and running as fast as I can." Her enthusiasm was infectious. Even in his weakened state, Bonnie felt a flicker of something warm inside his worn-out systems. It wasn’t much, but for the first time since reactivation, he managed a small, genuine smile. Weak — but real.

And that’s how [F/N] spent the following weeks — carefully, patiently — getting Bonnie back up and running. Like the other animatronics during her first week at the Pizzaplex, he was wary of her at first, flinching slightly whenever she got too close or adjusted his wiring. It was understandable. From what she had been told before becoming the go-to mechanic, their last technician had been cruel, treating them like nothing more than broken machines to kick back into shape.

But [F/N] was different. Sure, she knew what they were — robots, circuits, programming — but there was something about them that felt alive. Something that made her treat them like more than just animatronics. And little by little, Bonnie began to realize it too. It was a little embarrassing, but when she was checking his motor skills and teaching him to walk again after laying dormant for a long time, she treated him as a toddler who was walking for the first time.

"Come on, big guy! I'll be right here to catch you." she reassured as she stood a couple feet from where he was sitting, she chuckled softly when he pressed his pawed hand over his eyes to shield himself from the embarrassing image.

"I-I can do this by myself..."

"Sure, bunny boy. But what's a little help, hmm?" peeking out from between his fingers, he saw her standing there, hands still outstretched, patient and encouraging. "I promise to catch you." Bonnie hesitated a moment longer... then slowly dropped his hand and pushed himself up with a mechanical whir, joints clicking softly as he found his balance. "There you go," [F/N] teased, hands still out. "C'mon, don’t leave me hangin’, superstar." Bonnie grumbled under his breath, ears twitching in clear embarrassment as he took a shaky step forward. His servos whined from disuse, and his heavy frame wobbled precariously.

"You're doing great," she said, grinning wide enough for him to see it. "Like a big ol’ baby deer."

"I am not a baby," Bonnie muttered, taking another uneven step — and immediately tipping sideways. [F/N] laughed and lunged forward just in time to catch him, staggering slightly under his weight but managing to steady them both.

"Whoa, easy there, big guy!" she said brightly, patting his arm like he was made of paper instead of reinforced alloy. "What’d I tell you? I'd catch you." Bonnie stayed frozen for a second longer than necessary, blinking down at her with wide, embarrassed eyes before slowly straightening up, careful this time.

"Th-Thank you," he mumbled.

"Hey, no problem," she said with a wink, stepping back. "Besides, I'm not letting you face-plant after all this work fixing you. That would seriously ruin my repair record." Bonnie huffed out something that almost sounded like a laugh — shy, but real. By the end of the day he was walking all on his own, under her supervision, and though he wasn't yet able to move as well as he did in the past, at least he wasn't fal-- oh, spoke to soon.

"Hey, no problem," she said with a wink, stepping back. "Besides, I'm not letting you face-plant after all this work fixing you. That would seriously ruin my repair record." Bonnie huffed out something that almost sounded like a laugh — shy, but real. By the end of the day, he was walking on his own, moving carefully under [F/N]'s watchful eye. His steps were still stiff and unsteady, but he was upright — and he hadn't needed her to catch him for a while now. Progress. She leaned back against the wall, arms crossed, watching him pace the small room.

"Look at you go, practically a track star." Bonnie huffed again, a little louder this time — almost a laugh — as he focused on taking another solid step forward. At least, until his foot caught on a loose wire. He stumbled, arms flailing in a desperate attempt to catch himself — but it was too late. "Oh, spoke too soon," [F/N] muttered just as he crashed face-first into the floor with a loud metallic thud.

...

...

"You okay down there, champ?" [F/N] snorted, trying and failing to hold back a laugh. Bonnie groaned miserably into the floor, one hand giving a feeble thumbs-up.

Bonnie was now resting inside a charging station, his systems whirring quietly as he powered down after a long, exhausting day of rehab. Meanwhile, [F/N] sat hunched over a cluttered worktable, sketches and blueprints spread out in a messy fan around her. She twirled her pencil between her fingers as she stared at the latest design she was working on: a new, custom upgrade for Bonnie’s hands.

She was basing it off both his original schematics and Monty's claw design — trying to create something better. Stronger, yes, but more refined. The claws Monty had weren’t exactly her favorite piece of tech. They hadn’t been designed by her, and they had clear flaws. Sure, they let him play the bass better with the strength boost, but Monty’s lack of regulation often meant snapped strings, shattered basses, and more than a few frustrated tantrums.

[F/N] tapped her pencil against the table thoughtfully. Bonnie deserved better than that. He needed precision and strength — not brute force. She glanced over at the charging station, where the faint blue glow around Bonnie’s frame pulsed with each slow breath of the charger. A small smile tugged at her lips.

"I'll get you something even better, big guy," she murmured under her breath, scribbling a few more adjustments onto the blueprint. "Something that won’t just make you strong... but make you you again."

Hours passed. The Pizzaplex had long since fallen into its eerie nighttime silence, save for the occasional mechanical whir or distant buzz of a maintenance bot roaming the halls. But in the tucked-away workshop, the only sound was the scratch of [F/N]’s pencil and the occasional tired sigh.

She was determined to get it right. Every line on the blueprint, every measurement, had to be perfect. Bonnie wasn’t just another project — not to her. But eventually, exhaustion crept in. Her pencil slipped from her fingers, clattering softly against the table, and her head dipped forward until she slumped against her arms, fast asleep. The soft, even rise and fall of her breathing was the only movement in the room.

Across the way, the charging station gave a low hum as it completed its cycle. The doors hissed open, releasing Bonnie in a mist of cool air. His systems rebooted sluggishly, optics adjusting to the dim light. For a moment he simply stood there, trying to get his bearings — until he noticed her. [F/N], curled up awkwardly at her workbench, fast asleep amidst scattered blueprints, loose wiring, and tools.

Bonnie’s ears drooped slightly, a strange, unfamiliar feeling stirring somewhere deep in his still-recovering systems. Carefully, quietly, he stepped forward, mindful of the newly calibrated servos in his legs. He moved with surprising grace for someone who could barely walk earlier that day. He stopped just beside her, tilting his head as he studied her sleeping form. There was smudged pencil lead on her fingers, a wrench tucked under one arm like she was guarding it in her sleep, and a soft little frown of concentration still lingering on her face even in rest.

She’d worked herself to exhaustion — for him.

Bonnie’s gaze shifted to the blueprint in front of her. Even without fully understanding all the technical details, he recognized the shape of the new hands she was designing: built for precision, for control, with a strength that could be guided rather than forced.

Built for him.

Slowly, Bonnie reached out, his newly repaired fingers hovering uncertainly for a moment before gently pulling a nearby spare cloth over her shoulders like a blanket. It wasn’t much, but it was something.

"...Thank you," he whispered, his voice barely audible, before sitting down against the wall nearby, content to keep quiet watch until she woke. It wasn’t until a couple hours later that [F/N] stirred. She blinked blearily, sitting up with a groggy groan and rubbing her eyes. Her fingers brushed the cloth draped over her shoulders, and she froze for a second, confused. She didn’t remember grabbing a cloth... her sleepy gaze drifted across the room — and there, sitting quietly with his back against the wall, was Bonnie. He stiffened the moment he realized she was awake, his optics darting away quickly like a kid caught doing something he wasn’t supposed to. [F/N] blinked again, then smiled sleepily.

"Were you... watching over me?" Bonnie shifted awkwardly, fidgeting with the edge of his paw plates.

"N-No... I was just... resting," he said, very unconvincingly. She let out a soft laugh, sitting up straighter and letting the cloth fall into her lap.

"Right. You were ‘resting’... conveniently right next to me." Bonnie's ears twitched, and if he could blush, he probably would have. [F/N] stood up, stretching her arms over her head with a loud yawn. "Well, I appreciate the concern, Bunny Boy. Guess you’re sweeter than you look." Bonnie ducked his head shyly, but a faint, pleased whirr came from his chest. She moved to her worktable, tapping the designs she’d fallen asleep over. "I’ll have your new hands ready soon. Then we can finally get you back to playing bass — without snapping it in half like a certain someone." Bonnie chuckled softly under his breath.

"Thank you," he said again, this time a little stronger, a little more sure. [F/N] grinned at him over her shoulder.

"Anytime, big guy. That’s what friends are for, right?" The word friends made Bonnie's chest give a tiny, unfamiliar flutter — a warm, strange feeling he couldn’t quite explain.

But he decided he liked it.

Very much.

Bit by bit, Bonnie was slowly becoming himself again.

As she worked with him day after day, [F/N] couldn't help but wonder about the animatronic sitting before her. She never personally met Glamrock Bonnie before — at least, not when he was fully active. When she was little, she remembered visiting a Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria once or twice, but her memories of him were hazy at best. In her mind, he was always just the bunny with the bass... or was it a guitar? She couldn’t even remember which.

But Freddy and Chica remembered him.

And when [F/N] had mentioned Bonnie’s name in passing conversation, both had lit up with a fondness that was hard to ignore. They missed him terribly — and from the way they spoke, Bonnie had been quite the lively character. Freddy described him as "boisterous, but dependable," while Chica had simply called him "a big, goofy show-off with a heart of gold." [F/N] smiled a little at the memory as she adjusted the fit of the prototype hand she'd built. Bonnie watched her closely, his newly repaired optics focused on her with a cautious but growing trust.

"You know," she said as she tightened a few screws, "from everything Freddy and Chica have told me... you were a real handful back in the day." Bonnie's ears perked slightly.

"Handful...?"

"Yeah," she said, glancing up at him. "Loud. Energetic. Always goofing off between shows. You sound like you were the life of the party." Bonnie stared at her for a moment, as if trying to reach back into half-broken memories. His expression softened, and then, faintly — a chuckle.

"I... I think I remember," he said, almost shyly. "I liked making them laugh." [F/N] grinned, giving his newly installed hand a little test squeeze.

"Sounds about right. They miss you, you know." Bonnie blinked slowly, his voice dropping a little.

"...I miss them too." She sighed softly, reaching out and gently taking his hand into hers, her other hand giving the top of his paw a reassuring pat.

"I know you do," she said quietly. "But at the rate we’re going, I’m sure to have you up and running in no time." Bonnie's optics softened, and a small, genuine smile crossed his face. Her confidence, her steady presence — it was comforting in a way he hadn’t realized he needed.

"Okay," he said, his voice steadier. "I trust you." [F/N] beamed at him, giving his hand a small squeeze before stepping back.

"Good! Now, flex your hands," she ordered, her voice flipping from compassionate to all-business in a blink. Bonnie couldn’t help but chuckle — a deep, low sound — at how fast her demeanor changed. Still, he did exactly as she asked without complaint. Slowly, he opened and closed his fingers, testing the new joints. There was a slight stiffness at first, but already he could feel how much more natural the movement was compared to his old ones.

"Not bad," she said, watching closely, a pencil tucked behind her ear. "How's it feel?"

"Different... but better," Bonnie admitted, flexing his fingers again and rotating his wrists carefully. "Stronger. Smoother."

"That's what I like to hear," she said with a proud little grin, jotting a few quick notes onto her clipboard.

Now came her biggest problem yet — she needed a bass guitar. She couldn't just take Monty's. He would definitely notice if it was tampered with, and if it went missing for any length of time, he'd throw a tantrum the size of the entire Pizzaplex. The last thing [F/N] wanted was to deal with that kind of fallout. Ordering a new bass was off the table too. Management would absolutely question why she needed one when Monty’s was still perfectly functional. She couldn't afford to draw attention — not with Bonnie still a secret project hidden away in her workshop.

That left her with only one real option: make one herself.

She sighed, rubbing the back of her neck as she stared at her notes. It wouldn't be easy. She'd have to dig through the piles of discarded parts, broken props, and scrap metal collecting dust down in the basement — the same place she'd scavenged for Bonnie’s replacement parts. It was risky. Time-consuming. Honestly, a little crazy. But when she glanced over at Bonnie, quietly recharging in his station with that peaceful look on his face, she decided it was worth it.

"Guess it's time to play junkyard hero," she muttered, grabbing her flashlight and tightening her toolbelt. If she could rebuild an entire animatronic out of scraps and stubbornness, she could definitely build a bass guitar.

Right?

Well—

She was sprawled over her workbench, the mask slipping off her face, her duffle bag of parts spilled across the table in disarray. Why was she so exhausted? Because she'd been darting around the basement, collecting parts while carefully avoiding the endoskeletons. They were usually dormant, but tonight—something had changed. They were more active, more aggressive. It would have been impossible to gather anything if not for the V.A.N.N.I. mask. Still, they'd gotten too close, closer than she was comfortable with.

“What the hell is up with them?” She shook her head, dumping the contents of the bag onto the table. She grabbed a couple of busted guitars, each showing signs of years of damage. Most had broken necks, some were missing tuning pegs and string trees, but the one in the best shape just needed a few parts replaced on the body. She wasn’t a luthier, but she could build a bass from scratch. This project had to be a secret from Bonnie. She wanted to surprise him with his own personal bass after he'd lost his to Monty. Each time they went through his maintenance, she’d make sure to hide everything related to the bass, keeping it out of sight so he wouldn't find it. Even when she had to leave Parts and Services to do her work as the mechanic and technician for the Pizzaplex, she made sure it stayed hidden—no one could know.

But, all the projects were slowly taking a toll on her body.

“If Moony catches you, he’ll be very upset,” Chica warned, watching [F/N] dismiss the concern with a casual wave of her hand.

“Eh, I’m doing great. I’m not causing any incidents—so all’s well that ends well,” [F/N] replied, trying to brush it off. Chica pouted softly and gently reached forward, cupping [F/N]'s cheek.

“I can’t help but worry we’re overworking you,” Chica said, her voice softening. “You’re one of the few mechanics we'd actually miss if you suddenly left,” she added with a chuckle.

“Aw, don’t worry about me,” [F/N] grinned, though it didn’t quite reach her tired eyes. “Besides, I highly doubt management will find anyone to replace me. I’m one of the few people who actually puts up with their bullshit.” Chica raised her hand as she saw [F/N] start to sway slightly, her exhaustion obvious.

“Okay, sweetheart,” she said, her tone shifting to one of gentle concern. “Just make sure to visit the Daycare, or I’ll send Moony after you myself.”

"Are you threatening me?" [F/N] laughed, her own smile returning despite the heavy weariness tugging at her. "I never took you for that kind of person." They shared another easy laugh, the moment light and natural, before [F/N] turned back to her work. She knelt down to check over Chica’s frame again — but paused when something caught her eye inside the animatronic's open chest cavity. Leaning in closer, [F/N]'s brow furrowed. Reaching in carefully she paused when she pulled out an empty chip packet.

"...Ah hah," Chica started, averting her gaze from the mechanic "How'd that get in there?" [F/N] shook her head in exasperation, tossing the crumpled wrapper into the trashcan behind her with a practiced flick.

"What did I say about eating the garbage, Chica?" Chica gave a sheepish little laugh, her servo claws fidgeting.

"I know, I know," she said, voice lilting with guilt. "I just... I get really hungry." [F/N] couldn't help but laugh, a tired but fond sound, as she wiped her hands on her pants.

"You're lucky you're cute," she teased, tapping Chica’s beak lightly. "Otherwise I'd have to report you to the janitorial team."

"Heh, thanks."

"Don't make me catch more trash inside you," [F/N] warned, crossing her arms. "You know what it does to your systems. It screws with your wiring and it's a pain to get it all out."

"I'm sorry, truly," Chica said, hanging her head in shame. Satisfied, [F/N] nodded and took a step back, pressing the correct colored buttons to reseal Chica’s chest plate. With a soft hiss, the panel clicked back into place. "Thanks again, sugar. My voice box had been acting up lately," Chica said brightly, giving a playful salute.

"Don't worry about it," [F/N] said with a tired chuckle. "Just be careful with what you consume, okay?"

"I will!" Chica chirped before twiddling her fingers in a cutesy farewell and skipping off toward her elevator. Once the bird was gone, [F/N] all but collapsed into her seat, burying her face in her hands. The exhaustion she'd been fighting — from the endless repairs, Bonnie’s reconstruction, and the slow, painstaking restoration of his bass — was finally catching up with her. She groaned softly, rubbing her face in an effort to ward off the overwhelming urge to just pass out right then and there.

"I'm so close," she told herself stubbornly. "What's a few more hours?"

Just as she reached for her clipboard again, a thought struck her.

"Wait a minute... what time is it—?" Before she could even glance at the clock, the power abruptly cut out, plunging the room into darkness. A low, sinister chuckle echoed through the air, and the faint jingling of bells quickly followed. [F/N] sighed, shoulders sagging in resignation. "Go ahead, do your thing," she muttered into the darkness. From the shadows, long, spindly limbs wrapped around her gently but firmly, and a familiar, unsettling face — all bells and toothy grin — appeared at her side.

"It's past your bedtime," Moondrop whispered, voice dripping with faux-sweetness as he cradled her against him like a wayward child.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Let's just get this over with," [F/N] grumbled, waving a lazy hand at him. Moondrop only giggled — that eerie, childish sound — before whisking her off the chair like she weighed nothing at all. She didn’t even bother to struggle; her body was practically deadweight by the time they reached the Daycare.

True to his word, Moondrop had already prepared a little tent in a quiet corner, complete with a pile of soft cushions and a blanket. Without much ceremony, he tucked her inside, setting the blanket over her as if she were one of the Daycare kids. No disturbances. No alarms. Just the quiet hum of the Daycare’s systems. When the lights inevitably switched back to day mode and Sundrop sprang to life, he immediately noticed her sleeping form and smiled warmly. Grabbing a facemask from the first-aid kit, he carefully slipped it over her eyes to shield her from the sudden brightness, patting her head once before quietly bustling around to clean the area. Every now and then, he’d tiptoe past her on exaggeratedly quiet feet, making absolutely sure not to wake her.

Throughout the night, a few of the animatronics stopped by one by one — Freddy, Chica, Roxy, and Monty — peeking in through the entrance of the tent. They each lingered for a moment, quietly ensuring she was okay before slipping away again without a word. None of them dared wake her; they just shared small glances among themselves, respectful and oddly protective. The Daycare — usually so chaotic and full of noise — was, for once, calm. And [F/N] slept on, wrapped up in a rare, peaceful stillness she hadn't felt in weeks.

Hours later...

"Mm..." [F/N] laced her fingers together as she stretched her arms over her head, hearing her knuckles crack with the movement. She blinked herself awake and tugged off the mask shielding her eyes. It took a second to register where she was — the cozy little tent Moondrop had set up for her. She smiled, tired but genuinely grateful. "I definitely needed that," she muttered, brushing hair from her face. Her attention shifted when Sundrop appeared at the opening of the tent, arms crossed, his usually cheery face pulled into a dramatic frown of disapproval. "Thanks for caring so much," [F/N] said softly, her voice free of sarcasm, her gratitude genuine. Sundrop beamed.

"Well, of course! There's isn't anything we wouldn't do for you, friend!" She smiled warmly, her heart squeezing a little at the sincerity of it.

"I appreciate that. Then stop eating glitter glue, dammit." At that, Sundrop immediately averted his gaze, whistling innocently.

"I'll do almost anything for you," he mumbled under his breath. [F/N] rolled her eyes but laughed, the sound light and infectious. The others chuckled along, unknown to them, Vanessa had been making her rounds when she noticed that Rockstar Row was suspiciously quiet. Curious, she followed the trail to the Daycare—and froze, blinking at the sight before her. Peeking through the door, she caught a glimpse of the impromptu "sleepover": all the animatronics were piled together in a loose circle, with [F/N] fast asleep in the middle, completely content and safe among them. Sundrop fussed with a blanket over her while the others lounged nearby, watching over her like protective siblings. Vanessa smiled to herself, letting out a quiet, relieved chuckle.

"And here I was getting worried she'd drop dead in the middle of one of her shifts." Shaking her head fondly, she stepped back and let them have their peace.

[weeks later]

"Haha! I did it! It's done!" [F/N] cheered, her arms thrown up in triumph.

Spread out on the workbench before her was Bonnie’s new bass, gleaming under the workshop lights. It wasn't perfect — not by Fazbear Entertainment's shiny, corporate standards — but it was theirs. Every part had been carefully scavenged, restored, and repainted with steady, meticulous hands. She ran her fingers gently along the neck of the bass, admiring the deep, rich blue accents she added to match Bonnie's original colors. It was sturdy, well-balanced, and most importantly, made for him.

“All that’s left is to tune it,” she said with a grin, grabbing a nearby tuner and sitting down with the bass cradled in her lap. The familiar feeling of strings under her fingers, the subtle vibrations humming through the wood—it almost made her giddy. She wasn't a professional by any means, but after tuning Chica’s guitar and Monty’s bass more times than she could count, it had become almost as easy as breathing for [F/N]. Her hands moved automatically, adjusting the tension of each string, plucking lightly to hear the notes ring out. It sounded terrible, of course, but it wasn't going to take long for her to get it sounding like new.

The low, steady hum of the bass strings filled the otherwise silent room as [F/N] carefully plucked and adjusted each one, her brow furrowed in focus. She sat cross-legged on the floor, the newly restored bass resting against her legs, the fresh paint gleaming under the workshop lights. She didn’t notice the soft sound of footsteps behind her — or the tall figure that lingered just beyond the doorway.

Bonnie stood there, one paw braced lightly against the doorframe, his ears tilted forward in curiosity. His eyes, brighter now thanks to her repairs, softened at the sight before him. He didn’t move, didn’t make a sound. He simply watched. The way she worked, with such care, such deliberate attention to every small detail — it stirred something in him. She wasn't just fixing something broken. She was giving something back to him. Something he thought he had lost forever. He caught the small smile that tugged at her lips when she strummed a note and heard it ring true. She tilted her head, tuning by ear, completely immersed in what she was doing. There was a quiet joy about her — a kind of pride and excitement that made Bonnie’s nonexistent heart ache a little.

And still, he didn’t disturb her.

Instead, he leaned silently against the frame, arms loosely crossed over his broad chest, content just to stay in that moment. Watching. Grateful.

He could wait a little longer to say thank you.

Bonnie's ears twitched slightly when he heard her voice — so soft, so full of affection for something she built just for him. He watched as she cradled the bass like it was something precious, her cheek pressed against the cool metal of the neck, her excitement lighting her face from within.

"He's going to love you," she whispered, tying a bright ribbon into a neat, proud bow around the bass’s neck. Bonnie felt something in his chest that he didn’t have words for. A warmth that buzzed through his frame, low and steady. He stayed silent, letting her have this moment without knowing she had an audience. She stepped back to admire her handiwork, hands on her hips, beaming with satisfaction. Something about it made Bonnie's own smile tug wider. Not because of the gift itself — though it was beautiful — but because of her. The care she put into it. The way she thought of him even when he wasn’t looking. She turned around and the presence that was watching her disappeared back down the hall he came from, she looked around once more before picking up the finished bass and putting it away before Bonnie could appear and see it. "I can't wait for him to see this."

And that’s where we find [F/N], hunched over Bonnie’s frame, polishing the metal and preparing his paint job. The body was smooth—free of dents or cracks—but still devoid of the signature colors that made him who he was. A photo of Bonnie, from before he was trashed, lay next to her on the workbench, the only reference to guide her as she worked. She glanced between the photo and the blank canvas before her, carefully adjusting Bonnie’s chin with one hand, holding him steady as she worked.

Her fingers, skilled from years of doing Roxy and Chica’s eyeliner, moved with ease, applying the delicate touch around his eyes. The eyeliner was subtle but precise, creating the sharp outline that defined his expression. She was meticulous, ensuring the curve was just right, just like she had done a hundred times before on the others. As she finished, she took a step back, making sure everything aligned perfectly, her tired eyes scanning his face for any imperfections that didn’t exist.

Next, she moved on to the paint. The airbrush in her hand hummed softly as she began to layer color over his frame, each stroke smooth and deliberate. There was no damage to cover, no wear and tear to fix—just an empty surface awaiting the familiar hues that once adorned him. She worked quickly but with purpose, spraying layers of color—deep blues and purples, with accents of gold—building him back up, piece by piece.

“Nearly done…” [F/N] murmured to herself, finishing the purple lining along Bonnie’s jumpsuit. She admired the smooth, flawless strokes with a small smile before reaching for a purple earring. Standing on a nearby stool to get a better angle, she carefully clipped it to Bonnie’s right ear. She chuckled softly, flicking the earring gently with her finger. Once satisfied, she stepped down from the stool and grabbed a brush to tidy up Bonnie’s hair. With gentle, precise strokes, she smoothed the strands into place, making sure every lock was styled just right.

The air was quiet except for the soft sounds of her movements, but as she finished and stepped back to take in her work, Bonnie looked as vibrant as ever. The purple hues, the gleam of the earring—it was as if he’d never been damaged at all. She took a moment to admire the work, the small but significant transformation that brought him back to life in her own way.

“Perfect,” [F/N] said with a satisfied smile, stepping back to admire her work. She grabbed a small mirror from the table and held it up in front of Bonnie. “Don’t you just look beautiful?”

Bonnie took the mirror from her slowly, almost hesitantly, his fingers brushing against the glass as if uncertain it was real. He lifted it to his face, eyes widening as he took in his reflection. The vibrant purple tones of his jumpsuit gleamed under the light, the freshly applied eyeliner sharp and precise, and the small earring catching the light just right. His face softened, and for a moment, there was a trace of disbelief in his eyes, as if he couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing. He turned his head slightly, inspecting every detail, the smooth metal surface that had once been dull now shining with life.

“I… I don’t even recognize myself,” he murmured, his voice filled with awe. He lifted the mirror a little higher, his gaze lingering on the work [F/N] had done. “You… you really fixed me. All this time, I didn’t think I’d ever look like this again.” she chuckled, crossing her arms.

"Doubted me, hmm?" There was a pause, and he turned to her, his expression softening.

“Thank you, [F/N]. I don’t know what to say… I’m… I’m grateful.”

[F/N]'s eyes widened softly at the look in Bonnie’s gaze—the deep gratitude, the way it shimmered in his eyes, as if he could hardly believe someone had actually found him and restored him when he’d been left abandoned behind his bowling alley. He hadn’t asked her to fix him. Hell, nobody had. It had been a choice she’d made on her own, just because she could. But as Bonnie sat there, looking at her with such appreciation, she realized it wasn’t about what she’d gotten in return—what she had was a simple thank you. And that, in itself, was more than enough. She cleared her throat, breaking the quiet moment, a faint blush coloring her cheeks.

"W-Well, don’t thank me yet," [F/N] said, her voice softening as she stepped back slightly. "There’s still one more thing to complete the look." She briefly left his side, disappearing behind a nearby shelf. Bonnie’s eyes followed her, a curious expression crossing his face. When she returned, though, he already knew what was coming. She pulled something out from behind her back—a bass guitar, the same one he had seen her tuning just hours before. [F/N] held it up with a hesitant smile. “It took me a bit of time, with all the pieces I had to scrounge for, and the fact that I’ve never made a bass guitar before... But whatever. I made it for you.”

However, [F/N] watched Bonnie stand up and carefully place the bass down, she was taken by surprise when he began approaching her. She instinctively took a step back, confusion flickering across her face. But before she could say anything, he reached her, and in one smooth motion, he wrapped his metallic arms around her, pulling her into a warm, careful embrace. She squeaked in surprise, her hands instinctively pressing against his chest, but she could feel the careful restraint in his hold. His arms were strong, yet he regulated his strength to make sure he didn’t crush her or bring her any harm. For a moment, the only sound was the soft hum of his body, the warmth of his touch unexpected and comforting.

"I’ve already said it a thousand times over, but thank you," Bonnie's voice was low, almost reverent. “T-Thank you for not giving up on me. This means so much to me.”

He gently pulled away, and [F/N] found herself staring into his eyes, wide and soft with a look that took her breath away. He wasn’t the same worn, broken animatronic she had found behind the bowling alley. He was whole again, and in that moment, his gratitude was unmistakable. He looked at her as if she had done something far beyond what she ever expected of herself.

"I wish I could give you something back," Bonnie said quietly, his voice sincere, his tone gentle. "You’ve done so much for me... I just... I wish I could show you how much this means."

[F/N] hung frozen for a moment, taking in his words. She wasn’t used to this kind of gratitude, not like this. Freddy and Chica were affectionate in their own ways, always warm and supportive, and even Sunny had his playful moments of kindness. But none of them had ever done something like this—not in the way Bonnie had just shown her. Her heart skipped a beat as she realized the depth of his words, the weight of his sincerity. His hands, though metallic, were careful and tender as he held her. It was something she hadn’t expected, and the softness in his gaze made her feel a wave of warmth, something she hadn’t realized she needed until this very moment. She cleared her throat, trying to shake off the feeling that was rising in her chest.

“You don’t have to give me anything, Bonnie,” [F/N] said softly, her voice a little shaky. “Seeing you back on your feet... that’s more than enough for me.” At her words, Bonnie’s body seemed to deflate slightly, a soft, almost helpless expression crossing his face. He stood there for a moment, the hum of his internal mechanisms filling the space, before he spoke again, his voice quieter this time.

"I’ve been on the receiving end ever since I reactivated,” he said, a faint sadness in his voice. “I want to be able to give you something, even if it’s small…” For a moment, it felt like she was dealing with a child, unsure and desperate to give something back, and it was clear he wasn’t going to let go of the idea anytime soon. She could see it in his eyes—the same persistence she’d seen in him when he was first reactivated. Her hand gently patted his arm, a comforting gesture, and she looked around for something to ease the tension. Her gaze fell upon the bass he had so carefully set aside, just to hug her. She smiled softly at the instrument, an idea forming in her mind.

“Well, um, how about...” she began, trailing off as a soft hue dusted her cheeks. Her heart fluttered embarrassingly slightly at the thought of what she was about to suggest. She cleared her throat. “How about you play me a song?” Bonnie’s ears perked up immediately, his eyes lighting up as he leaned forward.

“Oh, I can do that! I’ll play you the best song, just for you!” Before [F/N] could even process his excitement, he plopped her down onto a nearby stool with a gentle but hurried motion, his hands moving as he rushed around Parts and Services. She couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight of him scrambling, grabbing a nearby bass amplifier and setting it up with a purpose. As he took the ribbon off the bass, he paused for a moment, studying it with an almost mischievous glint in his eyes. Instead of discarding it, as one might expect, he carefully tied it around his neck and fashioned it into a makeshift bowtie. The sight of him wearing it so proudly made her smile. How adorable. She couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh at the sight of him, so proud of his little touch.

"You look great, bunny," [F/N] said with a teasing smile, her eyes sparkling as she took in Bonnie’s new look, complete with the bowtie. His ears drooped over his face, flustered by the nickname that, somehow, now sounded different coming from her. A soft, surprised hum escaped him as he straightened up again, his metallic body now feeling a bit warmer from the unexpected affection.

“W-Well, you ready for the greatest song ever?” he said, trying to regain his usual confidence, though his fingers betrayed his excitement as they twitched in anticipation to finally play after so long. [F/N] grinned and nodded, leaning back slightly against the stool, her arms crossing in playful challenge.

“Yeah, big guy. Give me your best shot.” Bonnie’s eyes gleamed with determination. With one last glance at her, he took a deep breath and strummed the bass, sending a deep, resonant note through the air. The sound was rich and soothing, the music vibrating through the room as he settled into the rhythm, his hands dancing over the strings with a skill that made it clear he hadn’t lost his touch, no matter how long it had been since he’d last played. [F/N] watched Bonnie intently as he played, her eyes focused on his every movement. She leaned her face into her closed fist, a small smile tugging at her lips as she rested against the workbench. For once, she felt a sense of peace settle over her. The chaos of the past months, the countless hours spent repairing Bonnie, finding parts for his bass, and ensuring every detail was perfect—it all led to this moment.

It wasn’t just the music she was hearing—it was the culmination of everything she had worked for. Bonnie, whole again, playing the instrument he had lost, reclaiming what had been taken from him. And she had played a part in that. A small, quiet part, but one that mattered more than anything. She closed her eyes for just a moment, letting herself soak in the warmth of the moment. The satisfaction of knowing she had helped him find something lost, of knowing she had given him back a piece of himself, was a feeling unlike any other.

It was perfect.

Soulmates pt. 2

word count:

Fandom: IRL!MCYT Pairing: Dream x Male!Reader              Wilbur Soot x Male!Reader Pronouns: He/Him Relationship: Romantic/Platonic Occupation: Musician                     Painter Ability: N/A

Keys:

[M/N]: Male Name [L/N]: Last Name [H/C]: Hair Color [E/C]: Eye Color [S/C]: Skin Color [B/N]: Brother Name [U/N]: Username

Warnings: n/a

because this was in my drafts for the longest time so I’m just gonna publish this shit.

i’m kinda just going through my drafts now and doing shit.

bound to be errors but I don’t give a shit.

that is all.

“Soulmates” pt. 1

requested by: @ghostking4m​

Soulmate AU: Soulmates can hear the sound of whatever song they’re singing/listening to.

word count: 4035

Dream:

“Ah!” Sapnap’s head shot up in alarm at the sound of Dream’s shouting, the two of them were currently eating in the dining room of their house rather peacefully, talking about whatever came to mind when Dream started screaming. He then shook his head when he noticed his friend cover his ears and shake his head side to side, it must be Dream’s soulmate again. Dream’s way of finding his soulmate was that when either of them were listening to music or singing a song the other would hear it, but the misfortunate thing was the fact that Dream’s soulmate was into rock or heavy metal. There was no in between, it was one or the either and they usually performed at such odd times of the day that it drove Dream insane.

“I can only assume that it’s your soulmate again?” Sapnap said in a monotone voice, lifting his fork to his mouth and chomping on the food that was on it, Dream gave him a side glare before letting out a loud groan, pressing his head into the wood of the table.

“You think?” he bites his lips as he tries to focus on anything else but the blaring music sounding off in the back of his head, it almost felt like he was in a club or maybe a rave, but god he just hated how loud it was. Sapnap let out another sigh when he noticed the tears of frustration start swelling in the corners of his eyes and threatening to fall, he pushes his chair back as he stands to his feet and leaves the room to get something before returning and putting noise cancelling headphones over his ears.

“I know they don’t do much, but at least they do something.” the headphones managed to muffle the noise but he could still just hear the screaming in the back of his head, it was making his brain shake and vibrate in an almost violent manner. The worse part of his soulmate being into heavy metal was the fact it would go on for hours and lately Dream had been getting less and less sleep and couldn’t concentrate properly, Sapnap pats his back and cocks his head to the side “Try and sleep it off, or maybe play some music to distract yourself.”  Dream groans but nodded his head, pushing himself off the table and sluggishly making his way back to his room, pressing the headphones closer to his ears just to cancel out the music. He makes it to his room and so he kicks the door open then closed when he entered it then flopped onto his bed, face now pressed into his pillow and he pressed his face deeper into his pillow when the music started to get louder.

“God... this is a nightmare.” he mumble out from his pillow, he turns around to stare at the ceiling while grabbing at the sides of his pillow to press against the headphones “Why can’t they be into classical music?” he then shook his head as he grabbed his phone and connected the headphones to his phone, he opens up his playlist on Spotify before relaxing into the comfort of his bed when he music started to play. It isn’t much, but it’ll do for now. He swore that when he ever met his soulmate in real life, he was going to get them into a different genre of music to end this nightmare.

[somewhere in california]

“Lets take a moment and break the ice, so my intentions are known~”

[M/N] [L/N], a popular singer within the underground music community who had a goddamn talent for the genre of metal or heavy metal. In comparison to his peers or members of his little band, he was smaller and or leaned closer to the skinny side with not much muscle, but damn did he have a good pair of lungs. Not only was he able to hit high notes, but he was gifted when it came down to the death scream, making his listeners shiver when he blessed them with the moment. Most of the times when he preformed in different places in California, he liked singing covers of popular heavy metal bands and giving them a try and add his own little take of it, and his audience loved it nonetheless.

He was tapping his foot on the ground as he continued to sing through the song “Shepherd of Fire” by Avenged Sevenfold (my personal favorite from the band other than nightmare), shredding the guitar as he bobbed his head to the music blaring through the speakers, he grins as he looked over at his bass player and the two of them smile at each other before continuing to play for their own personal fun and for the entertainment of their crowd. His eyes snapped open for a brief moment when, despite the fact that he was singing to the top of his lungs and the sound of loud music was blaring into his ears, he could briefly hear the song “Killer Queen” by Mad Tsai playing.

“Heh, how cute.” he mumbled to himself during the break of his song, shredding the guitar once more before grabbing the mic and pulling towards his lips, licking them before throwing his fist in the air and letting his backup guitarist continue playing “Know me by name, shepherd of fire~” he then threw his head back then down when he performed his guitar solo without a single flaw, the night went on perfectly and [M/N] and his band of misfits performed at their best and the crowd was not disappointed at all until they wrapped it up “You guys were a great crowd, I hope to see you guys during our next performance!” he exclaims, winking when he heard them let out aw’s and cries for them to come back, only for them to get a laugh in return as he walked onto backstage. 

“Tonight was flawless, as usual.” the bass player mused, opening up the fridge in their dressing room and grabbing a few bottles of water, tossing one over to [M/N] who managed to catch it without even looking “And whom do we have to thank?” he questioned to no one in particular, this caused the remaining members to each look at [M/N].

“Our lead vocalist, [M/N]~” they each cooed jokingly, causing the man to snicker softly as he twisted to cap off and skull a couple gulps of water down his throat, letting out a sigh of relief at the way the liquid quelled his aching throat. Sure he felt bad for his soulmate that he was into such a loud music genre, but after shows, he always enjoyed the soft music his soulmate would play just to drown out his voice and choice of music. It was always so soothing and his band mates would often notice, the way he sat on the couch, leaning his body into the back frame and his body swaying side to side as he eyes closed so he could focus more on the music.

“Is it your soulmate again?” the drummer asked, folded arms resting on the back of the couch as he looked down at his friend, who hummed softly and rather absentmindedly.

“Oh, it’s that look of pure bliss.” the back up guitarist said softly as they watched [M/N] slowly drift to sleep, their friend had insomnia and had trouble sleeping, that’s why he performed at night so he could tire himself out but once his soulmate started playing their own music, he started to help [M/N] get through the night.

“What are they listening to now?” the bass player asks.

“Hmm... let me see.” how he was able to recognize the song was because it was recently trending on social media, a song that was made by a popular Minecraft YouTuber that went by the name Dreamwastaken, or simply Dream. It was a soft song and if he remembered it correctly, the song was called-- “Change my Clothes” by Dream.” he answered, this caused the bass player to hum.

“Dream? That Minecraft guy, right?” the drummer snorts.

“Yeah, I heard he and his friends get cancelled a lot on Twitter! What a riot.” this caused [M/N] to pull his phone out and search his name up, he whistled to himself at all the results.

“Wow, he really is popular. For a faceless content creator, nonetheless. Impressive.” he shrugged his shoulders and decided to subscribe to him on YouTube, even going so far as to following him on Twitter and Twitch “Let me guess, we’re watching Minecraft tonight?” [M/N] snorts to himself.

“Come on, I heard this guy is funny.” he only got a groan in response which only caused him to laugh, [M/N] shook his head as he looked back down at his phone, scrolling through the search results then leaning against his knuckles as he clicked on a video.

’Dream, huh?’ a smirk crossed his lips ’How interesting.’

[time skip, with dream]

Dream was looking up at nothing in particular, but as of lately, his head had been radio silent. The first night that happened, Dream thought it was a miracle and took that moment of silence as his chance to get a proper night’s rest and enjoyed it to the fullest. The next day it was also silent, and then the next, then the next, and so on so forth until that very day. It was lovely the first couple of times, but now he was downright concerned and worried that when it does come back it’ll come back full force and run him over like a train, so he wasn’t letting his guard down for anything.

“Dream, you’ve gotta calm down.” Sapnap said firmly, looking down at his friend who sat on the couch covered in blankets and surrounded by pillows and the couch cushions “You’re being overdramatic.” Dream glared at him from his fort of pillows, his green eyes flashing with anger and suspicion.

“You’re not the one with a soulmate who’s into a genre that makes you go deaf!” Sapnap rolled his eyes, hands on his hips.

“Well acting like a dumbass isn’t going to help you.” he rolled his eyes when Dream scoffed and dug himself deeper into his fort, Sapnap then noticed Dream flinch and out of reflex slap his hands over his ears when he suddenly paused, the palms of his hands hovering a couple inches away from his ears. The younger of the two tilted his head to the side in confusion at the reaction, he believed that his soulmate was listening to music now but for some reason Dream wasn’t crying out in frustration at the volume. No, the expression he wore was surprise.

“Huh...?” Sapnap raises a brow.

“What’s the matter? Are they listening to music again?” he slowly nods his head, his hands slowly falling down onto his lap and a soft blush rose to his cheeks, this reaction took Sapnap by surprise. 

“Yeah, and they’re listening to my song...” Sapnap hums, pursing his lips when he saw Dream close his eyes and start swaying softly to his song that echoed in the back of his head, pulling the covers of the blankets closer to him as the blush quickly spread to the tips of his ears, the man then let out a shout of protest when he was shoved to the side so Sapnap could take a seat on the couch.

“Then thank the gods above that they’re listening to your song so I don’t have to hear your bitching, now scoot over, you’re taking up the couch fatass.” Dream rolled his eyes and moved over to sit at the end of the couch, Sapnap then grabbed the T.V remote and switched the T.V on.

”This just in, the famous underground singer along with his band, will be performing this week in Orlando, Florida! This is a one in a lifetime opportunity because this talented vocalist doesn’t perform out in public often, but he and his friends are being sponsored by a music industry to perform LIVE!” Dream was ignoring the noise but was startled when Sapnap let out a shout.

“Wow! I’ve heard about this guy! I heard he’s all skinny and fragile looking, but he’s got a mean voice when it comes down to heavy metal!” he then snickers, elbowing Dream in the arm and leaning close to Dream’s face “Maybe we should go and check it out, beats staying in the house.” Dream shook his head.

“No, Sapnap. I’d rather not.” the blonde then pulled a face when Sapnap gave him a pleading look “No, Sapnap. Put that blasted look away, we’re not going. I don’t have the energy nor the need to go to a rave just to listen to a guy scream.” 

“Oh, Dream, please! Just this one time, come with me to the concert and I promise you I won’t bother you for two months! I’ll even buy you better quality soundproof headphones.” Dream side eyed him, scrunching his face up before letting out a groan, knowing that if he continued to disagree, Sapnap would not cease his begging.

“Argh, fine!” he claps his hands.

“Yay!” Dream shook his head before letting his head rest back on the couch, nodding off to sleep at the sound of his song’s soft melody. Opening his eyes, [M/N] let out a soft yawn before letting out choking noise when something was thrown at his stomach, he lets out a growl when he saw that his friends threw a pillow at him so he grabbed it and threw it back at them.

“I’m trying to listen to some music, ass hats! I wasn’t able to because those managers said that I needed to rest both my voice and my ears because it’s going to be a long performance! This is the first time I got to listen to music in a long time so don’t ruin this for me!” one of them laughs, throwing their head back from their seat.

“Oh, please! Give your soulmate a break, I feel like they would be at the verge of a breakdown from all the heavy metal you listen to.” the all laugh but [M/N] only huffs, shaking his head as he puts his headphones back on and lays back down on his seat. He then glances out the plane window and hums to himself, from a small singer that lived in California that was now being sponsored to perform in Florida, he smiles softly.

’I heard that Dream lives in Florida, maybe I’ll meet him.’ he snorts to himself and lets his eyes close once more ’Yeah, fat chance.’

[time skip: later that week]

“Clay, come on, we’re gonna lose some good spots to watch him perform!” Sapnap shouts from over all the noise, they chose to address Dream by his real name so that people wouldn’t recognize him, he hasn’t really done his face reveal and people wouldn’t really think twice that he was the famous Minecraft YouTuber. The performance hadn’t even started yet but there were already a lot of people, Sapnap was very excited, the same couldn’t be said for Dream because he grumbled under his breath and threw his hood over his head.

’I can’t wait for this to be over.’ he thought to himself, though [M/N] had the same thought backstage as he was currently running on several cups of coffee, cans of energy drinks and maybe a few bottles of alcohol along with two to three hours of sleep. Practically, he couldn’t wait until this performance was over because he was going to sleep as if he was dead.

“Wow, it’s a full house!” the drummer cheered, they hear a groan so they look over and saw that [M/N] was at the verge of passing out. 

“I’m so tired.’ he mumbled, opening a bottle of water and drinking some before spitting it out when his backup guitarist smacked his back.

“Performing will wake you right up, so don’t worry about it!” he sweat drops when [M/N] slowly turned back to look at him and glared at him, he backed away and let [M/N] exhale softly.

“Well then, let’s fuck shit up.” the lights got dim and so the crowd roared with cheers when they knew that it was going to start soon, the stage was dark so they couldn’t the band walk onto the stage and each member took their respective spots. [M/N] grabbed the mic and took a deep breath, the mic managed to pick it up and so the crowd slowly brought to a silence “What an honor it is to have such an audience, and as your reward for gifting us with your presence, we’ll make sure tonight is one you’ll remember.” 

“WHOA!!!” he grinned from behind the mic when the crowd started cheering again, he nods his head before glancing off the stage to where the sound technician was, he winks and gives them a thumbs up before staring back at the crowd.

“Now, let’s head back to the early 2000′s when music was a pop.’ he snaps his fingers three times “Want your bad romance~” ([m/n] is singing jay smith’s version of bad romance) when the music picked up and he started singing, the lights flashed on and there the crowd was gifted with the sight of [M/N] and his band’s appearance. Dream took a step forward as he looked him up and down, he wore tight ripped jeans that fit him perfectly, a loose tank top that had a skull on it, his arms and torso, even on his neck was littered with tattoos and even his face and ears had countless piercings. He wore eye shadow, eyeliner, black lipstick and even had black nail polish.

“Wow...” he awed under his breath, his head bobbing to the way he was singing, despite his rather small and skinny appearance, what Sapnap and the media said were right, he had a beautiful set of lungs that allowed him to sing such low and even high notes and he was able to carry the note flawlessly. His version of Bad Romance was amazing too that he couldn’t help but rock on to the beat, however, he somehow noticed that the echoey sound of his soulmate listening to music in the back of his head was going off. He pressed his hands to his ears and tried to focus on the music but was shocked to hear that the music was the song that [M/N] was singing “No way.” he muttered to himself as he looked up at the man performing on the stage.

“Hmm?” [M/N] himself noticed that the song he was singing was echoing in the back of his head as well, was his soulmate hear at his and his friends performance? He scanned the crowd for anyone else that had the same reaction as him, there wasn’t a single person in the crowd that tugged on his heart so he was going to give up on his search until his [E/C] eyes landed on a pair of bright green eyes that almost reminded him of emeralds. [M/N] continued to sing but his friends noticed the way he was a little distracted, but he could care less as he continued to stare at the man who was just as taken aback as he was. 

’What gorgeous eyes.’ they both thought, [M/N] then smirked softly and winked in his direction, snickering to himself when he noticed the taller man instantly grow flushed and pull the sides of his hood closer to his face ‘Cute~’ he cooed in his head before taking a step forward, he eyes were still trained on Dream but no one really noticed and all thought that he was staring at him as he extended his arm out to the crowd while kneeling down when he was at the edge of the stage.

”I want your love, and I want your revenge. I want your love, I don't wanna be friends~” Dream knew that he was talking to him, he knew in the back of his head that the lyrics [M/N] was singing was directed at him and he grew even more flustered when [M/N] continued to keep eye contact with him “I don’t wanna be friends, want your bad romance~” [M/N] then pulled away, grinning to himself as he continued to sing the chorus of the song while the crowd cheered behind him.

“Wow, he’s really good!” Sapnap cheered while bouncing on his feet, he glanced up at Dream and was taken aback when he saw that Dream was trembling softly while his face was completely red “Clay?” 

“... I’m so glad I came here.” Dream let out with a strangled voice. 

“Huh?”

Headcanons:

when the performance was over, dream and sapnap were brought backstage to meet [m/n] and his band. 

obviously sapnap was over the moon and confused as to why they of all people were given the opportunity to meet them, but dream knew and he was getting more and more nervous with each step he took. 

[m/n] gave a brief explanation to his friends as to why he was bringing people backstage because he usually never did that, and they were more than excited to meet his soulmate/the poor sap who was tormented to be his soulmate. 

when they were brought backstage, sapnap was the first to speak to [m/n], saying how his performance was amazing and how he loved his voice. 

[m/n], of course, thanked him for the compliments and happily agreed to an autograph and selfie before moving his attention towards dream.

everyone in the room thought it was quite adorable and amusing the way dream was trembling softly as [m/n] sauntered his way over to him, hands behind his back as he leaned in closely to the taller male.

[m/n] was short; brother stood at a measly 5″5ft while dream was 6″3ft, so the it was funny that dream was trembling in front of him. 

sapnap was still a little confused as to what was going on but it clicked when [m/n] grabbed dream by his belt while his other hand grabbed the collar of his hoodie to yank him down and pull him into a kiss. they all left them in the room when things got heated.

needless to say, the next day sapnap noticed how dream’s neck was littered in bruises, hickies and black lipstick marks when he got home.

since [m/n] and his lot were staying in orlando for a couple months, [m/n] would often visit dream in the comfort of his home and together the two of them would listen to a range of different music. 

dream would introduce [m/n] to different songs and music genre’s while [m/n] would introduce dream different rock and heavy metal songs.

sometimes they would create different songs together and [m/n] would perform them whenever he had a show, blowing a kiss in the camera when aimed at him and dream would always know that it was meant for him, same with sapnap because he would always see dream bury his face in his hands or arms. 

sure he was half dream’s size and was pretty skinny, but he was by no means weak. motherfucker has to carry amplifiers, speakers and instruments all the times so he could lift.

dream didn’t believe him until [m/n] managed to throw him over his shoulder and carry him around with little to no struggle.

never again.

other than that, the two of them enjoy spending time with each other in absolute silence because the two of them simply get the bask in each other’s presence and listen to the sound of each other’s breathing or their heart beats.

at least now [m/n] gives dream heads up on when he’s performing and what songs he’s singing to warn the poor guy.

but dream could have it either way now that he knows that his soulmate is a spunky, short little menace that could absolutely demolish him.

same with [m/n], knowing that his soulmate was a cutie, because flustering him is an absolute delight.

Soulmate AU: Soulmates are briefly able to see each other whenever they have dreams, but when they catch a brief glimpse of them in real life, the next time they have a dream they get the full image of them.

word count: 5453

Wilbur Soot:

“What do you look like?” [M/N] let out a frustrated groan as he stared at his unfinished painting, it was of a man sitting peacefully in a flower field of orange poppy flowers, but what made it unfinished was the fact that [M/N] could not put a face to the man that was sitting in his painting. He was painting an image he saw in his dream, what he believed was his soulmate. He had been having the same occurring dream for the past couple of weeks and it was always the same scenery, same flower field and the same person, but he just wasn’t able to see the face of this person “This is so frustrating.” he grumbles to himself, threading his fingers through his hair than messing with his hair.

“You’re totally gay.” [M/N] deadpans at the sound of his brother’s voice, he looks over his shoulder and saw his brother leaning close to the canvas and stared at the figure he drew, he then nods his head before looking [M/N] in the eye “Yup, totally gay.” he laughs when [M/N] shoved his face away.

“Yeah, what the hell are you doing in my studio? You know you’re not allowed in here.” he then realized something when [B/N] took a seat on one of his wheelie stools, pushing himself across the room “Actually, the hell are you doing in my house? When did you even let yourself in?!” he shouts, this only caused his brother to laugh.

“I was here for maybe... five or ten minutes. I was calling your name but you were too absorbed into your work to even notice I was there.” [M/N] deadpans once more before sighing and standing to his feet and putting his palette down on a table covered by a sheet, he then grabs a wet cloth and cleans his hands the best he could with it.

“Why are you here?” now it was his brother’s turn to give him a look.

“Dude, seriously? I’m here to take a look at the painting you were supposed to be working on for mum’s birthday!” [B/N] narrows his eyes on [M/N] when he saw the realization dawn on him at the mention, [B/N] let’s out a grunt when [M/N] threw the cloth at his face before dashing over to where he put said painting, when he peeled the washcloth off his face he whistled to himself when he saw the painting of their mother.

“You just reminded me that I needed to buy a couple more paint buckets to get the right color for the background, thanks bro.” his brother rolled his eyes as he approached the painting and saw the process of it.

“No worries, looks good by the way.” [M/N] pats his shoulder.

“Thanks.” they both wink at each other “Think you can give me a hand buying some more paint, that shit’s fucking heavy and I could use some help.” [B/N] gave him a thumbs up.

“Got it.” driving to the store wasn’t a hassle, what [B/N] hated helping [M/N] with when it came down to getting new paints was how picky [M/N] was and how long it took the fucker to choose a paint. It irritated the man that [M/N] could remember all the names to the same color, like if he pointed at a random shade of blue, he would instantly know the name and number of that blue. [M/N] didn’t even need to turn around to know that his brother was irritated and frustrated with him as he picked up two different shades of orange colored cards and looked at the two of them, a tick mark appeared on his forehead when he saw his brother throw his arms up.

“They’re the same shade, fucker!”

“Well I want a precise shade, fucker!” they would have continued arguing if it weren’t for the sharp glare that was given to them by one of the employees there, they immediately grow silent but that didn’t stop the glares they were sending each other. [B/N] was bouncing on his feet, trying to distract himself while [M/N] was looking for the right shade of orange, before letting out a groan and walking away “Now where are you going, [B/N]?” 

“I’m going to a different aisle to distract myself, call me when you’re finished.” [M/N] goes to call out to him but sighed when he was already gone, he shook his head before looking back over at the color cards. He probably spent a good ten to fifteen minutes looking at different shades of different colors before nodding his head and grabbing two buckets of paint and a few miniature ones in the bottles, by the time he bought the paint he was now waiting outside with his phone in his hand, in the midst of calling his brother.

“Where is that idiot brother of mine?” he was ready to dial his number but let out a surprised shout when he felt a pair of hands slam onto his shoulders, he turned around and saw [B/N] with an excited look on his face “What’s got you all excited, bro?” he questioned after pocketing his phone.

“You’re not gonna believe who I managed to meet while browsing randomly through the aisles!” [M/N] raised a brow, brushing his shoulders then rubbing them when he felt a slight sting and ache from when [B/N] grabbed them violently “I ran into TommyInnit!” he exclaims, his expression dropped when [M/N] stared at him.

“... who?” he was then slapped across the face, before he could shout at his brother, he was then grabbed by the collar of his shirt and was now being thrashed back and forward.

“Who?! You uncultured swine who does nothing but sit in his studio all day long painting!” he threw [M/N] back, leaving the man swaying side to side in a daze, then pulled his phone out of his pocket, opening up his gallery and pulling out the most recent before grabbing [M/N] by his collar again and yanking him forward, forcing him to look at the photo “The guy standing next to me is TommyInnit!” when [M/N]’s gaze cleared up, he shook his head and gave the guy a closer look. To him, it was just some random white kid who looked like he was being held at gunpoint.

“Hmm... still don’t know who that is.” [B/N] threw his head back.

“Jesus christ, don’t you ever go on social media?” [M/N] stood with a straight face as he continued to stare at his brother, [B/N] shook his head “God, he’s a pretty well known YouTube Minecraft content creator!” [M/N] rolled his eyes as he pushed his trolley full of paints and other shit towards his car.

“That’s all you had to say, dipshit.” [B/N] threw his arms up as he followed his brother.

“I’m just appalled at the fact that you’ve never heard of this man!” the other shook his head.

“What? Is it because I’m a pretty well known artist/painter that I have to know someone that is equally as well known as I am?” [B/N] pulled a face, it was true, his older brother was pretty well known in their community but his art is also getting more and more popular nationally as well. Personally, [B/N] would never rank his older brother above TommyInnit because he is a great kid, but he would have to say that his brother is just a bit more famous than he was “Plus, I’d rather much focus on things I love doing the most than other things.” his brother let out a groan, causing the other to roll his eyes as he started loading his stuff into the boot.

“Then can you at least just watch a couple of his videos? You might find it annoying at first, but I promise you, he’s genuinely a very funny guy!” [M/N] glanced over his shoulder and there he saw his brother giving him watery puppy dog eyes, he lets out a long groan as he threw his head back while closing the boot.

“Fucking-- fine! I can already tell you won’t drop this if I don’t agree.” he pulls a face when [B/N] gave him that knowing look.

“You know me so well.” he rolls his eyes.

“Uh huh, yeah, put the damn trolley back.” he says as he shoves it into his hands before walking towards the driver side and hoping into the car, ignoring how his brother let out a cry before rushing off to put the trolley away then returning and hoping into the passengers side.

[time skip: later that evening]

“"Most people find these videos downright irritating--” [M/N] had to admit, watching TommyInnit’s videos was quite entertaining that he couldn’t help but watch a couple his videos, even going so far as to playing them in the background as he contiinued to work, it probably was a bad idea to let the videos play in his studio because now he was getting distracted from what he was supposed to be doing, which was finishing his mother’s portrait. He just shook his head as he set the palette down on a nearby table and pushed himself onto his feet, going over and grabbing his phone to search up more information on the fellow brit.

He whistles to himself at the amount of followers, subscribers and views this guy gets, sweating a little when he scrolled onto the wrong side of Twitter and saw things he probably wish he didn’t. He quickly clicked out of there and soon switched to looking at Google Images of the guy, he hummed to himself as he looked at the various images of the guy, most images of him looked like he was being held at gunpoint. He clicked on a random image by accident and when the image loaded he saw cute curly brown locks with a red beanie over them to keep them under control, a brown overcoat and underneath was a yellow sweater, he wore a pair of jeans and shoes along with a pair of round glasses that sat on the bridge of his nose.

“Hmm? Who’s this?” his gaze softened as he continued to stare at the image, his gaze then drifted to the canvas of his other painting, and there he narrowed his gaze on it. He approached it and brought the phone up so it was side to side with the canvas, there he would look between the google image and his painting and there he saw the striking resemblance between his mystery soulmate and this content creator. Same curly brown hair with a red beanie sitting on top of his head and that iconic yellow sweater with a white undershirt, he could even faintly see the jawline he managed to capture in his canvas “... no fucking way.” was all he could say, what was the possibility that this man was his soulmate?

He quickly looks at what the image says and he managed to get a name from it, Wilbur Soot. He remembered hearing that name often from Tommy’s videos so he scrolled through Tommy’s YouTube channel and clicked on one of his most recent videos and there he got to see Wilbur Soot dressed rather nicely in a suit, though it was unfortunate for him because he was at an Aquapark with Tommy and another brit named George. He had to admit, this guy was attractive but in a cute way, he even had a cute laugh and a good sense of humor. He hadn’t realized how long he was daydreaming for until the video was over, a small blush rose to his cheeks when he noticed that he was subconsciously filling in the empty face of his painting with extreme facial details and now it was as if he was staring Wilbur Soot in the face.

“... dammit, [B/N] was right. I am gay.” he buries his red face into the palms of his hands before looking at the painting once more, cupping his cheeks and squishing them within the palms of his hands, he then shakes his head as he grabs a sheet and throws it over the painting “Maybe I’m just overthinking it... yeah, I totally am! It’s just that my soulmate and him look similar, is all.” he nods to himself, yeah, now is not the time to overthink it. He then calls it a night and decided to leave, grabbing his phone and leaving his studio... only to return a couple seconds later to stare at his painting once more, even more so by taking a photo of the painting and deciding to upload it. 

‘Plenty of people upload fanart of their favorite creators, this shouldn’t be any different.’ he thought as he loaded up his Instagram then posted the photo there, making sure to tag Wilbur and putting in the caption “my brother recommended me to watch @tommyinnit but instead I found this guy” he nods to himself before turning his phone off and finally going to bed, not even realizing the fate he brought sealed for himself. 

pinksh0_ wow, it’s like i’m staring at a photo!

j0k3z- it’s not a photo?

grgbur2 so much detail! what work of art!

eli_kah talk about talent

grim.aep a famous artist even drew it

dariaaqt_👏

Wilbur raised a brow when he was being spammed on Instagram, thinking it was Tommy, he was going to yell at that kid but paused when he noticed that it was dozens of fans tagging him to a post done by a artist. He clicked on it and his eyes widened when he realized that it was a painting of him, it was a painting?! He had to squint his eyes at it while zooming in on the image because it looked so lifelike he probably would have thought that he took a photo, but he came to the conclusion that it wasn’t possible because he has never taken a photo of himself sitting in a flower field of orange poppy flowers... wait a damn minute.

He sat up straight as he looked at the background he was in and he swore he recognized where it was, but he just couldn’t quite place where he had seen that surrounding before. It was on the tip of his tongue, but he just couldn’t taste it yet. He continued to stare at the image of him, pursing his lips and clicking on his profile picture, frowning slightly when he was brought to their profile but only to realize that the artist was an anonymous username going by the name of [U/N]. He whistled as he scrolled through his page and saw many works of art, each just as detailed as the other, so he decided upon himself to follow the guy.

“Hmm, I wonder where I’ve seen that background from...?” he muttered softly, leaning back in his chair as it spun around from his weight, his legs swinging out from beneath him as he continued to stare at the photo intensely “It’ll come back to me eventually.” he then tosses his phone onto his desk.

‘I’ll worry about it later, I have more important things to worry about.’

[time skip: a few days later]

“Bro, what the fuck is this?!” [M/N] was in the middle of painting another canvas out in the middle of a park when his brother appeared, thrusting his phone in his face “You painted Wilbur Soot, and you didn’t tell me?!” [M/N] rolled his eyes as he smacked the phone out of his hand and onto the grassy terrain, to which he let out a cry as he immediately dropped to his knees to pick it up.

“First of all, shut the fuck up. Second of all, back the fuck up. Can’t you see I’m in the middle of something?” he says as he gestures to the canvas, palette and paint brush in hand “And besides, it’s none of your concern.” he deadpans when [B/N]’s face was in his face instead of his phone this time, he turns to face him and sweats a little at the seriousness on his face.

“It is my concern when it involves the Dream SMP.” he rolls his eyes.

“I don’t have time for this.” his brother scoffs as he looks at the image again, gasping at the amount of likes and comments it was getting, but what he noticed was how familiar the painting looked to him. He pulled the phone closer to his face to get a look at it, his mind mentally removed the face and other details and slowly his eyes widened in realization, his eyes then moved back towards his brother and there he saw him hunched forward, body trembling softly as sweat started bleeding down his face.

“[M/N]...” he didn’t answer him, he leans away when [B/N] was leaning closer to his face as he raised his phone then pointed at it “Why the fuck did you paint Wilbur in the place of your soulmate?” he looked away, a bright blush flushing across his face.

“... because they look the same?” a hand was what kept [B/N] from strangling him, he shook his head as his brother went on a whole rant as to how a relationship between the two of them wouldn’t work and how Wilbur Soot was just too good for someone like him. He shook his head while rolling his eyes, hurt his feelings a tad bit but he knew in the back of his mind that his brother didn’t really mean his words... or so he hoped. His mind drifted off as his hand started painting on its own, the moment his mind was able to think for itself, the blush on his face reddened when he noticed that he drew Wilbur once more from memory.

“Fucking hell.” was all [B/N] said, the other’s shoulders dropped as he stared at it before dropping his paint brush and palette while his face collapsed into the palms of his hands “You’ve got it bad.”

“I know.” he groans.

“Hey!” they both jump at the loud shout, they turn around and [B/N] let out a gasp at the sight “You’re that artist that drew Wilbur!”

“Oh my gosh, it’s TommyInnit...” [B/N] whispered to himself, [M/N] shook his head at his brother’s reaction as he looked up at the blonde from where he was sitting as he jogged over to them.

“How can you tell? I could be just another artist painting his favorite content creator.” he says casually as he used a thinner brush to paint in the fine detail on Wilbur’s hair and face, Tommy scoffed as he crossed his arms as he stared at the painting that looked almost like a photo, just like the one on his Instagram.

“I can recognize this bitch anywhere, and the amount of detail put into it resembles the other one, also...” [M/N] watched as Tommy pointed at the bottom right corner and there he saw his watermark, which was his username on any of his social media.

“... alright.” he winces when Tommy stared down at him with puppy dog eyes, he looks away and tries to ignore the way the young boy was staring intently at him, but it was quite hard by the way Tommy was practically hovering away from his cheek while breathing a little heavily “Haven’t you heard of social distancing? We’re in a time where having personal space is much needed.” he laughs at that before throwing his arm around his shoulder, resting his weight onto his body.

“How’s about you paint me, eh?” [M/N] raised a brow at that.

“Sure, if you pay me.” [M/N] answered rather jokingly, though he was half serious “My services are not free.” Tommy’s jaw dropped before pointing at the painting of Wilbur.

“But you painted him!” he waves his hand to dismiss him.

“My mind was elsewhere when I painted him. No jokes.” the older man let out a startled shout when [B/N] reached forward, pressing the palm of his hand to his mouth to keep him quiet.

“I’m sorry about my brother, he just joking with you, aren’t you?” [M/N] narrowed his eyes at his brother when he noticed the look he was giving him, he was just basically telling him to give in and paint Tommy for free, but he smacked his brother to let him go before shaking his head.

“No, I’m not joking. I don’t do it for free unless it’s a gift or I need inspiration.” Tommy pouts as he looks at the painting, a smirk slowly grew onto his face when he saw Tommy’s face twitch before he let out a cry, throwing his head back while stomping his foot on the ground.

“Oh, alright!” he grinned when Tommy pulled out a couple bills from his pocket and slapped them down into the palm of his hand, he then begrudgingly takes a seat on the grass as [M/N] counts the amount of bills.

“Ah, taking money from a child, what great pleasure.”

“You better make me look good.” he smirked as he pocketed the money.

“Don’t worry, with the amount of cash you gave me, I’ll make sure it’s a masterpiece. Though, I do hope you know how to sit still for a certain period of time.” he rolled his eyes when he heard the latter let out a groan.

“Do I have to?” he gave Tommy a slight glare.

“You’re getting what you asked for.” he says, being gentle with his canvas of Wilbur and setting it down on the ground before pulling out a blank canvas to start his new painting “Painting takes time and patience for the perfect results to come through, it doesn’t happen like that. So I hope you can trust the process and be patient with me and I’ll make sure you’ll get your money’s worth.” Tommy stared at him but nodded his head.

“Well, alright. I’ll trust you, but if I don’t like it--”

“You’ll like it.” he snapped, Tommy couldn’t help but sweat a little when [M/N] had a determined look on his face “Don’t doubt my skills, child. You’ll look fabulous.” Tommy still had his doubts, [B/N] had a bead of sweat form on his cheek when he noticed how in the zone his brother was. His attention span was zero to none with subjects he didn’t really care about or had no knowledge about, but when it came down to his paintings, there was nothing that could possibly break his concentrations no matter how hard you try. And so, though he didn’t want the boy to wait for long, he made a portrait as realistic as he could with the amount of time he had at hand. He finally added the last detail he could and peeked around the canvas, huffing softly when he noticed that Tommy was nodding off to sleep “Wake up.” Tommy immediately sat up at the demand.

“I didn’t fall asleep!” he shouts, [M/N] rolled his eyes as he takes the canvas off the frame.

“Well, I’m done.” this woke Tommy up.

“Really? I wanna see! Lemme see!” he chuckled and turned the canvas around so Tommy could get a look at it.

“It might not be as detailed as the one I did for Wilbur, mostly because I believe you won’t be able to sit for fifteen hours, but this is the best I can do under five hours.” he didn’t know what kind of reaction Tommy was having as he stared at the portrait, did he dislike it? Was he disappointed that it wasn’t as good?

“It looks... amazing!” he exclaims, [M/N] let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding as Tommy marvelled at the portrait, looking at it at different angles before looking back at [M/N] “It’s almost as if I’m staring at a mirror, I can imagine what you can do with fifteen hours.”

“Thank you, so it was worth the wait?” he nods.

“Definitely.” [M/N] was then promptly asked to take a photo with Tommy, to which he reluctantly agreed if his face were to remain hidden, and so a new photo was uploaded to Tommy’s Instagram page with [B/N] taking the photo angled so you wouldn’t be able to see [M/N]’s face but you could see him holding Tommy’s portrait while Tommy did his signature thumbs up.

“You really look like you’re being held at gun point.”

“What? No I don’t.” he snickered softly at as he started packing up his stuff, it’s gotten late as is “Can I keep the portrait?”

“Of course.” Tommy grinned.

“Hey, Tommy!” [M/N] hummed just as he put away the last of his paints when he heard a voice call for the young teen, standing up straight, he couldn’t stop the way his face flushed pink when Wilbur came running up over to them, stopping right in front of Tommy with a concerned look on his face “Tommy, when you said you wanted to hang out, I didn’t know you meant playing hide and seek for literally five to six hours.” Tommy waved his hand to dismiss him.

“Yeah, yeah, sorry about that, but look!” he exclaims, grabbing the portrait and thrusting it towards Wilbur “I found the same painter that painted you!” he shouts, Wilbur rolled his eyes and pushed the painting back so he could see it then blinked when it saw it.

“Wow, they managed to capture what attractiveness you have.” Tommy pulled the painting back so he could glare at him.

“Huh?!” he pushed Tommy away so he could get a look at the anonymous painter and there he saw [M/N], awkwardly standing in front of the new painting he did of Wilbur subconsciously, fidgeting with his thumbs and smudging some of the still drying paint along his fingers.

“If I’m guessing, the painter must be you?” [M/N] laughed bashfully, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Oh yeah, it’s me alright.” Tommy and [B/N] stand together as they watched [M/N]’s usual confident attitude turn sheepish when Wilbur approached him, their was a brief pause between the two of them when their eyes met and for some reason they felt as if their hearts skipped a beat “Um, my name is [M/N]...” he introduce while offering his hand for a shake, Wilbur chuckled at his flustered state as he slowly reached to shake his hand.

“I’m Wilbur, it’s nice to finally meet my painter.” if [M/N] wasn’t already a shade of pink, he was pretty sure his face turned an even brighter pink, this reaction Wilbur found cute. The moment their hands met for the handshake though, it felt like a spark ran throughout their entire body, this sudden shock caused them both to flinch away.

“Ouch!” [M/N] winched while crying out in pain, shaking his hand lightly to lessen the pain, he looked up and saw that Wilbur was doing the same thing so he approached the slightly shorter man in concern “Are you alright?” he shook his head with a slight laugh.

“Yeah, I’m alright, that just startled me.” the two of them were now staring directly at each other, eye to eye type of closeness. [M/N] swallowed thickly and couldn’t help but lean closer to get a closer look at the features of his face, he hadn’t realized how close he had gotten until Wilbur pulled away, this time he had the embarrassed and flustered look on his face “U-Um...” upon realizing what he had done, he immediately shot backwards.

“Oh! I’m so sorry, it’s just that... I feel like I’ve met you somewhere.” Wilbur scratches his cheek.

“Honestly, me too.” they stare at each other in silence until Wilbur raises his phone “Could I get your number?” [M/N] blankly stared at him then nodded.

“Sure.” before they could get lost in a conversation, they were pulled away from each other by their respective brother’s (tommy being wilbur’s brother is the cutest thing) and went on their merry ways, though [M/N] did gift the portrait he did of Wilbur earlier to him before he went home. [M/N] was now currently laying on his back in his bedroom, staring up at his ceiling as his mind was just filled with Wilbur. He was just constantly on his mind and no matter what he did could he get the young brit out of his mind, he let out a breath and just let exhaustion overcome him and he fell asleep.

There, he found himself in that familiar looking flower field. He huffed to himself and let himself fall backwards into the orange poppies, he sat there for god knows how long waiting for his soulmate to fall asleep with him so that he could see them and thought that they were taking longer than they usual would. What felt like hours finally came when a shadow loomed over him, he blinked at the arrival and sat up straight, thinking to himself, lets get this over with. He was never going to see their face until he met them in real life, so he wanted to end this nonsense as soon as possible. When he saw up properly and took a good look at the individual in front of him, his eyes widened when he noticed that he could see their face.

“Oh my god, it’s you...” he whispered softly, that same embarrassed look rose to his face when he saw Wilbur staring at him, who now shared a similar expression as he looked down at him. He let out a laugh of relief that he had finally met his soulmate, Wilbur reached down to help him to his feet but let out a whoa when [M/N] instead pulled him down, to which he landed on top of him, [M/N] was still laughing as he wrapped his arms around Wilbur shouting happily that he finally met him, Wilbur stared down at him before matching his relief and laughter.

“You’re much different then what I expected.” Wilbur admitted after they both calmed down and settled to laying in the field of flowers.

“What’d you expect?” Wilbur hummed, pushing himself up slightly but continued to lay on his chest with his legs in between his.

“Someone more composed.” [M/N] couldn’t help but pout softly at that.

“Then do you prefer if I remained neutral?” Wilbur shook his head.

“Oh, no! I like this much better!” he soon lowered himself, using his arms to rest his chin that laid on top of his chest, [M/N] own arms wrapped around his waist “I very much prefer this.”

“Well, I’m glad.”

Headcanons: 

the two of them had no clue how long they were laying in their dreams for but the moment [m/n] had abruptly woke up, he cried out that he wanted to go back to sleep to spend more time with wilbur,

though, wilbur immediately sent him a message when he woke up saying that they should go on a date. 

cue them spending the next day going around doing pretty much anything that they could think of.

the moment [b/n] learned that wilbur was his brother’s actual soulmate, he wanted to cry. 

it wasn’t fair.

he had been a fan of wilbur soot for a long time!

his brother didn’t even know of his existence!

he was forgiven when [m/n] asked wilbur if his brother could meet the others of the dsmp.

when wilbur would visit [m/n] in his studio, he would often offer to be his model whenever he needed one.

cue a few hours in an wilbur was already complaining about get a cramp.

[m/n] would always reward wilbur with a kissing and cuddling session. 

wilbur would sometimes-- always get into [m/n]’s paint and make a huge mess that would always end with them throwing paint at each other.

the end result is them sitting in a hot bubbly bath.

[m/n] was slowly introduced into wilbur’s twitch as his soulmate, though his face still remained anonymous and his fans dubbed his as the painter when wilbur revealed that his soulmate was the one who made the painting of him.

wilbur definitely loves to tease [m/n].

[m/n] is confident and snarky towards everyone, but for some reason he gets weak in the knees whenever wilbur is around.

wilbur is very proud of this.

the two of them are both very busy people that have their own deadlines to meet, so they have schedules that rarely ever aline.

that’s why they’re so glad that they can still dream about each other and know that they’re still together. 

it’s one hundred times better because they’ll always be together no matter how far they are. 

Lullaby pt. 3

word count: 15,031

Fandom: Poppy Playtime Pairing: N/A Pronouns: She/Her Relationship: Familial Occupation: Caretaker Ability: Ballerina Music Box

The character takes the appearance of a beautifully crafted music box ballerina figurine made of the toughest porcelain and glass, their clothes made from real fabric that is soft to touch and hair so smooth and silky you'd mistake it for real hair. Attached to their back is a wind up key that continuously spins when they're active and stops when they switch off. If the key is removed they cease to operate until key is returned and they are wound up again. Before CatNap, the character was the one to put the children to sleep with their built-in music box that would constantly be updated with new songs to play to help ease the children to sleep.

Keys:

[F/N]: Female Name

Warnings: the hour of joy, blood, death, all that shit.

"Lullaby" pt. 1, pt.2

I couldn't figure out how to end this so i'm not really satisfied with it, maybe I'll tweak it later but i'm not fucked right now.

that is all.

“Go! Get out of here! Get back to the Safe Haven!” Ballade’s voice cracked with urgency as she, Hoppy, Kickin, and Doey fled through the prison’s crumbling halls, their arms full of the few toys they had managed to rescue from the ruined ones. The closer they got to the Safe Haven, the more relentless their pursuers became. Ballade’s heart pounded — she couldn’t let them find it. She couldn’t let them get close. Not with CatNap lurking nearby. “I’ll stall them — just go!” she insisted, turning toward the oncoming threat.

“But what about you?!” Kickin’s voice rose in panic, his arms weighed down by the rescued toys.

“Forget about me! I’ll be fine!”

“How can we know that?!”

“Because CatNap won’t kill me — and those ruined critters can’t hurt me. But if any of you get caught, he’ll make sure you don’t walk away from it.” Her face hardened at the mention of him, her voice bitter. She knew his cruelty — but she also knew it would be far worse for the others.

“But if they take your key—”

“We won’t know how to save you!” Hoppy cried.

“Maybe it’s for the best.” Ballade’s voice softened, her guilt seeping through. “After everything I did… this mess is my fault. If I’m the price for your safety, so be it.” She turned to Doey, placing firm hands on his shoulders, her eyes filled with a desperate seriousness. “Take care of them, Doey. You’re the only one I trust to keep them all safe.”

“W-What? Me?!” Doey’s eyes went wide, his voice shaking. Behind them, the twisted laughter of their pursuers echoed closer, growing louder.

“I know it’s a lot, and I hate putting this burden on you, but I don’t have a choice! Please, Doey — if I don’t come back, don’t try to save me. Just… forget about me.” Doey shook his head violently, panic rising in his chest.

“B-But I don’t know the first thing about being a leader! I-I can’t—” A loud crash cut him off. They all spun toward the sound — the ruined critters had finally caught up, their broken forms crawling into view.

“There’s no time!” Ballade shouted. She pushed them back, then struck a support beam with all her strength. The ceiling groaned before collapsing in a cascade of rubble, blocking the path between them and the ruined toys. Dust filled the air, but Ballade didn’t waste a second. She turned back toward the enemy, steeling herself. “Go! I’ll hold them off. And remember what I said — if I don’t come back—”

“Ballade—” Kickin started.

“IF I DON’T COME BACK!” she repeated, her voice fierce. For a moment, no one moved. Then Hoppy sucked in a shaky breath, turning her face away as the sound of sinister laughter grew closer.

“…Don’t try to save you,” she whispered weakly.

And then they ran.

She let out a breath as she heard the sound of their footsteps disappear down the hall until she couldn't hear them anymore, she rolled her neck and turned towards the ruined critters with a fury burning in her eyes.

"Well then? Come on, let's see you get past me."

-

A figure stepped cautiously into a dimly lit hallway, their flashlight beam cutting through the heavy darkness. The walls here were lined with faded murals of smiling toys and children, their once-bright colors dulled with age and grime. The eerie quiet was only broken by the soft hum of flickering lights overhead. As they moved forward, the beam of their flashlight fell on something ahead — a shape standing motionless in the center of the corridor. Instinctively, their heart leapt, but as they got closer, they realized it wasn’t a threat.

It was a cardboard cutout.

The cutout depicted a toy they hadn’t seen before — a delicate, doll-like figure with big, expressive eyes and an elegant dress. Despite the wear and tear, the character’s design had a grace to it: flowing ribbons, musical motifs, and a kind but somewhat melancholy smile. The words “Press Here” was scrawled in ornate letters within a white speech bubble, though parts of it were scratched and peeling. Like the many other cardboard cutouts they came across, the reached forward and pressed the button and the cutout came to life with a burst of static from a hidden speaker.

“Hello there, little one!” The voice was warm and gentle, with a soft musical lilt, though the audio crackled with age. “Welcome to Playcare — the happiest, safest place in all of Playtime Co.! My name’s Ballade Ballerina, and I’ll be your guide while you stay with us!” there was a moment of silence before they press it again. “Here at Playcare, we believe every toy — and every child — deserves love, laughter, and a safe place to call home. You’ll make so many friends here! There’s games, stories, and oh-so-many songs to sing!” The recording glitched, her voice stretching into a distorted warble before cutting back in. “…And remember, if you ever feel scared or lonely, just find me! I’ll always be here to help!”

The cutout’s smile seemed a little too wide now, the dim light casting long shadows across its face.

The speaker clicked off, leaving only the faint buzz of static in its wake.

Ahead, the hallway stretched into darkness, and with a deep inhale they ventured on.

We now welcome our protagonist, the Player, and their journey for answers as they traverse deeper and deeper into Playtime Co. after the horrors they had experienced since stepping for into this facility.

Huggy Wuggy had been the first nightmare — a towering figure of blue fur and wide, unblinking eyes, his silent pursuit relentless. The player could still hear the sound of his massive limbs scraping through vents, the way his sharp teeth snapped just inches from their heels. Only through sheer desperation and quick thinking had they managed to outmaneuver him, dropping a heavy box on him just in time and watching him fall into the depths below.

And then there had been Mommy Longlegs.

Her sing-song voice still echoed in their mind, playful and sadistic. The chase through the twisted factory had been a nightmare of tangled machinery and crushing danger. Her elastic limbs had reached through impossible spaces, her laughter turning shrill when the player narrowly escaped her grasp. The final confrontation left the player scraped, battered, and with a deep sense of unease — as if she wasn’t truly gone.

And now they find themselves in what is left of Playcare.

Broken play structures loomed in the dim light. A carousel, long stilled, sat tilted on its side. Empty cribs and overturned chairs lay scattered across the area, and torn stuffed animals slumped against the walls.

But it hadn’t always been this way.

Once, Playcare had been filled with the sounds of laughter and music — a safe haven for the children of Playtime Co.’s employees. The walls had been vibrant and bright, decorated with colorful murals and happy handprints. The toys here had been companions, carefully crafted to nurture and delight. But something had gone terribly wrong.

The downfall of Playcare had been swift and brutal. Whispers of experiments gone awry crept through the abandoned halls — the blending of innocence and industry turned monstrous. The toys designed to protect became the very thing to fear. Children vanished, their giggles replaced with terrified screams. Staff members who tried to intervene were never seen again. The signs of that ruin were everywhere. Walls scarred with deep gouges, as though something with claws had tried to escape. Dried stains marred the cracked tiles, and the flickering lights cast frantic shadows. The colorful handprints smeared across the doors were not all made in paint.

Given the mission to bring back the power to the Playcare, the Player entered Home Sweet Home first as instructed by the young boy Ollie had instructed.

The red smoke hit them first — thick and choking, its hallucinogenic effects warping the world around them. Walls twisted and pulsed, laughter turned into distorted echoes, and familiar shapes morphed into something sinister. The Player stumbled through the haze, their vision swimming with impossible images — the faces of children flickering into grotesque grins, toys shifting and writhing with unnatural life. It felt endless. But somehow, they pushed through. When the smoke finally thinned, the Player found themselves in the wreckage of what had once been Home Sweet Home — a place once filled with children and laughter, now as broken and abandoned as the rest of Playcare. Cribs lay overturned, toys lay shattered, and the air was thick with an oppressive quiet.

And there in the main lobby of Home Sweet Home, the Player spotted a stage that had seen far better days. Its wooden frame sagged with age, the paint chipped and faded, and the once-vibrant curtain hung in tattered, dust-covered folds. The air was thick and heavy, carrying the faint scent of decay and something sickly sweet — like old candy left to rot. The soft creak of the floor beneath their feet echoed through the hollow stillness as the Player approached cautiously. Their eyes locked onto the curtain, noticing it was open just a crack. Through that narrow gap, a faint green glow pulsed softly.

Curiosity and unease prickled at the Player’s skin as they reached out, their fingers brushing the old fabric aside. The curtain’s texture was rough and brittle, and a cloud of dust rose as they pushed it aside. With a slow, hesitant motion, they opened the curtain wider — and their breath caught in their throat.

There, slumped against a pile of forgotten and broken boxes, sat the remains of Ballade Ballerina. The once-elegant toy had fallen into a state of tragic disrepair. Her porcelain-like face was cracked and smudged, the painted features chipped but still heartbreakingly delicate. Her glassy eyes, half-lidded and lifeless, stared into nothingness. Her dress, which had surely once been a vision of grace, lay in tatters — the flowing fabric torn and stained, the ribbons frayed and hanging limp. Her hair, once meticulously styled in a pristine bun, had fallen loose, draping unkempt and tangled over her face.

Despite her ruined state, there was an eerie beauty to her stillness — a lifelike presence that made the Player’s skin crawl. It was almost as if she could move at any moment. And through the dimness, the source of the green glow became clear: a battery clutched tightly in her unmoving hand.

"Whoa..." The Player’s voice was barely above a whisper, but even that seemed too loud in the oppressive quiet. Despite everything, they couldn’t help but marvel at the sheer realism of Ballade. Other than Poppy, she was the most human-like toy they had encountered — and even in her broken state, there was a strange sense of care in how she had been left here, as if someone had made an effort to preserve her, even as everything else around her crumbled.

Shaking off their unease, the Player activated their GrabPack, aiming for the battery. The metal claw latched onto it with ease, but when they tried to pull it back, Ballade’s arm jerked forward — her fingers remaining locked around the battery in an iron grip. The Player grimaced and tugged harder, but no matter how they pulled, she wouldn’t let go.

"Haaa, of course it wouldn’t be that easy," they murmured, frustration creeping into their voice.

As they stepped closer, their eyes fell on a crumpled, faded drawing lying near Ballade’s feet — clearly the work of a child from long ago. It depicted Ballade in happier days, twirling gracefully with a wind-up key embedded in her back. The detail stood out immediately. The Player’s gaze shifted to Ballade’s back, and sure enough — the slot for a wind-up key sat empty and waiting. Their heart sank. Of course it wouldn’t be as simple as taking the battery — they’d need to find that missing key.

Letting out a tired sigh, the Player stood and surveyed the wreckage around them. The thought of combing through Home Sweet Home for a tiny key felt like an impossible task — a needle in a haystack. But there was no choice.

Leaving the stage and the battery behind for now, they pressed forward, solving the puzzles scattered throughout Home Sweet Home. Room after room yielded new challenges and eerie reminders of the building’s past. Children’s murals, long faded, peeked through layers of grime. Toys lay scattered and broken, their smiles cracked and hollow. Every step forward felt like intruding on something long abandoned — and yet not entirely lifeless.

Eventually, their search led them to the upper levels — and into a room unlike the others.

It was unmistakable. The oversized, plush cat bed and scattered toy remains made it clear.

They had found CatNap’s old room.

Realizing what they had stumbled upon, they turned to leave — until something on the oversized bed caught their eye. Their heart leaped when they spotted it: the unmistakable glint of Ballade’s wind-up key. Without hesitation, they darted forward, snatching up the key and cradling it in their hands like a fragile treasure. Relief flooded them — but it was short-lived. The ever-present sense of being watched prickled at the back of their neck. CatNap was still lurking somewhere nearby. They had to move — and fast.

Keeping their steps light and their movements subtle, the Player hurried back down the stairs, every creak of the old wood sending spikes of fear through their exhausted body. They reached the stage without incident, their chest heaving with the effort to remain quiet. Climbing onto the stage, they knelt beside Ballade’s still form. Gently, they pushed her slumped body forward, revealing the empty key slot on her back. Taking a steadying breath, they slotted the key into place.

Then they began to wind.

The resistance was immediate — the mechanism inside her body was worn and rusted, and every turn of the key felt like a struggle. The Player’s arms burned with the effort, their grunts of exertion breaking the oppressive silence. It was a wonder the key turned at all.

Finally — with one last, straining twist — the key clicked into place. As the key slowly began to turn on its own, Ballade’s hand twitched. Fingers that had been frozen in a death grip began to uncurl. The green battery slipped free, falling to the stage with a quiet thud. The Player exhaled in relief, their muscles trembling with exhaustion, and reached forward to claim their prize.

With the final battery in hand, the player stumbled off the stage, their heart pounding so hard it felt like it might burst from their chest. Every muscle in their body ached from the endless chase, the constant fear, the exhausting puzzles — but the urgency to get out of this place kept them moving. They tightened their grip on the battery as though it were their only lifeline.

Behind them, the eerie ticking of Ballade’s wind-up key still echoed softly, rhythmic and deliberate, growing fainter with each step as they hurried toward the battery slot. But even as the sound faded, it felt like it followed them — like something unseen was counting down.

The building around them felt more oppressive than ever — the walls seemed to close in tighter, the air thick and stale. Every shadow stretched a little too far, twisting unnaturally with the dim, flickering lights. Every distant creak and groan made their skin prickle, their breath catching in their throat. The remnants of Home Sweet Home were silent, but never still. And worst of all, they knew they weren’t alone.

CatNap was still out there. The colossal cat had been stalking them ever since they set foot in this cursed building — an ever-present threat lingering just out of sight. Watching. Waiting. The Player’s eyes darted to every darkened corner, every vent, every narrow hallway. The feeling of being hunted had become almost suffocating.

Reaching the battery slot, the Player slid the battery into place with trembling hands, the device clicking into position with a satisfying thud. They exhaled shakily as the system hummed to life, ancient machinery groaning and sputtering like a creature slowly awakening from a long slumber. Lights flickered, casting long, wavering shadows on the walls. The room vibrated with power as circuits sputtered and sparked to life.

But even with the relief of progress, that uneasy feeling didn’t leave them. Instinct tugged at the Player, a cold chill crawling up their spine. Slowly, almost unwillingly, they glanced back toward the stage.

They froze.

The stage was empty.

Ballade was gone.

The curtain still hung open, the boxes she had been slumped against remained — but she was no longer there. Only the faint sound of the ticking key remained, echoing softly from somewhere deeper in the building. The Player’s throat tightened, their pulse quickening as they scanned the darkened room. And then — the ticking stopped.

"W-Where... where did she--" the Player’s voice barely rose above a whisper, their words cut short by the suffocating weight of fear. But there was no time to linger, no time to question. They’d done what they were supposed to do within Home Sweet Home — the last thing they needed was to stick around where that big cat and an even bigger doll could find them.

Screw it.

They turned and ran, feet pounding against the floor as they rushed out of the building, desperate to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the threats lurking inside. But as they vanished into the dim, flickering corridors, they remained unaware of the pair of eyes watching their every move from the shadows.

-

Ballade didn’t know how long she had been turned off for — she never really could tell how much time passed when she was asleep until someone "woke her up." It was almost like being in a coma or perhaps paralyzed; she couldn’t move or see, but she could faintly hear what was happening in her surroundings. Distant voices, the scraping of metal, the slow decay of her world — all filtered through the darkness of her slumber.

She could feel it too — the slow breakdown of her own body. The way her delicate mechanisms grew rigid and rusted over time, the stiffness of her joints settling like an ache she couldn’t relieve. Dust settled thick over her frame, and the once-smooth grace of her design began to fade beneath the weight of neglect. Her porcelain-like face, once pristine and expressive, had cracked, faint fractures spreading like delicate spiderwebs. The once-vibrant paint of her features had faded and chipped, her eyes dull and lifeless. Her limbs, so carefully crafted for fluid movement, had grown stiff and unyielding, the internal gears grinding with each attempt at motion. The soft fabric of her dress had long since frayed, the elegant ribbons trailing in tatters. Her hair, once styled into a graceful bun, had loosened and fallen over her face in knotted, dusty strands. The neglect was total — and yet, she had felt it all.

But then, there was something new.

A click. A winding. The sudden, jarring sensation of gears turning, slow and strained, after so long without movement. She could feel her key twisting into place, the old machinery inside her fighting to respond. It hurt — but it also meant something else.

She was waking up.

*blink*

*blink*

A soft gasp left her lips as her eyes blinked to life, flickering with an eerie glow as they darted around in alarm, desperate to see who — or what — had turned her key. The disorientation was overwhelming. She felt the stiffness in every part of her body, her joints cracking and groaning as she shifted. The effort it took just to lift her head sent sharp pangs through her worn-out frame. She managed to catch a glimpse of a figure slipping out of her tent — too fast to make out any details. But she ignored it for now. There was something more important.

She needed to move.

The struggle was immediate and humiliating. As she tried to push herself upright, her legs buckled beneath her, the rusted mechanisms inside protesting every motion. She fell once, twice — each time catching herself just before hitting the stage floor. The effort left her breathless, but she forced herself onward, finally managing to stand on trembling legs. Peeking through the gap in the curtain, her wide eyes scanned the room — and then stopped, her breath catching.

A human.

Her mind reeled. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. An actual human employee. But… how? Weren’t they all dead? The factory had been silent for so long — abandoned, left to rot just like the toys inside. And yet there they were, very much alive. But why? Why on earth would anyone willingly come here? What could they possibly hope to achieve? More than anything, though — what confused her the most — was the fact that she did not recognize them. They must be a lower level employee, Leith told her she didn't need to put in the effort of remembering employees who were disposable. But still, how the hell did they get so far into the factory on their own?

How did they get past Huggy? And Mommy?

Her eyes narrowed as she watched them place the battery in its slot and restore power to Home Sweet Home. Hmmm... she’d just watch them from afar for now, just to see what they were doing. After stretching her limbs, she hoisted herself up by the rafters above her head, the rusted joints protesting but slowly obeying her commands. With surprising agility for something so long dormant, she leapt up to the upper levels of Home Sweet Home, silent and shadowed. From her vantage point above, she watched with cold amusement as the employee looked around in alarm, their panic clear when they noticed the empty stage. It was almost hilarious to watch them scramble out of the building with their tail between their legs.

Seriously… how had they gotten this far?

Ballade's eyes narrowed as she watched the employee from her spot in the upper levels of the building, their frantic movements betraying the fear she expected. Every little sound they made echoed through the hollow, broken remains of Home Sweet Home. The flickering lights cast long, distorted shadows across the decaying walls, making the space feel even more eerie and oppressive. She shifted quietly, her body still stiff and aching from years of stillness, the rusted joints inside her creaking with every small motion. She winced at the sound—like old gears grinding against each other—but her curiosity kept her silent and patient.

And then she saw it—something that truly caught her attention.

"Is that..." she whispered, her voice barely audible as she peered through a cracked and grime-streaked window, her face twisting in mock disbelief. "Poppy?" It had been so long since she’d last seen that doll—so long since any familiar faces crossed her path. The sight of that small, porcelain-like figure sent a strange jolt through her system. Ballade leaned against the windowsill, her faded ribbons trailing limply from her arms as she watched intently. Through the dim light, she saw Poppy handle Kissy Missy—ever the sweetheart—after she had tackled the employee to the ground in what was clearly an attempt to kill them.

Ballade’s fingers tapped rhythmically against the rotting wood beneath her, the soft sound blending with the distant hum of restored power and the occasional groan of the building settling. Her mind pieced together the situation from the fragmented conversation she managed to overhear. The employee had come to Playtime Co. searching for their missing coworkers—fools, she thought, for stepping into this graveyard of twisted dreams. And yet they had somehow survived encounters with Huggy Wuggy and Mommy Long Legs, defeating both of them despite the odds.

But their victory had been hollow. They’d been meant to leave—finally escape this nightmare by taking the train from the Game Station. And yet... Poppy had intervened. Ballade’s lips curled into a wry, bitter smile. Of course she had. That was so like that manipulative little girl. Trapped in that fragile doll body, Poppy was incapable of doing things on her own—so she pulled the strings of others, making them dance to her tune. It was always the same—always others who did the hard work while Poppy watched from the sidelines, her innocent appearance masking the calculating mind underneath.

And now it seemed she’d found her latest puppet.

The employee. The survivor.

But how long would they last, Ballade wondered, before Poppy’s game broke them too? How long before this poor fool realized they were nothing more than a disposable piece in Poppy’s never-ending quest for freedom? Ballade almost pitied them. Almost.

"Hmm, what to do, what to do." she murmured to herself. She continued to watch them from Home Sweet Home as they restored power to Playcare and a sense of nostalgia hit her like a wave. Memories of when Playcare had been whole—when laughter filled the air and the children’s joy was the only sound that mattered. She could still hear their giggles echoing faintly in her mind, the pitter-patter of tiny feet running through the halls. She remembered the way they’d reach for her hand, their eyes wide with wonder as she twirled and danced for them on the stage. The warmth of their applause, their delighted cheers—those days felt like a distant dream, faded and fra— she nearly threw herself out the window when she saw them approaching the school. "Oh, no. If she's still in there... uh oh."

-

Uh oh, indeed.

The Player moved cautiously through ruined corridors of the school, every step echoing off the cracked and peeling walls. They turned a corner into what looked like an old classroom, the faded remnants of colorful posters and children’s drawings hanging limply from the walls. As they ventured through the school, collecting notes that solved the mystery that happened to this establishment, the PA system crackled to life. A high, lilting voice filled the corridor, sweet yet off-kilter, like a pre-recorded message gone wrong.

"This is Miss Delight speaking, please excuse the interruption! Students, remain in your seats until the bell has rung, and no going in the halls without a hall pass!" The Player’s skin prickled as the message faded out. They pressed on, tension coiling in their gut. Later, as they crawled under a desk in another room, they caught a glimpse of her—a flash of frilly pastel fabric and jerky, uneven movement. Miss Delight walked across the hallway just ahead, her head twitching unnaturally, one glassy eye swiveling in its cracked porcelain face. The Player held their breath until she passed. As they were still reeling from the sight, Miss Delight’s voice boomed again over the PA system. "Wait, I recognize you… Yes! I remember! You used to work here! How are you… alive? Hm? Barb? Oh… Barb says you're looking for your co-workers. CatNap wouldn't like that you're here! You should leave, for your own safety."

Ignoring the warning, the Player pushed forward through the abandoned school. Eventually, they reached a door leading to a dark, forbidding area. The PA crackled again, the sweetness in Miss Delight’s tone giving way to something darker. "Not a good listener, are you? You're a lot like the other humans in that way. I wonder if your screams will sound like theirs too! I look forward to finding out."

Determined, the Player powered on the generator, hoping to illuminate their path. But the light was short-lived. With a loud crash, the door burst open, and Miss Delight strode into the room. In one swift motion, she lashed out with Barb—her twisted, jagged weapon—smashing the generator and sending its battery flying across the room. The lights flickered, then died, plunging the halls into darkness once again.

The Player races through the dim corridors, their breath coming in ragged gasps as Miss Delight’s sinister laughter rings out behind them. Every time they risk a glance back, they see her frozen in place — a weeping angel-like figure locked mid-step, her face twisted into an eerie smile. But each time they look away, even for a second, she draws closer. The sound of her footsteps echoes impossibly loud in the empty space, and the Player can almost feel her breath against their neck. Panic rises with every turn, every flickering shadow playing tricks on their eyes as they search frantically for more batteries to restore power and unlock the closed gates and doors.

At one point, the Player whips their head back, heart slamming in their chest — and Miss Delight is right there. Too close. Her twisted face inches from theirs, her hand outstretched, ready to grab — and then she stops. Dead still. The Player lets out a breath of relief that they managed to catch her before they caught them and slowly backs away, unaware that Miss Delight's gaze wasn't looking at them but instead on what was ahead of them. It was the gaze that was stopping her from getting too close to them, from killing them.

As they near the exit in the maintenance area, the desperation in Miss Delight becomes palpable. Her movements grow more erratic, more forceful, as if the thought of losing her prey is too much to bear. They sprint for the final gate, hands fumbling with the controls as the sound of her approach grows louder and faster. Finally, they spot a lever and yank it down with all their strength. The heavy door begins to close with a grinding screech — but Miss Delight is not done yet. With a burst of speed, she drops her frozen façade and charges forward, her porcelain face contorting with a mix of rage and desperation. The Player watches in slow motion as she reaches out, fingers just inches from their face — and then the door slams shut with a sickening crunch. The laughter stops. The halls fall silent, save for the faint echo of metal settling into place. And when the Player dares to look back, all that remains of Miss Delight is the twisted ruin of her head beneath the heavy door — her wide, delighted grin forever frozen in place.

"Whew..." finally, they can take a breather.

-

Ballade moved with calculated precision, her every step taken in the dark corners of the school, her presence barely more than a whisper in the air. She watched as Miss Delight, once a beacon of warmth, now stood twisted and savage, her eyes burning with hunger, no longer the kind and gentle teacher that had once graced these halls. It was a sickening sight, the aftermath of years of suffering, the price paid for survival. Ballade could feel the weight of regret heavy on her chest. If only she had been able to reach her sooner, perhaps things wouldn't have spiraled so far.

Ballade’s eyes tracked the employee, her focus shifting between them and Miss Delight. She couldn’t let the deranged teacher get too close. With careful timing, Ballade would step out just enough to catch Miss Delight’s attention, drawing her gaze away from the employee. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to stop Miss Delight in her tracks. Ballade would retreat the moment the employee turned their attention back towards the woman, ensuring the cycle continued. She had to make sure Miss Delight didn’t get close enough to the employee. She still wasn't sure what their goal was but Poppy needed them alive to achieve something, and she was very curious as to what it could possibly be.

When they reached the hallway leading to the exit in the maintenance area, the employee suddenly turned and fled, desperate to escape both the school and Miss Delight. Ballade watched helplessly as Miss Delight reached out for them, her fingers stretching toward their target. But as she drew near, the employee slammed the door down, crushing Miss Delight beneath its weight. Ballade approached the lifeless form slowly, a deep sadness in her eyes as she stared down at what had become of her.

"Oh, Miss Delight," she whispered softly, kneeling beside her. "I'm so sorry this happened to you. I wish it didn't have to come to this." Her hand gently caressed what was left of Miss Delight’s face, a tender gesture in the face of such brutality. As much as it pained her, maybe this was for the best. After a few moments of quiet reflection, Ballade rose to her feet. With a grunt of effort, she reached for the underside of the shutter and, using sheer brute force, ripped it open. She stepped out into the cavernous depths, her eyes narrowing as she set her sights on the employee once again. They were heading toward the Playhouse, the den of those ruined creatures. How could she not follow them now? The stakes had never been higher.

-

It was seriously one horror after the other.

After completing some puzzles within the caverns and quietly passing by CatNap worshipping an amalgamation of dead toys, the Player approaches a heavy, rusted door with a faded sign above it, signifying they're next destination was the Playhouse. The air grows colder as they step inside, the dim light flickering ominously. The walls are cracked and stained, and the distant sound of skittering echoes through the darkness.

Continuing into the Playhouse proper, The Player navigates a maze of shadowy rooms and claustrophobic tunnels. They're startled at the sight of the Ruined Critters lurking around, grotesque and twisted versions of their former selves, appearing suddenly from holes in the walls and nipping at their heels. Their chittering grows louder and more frantic as more of them join the pursuit. To keep them away and light their way, the Player uses their newly acquired orange hand — a weapon-like tool gained after surviving the School and defeating Miss Delight — to shoot flares that burst with brief, brilliant light, sending the Critters scurrying back.

Their progress is halted by a massive door requiring two pressure pads with the Playtime Co. logo to be activated. So much work to do, they thought. They enter a network of tunnels, solving the puzzles to locate two heavy boxes and drag them onto the pads, shooting at the ruined critters that came out of their little hidey holes before continuing with the task at hand. They perk up at the sound of shifting mechanisms rumbling through the walls as the door slowly creaks open. Beyond the door lies a vast chamber dominated by a towering central spire. A platform connected to a long beam juts out from the structure, they scurry onto the platform, pressing a button that has the platform moving rather slowly. As it aligns with various doorways, they curiously explores each one, eventually entering a cavernous pool room with stagnant water reflecting the dim light. At the back of the room are two foreboding yellow doors.

They shudder to themself as they enter the room and find a rusting cell block. They could only guess who the residents of the cells belonged to, counting eight altogether as they walked down the dimly lit hall. They're careful to mind their step when they spot a hole in the ground barely covered by the wooden boards that could collapse under their weight, if only they could just find the exi-

"You..." they jump in surprise at the sudden voice, their heart leaping into their throat. They whip their head around and their eyes widen at the sight of DogDay... or rather, what was left of him. A once-joyful toy now reduced to a ragged and broken figure hanging on the wall by his arms, his once-bright colors faded and his blood seeping through gaping tears in his fabric. "...You're Poppy's angel, come to save us."

"S-Save you...?" they whisper, their voice trembling as they take an uneasy step closer. Their eyes rake over his horrific form, a hand flying to their mouth in shock. His bisected torso, blood-stained and grotesque, was only held together by a leather belt cinched tight, barely keeping what little remained of his innards from spilling out. Despite his broken state, DogDay gave a weak, humorless chuckle.

"Nothing left to save... not here..." he rasped, his voice strained and fragile. "You're in CatNap's home, angel. Their home." He lifted a trembling arm, gesturing toward their bleak surroundings. The subtle sound of scampering echoed through the Playhouse—the Ruined Critters, always watching. Always waiting.

"A million pairs of eyes are on you now. Watching, waiting... hungry," he continued, his words a haunting whisper. "That... thing... CatNap. The Prototype is his god, and this..." his voice cracked as he gestured toward his broken body, "this is what he does to heretics." The distant sounds of the critters grew louder, their scratching filling the heavy silence.

"These little toys follow CatNap to avoid that very fate—and in return, they are fed." His breath hitched, his eyes glassy and distant. "We tried to fight it... to fight the Prototype's control." He swallowed hard, his voice barely above a whisper now. "I'm... the last of the Smiling Critters." the state he was left made them think of Ballade, how she was left to collect dust and to be forgotten by those who remembered her. CatNap must have had a deeper connection with these two to have kept them around, even with the conditions he gave them. "Listen to me, you need to get out of this place. You need to live." their eyes widened.

"You want me to... leave you here?" they whispered softly, their eyes darting around when they heard footsteps. "At least let me take you with me." he only shook his head.

"I appreciate the sentiment, but I'll... only slow you down." they bit their lip.

"There must be something I can do." they mutter but DogDay shook his head.

"You and Poppy can fix this, end this madness, the torment, the—" The Player let out a startled shout when a hand suddenly appeared against the cell bars. They stumbled back, quickly raising the flare gun, only to freeze in shock at the sight of Ballade. She paid them no mind, her wide eyes fixed on DogDay with an overwhelming sense of sadness and horror.

"Oh, puppy..." she whispered, her voice trembling as her hand reached toward him. "What has he done to you...?" The empty void of DogDay's eyes seemed to spark to life at the sound of her voice—at the sight of her after so many years.

"B-Ballade? Is that really you? I'm not hallucinating, am I?" His voice cracked with disbelief. She shook her head, stepping into the cell and collapsing to her knees. Her hands cupped his ragged cheeks, her thumbs brushing over his battered face with heartbreaking gentleness. He leaned into her touch, starved for comfort after years of isolation and agony.

"This isn't a dream, right?" he whispered, his voice fragile.

"No, puppy," she murmured, her voice thick with emotion. "I'm really here. I'm here, my sweet baby." She pulled him into a tender embrace, cradling him as his broken frame shook with quiet sobs. Her hands rubbed soothing circles over his back, desperate to offer whatever solace she could.

"How long was I gone?" she asked, her voice muffled against his shoulder.

"...Four years," he whispered, his voice breaking. DogDay let out a soft grunt as her arms tightened around him. When he finally pulled back, his gaze locked onto hers—and the pain reflected in her glassy eyes was almost too much to bear.

"When you disappeared," he continued, his voice quivering, "it was the worst time of our lives. We didn’t know what he did to you, where you were... we couldn't even confirm if he’d taken you to the Prototype or not. We were so scared. What happened that day?" Tears welled in his eyes as he searched her face for answers.

"I'll explain later," she said quickly, shaking her head. "Right now, we need to get the hell out of here." Her eyes flicked up to the belts strapping him to the wall. "Hold on, puppy—I’m getting you down." her grief now replaced with anger, she grasped tightly at the belts and tore him free from his confines and when he fell into her arms, his own arms wrapped around her and they shared another tender embrace.

"U-Um, I hate to interrupt..." the Player's voice broke the moment, hesitant and uneasy. Both Ballade and DogDay turned toward them. "But I think we've got company." Ballade's face darkened instantly. She felt DogDay's arms tighten around her, his broken body trembling as the sound of the ruined critters echoed around them—scratching, skittering, getting closer.

"N-No, not again... please, not again," he whimpered, his voice cracking with fear. Ballade's eyes hardened.

"You! Come here!" She moved with sudden urgency, grabbing the Player before they could react. Spinning them around, she carefully pressed DogDay against the back of their GrabPack. With quick, practiced motions, she snatched up several of the discarded belts littering the ground and began strapping DogDay securely to their back.

"Alright, can you move well enough with him on your back?" she asked, tightening the last belt. The Player staggered slightly, adjusting to the unexpected weight.

"I-I think so—"

"No time! Get moving!" Ballade shoved them forward just as the first of the ruined critters began pouring out of the holes in the walls, their twisted forms scrambling toward them. DogDay watched as Ballade backed away, rolling her neck, her whole posture shifting into a predatory readiness. Despite his fear, a weak chuckle escaped him when he saw that familiar, dangerous glint in her eye.

"Is she going to be okay?" the Player asked breathlessly as they ran. DogDay let out a weary, fond laugh.

"Oh, she’ll be fine. Trust me." The Player plunged into the twisting tunnels of the Playhouse, their pulse pounding in their ears. DogDay’s weakened voice guided them through the maze-like corridors while the distant sounds of Ballade’s fight faded behind them. But the ruined critters weren’t far off. Their skittering grew louder, closer, and soon they were spilling from the walls, giving chase.

"Faster! Please—faster!" DogDay pleaded, his panic rising as the swarm closed in. Ahead, the path ended at a steep drop. Without hesitation, the Player launched themselves forward, using their Purple Hand to swing across the gap. The roller door slammed shut behind them with a metallic crash, cutting off the horrid screeches just in time. Shaken but alive, the Player stumbled into an elevator, their breath ragged. As the lift carried them upward to the top of the slide and out of the nightmare of the Playhouse, the reality of their narrow escape began to sink in. But there was no time to rest. Not yet.

"Finally... we're out!" the Player shouts aloud before pressing their hands to their face. "That was literal hell," they murmur against their palms. They feel a pat and see that it was DogDay.

"Are you alright, Angel? I'm sorry you had to lug my dead weight around while you were running." DogDay’s voice is soft, filled with guilt. They give a weak laugh in response.

"Nah, you're probably the nicest face I've seen that hasn't backstabbed me or actively tried to kill me. It's nice to have someone like that around after what's happened in the past few hours." DogDay gives his own weak laugh.

"I'll say. But thank you, Angel. You didn't have to do what you did." They shake their head.

"That toy scares me. I think she would have snapped my neck if I refused to do as she said." DogDay makes a face at their words, though they don’t see it. You're not wrong. "Anyways, are you sure she'll be okay? I feel bad for just leaving her there by herself."

"That's the thing, Angel. She prefers to be alone when dealing with the ruined critters — it allows her to fully let loose."

"Let loose?" they echo, confused.

"Yes. She was a toy designed to handle the bigger toys the human employees couldn’t — like Huggy and Mommy. The little ones? Though they outnumber her, they won’t even be able to leave so much as a scratch on her." As if on cue, the doors to the Playhouse are suddenly kicked off their hinges and a few dead critters fly out. Ballade steps out, crushing the neck of a ruined Crafty in her hands before kicking a ruined Bobby so hard it splatters blood all over the pavement.

"Better think twice before coming at me again, twerps!" she shouts, tossing the dead toy aside without a second thought. Her eyes scan the area, lighting up when she spots DogDay. "Puppy! You're okay!" DogDay cheers as Ballade scoops him up and starts twirling him around. It’s only when she starts planting kisses on his head that she notices the extra weight.

"I don't suppose you could put me down, could you?" the Player grunts from where they dangle off DogDay’s back. She sweatdrops.

"Oh, right. Sorry about that, Angel." Her tone carries a teasing lilt as she uses the nickname. Holding DogDay in her arms, she nuzzles her cheek against his head, cooing sweet nothings to comfort him. "Thank you, Angel. Not only for returning my key to me and turning me back on but for also protecting DogDay from those ruined toys." They rub the back of their head.

"It was nothing — I’m just glad you were there to hold them back." Ballade chuckles softly.

"Well, I've been following you ever since you stepped foot in the school. How else do you think you survived?" They blink in surprise.

"Wait — what?"

"I kept Miss Delight back each time you turned your back on her," she explains with a grin. "She got real close a couple of times, but I stopped her before she could kill you." She tilts her head, eyes gleaming. "You're welcome, by the way."

"Thanks," they mutter, still processing everything.

"Why are you trying to turn on all the backup generators by the way? What has Poppy got you doing?" Ballade asked, following the Player toward the Generator Room. She adjusted her hold on DogDay as she crouched down to squeeze through the tiny door. "I don't suppose you're trying to get the full 'Playcare' experience, are you?" The Player let out a weak, playful laugh.

"No, she wants me to redirect the red smoke — send it in the opposite direction from where it was in the beginning." Both Ballade and DogDay froze at the words, exchanging a look of confusion and concern.

"Why would she want you to do that, Angel?" DogDay asked, his voice uncertain. "Did she tell you why?" The Player shook their head.

"Not really." DogDay watched Ballade closely, noting the way her expression hardened in thought. They must have been in Gas Production Zone, inside were three massive tubes that controlled the red smoke’s direction. Ballade hadn’t seen it in years, not since everything fell apart — but even after all this time, she remembered the right tube was where the red smoke had always been contained. If Poppy wanted to redirect it to the left tube… that meant the smoke was headed toward the prison and the lab.

"Don't tell me..." Ballade murmured to herself, her voice barely above a whisper.

"What is it, Ballade?" DogDay asked, his face filled with concern. She glanced at him but shook her head, brushing it off.

"It's nothing," she said, though the tension in her voice told a different story. "I'm probably overthinking it." The Player kept moving ahead, taking the key from the tube and heading toward the Counselor's Office. Ballade and DogDay trailed close behind, their footsteps soft but ever-present. After a moment, Ballade noticed the Player sweating a little.

"Is something the matter, Angel?" she asked, a hint of teasing in her tone. "Nervous?" The Player hesitated before glancing back.

"Are you... planning on following me?" Ballade blinked at the question.

"It's not like we've got anything better to do. Why? Don’t want the extra muscle? I can keep CatNap back, if he’s got the gall to show his face." DogDay winced slightly when he saw Ballade clench her fist tightly. She probably wouldn’t mind getting a shot at CatNap if the opportunity arose.

"We can help you get the backup generator up and running," DogDay added quickly, trying to ease the tension. "We know this place like the back of our hands. And like Ballade said, she’s your extra muscle. I might not be as strong, but I can be an extra pair of eyes." Both of them looked at the Player with genuine gratitude. "Allow us to pay you back for setting us free," DogDay said softly. The Player hesitated, then nodded.

"Well... having you two around will definitely make this task safer and quicker."

"That’s the spirit!" Ballade grinned, ruffling their hair in a warm, familiar gesture—an old habit from the days when she looked after children and the few employees she liked. "Let’s get a move on. That generator won’t run itself." With a gentle push, she urged the Player forward, following close behind. Since Ballade’s body was larger than the doorframes, she had to crouch to avoid knocking her head, letting DogDay take the lead. The three of them made their way down the corridor until they reached two locked doors. To their left stretched a hallway filled with red smoke, while the path ahead led to the reception area, which required a battery to unlock.

Well, at least they knew where they needed to go.

*THUD*

"Ow." The Player and DogDay turned to see Ballade rubbing her head after hitting a light fixture when she tried to stand up. "I forget these buildings were only meant to accommodate the human employees, not us toys." DogDay laughed softly, patting her head in an attempt to comfort her.

"We never really were allowed in here." Despite the tension, the Player couldn’t help but chuckle. It was nice to have some company around. After a quick search, they found the battery hidden in an air duct and swiftly placed it into its slot. The door swung open with a mechanical hiss, inviting them inside. As they entered, Ballade and DogDay wandered toward an old vending machine, their curiosity piqued.

"You think the drinks in here are still good?" DogDay mused.

"Only one way to find out," Ballade replied, cracking her knuckles as she prepared to strike the machine. But before she could, an all-too-familiar alarm blared through the room, making both toys jump. Their heads whipped toward the TV screen, where the Player had just inserted a VHS tape labeled 8/8/95.

The room fell silent, save for the low hum of the monitor as the tape began to play. The Player didn’t seem to notice how Ballade reached for DogDay and gently covered his ears. He hadn’t been conscious that day, but the ringing had gone off the entire time — a sound that never stopped until everything was over. When the tape finally ended, the Player turned toward the two toys, noticing their unusual quiet. Their suspicion grew when they found the duo locked in a silent embrace, Ballade’s hand softly rubbing DogDay’s head in a soothing, apologetic gesture. The weight of whatever memory the tape had stirred hung heavy in the air, unspoken but undeniable.

"It's over, puppy. I'm sorry that it happened, I'm sorry."

"Are you two... alright?" she looked back at them and gave a weak smile.

"Just... old memories resurfacing, but we'll be alright." The Player was kind enough to wait for them to collect themselves before proceeding. Walking down the halls of debris and dead bodies was a familiar sight, but it still hurt seeing the few bloodied toys that littered the ground. The Player found the room they needed to enter filled with red smoke — not a problem thanks to the gas mask they’d acquired in Home Sweet Home. The real problem was the locked door — their eyes widened when Ballade kicked it off its hinges with a single powerful strike. "Ladies first," she said with a smirk.

"Thank you." It beat having to take the long way around. The Player slipped on their gas mask and stepped into the room, but they quickly noticed the two toys lagging behind.

"Go on ahead," Ballade called. "We’ll wait here. I can follow you, but DogDay can’t. The red smoke doesn’t affect me, but I also don’t want to leave DogDay alone while CatNap is still roaming around." DogDay whined softly.

"Sorry for being a burden." The Player shook their head.

"You guys being here keeps me at ease." They offered a reassuring wave before heading off to restore power and unlock the next door. With that, Ballade found a corner where she could keep an eye on both the room the Player had entered and their only exit. She knelt down and patted her lap, inviting DogDay to lay his head down and rest. As she gently stroked his head, the soft but fragile sound of her music box began to play, filling the tense silence with a bittersweet lullaby. After a few moments, DogDay broke the quiet.

"Can you tell me now?"

"Hmm?" Ballade glanced down at him.

"The day you didn’t come back with the others... Can you tell me what happened?" Ballade’s hand stilled. She took a deep, steadying breath, closing her eyes for a long moment. When she finally exhaled, the weight of old pain settled into her features.

"...To me," she whispered, "it really feels like it was only just yesterday."

-

"Is... is that all you got?" Ballade panted, hunched over her knees as she struggled to catch her breath. If she could sweat, she'd be drenched — the endless waves of ruined critters sent her way had pushed her to the brink. Her chest rose and fell in ragged motions, and though she fought valiantly, the sheer number of enemies was starting to take its toll.

She had cornered herself without realizing it. There was no clear path of escape, no way to break free from the swarm. The little toys couldn’t harm her directly — they had no claws or teeth sharp enough to leave so much as a scratch — but their numbers were proving to be their greatest weapon. Their relentless assault, throwing themselves onto her to weigh her down, was working. The growing piles of broken bodies made movement harder with every second, and the sheer mass of them threatened to bury her alive. Ballade gritted her teeth, shoving one off her shoulder and stomping down on another’s head, but her limbs felt heavier with each passing moment. She was strong — built for battle — but even she had limits. And the enemy knew it.

“You always were a strong fighter, [F/N].” Lifting her head, Ballade let out a weak, bitter laugh. Bloodied, battered, and surrounded by the broken bodies of ruined toys, she still managed to glare defiantly at the figure stepping from the shadows.

“Of course… it just had to be you…” she spat, eyes narrowing as CatNap approached with that same calm, calculated air she remembered all too well. “Was this your idea? Wearing me down? Other than the Doctor, you’re the only one who knows that endless hours of fighting will tire me out.” CatNap shrugged, his eyes watching her closely.

“There was no way I could beat you in a fair fight. Wearing you down was the best and safest option.” She scoffed, her breath ragged. The cynical laughter of a ruined Hoppy rang out from the shadows behind her, and with a violent stomp, she silenced it, grinding its remains into the floor.

“Safe for you?” He tilted his head, his tone almost gentle.

“For you.” Her face twisted in confusion. She took a step toward him—and then the exhaustion crashed over her like a wave. Her limbs felt like lead, and the subtle ticking of her wind-up key behind her back began to slow. Each click echoed louder in her ears.

“You… you planned this,” she rasped, trying to force her legs to move. But the ache in her joints grew unbearable as they started to lock into place. He nodded slowly.

“I knew you wouldn’t let me or the critters get too close to your hideout. And I knew you’d sacrifice yourself to let the others escape. That’s because I know you. You’d rather get hurt yourself than see others suffer—trying to make things right after what you did…” Her vision blurred, the room spinning around her. She stumbled, her knees buckling as she collapsed onto the lifeless bodies scattered beneath her. The coldness of them pressed against her, an eerie reminder of what would soon become of her.

“You’d rather… my body shut down… than fight me…”

“It’s better this way,” he said softly. “Better than the Prototype or the Doctor stepping in.” Her key turned slower. The sound of it was fading. “If you change your mind now… maybe I can convince the Prototype to forgive you.” Her head snapped up, eyes narrowing despite the weakness overtaking her.

“…Huh?”

“The Prototype is merciful to us toys,” CatNap continued, his voice soothing, persuasive. “I’m sure, with time, he’ll forgive you for turning your back on him. He only wants what’s best for us. So please, [F/N]—” He extended a paw toward her, his expression almost pleading “—won’t you join my side again?” For a long moment, she just stared up at him. Her breath came in shallow, uneven gasps. The room around her felt distant and cold. With the last bit of strength she had left, she raised her arm—and smacked his paw away.

“I made a mistake… trusting you years ago…” her voice was weak, but her words were laced with venom. “I’m not gonna… make that mistake… again…”

And her body stilled, locked in place and waiting for her key to be turned again. Ballade lay there amidst the lifeless bodies of the ruined toys, her form slumped and motionless. The soft ticking that had once been the quiet rhythm of her life had finally gone silent. CatNap stood over her, his shadow falling across her still frame. His paw flexed slowly, claws extending and retracting as he stared down at her. This was his moment — the perfect opportunity. One strike, and the most dangerous and capable toy within the factory would be gone. The Prototype’s paranoia would be eased, their fear of Ballade’s rebellion finally put to rest. He raised his paw, ready to deliver the final blow… but he hesitated.

The seconds stretched out, and his arm trembled. His mind replayed flashes of the past — moments of laughter, of camaraderie, of whispered conversations in the dark when they’d both been afraid. He remembered the warmth in her voice when she’d encouraged him, the fierce loyalty she had always shown, even when the world around them turned to madness. But then came the guilt. The lies. He had manipulated her trust, twisted the truth to push her toward the Prototype’s cause. And deep down, he knew — if she had known the reality, the full extent of the Prototype’s plans — she never would have sided with them.

CatNap’s arm fell to his side, his face twisting in frustration and something dangerously close to regret. He couldn’t do it. Whether it was loyalty, guilt, or the echo of their old friendship… he just couldn’t strike her down.Instead, he grabs her wind-up key and yanks it out, the sharp, metallic sound echoing through the hollow chamber. Ballade's body slumped further, completely lifeless now, her glassy eyes staring into nothingness. CatNap stood there for a long moment, his paw still clutching the key as his chest rose and fell with shaky breaths. With a strangled sigh, he let his arm fall to his side. The fight drained out of him as his claws retracted, and without another word, he reached down and grabbed her by the nape of her neck. The weight of her dormant form was nothing as he dragged her through the winding corridors of the factory, up to Playcare, and into Home Sweet Home — the place where she would remain, motionless and silent, for four long years.

And yet, he never left her side. Day after day, he watched over her stage like a silent sentinel, his eyes ever-vigilant for the ruined critters that occasionally dared to draw near. He chased them off with swift brutality, his protectiveness never waning. Sometimes, when the loneliness grew too heavy, he would climb into the stage and curl up beside her lifeless body, just as they used to do when things were… better. Back then, she would talk for hours, filling the silence with stories of her day or soft lullabies that soothed his restless spirit. Now, the only sound was the distant hum of the factory and the occasional soft, ragged breaths he took as he lay beside her, longing for the warmth of her voice once more.

-

"I'm not completely... unconscious when my key stops turning," she began, her hands gently caressing DogDay's head. "I'm somewhat aware of what's going on around me, just not fully. To me, it was like I was trapped in a dream and no time had passed at all inside my head — like I just went to sleep and woke up the next day. The same, however, can't be said for my body." Her voice softened as she lifted her arm, the quiet creak of her joints filling the air. She was one of the toys that had been looked after the most. A rare, one-of-a-kind creation that couldn’t simply be remade. As the Doctor often said, she was a masterpiece — fully conscious, capable of speech, and above all, obedient. That was why she had weekly maintenance to ensure she would malfunction.

DogDay nuzzled closer, his voice quiet. "I... I had no idea."

"No one did," Ballade murmured, a distant look crossing her face. "Not even CatNap. I kept that one to myself."

“It must've been so hard for you." DogDay’s voice was soft, filled with a gentle kind of empathy. Ballade shrugged, her movements stiff.

"Eh, maybe I deserved it. I did side with the Prototype, after all. I had it coming." She tried to sound flippant, but her voice cracked just a little. DogDay pursed his lips before slowly reaching out and taking her hand. His grip was warm, steadying. He squeezed it, and when she looked down at their joined hands, something in her hardened expression softened.

"...You did what you thought was right," he said quietly. Her face twitched. She wanted to pull away, but the warmth of his hand kept her still.

"I locked you and the other critters in your cells," she whispered, her voice heavy with guilt. "I knew the Hour of Joy was coming years before it even happened, but I did nothing to stop it. I—I killed humans and toys alike and thought what I was doing was right… but I was wrong. So wrong." DogDay’s eyes filled with a sadness she hadn’t seen in a long time.

"But you did it out of love," he murmured. "What you did… it may not have been the right choice, but you thought there was no other way to save us. You fought for us in the only way you knew how." He paused, his voice growing softer, more fragile. "You may not be able to forgive yourself… but I forgave you a long time ago." Ballade’s breath hitched, and though she was incapable of crying, the way her lips trembled made it clear how deeply his words cut through her. She shook her head slowly, the weight of her guilt pressing down on her.

"How… how could you forgive me?" she asked, her voice breaking. "I helped ruin everything." He looked down at their hands, his fingers tightening around hers as he searched for the right words.

"...You could have left a long time ago," he began softly, his voice heavy with emotion. "You're capable of doing so—but you didn't. You stayed here to help us. You stayed to make things right… even when you didn’t have to." He paused, his breath catching, then slowly pulled himself up, wrapping his arms around her neck. He nestled into the side of her neck, his voice a warm whisper. "So how could I not forgive you?" She believed she choked out a sob as her hands slowly rose, trembling, to press against his back. She held him close, her grip tightening like she was afraid to let go.

"Y-You always did have a heart of gold, puppy," she whispered softly then they both sat in a comfortable silence, waiting patiently for the Player to return while remaining vigilant- who knows what could be lurking in the shadows. A couple minutes past and Ballade hears the whir of electricity, seems they finally managed to restore power to the back up generator. "I'm going to check on Angel, will you be fine here if I leave you?" he salutes her, she snickered softly when she could see an imaginary tail wagging.

"Affirmative." she pats his head.

"Okay, but I'll be quick." She set him down gently where she had been sitting, giving him a reassuring pat before rushing off to find the Player. She moved through the thick red smoke with ease and entered the maintenance room, her eyes scanned the area, but the Player was nowhere to be seen. She hummed softly then scaled the wall leading to the room with the generator but then she saw the shutter doors closed, her brows furrowed in confusion. Without hesitation, she grabbed the edges and tore them open with a loud screech of metal. But the room was empty. Her eyes swept the space carefully until they caught the glint of an open vent, the cover hastily removed and set aside. They must have trapped themselves in the room and neither she nor DogDay could hear them, if they called out for help, so they took an alternative route. But where did they-

"Ballade!" The desperate cry of DogDay rang out, sharp and panicked. Her head snapped toward the sound, and without a moment’s hesitation, she leapt down from where she stood, landing in a low crouch with a soft thud. She broke into a sprint, her heart pounding against her chest as she raced back to where she’d left him. The Player would have to wait — DogDay's safety came first. She couldn’t let anything happen to him. She wouldn’t. As she neared the end of the corridor, she felt a brief wave of relief when she saw him — still in one piece, still there. But the feeling vanished in an instant when she noticed the wide-eyed panic on his face. He was pointing down the opposite hallway, his whole body trembling.

"CatNap!" he gasped. "I saw CatNap!"

"Where?" DogDay couldn’t help but shudder at the venom laced in her voice.

"Down the hall from where we came from!" he cried. Ballade scooped him up and sprinted down the corridor, specifically to the door they ignored. She barreled toward the door leading to the room filled with red smoke, her hands slamming against the doorframe as she skidded to a stop. Her eyes widened in horror when she spotted CatNap through the glass, his claws raking viciously at the Player.

"Angel!" DogDay’s desperate shout echoed through the hall. The sound made CatNap’s head snap toward them, his eyes locking on the sight of Ballade and DogDay. His expression shifted from menace to fear.

"Get away from them, CatNap!" Ballade’s voice was a furious snarl. She struck the door with enough force to make it shudder in its frame. CatNap didn’t take his chances. He stumbled backward and quickly scrambled into the vent, disappearing from sight. The second he was gone, DogDay leapt from Ballade’s arms just as she kicked the door open, red smoke billowing out into the hallway. Her eyes flicked upward toward the vent, but she forced herself to focus on more immediate concerns. "Oh no," she whispered harshly when her gaze fell on the Player’s still form. They lay unconscious on the ground, their gas mask shredded and useless.

"Are they okay?" she let out a breath as she quickly picked them up.

"Maybe a few scratches, but CatNap broke their mask. They inhaled some of the red smoke." DogDay pressed a hand to his forehead.

"Oh no." she nods as she carried them out of the room.

“My words exactly.” Ballade let out a long sigh, the weight of the situation settling heavily on her shoulders. “Let’s get out of here.”

She knelt down, offering DogDay an easy path onto her back. Once he climbed on, she stood and carried them both out of the building, not venturing far — just enough to escape the oppressive red smoke. Outside, she settled on the worn concrete steps, the cool air a stark contrast to the suffocating heat of the facility. Carefully, she removed the GrabPack from the Player’s back and adjusted their position so their head rested gently in her lap. As their face twisted with the torment of the hallucinations the red smoke induced, Ballade’s fingers instinctively moved to their forehead, brushing soothing circles in an effort to ease their pain.

“Will they be okay?” DogDay’s voice was soft and worried as he slid off her back and settled beside her. He leaned into her side, seeking the comfort she always provided.

“Hopefully,” Ballade murmured, her eyes never leaving the Player’s pale, strained face. “It might be a while before they wake up. I feel like this is the first bit of rest they’ve gotten since getting stuck here… even if they’re suffering through whatever haunts their mind.” She huffed softly, the sound heavy with a mix of frustration and concern, her hand never stilling as it moved in gentle strokes through the Player’s hair.

"Shouldn't we... hurry?" DogDay asked softly, his voice tinged with concern. Ballade shrugged, her eyes still scanning their surroundings.

"What's the rush? CatNap's not gonna do anything rash now that he knows we're out and protecting the employee, and Poppy can eat it. She ain't gonna rush me—I just woke up." DogDay couldn't help but chuckle at her choice of words.

"I guess you're right."

"Of course I'm right." Ballade’s tone softened just a bit. "Let's enjoy this last bit of freedom before we have to go back to the prison." He peeked up at her, his brows knitting together.

"How do you know we're going to the prison?"

"Where else is there to go?" she said with a sigh. "I’ve got an idea of what little Miss Poppy is planning, but I highly doubt she's gonna let them go now that she's trapped them this deep. If we don't keep a close eye on them, she's gonna wear them down." Her voice grew quieter, more serious. "And that's the last thing we need." She wrapped an arm around him, her hand rubbing up and down his arm in slow, comforting strokes. DogDay leaned into her warmth, his tension easing little by little. But even as she comforted him, Ballade’s eyes never stopped moving, watching every corner, every fleeting shadow. She was waiting, daring that cat to show his face again. If CatNap came near them—near DogDay, near the employee—she wouldn’t let him get close.

"Nngh..." the two look down and saw the Player stirring softly, their hand weakly lifting from their side to press against their head. Their hand rubbed over their eyes then dragged down their face and when they finally came to they were startled to see Ballade looming over them.

“Well good morning, sleeping beauty~” Ballade teased, laughing when the Player practically launched off her lap. DogDay peeked over her shoulder and couldn’t help but giggle himself when the Player scrambled to their feet, eyes wide in confusion.

“W-What happened?” they asked, brushing themselves off. Ballade pursed her lips, drawing lazy circles in the air with her finger.

“CatNap attacked you, and you inhaled some of that nasty red smoke. We saved you just before he could do any real damage, but… sorry we didn’t get to you sooner.” The Player let out a long breath, rubbing the back of their neck as they settled down next to Ballade again. “Did you enjoy your nap?” she teased.

“Other than the hallucinations? Yeah. Great nap,” they deadpanned, making her snicker. “Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“We noticed how exhausted you were,” DogDay answered before Ballade could. “She thought you could use the rest… even if you were suffering through a couple of hallucinations.” Ballade sweat-dropped at his bluntness.

“Never know when you’re gonna get to sleep again.”

“Yeah, especially when I’m already stuck in a nightmare,” the Player muttered.

“You could say that again,” Ballade agreed softly. The three of them fell into a comfortable silence until the Player surprised them both by leaning their head against Ballade’s arm. She blinked in surprise but let them stay—what’s a few more minutes of peace? “…I almost miss it,” Ballade murmured so quietly they almost didn’t hear her. The Player and DogDay both glanced up at her.

“What do you miss?” the Player asked. She laughed softly, a little wistful.

“The work. The best thing about being assigned to Playcare was watching the kids… making sure the Smiling Critters didn’t get into too much mischief—which they often did. But still… most of the time, I was just lazing about, listening to their laughter.” She smiled, the memory clearly warm despite the weight of everything that had happened.

“We gave you a lot of trouble back in the day,” DogDay said with a small grin.

“Oh, you did. But you? You were the peacemaker,” she said, giving his head a soft pat. “Kickin and Hoppy were the ones that had me running around like crazy, but they never got far.” Her smile faded as a heavier thought crossed her mind. “I miss it. The good days… I really do.” The Player swallowed thickly when they noticed her hand clenching into a tight fist. The tension only eased when DogDay placed his paw on her other hand, grounding her. She was surprised when the employee gently placed their hand over hers. Looking down, she saw the pained expression on their face.

"I don't understand what you've been through, not one bit," they admitted, their voice soft but steady. "But I do know one thing... you didn’t deserve what happened to you." They turned her hand over, rubbing their thumb over her knuckles in a comforting gesture. "None of you did. You were just… you were just children." Her eyes widened.

"You..."

"After finding those VHS tapes and notes on my way down here, I could put two and two together." They shook their head, a mixture of sorrow and determination in their gaze. "You could have had a life, but you were robbed of your childhood. I can't give that back to you, but the least I can do is help take down the Prototype—the thing that brought all of this crashing down." Ballade and DogDay stared at the Player for a moment before bursting into laughter. Ballade placed a hand on her chest to steady herself, while DogDay pressed a paw to his mouth, trying to stifle his giggles.

"You're funny, Angel," DogDay managed to say between muffled chuckles.

"We appreciate the sentiment," Ballade said, amusement still lacing her tone, "but if you really want to take down the Prototype, you're going to have to do a lot of work. He’s been scheming since the early nineties... I think. I’m close." She inhaled deeply before rising to her feet, easily hoisting DogDay onto her shoulder. She then looked down at the Player, offering her hand. "Well, if you’re serious about this, then let’s get to it." The Player met her gaze before letting out a soft laugh, placing their hand in hers.

"Let’s." She helps them up, and the three of them take the power cord connected to the Counselor's Office and bring it back to the generator room. When connecting it, they realize they're just a tiny bit short due to Poppy restoring power to the skylights. Ballade leaves DogDay with the Player and quickly rushes off to grab the power cord from that terminal. She's back in record time, and with that last power cord, they've produced a giant blue battery. She offers to carry it, but they reassure her that it's no problem, picking it up with the GrabPack and carrying it to the Gas Production Zone.

"Do you think..." DogDay's voice breaks the silence as he shifts slightly on her shoulder, lagging behind a bit as the employee walks ahead. "Do you think we'll actually be able to beat the Prototype? We've been trying to get the upper hand for years, but we haven't even come close." Ballade stares at him for a moment before shrugging.

"Who knows? Maybe we'll all die in the end. Maybe that's better. But they've come so far... maybe they really will kill the Prototype and finally end our suffering." She feels DogDay’s small arms wrap around her.

"I hope they do." She pats his arm gently. "I'm just so tired of needing to survive, I just wanna live again." She nods, her voice soft.

"Me too, puppy. Me too." As they finally approach the Gas Production Zone, the Player has already entered the room, making their way toward the blue battery slot. Just as they reach it, the doors suddenly slam shut. "Wha—what's going on?!" Ballade shouts, rushing forward. She grimaces as she peers through the glass, only to see the shutters closing as well.

"Angel! Angel, are you okay?!" DogDay yells, his voice edged with panic.

"It's CatNap!" Their eyes widen as the Player’s voice crackles through. "He's filled the room with the red smoke! I—I've got to go!" She can hear CatNap's heavy footsteps stomping after the Player before they vanish completely.

"No... no, no, no!" Ballade dropped DogDay to the ground and tore the door open, flinging it aside before forcing her hands beneath the shutter doors and ripping them apart. A thick wave of red smoke billowed out, forcing DogDay to cover his mouth as Ballade rushed inside, searching desperately for both the Player and CatNap. She cursed under her breath. The room was empty. The lift to the escape room had already been activated, the blue battery abandoned on the floor. "They got away, but CatNap went after them...!"

"Then follow after them!" Ballade hesitated, catching the way DogDay’s gaze flickered toward the red smoke, fear flickering in his eyes.

"What about you?" DogDay clenched his fists before looking up at her.

"Take me with you... I'll—I'll be fine." She swallowed thickly.

"Are you sure?" He nodded.

"Yes. I don’t want to wait this time."

Ballade sighed but nodded nonetheless, scooping him up before stepping back into the smoke. She felt him shake his head, trying to fight off the hallucinations as she quickened her pace toward the elevator. As they waited for the lift to descend, she kept a comforting hand on his back. Finally, when it arrived, she jumped in, hitting the next button to take them up. If memory served her right, the room CatNap had taken the Player to was a panic room. She vaguely remembered Stella mentioning it in passing—back when things were normal. It was never meant to be used, but when everything went to hell, that’s where most of the human employees fled. And she had personally dealt with them.

-

Fending off CatNap in the Safe Room was a waking nightmare.

The moment they entered, Poppy’s voice crackled through unseen speakers, her instructions flashing on the terminal. Defend yourself. Activate the traps. Survive. The Player wasted no time. They grabbed a battery and slammed it into one of the defense stations, watching as a steam wall roared to life, sealing off one corridor. They activated a green hand port, but the moment it triggered another steam wall, the first one flickered off. A mistake. They cursed under their breath and tore the battery out, resetting it before CatNap could take advantage of the gap.

With the final battery in hand, they sprinted to the top-left receiver, locking it in place. A timer appeared on the terminal. The countdown had begun. Then came the footsteps.

They paced between the two open corridors, Flare Hand at the ready, breath hitching as shadows loomed at the ends of the hall. CatNap. Or was it? The red smoke thickened around them, warping their vision, making the walls feel closer, suffocating. Illusions. They raised their arm and fired a flare down the corridor—the ember burst, cutting through the haze. Nothing. A hallucination. The terminal alarm blared—new battery required. The Player bolted to the next receiver, shoving in another battery just as the trapdoor above them creaked open. Their stomach dropped. A low, guttural growl rumbled from above. He was using the ceiling now. They barely had time to react before the hatch shifted, a clawed hand reaching down. Their heartbeat pounded in their ears as they lunged, slamming the trapdoor shut just before CatNap could drop in.

His claws scraped against the metal, the sound making their skin crawl. Every second, his footsteps echoed from all directions. The illusions flickered in and out of existence, growing closer, the glowing white eyes multiplying in the shadows. They couldn’t tell what was real anymore. Somewhere beyond the suffocating red haze, Ballade and DogDay’s voices rang out. Their stomach twisted—was it really them? Or just the smoke playing tricks on them? There was no time to figure it out. CatNap was relentless, his attacks coming faster. The Player barely managed to stop him, blasting steam at him, whipping around to fire off flares, and slamming the trapdoor shut again and again. Their lungs burned, their arms ached, but they couldn’t afford to slow down. Every time they turned, those soulless white eyes were closer.

The terminal outlet flashed brighter than before. The Player’s eyes snapped to it. This was it. Without thinking, they shot out their Green Hand, feeling the electricity surge through their arm as the circuit overloaded. CatNap crashed through the trapdoor just as they turned. With gritted teeth, they raised their hand, aimed at the monstrous cat, and fired. A surge of pure electricity shot forward, slamming into CatNap’s chest. His body convulsed, a twisted, piercing screech ripping from his throat. Smoke poured from his body, his glowing eyes wide in shock as the energy coursed through him, crackling through fur and metal alike. The stench of burnt flesh filled the air as he collapsed.

CatNap, against all odds, was still alive. His body trembled as he struggled to push himself up, smoke curling from his scorched fur. His ragged breaths filled the tense silence, his limbs barely able to support him. Then, the trapdoor above groaned open. The Player flinched as a long, mechanical claw descended from the darkness—a skeletal hand of slender silver pins, its joints clicking unnervingly as it extended downward. The Prototype.

The metallic fingers twisted with eerie precision before stopping, hovering inches from CatNap’s face, waiting. His breath hitched as his pupils shrank to pinpricks. Then, with a slow, reverent movement, he pushed himself onto his knees, head tilting slightly as if gazing upon something holy. He remembered the first time that hand had reached for him—the day it saved him, the day he learned what true power was. His lips curled into something between a grimace and a grin as he presented himself openly to the Prototype. He was here to save him. Just like before. Just like always. What more could he ask for—

"No!" A voice cut through the tension a second before Ballade slammed into CatNap, knocking him away. They hit the floor hard, but she didn’t hesitate, scrambling over him as she fixed her wild eyes on the Prototype. She and DogDay had finally reached the panic room, just in time to see CatNap kneeling before the monster that had destroyed them all. The Prototype’s fingers had been poised like a spear, seconds away from driving straight through his skull.

Ballade didn’t know why she had moved. She was still so angry. Angry at him for lying to her, for manipulating her into following the Prototype, for trapping her inside her own body for four long years. But as she gripped his tattered fur, her breath shaking, something inside her twisted painfully. No matter how much she hated him, there was still a part of her that remembered the boy he used to be. The one she had cared for. The one she had lost. Ballade grappled with CatNap, the two rolling across the ground in a violent struggle. She managed to slip behind him, locking her arms around his neck in a tight chokehold. He clawed desperately at her arms, but after enduring a surge of electricity and severe burns, his strength was fading fast. He was no match for her.

"You are not going to die!" she shouted, tightening her grip as he thrashed. "I won't let him take you, Theo!" CatNap's breath came in ragged gasps.

"No! My god... he wouldn't abandon me! After everything I did for him, he wouldn't just..." His voice faltered, and his wide, panicked eyes darted upward. DogDay appeared beside them, his arms wrapping around both Ballade and CatNap, reinforcing the hold. His voice was soft, yet firm.

"He abandoned us a long time ago, old friend." CatNap's gaze snapped back to the trapdoor above. The Prototype, his supposed savior, was already withdrawing, disappearing back into the darkness. There was no hesitation, no second thought—just cold indifference. The realization struck like a blade to the gut. The god he had worshipped, the entity he had given everything for, had never truly cared for him. A furious growl rumbled from his throat, and he twisted violently, trying to break free.

"Let go! Let me go!"

"No, not this time!" Ballade barked, her grip unwavering. "I ran from you once, blaming you for what I had done. But it was my fault for abandoning you with that thing when you were just as manipulated as the rest of us. And I am so sorry, Theo!" His struggles weakened, his body trembling. His voice came out in a whisper, fragile and broken.

"N-No... he- he didn't..." But the truth was right in front of him. The Prototype was gone, and all that remained were the people who still cared for him, even after everything.

"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry for blaming you. You only did what you thought was right, and I believed in you. We both did. We put our faith in something we thought would save us, something that promised us salvation—but all it did was take everything away. And I let it happen. I turned my back on you when you needed me the most." Her voice trembled, thick with regret. "I can't take back the things I said. I can't undo the pain I've caused, the choices I made, the years we lost... but I swear, Theo—I swear—I want to make it right." even after everything that happened, even after they put each other through, she just couldn't bring herself to hate the young boy whom she loved with all her heart.

"I-I'm..." she peeked her head over his shoulder and let out a breath when she saw tears streak down his burnt face, she loosened her grip when she felt the fight drain out of him and he instead hunched forward and start crying. "I'm sorry for what I've done...!" she hummed softly as she moved her arms to wrap around his body and embrace him, her head leaning against his cheek and nuzzling it softly to comfort him.

"I know, I know..." Ballade left CatNap to DogDay, who was clinging to the toy and repeatedly apologizing for the state he had reduced him to. She turned toward the Player, who had been watching. "Are you alright?" she asked, kneeling down to avoid overwhelming them.

"Yeah... yeah, I'm good." They let out a sigh of relief and reached forward to gently pat her head.

"I'm sorry we weren't there to stop him in time. I feel awful for leaving you alone." Ballade shook her head, waving her hand to dismiss the concern.

"It's fine, really. I'm just glad you were here in the end." They smiled softly and withdrew their hand. Ballade helped them to their feet and then glanced back at CatNap and DogDay.

"I think this is where we leave you," she said, causing the Player to look up at her in shock.

"What?" She chuckled at their reaction.

"Don't worry. You're just going to have to go on without us for now, but we'll catch up. I’m going to have CatNap find DogDay's legs—he definitely left them somewhere. I also need to grab a couple of things. If you're going deeper into the factory, there are some things I need before we can follow." Ballade patted their shoulder. "But I must warn you... what you went through up here is nothing compared to what's below. If you're not careful... you might not make it out." The Player swallowed thickly.

"Right... I’ll take that warning to heart."

Lullaby pt. 2

word count: 10,231

Fandom: Poppy Playtime Pairing: N/A Pronouns: She/Her Relationship: Familial Occupation: Caretaker Ability: Ballerina Music Box

The character takes the appearance of a beautifully crafted music box ballerina figurine made of the toughest porcelain and glass, their clothes made from real fabric that is soft to touch and hair so smooth and silky you'd mistake it for real hair. Attached to their back is a wind up key that continuously spins when they're active and stops when they switch off. If the key is removed they cease to operate until key is returned and they are wound up again. Before CatNap, the character was the one to put the children to sleep with their built-in music box that would constantly be updated with new songs to play to help ease the children to sleep.

Keys:

[F/N]: Female Name

Warnings: the hour of joy, blood, death, all that shit.

"Lullaby" pt. 1, pt.3

finally started using grammarly properly and started cleaning up my shit, i'm kind of happy about the outcome, though grammarly does tend to repeat a couple words.

I originally wanted to make this longer but I'll put in what I want in the next part.

that is all.

It was just like any other day.

Wake up.

Do a headcount during breakfast.

Guide the children to school.

Clean up around Home Sweet Home.

Entertain the Smiling Critters.

Play with the children after their lessons.

And so on and so forth. But a problem arose when she was in the middle of cleaning up Home Sweet Home. It was late at night, and the staff had missed a few things during their shift. Rather than wait for the morning crew, she decided to take care of it herself. Usually, a few lingering night guard employees would patrol Home Sweet Home while she "slept," taking over her job of monitoring the Playcare. But tonight, she was struggling to find them—or at least the one in charge.

"Where the hell is the night guard...?" she muttered to herself, standing on the second floor and looking over the railing to try and spot the man. A quiet breath left her lips when she still couldn't find him. She sighed, frustrated, her nails tapping against the oak beneath her fingers. Forget it—she'd find him later.

She moved on to the third level of Home Sweet Home, where the Smiling Critters resided. Peeking into their rooms, she nodded softly when she saw them all sound asleep. But when she opened CatNap's door—

"H-Help me..." Her eyes widened at the sight of one of the morning staff lying in a pool of their own blood, deep scratch marks gouged along their arms and face. Huh—no wonder she hadn’t seen them earlier that afternoon. Slowly, she lifted her eyes and found CatNap staring at her, shock clear in his gaze. He hadn’t expected her. Some of the red smoke escaped his mouth, though they both knew it didn’t work on her.

"P-Please save me..." the injured woman pleaded, grabbing Ballade's leg and trying to pull herself up. Ballade froze, her mind racing. Why did she have to walk in at this moment? Why now? This woman had been pestering CatNap all day to "open up," insisting she was "there for him." He’d ignored her until she cornered him in his room, and clearly, things had escalated.

What was Ballade going to do? Report this to the higher-ups? Send CatNap to the doctor to fix his violent outburst? Was she scared of him? There was nothing he could do to stop her. Despite being made before the Smiling Critters, Ballade’s model had been designed to handle toys the humans couldn’t control. He took a step back when he saw her glance down at the woman, her hand reaching out. He expected her to help her up—but instead, her hand crushed the woman’s head in one swift motion.

Ballade waited for the twitching to stop before she removed her hand, looking back up at CatNap. She smiled softly. Before she could speak, the sound of footsteps echoed outside the room. She pressed a finger to her lips and gestured for him to stay quiet. Lifting the woman’s body by the neck, she stepped out and shut the door just as the night guard appeared.

"Ah, there you are, Balla—" He stopped, eyes widening at the sight of the dead body. "Why on earth do you have a corpse?" She shrugged.

"I thought she was an intruder and dealt with her the way the Head Executives told me to." He stared for a moment, then shrugged.

"Whatever, as long as you don't do that to me."

"You have a reason to be here overnight. She did not. I didn’t expect anyone but the nightguards to be here—and I know you wouldn’t sneak around like a rodent." She smiled sweetly as the woman’s bones cracked under her grip.

"R-Right... So, uh, what are you going to do with her body?"

"Feed her to Boxy. If the children ask why she’s missing, I’ll just say she’s sick and needs time to recover. Mister Pierre prefers it when I kill the staff—saves him money on wages."

"Sounds like him." The guard nodded. "Need any help?"

"I’ll manage. I’ll be back once the body’s disposed of." With a polite bow of her head, she turned away. Noticing the guard linger near CatNap's door, she held her breath—but he simply shook his head and walked off in the opposite direction. "Perhaps I should thank CatNap. Now I get to see Boxy Boo~ It’s been a while." Tossing the corpse over her shoulder, she made her way down to the prison. The night shift employees didn’t blink an eye when she passed with a body in tow. They knew the drill.

The moment Boxy's cell opened, his eyes peeked through the crack—and then the lid burst open. His tongue lolled out at the sight of fresh meat. She caressed his head gently before tossing the body onto the floor. As he ate, she sat beside him, talking about anything that came to mind. Boxy couldn’t speak, but she knew he was listening—and understanding.

It was hard to leave him, especially when he whined softly for her to stay. But she had other matters to attend to.

"Oh, kitty cat~" she cooed softly as she entered CatNap's room, now dressed in fresh clothes. She had taken longer than expected—mopping up blood was a tedious task. But she was back, and she found him sitting nervously on his bed. "You must be curious about what just happened, hmm?" She didn’t sit beside him, mindful of his nerves. Instead, she knelt before him, waiting patiently.

"... You killed her," he said quietly.

"I did."

"The human guard was fine with it..."

"He was."

"... Have you killed before?"

"Many times." She looked down at her porcelain hands, imagining the blood that had stained them so often. "I am Playcare's security for a reason. So long as I don't step out of line, I can deal with these humans however I like—and they won’t bat an eye. Mister Pierre prefers it. Saves him money and resources." Her voice softened as her hands began to tremble. "But I hate the human employees. They know what we are, what was done to us—and still, they smile while they lead children to their deaths. So yes, when I kill them—when they beg and plead—I enjoy it."

The sadistic glint in her eyes startled CatNap. But then her expression crumbled.

"But then I remember those children. I smile with them, sing with them, play with them—and I lie to them. I give them hope that they’ll leave this hell, knowing they never will. And that makes me just like those adults. I let those kids slip through my fingers." She clenched her shaking hands. "I hate myself for it."

"I don’t think you’re like them," he whispered. "You try to keep us safe. You let me go when I tried to escape." She blinked, startled that he remembered.

"And I am grateful to 1006 for saving your life. But that still isn't enough. I just want them to be free, even if it means I have to stay down here to repent for what I have done." She looked up when CatNap's paws grabbed her hands.

"The Prototype will save us." She blinked in confusion.

"T-The Prototype? But how? Ever since you two tried to escape, he's been put in a high-security cell that only the Head Executives and the Doctor can access. I'm allowed to roam the prison however I like, but even I'm not allowed near it. I-It's impossible." She shivered slightly when he gave a low chuckle.

"He will give us salvation. With him, we will know true freedom." He noticed the way her face broke, even if it was just for a second; he saw the way his words were getting to her. "If we side with the Prototype, he will free us from this prison." Her gaze stayed on him before it drifted to the side.

"I don't care if I have to stay down here, I just want those kids to be free." She licked her lips as she looked at him. "If I help... will he promise to set them free?" He grinned.

"The Prototype will set us all free." She wavered, swallowing thickly as she took her hands back.

"I need to think about this, Theo. If something goes wrong--" He shook his head.

"Nothing will go wrong." She sighed.

"We don't know that. I haven't agreed nor have I declined the thought of siding with the Prototype, but I just need to think about this. If I do agree... I'll come find you, but it'll take me some time." He nodded his head.

"There's no need to rush, [F/N]."

"Thank you, Theo." She smiled, albeit weakly, and hugged him. "I really needed this."

"... If you ever need to talk, I'll be here." She hummed softly.

"You're probably the only one who would understand, but I don't want to burden you with my thoughts." He shook his head.

"It's the least I can do with all the stress you have to carry."

"Hah, then I appreciate it." She scratched under his chin and nuzzled her cheek against his. "I won't say a word about our conversation to anyone, but tell me if anyone else bothers you. I will personally take care of it. Or if you kill anyone, tell me and I'll clean it up. You're not technically allowed to kill anyone, so we'll both get in trouble if that occurs." He let out his own laugh.

"I'll keep that in mind." CatNap perked up when he felt her movements start to lag, so he looked at the wind-up key and saw that it was beginning to slow. Noticing this, he gently nudged her stomach. "You should go back to your stage; you're beginning to slow down."

"Oh, I didn't even notice." She started pushing herself up but struggled a little. She let out a noise when CatNap stood up and let her lean on his body. "Thank you."

"Allow me to help you down..." She hummed softly.

"I appreciate the help." The nightguards didn't question CatNap helping Ballade down the stairs and onto her stage, where he waited for her key to stop turning to finally leave her alone. They all knew that CatNap was her favorite out of all the Smiling Critters and figured if they couldn't find her in her usual spots, she'd be with that colossal cat.

And so the days went on as if nothing happened in the first place. A few of the children did notice that the woman was missing but eventually forgot about it when Ballade said she was at home resting after catching a cold. The Smiling Critters did notice that Ballade and CatNap seemed a lot closer than usual; they also knew that CatNap was her favorite, but whatever occurred that night seemed to have strengthened their bond. Speaking of which, they needed Ballade for something and found both her and CatNap on her stage with a couple of other children drawing.

"What a wonderful blend of colors, sweetheart. Crafty Corn has taught you well during her arts and crafts lessons." Ballade praised as she looked over their art piece, quite impressed by their skill. "You will make a fine artist someday, child." She teasingly pinched their nose and giggled softly when they squealed.

"Stop that!" She held her hands up in surrender before leaning back into CatNap once more, her hand absentmindedly patting his head while her music box played songs that helped him sleep. Her other hand was drawing circles in the air before she finally noticed DogDay, Bobby, and Bubba, where she perked up and waved her hand to greet them. "Good afternoon, children! Care to join us?" She cocked a brow when she saw the three of them look nervous.

"Um, you're not particularly busy, are you?" She looked at the children that were sprawled all over her stage while CatNap nestled close into her back before looking back up at them.

"...Not really, no. Why?" Their reason was so ridiculous it woke CatNap up; even the children were staring in confusion. That's where she found herself staring down at Kickin and Hoppy, who had somehow gotten themselves stuck in the children's playground. "And you did this because you wanted to prove you could fit through the hole?" At least Hoppy had the decency to look shameless; Kickin just huffed as he hung by his waist from out of the hole he was stuck in.

"...Yes." She shook her head.

"You do know that this is a playground built for tiny children, correct?" She chuckled softly when Hoppy covered her face with her ears. "Have anything to say for yourselves?"

"...Help us?"

"No!" She slapped a hand onto her forehead and let out a sigh while the crowd of children laughed when Hoppy and Kickin apologized, which was what she really wanted. The next hour was spent with Ballade trying to get them out without damaging the playground or hurting the two, but both were difficult. The two of them had wedged themselves pretty tight, and she couldn't pull them out without tearing their stitching. She practically had to tear the holes they were in wide enough for them to slip out, but due to this, it destroyed the part of the playground they got themselves stuck in. She then spent the next half hour explaining to a few of the employees what happened while Hoppy and Kickin were on their knees with their arms above their heads as a form of punishment.

"You guys did this to yourselves," Bubba said, Picky and Crafty nodding their heads from behind the elephant.

"We're sorry..." Hoppy and Kickin sighed, DogDay snickering softly.

"The children had a good laugh out of it," Bobby said, pursing her lips as she scratched her cheek.

"Sure, but now they have to close the playground so they can fix what Miss Ballade broke to get them out." They looked back over at her and saw how she pinched the bridge of her nose at what the employee told her, then apologized and consoled the children when they learned they couldn't play on the playground. "Way to go, you two."

"Let's hope Miss Ballade doesn't get in trouble. They don't like it when we break any of the property," Crafty said.

"Perhaps since it was her, she won't get into a lot of trouble."

"Still, I can't help but worry." Hoppy and Kickin felt even worse; because of their competitiveness, they were getting Ballade in trouble. True to her suspicion, Leith reprimanded Ballade for not keeping an eye on the two and for not thinking of any alternatives to prying them free. CatNap was the one to slink over to her side to comfort her but flinched upon noticing that behind her smile-painted face was the look of rage burning in her eyes. Her hand closed into a tight fist, her entire frame trembling with suppressed anger as she watched Leith with Stella and a few other employees walk away. Her eyes snapped over to CatNap when she felt him press himself against her side, his presence the only thing keeping her from lashing out. She took a slow breath, forcing her muscles to relax, but her voice, when she spoke, was tight and low.

"Thank you..." she spoke softly, his ears perked up at her words. "You're really the only person that can calm me down..." Her voice was barely above a whisper, soft enough that only he could hear. The way CatNap lit up had the children thinking that Ballade was going to reward him with something. A broken, rumbling purr rippled from his throat as he rubbed affectionately against her side. She responded by kneeling down, her painted smile still in place, and nuzzled her cheek gently against his fur. The warmth of the gesture seemed so natural, so familiar, that the children watching giggled at the display.

But then her eyes shifted, softening as they landed on Hoppy and Kickin. Their ears drooped, and their expressions were heavy with guilt. Without hesitation, she approached them. They jumped in surprise when her hands landed softly on their heads, then cupped the back of them to pull them into a warm embrace. She felt the way they trembled in her hold, their little bodies overcome with remorse.

"W-We're sorry for getting you in trouble, Miss Ballade..."

"We promise we won't d-do it again..." they whimpered softly, their voices shaking. She shook her head, her grip on them gentle but firm.

"It's fine, it's better if I get in trouble than you lot. They would be far harsher on you than they ever would be with me." The thought chilled her, though she kept her tone calm and comforting. We’re lucky all I got was a talking to and nothing else, she thought bitterly. Pulling back just enough to meet their eyes, she offered a soft, reassuring smile. "As long as you learn from this, all is fine." she sweat dropped when they started crying so she continued to hold them until they eventually calmed down.

The next day, determined to make things right, Hoppy and Kickin approached the playground supervisor and took full responsibility for the damage. They also worked together to organize an impromptu arts and crafts day with Crafty Corn’s help, keeping the children entertained while the playground was being repaired. They even helped with the cleanup and offered to assist in the minor repairs they could manage without making things worse. Ballade couldn't help but be impressed by their initiative to take responsibility—perhaps the two of them were finally learning—until she noticed them bickering again, each claiming the idea had been theirs. She cleared her throat pointedly, and with one sharp look, the two fell silent.

Despite their antics, the effort they put in didn’t go unnoticed. By the end of the week, the playground was on its way to being fixed, and the children had enjoyed a day filled with laughter and creativity. Even Stella, seeing their hard work, made a point to praise them for stepping up. Later, as the day came to an end, Ballade found herself once again sitting with CatNap on her stage, watching the children show off their colorful creations. She let out a soft sigh, her hand absentmindedly stroking behind his ears.

“Maybe they’ll grow out of it one day,” she mused. CatNap chuckled, his purring a gentle vibration against her side.

“Maybe. But where would the fun be in that?” Ballade smiled despite herself, the warmth of the moment washing away the week’s troubles. For now, at least, there was peace—and perhaps just a little bit of hope.

Until—

"We're a head short..." Ballade murmured to herself as she counted the children that exited the school, she grew nervous when she counted again and again but she still ended up short one child. "Even one of the Miss Delight teachers is missing. Where could they have gone?" One of the Miss Delight teachers approached Ballade after hearing her question.

"Miss Ballade, thank goodness I've found you." She raised a brow.

"What is it?" She looked down at the teacher and watched her pace.

"The employees came earlier today and pulled one of the children aside." Ballade's face turned cold at what she said. "We know we're not supposed to interfere when they take the children, but they weren't following the correct procedure, so one of my sisters is stalling them." Miss Delight flinched when she saw the dark look on Ballade's face, her voice dropping.

"Where are they?" she asked, her tone sharp and dangerous.

"If she's stopped them, they should be close to the back."

She nodded once and turned, her pace brisk and her mind already racing through every possible scenario. Her breath quickened as she navigated the halls, thoughts swirling in a dangerous storm. If they were taking a child now, in broad daylight, it was far outside protocol. They were only supposed to remove the children at lights out—when it was easier to explain away their absence by saying they had fallen ill overnight. If they were breaking that rule, it meant that the scientists were eager to experiment on a child instead of having the lucky "chosen child" that was lucky to be adopted.

"Please, don't take Sarah away!" Miss Delight's desperate plea echoed through the corridor, trembling with fear and determination. Ballade’s sharp eyes immediately locked onto the two employees holding the child—Sarah—between them, their grips too firm and their faces too tense. Sarah’s frightened whimpers tugged at something primal inside Ballade. When one of the employees pushed Miss Delight back, Ballade’s vision flashed with fury. Her smile, painted and eternal, hid the storm brewing just beneath the surface.

"Unhand that child." Ballade’s voice was calm—too calm—but the weight of it filled the air like a thunderclap. Every head turned toward her, and the employees visibly stiffened under her gaze.

"Miss Ballade, this is none of your concern—"

"It becomes my concern when my children are frightened," she cut in coldly. She advanced slowly, every step measured, her eyes never leaving theirs. "And it becomes my problem when protocols are ignored." She stopped mere feet from them, her towering presence suffocating in its intensity. "So I will only say this once more: unhand the child. Now." they were quick to heed her words and they let Sarah go, who cried weakly and fell into Miss Delight's embrace.

"I-I was so scared...!" she sobbed softly, Ballade waved her hand and gestured for Miss Delight to take the child and leave.

"I'll handle this, go join the rest of the children and your sisters." she bowed her head, thanking the figurine profusely as she rushed away with the child in hand. When they were both out of sight and she knew they were alone, her fist connected with the wall beside their head and they both jumped in fright when it made a hole. The sharp crack of breaking plaster echoed through the corridor, and dust rained down around them.

"What do you think you were doing, hmm?" she asked, her friendly persona disappearing as she glared down at the two humans, who trembled under her terrifying gaze. Her eyes, usually warm and expressive, had turned cold and razor-sharp, her smile a painted mockery of calm.

"W-We... We were just fo-- following orders." they answered, their voices shaking.

"Oh? Then why didn't you follow the proper procedure?" Ballade’s voice was low and dangerous, like a blade sliding from its sheath. She took a slow, deliberate step forward, and they instinctively backed away. "If you are to take a child, I am to be informed so I don't act the way I am acting right now." The venom in her tone made their knees buckle. "Even so, why aren't you following the correct protocol?"

She advanced again, her presence suffocating and overwhelming. "When you are to take a child in broad daylight, especially when there are other children to witness your actions, you must do it in a way that doesn't cause the child to stress and raise alarms. And yet here you are—manhandling her like some kind of thief." Her voice dropped to a whisper, which somehow made it even more terrifying. "Are you thieves? Are you looking to steal from me? Because I will not tolerate anyone who threatens my children." One of the employees tried to stammer out an excuse, but Ballade slammed her hand against the wall again, cutting them off. The impact left another crack in the plaster, and both humans flinched violently.

"Give me one good reason," she hissed, her eyes burning with fury, "why I shouldn't report you to the Head Executives myself. Or perhaps..." She tilted her head, her smile twisting into something darker. "Perhaps I should take this up with the Doctor. I'm sure he'd love to use you in a few of his experiments." They paled at the mention of the Doctor, their fear now nearly tangible.

"Please... it was a mistake! We—we won't do it again!" one of them whimpered.

"You’re right about that," Ballade snapped. "Because if you ever step out of line again, I promise you—there won’t be enough left of you for anyone to find. Now get out of my sight."

She closed her eyes, taking a slow breath to calm herself before ripping her hands free from the wall, flexing her fingers to shake off the debris. She was confused—why wasn't she informed that they were taking one of the children that day? Why did they show up at the school to remove little Sarah? The more she thought about it, the more uneasy she felt. Something wasn’t right.

Did she do the right thing stepping in the way she did? The answer was clear in her heart—yes. But the weight of what she’d just done pressed heavily on her mind. She figured they were going to inform the higher-ups about her interference, and she knew there would be consequences. But was she really at fault? Was protecting the children wrong? Haa, she was going to get into so much trouble.

Her fingers twitched with leftover adrenaline as she turned to leave, but then she remembered the holes she had made. Her eyes darted around the corridor, scanning for any witnesses. Once she was sure the coast was clear, she grabbed the nearby lockers and, with little to no effort, shifted them just enough to conceal the damage.

Perfect.

She stepped back, brushing dust from her hands and examining her work with a critical eye. No one would know—at least for now.

"Miss Ballade!" her head perked up when she saw DogDay rushing up to her, his ears flopping with every hurried step. His face was a mix of worry and confusion "I heard what happened from Miss Delight! Are you alright?" She waved her hand to dismiss his concern, the painted smile on her face still intact, but her eyes betrayed her unease.

"I am fine, nothing to fret about," she answered calmly, her hand gently patting his shoulder in reassurance. "But I am concerned. Why would they break protocol? The scientists are usually very thorough on how they... take the children. They are never ones to send the employees—never in broad daylight, and never without informing me." Her voice softened, but the tension in it was unmistakable.

"Why would they do that?" she sighed.

"I haven't a clue." She jumped when she heard a cry, so she looked over DogDay and saw little Sarah clinging to Miss Delight's dress, the woman doing her best to comfort the child. Miss Delight's usual calm demeanor was visibly shaken, her hands smoothing over Sarah's hair in a desperate attempt to ease her fear.

"I-I was so scared, Miss Delight! I didn't do anything wrong!" The Smiling Critters, who had heard the commotion, huddled around the little girl, their soft voices trying to soothe her with gentle reassurances. Bobby reached out to pat her shoulder, and Crafty offered one of her handmade paper flowers, but nothing seemed to ease Sarah’s sobs. The moment Ballade approached, Sarah’s wide, tear-filled eyes locked onto her, and without hesitation, the little girl rushed over and threw her arms around Ballade's legs tightly. "I swear I didn't do anything wrong, Miss Ballade!" The heartbreak in Sarah's voice made Ballade’s chest tighten, her smile unable to mask the surge of emotion welling up inside her. She knelt down slowly, gently holding the trembling girl by her arms, brushing a stray lock of hair from Sarah's damp cheek.

"I'm sure you did nothing wrong, little one. But fear not—your friend Miss Ballade Ballerina thwarted their efforts! They won’t be coming to scare you, not anymore." Her voice softened with a warm, protective lilt, but inside, she felt a cold fury still simmering from the encounter. She gasped softly when Sarah threw her arms around her neck, her tiny frame shaking with sobs. Ballade sighed, the sound soft and heavy as her own arms wrapped securely around the child, one hand cradling the back of Sarah’s head as she whispered gentle reassurances. "I'll make sure of it," she promised, her voice low and fierce with quiet determination. She knew those words meant more than Sarah could ever understand.

"T-Thank you, Miss Ballade. I'm glad I can trust you." The girl’s words were muffled against her shoulder, but they struck Ballade harder than any blow. Her breath caught as she felt Sarah nuzzle closer into her embrace, seeking safety and comfort. The weight of guilt settled deeper into Ballade’s mind, cold and unshakable.

She really shouldn't place her trust in her.

CatNap noticed Ballade becoming more distant from herself after the incident with the child as bedtime approached. No one else seemed to pick up on the subtle changes — the way her painted smile looked just a bit more strained, how her eyes wavered every time she looked at the children. The mask she always wore, the one that kept her true emotions hidden, was slipping. She lingered longer when the children hugged her, held them a little tighter, as if trying to memorize the warmth of their small arms around her. Their laughter, their trust — it weighed heavily on her shoulders. They told her how much they loved spending time with her, and each word chipped away at her carefully constructed facade. It had always been easy to fake happiness for their sake, to protect their ignorant bliss… but with each passing day, it became so much harder to keep up the act.

It was during bedtime, after they put the children to sleep and she was walking CatNap back to his room, when he finally understood why.

"I'll do it." his head perked up when she spoke, her face void of any emotion.

"... do what?" her eyes hardened, whether it be at him or herself, he couldn't really tell.

"Whatever you and 1006 need, I'll do it." Ballade's shoulders slumped as her eyes fixated on a picture frame of the children laughing and smiling, not a single bad thought behind their innocent eyes. She stared at it, the image feeling so distant— like something she could never quite reach. She wondered what it would feel like to truly hold them, to feel their warmth, the softness of their little hands when they reached out for her. But she never would. The sensation of touch was something foreign, a mystery she'd never get to experience again in this body. Every embrace she gave them was empty for her, a performance of comfort she could never fully share.

"I can't do it anymore." Her voice broke, trembling with the weight of her words. "It pains me every time I watch those children cry and ask me what they did wrong to be taken away, how they trust me with every inch of their small bodies and I trample all over it just by simply existing." She wanted so badly to feel the way they held onto her, to know the security they believed she gave them. But all she ever felt was the aching hollowness where that connection should have been.

"I hate going to the prison and hearing their anguished cries to be let out, to go home, to be free." Her hands shook at her sides, the phantom feeling of their terrified clinging playing through her mind — sensations she could only imagine. "I hate lying to them, telling them everything will be okay when I know it won’t." she could imagine the sensation of tears welling up in her eyes, though they could never fall since she lacked the proper glands to produce them. "They look at me like I’m their protector, their safe place… and every time one of them disappears, I know I've failed them again." She clenched her fists so tightly her porcelain hands threatened to crack, but even the pain of it was absent. The frustration of that emptiness only made the ache inside her deepen.

Ballade's fingers traced the frame’s edges, her hands trembling as she fought to keep her composure. CatNap watched her quietly, his tail flicking with unease. It was rare to see Ballade like this— so vulnerable, so worn down by guilt and sorrow. He padded closer, pressing his head against her arm in an attempt to offer some comfort.

"They deserve better," she whispered, her voice barely audible. "Better than me. Better than this place." CatNap let out a low, broken purr, his eyes flickering with a knowing look.

"Then let's change it," he murmured, his voice soft but resolute. Ballade turned to him, her eyes wide but weak.

"But what if we fail?" he shook his head.

"We won't. With your help, freedom will be in ours hands. The Prototype will make sure of that, I promise." her lip trembled and he'd think she'd start crying but she was unable to, she bit her lip and knelt down to press her forehead against his.

"I don't care what happens to me, CatNap, so long as those kids get to leave this hellish place." Her voice hardened. "I'll side with you and the Prototype if it means those kids get to be free, if it means they don't have to suffer anymore." She turned to face him, eyes burning with a mixture of sorrow and resolve. "Just tell me what you guys are going to do, and I'll be right on your side." she was fully on her knees as she wrapped her arms around CatNap's neck and nuzzled into his head, he returned the affection as a single thought went through his mind.

He had won.

Ever since their conversation to help the Prototype, CatNap observed Ballade closely. He saw how the weight of her decision pressed down on her more with each passing day. There was a newfound desperation in her every action, an urgency that hadn’t been there before—because now there was chance to finally make things right. Now there was a possibility that the children's suffering could finally end, and that chance both strengthened and broke her.

He noticed how she struggled to get by every day, caught between the promise of freedom for the children and the reality of her own helplessness. The knowledge that she could finally save them gnawed at her, but with it came the agony of waiting—waiting for the right time, waiting for the right plan. Every second felt like a betrayal, knowing the children she loved were still at risk.

Ballade’s guilt was killing her. She hated herself for every moment she stood by and did nothing while the children were taken—frightened, confused, and pleading for answers she couldn’t give. She hated the way they trusted her so completely, how they clung to her and sought comfort in her arms when she knew she couldn’t protect them. And worse, she hated how she longed for their touch even though she couldn’t feel it.

That emptiness haunted her. Every time a child’s small hand slipped into hers, every time they hugged her tight, she could only pretend to feel it. She could see their warmth, their affection, but it never reached her. And yet she held onto those moments as if they could somehow fill the void inside her. She clung to their love because it was the only thing keeping her from falling apart.

"... the Prototype has a plan, [F/N]. But we must wait before we can act on it."

"How long must I wait?"

"I'm sure you can be patient." a weak chuckle escaped her throat when he saw her pout, he nudged his head against her cheek "Our freedom will be guaranteed with you on our side." she nods.

"Just tell me when, and I'll do whatever you two need me to do."

Having Ballade side with the Prototype was the last hurdle in their final plan. She was already well aware that the Prototype was one of the most dangerous experiments to ever come out of the Bigger Bodies Initiative. And though she was no match for a force as powerful and unpredictable as the Prototype itself, Ballade was more than capable of handling CatNap and the other Bigger Bodies. That was her job — not only to care for the children and dispose of any unwanted guests but to apprehend any of the toys that stepped out of line. She’d done it before, and she can most definitely do it again. She remembered the incident with Mommy Longlegs vividly — the frantic way the creature lashed out when the children left the Game Station and moved into Playcare. The hysteria had escalated so quickly that Ballade had been forced to tie Mommy Longlegs' limbs together just to stop her from going on a rampage. It wasn’t the first time Ballade had been made to turn on one of her own, and wouldn’t be the last so long as the toys did their jobs.

The Prototype will be most pleased to learn Ballade has sided with him.

[august eighth 1995, 10.00 am]

Deep breath.

In, and out.

In, and out.

Quell your nerves.

"Ballade, are you alright?" her eyes move down to one of the human counselors and saw the way the woman looked up at her in concern, seemingly noticing she wasn't acting like herself, but Ballade easily masked her unease and smiled.

"Don't worry about me, Miss. Just trying to come up with more ways to entertain the children, the older ones are growing bored of the usual activities I usually plan out. I'm struggling to come up with new things to keep them entertained." the woman laughed as she pats Ballade on the back.

"I'm sure you can come up with something, you're quite creative when it comes to keeping those kids on their toes!" she gave a laugh in response to her words.

"I try my best." she waves her hand goodbye when the woman had to return to the Counselor's Office, missing the way Ballade's eyes turned cold as they observed all the human employees walking around. It was like any other ordinary day within the Playcare, the children were up and escorted to the dining hall for breakfast by the Smiling Critters then guided to the school to proceed with the day. It was only a matter of time before it all begins, and they won't even know what hit them.

".... don't tell me you're chickening out, [F/N]." a bitter laugh escapes her lips when CatNap appeared beside her, she looked down at him and could practically see the eagerness in his eyes "It's almost upon us." she huffed.

"Yes, the day they all reap what they sow. The other Critters are still unaware, right?" he nods.

"They are. They're not nearly as understanding as you, so I was afraid to outright tell them the details about what was going to happen today." he saw the way her shoulders slumped.

"I feel like that it's for the better, Theo. Better to stain our hands than than the others." she let out a breath "Then we're going for plan b?" he nods his head.

"I have already told them to meet us beneath the Playhouse." she closed her eyes and briefly looked back into Home Sweet Home to find the clock and it was only half past ten, he watched her and saw the way she rubbed her arms nervously "Remember, [F/N], we're doing this to secure our freedom. The Prototype is giving us our chance to do right by the children by not only saving them, but ourselves." despite her hesitation, she nodded.

"You're right." she inhaled deeply before they both made their way to the Playhouse, they went through the back to avoid running into any other staff members or children and found the Smiling Critters in the prison, Ballade made sure there was nobody else beneath the Playhouse before entering the room alone.

"Children... something drastic is going to happen in the next half hour, and though I don't want you to participate in what is going to happen, I can't leave you in the dark." Kickin let out a nervous chuckle, his feathered hand rubbing the back of his head.

"W-What do you mean? Does this have to do with what CatNap was yapping about months ago?" she nodded.

"What exactly has he told you?" They looked at each other rather anxiously, Bobby pressing her paws together.

"He mentioned... the Prototype? Saying stuff about how he'll save us." Hoppy nodded.

"He was really cryptic with his words. It kind of freaked me out."

"CatNap was talking about how there will come a time when we will get to take back our lives if we... join the Prototype," Bubba said, his hooves messing with his lightbulb-shaped zipper.

"CatNap wasn't s-serious about us joining the Prototype, right? The staff told us that he was very dangerous," Crafty murmured softly.

"He's been obsessed with that thing for ages. I thought he would have gotten over it years ago," Picky added. DogDay, in turn, gave a forced laugh as he looked up at Ballade. He felt uneasy with how they were all trapped in the cramped room with Ballade blocking their way out. The dimly lit room didn’t help calm his nerves as Ballade looked down at them all with an unreadable expression.

"He wasn't being serious though, right? He was probably just trying to scare us! He wouldn't really consider joining hands with that experiment." He took Ballade by the hand and looked up at her for some sort of reassurance. "If you're talking to us about this, then that means CatNap brought this up with you as well. He wasn't being serious about helping the Prototype, right? You talked him out of it, right?" They all looked up at her eagerly and saw the way she couldn't meet their eyes.

"M-Miss Ballade?" When she took a step forward, they felt a chill run down their spines when they saw the look in her eyes.

"The Prototype will set us free," she spoke with a rather eerie voice. She took DogDay's paw and squeezed it, a look of desperate and conflicted expression on her face. "He said that if we help him, we'll be saving the orphans from being killed."

DogDay yanked his paw back, stepping away as if burned. "You... you're siding with the Prototype?" His voice was trembling, his wide eyes filled with disbelief.

Ballade flexed her hands, her painted smile a stark contrast to the pain in her eyes. "I didn’t, initially," she whispered. "But I’ve grown tired of seeing so many children dying at the hands of the scientists — and I let it all happen because I couldn't do anything about it. If we help him, he promises that he'll set them free... He’ll set you free! Don't you understand? If siding with the Prototype means we get to end this madness, then so be it."

The room fell into a suffocating silence.

"No," Hoppy whispered, her ears flattened against her head. "No, this isn’t right… You—You can’t believe him!"

"The Prototype is a monster!" Bobby cried. "He’s dangerous — the humans told us so!"

"And the humans lie!" Ballade snapped, her voice cracking as emotion bled through. "They hurt us! They hurt the children! How many more have to suffer before we fight back?!"

"Not like this," DogDay said softly, shaking his head. Tears pricked at the corners of his eyes. "Not like this, Miss Ballade…" they stare up at her in terror as her shoulders deflated, she let out a defeated breath as she lowered her head.

“Then... you leave me no choice.” Ballade’s voice was heavy with regret as she stepped to the side, one hand reaching for the doorknob behind her. It was then that they noticed the red smoke seeping from beneath the doorframe. When she turned the knob and pulled the door open, the thick, eerie mist flooded into the room, swirling around their feet. CatNap stepped in silently, his eyes gleaming with purpose.

“I can’t have you stopping us,” Ballade continued, her voice quiet but resolute. “Nor telling the adults what you’ve learned.” As the door clicked shut behind CatNap, the red smoke spread, filling the room like a creeping tide.

“W-What are you doing?” Kickin’s voice wavered, panic rising.

“Why are you doing this, Ballade?!” Bubba cried out, fear evident in his eyes.

One by one, they succumbed. The red smoke took them swiftly, their bodies crumpling to the floor as the strange gas overtook them. Ballade stood still, taking a deep breath—unaffected—as the others collapsed around her. Only DogDay resisted, his knees buckling as he fought to stay conscious, his teeth clenched.

“Please... don’t...” he whispered, his vision blurring.

But it was futile. As his strength gave out and he began to fall, Ballade caught him, cradling him gently in her arms. For a moment, she held him there, her grip firm but careful. When she pulled away, her fingers brushed against his face, cupping his cheeks with a heartbreaking tenderness.

“I’m doing this for your own good,” she whispered, her voice cracking. “You’ll forgive me for this when it’s all over... when you see what we’ve done was to save you.”

DogDay’s hand gripped her shoulder weakly, his eyes pleading—but then his strength faded completely, and his body went limp. Ballade closed her eyes, forcing herself to swallow the guilt rising in her throat. With methodical care, she gathered the others, dragging their unconscious forms into their individual cells. The sound of the locks clicking into place echoed in the still air, and she stood in the silence that followed, her heart heavy.

For a long moment, she lingered at the door, her hand resting on the cold metal.

“You did what you could, [F/N],” CatNap said softly behind her. “I’m sure they’ll thank you when this is all over.”

Ballade clasped her hands together tightly, the motion more to steady herself than anything else. “I just hope... my judgment isn’t wrong.” She looked down at CatNap, her eyes sincere but filled with doubt. “The Prototype will uphold his promise... right? The orphans will be set free... right?”

She didn’t trust the Prototype—how could she?—but she trusted CatNap. And CatNap believed in him. That was the only reason she was still standing here.

The only reason she hadn’t turned back.

"The doctors say he's dangerous, but he wants what's best for us all." this was enough to reassure her, she reached down and ruffled his head.

"If you say so." she takes another breath to calm herself one last time "We should probably go, it's almost time." he nods.

"The Hour of Joy is almost upon us." she chuckled as she laced her fingers together and pushed them forward, hearing her joints crack under the pressure.

"Let's get to work."

There were many toys that the Prototype managed to recruit to his cause, each one with their own grudges and reasons for joining his orchestrated rebellion throughout the entirety of Playtime Co. From Huggy Wuggy, stationed menacingly within the main lobby with his sharp-toothed grin and cold, unblinking eyes, to Mommy Longlegs lurking within the Game Station alongside the ever-watchful Mini Huggies, waiting with predatory patience for their signal to strike. In Playcare, the heart of the children's refuge, CatNap and Ballade stood as the most dangerous of his allies—each powerful in their own right, each burdened with their own twisted sense of duty and guilt.

Even Miss Delight, the ever-cheerful face of comfort for the orphans, was drawn into this uprising, her tears of joy and sadness masking the deep-seated resentment she bore toward the human employees. And then there were the mini Smiling Critters—once innocent and carefree, now caught between loyalty and fear. They hadn’t yet chosen their sides, and that hesitation made them dangerous liabilities.

The Prototype extended a hand to all the toys who had suffered at the hands of the human employees, promising them more than just vengeance. He offered them freedom—freedom from the torment of their artificial existence, from the chains of servitude and the horror of seeing the children they loved and protected dragged away, never to return. It was a chance to end the cycle of pain and finally reclaim their lives from those who had treated them as nothing more than tools and experiments.

EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM EFFECTIVE 8/8/1995 11:00:00 EST

Playtime Company

Issue A

WORK FORCE DANGER ALERT

"The following message is for all Playtime Co. employees.

At 11:01AM, Eastern Standard Time, an unknown hostile force declared present within the Playtime Co. facility.

Personnel are to begin enacting emergency evacuation protocols immediately.

Leave all personal belongings.

Do not engage with any hostile individuals.

If no exit path is available, seek shelter in a hidden location.

Use blankets or pillows to cover your body, and remain silent.

Do not look through any windows.

Do not open doors for any individuals.

Do not make eye contact--

...

...

Open the doors now. The Hour of Joy has arrived."

It started with the alarms—shrill, blaring cries echoing through the factory like the wailing of lost souls. The lights flickered violently, plunging corridors into a maddening dance of shadow and flame. In the main lobby, Huggy Wuggy descended upon the unsuspecting staff with terrifying speed, his massive frame moving with unnatural grace as his gleaming teeth tore through the chaos. Screams filled the air, but no one escaped his relentless pursuit. Blood painted the walls, limbs lay scattered across the floor, and the air reeked of iron and fear.

At the Game Station, Mommy Longlegs played with her prey. Her elastic limbs snaked through vents and rafters, dragging terrified employees into the darkness. The Mini Huggies scurried in swarms, their tiny forms overwhelming anyone who crossed their path. The once lively station became a house of horrors, filled with echoes of laughter twisted into something monstrous. Flesh was torn from bone, and the floors were slick with blood as the station became a macabre playground.

In Playcare, it was no better than the rest of the factory.

Outside the Playhouse, the halls of Playcare ran red. CatNap drifted through the corridors like a phantom, his red smoke spilling into every crevice. The humans never stood a chance—one by one, they collapsed, some peacefully, others choking on the thick haze, their bodies hitting the ground with lifeless thuds. Ballade followed in his wake, her hands already stained with blood. She moved with cold purpose, securing the orphans first, locking them away where no harm could reach them.

But the carnage followed her.

The human employees were torn apart, their bodies left in grotesque displays of violence. One counselor she had shared a conversation earlier in the morning with lay sprawled against a wall, her throat crushed that her head lolled unnaturally to the side. Another staff member—someone who had once laughed and joked with the children—clawed at his own face, the red mist driving him into a frenzy of madness before his body finally gave out.

As the hour stretched on, the factory drowned in chaos. The Prototype’s plan unfolded perfectly, and the rebellion tore through Playtime Co. like wildfire. Yet amid the destruction, doubt gnawed at Ballade’s resolve. The line between savior and monster blurred, and she wondered if the price of freedom was too steep to bear.

...

...

"Haaa..." It was only hours after the Hour of Joy had commenced when Ballade sat on one of the benches within Playcare, her head thrown back over the backrest while she spread her legs out. "That took longer than I expected," she muttered, as blood slowly dripped down her unclenched fists. The metallic scent of it clung heavily to the air, a stark contrast to the usual warmth and joy that once filled this place. She didn’t get exhausted easily, but after hours of nonstop killing, her body finally felt the weight of it.

She sat up and let her body rest against her knees, more blood sliding down her face and legs, staining her once-pristine porcelain skin a deep, ghastly red. The sticky sensation of it had long since lost its shock — now it just felt like part of her.

CatNap emerged from the shadows, his colossal frame also splattered with crimson, though his breathing was steady and composed. "Most of the humans are gone," he reported, his voice light, almost pleased. "Playcare’s finally quiet. Peaceful."

But it wasn’t peaceful. It was too quiet. The children’s laughter, the chatter of the Smiling Critters — it was all gone. In its place was an eerie stillness, broken only by the distant, occasional drip of blood hitting the cold floor. Ballade’s eyes flickered toward the Playhouse where the Smiling Critters still lay unconscious, and her heart twisted. They hadn’t stirred once since she and CatNap had gassed them. She told herself it was for their own good — they wouldn’t have been able to handle the truth of what needed to be done. Still, the silence behind that door haunted her more than the screams of the humans ever could.

"They’ll thank us," CatNap said softly, as if reading her mind. "When the dust settles, when the children are free— they’ll understand." Ballade nodded slowly, but the doubt gnawed at her. She looked down at her blood-soaked hands, wondering if there would ever truly be an end to the nightmare they’d created in pursuit of salvation.

"Cleaning this all up is going to take so much time..." she said as she looked around and saw all the bodies "I don't suppose we can leave this to the other toys, hmm?" the look CatNap gave her said otherwise, she let out a defeated sigh.

"The Prototype wants us to drag all the bodies down below." CatNap's voice was low, the eerie silence of Playcare amplifying his words. Ballade rubbed her face in exhaustion, smearing more blood across her porcelain skin.

"I can only guess why." Now that all the humans were gone, their connection to the outside world was severed. Supplies would stop coming. They'd have to make do with what was left. "I'm sure there are still some humans roaming around, hiding."

"We got all the ones that weren’t fast or smart enough to hide," he replied. "We should probably head to the labs first before dragging all the bodies."

"Fine by me. I’m not up for more labor after what just happened. Besides, we can check on the others down below to see if they’re done. There were a lot more humans in the prison compared to Playcare." She chuckled, shaking her head as she noticed the eagerness in his eyes.

"Let’s go," he urged, nudging his head into her side. She gently pushed him off as they walked toward the Gas Production Zone.

"We’re going, we’re going," she muttered. Their heavy footsteps echoed against the cold floor with every step, the sound bouncing off walls now stripped of the laughter that once filled the air. They maneuvered over the countless bodies they’d eventually have to clean up, the stillness around them almost deafening.

Reaching the elevator, Ballade gestured for CatNap to step in first. She followed closely behind, waiting for the familiar lurch as it started to descend. But instead of standing still, she left the control panel and leapt down to join him, landing softly beside him. Thanks to her body, she could scale great heights and drop from any distance without pain or injury. No matter how far the humans ran, she would always find a way to get to them. No matter where they hid, there would be no escape.

On their way down to the labs, they came across several toys—some still in the throes of violence, others feasting on the remains of the security staff. The air was thick with the coppery scent of blood and the grotesque sounds of tearing flesh. Some toys played with their victims' remains, giggling in twisted delight as they dismembered what was left. Others stood over the bodies like sentinels, eyes wide with an unhinged kind of glee. Blood painted the walls in wild, sweeping strokes, turning once sterile corridors into grotesque art.

Most of the toys paid them no mind, too absorbed in their grisly work. A few glanced their way, tensing as if ready to strike, but the moment recognition flickered in their eyes, they stood down. Even the most frenzied among them knew better than to cross paths with Ballade and CatNap.

The two of them had a reputation. CatNap was the Prototype's most loyal follower, his name whispered with both respect and fear. And Ballade—Ballade was the Head Executive’s personal bodyguard, an enforcer who obeyed their every command without question. As they ventured deeper through the prison towards the labs, every so often, distant, inhuman screams echoed from below—a reminder of what waited for them at the bottom. The air felt heavier, saturated with the scent of blood and chemicals as they made it to the lower labs. The walls bore deep gouges, the aftermath of something strong and enraged. And in the far distance, they could hear it—metal scraping against metal, a slow, deliberate sound that set their teeth on edge.

"Hmm?" Ballade twisted her head to the side when she heard a sudden clatter, sighing to herself when she spotted a scientist trying to hide but freaked out when he realized he had been spotted "Go on without me, I'll catch him before he locks down the labs. Besides, the Prototype scares me." she gestures for him to go on before turning and chasing after the scientist, catching up to him was easy but due to the fact he ran away he had led her to more humans that were hiding out. Ballade moved through the dim corridors, the scent of blood and metal still thick in the air. She had just finished tracking down the stray scientists, their cries cut short in a single, efficient movement. Wiping her hands on her already bloodied dress, she started back toward the lower labs where the Prototype waited.

As she approached the entrance, the sound of voices reached her ears. She slowed her steps, curiosity and caution guiding her closer.

"…and once the remaining children are secured, we can begin the next phase," the Prototype’s voice was calm and calculating, every word measured as he used the stolen voices of those who have spoken to him. "Their resilience makes them perfect subjects. We’ll have ample opportunities to push beyond the limits of what this facility dared to achieve."

Ballade froze. Her heart—if it could beat—would have stopped. She stepped closer, unnoticed, her breath caught.

"Ballade..." CatNap’s voice was hesitant. "Is not going to let this go. She wants them to be free..."

"Freedom," the Prototype interrupted smoothly, "is a matter of perspective. You see, true freedom lies in purpose—fulfilling the potential we were created for. These children… they are the key to unlocking evolution. Their sacrifice will pave the way for something far greater than any of us."

Ballade’s stomach twisted violently. The world around her blurred at the edges, a rising wave of nausea and panic threatening to drown her. Her hands curled into trembling fists, slick with the blood of those she had already killed, and the weight of those lives now pressed down on her like lead.

"But—"

"Do not let sentiment cloud your judgment," the Prototype’s tone darkened. "You’ve seen how fragile they are, how easily they break. Would you rather they die in fear and ignorance? Or serve a higher calling? In this way, their suffering gains meaning."

She couldn’t listen anymore.

"You lied to me," Ballade spoke, albeit a whisper, but it let her presence be known as she stepped into the lab. Both figures turned toward her. CatNap’s eyes widened in guilt; the Prototype merely regarded her with cool detachment.

"[F/N]—" CatNap started, but she shook her head as she looked towards the monstrosity that was the Prototype.

"You told me we were doing this for them," she whispered, her voice shaking with panic. "To save them. Not… not this." She gestured wildly. "Not to turn them into experiments!"

"Their freedom," the Prototype said, unflinching, "comes through transcendence. Through transformation. It is the only true escape from the frailties of their existence. You of all creations should understand this."

"I understand," she spat, stepping forward, "that you used me." Her cold eyes locked onto CatNap. "And you let him."

"I… I thought—" CatNap stammered, ears flattened.

"No." She shook her head, the enormity of her mistake crashing over her. The faces of the children flashed behind her eyes—their laughter, their trust—and the image shattered under the knowledge of what she had condemned them to. "I made a mistake to trust you." she shakes her head before turning on her feels and leaving, ignoring the way CatNap called out to her as she hurried back to Playcare.

This was a mistake.

I made a mistake.

I shouldn't have trusted them.

I shouldn't have trusted him.

But it's too late.

From one hell to another, the Prototype's in control now.

Bells

word count: 3975

Fandom: Poppy Playtime Pairing: N/A Pronouns: He/Him Relationship: N/A Occupation: Enforcer Ability: Court Jester

The character takes the appearance of a Victorian-era court jester, while their face is the only thing made of plaster their body consists of poly-blend sateen fabric, and their insides are filled with polyfill, allowing their body to bend and twist however they want, allowing them to get into even the smallest of crevices. They have a removable mask that they can replace with different ones that signify emotions but they're usually wearing the comedy mask, they also have bells on the end of their hat that jingles each time they move.

Keys:

n/a

Warnings: spoilers to chapter 4 and those who haven't played nor seen the game, blood, death and all that shit.

@ghrgrsfdesfrfg recommended this and I was heavily invested in this idea

Playtime Co. is releasing a once-in-a-lifetime toy!

Prepare to be captivated by the Royal Jester, a breathtakingly detailed action figure unlike any other. This stunning collectible stands tall and proud, boasting a regal design that blends the sinister charm of a jester with the power of a king.

The Royal Jester is a collector’s dream – a statement piece that merges art and imagination. This is more than just a toy; it's an artwork, a conversation starter, and a prized addition to any collection of fantasy and gothic figurines. Perfect for fans of dark fantasy, playing cards, or unique character designs!

There are four limited-edition Jesters; the four brothers of each suit.

The Royal Jesters of Spades, Clubs, Hearts and Diamonds!

Which one will you pick?

-

Subject: 1236

Original Procedure: 10/91

Behavior:

Assigned to the Game Station as one of the new games added to the area, Experiment 1236 is much different from his three "brothers". Before he was transferred into the body he inhabits now, he already had severe behavioral issues to the point it would be dangerous to leave him alone with any of the children. Showing signs where he lacked empathy, a disregard for rules, and was prone to random acts of violence.

This behavior transferred over into his new body and had to be confined within the prison where the staff advised we keep him locked up, but I found his behavior rather intriguing. The few staff that monitor him had commented how 1236 likes to play "games" with them, where he hides in the room and only comes out when the staff are fully in the room, that is when he reveals himself and attacks them.

He has still retained his cognitive thinking but his craving for violence is what makes the others reluctant to leave him around any of the children, that is why I suggested we leave 1222, as well as his brothers, to monitor him closely from being alone with any of the children. As long as we keep him well entertained he shouldn't have the need to act out, he wouldn't dare bite at the hand that feeds him.

Conclusion:

So long as he doesn't harm any of the children, have him remain within the Game Station for further monitoring.

I believe Leith Pierre will find some use in him.

Signature: Dr. Harley Sawyer

-

"Hi, kids! Welcome to the Game Station! I'm Stella, and we've got four super-duper fun games to play! These little tests show us just how crazy strong and smart you are! Follow Mommy Long Legs down the stairs, and she'll show you our latest game! See you in a bit!" Mommy giggled to herself as the children ran around her arms and legs, a few even grabbing her by one of her hands to tug her toward the entrance that read "Scavenger," where the four Kings resided.

"Come along now, children. We have four new friends to meet!" They all cheered in excitement—new games were always so thrilling. "Stay close to Mommy now; we don't want any of you getting lost."

"Yes, Mommy!" Unlike the other three games, "Scavenger" took place in a grand theatre that had the children marveling in awe. They all gasped and huddled around Mommy when the lights turned off before, one by one, they switched back on, leading up toward the stage to reveal four beautifully decorated boxes with a symbol on each: a black spade and club, and a red heart and diamond. The children approached the stage eagerly, waiting to see what would happen. They let out startled screams when the lids of the boxes burst open in a flurry of confetti and four figures jumped out of their respective boxes, the curtains behind them opening and a band started playing circus music.

"Guests!"

"We have guests!"

"What a surprise!"

"A pleasant surprise!" All four figures bowed their heads, and when they lifted them, they wore tragedy and comedy masks with different markings. The owners of the club and heart boxes wore the tragedy masks, while the spade and diamond owners wore the comedy masks. Over the mask’s sockets, their respective symbols were painted in either red or black. "Allow us to introduce ourselves, dear children! We are the Royal Court's Four Jesters!"

"I am the Royal Jester of Spades!"

"I am the Royal Jester of Clubs!"

"I am the Royal Jester of Hearts!"

"And I am the Royal Jester of Diamonds!" As they announced their names, they bowed once more, and the children clapped excitedly. The Jester of Spades was about to speak, but the Jester of Diamonds stepped forward and spoke ahead of him. Though Spade was technically the leader of the Jester Brothers, Diamond had a way with words that captivated the children far more. Despite being the "eldest" of the four, Spade's role often faded into the background because of Diamond's influence "We have a game for you, children, that'll put your minds to the test! Are you ready for such a task?"

"We're ready!" The children’s enthusiasm made Diamond laugh. He snapped his fingers, and more lights illuminated the theatre, revealing several boxes scattered throughout.

"This game is simple," he continued as he and his brothers flipped over their own boxes and reached inside to pull out cards.

"Each box has a symbol corresponding to our suits."

"Inside the boxes, you'll find a card with the same suit…"

"Or you'll find a nasty surprise waiting for you," the four jesters said in unison, laughing together.

"When you find four cards of the same suit—"

"You must then find the matching brother."

"We will be hiding in our boxes somewhere in the theatre."

"And the winner is the one who finds all four cards and one of us first!" With that, the jesters slammed the lids on their boxes shut and stepped forward. "Shall this game begin?"

"Yeah!" The children shouted with glee. The jesters tossed their cards into the air, which exploded into a cloud of smoke. When it cleared, both they and their boxes had vanished.

"What are you waiting for, children? Go and find them!" Mommy cheered. The children quickly scattered, heading toward the many boxes. Mommy stayed behind, keeping her eyes on the boxes bearing the diamond suit. She knew the brothers had left out an important detail: they were constantly moving, slipping unseen from box to box, and occasionally stealing cards from the children to keep the game going. Sometimes, they even hid in the wrong suit’s box just to pop out and surprise the children, snatching more cards. But it was the Jester of Diamonds she kept the closest watch on. He was the most unpredictable of them all—no matter how hard she tried to track his movements, he always stayed one step ahead.

Mommy wasn’t allowed to interfere with the games unless a child's life was at stake—but Diamond knew better than to cross that line. He didn’t want this game to end prematurely. When a couple of screams rang out, Mommy tensed—only to sigh in relief when she saw it was one of the "nasty surprises": small marionette dolls modeled after the four brothers, similar to the Mini-Huggies. The dolls would jump out of boxes to scare the children and sometimes snatch a card before retreating. As a few of the brothers popped out of their boxes, there was still no sign of Diamond. He always liked to play the waiting game.

"Mommy, Mommy! Look, I found all four cards!" A child ran up, waving their cards excitedly. Mommy clapped her hands to congratulate them, but froze when she saw they were diamond cards.

"Oh, how wonderful. Now you must find the Royal Jester of Diamonds to win! You better hurry—he’s the trickiest one to find." The child gasped and dashed off to search for the diamond-suited box. The jesters always knew when a child had gathered four cards and would either hide or keep the game going by relocating to a distant box. A sudden scream drew Mommy’s attention. It was the same child, being dragged into one of the boxes. She rushed over and flung the lid open—only to find it completely empty.

Panic gripped her until a chorus of cheers rose from the stage. She turned to see the four brothers emerging from the diamond box, with the Jester of Heart at the bottom holding up Spade and Club. At the top stood Diamond, the victorious child perched on his shoulder.

"And we have a winner!" Diamond announced. "Please, give a round of applause to our lucky champion, who found all four of my cards!"

"Yay, you did it!"

"Good job finding him!"

"That was really hard!" The other children chimed in. Diamond gently set the child on the stage and took the four cards from them. With a swift motion, he transformed the cards into a golden crown. The children gasped as he placed it on his head. "We have a new King of the Court!" The four jesters bowed low before the child.

"Whoa, a king!"

"He's the king!"

"I'm jealous."

"Maybe we can try again another day."

"Ahaha! We’re so glad you liked our game," Heart said, rising.

"But there are still more games to play—"

"Like Musical Memory—"

"And Wack-a-Wuggy—"

"And Statues!" The children giggled excitedly. Mommy called them to follow her to the next game, casting one last wary glance at Diamond as his eyes lingered on her retreating figure.

"You shouldn't keep the rest of our friends waiting!" The four jesters bid the children goodbye, but Heart, Club, and Spade couldn't help but notice how all the children flocked around Diamond the most. It was irritating—no matter how hard they tried to appeal to the children, Diamond's natural charisma always made him the favorite. They just couldn't compete. "Now, children, follow Mommy out so she can lead you to where our friend Bunzo Bunny is waiting for you!" Diamond waved at Mommy, and she quickly ushered the children away, peeling the ones clinging to him off with a gentle touch.

"Mister Diamond is right! We still have three more games to play, so let's move on to Musical Memory!" Mommy’s voice was cheerful, but she could practically feel Diamond's gaze on her back as they walked away. She chose not to comment on it.

"You did it again, Diamond!" Spade's voice hissed with frustration the moment they were alone. It infuriated them that Diamond was so good at masking his true feelings—his unreadable nature only made it worse. Spade growled as Diamond shrugged nonchalantly. "Oh, don’t just shrug your shoulders. You know exactly what you did." Diamond scoffed, his tone laced with mock innocence.

"Please. I do a lot of things. If you want me to take responsibility for whatever's made you angry, you’ll have to be more specific." He took a step forward, and Heart quickly moved between them, stopping Spade from doing anything rash. "Come now, use your big boy words and tell the class what’s upset you." Spade’s hand clenched into a tight fist before he jabbed a finger toward Diamond’s face.

"You know I’m the leader, Diamond! I’m the one who’s supposed to explain the rules when the children enter!" Diamond chuckled, casually swatting Spade’s hand aside.

"Oh? Is that so? But if you’re the leader, why am I the face of the Royal Jester Brothers?" He gestured toward a nearby banner depicting the four of them. Despite their central grouping, Diamond’s colors were more vibrant and bold compared to the others. "I don't mean to step on your toes, brother. I just think you need to be more creative with your words. We’re jesters! We’re meant to wow and amaze the crowd—to entertain and make them laugh! You should work on your approach." Heart nodded thoughtfully.

"He’s right, Spade."

"Wha—"

"He’s got that charm we lack, dude," Club added with a shrug. "We mostly just follow his lead or stick to the script."

"But… I’m not boring, right?" Spade’s voice wavered, Heart and Club exchanged an awkward glance.

"Ehh…" Diamond laughed, the bells on his hat jingling with the motion.

"Don’t fret. You can just leave it to me! Our game has only just opened—there’s a lot of pressure on your shoulders. Let me share that burden with you. You don’t have to worry about capturing the audience—I can handle that. Or if you’d prefer, I can give you some tips on how to really win them over."

"Yeah, he’s been helping us out too," Club added.

"You shouldn’t blame him, Spade," Heart said gently. "The children had fun and loved our performance. Isn’t that what really matters?"

"I… I suppose you’re right." Spade’s frustration deflated, and he sighed.

"It’s fine," Diamond said with a dismissive wave. "You probably just got overwhelmed." The tension dissolved quickly, but as Diamond turned away, his expression beneath the mask twisted into one of quiet disgust. Pathetic. Spade’s need for attention was so disappointing. Diamond genuinely didn’t understand why Spade was so worked up—he thought he was doing him a favor by taking control of the narrative.

"Diamond!" A sharp voice called from below. Diamond’s head perked up, and he peered over the theatre’s upper railing to spot Leith Pierre, Head of Innovation and CEO of Playtime Co. "Get down here. I have a job for you." Diamond’s sinister mask glistened under the spotlight. A job? Intriguing. He leapt over the railing, landing gracefully on the backrest of a chair. Leith grimaced and edged away from the jester’s too-close, too-creepy face.

"How can I help you, Mister Pierre?" Diamond asked, his arms swinging loosely in front of him.

"There are a few… 'rodents' running around who’ve gotten into something they shouldn’t have. I need you to locate and dispose of them. I don’t care how you do it—just make sure they’re no longer a problem. And keep it quiet. We don’t want our guests knowing we have a pest issue." A shiver ran down Leith’s spine as Diamond tilted his head, his mask’s empty sockets somehow conveying an unsettling glee.

"However I want?" Leith cleared his throat, taking another step back.

"Yes, yes. Play with them for all I care—just make sure no one sees."

"You can count on me, sir." Diamond bowed low, his tone dripping with mock formality.

"Right… You’re the only one I trust for this sort of cleanup," Leith muttered.

The Jester Brothers shared some abilities with Mommy Long Legs—though their limbs didn’t stretch quite as far, they could extend their arms a fair distance. Their arms and legs are capable of rapid extension and retraction and can effectively evade harm by contouring their body and bouncing away in a spring-like fashion. With this in mind, Diamond slipped easily into the factory’s ventilation system, crawling through pipes and squeezing into crevices with eerie grace. This was why he behaved, why he didn’t lash out when Spade overstepped. The real fun began when he was set loose.

The thrill of the hunt was irresistible—tracking down the employees no one would miss was his favorite game of all.

This is what happens when you wander where you don’t belong, the man thought when Leith gave him this job after catching him in a restricted area within the Game Station. Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. As he ventured deeper into the factory, the voices and sounds of the other staff grew distant, their echoes bouncing off the cold, industrial walls. He could practically hear the hum of water through the pipes and the scurrying steps of mice. This was fine—he liked working on his own anyway. All he had to do was fix the burst pipes and be on his merry little way.

When he located the pipes, he quickly got to work, the silence around him becoming a source of comfort compared to the loud screaming of children playing in the Game Station. The thought of children made him think of his own family waiting for him at home. He could still remember the looks on their faces when he told them he was working for Playtime Co. It wasn’t a glamorous job—he didn’t get to interact with the toys or mascots—just a simple engineering role where he fixed whatever was broken. As he continued to work, he began to faintly hear a subtle sound: tapping. He couldn’t quite make out what it was, but he knew it wasn’t water dripping onto the pipes. It sounded more… metallic.

He shook his head, deciding to ignore it in favor of finishing the task at hand, but the feeling of being watched began to creep over him.

The tapping didn’t cease. In fact, it almost seemed like it was playing a sort of beat. If he focused hard enough, he could almost recognize it—it sounded like the music that played when you entered the Jester's Theatre. With that realization, his nerves tightened. He picked up his flashlight, shining it around even though he wasn’t sure what he was looking for.

He swallowed thickly, his mind drifting back to the gossip and rumors his fellow engineers spread just to spook each other—how staff would disappear without a trace when they ventured too deep into the factory. It always started with distant tapping, mimicking the music from the Game Station. Then came the bells. You knew you were in danger when you heard jingling bells—subtle meant you were still safe, but if they were close… that meant whatever was making the sound was near.

No. No, he was just being paranoid. Rumors were just rumors. Right?

He inhaled deeply, trying to calm the rapid beating of his heart, but his breath hitched when the bells started—and they were close. Too close.

Forget this. Mister Pierre can shove it—I’m getting the heck out of here.

In his panic, he left his equipment behind, sprinting back down the hall from which he’d come. The tapping, the bells—what came next? What came nex—

"Hahaha…~"

The laughter.

He’d been spotted.

He risked a glance back and froze. Through the suffocating darkness, a faint glow stared back at him—two points of light, fixed directly on him. Those rumors weren’t rumors after all. Fear surged through him, and without a second thought, he ran.

The laughter grew louder, bouncing off the walls and ringing through the corridors. The noise behind him kept getting closer, no matter how fast he ran. Whatever was chasing him was fast—too fast for it to be human. Was this why people had been disappearing? Was he next? Had Mister Pierre sent him here on purpose, knowing what would happen?

He turned a corner sharply—and collided hard with a pipe.

The impact knocked him to the ground, his vision swimming as pain blossomed across his forehead. Dazed, he pressed a hand to his head, trying to quell the throbbing ache. The sound of bells drew closer, the metallic jingling slow and deliberate.

He didn’t dare look up.

"Awww… what’s the matter?" a sing-song voice cooed from above him. "Did you fall down? Poor little thing." a whimper escaped his lips, his body trembling as he fought to crawl backward.

"P-please… please don’t… I-I didn’t even want to be here… I—"

"Oh, but you are here!" his interrupted gleefully, the bells around on his hat jingling with every movement. "And you’ve been so very rude, sneaking around where you shouldn’t be. Tsk, tsk. What should I do with you?"

"Please… I-I have a family… kids…" his voice cracked, tears spilling down his face. For a moment, there was silence. Then a soft giggle.

"Ohhh, I love it when they beg." The voice was right in front of him now, and he felt a cold hand grasp his chin, forcing his head up. The fallen flashlight managed to reveal the figure above him and there he saw the Jester of Diamonds strung up within the pipes, his limbs curling around them to keep his body suspended "Beg some more. It’s my favorite part." his laughter rung out again as his free arm wrapped around the engineer, caging him within his arm then hoisting off the ground.

"N-No, please! I beg of you, d-don't hurt me..." his mask slowly lifted away, revealing something far more monstrous than any toy should have been. The face beneath the mask was a grotesque parody of a jester’s grin—wide and stretched too far, with jagged, uneven teeth glistening with saliva and fresh blood. Drool dripped from the corners of his mouth, mixing with the crimson that stained his lips. The smell of iron was sharp and suffocating.

The last thing the man saw was that terrible, twisted smile lunging toward him.

Later, the sound of gnawing filled the corridor. Diamond crouched over the broken body, his sharp teeth tearing into flesh with wet, squelching sounds. Blood dripped down his face and hands as he fed with terrifying enthusiasm, his shoulders shaking with occasional giggles of delight. When he finally stood, his grin was wide and satisfied.

"Delicious," he whispered to no one in particular, his voice thick with amusement.

When he left, he made sure to block off the area so no other human employee would stumble upon the "mess" he’d made. Speaking of mess, he glanced down at himself and sighed at the blood soaking his costume. Returning to the theatre through the ventilation shaft, he slinked into the dressing room and breathed a sigh of relief when he found it empty. The company was kind enough to provide different costumes for him and his brothers, and he quickly changed into a fresh one, trashing the bloodied outfit without a second thought.

Humming a cheerful tune, he left the dressing room in search of Mister Pierre.

"Look, look! It's the Jester of Diamonds!"

"Hi Jester! Your game was fun to play!"

"I hope we can play it again!" Diamond waved at the children as he walked through the Game Station toward the train, where he spotted Leith alongside one of the scientists. Wanting to reach them quicker, he used his powerful legs to spring himself over the crowd of children, eliciting gasps and laughter. Stretching his arms out with an exaggerated flourish, he cushioned his fall and landed gracefully right in front of Leith, his bells jingling softly as he straightened up.

"Ah! Just the toy I was hoping to see!" Diamond gives a dramatic bow, but Leith waves his hand to dismiss him. "Enough of the flair—did you do what I asked?" Both he and the scientist notice how some blood dripped out from behind Diamond’s mask. The jester chuckled softly, his tongue peeking out to lick it clean.

"Yes, sir. The rodents have been exterminated—you just need someone to clean up the mess." Leith smiled and clapped his hands.

"Wonderful! I'll be sure to reward you later." Leith said with satisfaction but Diamond shook his head.

"There should be no need, sir. My reward was the fun I had while playing my game of hide and seek."

"Ah hah, right. Well, you can go back to playing with the children. I'll be sure to keep sending you more 'playmates' to keep you entertained." Leith could see the way the jester practically glowed at the prospect of more “games.” Satisfied, Diamond left the two men and returned to his brothers and Mommy, seamlessly slipping back into their playful routine. Leith sighed to himself. "As much as he freaks me out, he's almost as handy as Boxy Boo." Harley Sawyer chuckled.

"Indeed, but he's far more intriguing than 1160. He makes a game out of it, no matter what you ask of him," he said, watching how Diamond played with the children alongside his brothers and Mommy. "What a masterpiece he turned out to be."

Lullaby

word count: 9428

Fandom: Poppy Playtime Pairing: N/A Pronouns: She/Her Relationship: Familial Occupation: Caretaker Ability: Ballerina Music Box

The character takes the appearance of a beautifully crafted music box ballerina figurine made of the toughest porcelain and glass, their clothes made from real fabric that is soft to touch and hair so smooth and silky you'd mistake it for real hair. Attached to their back is a wind up key that continuously spins when they're active and stops when they switch off. If the key is removed they cease to operate until key is returned and they are wound up again. Before CatNap, the character was the one to put the children to sleep with their built-in music box that would constantly be updated with new songs to play to help ease the children to sleep.

Keys:

[F/N]: Female Name

Warnings: spoilers for chapter 4 and those who haven't played the game, blood, death and all that shit.

"Lullaby" pt. 2, pt.3

bound to be mistakes that I was too lazy to find or fix.

that is all.

This beautiful ballerina is what every little girl dreams to be! Each doll sold plays a different song when you wind her key and her articulated, posable body in shimmery outfits add to storytelling. This doll is ready and waiting to be taken home to sing and dance for your little girl, all day, every day, forever and ever!

She is your best friend, Ballade Ballerina!

-

Subject: 1179

Original Procedure Date: 11/90

Behavior:

Assigned to Home Sweet Home within the Playcare, it acts as a motherly figure towards the children with a "warm" and "caring" attitude. That attitude switches off around the staff and it acts "cold" and "unresponsive" but will do as it's told when given orders. This was one of the few experiments that had their cognitive thinking intact instead becoming one of those mindless individuals.

Much like it's predecessors, while also maintaining the ability to think and respond, it acts as a bodyguard and or security that monitors the children when it's lights out. Nothing seems to get past its watchful eyes while also documenting who comes and goes both Home Sweet Home and the Playcare.

A stage was built into Home Sweet Home where it resides while its built-in music box would play lullabies to help put the children to sleep or when they're stressed it would help calm them down, however, it roams around during the "day" and interacts with the children.

While their temperament becomes apathetic around the regular employees, it becomes more nervous and prone to aggression around the scientists but what intrigues me the most is how it acts around me. Sometimes it would shut down completely when in my presence but is obedient to any order I give it, going so far as to drop any other previous order to complete a task I give it.

Conclusion:

Have it remain within Home Sweet Home for further monitoring.

Subject 1179 is one of the more successful Bigger Bodies that thinks, acts and listens while it can go unmonitored and it won't act out or misbehave.

Signature: Dr. Harley Swayer

-

"Hey, wind up the key already."

"Just... give me a sec, alright. This thing is so hard to turn!" two human employees struggled to turn the wind up key attached to the back of a giant four meter tall ballerina figurine doll, the coiled spring within its body needing to be tightened enough to function throughout the day. The two let out a breath of relief when it finally clicked into place and the third took a step back just as the figurine sparked to life, she sat on her knees with her head in a bowed position but when she turned on she slowly sat up with her eyes blinking to life.

"Good, you're awake." a yawn escaped her lips as she stretched her arms above her head, she looked down at the human in front of her when they snapped their fingers in front of her "Ballade, state your tasks for today." her face, made of the finest but toughest porcelain, held little to no emotion as she continued to stare the human down.

"Wait for the children to wake. Help the children get ready for the day. Entertain the children as the day progresses. Assist the Smiling Critters if needed. Abide by the orders the employees give. When the children--" she stops when they held a hand up to her, their other hand pinching the bridge of their nose in mild irritation.

"Okay, okay, that's enough. I hate doing this." one of the other employees places a hand on their shoulder.

"It's standard procedure, pal. We've got to ask so we know that she knows her daily duties and tasks. If anything is amiss we've got to report to Dr. Sawyer." the three of them shudder, missing how Ballade twitched at the mention of the doctor "You know how he is, that freak."

"Yeah, and besides, we're lucky that we're around one of the few toys whose first thought isn't to bite our heads off." at that comment, they peak up at Ballade and saw how she just continued to stare at them, eyes unnervingly not breaking contact with the three of them as they spoke "Let's not take our chances though." they step off her stage and draw the curtains.

"You know what you're supposed to do." she nods and they leave, she lets out another yawn before finally standing to her feet and waiting for her cue. She laced her fingers together as she stretched her arms and legs, not that she needed to, and got into position at the sound of the soft pitter patter that was the children's footsteps along with more heavier footsteps of the Smiling Critters.

"Haha, alright children. Now that you're all awake, let's help wake up our last friend! You all remember what to do, right?" the voice chuckles softly when the children nod their heads enthusiastically "Alright. One, two, three... oh, Miss Ballade~ rise and shine!"

"Rise and shine, Miss Ballade!" a silence washes over them when nothing happened.

"I think we need to be a little louder, one more time children. Oh, Miss Ballade~"

"Rise and shine!" they hear the sound of soft laughter as a melody starts to play from behind the curtain, they all cheer when the curtain is thrown open and Ballade steps out with a bright smile on her face.

"Good morning children! Thank you for waking me, I really needed that. So, kids, are you all ready for breakfast? Let's find Picky Piggy, I'm sure she's fixed you all something to eat!" at the mention of food a few children scatter to the dining hall, and a few other children lingered around and waited for Ballade "Remember kids, with a healthy diet and enough practice, you just might be able to be like me one day." she says as she takes a step off her stage while reaching for one of the children.

"Really? Can I become a ballerina like you when I grow up?" a genuine smile spreads across her porcelain face as she picks the little girl up and holds her up, the girl starts to laugh when Ballade nuzzles her nose against hers.

"Of course, when you believe in yourself, anything is possible." a laugh escapes her lips when the little girl wraps her arms around her neck and hugs her, she grunts when another pair of arms wraps around her and pulls her into a hug. She pursed her lips and looked down at DogDay, whose already permanent smile stretched wider while his tail wagged when she managed to free her hand to gently caress the back of his head "Good morning to you too, DogDay." he giggled softly.

"Good morning, Miss Ballade." she happily greets the other Smiling Critters, who were rounding up the leftover children, and form a line so no child is left out during breakfast. DogDay was leading them with Ballade, who was ultimately the tallest toy within the Playcare, was the last in line while Hoppy, Kickin and Bubba were mixed in with the children. As they made their way to the dining hall, Ballade was singing different nursery rhymes with the children and Smiling Critters joining in happily to keep them entertained "Who's hungry?"

"We are!" DogDay smiles as he steps to the side and gestures for the children to take a seat in the dining hall, where Picky was setting up the food.

"Well, go take a seat and Picky will serve you right up!" Ballade takes a step back and watches as the children take their seats, whether it be with their friends or by themselves, even the Smiling Critters take their designated seats "Miss Ballade, join us." DogDay says, Bobby smiles warmly as she gestures for Ballade to sit with them.

"Yes, join us!" she gently shakes her head.

"Perhaps later, we are still missing a face." this caused DogDay to look around and notice who exactly was missing.

"Drats, he must have gone back to sleep. Allow me to--" she raises her hand.

"I shall retrieve him, it will be no hassle. Besides, he listens to me." DogDay's ears lowered as a soft whine escaped him, she gave him a comforting smile as she gently patted his head "Do not worry, friend. I will make sure he comes down to join us for breakfast." he nodded, albeit reluctantly.

"Alright." another whine leaves him when both her hands pinch at his cheeks and start stretching them, this caused the children to laugh when DogDay grabbed her by her wrists to stop her "Okay, okay!" she lets go and chuckles when he was rubbing his cheeks, Crafty and Bubba comforting him when he cried softly.

"Good, I'll be back with him in toe." she pats his head before turning on her heel and leaving.

The Smiling Critters consists of eight members, that being DogDay, Bubba Bubbaphant, Bobby BearHug, CraftyCorn, Hoppy Hopscotch, KickinChicken, Picky Piggy and last by certainly not least CatNap. Ballade was created before the Smiling Critters and is the one in charge of them all, keeping them in line and checking on them as ordered by the Doctor himself. She, of course, knows about the experiments and knows who the children were before they were placed into their Bigger Bodies. They, too, recognized Ballade as the nice caretaker who looked after them when they were still human and trusted her with all their heart. Ballade's stage resided within the main foyer in the center of the room where she would usually sing and dance for the children, as for the Smiling Critters, they generally resided in cells beneath the Playhouse but Miss Stella Greyber thought it would make the children happier if they stayed in Home Sweet Home so Ballade wouldn't have to go far from the children just to check on the Smiling Critters.

That being said...

"CatNap~ I know you're in there." she gently knocks on the door before opening it to find the colossal cat sleeping soundly on his cat bed, she enters the room and closes the door behind her then approaches him. Her hand reached to press gently against his head, she smiled fondly when a purr rumbled out of his throat and she continued to stroke his head as she knelt down on her knees "It's time to eat, Theo." she spoke softly, she tilts her head to the side and saw that his eyes opened.

"I'm not hungry..." she frowned.

"I see they still haven't fixed your voice box yet." he grunts at her words.

"They don't care about me." he looked up at her when she wrapped her arms around his neck and laid her head on top of his, her cheek rubbing into the top of his head.

"But I do, and I wish I could help you." her eyes trailed down his body and winced when she saw his skeletal figure "And I wish for you to join us for breakfast, my boy. The others are waiting for us to join them, so we mustn't keep them waiting." he huffed and turned away from her, his tail flicking around in disinterest.

"They're not waiting. They don't care about me either." she pouts but doesn't stop petting him.

"That's not true, they care in their own way. Won't you do this for me, my sweet boy?" it still wasn't enough to convince him, haa, when he gets like this she only has one last thing to resort to "I see, I guess I'll leave you to sleep. But DogDay will be very upset." a subtle smirk stretched across her lips when his ear perked up.

"DogDay...?" she shrugged her shoulders as she removed herself, dusting the skirt of her dress.

"Mm hmm, he was upset that you weren't there to join us for breakfast. I won't pressure you to join us, but I guess Crafty will be the one to keep him company." playing with his feelings like this was cruel but DogDay was CatNap's closest friend where he got pretty jealous when the others got too close to him "I'll tell him you're still sleeping, so sweet dreams my baby~" she's waving him goodbye as she takes her leave and closing the door behind her, she's walking away and quietly counting down from five and the moment she gets to one his door was kicked open. She snickers to herself and stops to wait for him, as she's turning around she notices that he isn't slowing down and before she can do anything to avoid him he crashes into her.

*SLAM*

*THUD*

*CRASH*

"What was that?" DogDay was quick to his feet at the sound of a loud crash, the others quickly settled the children as he and Kickin rushed out to see what it was, only for them to hold back their laughter at the sight. The cause of the sound was CatNap charging into Ballade and the two of them tumbling down the stairs when they reached the bottom Ballade fell face first into the floor with CatNap on top of her, DogDay continued to laugh quietly as he approached them "Are you... alright, Miss Ballade?" he and Kickin burst out into laughter when she answers them with a thumbs up, face still in the floor.

"Sorry, Miss Ballade..." CatNap apologies as he lifts his hand upon realizing his paw was pressed into the back of her head.

"It's alright, my dear boy. You were just excited to eat with your friends." she reassures them that she's alright as they help her to her feet and they return to the dining hall, Ballade had a bright smile on her face at the sight of all her children eating together. Despite the horrors that lie beneath their feet, she could never ask for a better job than thi--

"Ballade." her eyes snap away from the children and see that it was Stella Greyber calling her name, she gestures with her finger for her to come so with one final look at the children she slinks away to see what the Head of Playcare could possibly need from her.

"Miss Greyber, how may I be of assistance today?" a bead of sweat formed on Stella's cheek as she stared up at the figurine, despite the friendly smile on her face, her eyes were void of any emotion as her voice was monotone.

"I need you to accompany me and the other Head Executives for a meeting, we have some guests that I'm worried will act out." she raised a brow.

"Act... out?" her mind thinks back to the other times Stella or the other Head Executives called her out when they were having meetings with especially unruly guests, she slowly nods her head "I understand, Miss Greyber." Stella smiles and claps her hands.

"Splendid, just follow me out." she nods her head but stops and looks to where the Smiling Critters are.

"Oh, CatNap!" she calls out, his head snaps up and looks to where she is, he scowls when he sees Stella but his gaze softens when Ballade smiles "Look after the children for me while I'm gone, hmm? I trust you'll keep them safe." her smile brightened when he nodded, slowly, but he nodded.

"Okay..." she laughs softly and waves the children goodbye when the children bid her goodbye, Kickin and Hoppy pout as they watch Ballade follow Stella out before they all look up at CatNap, who went back to eating his food "... what?"

"How come you're in charge? I thought she'd at least choose DogDay."

"I'm not in charge. She only told me to look after the children..." DogDay nods.

"Yeah. Besides, he needs more time to hang around the children! Since he visits the doctor more often than us, the children have been missing him and want to spend more time with him! She must have thought of that as to why she chose CatNap to look after the children." Bubba nods.

"I agree, CatNap is becoming quite popular with the children." Bobby giggles softly.

"Sounds to me you're just jealous she chose him and not you two."

"We're not jealous!" Crafty places her hands on their backs to calm them.

"Now, now, no fighting. Miss Ballade wouldn't want us to." CatNap watched as his friends bicker amongst each other as he thought of the real reason Ballade asked him of all the Smiling Critters to look after the children, or rather, watch. The reason she asked him was because he was more capable of guarding them while she was away, she didn't act as just a caretaker to the children, she was also their bodyguard in case guests that were welcomed into the Playcare acted aggressively around the children or staff. She waves at the few children outside Home Sweet Home as well as the Miss Delight teachers as she continues to follow Stella to the Gas Production Zone, and it was the moment she was out of sight that she dropped her friendly demeanor.

The human employees were quick to shuffle away when Stella entered with Ballade trailing close behind, her heavy footsteps echoing throughout the production zone as they stepped onto the lift and had them lowered towards the prison. Stella looked back at Ballade and noticed how she grew nervous as they traversed through the toy graveyard, she was nervous herself but she noticed how the figurine was clasping her hands together as she kept her glass eyes down to avoid looking at the toys. To the people who are unaware, they would think that it was just rejected or ruined toys they were walking by, but to the people who knew the truth... it was better not to think about it for their own sanity.

"You're here, finally!" Leith Pierre, Head of Innovations and owner of Playtime Co., announced when Stella entered the room with Ballade in toe. He was speaking with Stella as Ballade looked around the room and spotted the familiar looking box in the corner of the room, she sighs, so she was on cleanup duty huh? She blinked when Leith was in front of her and snapping his fingers to get her attention, she slowly turned her head to look down at him and saw the irritated expression on his face "Alright, you know what you're to do, hmm? I've got six guests coming down to discuss a couple things when in reality, I'm just going to have you two get rid of them. It's the media that's gotten a little too nosey and I need you to silence them for, well, ever. Got it?" she stared blankly at him then nodded.

"Understood." he gives her that all too familiar smile; fake.

"Terrific! Get into place." she nods once more and takes her place beside the door. Despite being in the lower area of Playtime Co. where a prison was built, the room was nicely decorated with all sorts of toys littered around so it wouldn't be odd to see the popular, life-sized doll of Ballade Ballerina in the room. She takes a breath before holding the first position (a basic ballet position) with a kid-friendly smile on her face, she also temporarily slowed her wind up key so you wouldn't hear it tick as it moved "Okay, bring 'em in."

...

...

'So boring...' she could feel the yawn building up in her throat but had to fight it down as to not alarm the unsuspecting guests that she was alive and watching their every movement, she had been watching them closely since they stepped foot into the room and would look away when they would glance up at her. The three Head Executives were answering questions their guests were asking and it started off with the usual, she was watching them again but stopped when they gestured to her.

"My little girl has a Ballade doll, I never would have thought you would have made a life size version of her. I've seen the Huggy Wuggy and Kissy Missy ones, but I still can't get over the sheer size of them." Leith laughs at the comment.

"Of course, of course! The children love them, or rather, they love to climb all over them. Our Ballade here is our most delicate one. Unlike Huggy, who's made of fur and fluff, or Mommy, who's made of plastic, she's made of porcelain. She's one of our finest toys and mascots, the children just love her."

"Does she sing too?" Stella nods.

"She does indeed, she has the wind up key and everything but it's a hassle to wind it up because of the technical stuff inside her." the lady deflated a little.

"A pity. Well, anyway, back to the interview." she picks up a stack of papers and then spreads them across the table to reveal a couple photos of the factory, it was a wonder how they managed to capture them when it was against the rules to film or document anything when within the factory, they must have a really good photographer "I am very curious about the many locations within Playtime Co., especially the building we're in now."

"Yes, and by the looks of it, it kind of looks like a... prison?" Eddie M. N. Ritterman, the Head of Research, just let out a laugh.

"A prison? Don't be ridiculous! Why would we, a company known for making toys, build a prison? This place is merely a warehouse for toys that just didn't appeal to the children." that answer didn't really convince the interviewers, not that it mattered, they weren't leaving this room, let alone the building itself "We bring toys that don't make the cut down here so we can brainstorm and see how we can make them better! Down here is where all the "science" happens, you know?" they raise a brow.

"Science?"

"Well, our leading scientist isn't here to give all the boring details about how we run things, but he's what makes the toys come to life! He's the reason why our Ballade here is so lifelike, you see." at this comment one of the interviewers stood up and looked at Ballade closely.

"Now that you mention it, it's almost as if her eyes are following me..." he murmured to himself and started moving side to side to see if she was really watching them, the three Executives watch Ballade's eyes closely and saw that she managed to not look at him and when the others saw this as well he was quickly yanked back into his seat.

"Stop that, you're making yourself look like a fool." they whisper sharply.

"But I swear we're being watched." Leith chuckles at that.

"You can thank our security for that! We pride ourselves in our security to make any intruders as uncomfortable as possible." that comment caused them to grow a little nervous, Eddie laughed when he could feel the rise of tension because of Leith's words.

"What Leith is trying to say is that with our security, anyone that trespasses onto Playtime Co. property without proper invitation, well, they better hope that the silent alarm that goes off is the only thing they should be worrying about." this caused the lot of them to shrink a little, the staff hadn't realized that this man came onto the property multiple times disguised as a guest to take photos but he didn't go unrecognized by Huggy and Mommy, the mascots who were the security for the main entrance and Game Stop of Playtime Co.

"Mister Pierre, sir, we didn't mean--" Stella winced and looked away when Eddie raised his hand to stop them. Eddie's eyes narrowed as they all looked at how their guests shrank under his gaze.

"Now, there's no need to apologize. I must say, you got some really good shots of our factory. I should thank you, clearly we need to update our human security since they failed to check if anyone was carrying a camera when it is prohibited to bring such things into the factory. A hazard, you know? I should get to that right away!" he stands to his feet and readjusts his blazer "I'll be sure to have our security take care of things." Stella and Eddie follow close behind as they leave the room, closing the door behind them and leaving the six people in there.

"Great! They're probably going to call the police."

"They're going to have us barred from entering the property."

"I'm more surprised they didn't confiscate the photos."

"He said that security was going to "take care of things", or whatever that means."

"Think we can just leave?"

"Yeah, and find the exit through this maze? I think it'd be better to wait for security." they start discussing what they should do when they hear a subtle ticking sound, they look over and see that it was coming from the Ballade Ballerina figurine "Is it... ticking?" one of them asked as they approached her, looking her up and down and noticing how her wind up key was turning.

"Is she on or something?" they jumped when the box in the corner of the room started making a noise, the crank on the jack-in-the-box turning on its own and playing its familiar tune, creeping them out even further "Is it automatic or something."

"Shut it off if it freaks you out so much." a few of them approach the box while the others paced the room.

"All around the cobbler's bench..." the man in front of Ballade whipped his head up at her when she started singing, the room fell into silence when both she and the box started playing "Pop goes the Weasel", Ballade sang it slowly with an eerie and dull expression on her face "The monkey chased the weasel..." the woman pacing the room shook her head.

"Why is she singing?"

"Is she supposed to sing that slow?"

"The monkey thought 'twas all in fun..." the man in front of her shook his head as he approached the door.

"Fuck this." he rushes for the door and grabs the doorknob, he's in the process of yanking it open when a large hand slams it shut. He stares at the hand that is bigger than his head before slowly looking up to see Ballade staring down at him, his breath hitches when she stares him straight in the eyes.

"Pop goes the weasel." the room is filled with screams when her hand grabs him by the neck and closes around it, promptly snapping his neck and killing him on the spot. What followed next was the sound of blood-curdling screams and cries for help, yet their pleas fell to deaf ears as they were killed like cattle in a slaughterhouse. When the room fell quiet, Leith peeked inside and smirked softly at the sight of Ballade feeding Boxy Boo the dead interviewers one by one, well, the interviewers who weren't already half-eaten by the gluttonous toy. He whistled softly when he saw a few holes in the concrete walls, she was quite the masterpiece, he had to admit. Despite being a porcelain doll that is normally very fragile, the doctor had constructed her body with the finest but toughest porcelain he could find. She acted as not only the security for Playcare, she was essentially a bodyguard for the three Head Executives as well as extra muscle for cleaning up dead bodies "Open wide, Boxy." she cooed as she held a dismembered torso in her hands and dangled it above him, a faint smile graced her lips when he obliged and opened as wide as he could and she dropped it into his mouth.

"Haha, well done!" she didn't pay Leith any mind as she continued to feed Boxy "We'll have the Specialist mop up all the blood, and Ballade? Don't forget to clean yourself up." at the mention of that, she looked down at herself and saw the blood dripping down her fine china.

"We're lucky porcelain doesn't stain easily, or else it'd be a pain to explain why she's been dyed red." Eddie comments, Stella sighs softly.

"Well, she does get the most maintenance out of all the toys. She requires a lot of cleaning or else she'll fall apart." Ballade let out an oh when she felt Boxy nudge her side, she looked down at him and saw that he was licking the blood off her fingertips. Experiment 1160, better known as Boxy Boo, was the first experiment from the Bigger Bodies Initiative that was a success but unlike her, he was violent and gluttonous with his purpose being the disposing of lower-ended employees aware of the Initiative. While her main purpose was to look after the children within Playcare, she also helped Boxy Boo and the Specialist deal with "clean-up duty" and because of that, she was constantly around him since she was the only one who could control him. Due to that, Boxy Boo was more like a dog around her since she treated him nicely.

"Clean up the rest of the bodies then you can go back to Playcare after returning Boxy Boo to his cell." she nods her head.

"Yes, sir." she has to hold Boxy Boo's head down to stop him from lunging towards Leith, who approached her knowing that she would keep him safe from the ravenous toy, just to pat her on the arm.

"Good girl." she just huffed softly. It only takes a couple minutes for Ballade to feed the last of the bodies to Boxy before he's tuckered out and slinking back into his box, she's caressing the top of it and cooing sweet nothings to him until he falls asleep. He too was once a child, she wasn't going to treat him like a savage just because he'd lost himself to this experiment, she had a role as a caretaker and she was going to fulfill it no matter what.

"Goodbye, Boxy Boo. I'm sure I'll see you soon." she says as she pats his head, he whines softly but lets her go nonetheless. She exits the room and is escorted back to the Playcare by a few prison guards, she smacks their hands off her when they grab her and practically growls at them not to do it again. She doesn't really get in trouble for killing any of the employees, Leith prefers it because it's fewer people to pay wages to, he practically encourages it and the humans all know it. Ballade double checks she'd gotten all the blood off of her before finally stepping back into Playcare, it was easy for her to lie to the children about her whereabouts and why she was gone as it was the breathe. Sometimes she felt guilty for lying to their faces but it was better for them not to know; it was better for them to remain unaware that she was a stone-cold killer who was more than capable of killing them.

"Come on, Miss Ballade! We made something for you." she gasped softly, placing a hand on her chest.

"For me? You shouldn't have." she'd been led by the hand of a few children towards the playground close to the schoolhouse where they showed her small drawings they made "What's this?" they laughed softly.

"Miss Delight told us to draw something that makes us happy, so I drew you!"

"Me too!"

"I did too!"

"Miss CraftyCorn helped me with mine." Ballade took each of their drawings and looked at them closely, making sure to look at each detail "Do you like them, Miss Ballade?" she smiled fondly at the drawings before placing her hands on their heads one by one, snickering softly when she messed with their hair.

"I love them. It warms my heart to know that I make you happy." she pats their backs when they hug her legs "Now come, let's go join the others. I hear you guys are playing hide and go seek." they gasp in anticipation, hide and seek was always fun with the Smiling Critters. Ballade sat with CatNap under a tree by Home Sweet Home as they watched the children run around looking for spots to hide, they were too big to participate in hiding and though the other Smiling Critters were just as big, they were more capable of hiding than them. CatNap is curled up behind her as she lets her body rest against his, her hand gently stroking his head while his tail thumped gently on the ground.

"Thank you for looking after the children, CatNap. Did anything happen while I was away?" he lets out a soft grunt.

"No. The children were well-behaved." she smiles.

"That's good. Did they give you any trouble?"

"Not really, they mostly bothered DogDay." this caused her to laugh softly and she looked over to where DogDay was and saw him chasing around one of the children he managed to find that was hiding in a bush "He is the favorite one amongst us all."

"With his friendly personality, I wouldn't see why anyone wouldn't like him." CatNap huffed at that "But you're still my favorite, I always did love the smell of lavender compared to vanilla." she chuckled when he started purring as he nudged his against her side, she rewarded him by scratching under his chin while pressing a kiss atop of his head, this only intensified the purring. About an hour or so goes by before the game ends and they come to collect the two, only to find them both sleeping soundly in each other's company. Ballade didn't mean to fall asleep, she could technically go days without "sleep" so long as her key kept turning, however, her key had stopped since she was leaning against CatNap and she evidently fell asleep on him. It took Bubba to wind up her key to get her to wake up, and when she did, she apologized for doing so since she promised she'd watch them play.

"CatNap can put just about anybody to sleep!"

"But I didn't expect to see Miss Ballade to fall asleep. She's never one to fall asleep while on duty."

"Perhaps whatever she had to do tuckered her out." no, my key just stopped and I inadvertently fell asleep... but CatNap is very nice to nap around, hence his name. To make up for it, Ballade spends the rest of the day with the girls, and the boys who want to participate, practicing ballet moves. Of course, she only shows them how to do basic moves but shows off her body's flexibility, since her body didn't have bones she could bend and twist her body however she liked. She was by no means like Mommy Longlegs, who could manipulate her body however she liked, but she could easily fold her body in half with little to no strain.

"Am I doing it right, Miss Ballade?" she looked over and saw a little girl trying to perform the pirouette but couldn't quite keep her leg up as she spun nor keep herself from tumbling a little.

"You're quite close, little one, you just need to work on your balance." she kicks at the ground.

"You make it look easy." she chuckled softly.

"I struggled a lot too, it takes years and years of practice. As they say, practice makes perfect. Just don't give up and your efforts will be rewarded." she takes a step back and performs the pirouette once more and does a little bow at the end, she takes a knee and gestures for her to try again "Nobody is going to make fun of you for not getting it on the first go." Ballade, no, [F/N] watched with a fond look as the little girl tried and tried again to stick the landing and was getting there with each attempt she made.

[F/N], that was her name before she became Ballade Ballerina; before she got stuck in a body that she couldn't recognize. She couldn't remember much before her time at Playcare but she did remember that she was older than most of the kids at the orphanage, perhaps that's where she could her motherly tendencies from and why she loved to care for the children, because she knew better than the adults who lied to their faces like they were stupid, but she wasn't stupid. What she could remember was the day when she was chosen, out of all the children who were more eager to be selected, she was the one that was picked and she didn't know how to feel. At the time she was anxious, both at the thought of being with a new family but also leaving the kids she had grown to love, but what choice did she have? Maybe she was happy that she was leaving that underground orphanage to see the sun again, she was excited to feel the wind blow through her hair and to be normal again.

All that happiness was short-lived when she was taken deeper into Playtime Co. to be experimented on by the infamous Doctor Harley Sawyer, that cruel and ruthless man who cared not for her wellbeing but the advancement of science and what he could do. She could almost remember the day she woke up and felt trapped in a body that she just knew wasn't hers, she just felt wrong. Her body no longer felt dense but rather hollow, if she tapped her finger against herself she could hear the way it would make a clinking sound as if two cups came together. Her face felt like it was stuck in place and she couldn't properly express the way she felt, even if she felt herself cry she couldn't even feel the tears that would fall down her cheeks. She felt it was impossible to move, that if she did she would come apart, even still, she could barely bend her knees and elbows and they were stuck in place.

Doctor Harley Sawyer called her his masterpiece, how her body was made from delicate porcelain that he reinforced to make her durable enough to not break easily if she were to suffer enough force or heavy weight to her person. Her body had articulated joints so she could fold and bend her body like a normal person but didn't suffer the strain or pain a human would, she was capable of twisting her limbs in all directions and not feeling a thing. She was practically a machine, she felt like a machine because she had practically lost most of her senses. She couldn't feel anything upon her glass-like skin, taste anything on her artificial tongue, or smell anything through her nose that felt more like decoration on her face. She couldn't eat, she couldn't sleep and if they didn't want to deal with her they could just turn her off by the wind up key on her back that was practically her lifeline. Without it, they could practically turn her off forever and forget about her.

They threatened her with that possibility each time she wouldn't give them the results that they wanted, that if she continued to act up or be difficult they'd throw her away to rot in the prison. That terrified her, she didn't want to be trapped in a cell in a body that felt more like a cage, so she complied and listened. Listening is what granted her freedom, or rather, to leave the lower levels and return to Playcare as Ballade Ballerina, the life-sized music box figurine, to care for and protect the children like she did when she was still human. [F/N] felt herself die each time she would smile at these children, knowing that what she was doing was only going to get them killed and she could do nothing but smile and laugh as they'd be taken, happy that they were chosen like she was... only for their lives to be cut short before it even began.

She was just like those damn adults.

"Miss Ballade?" she blinked when the little girl called her name.

"Oh, y-yes? I'm sorry, I was distracted. Show me again, why don't you?" the girl frowned softly then approached Ballade, taking her hand and squeezing it.

"You don't have to lie, Miss Ballade. I know I'll never be as good as you, so it's fine to tell the truth." her heart ached at her words, and she quickly shook her head and held the little girl's hand within her bigger ones. The few memories she managed to cling to before she became what she is today was that when she was growing up, when she still had a family that loved and cared for her, she wanted to be a ballerina. How ironic, but she remembered when she was young and had that same devastated look on her face when she just couldn't get the basic moves right and was ready to give up.

"No, no. Being as good as me shouldn't be what's on your mind, you've got to be as good as you can be. You won't be as good as me, and that's fine, because you can just be better than me."

"Can I really?" she nods.

"Of course! Because you can continue to grow, while I'll forever be the boring doll who is only good at ballet." she let out an oh when the girl started rocking back and forward.

"I think you're pretty cool for just a boring doll." if she could cry she'd feel her eyes glisten with tears.

"... I really appreciate that. Now come on, show me again. I'll be watching, I promise." she's clapping her hands in encouragement when the girl tries again and again until he finally sticks the landing, she's rewarded with Ballade picking her up and twirling her around with a proud look on her face "See? You did it! Just like I said you would, I am so proud." she caresses her cheek against hers then booped her nose.

"Thank you, Miss Ballade." she says as she wraps her arms around her neck.

"Anything for you." she spends the next half hour performing a couple more moves before the adults tell them that it was time to head back to Home Sweet Home. She allows DogDay and Hoppy to lead the children back into Home Sweet Home where they are separated by gender and brought to separate bathrooms to clean up, she ends up in the kitchen to help Picky sort out dinner while the rest of the Smiling Critters are left to set up the dining hall. She's standing in her usual corner when the children finally arrive with Bobby and Crafty pleading for her to join them at their table, she planned to decline their invitation but was brought over by CatNap nudging her over to them. It felt quite nice to just sit with the Smiling Critters and since she didn't need to eat to sustain herself, she sat quietly with them and would speak every now and then when they spoke to her.

"My favorite part of the day..." CatNap said after dinner was finished and they were all leaving the dining hall.

"Because you get to go back to sleep?" he nods and turns towards the staircase to return to his room, only to be stopped when he is grabbed by a few of the kids and tugged towards Ballade's stage.

"You can't go to sleep yet, CatNap!"

"Miss Ballade's gonna read to us." this caught his attention and he looked to where she was stepping onto her stage after taking a book from one of the kids "You're gonna join us, right? Miss Ballade always makes storytime fun!"

"Come on CatNap, join us."

"It just wouldn't be the same without you." he grumbles softly.

"... alright." they cheer and practically climb all over him when he takes a seat in front of her stage, she smiles when CatNap joins the crowd of children but knows that he is going to sleep through most of the story, not that she minded.

"Okay, kids. Despite having read this story over a thousand times, I'm sure you wouldn't mind hearing it again." she clears her throat then throws her arm out for dramatic flare "The Adventures of the Word Wizard!" they all laugh when she puts on a theatrical performance as she read the book, using different voices for characters and playing her music box for some background noise. She always was good at storytime, able to draw the children in with ease and entertain them, it warmed her heart to see them so invested in a story they had heard time and time again but not get tired of it.

It was one good thing this stupid place had to give her.

"And with his final word, this story has come to an end." the children, including the Smiling Critters, all let out a round of awes that it was over "And now it's time for bed." she laughs when they made more sounds of disappointment, besides Catnap, who stood up and started carrying that were laying on him off to bed.

"Can't we have one more story?"

"Yeah, just one more?" she shakes her head.

"I'm afraid not. Besides, you're all yawning." she closed the book and placed it down as she stepped off her stage and to where the few tired children were sitting, the Smiling Critters gathered the other children and either started carrying them or leading them back to their beds "Sleep is just as important, one should not neglect the need to rest just to continue having fun. I mean, look at CatNap! All he does is sleep and he has fun."

"Then he must be having a lot of fun since he's always sleeping."

"Uh huh, and he must be having the most wonderful dreams because of that. So, why don't we all go to bed so we can dream and have fun while we're asleep? We can always continue the fun tomorrow, it's not like it's going anywhere." that was a lie, she nor the children had no clue whether that would be their last night alive and that thought scared her "Now come, CatNap is ready to help you children to sleep."

"Oh, alright." she scoops them up while grabbing another by the hand to lead them back to their rooms, she's tucking them into bed and pressing kisses onto each of their heads as she passes them. She's mentally counting each child to make sure that all have been returned to bed and that none were missing, the last time she failed a headcount she, well... let's just say she never misses up the headcount anymore.

"Are they all here?" she nods "Whenever you're ready..." she goes through the assortment of songs she had before finally choosing one, the moment CatNap heard her music box start to play he exhaled enough of the red smoke from his mouth to help them doze off but stay awake long enough to hear her sing.

"Lavender's blue, dilly, dilly, lavender's green~" this was CatNap's favorite part of the day, not only did he get to sleep, but he got to help Ballade put all the rowdy children to sleep as he listened to her sing. Before he got put into this body, when he was Theodore Grambell, Ballade was the only one who understood him. He had few friends and preferred keeping it that way because the other children annoyed him, but Ballade was different. Instead of pestering him like the adults would, trying and failing to get him to open up, she would merely sit with him in silence and wait patiently for him. She had a boisterous but calming personality that she could easily switch between depending on who she was interacting with, it was why the children loved her so much; it was why he loved her "Because you love me, dilly, dilly. I will love you~" she looks at CatNap and smiled at him, despite the permanent smile on his face, she could see a crease in his lips that let her know that he was giving her a genuine smile

When her music box struck its final cord and all the children had fallen asleep, she brushed the hair out of one of their eyes as they slept soundly before standing to her feet and going over to CatNap. The back of her hand brushed against his cheek and scratched under his chin as she walked him back to his room, she stayed with him until he fell into a deep slumber and wouldn't notice when she slipped out of his room to check on the other Smiling Critters. She found them all sleeping in their designated rooms and made sure to give them goodnight kisses as well, she had a feeling they would know if she didn't give them one, then went back to roaming the quiet and empty halls of Home Sweet Home.

Since she did not need to sleep, she aimlessly roamed around Playcare for nothing in particular, or that's what it seemed if people weren't aware of why she was stationed in Playcare. Huggy Wuggy was the security for the main lobby, Mommy Longlegs was the security for the Game Station, and Ballade was the security for Playcare. It was rare, very, very rare for someone to trespass onto Playtime Co. property after hours, and nearly impossible to make it past Huggy and Mommy alike to get into Playcare. The only likely situation you could get past those mascots was if you were an employee who knew their way around, but one thing was for sure, you would never make it past Ballade. She knew the entire layout of Playcare as well as the prison below, Leith and the Doctor made sure of that, so no matter where you go, she would always find you. Despite her large stature, she was very nimble on her feet. She was so good at sneaking around that you wouldn't even know she was behind you until she spoke up. The Doctor, Stella and Eddie would constantly make her sneak up on Leith to scare the living daylights out of him, she had to hide behind them when he threatened her with solitary confinement if she kept it up.

Anyways-

"It was almost too easy..." a voice whispered as they explored the Playcare, completely unaware that they were being watched. Ballade didn't bring it up with the three Executives when she noticed after the carnage that there were only five bodies instead of six, how the sixth one got away undetected, she'll never know, but he won't make it far. People were already aware that there was an onsite orphanage within Playtime Co. but as stated before, cameras were not allowed onto the property in case they caught something that would get them into a whole heap of trouble "If I can make it out of this maze, I'll make a fortune out of these photos." he spoke as he entered the Playhouse where he couldn't help but marvel at the sight of the playground with maze-like elements decorated with colorful brick walls and tunnels but it was pretty creepy exploring when there were no lights to illuminate the building, he makes sure to put the flash on before taking photos on his camera.

He takes a couple photos of the dark just to see where he is going, but when he sees the developed photo he is a little startled to see a pair of glowing eyes through the darkness that is staring right at him, he looks back in the direction he took it and takes another photo. He freaks out when the eyes are closer, so he starts walking backward while taking another with each step, he tries to listen for footsteps but can only hear his own as well as his panicked breathing. Whatever he was seeing drew closer and closer, but no matter how hard he tried to catch a glimpse of what was chasing him, he couldn't see past the flash, and through his terror, he accidentally dropped his camera. He's quick to drop to his knees and blindly search for it only to freeze when he feels a soft breeze on his face. With trembling hands, he finds his camera and takes a photo just to set the flash off and sees staring at him through the darkness was Ballade.

"How naughty~ Playtime Co. doesn't take lightly to trespassers." her hand was quick to close around his mouth before he could let out a scream and sound off the alarms, her fingers are digging into his skin as she planned to snap his neck but thinks for a bit "... hmm, the Doctor has stated that he's been wanting a live test subject. Guess you're the lucky one, congratulations." she picks up the camera and drags the poor man down to where Doctor Harley Swayer was, ignoring the confused stares from the prison guards and employees alike as she made her way to his lab while the photographer struggled against her iron-clad grip.

*KNOCK*

"What is it?" Sawyer cocked a brow when he didn't get an answer and the door was opened, usually, he'd yell at anyone who'd interrupt him but was surprised to see Ballade enter the room "My, what brings you here little dancer?" he smirks when he saw the way her body started to tremble, well, that was until he saw her drag in an unknown man.

"I caught an intruder, sir."

"And you're telling me this why?" she bounces on her feet nervously.

"You said you wanted a live test subject, so I brought him thinking you'd want to use him for your research." the man looks up at Sawyer for any sort of help only to be ignored when he lets out a sigh.

"I don't need him for anything, so you can just feed him to Yarnaby." she nods her head.

"Is Yarnaby in his cell?"

"Yes, he is. Close the door on your way out." she nods once more.

"Yes, sir." she let out a breath as she closed the door then looked back down at the man "You have no idea how lucky you are, Mister Intruder. You won't have to suffer at the hands of the Doctor and will get to die a quick death... well, that all depends if Yarnaby has been fed or not." she chuckled softly when she saw the panic flash on his face, poor man should have left when he had the chance. She's back in the prison and tells the guards to open Yarnaby's cell door and when they do she tosses the photographer inside and closes the door so he can't leave.

"Wait, no! Please, let me go! I-I swear I won't publish those photos!" she's in the observation room as she tosses the camera up and down "I don't want to die...!"

"You should have thought of that before you decided that taking pictures was worth more than your life." his body slumped when she shrugged her shoulders "Oh, Yarnaby~" she called out just as the door that kept Yarnaby contained opened up, her expression is indifferent when Yarnaby stepped out and looked up at the man curiously. This lion-like toy is rather adorable with its derpy expression and one would think he was going to play by the way he was tilting his head, that was until his face opened up to reveal his large open mouth hollowed out inside his head with rows of sharp jagged teeth along the outer rim of his mouth. The man couldn't even get a scream out when Yarnaby's mouth closed around his head, spilling his blood all over the window and killing him instantly.

Such a shame, she thought. He had quite a promising future if he had just left Playtime Co. instead of taking a few more pictures, maybe she should have let him go so he could expose the dark secrets this toy factory had but if she didn't kill him, the others surely would have.

"What a shame." she murmured before crushing the camera in her hand and looking back into the cell to see Yarnaby now aimlessly chewing on his torso, she always did find him adorable.

Contract pt. 3

word count: 23,441

Fandom: Gravity Falls Pairing: Stanley Pines x Alvah (OC) Pronouns: He/She/They (usually goes be she/her) Relationship: Romantic Occupation: Guardian Ability: Demonic Powers

Since the individual is a resident of the Nightmare Realm, while also being the embodiment of evil from across multiple dimensions, the power they have is almost unlimited. They are capable of traveling to different dimensions throughout the multiverse but when they do step foot in such dimensions their powers become limited unless they are able to form a contract, similar to Bill through his deals, that allows them to have full access to their powers. They are capable of shapeshifting their appearance to blend in with the locals or at least influence the minds of those who set their eyes on them, but if there were anyone to bear witness to their true form, their own minds would destroy itself and drive them into madness.

Keys:

n/a

Warnings:

blood, violence, and spoilers for those who haven't read the book of bill.

"Contract" pt. 1, pt. 2

I believe you can pinpoint where exactly I stopped giving a shit about what the hell I was writing. I just wanted/needed to finish this part.

I now had to make this three parts because I met the word limit again.

season 2, episode 17. dipper and mabel vs. the future 

alvah doesn’t really appear much in this episode, only to decline dipper’s offer to join him and ford’s adventure to look for an adhesive to seal the crack on the rift. 

she does warn ford that this was a situation that she really couldn’t interfere in and that if they were in trouble she wouldn’t be there. 

he took her warning to heart and was extra cautious with his and dipper’s safety. 

they don’t let that show and she bids dipper goodbye and to have fun, despite knowing the day’s outcome. 

soos was out with mabel in search for a location for the twin’s birthday party since stan rejected the idea of it being held at the mystery shack, no thanks to the undead crashing the last party. 

stan was ecstatic to know that it was just going to be just him and alvah alone in the mystery shack now that everyone was gone to do their own thing. 

he searched for her but was stumped when he found no trace of her. 

not in the mystery shack. 

not outside on the sofa. 

nor downstairs in the lab. 

he couldn’t find her anywhere.  

he had yet to search the rooftop when he came across mabel sulking in their shared bedroom. 

“Hey, everything alright, pumpkin?” he asks as he enters the room, she let out a sigh as she pushed herself up onto her knees but continued to look through her scrap book of every moment she managed to capture during their stay at Gravity Falls. 

“I just can’t believe the summer’s almost over.” as she spoke Stan entered the room and took a seat beside her “And now that I know how awful high school is going to be, I’m in no hurry to start that train wreck.” he gives her a sympathetic look as he wraps a comforting arm around her shoulder. 

“Ah, nobody likes getting older. But just because you’re growing up doesn’t mean you have to grow up, you know? I mean, look at me. I’m pushing seventy, and I still eat ice cream for dinner. 

“But I don’t want to say goodbye to Gravity Falls.” she says as she leans against Stan. 

“Hey, at least whatever happens after this summer, you’ll still have your brother along with you through thick and thin. Not everyone can say that, you know.” he ruffles her head as his eyes look towards her scrap book, he flips through a couple pages but his face scrunches up in confusion when he noticed something “How come there are no photos of Alvah in here? I thought you would be loaded with pictures with her.” Mabel let out a nervous laugh. 

“Well, about that. Before we knew that Alvah was actually an interdimensional being, Dipper noticed that whenever I tried taking photos of her or he tried recording her, she would decline. I thought she was just camera shy and tried taking photos of her whenever she wasn’t looking, but...” she trailed off and pulled out a small box from under her bed, it revealed to be polaroid photos of Alvah, or rather, attempted photos of her “Whenever Dipper or I tried to take a photo of her, something would either fly into the frame or the camera would freak out. We did manage to get one, but it’s kind of scary looking.” she rifles through the box before pulling out the picture and showing him, and boy did it not disappoint. It was taken in the gift shop where Alvah was talking to him, though her figure was distorted and mangled that he would never have guessed that it was her in the photo if Mabel hadn’t told him. 

“I see what you mean.” he looks through a couple more and some either capture her back or the side of her body but her face was just never in the frame, it was always covered. 

“Alvah told us that since her body wasn’t entirely real, the lenses of a camera would be one of the few things that would be able to capture her real body. I asked how we were able to see her on the T.V before but she explained that since it was through a memory we were seeing the perceived image of what that person saw.” 

“That sounds... very complicated.” Mabel nods. 

“Very.” he looks through a couple more until he managed to find one where you could just briefly see her face, or rather, just the crease of her lips pulling up into a smile so when Mabel wasn’t looking, he pocketed the photo. 

“While we’re on the topic, have you seen Alvah?” she caressed her chin. 

“Hmm, if I remember correctly, the last time I saw her, she was heading towards the roof.” 

“Thanks sweetheart.” he ruffles her head again before leaving her be, hopefully when Dipper gets back he can lighten her mood. Going to where Mabel tipped him off, he perked up immediately when he had finally found Alvah but stopped when he realized the lost look in her eyes. He tilts his head to the side as he gets a good look at her, she looked distant and uncertain about something as she stared into nothing in particular “You good there, toots?” he raised a brow when she jolted up from where she was sat, well that’s a first, she always seemed to know when he was lingering and had never startled her once, whatever was on her mind must really be preoccupying her head for her to jump. 

“O-Oh, Stanley. I didn’t see you there.” he cleared his throat as he walked over to where she was and took a seat beside her. 

“I noticed. What’s on your mind?” her face was always so calm and collected, composed and put together, but now... he didn’t know how to describe it, but he’d compare it back to the time she was at her most vulnerable moment “Is something wrong?” he asked as his hand reached to touch her face, she watched as his fingers uncurled and gingerly caressed her face before his palm cupped her cheek and let it rest there where she leaned into his rough but careful hand. 

“I’m just... upset, is all.” he thumbs at her cheek bones as she lifted her hand up to place on top of his “Those kids are going home in a matter of weeks and I can’t help but admit that I’m going to miss them.” he smiled softly at her concern. 

“Aw, don’t be like that. Unlike Ford and I, I’m pretty sure you can visit those kids whenever you like. As long as your contract holds, you’ll stay in our dimension for as long as you want.” it was now his turn to look a little lost, his hand dropping down to his lap while averting his eyes from her and down at the ground below them “At least you’ll have a home to stay in, Ford expects me to be gone at the end of the summer.” she frowns at his words, remembering back to their argument about how Ford wanted his house back after the children were gone. She hummed softly and reached for his face, turning it so he could look at her once more. 

“Your brother is as stubborn as an ox, but with my charismatic personality and absolute annoying nature, I am sure I can convince him to keep you around by insisting that I need you.” 

“Pft, what could you need me for?” she hummed softly. 

“Oh, but a lot of things. Other than Ford, you are the most entertaining human man I’ve ever had the blessing to have met.” she lifts her other hand so that she was now holding his face, she leans forward and lets her forehead rest against his “It will be so boring without you and this silly little Mystery Shack, it’s what gives Gravity Falls its charm. It just wouldn’t be the same without you, Mister Mystery.” he giggles to himself when she pulls away. 

“Aw, shucks. You sure know how to make a guy blush.” she rubs her nose against his and chuckled. 

“If I have to brainwash your brother to keep you here, I’ll do it. I won’t let you go so easily, Stan.” 

“Haha, I don’t know if that’s you or the devil you speaking.” she gives a shrug. 

“What strokes your ego more?” 

“I think we both know the answer to that question.” Alvah laughs and graces him with a kiss on the forehead, he giggles once more before standing to his feet and offering a hand to her “You seem to be in a better mood, why don’t you give me a hand by helping me put up some more signs.” she scoffed as she took his hand. 

“That better not be the reason you came looking me. We have a small heart to heart and the next thing you ask for is free labor? Hah, you’re starting to sound like Ford.” he shoves her back with a laugh. 

“Don’t say that, that’s the last thing I want to hear.” he continues to laugh as he starts making his way back inside the shack but fails to see the way her face dropped, the same bitter look washing over as the worst has yet to come and there was nothing she could do to stop it “You coming?” 

“O-Oh, yes. I’m right behind you.” with a sullen look she followed closely behind him, reaching for his hand and holding it rather tightly. She takes one last look at the Mystery Shack before screwing her eyes shut and stepping into the woods where they were going to be far from what was going to happen, and it was when Stan started rambling on about the kid's birthday where that feeling of guilt started overwhelming her “Stan.” she spoke weakly, arms full from holding several handmade signs, as she stood behind Stan while he hammered one to a tree. 

“What’s up, Alvah?” her fingers dig into the wooden signs as she pulled them close to her chest. 

“Will you forgive me for what is to come?” he snorts. 

“What a ridiculous question, there isn’t anything that would warrant me not to forgive you.” 

“... I hope that that is the truth, so know that I am so sorry about this.” he turns around to see what would cause her to apologize but let out a shout when his hat was pulled off his head, looking back he saw that it was that goat eating at the fez of his hat.  

“Okay, that’s it goat! It’s time I threw you off this property for good!” he hears a shuddered breath from behind him followed by a clatter, turning around he was confused when he didn’t see where Alvah was until he looked down and his his eyes widened in shock when he saw she had collapsed to the ground and laid motionless, he shouts her name as he kneels down to look her over until he felt a shadow cast over them. He looks back and his eyes widened in disbelief to see that the goat had grown to a height that shot past the trees, he doesn’t think twice and picks Alvah up and runs back to the Mystery Shack “Please, please Alvah! Don’t let this be what you’re apologizing for, because I don’t know if I can forgive you for this.” 

season 2, episode 18. xpcveaopfoxso 

stan is unable to wake alvah. 

he is also unable to contact her. 

so she isn’t really in this episode. 

season 2, episode 19. escape from reality 

doesn’t appear in this episode. 

season 2, episode 20. take back the falls 

“Yaaaah!!” Dipper, Mabel, Soos and Wendy kick open the door to the Mystery Shack arming themselves with anything they could find after hearing noise come from within while letting out a battle cry to intimidate the intruder, however, they were blissfully surprised to see not an enemy but rather “Wait... Grunkle Stan!” the children cry out in relief as they quickly run up to him, his eyes widened when he realized who it was and threw down his bat and fell to his knees. 

“Kids!” he shouts as he opened his arms, he let out a laugh when they dove into his arms and cried as he held them securely in his arms “I can’t believe it! I thought I lost you two!” he let out a grunt when Soos is at his side and pulling him into a hug. 

“Mister Pines! It’s really you! I’ve been hugging strangers to practice for this moment.” he says, Wendy then throws herself forward and slams into Stan to join their hug. 

“We missed you, you old codger!” he lets out a laugh at them. 

“I’ve missed you knuckleheads, too. It’s good to have you back.” he slowly releases the children and Dipper finally takes in the unusual group that’s huddled inside the Mystery Shack, from normal civilians to the mythical creatures that resided in the woods. 

“So... what’s everyone doing here?” he lets out a soft gasp when some liliputtians run past him, Mabel nods her head. 

“Yeah, there’s like monsters and gnomes... and is Pacifica wearing a potato sack?” she scoffed at Mabel. 

“Hey! Even in a sack I still look better than you!” this earned an eyeroll. 

“It’s... it’s a long story.” the Multi-Bear spoke but then another voice spoke, startled, they see the vents open and the head of wave Larry King spoke up. 

“Hey, is anyone gonna feed me? Larry King’s disembodied wax head wants num-nums.” 

“We’re trying to ration our food, remember?” Grenda spoke then shuddered when he started chewing on her hair “Uhh... it’s happening again.” the Multi-Bear was quick to close the vents to stop him, one of the manitaurs look at through the open window and gasped when he saw an eye-bat in the distance. 

“Hey, everyone! Eye-bat!” everyone gasps. 

“Evasive maneuvers!” Stan is quick to stand to his feet and slam the door shut then turn back to the children and lead them away from the windows. 

“Shhh, keep it down.” with that all the refugees shuffle into positions to keep out of sight. 

“Hit the lights!” outside, they spot an eye-bat turn to a scampering raccoon and turn it into stone before flying off with it back to Bill’s giant pyramid beneath the rift leading to the Nightmare Realm. Stan lights a match within a different room, illuminating the shack and revealing what was left of the towns people sitting around. 

“Welcome to what’s left of normal around here. Home base.” the newcomers look around the shack and spot several beings they’ve encountered throughout their summer at Gravity Falls, from the gnomes to the boy band Sev’ral Timez, Dipper let out a shout when he saw a previous enemy. 

“Ah! Rumble McSkirmish?” 

“Do not be afraid. Weirdmageddon has taught me, there are some battles that I cannot win. I am now Humble McSkirmish.” a digital –50 despair pops up next to Rumble, they ignore that and look to Stan. 

“Grunkle Stan, how’d this all happen?” he let out a sigh as he thinks back to when it all began. 

“So I was hammering signs out back when the sky started vomiting nightmares. I listen to a lot of AM radio so I knew what this meant: the end of the world. What I didn’t expect was what happened next. Turns out whatever you and my brother did to the shack with your unicorn voodoo made the crazy place invincible to the weirdness.” Dipper snaps his fingers. 

“Of course, the unicorn spell. That’s why this is the only place Bill’s magic can’t touch.” Stan nods then gestures to McGucket. 

“That’s when possum breath over here shows up leading a bunch of injured stragglers through the forest. They needed a place to stay and since the mayor got captured, I elected myself de facto chief. The plan’s to stay in here and eat brown meat until we run out, then I vote we eat the gnomes.” the leader of the gnomes glares up at Stan. 

“Hey! I’m short, not deaf!” 

“Shh! Shh! Stress will make you chewy.” 

“Grunkle Stan, we can’t all just hide inside the shack. There’s a town in need of saving. Me and Ford tried to do it, but he got captured by Bill.” Stan scoffed as he grabbed one of the cans of brown meat and popped it open. 

“Serves that jerk right. My brother’s had some stupid plans, but going up against an all-powerful space demon was his worst one yet. Trust me, we have everything we need right here. It’s not the Ritz but at least monsters inside now how to massage. You know shiatsu?” he asked the Multi-Bear. 

“Yes, I’ve taken classes.” Dipper gave him an incredulous look. 

“So you’re really just gonna let Bill win?” 

“Look, kiddo. We got a good deal here. Besides, I’m sure whatever the rest of the townsfolk are, they’re fine.” he slams his hand down and accidentally hit the remote to the TV and it turned on to the news broadcasted by Shandra Jimenez. 

“This is Shandra Jimenez reporting live from the insides of Bill’s castle. Here for the first time are images of what’s happened to the captured townsfolk. Viewers are advised to look away if they don’t want to see their friends turn into a twisted throne of human agony.” many of the residents within the shack gasped when they recognized a few people that were turned to stone and forced to act as a throne for Bill. 

“Mum and dad?” 

“My family!” 

“Deputy Durland!” the camera then turns back to Shandra. 

“Is there no one who will save the people of this town? I’m Shandra Jimenez and I’m being turned into stone by a flying eyeball.” the TV then turns to static, causing everyone to gasp in shock 

“Oh, no. My parents are bad but even they don’t deserve to be turned to stone.” Sheriff Blubs drops down to a knee as he cries out in despair. 

“Curse you, Bill! Why must you take everything we love?” he then rips his shirt open and continues to cry, Mabel huffed and climbs on top of the Multi-Bear. 

“Guys, don’t you see? Our friends need us, but we can only save them if we fight back.” Dipper nods as he takes his place beside her. 

“Mabel is right. Bill wants us to run and hide. He wants us to think he’s invincible. But Ford told me before he was captured that he knows Bill's secret weakness.” the refugees perk up at the mention of a weakness. 

“Weakness?” 

“Now, if we band together, if we combine all our strength, our smarts, and... whatever Toby has...” 

“Various rashes!” he was promptly ignored. 

“... then we just might be able to rescue Ford, learn Bill's weakness, and save Gravity Falls.” a rally of cheers erupts from the crowd which satisfies both Mabel and Dipper, he scans the crowd and frowns when he doesn’t spot the person he was looking for “Hey, where’s Alvah? She would be a great asset in taking down Bill.” they look towards Stan, knowing that he was the last one with her, and they saw the way his demeanor changed just at the mention of her name. 

“Alvah, she...” he raised his arm and gesture a corner of the room, a few refugees move out of the way and there they saw laying on the sofa was Alvah’s body, the children were quick to rush to her side and look her over as Stan approached “She’s been out cold since this all started and no matter what I did I couldn’t wake her up. I’ve tried calling out to her, tapping on mirrors and even the shadows but my voice just doesn’t seem to reach her. It’s like she’s been cut off from our dimension or something.”  

“Bill! He must have done something to severe her contact with us!” 

“Or maybe he’s weakened it! She always answered to you, Dipper. Maybe you can get through to her.” Stan scoffed, crossing his arms at the thought that Alvah would answer to Dipper and not him at such a dire moment. 

“Don’t bother. I’ve tried everything, so it’s no use.” 

“But she’s got a softer spot for the kids, Mister Pines. Let them try.” it would hurt if she answered to Dipper and not him but he wasn’t going to stop them from bringing back one of their biggest trump cards, so he nodded his head “Alright, go ahead Dipper.” 

“Thanks, we’re just gonna need that mirror in your room.” the gnomes rush away and grab the giant full body mirror from out of Stan’s room and place it near Alvah’s body “Great uncle Ford told me that her way of communicating with us, before she got a physical body, was either through mirrors or shadows. But it was also the way she saw and heard everything, it was how she kept an eye on him and even us throughout the summer. Maybe when you tried contacting her, you were doing it where she couldn’t hear or see you, Grunkle Stan. Maybe if we try with a mirror close to her body, we can get through to her.” he looks towards Mabel and saw that she was standing near the mirror, she grinned at her brother and gave him a thumbs up. 

“Ready when you are, bro-bro.” he takes a breath as he lightly taps at her face. 

“Come on, Alvah. Come back to us, we really, really need you this time. I don’t know whether or not this is one of those events you can’t interfere with us, but surely you can give us a little help like you did with that spider lady. There’s just no way you would sit back and watch us struggle against Bill, you care too much about us.” Mabel lets out a laugh as she stared at her reflection, hoping to see Alvah appear beside her. 

“Yeah! You wouldn’t let anything happen to this cute little face, now would you?” they wait breathlessly for anything and frown when there was nothing, Dipper sucked in a breath before wrapping his arms around her as best as he could, laying his head on her shoulder and frowning when he felt just how cold she was. 

“Please, there’s no way we can do this without you. We need your help, or else we’re going to be in so much trouble. Please, please come back and help save Gravity Falls. You said it yourself, you may be the embodiment of evil but even you aren’t that evil to just sit back and watch us die.” his arms tighten around her as he nuzzles his face into her shoulder “Please don’t prove Bill right.” 

... 

... 

“Finally!!” everyone all let out a scream at the sudden shout, looking towards the mirror, Mabel had fell back when Alvah had abruptly appeared, slamming her fists against the glass with an enraged look on her face “That little one eyed, triangular, three-sided, orphaned freak! I swear to Axolotl when I get my slimly little hands on him, I’m gonna rip his out eye!” 

“Alvah!” her face immediately softened when she saw Dipper and Mabel rush towards the mirror, not missing the fact she saw Dipper hugging her empty vessel, she lowers herself down to their level and let out a sigh of relief. 

“You kids are alright. A little worse for wear, but you’re alive. I’ve been so worried, and Mabel...” she presses her hand against the glass, a look of guilt swirling in her eyes as Mabel lifts her own hand to press against hers “Please don’t blame yourself for what happened. You just wanted more time with your brother and you made a desperate but genuinely sincere decision, but you’re only just a child. If anyone else were in your shoes, they would’ve done the same. As for me, I...” Dipper had a knowing look as he watched her avert her gaze from them. 

“You knew. You knew this was going to happen that day, that was why you avoided us. Because you couldn’t watch us do it.” she took a breath as she looked back at him. 

“I couldn’t. I have watched dimensions burn, civilizations collapse, mortal beings die. But I couldn’t... I couldn’t watch this one, because I started to care about a stupid little family that lives in it. As selfish as it was, I turned a blind eye... a look where it got me.” they all flinch when her eyes turned red as she started banging on the glass again “Now that he’s brought the Nightmare Realm into your dimension, he’s kicked me out of my vessel and weakened my connection with it. I’ve been trying for hours to get back to you guys.” this caused them to look at each other in confusion. 

“Hours? Alvah, it’s been a few days since Weirdmageddon has started.” 

“Days? But that’s...” they see the way her eyes dart from side to side as she was trying to understand what they were saying, had it really been that long? Was she that desperate to get back to them she hadn’t realized just how much time had passed? “G-Give me a sec, I’ll be right back.” they watch as she walked out of frame as if she was going to walk out of the side of the mirror, a few refugees looked at each other in concern as they waited anxiously for her to return. 

“What could she mean by hours? Does time work differently or something from where she’s from?” Pacifica asked “More importantly, how was she in the mirror when her body’s right there?” Mabel let out a nervous laugh as she rubbed the back of her neck. 

“Would it freak you out if we tell you that she’s similar to Bill?”  

“What?!” everyone exclaimed, McGucket let out a laugh. 

“I told y’all she ain’t what she seemed! But nobody listened to me!” 

“Okay I’m back!” her abrupt reappearances were going to give someone a hard attack, the look on her face seemed to be one that was a mixture of panic and weak hope “So, there’s good news and bad news. The bad news is that the Time Baby is dead, and time is now quite literally dead and or under the control of Bill himself. So while you guys were trapped here and experienced a couple days, no time has passed at all within Gravity Falls. As for me, only a couple hours have gone by.” that honestly felt like a slap to the face, while they were suffering under the hand of Bill Cipher, no time had passed at all, as if it were just one sick nightmare. 

“A-And the good news?” 

“The Time Baby is dead! So there’s nobody to stop me from telling you guys from what’s going to happen, if him or the time police were still lingering around, I wouldn’t be telling you guys this but since they were erased off the face of this timeline there’s nobody here to stop me.” she kneels down to Dipper and Mabel’s height with a serious look on her face “I’ve told you this before, you two. I have seen you win, but I have also seen you fail. There are countless alternate timelines where you two don’t even make it to today, and I have seen you die a limitless number of deaths that I... now what I am going to tell you is going to lead to the ending of this event.” they nod their heads. 

“What is it?” she takes a deep breath as she raised one finger. 

“There are two endings to this and I don’t know which one it is. There is one ending where you two get so close, so, so close to defeating Bill but... you get turned to stone and added to Bill’s collection on his throne.” they swallow thickly at that possibility but light up when she raised her other finger “But there is another ending where you two get to see your thirteenth birthday, one where we’re all there to watch you blow out the candles.” Mabel glows at that possibility. 

“How do we get that ending?” this is where they see her give them a conflicted expression. 

“I-I don’t know.” Stan scoffed from behind the children. 

“I thought you said you could tell us.” she shook her head. 

“N-No, I genuinely don’t know how. I see the outcome of the future, not the execution.” she pulls a face when she notices that not everyone understood what exactly she meant, she sighed “I can see what leads up to certain parts of the future, but I can’t exactly pinpoint crucial parts that leads to the wanted ending. Does that sound better?” she let out a defeated breath when a rally of ohs sounded off, if it weren’t for the fact she’s seen the future she would think they were as good as dead. 

“And what about my brother?” she perked up at Stan’s question “How is Ford?” she winces a little. 

“Well... he’s seen better days.” she looked down at Dipper when she noticed the guilty look on his face “He’s alive, but only because Bill needs something from him.” 

“What could he need from brainiac?” she opens the palm of her hand and the mirror creates a perfect replica that was Gravity Falls, but they come to notice a sort of dome that surrounds their little home. 

“There is a natural law of weirdness magnetism of the town that is containing Bill's weirdness, and an equation can disable the barrier, to which Ford and myself know. So even if I hadn’t been trapped here due to my minor mistake in our contract, I wouldn’t have been able to leave thanks to that barrier.” Mabel raised her hand. 

“But you were able to leave that one time to meet Grunkle Stan to give him that postcard!” she avoids eye contact with Stan at the mention of that day. 

“My contracts are powerful enough to bend certain rules, but they can’t break them. I am a primordial being, but even we few have laws we must follow if we don’t want to suffer the consequences from higher beings. That is why I’m a neutral being, but now my morals have tipped a bit.” she shrugs then gives them an apologetic look “I can’t do much while I’m like this, and I apologize for that. But if you can get him underneath that rift, I can handle the rest.” 

“How do you expect us to do that?” she chuckled and gestured to McGucket. 

“Well, you’ve got the greatest inventor here with you.” Alvah and McGucket stare each other down, an unspoken tension between the two of them “Don’t expect to hear another compliment out of me, Fidds.” he huffed at her. 

“I’ll get another one when I see pigs fly.” they ignore the little oink that comes out of Waddles “But she’s right. I think I figured out a way to fight Bill and rescue Ford, but we’re all gonna have to work together.” he snaps his fingers and a gnome puts his glasses on him, everyone huddles around McGucket as he begins to explain his plan to take down Bill but Stan lingered around the mirror. 

“Are you mad at me, Stan?” it was happening all over again, right after Ford came back and it was revealed that Alvah knew everything from the start. It was like their whole relationship went right back down to square one, and Alvah hated that now that she understood where her feelings lie, it hurt her chest seeing Stan so distressed “I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you, or warn you, or keep those kids out of danger, but if I did... I would have put them in more danger. There are so many rules that I just can’t risk breaking.” he scowled as he crossed his arms. 

“I thought I could read you well, I thought I could understand you, but you’re still a giant mystery to me. To you, it might have been a couple hours, but these past few days were grueling. I had no clue where those kids were, where my brother was and you weren’t responding no matter how many times I called out for you. And yet, all it took were those kids and you came running back. Maybe I should be relieved that you’ll always look out for Dipper and Mabel, but it still hurts that even with our relationship I’ll just be an afterthought.” she’s shaking her head as she pressed herself against the glass. 

“N-No, no. Stan, that’s not it. I-I—I care for you just as much as those kids, it was just a coincidence that I came back when Dipper was calling for me. You have no idea how distraught I was when I was forcefully ripped out of my vessel.” as she said, only mere hours passed when Weirdmageddon began and she can still remember the feeling of seeing herself be torn right out of her body and sent back to the Nightmare Realm. Unlike Bill and his Henchmaniacs, she was forbidden by the Axolotl from entering dimensions in her true form because the residents of said dimensions would either end up like McGucket or merely die within her presence; her body would be like a nuclear and or atomic bomb went off within the confined town of Gravity Falls. So when she woke up in her real body and saw the rift had opened a gateway between the Nightmare Realm and their dimension, she knew she wouldn’t be able to do a thing to help them or stop Bill. She tried opening up her windows to try and see them but no matter what she was unable to see them, she was unable to hear them, Bill had completely cut her off from them. 

“You say that but you can’t even tell me that you love me.” her eyes widened softly, knowing that all Stan wants is to be loved, whether it be her love or his family “You tell me that you care about me, you’ve told me that you liked me... but I just want to know that after all this, is that if you really love me.” he saw the way her throat bobbled as she swallowed, hesitation swirling in those eyes of hers again. 

“I... I-I--” her face dropped when he let out a sigh and turned away from her. 

“That’s what I thought.” she watched in dismay when he walked away to leave her on her own, knowing that she wouldn’t follow after him. Her hands pressed against the glass, her palms pushing against the one thing that kept her away from him and slumped against it when he disappeared from her view. 

“... Shmebulock.” her face hardened at the unwanted voice, eyes glaring down at the small gnome that was shaking his head disappointedly. Mabel let out a shout of surprise when said gnome flew passed her and into the wall, turning around, she saw Alvah crossing her arms as she wore an irritated look. 

“What would you know?” 

alvah watched them practically tear the mystery shack apart to build mcgucket’s latest project. 

it was a little funny to watch stan try and stop them but he was ignored. 

she gave what little assistance she could by holding things up with her limited power or creating miniature versions of mcgucket’s designs. 

she started laughing when soos made him watch anime and he was seriously taking notes. 

she wasn’t very pleased when mabel instructed the gnomes to guard her body. 

scratch that-- 

they were carrying the sofa she was on and moving it around whenever it was in the way while also guarding the mirror. 

she was never going to live this down. 

“You moping, you big baby?” Stan jumped before relaxing with a huff, looking down to see Alvah’s reflection in a tiny broken shard. Despite the teasing tone he could hear in her voice he saw the look of genuine concern in her eyes, he leaned down and picked up the small shard, and held her in his hand “You upset that nobody is listening to you?” 

“Yeah, because everybody is risking their skin for a guy who doesn’t have an ounce of gratitude. I saved his butt and yet I still didn’t get a thank you out of him. Everyone is treating him like a hero despite him being the reason this even happened in the first place.” she let out a sigh. 

“Unlike Dipper and Mabel, who know that they can always rely on each other even at the worst of times, Ford seems to be unable to recognize that he has someone he can rely on as well.” whether it be him she was referring, he wouldn’t know, but he’ll take what he can get “He fails to see that the “trust no one” stance that he’s believed in for so long is what’s holding him back. Because he doesn’t trust anyone, other than me because he knows that I can’t and will not lie to him, he’s creating an even bigger problem than the one that’s already in his lap.” Stan lets out an exasperated sigh at her words as he throws his head back. 

“See! You get it! Because of his lack in trust, he’s gotten us into this whole mess!” she hummed softly. 

“Sure, but you are the same.” 

“What?” 

“Stanley, your stubbornness has gotten not only you but those kids in a lot of trouble. Your unwillingness to accept their help has done you more harm than good, and even now, your constant rejection will be your undoing.” she rolled her eyes when he glared at her. 

“Oh, yeah? Well, what about you, little Miss Perfect? You’ve got all this power and haven’t done anything to keep us out of danger! Those kids have been in so much danger that could have been prevented if you had done your job and protected them! Even now, you’re doing nothing but watching us all put our lives in danger.” 

“I am an observer, Stanley. It is my job to observe dimensions, not interfere.” he let out a scoff and tossed the shard on the ground and away from him “You may not trust me anymore, but I’ll tell you this. I have been alive for over trillions of years, I have seen countless universes, dimensions, and timelines be destroyed, and not once have I felt the feeling I have now. Now that I have nothing stopping me from interfering directly, I’m going to make sure that one-eyed defect understands why he shouldn’t claim he’s a god.” he couldn’t stop the shiver that ran down his spine at the venom laced in her voice, he always did forget that the person he was conversing with was a demon herself. 

“Grunkle Stan!” he lifted his head up to see Dipper and Mabel coming to check on him, he looks back down at the shard and saw nothing but his reflection. 

‘I’m almost nervous about tomorrow now. I can only imagine what she’s going to do.’ he thought as he looked out towards the rift, what the hell does she mean she’s going to handle the rest? 

... 

... 

“You know, if it weren’t for the fact that I’ve seen the future, I would not be the least bit intimidated by this thing.” she let out an offended gasp when McGucket kicked at her ankle, in retaliation she smacked his hat off his head, they continue to banter until Soos had to carry McGucket away when he was threatening to shoot the mirror, she merely stuck her tongue out at him “I’m being honest, the only thing keeping you lot alive is the unicorn barrier.” she jumped when Mabel slapped a sticker onto the mirror that read "I can and I will" on it. 

"Don't be such a wet blanket, Alvah! We worked really hard on this." she huffed softly. 

"Just saying." she must say, Fiddleford never ceased to impress her. They never would have made it this far if it weren’t for him, maybe if he never took up Ford’s offer on that fateful day, he would have become something so much more than the town’s looney. The Shacktron, dubbed by Soos himself, composed that of the Mystery Shack as the main body with the shack’s totem pole attached, while its waist area houses the remains of the portal. On its back, the head and neck of the Gobblewonker robot rises, acting as its tail. Its left arm contains preserved tyrannosaurus rex with its free head as a hand, and its right arm contains a three fingers clasper with Manly Dan’s logging truck as a forearm. 

“Alvah!” she raised a brow when Dipper called her name “Where is Bill right now?” she looked out through the window and peered through the Fearamid to see Bill torturing Ford, they watch her point at a specific spot on the Fearamid. 

“If you punch through that wall right there, you’ll find him exactly where you want him.” they nod their heads and reel back the left arm of the Shacktron and punch it straight through where she instructed, she snickers before bursting out into a fit of laughter at the sight of Bill’s shocked face. 

“What?! I just fixed that door!” they pull the dinosaur head back and Bill, alongside Ford and his Henchmaniacs, are greeted to the sight that was the Shacktron. 

“It’s the Shacktron, dude!” Soos called out from outside as he held a flag that said “take back the falls” with Larry King’s head on top of it. 

“They made the house into a robot. Fascinating!” she hardened her gaze onto Bill as he sent out his Henchmaniacs, who grew into a size that matched that of the Shacktron. 

“This was a bad idea.” Stan said as he stood in the back. 

“Have some faith, Stanley.” 

“If it weren’t for you knowing the future, I would have abandoned ship a long time ago.” she chuckled softly at him. 

“No you wouldn’t have.” he huffed at her, they all look at to Soos who now held a megaphone. 

“Uh, hey, dudes. Is this thing on? Test?” they all wince when the feedback screeches “Heh, uh, I just wanted you monster dudes to hand over Ford or we’ll have to, like, fight and junk. Heh, hey, you’re a little cutie.” Alvah stifled a laugh at Soos’ comment to Paci-Fire, the fact he even said that was hilarious. 

“I have butchered millions on countless moons.” Soos recoils at the sound of his voice. 

“Whoa. I liked you better before you talked. Real... real bringdown, this guy.” 

“Attack!” Pyronica shouts and the Henchmaniacs start charging towards the Shacktron, Soos panics and is quick to retreat back into the shack. 

“Alright, dudes!” Dipper nods his head. 

“Everyone! Like we planned! Three, two, one. Go!” Candy and Grenda, who were operating the arms, punch Paci-Fire and Kryptos away while Waddles pulls down a lever, which causes the Shacktron to shoot the Henchmaniacs away. 

“Hahaha! Good pig.” Mabel praised, to which he let out a squeal. A flock of eyebats start surrounding the shack and McGucket was quick to react, operating the Gobblewonker head on the top of the Shacktron, grabbing an eyebat in its mouth. 

“Get em, Gobblewonker!” Rumble and Wendy were also out on top of the shack and attacking the bats. 

“Hya! Hya!” Wendy spots an eyebat trying to fly away but she jumped off the roof and caught it in her fall. 

“Oh, no, you don’t!” she pulls at its wings and redirects its eye to shoot at 8 Balls head, evidently turning him to stone, she then quickly jumps back onto the shack before it could fly away. Alvah was at awe at their teamwork, making quick work of the Henchmaniacs despite them being nothing but powerless mortals, perhaps Bill and his lackies could learn from them. She looks through the window again and notices Kanthar charging towards them but before he could ram the shack back she snapped her fingers and the Shacktron disappeared before reappearing behind Kanthar, the others were a little disoriented and looked at her in surprise. 

“I'm not all that powerless while I’m in this state. Now take him down!” 

“Right! Everybody! Maximum power!” Mabel shouts and Sev’ral Times starts running on a treadmill to power up the shack. 

“And... now!" Dipper turns a wheel and the Shacktron grabs at Zanthar and throws him away, Alvah starts laughing again when Teeth ran by screaming as his body was on fire. She gasped softly when Stan fell back into the mirror, she peeked over his shoulder and looked at his face. 

“When are you going to take care of it?!” 

“I told you. I need Bill under the rift for it to work, not his Henchmaniacs. Trust me, I can keep him distracted for as long as you need him if you can get him under it. Taunt him, ridicule him! Just get him out of the Fearamid!” he turns back to shout at her but paused when she disappeared back into the mirror and he was met with his reflection once more, he couldn’t help but grow nervous now with their greatest asset had left. Though Stan seemed to be the only one out of loop, as everyone wasn’t the least bit bothered with her presence disappearing just as Bill floated out of the Fearamid. 

“Let’s get this over with.” as Bill floats towards the Shacktron, he raises his fist as it grows in size and slams it down onto them. However, when he raises his fist up he saw that the shack was perfectly fine “What the? No! No! No! No! No!” he grows multiple arms out of his body and strikes at the shack once more but growls when there was no damage inflicted. 

“Hey, Bill!” he glared at Dipper through the window when he saw that confident look on his face, the boy then points past him and up towards the rift above them “I’d watch my head if I were you!” 

“Watch my head?” he was startled when the Shacktron was pulled back by an invisible force but then he noticed a shadow cast over him, before he could react he was suddenly crushed by a giant fist that continued to rain blows on him that got harder with each strike. The group within the Mystery Shack watched as a giant arm forced its way through the rift in the sky to punch Bill into the ground with incredible vigour. In reality, it was the real body of Alvah that managed to push only her arm through far enough that she could strike him down. The visual is rather hilarious because in the Nightmare Realm it just looked like she was sticking her arm through a hole, she cursed to herself when he slipped out from under her fist and floated a distance away “You have got to be kidding me! I thought I cut off all your access to this dimension!” the children’s eyes were quickly shielded when she showed Bill a not so friendly gesture, hundreds of eyes then opened all over her forearm that darted around in search for them until settling on the Shacktron. If it weren’t for the fact, when Stan was sulking away from the group, that she had told them how exactly she was going to help them they would have panicked at the giant arm that slowly reached out towards them. Soos, who was instructed by Alvah, stood outside the shack with her vessel in his arms as her giant hand hovered a few inches from him. 

“Wow, dude, you’re a very big monster.” her hand extended out to him and her finger gingerly caressed his cheek, he giggled softly at the affection “Hehe, thanks.” he let out an oh when she turned her hand and opened her palm out to him, he understood and placed her vessel within her palm and her hand gently closed around her body before finally pulling back. They all watch as her thumb gently caressed at her vessel’s cheek like she was handling a porcelain doll, what they didn’t expect was for her hand to enclose around her body and crushed it. 

“Wha-- What is she doing?” a few of them questioned then gasped when she opened her hand and let her body drop before retreating back into the rift. 

“That was a cheap move, Harbinger of Chaos!” the humans and even the Henchmaniacs shudder at the sound of deep and ominous chuckle that echoed in their heads, a shadow casted over the Shacktron and they were met with what they believed was the true body of the Harbinger of Chaos. Their body was made of swirling, smoky tendrils, with countless red and white eyes embedded throughout their body, giving it an unsettling and chaotic appearance. The eyes vary in size and are placed randomly across their limbs, creating a sense of horror and unease. 

“Says the guy who had to kick me out of my vessel in order to have more of an advantage on these poor mortal beings, Billy~” he slowly started turning red at the nickname, he grew even more frustrated when they turned their back to him to look back at the Shacktron “Leave him and his lackies to me, I'll make sure they don't get in your way."

...

...

"You Pines brothers are freaks." McGucket spoke through the silence that caught many off guard, those who understood look towards Stan, who was currently gawking at what Alvah truly looked like “That ain't even the full scale of what that monster is, and they’re in a sort of state where they ain’t messing with y’all’s noggins like they did mine.” 

“Indeed. You always were the smart one between you and Ford.” they turn back towards Bill and make sure they stood protectively in front of the Shacktron when the Henchmaniacs formed a line behind Bill “Ah, doesn’t this remind you of something Billy? Where we fought over sweet little Fordsy after your little temper tantrum! Hah, it was so funny seeing you have a meltdown like you did before.” they laugh when he stamps his foot. 

“And you’re doing it again! You’re choosing mortal beings over your duty! You’re stepping in when you aren’t supposed too! You’re interfering with this timeline when you weren’t even supposed to exist! I just don’t understand why you chose to intervene when you’ve watched millions die and cry out for salvation!” his hands ball into fists as he glared at them “I just don’t understand what makes Sixer and these humans so different that it broke you!” they let out a laugh. 

“That answer is quite simple, actually.” each and every one of their eyes stare smugly at him “I just simply don’t like you. Besides, watching you act like this is all the more fun.”  

“Get them!” Bill looked back at his Henchmaniacs and saw the way they hesitated to charge forward “What are you waiting for?! It’s just one being!” 

“You seem to forget, Billy.” they coo softly, he Shacktron took a step back as the humans sweat a little when Alvah spread open their wings and slowly lifted themself off the ground “The Nightmare Realm was mine to watch over before you showed up. And don’t think just because you took over it was because I was intimidated by you, I just didn’t want the responsibility. I am a lazy being, and this is the most work I have ever done since I first opened my eyes.” they laughed at Bill’s frustration. 

“Get them!” swallowing down their initial nervousness, the Henchmaniacs begin to charge forward but a blur that was Alvah flew past them and grabbed Bill, slamming him down and dragging him across the rubble that was once Gravity Falls. The Henchmaniacs deem Alvah more of a threat than the Shacktron so they are quick to abandon them to aid Bill, now that their attention was on Alvah and away from them it was their chance to get into the Fearamid and save Ford. Alvah was currently beating Bill into the ground and evading any attacks by himself and his Henchmaniacs thanks to the millions of eyes that covered their body, taking them on was next to nothing. Compared to Bill, who relied heavily on his magic and mental attacks, and though they were a lazy combatant, they were very much a heavy hitter. Bill manages to blast Alvah off of him but they caught themself in the air and recovered quickly, he was quick to move because they nose dive towards him and leave a crater in his wake “Don’t just stand there and watch, surround them!” 

“But boss, they’re scary!” he was quick to glare at Keyhole for making such a comment. 

“I’ll show you something even scarier if you don’t do anything useful!” Alvah looks back towards the Shacktron and let out a breath of relief when they saw the group responsible for rescuing Ford advance into the Fearamid, now it was their job to keep Bill distracted for as long as they could hold him.  

as promised, alvah held off bill and his henchmaniacs as best as they could. 

sometimes they would leave the henchmaniacs to the shacktron since they proved they were more than capable of standing on their own. 

bill would sometimes get too close to leaving and heading back to the fearamid but they would pull him right back and make sure he never left their sight. 

they went so far as to ripping his eye right out of his socket, knowing that it would take him some time to regenerate it. 

both themself and bill knew that the body they had constructed was on limited time and they didn’t know how long they had before it started falling apart. 

but they were going to do whatever they could to keep bill from winning. 

“The one time you decide to interfere with my business it is to stand against me. You were there alongside Frills when my dimension went up in flames. I saw the way those eyes of yours held nothing but indifference, that you have seen and heard countless others lose their lives like that of a boring soap opera. And I also know that the various versions of you, the alternative realities where the Pines Family lost, and you did as you were told! You sat back and watched, but why in this the reality where you’re deciding to do something different?!” Alvah stared boredly at Bill as he started ranting again “Why couldn’t you have done something on that fateful day?! Why couldn’t you interfere like you’ve done now?!” they simply roll their eyes. 

“You’re still holding onto that grudge, Bill? Sheesh, Time Baby and I told Axolotl that we shouldn’t have kept you around. You may be a being like us now, but you were still just a simple mortal that was fortunate enough to be born with a powerful defect. A freak amongst his peers that saw beyond the second dimension, and due to the fact you wanted to prove that what you were seeing wasn’t your imagination, you took matters into your own pitiful little hands and ended up destroying them in the process. That is not my fault, I may have implanted the idea in that empty head of yours but I didn’t tell you to do it.” they let out a snort “Your unwillingness to take responsibility of your actions is what has led you done this path of destruction. I guess you’re the new big overgrown baby now that the Time Baby is gone. Gonna cry about it?” 

“Alvah!” it was their mistake to take their eyes off of Bill, that millisecond they broke their concentration at the cry for help coming from Candy and Grenda, Mabel’s friends— her children. Bill took it to his advantage and blasted a hole through their chest, knocking them back and giving him the chance to finally return to the Fearamid. They push themself up and stare down at the hole that would have sealed up by now but a look of dread takes over when they noticed that it was regenerating, they’ve already spent too much time and their power was beginning to fade.  

But now they were left with two options. 

The Henchmaniacs have come to realize that only the shack itself is protected by the unicorn spell and not the limbs, so they exploited that weakness and began to tear the Shacktron apart. They were hesitating whether to abandon the Shacktron to stop Bill or to abandon Bill to shake the defenseless humans against the Henchmaniacs, oh for the simpler times where they didn’t care. Why did they have to care?  

“Alvah!” they gasped softly when they heard the tiny voice of Candy again, looking over to the fallen Shacktron, she saw little Candy giving her a thumbs up “We will be a-okay! Go save Mabel and the others!” Grenda grinned, though it was a little weak she could see the determined look in her eyes. 

“We got this handled! Go kick that ugly triangle’s butt!” to think it would be those kids that decided for them, and though they hesitated, they turned their back on them and hurriedly flew up towards the Fearamid. They don’t slow down and fly faster until they shoot through the hole in the Fearamid and crash into Bill, sending them both into the wall opposite to where the humans below were. 

“Whoa!” 

“What was that?!” they all jump when a giant weight dropped onto the ground until a shadow loomed over them, and above them was Alvah holding their arms in front of them to protect them from Bill “Alvah! Are you alright?!” Ford’s eyes widened and he looked up at the being that stood above them. 

“Alvah? Is that you?” a weak chuckle rings through his head. 

“It is. Do I look as cool as I described myself?” he couldn’t answer when Alvah tanks another blast shot their way by Bill. 

“You just don’t know when to quit, do you?!” Alvah holds a hand to their face as they raises their head and they all notice that they’re looking a little worse for wear, their wounds weren't regenerating and pieces of their body are beginning to drip off their body “You’re falling apart and you know it, just get out of my way and maybe I won’t erase you when I’m done with this dimension.” they let out a weak laugh as they looked at Bill like he was the dumbest being in all the worlds that existed, their arm dropping to their side and half of their face slowly melting off. 

“I’d rather go to Theraprism then let you have your way with these mortal beings.” they lowered themself down towards Stanford and let out a tired breath “I apologize for failing you, Stanford. I couldn’t keep your family safe, I couldn’t keep them out of danger.” 

“I-It’s okay, Alvah.” they shook their head. 

“It’s not. If it weren’t for the fact that the Time Baby is dead, I wouldn’t be here right now. Bill did us both a favor by erasing him from existence and allowing me to make this right.” they then reach down to gently caress Ford’s cheek in an effort to apologize “Let me try and make this right, old friend.” he blinked up at them when he heard the sound of genuine remorse through their thoughts, when they pulled their hand back he nodded softly. 

“Alright.” Stan perked up gently when he saw them briefly turn their head in his direction but before they could say anything Bill just clapped his hands. 

“Blah, blah, blah. Enough with the sentimental moments, lets rumble!” the humans beneath them cover their heads when Alvah lunged over them and tackled Bill to the ground, and while the two of them were fighting once more, everyone looked towards Stan who stubbornly refused to take Ford’s hand and step into Bill’s Zodiac. 

“Come on, Stanley! Alvah has Bill distracted and where we need him, you’re the only one left.” Stan scoffed, crossing his arms as he rolled his eyes. 

“You realize this is a bunch of hogwash, right? You really think some caveman graffiti is gonna stop that monster?” a rally of groans come from the others. 

“Dang it, old man! Now’s not the time!” Gideon shouts. 

“Come on!” 

“What are you doing? You’re gonna ruin this!”  

“I’ve never held hands this long and I am very uncomfortable.” he raised his hands to defend himself from the onslaught of shouting coming from them. 

“Whoa. Hey, I’m not the enemy here, people. Don’t forget who literally created the end of the world.” Ford let out a sigh. 

“I’m sorry, Stanley. I know. Just help me fix it, please.” Stan stared at him. 

“Fine. Just do one thing. Say thank you.” Ford was taken aback by the request. 

“What?” 

“I spent thirty years trying to bring you back into this dimension and you still haven’t thanked me! You want me to shake your hand? Say thank you.” Ford, almost as stubborn as Stan, looked like he was going to refuse but a loud thud caught his attention. He looked up and flinched when he saw Bill had Alvah pinned down but their head was turned in their direction and all of their eyes were glaring at him. 

“Just say thank you, Ford! It ain’t that hard!” they kick Bill off of them then punch him back, Bill is shooting energy blasts and them as they crawl along the walls like a spider before jumping forward and kicking Bill in the eye. 

“Fine. Thank you.” Stan let out a huff and finally took his and Soos’ hand, completing the circuit and glowing alongside them. 

“Now, see. Between me and him, I’m not always the bad twin.” 

“Between him and me.” the silence is almost deafening as Dipper and Wendy share a look of shock “Grammar, Stanley.” Stan looks like he was trying to hold it in, trying not to ruin it all because of one stupid little comment, but it just gets to him that he lets go of Soos’ hand and strikes Ford across the face. 

“I’ll grammar Stanley you! You stuck up son of a gun! I mean, come on!” Ford is quick to recover and punch Stan. 

“Don’t jeopardize this, you idiot! Everything’s on the line!” Dipper and Mabel leave their spots to pull Stan and Ford back, pleading with them to stop fighting and to just hold hands. A scream ringing through their heads makes them jump in fight and they look over to see Bill had pinned Alvah to the wall this time after punching a fist through their chest and ripping out their vessel. 

“Let go of me, you geometrical freak!” she shouts as she punches at his fist with what little strength she had left, the body she constructed falling apart into nothing but a puddle of flesh and goo, she’s thrashing in his hold before turning her attention towards Stan and Ford with an angered expression “Are you two serious?! Grammar Stanley. What the hell is wrong with you, Stanford?! You just couldn’t shut your mouth for just one second?! And Stanley! As frustrating as that is why couldn’t you just had held it in long enough to take Bill down?!” she lets out a groan, holding her head in her hands as her body starts to malfunction and struggle to maintain a form. 

“You’ve always acted all high and mighty in that big body of yours, so how does it feel to finally be the small one?” her hand digs into his as she glared up at him. 

“How does it feel that despite how big you are you’ve still got the mentality of a baby?” she stuck her tongue out at him with a hmph only to let out of grunt when he started crushing her within his fist “See? Throwing a temper tantrum. You should be put on time out.” 

“Will you shut up?!” she rolled her eyes, he then finally turns his back down towards the panicking humans “This is just too perfect! Didn’t you brainiacs know the zodiac doesn’t work if you don’t all hold hands? And what’s better, you’ve brought every threat to my power together in one easy to destroy circle!” he snaps his fingers and burns the circle to a crisp. 

“Oh, no!” Pacifica lets out a shriek when her hair was caught on fire. 

“Ah! My hair!” Robbie, too, lets out a shout when his hair was on fire. 

“Ah! My hair also!” Bill snaps his fingers again and restrains both Stan and Ford. 

“You guys wanna see what happens to your friends when you can’t get along?” 

“Hey! You give them back!” McGucket hollers. 

“You’ve gone too far, Cipher!” 

“Yeah! We’re not scared of you!” Wendy shouts as she pulls out her axe, McGucket doing the same with his banjo, though Bill just laughs at their display of confidence. 

“Oh, but you should be.” with a snap of his fingers, everyone except for Dipper, Mabel, Stan and Ford stiffens in unison and make a brief choking noise. Their eyes glow yellow and roll into the back of their and their mouths hang open as they are lifted into the air, Alvah turned her head away at the fate in store for them “You know, this castle could really use some decorations!” he turned them into tapestries with images of them screaming in front of their symbols then hung them up on the walls “Looks like it’s too late for you friends, Stanford.” Dipper and Mabel let out screams when a cage suddenly encases them. 

“Ah! Kids!” both herself and Stan shout, she then let out a soft gasp when Bill pulled her closed to his eye. 

“And you, you’re at your limit now.” they all look up to where he was holding her and saw the way she couldn’t hold up her form perfectly, now she was a fix of both her male and female forms “Do you have any last words, Alvah?” she looks down at the Pines family and saw the distressed looks on their faces as they stared up at her, and despite all that, she gave them a weak yet reassuring smile. 

“I regret nothing.” she spoke, her voice tinged with her masculine one “Thanks to Stanford and that error in our contract I spent thirty years developing something I never knew I would have wanted. From the empty void within me, I have come to love the Pines family to the point I would have destroyed this timeline to keep them safe. Maybe in an alternate reality I did, or perhaps if I came to terms with my feelings much earlier, then I might have done it.” Bill cringed at her words. 

“Ew, feelings.” she let out a laugh. 

“I know, right? But I wouldn’t change the fact that I love those kids and their great uncles for a second.” she then looked back towards the Pines family one last time “Remember what I told you? There are two endings to this story right now! Figure out how to get to the one where you guys win!” she let out a grunt when his grip on her body tightened, her body beginning to crack and shatter under the pressure. 

“And that’s enough out of you.” he raises his hand to throw her to the ground but he saw the way her head perked up as something came to mind that caused her to start laughing, he was taken aback when she looked at him with a smug expression “What’s so funny?” 

“You... will be defeated by the person you least expect.” her face crumbled and a piece of her true face peeked out from within her broken body “You will soon realize you messed with the wrong family, Bill Cipher.” he didn’t like the way she laughed at him so he finally threw her down onto the ground, their eyes widened when Bill lifted his foot up and intended to finish her off by crushing her under the weight of his foot. 

“Stanley.” he flinched at the sound of her voice, he looked at the others and saw that they didn’t react so he turned over to her and saw her looking at him with a weak smile “Knock his lights out for me.” he closed his eyes as he turned away when Bill brought his foot down on her body. 

“Alvah!” they all cried out and watch as Bill raised his foot and saw he had completely shattered her into millions of pieces, but they could only hope that if they won that she’ll be able to find all her pieces to come back to them. 

thanks to alvah, they knew that there was a possibility that they could win against bill. 

but due to the fact that alvah didn’t know how they won, it was up to them to fill in the blanks to get the ending they want. 

dipper and mabel manage to escape the cage bill trapped them in by mabel spraying paint in bill’s eye. 

stan and ford are temporarily freed from their restraints only to be trapped in the same cage as bill chases after dipper and mabel in his nightmare form, leaving the pines brothers some time to reflect and formulate a plan to take down bill. 

it was only when bill returns that they put their plan into action. 

“Alright, Ford. Time’s up. I’ve got the kids. I think I’m gonna kill one of ‘em now just for the heck of it!” as Bill holds the two up to his eye, his pupil change into their symbol each time he spoke “Eenie... meenie... minee... you!!” he holds his hand up and prepares to end Mabel by snapping his fingers, only for Ford to shout to cut him off. 

“Wait! I surrender.” Bill let out a satisfied huff. 

“Good choice.” he drops the twins and slowly approaches Ford. 

“Don’t do it, Ford! It’ll destroy the universe.” 

“It’s the only way.” Bill lets out an evil laugh. 

“Oh, even when you’re about to die, you Pines twins just can’t get along.” he drops the cage and ties Stan up, leaving Ford standing and unrestraint. 

“My only condition is that you let me brother and the kids go!” Bill narrowed his eye on him but complied. 

“Fine.” Dipper shakes his head. 

“No, Grunkle Ford! Don’t trust him!” Bill just lets out another laugh as he ignored the desperate cries from the children. 

“It’s a deal!” Bill takes Ford’s extended hand and enters the mental realm within his mind, petrifying his physical form as he laughs evilly “Oh, I’m here. I’m finally here! Look at this place: a perfect, calm, orderly void. Gotta hand it to ya, Ford. You really know how to clear your mi--” Bill cuts himself off after opening the only door within what he believed was Ford’s mind, only instead to find Stan laying comfortably in his chair in the Mystery Shack’s living room as he played with a paddleball. When Stan saw Bill he winked at the dream demon while pointing a  finger gun at him as he clicked his tongue “WHAT?!” 

“Heh heh! Do a pretty good impression of my brother, don’t I? Switch clothes and no one can tell us apart. Welcome to my mind. Surprised you didn’t recognize it.” 

“WHAT?! The deals off!” the door behind Bill slams shut and starts to burn with a blue flame “What the—no, no, no, no!” 

“Oh, yeah. You’re going down, Bill. You’re getting’ erased.” Stan spoke as he pointed at his head “Memory gun. Pretty clever, huh?” Bill looks up at Stan with a panicked expression. 

“Y-You idiot! Don’t you realize you’re destroying your own mind too?!” he gave a shrug. 

“Eh. It’s not like I was using this space for much anyway.” 

“LET ME OUTTA HERE! LET ME OUT!” Bill attempts to use his powers, only to realize too late that they are now being negated thanks to the memory gun’s influence “Gah! Why isn’t this working?!” Bill’s own mind began to race as he tried desperately to take control of the situation only to remember the words Alvah last spoke to him. 

“You... will be defeated by the person you least expect.” at the time he didn’t want to believe it, he didn’t want to believe that he would be defeated but he never would have thought that he would be defeated by the hands that was Stanley Pines. The lesser twin that was an eyesore, the one that was cast away and forgotten like a toy at the bottom of a toy chest. He didn’t want to admit that because he didn’t heed her warning that he would meet his fate at the hands of the one favored by chaos. 

“Hey, look at me. Turn around and look at me, you one eyed demon!” Bill turns around and shrunk back when he saw the way Stan was glaring down at him “You’re a real wise guy, but you made one fatal mistake—you messed with my family.” Bill shakes his head as he tried everything he could to reason with Stan. 

“You’re making a mistake! I’ll give you anything! Money! Fame! Riches! Infinite power, your own galaxy! PLEASE!” Bill looks down at his hands and similar to Alvah, his body began to lose control of his body and started to succumb to the memory gun’s influence “NO! What’s happening to me?! !Nruter yam I taht rewop tneicna eht ekovni I !nrub ot emoc sah emit ym, L-T-O-L-O-X-A.” his body went through my different forms as he spoke in reverse but when he finally managed to maintain the blackened version of his normal form, he reached a hand out to the human that brought him to his demise “STAAANNLLEEEEY!!” he pulls his fist back and punched Bill in the eye and shattered his body, Stan pants softly as he listened to Bill’s scream fade into the back of what was left of his mind before turning to pick up a picture of him with Dipper, Mabel and Waddles. 

“Heh. Guess I was good for something after all.” before he felt the flames engulf him he felt something in his pocket, he pulls it out and saw that it was the same picture he pocketed off of Mabel but it was different. Before he couldn’t see it but now he had a clear picture of Alvah smiling at him in the photo, and there he almost wished his mind wouldn’t be erased because he was going to miss the feeling that was falling in love with the one person who had loved him for him, even if she never was able to tell him.  

Outside of Stan’s mind, those who were turned into the tapestries were freed and dropped to the floor. Outside the Fearamid, the rift sucks all of the Henchmaniacs and demons released into Gravity Falls, returning them to the Nightmare Realm from whence they came. The Fearamid is deconstructed and pulled into the rift, once gone, a wave washed over the town, resorting it to its pre-weirdmageddon state. Elsewhere, the forest is shown with a bird landing on Bill’s physical form, now permanently petrified and covered in moss and vegetation. Stan is found in a different part of the forest sitting motionless on his knees, it isn’t until Ford, Dipper and Mabel find him that he opens his eyes. 

“Oh, my gosh! Grunkle Stan, you did it!” Mabel cheers as she runs up to him and placed his fez on his head, a little lopsided but on nonetheless. 

“Oh, uh, hey there... kiddo. What’s your name?” he asked rather confused, hands on her shoulders to push her back. 

“Eheh, Grunkle Stan?” he lets out a weak laugh as he looked around. 

“Who are you talkin’ to?” 

“C-Come on. It’s me. It’s me, Grunkle Stan!” Dipper had to pull Mabel back when she started growing desperate due to Stan’s inability to remember who was in front of him “Grunkle Stan, it’s me!” Ford placed a hand on Mabel’s shoulder when Dipper pulled her back to where he stood. 

“We had to erase his mind to defeat Bill. It’s all gone. Stan has no idea, but he did it. He saved the world. He saved me.” when he approached Stan, his brother continued to look around in confusion before looking up at him with a lost look in his eyes “You’re our hero, Stanley.” he spoke as he fell to his knees before throwing his arms around Stan’s shoulders, pulling him into a much needed hug and cried softly in his shoulder. Mabel collapses to her knees and cries into her hands, Dipper puts his hand on her shoulder and cries as well. In an effort to try and restore his memories, Stan is being led by Dipper towards what was left of the Mystery Shack with Mabel, Ford and now Soos following closely behind. They walk up to the door and Dipper attempts to open the door but has to throw himself against the door to break it down, he pulls himself back up and leads Stan into the living room that was as in an even worse state then when they had to fight zombies, but it didn’t seem to bother Stan at all. 

“Hey, this is a real nice place you got here.” 

“It’s your place, Grunkle Stan.” 

“Don’t you remember? Not even a little?” he shakes his head as he takes a seat in the recliner. 

“Nope. But this chair hugs my butt like it remembers. Ah.” he relaxes into the seat then looks back at the others standing before him, who are looking back at him sadly “Hey, why the long faces? You guys look like it’s someone’s funeral. Who’s that big guy crying in the corner?” Soos lets out a sob and turns away. 

“We saved the world, but what’s the point? Grunkle Stan’s not himself anymore.” 

“There’s gotta be something we can do to jog his memory.” Mabel says as she looks around for anything that could help but Ford shakes his head. 

“There isn’t. I’m sorry. Stan’s gone.” 

“I know my Grunkle is in there somewhere. There’s gotta be something around here that can help bring him back.” she then finally notices her scrapbook laying on the ground so she quickly grabs it and rushes over to Stan’s side, throwing the book into his lap and opening it “This’ll work! This has to work! Here’s the first day we came to Gravity Falls, Grunkle Stan. And here’s a macaroni interpretation of my emotions!” she then flips the page and Dipper points at the one where they went fishing. 

“That time we went fishing? That Summerween we spent together? Don’t you remember anything?” Stan gives an apologetic shake of his head. 

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what this is or who you are or--” he let out a startled shout when Waddles jumped into his lap “Gah! Quit it, Waddles! I’m trying to remember my life story!” this comment caused them all to look up at him in surprise. 

“What did you say?” he lets out a grunt and stood to his feet and attempts to get Waddles off of him as the little pig licks at his face. 

“I said get Waddles off of me.” Ford gasps. 

“It’s working! Keep reading.” 

“Skip to my page! He needs to remember our boss-employee relationship.” Stan scoffed as he sat back down in his recliner. 

“Hey, just cause I have amnesia, don’t go tryin’ to give yourself a raise, Soos.” 

“It’s happening! Keep going!” Mabel nods and flips through a few more pages. 

“Okay, okay. Day two. Grunkle Stan smells weird but we’re starting to bond. He told us a lot about being a business man in the ‘80’s and seemed happy when we pretended to listen. He also gave me a grappling hook which everyone is impressed by. And in more important news, I met some neighborhood hotties.” this comment caused them all to laugh as they continued to go through the entire scrapbook, but as they reached the end Dipper slowly came to a realization. 

“But what about Alvah?” this caused them all to stiffen, he and Mabel share a look of concern as Stan looked between them in confusion “We don’t have any photos of her.” 

“And the ones we do have don’t show her face. We can’t jog his memory like this.” she then let out a soft gasp as she looked up at Ford “We can use your thingamajig from before! We saw her memories, so if we strap ourselves to it we might be able to...” Ford gave her a guilty look. 

“Unfortunately, my dear, that device was destroyed after a certain... incident.” Dipper, too, looks guilty. 

“But he can’t forget her! She made him so happy! They fell in love and made each other happy! We barely know anything that’s happened between them from the thirty years they spent together or even throughout the summer. This can’t be the end of their relationship when it had only just begun!” Stan watched them talk as he tried to picture a face to the name Alvah, he tried to think of anything that came to mind when he thought of her. 

“Alvah...” he spoke softly under his breath and tried to remember how he felt about this person that was nothing but a faceless image in his head. 

“I’M HERE!!” they all jump at the loud screaming followed by a crash, looking up in surprise and shock, Alvah came sliding through the front door and crashed into the wall. She pulled herself out and they looked closely at her appearance, since Bill had destroyed her body, it took her so long to piece herself back together and was still missing a couple pieces “I’m here, I’m here! I’m sorry I took so long, but I’m back!” she adds then made a face when her arm fell off, she was quick to reach down and reattach it. 

“Alvah! You’re okay!” Dipper and Mabel exclaim and rush over to her, she opened her arms as she dropped to her knees and let them run into her embrace. She pulls them in close and run her fingers through their hair while nuzzling close to them, her resolve weak for them as they clung to her “We were so worried about you. We were so scared.” 

“But you did it, and I just knew you kids would be able to win in the end. I’m so sorry that you guys had to go through all that, I’m sorry I couldn’t stop it from happening. If only I cared enough to stop it from happening all together.” she said as she pulled back to wipe away their years “How will you ever forgive me?” Mabel sniffled softly. 

“We already forgave you. You stood by us against Bill to the very end.” Dipper nodded his head as he readjusted his hat. 

“You did everything you could just for us, despite so many odds stacked against you. You had so much on the line just by being there, but you did it anyways.” her gaze weakened when they hug her again, squeezing so tight as if she was going to disappear “We couldn’t not forgive you.” she let out a breath of relief as she hugged them back. 

“I’m glad.” they pull away to allow her to stand and so she lifts her gaze to the man who stood to his feet at her arrival, Stan took a step back when this beautiful woman beamed at the sight of him and rushed towards him. He let out a whoa when she threw herself at him, letting out a cheer as she wrapped her arms around his neck and so he caught her by the waist and unintentionally twirled her around as she pulled herself close to him “Oh, you old bastard, you did it! I can’t believe you actually did it, Stanley!” she was squeezing him so tight he was sure she was trying to crack his back, Ford had to gently squeeze her shoulder to get her to loosen her grip and when she did her hands slide onto his face where she cradled his face. He stared into those bright green eyes of hers that shun like that of a freshly cut emerald and a smile that was bright enough to put the stars to shame, however, he grabbed her by her wrists and gently pulled them away from his face and he saw the way the light in her eyes dimmed “S-Stanley?” he let out a nervous chuckle as he took a step back and pulled away. 

“Sorry, even if my memory is slowly coming back to me, I think I’d remember if I knew a gorgeous babe like yourself.” they all saw the way her face twitched as Stan spoke, her smile slowly dropping the longer he spoke “I appreciate the gesture, but take a guy out to dinner before throwing yourself at me.” her arms dropped to her side as she stared at him. 

“W-What? What are you saying, Stan? Don’t you know who I am?” Ford takes a step forward and gently grabs her by her bicep. 

“We had to erase his mind to defeat Bill.” her eyes widened at Ford’s words “Mabel has figured out a way to jog his memory of us, and it’s working slowly but... we don’t know if the same could be said about his memory of you.” Mabel then jumped in and grabbed her hand, tugging on it gently as she spoke. 

“But we will stop at nothing to get him to remember you! The special connection you two had is too good to be erased!” Stan briefly looked away from her when Dipper took his hand and gave it a squeeze. 

“You two never spoke about what kind of relationship you had, but we could all tell that it was something deep and meaningful. We didn’t need to be told to know that you two were in love.” this caused them all to look back at Alvah but were taken aback when they saw that she was crying, she was crying as she stared at Stan with a lost look in her eyes “A-Alvah?” she slowly looked down to see tears dripping down her face, her lips trembling at the realization that she had lost something she never knew she wanted. 

“This... this isn’t fair. You can’t forget about me, Stanley. Y-You can’t possibly forget what we had. I’ve only come to accept these feelings and now you don’t even understand what that means for me!” she spoke weakly as her hands fly to her chest where she’s grasping tightly at her blouse “I can’t even help you remember me! There are no photos of us together, I can’t even force you to remember because it’ll only damage your mind even further! I can’t do anything to salvage what we had!” she couldn’t describe how much it hurt for him to stare at her like she was just some stranger, because to him, she was just a stranger. 

“H-Hey, I’m sorry, I really am... but I’m real flattered that something like you liked a guy like me.” he said softly as he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, she whipped her head up and shook it side to side. 

“Liked? That isn’t even the word I’d use to describe what I feel for you. I am a being unable to feel anything! I shouldn’t even feel this aching pain in my chest, the feeling of a broken heart. You made me feel things that had me questioning my entire existence. The way you looked at me had me feeling special, I want to be the reason you smile and the cause for your laughter. I want you to know that I chose you when nobody else did, I want you to know that I want all of your love and nothing else!” she looked down at her hands and felt a wave of anguish take over her, her hands then dig into her scalp “I couldn’t even tell you in the end, I couldn’t even say it to your face when you asked me. I couldn’t even tell you that I loved you.” his eyes widened in disbelief. 

“Y-You what?” her palms dig into her forehead as she shakes her head. 

“I fell in love with you and it took a damn twelve year old girl to get me to realize it! I couldn’t even tell you when you asked and it hurt so much when you looked at me as if I never did! And now it doesn’t matter anymore! I don’t even know why you loved me after everything I did, and I don’t even know if you forgive me for allowing all this to happen! Do you hate me, Stanley? Are you angry with me?” she finally falls to her knees, her hands clutched to her chest as she pressed her head into the floorboards at his feet “I love you my dear, and I loved our time here. I beg you not forget me, as selfish as it sounds, I just want you to love me like you did this summer.” Stan looked down at the woman who was crying at his feet and he didn’t know how to feel, this beautiful woman had just spilt her heart out to him and begged for him to remember her. So he tries, he closes his eyes and thinks about her name and waits to see what his mind would conjure up. His mind seemed to be struggling but thinking about her seemed to make him feel happy, a feeling blossomed in his chest as if his heart seemed to remember her. Slowly, ever so slowly, the figure in his head began to take shape during his happiest moments. 

“Why are you looking at me like that?” the woman spoke with a tease in her tone, they seemed to be outside the Mystery Shack with the sun shining down on her perfectly that it seemed to make her glow. 

“Well, how am I looking at you?” she giggled. 

“As if I hung the stars.” he hummed softly as his hand reached for her, she doesn’t move and allows his hand to brush her luscious blonde hair over her shoulder and gently cups her cheek, to which she leans into his touch “You’re a very adorable human, Stan.” he huffed at her words. 

“Adorable? That’s how I’d describe you.” she laughs softly and places her hand on top of his. 

“Well, I can be whatever you want me to be, I am made for you.” his thumb gingerly rubs against her cheek as he thought over her words carefully, he then gave a little shrug as he spoke. 

“I just want you to be mine.” this had stunned her into silence as she stared at him, he burst out into laughter when she covered her face with her hand and pushed him away when she turned bright red at his words. 

“That was real smooth.” he throws his head back with a laugh when he grabbed her other hand and pulled her back, kissing the back of her hand and slowly up her arm where he ended with his lips pressing against her cheek “Stop it, Stanley. You know I’m ticklish.” he’s now nuzzling his cheek against hers, the feeling of love slowly overwhelming his mind as he shared this tender moment with this beautiful woman who had chosen him over the millions of others that existed in this rather small reality. 

“How’d I ever get so lucky?” she smiled softly and turned to look back at him. 

“I could say the same thing.” her hand caresses his cheek before pulling him in the share a kiss “I adore you, Stan.” he smiled. 

“That means a lot to me, Alvah.” 

He blinked softly when the figure in front of him revealed to him was the same woman who brought him endless joy, the same woman who had been with him at the lowest moments on his journey to fix his mistake that took thirty years in the making. The same woman who knew who he was but stayed by his side through thick and thin, who comforted him when everybody else wouldn’t even bat him an eye. A woman who reminded him of the sandy beach of New Jersey when the sun was at its peak and made the sand shine like gold, or like that of a forest when the day was just right. This was a woman that made him feel like he won the lottery and the prize wasn’t even money, but something even more valuable that he wished he had when he was a kid. 

Love and affection. 

Joy and attention.  

Slowly he started to remember the moments they shared together throughout the summer. From their day out on the lake to the laughter they shared at Dipper’s expense, to the time they fought zombies and the moment she sang to him as they danced. They never really labeled what their relationship was, but now he knew that what they had was a genuine connection; that they two were in love with each other and he didn’t want to forget that. She was still crying at his feet when he knelt down in front of her, placing a hand on her shoulder while trying to get her to look up at him. She seemed to have lost all her strength because he easily lifted her head up and it laid weakly within his hands, a whimper left her lips when his thumbs started wiping away her tears and continued to do so when more would replace them. 

“Alvah.” he spoke softly, her eyes shimmered with tears and gave them a glossy effect “Come on, toots, there isn’t a need for you to cry for me.” her eyes widened softly after hearing him call her that, a feeling of hope washing away the anguish in her chest. 

“What?” he smirked at her. 

“If all it took was forgetting to get you to profess your love for me, I should have faked dementia a long time ago.” a gasped left her lips when she saw the look of love in his eyes, the same look he would give her when it was just the two of them together “I may not remember everything, but how could I forget that it was you that made me feel like the luckiest guy in the world?” 

“Stan!” she practically tackled him into the ground and clung to him so tight, burying herself into his shoulder and crying softly when this time he wrapped his arms around her and held her close “You didn’t forget me, right? You remember me now, right? Please tell me that you remember me.” he turns his face into her hair as his hands rubs up and down her back to comfort her.  

“It's not all there yet, but yeah, I remember you sweetheart.” she let out a sigh of relief and practically melted in his arms, he let out an oh when she pushed herself up so that she was hovering over him before leaning down to capture his lips. He sighed into the kiss and wrapped his arms around her to pull her close, before anything else could happen they heard a cough, they were still practically kissing when they looked over and saw Ford covering Dipper and Mabel’s eyes while Soos was trying his hardest to fight down a smile.  

“As heartwarming as this is, please remember that there are children present.” she pushed herself back but continued to lay on top of Stan. 

“Sorry.”  

“Not sorry.” she stared at Stan but laughed nonetheless, his chest rumbling as he laughed. Mabel lets out a squeal and quickly rushes over to where the two of them laid and jumped on top of them, soon followed by Dipper and unfortunately Soos, who had practically bellyflopped onto them. Ford chuckled as he stood above them but beamed down at them when, despite the discomfort then added weight gave them, they welcomed the children with laughter and bright faces. 

“Stanley.” he flinched when he heard her voice in his head, he doesn’t look when he felt her hand slide down his arm and intertwine their fingers together “I love you.” he hummed softly and gave her hand a squeeze. 

‘Love you too, doll face.’ she giggles softly and turned her face into his neck.

...

...

“Good morning, Gravity Falls. It’s another beautiful day, but every day is beautiful now that the... unpleasantness is over.” a broadcast goes off all throughout Gravity Falls after the end of Weirdmageddon where the townsfolk are recovering after such a disaster “In other news, the Northwest family has gone broke. After pledging his allegiance to Bill and then placing all his savings in weirdness bonds, Preston Northwest had to sell his mansion to preserve his family fortune.” cut to the Northwest couple crying as some workers hang a “for sale” banner on the gate. 

“You’re only going to have one pony now.” a horrified look washed over Pacifica’s face. 

“But fortunes have also turned for local maniac, Fiddleford McGucket, who, after regaining his sanity, has made millions overnight submitting his patents to the US Government.” to which Fiddleford announces that he’ll buy the Northwest mansion now that it was on sale “In other good news, town hero, Stanley Pines, has fully recovered his memory and will be throwing a party to celebrate his niece and nephew’s thirteen birthday and final day in town. But other than that, I can safely say our beloved Gravity Falls is back to normal. And now, Bodacious T, with the news.” we’re now brought to the Mystery Shack all fixed up decorated with balloons and all sorts to celebrate the twin's birthday with everyone from town, including the few fairy tale creatures, in attendance singing them happy birthday. 

“I can’t believe you all got together just to throw a party for us.” Mabel gushed at the crowd of people as she and Dipper stood in front of a cake, behind them were Stan, Ford and Alvah smiling down at their excitement along with Soos and Wendy. 

“After all the Pines family has done for the town, it’s the least we could do. You’ve helped everyone here.” Tyler spoke, this rallied a few cheers from the townsfolk. 

“Thanks to y’all savin’ us, I learned to open my heart to kindness. No more evil doin’. From now on, I’m gonna try to be Li’l Gideon, regular ol’ kid.” Gideon said, though the lingering presence of his prison inmates said otherwise, Soos then peered over the twin’s shoulders and ushered them towards the cake. 

“Dude! Make a wish, dawg.” 

“You know, on my first day here, if you had asked me what I wanted, I would have said “adventure, mystery, true friends”. But looking here at all of you, I realize that every wish came true.” he chuckles to himself “I have everything I wanted.” he let out a whoa when his hat was shoved down and covered his eyes, looking back, he saw that it was Alvah grinning cheekily at him and he couldn’t help but mirror her expression. 

“If I had only one wish it would be to shrink all of you with a shrink ray and bring you home with us in my pocket. But since that’s impossible... is that impossible?” she asked while leaning back towards Ford, he waves his hand up and down with a shrug, looking up at Alvah, she chuckled and did the same thing “Since that’s probably impossible, my only wish is for everyone to sign my scrapbook. I’ll never forget you guys. Wait.” she pulls out the memory gun and sets it on the floor then smashes it to pieces “Now I’ll never forget you guys.” with that she and Dipper blow out the candles, Wendy then pulls them into a hug. 

“I now officially declare you technically teenagers. Welcome to angst and acne forever.” in the crowd, Tambry, Robbie, Lee, Nate and Thompson start chanting “one of us”, this earned laughter from everyone, Blubs and Durland in turn fire off a cannon. 

“So, how do you feel?” Soos asked. 

“Samey, but differenty.” 

“Hey, you two. When are you going to open your presents already?” Pacifica asked as she raised her hand that was covered in tape “I broke a nail wrapping them.” Dipper and Mabel laugh, Alvah watches as the two grab a gift then looked backwards when she noticed Ford taking a step back. Stan claps his hands and goes to approach them but stopped when Alvah placed a hand on his chest, he smiles at her and goes to question what she was doing but stopped when she pushed him back. 

“I think your brother wants to have a word with you.” he looks at her confused and looks to where Ford was, she and Ford share a look until she winks at him and pushes Stan towards him “I think it’s something you’d like to hear, so don’t keep him waiting. I’ll watch the kids.” before he could say anything he let out a squeak when she gave his behind a little smack then skipped away. 

“Alvah!” she only laughs as she rushed away. The children smiled at the sight of Alvah and excitedly show her the gifts they received, however, she glanced back when she noticed Soos linger over to where the Pines’ brothers were talking and overheard a part that made him gasp. It wasn’t long until they came back and Stan gave her a warning glare for her previous action, she only smirked at him and threatened to do it again but stopped when he raised a glass Pitt cola bottle and tapped against it to get everyone’s attention. 

“Everyone, I have an announcement to make. Me and my, heh, nerdy bro over here have some catchin’ up to do. We’re gonna be away for a while. That’s why I’m shutting down the Mystery Shack for good.” this caused the crowd to gasp and murmur amongst each other, that was until Soos rushed towards Stan. 

“You shut down your mouth for good! I’m sorry Mister Pineses. It’s just that this shack is the most magical place on Earth. Sure, the attractions are all fake, but dreams aren’t fake!” he then holds up the Fiji mermaid taxidermy “Like this mermaid. It’s not just a dead fish butt sewn to a monkey carcass. It’s a marvelous creature that make sus believe that anything is possible. You shut down this shack, and you shut down our dreams!” he then takes off his hat “At least... my dreams.” the crowd aws at Soos’ words, Stan sighs to himself.  

“I’m sorry, Soos. It’s just, there’s no one around to run it. At least, there wouldn’t be if I hadn’t just found the perfect replacement.” he then takes his fez off and placed it on top of Soos’ head “Ladies and gentleman, the Mystery Shack is under new management.” the crowd let out cheers that not only the Mystery Shack gets to remain open, but that it was passed onto someone who rightfully deserved it. 

“You... you mean it, Mr. Mystery?” 

“You’re Mr. Mystery now, Soos. Try not to burn the place down.” Alvah placed her hand on Soos’ arm as she appeared beside him. 

“Who else would be able to take up the mantel if not you, Soos? It was bound to be yours if Stan were to give it to anyone, you deserve it.” Soos’ teared up at their words and doesn’t hesitate to wrap his arms around them, the two look at each other but smiled and hug him back. Thinking back to the time Soos had first met Stan and Alvah it brought a smile to his face so wide that it almost hurt, with the absence of his father he had been craving that approval of a father figure and it was almost fate that he happened to stumble upon a screwdriver that belonged to the Mystery Shack and where he would meet the two people he would call his parental figures. He wasn’t really looking for a maternal figure since he already had his abuelita but Alvah was always hanging around Stan and she had this charm that had drawn him in, so he had grown to crave her love and affection as well as her validation ever since she first ruffled his head. So as he looked up at the two that he held in his arms who smiled happily down at him, he shed a tear as they lovingly embraced him. The party raged on with laughter and endless chatter filling the air, Alvah is conversing with Ford when Tyler shouts for everyone to get together for a group photo. She, out of instinct, starts backing away when everyone got together in front of the Mystery Shack until Stan called out for her. 

“What are you doing, toots? Get over here!” they all looked at her expectantly but she raised her hands, shaking her head side to side. 

“No, no. You know I can’t take photos, Stan. I don’t want to ruin it, just take the photo without me.” Dipper and Mabel look at each other then rush over to her, Dipper has one of her hands while Mabel grabs at her dress and they start tugging her over “Children, please. I’ll be fine sitting this one out.” they shake their head. 

“We’ve got no pictures of you, Alvah. We want one photo of all the people we love together, even if you’re nothing but static.”  

“You’ll do this for us, right?” everyone waiting saw them look up at her with puppy dog eyes, eyes welling up with tears for effect and eventually she did cave “You’ll never say no to us.” she hangs her head as they pull her back over to where Stan and Ford were. 

“Unfortunately, yes.” Stan peers down at Alvah and saw her nervously tugging at her dress, worried that she was going to ruin the photo, she gasped softly when Stan takes her hands into his while wrapping an arm around her shoulder and pulling her into his chest “Stan, what are you--” 

“Come on doll, enough with the long face.” the hand holding hers moved to tilt her head up towards him “Chin up, and give us that award winning smile.” she stared at him until a giggle slipped past her lips, Ford then placed his hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. 

“If it makes you feel better, I’m not quite that photogenic myself.” she scoffed softly and joking shoved Ford back. 

“You’re a dork, Ford. You have the most unnecessarily serious photos ever. Don’t think Mabel hasn’t shown me.” he coughs into his hand as he turns away, quickly readjusting his glasses when they slipped down his nose. 

“That is quite irrelevant.” she shakes her head, she herself helps readjust Stan’s tie and glasses while he worked on fixing his fez as Toby sets up the camera. He let out an oh when it was lifted out of his hands and glanced over to see Alvah using her power to hold it up, she rolled her eyes when he smiles gratefully at her and rushed over to stand with the rest of the group. 

“Okay everyone, say Gravity Falls!” Mabel cheers. 

“Gravity Falls!” the snap of her fingers has the camera going off and taking their photo, Mabel is already running over to take a look at the polaroid and hurriedly shakes at it to see the results. Dipper is by her side just as she let out a gasp, her eyes widened in shock as she looked at the developed photo, he opens his mouth to question her but she’s already thrusting the photo in his face “Dipper, Dipper! Look!”  

“What is it?” he pushes her arm back so he could see what has her all frazzled until he saw it. There, as clear as day, was Alvah smiling right back at him instead of a disoriented figure composed of static. She had her arm linked with Stan’s while her hand rested against his bicep, a soft blush hued her cheeks as a bright smiled graced her lips, eyes shining as if it were her birthday “Alvah! Alvah! Come look!” she raised a brow at Dipper’s insistence, taking her hands back from Stan’s as the young twins run up to her. 

“What is it? Don’t tell me I blinked.” this earned a couple chuckles from the others, Dipper turns the photo towards her and her eyes widened when she was met with her smiling face, she gently takes the photo from his hands and tears up a little. It was a sort of curse that anything with a lense were capable of capturing her true form and would corrupt the photo, but there she was, smiling as if she wasn’t some sort of monster underneath it all “I can take a guess who’s responsible for this.” she spoke softly, now internally grateful to the Axolotl for granting her such a gift. 

“Wow, look at you~” Stan cooed as he took the polaroid from her hands “I didn’t think you could smile that wide.” she presses her hands to her cheeks that were creased as she continued to smile. 

“I’m struggling to stop, I’m just so happy right now.” Ford quickly plucks the photo from Stan’s hands when he reached for her waist, pulling her close and pressing soft kisses to her cheek, to which she laughed at the open display of affection but didn’t stop him “Stanley!” 

“Mabel, pumpkin!” she was currently awing at them while Dipper looked away “Think you can take so more photos of us? I’d like to have some of us together, and I think they’ll make a great addition to your scrapbook.” she already has the camera in her hands, a determined look that made everyone laugh. 

“On it.” the rest of the day is spent with everyone taking photos with Alvah now that she was granted with the blessing of her true form not interfering with the camera, Mabel’s favorite was one she took of Stan and her dancing and he had dipped her. She had thrown her head back with her laughter filling the air, eyes closed while Stan held her by the waist and stared at her as if she was his reason to breathe. She had made sure to capture of photo of them all, that being her, Dipper, Stan, Ford, Soos, Wendy and Alvah to finish off her scrapbook and she couldn’t think of a more perfect photo of her family. Later into the afternoon, the children, Stan, Ford, Alvah, Soos, Wendy and Waddles were at the bus stop waiting for their bus to come pick them up. 

“Do you really have to go? There’s still so much we haven’t done together.” Candy said sadly. 

“Summer’s over, Candy. It’s time for us to grow up.” 

“But not too much.” 

“Aaah! I hate my dumb heart for making me feel things!” she then proceeds to punch herself “Cut! It! Out! Heart!”  

“Hey, can you punch my heart, too.” Candy raises her hand. 

“No, mine! Punch my feelings away!” Alvah places a hand on Grenda’s shoulder as she gives the three of them an understanding look. 

“Been there, kiddo. But it gets better.” she pats her head softly then pulls her hand back when Mabel pulls Candy and Grenda into a hug. 

“Candy, Grenda, thank you for being my people. You’ll always be my best friends.” she pulls back and looks up at Stan “Grunkle Stan, thanks for wearing my goodbye sweater.” Stan lets out a cough as he rubs the back of his neck. 

“Ah, it’s cold out. I had to.” 

“What? But it’s like eighty-something degrees out today.” Stan and Ford are quick to glare at Soos.  

“Can it, Soos!” the children laugh, Alvah giggles softly as she leans in close to Stan’s ear. 

“I always knew you were a sweetheart, Stan. And I must say, you look real good in pink.” she snickers softly, she leans in closer when he flushed pink “See? Pink suits you well.” she’s laughing now when Stan pushed her away. 

“Stop, not now.” they look back towards the kids and saw Wendy kneel towards Dipper. 

“Hey, you mean a lot to me, man.” he fist bumps Wendy with a smile. 

“You, too.” she laughs and takes his hat off his hat, before he could do anything she took her own hat off and placed it on top of his head while putting his one on her head. 

“Something to remember me by.” she then hands a letter to Dipper “Oh, and this. Read it the next time you miss Gravity Falls.” he takes the letter just as a bus pulls up behind them. 

“Last bus leaving Gravity Falls. All aboard.” 

“I guess we've said goodbye to everyone except... Waddles.” Mabel sadly looks towards her little companion with a pained expression “I... I don’t know how to explain this but... mum and dad won’t let me bring a pig home to California so, you have to stay here!” she tries to leave but Waddles pulls at her skirt, she lets out a weak cry as she tried pushing him away “Come on. Come on! I have to go. I’m... I’m sorry, Waddles.” Stan, Ford and Alvah share a look until Stan broke. 

“Argh! You know what? Forget it! I lived with this pig all summer, now your parents are gonna have to!” he grabs Waddles and sets him down in front of the door so that driver could see him “Hey, bus guy! This pig is comin’ with the kids!” the driver narrowed his eyes on Stan and points towards a sign. 

“Now, hold on a second. Bringing animals aboard a moving vehicle is strictly prohibited--” he cut himself off when he saw Stan pull out his brass knuckles while Ford moves his coat back to reveal his gun strapped to his hip, but in between them was Alvah smiling sweetly at the driver, only then to reveal her grotesque form underneath her welcoming smile “WAH!! W-Welcome aboard! You can sit in the front row, pig.” the two men put their weapons away while Alvah returns back to her normal form, patting Waddles on the head as the pig hobbles into the bus as Stan kneels down towards the children. 

“Kids, you knuckleheads were nothin’ but a nuisance and I’m glad to be rid of ya.” the twins laugh and quickly hug him. 

“We’ll miss you too, Grunkle Stan.” she peers over his shoulder from when she stood, her face softened when she saw the way his eyes glistened with tears when they pulled away from him. She expects them to head towards the bus but was startled when they rushed towards her, she let out an oof when they wrapped their arms around her waist and hugged her “We’re going to miss you too, Alvah.” her hands trembled softly before finally settling on their backs, she then falls to her knees and pulled them close. 

“I’ll miss you more.” she spoke softly, her hands rubbing up and down their backs while nuzzling her cheek against theirs “I’ll always be watching over you guys, so know that you’ll never be alone.” she lets a couple tears fall when they pull away from her and sniffled softly when they waved their hands goodbye, Ford helps her to her feet and she could help but cry softly when the twins finally enter the bus and take a seat at the very back. They’re all waving the kids goodbye and even chase after the bus when it finally drives off, Stan, Ford and Alvah lag behind when the children continue to wave the bus off as it finally leaves Gravity Falls. 

“So Alvah, what are you planning on doing now?” they look back towards her and saw she had a pained look on her face as she looked down at her hands, Stan reaches for her out of concern “Alvah?” his eyes widened when she threw herself at Ford, wrapping her arms around him and hugging him tight, this caused Ford to look down at her in confusion when her fingers dig into his coat. 

“A-Alvah? What’s the matter?” 

“This is the end of the line, old friend.” 

“What?” she pulls herself off of him and snaps her fingers, her hand burst into a black and red flame and a scroll formed in her hands that unraveled and revealed their contract.  

“Now that Bill has been defeated... I have no reason to stick around anymore.” Stan’s eyes widened at her words. 

“W-What does that mean? Are you leaving? Is that it?” she gives Stan an apologetic look as she nodded. 

“I didn’t want to say it in front of the kids. I didn’t want to bring the mood down, but yes. I should have disappeared the moment you defeated Bill, but I’ve been fighting against it until the children had left. It’s only a matter of time until this body disappears.” she then looks back towards Ford “You bastard, I’ve had the most fun in centuries thanks to that mistake in our contract. And though we barely spent any proper quality time together, I have enjoyed your company very much. I’d like to consider you a good friend, Stanford Pines. It has been lovely knowing you.” she then proceeds to hug him again and this time he hugged her back and they shared a genuine tender moment. 

“And it is an honor to be considered your friend.” she hums softly then pulls away, patting his arm gently then turning back towards Stan. 

“A-And what about us? I wanted to know if you’d sail the world with us. I’d get to create new memories with the two most important people of my life! You can’t just leave, Alvah! M-Maybe I can create a contract with you so that you have to stick around!” Ford shakes his head and places a hand on his shoulder. 

“Unfortunately, that’s not how they work. She is not allowed to accept a contract where the conditions are at the bare minimum; she is forbidden from simply existing in a dimension.”  

“So... is that it, then? We’ve barely even started our relationship and you’re already leaving.” she shakes her head and takes his hands into hers, she tilts her head so she could look at his face when he hung his head. 

“I may not be around physically, but like I told those kids, I’ll always be watching. Whether it be in the shadows or your reflection, I will always be there. Nothing is stopping me from visiting when you call my name. Now that Bill and the Time Baby are gone, I have more responsibilities to take care of, but you will be my top priority. I’ll even visit you when you fall asleep.” he frowned and pulled her towards him, resting his forehead against her. 

“But it isn’t the same.”  

“I know, but there is so much I can get away with.” she’s rubbing her forehead against his when she felt him squeeze her hands “I may not be with you but know this, Stanley. You will be the only version I will ever love.” 

“What does that mean?” 

“I have access to many different versions of you, but when you perish, my love will perish with you. I will never choose to love another version of you because I chose you, this you. I will love and only love you.” her eyes glistened with tears at the thought “I wouldn’t be able to love a different version of you because I will know that it just won’t be you.” she shakes her head when a couple tears trickle down her cheek, he lifts his hand up and wipes them away then cups her cheek. 

“I’ve really got you wrapped around my finger, don’t I?” she let out a weak laugh and lets her face rest in his palm, he gently rubs her cheek with his thumb to comfort her “I don’t know how long I’ll be able to handle this long distance relationship, but I’ll find a way to get you a physical body again. I want to be able to hold you, to kiss you, to love you. Not in a dream, but with the real you.” she chuckled softly and turned her head to press her lips against his palm. 

“I don’t think you’d wanna kiss the real me. The taste of rotting flesh isn’t quite nice.” he laughed at that. 

“Sure, but you looked cool beating up Bill in your real form.” they share a kiss and Ford allows them to have their moment when he noticed the flame the contract was engulfed in started reducing it to cinders, because of this her body begins to crumble and she’s unable to maintain her form for much longer. Stan feels this and looks down at her body that’s beginning to fall apart so he wraps his arms around her to trap her in a bear hug, holding onto her for as long as he could before she was gone “I love you, Alvah.” she let out a weak laugh as she gently pats his back. 

“I love you too, Stanley.” she spoke and just as the contract was reduced to ashes her body finally collapsed and shattered at his feet, the arms once holding her like a delicate porcelain doll now wrapped around his body for he had nothing to hold onto anymore. He fell to his knees as tears began rolling down his cheeks at the loss of Alvah, he only just started remembering everything they’ve been through and now that she’s gone, he was afraid he was going to forget her again. He didn’t want to forget her, he didn’t want-- “Stop crying you big dope.” he gasped softly at the voice and looked around to find it only to see nothing. 

“A-Alvah? Where...” 

“Look down.” he looked through his blurry eyes at his shadows, having to readjust his glasses to see that his shadow now consisted of hundreds of red eyes “You’re acting as if I died, Stanley. I just lost my physical body, remember?” he stared down at his shadow for a few seconds before wiping away his tears. 

“I-I knew that!” they chuckled softly and Stan felt, though subtle and weak, their hand gently wipes at his face. 

“You’re such a sweetheart, Stanley. And if that invitation is still on the table, I would love to join you guys on your trip around the world.” Ford chuckles and helps Stan to his feet as they both look down at Alvah, who was now sharing both of their shadows with a cheeky grin spread across their face. 

“Well, the more the merrier.” Stan grins as he wraps his arm around Ford’s shoulder and pulled him close. 

“This is all I could ever ask for. My brother and the love of my life with me as we finally accomplish our childhood dream. It took nearly forty years in the making with so many obstacles in the way, but we’re finally here to do it. I am going to hang onto this win for as long as I have it.” Ford and Alvah smile at him. 

“Stanley, you deserve the world.” 

“I, for one, agree with them. And we are more than willing to give it to you.” 

If you’ve ever taken a road trip through the Pacific Northwest, you’ve probably seen a bumper sticker for a place called Gravity Falls. It’s not on any maps, and most people have never heard of it. Some people think it’s a myth. But if you’re curious, don’t wait. Take a trip. Find it. It’s out there somewhere in the woods.

Waiting. 

season 2, bonus episode. visiting hours

The Axolotl, the great and almighty being who watches over the cosmos, found themself entering the Nightmare Realm in search of the Harbinger of Chaos who now went by Alvah. This equally mighty being was found lying comfortably on their side in a body of cosmic clouds as they watched fondly through a window that revealed the human Stanley Pines who was sleeping soundly, their finger swirling circles around the window as they hummed a song to lull him to sleep. 

“And then I go and spoil it all by saying something stupid like I love you~” their finger tapped softly on the image of Stan, knowing that they are incapable of touching him without a vessel to inhabit “I love yo--” 

“Alvah.” 

“Ah!” the window disappears as Alvah lurches back in shock, startled by the sudden appearance of the Axolotl “Wha-- What are you doing here, Frills? I wasn’t expecting you.” they are quick to relax back into the clouds as Axolotl floats around them in mild amusement . 

“That human really does have you wrapped around their finger.” Alvah let out a huff and their words, raising their hand and see a sort of thread twirled around their finger “I must thank the human, Stanley Pines, for instilling love and humanity into you. It has changed you for the better.” this earned them a chuckle. 

“I suppose, but it hurts that I can only watch from a distance. I wish to care for him, to hold him, to love him. I miss giving him my love.” they sigh fondly at the memories they hold of their time with him, their hands sliding up their arms as they reminiscence about his arms around them as he spoke sweet nothings into their ear, their arms then drop to their side and they looked above them at the Axolotl who continued to eye them curiously “But enough about that, what brings you around these parts? Sure, I’ve been slacking a bit but I haven’t completely neglected my duties. You’ve given me more responsibilities now that Time Baby is out of commission.” Axolotl hummed softly. 

“I wish for you to join me for a bit, my friend.” their millions of eyes look towards them rather intrigued. 

“Join you? For what?” 

“There is somebody I would like for us to visit. It would please me if you were to share a couple words with them, if possible.” Alvah pulls themself up so they aren’t lying down anymore, even more, intrigued as to who the Axolotl would like them to meet "Of course, it is completely up to you whether or not you would like to join me." Alvah just shrugged their shoulders.

"It's not like I was doing anything else. Sure, I'll join you." they pulled themselves up, so now they're floating beside Axolotl, waiting for them to take them to their destination "Is it someone I know?" they hummed softly.

"Mayhaps." they don't question them and follow them blindly until they ended up in a place that had Alvah's metaphorical heart drop into their stomach, within the neutral zone of Dimension #5150 and outside of time, they were now floating in front of the Theraprism.

...

...

"D-Did I do something wrong, Axolotl?" Alvah asks, their eyes filled with panic and a few of them darting around for any sort of exit "I apologize if I have upset you in a-any way." a laugh escaped their cosmic lips at Alvah's worry, shaking their head, they gesture towards the rehabilitation centre.

"Do not fret, friend. I am not having you admitted here." a breath of relief leaves them "I told you, we are merely visiting someone." they said and floated towards the entrance, leaving Alvah to ponder alone in the empty void of space.

"... who the heck do I know is in Theraprism?" they said to no one in particular but followed closely behind, taking the Axolotl by the hand as they led them through the facility. They go through the proper procedures to be allowed into the Theraprism and are seated in the waiting room as they prepare for whoever they were planning on visiting, Alvah did get a couple odd looks from a few other people who were visiting but paid them no mind "Have they been recently admitted in?" Axolotl hummed.

"For you, yes. But since this is a timeless zone, he has been here for quite some time. He is very stubborn." Alvah whistled to themself.

"Poor sucker."

"Poor "sucker" indeed."

"Axolotl and Alvah, he is ready for you now." they let out a grunt at the way the receptionist said their name but ignored it since they were practically in a high-security prison, they didn't want anything pinned to their clean and flawless record. Despite being an entity renowned for influencing others to do evil stuff, Alvah was actually a law-abiding citizen throughout the cosmos and followed the law meticulously. They enter the room of a long corridor lined with a series of identical white visitation booths, each booth is enclosed by white wood and glass, offering a view into a barred cell beyond. They are led by one of the staff to a booth and as they pass each inmate Alvah recognizes a few of them, they do a double take when they see The Beast in one of the booths and when that mangy mutt made eye contact with them they made the "I'm watching you" gesture to it before catching up to Axolotl, they still haven't forgotten nor forgiven what they did to Mabel.

"So, Frills, who have you brought to come bother me-- oh, no." Alvah raises a brow at the familiar voice, not truly believing their ears, so when they peeked over the booth that was blocking their view, their eyes widened in disbelief "You have got to be kidding me." Alvah burst out into hysterical laughter at the sight of Bill Cipher wearing an orange prism uniform and looking absolutely horrible, he had a terrible bag under his bloodshot eye with a static-like crack that stretched across his triangular body. His eye twitched in irritation as they continued to laugh at him, the Axolotl watched them walk up and down the corridor as they filled the room with laughter. Everyone in the room looked at them in confusion but they paid them no mind, they began to calm down but the moment they laid eyes on him again they started laughing again.

"Are you done, Alvah?" they took a breath they try and quell their laughter as they looked up at Axolotl.

"Oh, yeah, yeah. I'm done." they said but when they looked at Bill once again a snort escaped their lips "Nope, no I'm not!" Bill let out an exasperated sigh when they disappeared down the corridor and looked up at Axolotl.

"When you said you were going to bring someone to talk with me, I didn't expect you to bring them! They're the last person I want to talk with!" he intends to stand up but the few prism guards push him back down into his seat, he scoffs and smacks their hands off of him just as Alvah comes back into view.

"Phew! Okay, now I'm calm." Axolotl gestures for them to take the only seat provided and so they do, lounging on it as their millions of eyes stare at him rather mockingly "Well, well, well. Look at how the mighty have fallen, hmm? I never would have thought you would invoke the right of the Axolotl to save your prideful butt. I guess my sweet Stanley being the one to bring you down really poked a hole in your universal-sized ego, didn't it?" they stick out their tongue as they shrug their shoulders when he pointed an accusatory finger at them.

"I don't want to talk to them! They're going to do nothing but make fun of me the entire time! And that might set back my recovery, and I'm sure you don't want that, do you?" this comment made Axolotl give Alvah a knowing look, to which they huffed.

"Alright, I'll hold back on the mockery. Why exactly did you want me of all beings to have a talk with him? You know he doesn't particularly like me after the downfall of Euclydia, he holds a grudge like no other." Axolotl places a hand on their shoulder as they look between them and Bill, who is glaring daggers at the both of them.

"Because while you two were having your squabble during his Weirdmageddon, you managed to point out a few of his flaws a few of the therapists have yet to notice."

"What? Like his unwillingness to accept responsibility? Or the fact that he's so stubborn to change that he's going to continue down this cycle of self-destruction? It's honestly so obvious to everyone but himself. He's got a straight path down to recovery but he's going to take so many turns that he'll eventually wind back up at the beginning." Bill slams his hands against the counter and glares at them with pure hatred.

"I'll have you know, I'm making great progress!" they roll their eyes and lean back against their chair.

"You're probably just telling yourself that so you don't fall into madness with how long you're going to be stuck in here. They're trying to show you what you've lost, Bill." this made him scoff.

"And what exactly did I lose?" this made them smirk.

"Everything I gained." Bill looked at them confused "You had his devotion, his attention, his adoration, his love, and I just know you craved it like no other. All you had to do was change your approach and you wouldn't have scared him away. There have been alternate realities where he joined you, or where you gave up your goal to dominate their dimension in favor of being by his side. But you didn't choose that ending, and look where you are now."

"You... you don't know that." they scoffed.

"Don't I? I know more than you want to believe, Cipher. Now let's go back to what I gained from your downfall. The Nightmare Realm is now back under my control, I have gained more power now that your influence is gone, Stanford and I are now the greatest of friends, Stanley and I are madly in love with each other and I gained something I never would have ever thought I would have wanted." Bill noticed the way something appeared in their hands, their eyes staring fondly at a small polaroid of her vessel smiling happily alongside the Pines family, Soos and Wendy "A family and acceptance. Something you desperately want, but will never have. Since, you know, you're the last of your species and your Henchmaniacs abandoned you." they're laughing again when Bill turned red and punched at the glass that separated the two of them, he was quickly reprimanded again by the guards while Axolotl scolded Alvah.

"I don't need anything like that, Alvah! Love is for the weak! And Sixer? Why would I want all of that? I had that fool dancing in the palm of my hand, it was so easy that I could do it again! I didn't need his attention, his devotion, or his love! All I need is power, and once I get out of this hellhole, you'll be my first target!" they stared at him now with indifference in their eyes.

"I never said that it was Ford." his breath hitched "So, he's still on your mind? I was right though, wasn't I? You needed him more than he ever needed you. It's why you're so obsessed with him! You miss him and all that he was willing to do for you, but he does not miss you. He is happier now that you are out of his life and out of his mind. They are all better off without you. You will be nothing but a nightmare to them; a forgotten memory locked away and buried within the deepest parts of their mind. And I will make sure of that." Bill hated the way they were looking at him, their millions of eyes were staring down at him with destain and pity, he didn't want their pity. It enraged him that they were right; they were right because they gained so much while he lost everything and was locked up in maximum security with idiots who were looking to change. He hated that everything they said was right, but he didn't want to admit it, he didn't want to believe they were right.

"I'll prove you wrong, Alvah. I'll get out of here and prove you and everyone else in this dump wrong! I can change, haha! I can change just like everyone else, you'll see!" their gaze was still scrutinizing, still so condescending, but the eyes on their head closed as they gave an insincere smile.

"Well that's the point, Bill. You're meant to change for your own good, not to spite everyone else. I'm sure you'll be able to conquer this final trial in order to reach redemption, and I'll be sure to be there every step of the way."

"What? What does that--"

"Now that I know that you're here, I can't leave you here alone. I'll be sure to visit you every now and then, and I'm sure you'd love nothing more than updates on the Pines family and various other residents of Gravity Falls." with that they stood to their feet, the back of their legs pushing the chair back and it scraping against the white tiled floor, they don't fail to miss the panicked look on his face as he stood up on his chair.

"Y-You're not leaving yet, are you? We still have so much to talk about, I haven't even told you what I've been doing in Theraprism!" they just shrug their shoulders.

"You can tell me on my next visit." they don't wait for Bill's response as they walk away, his tiny and powerless hands banging against the glass as he calls out for them to come back. Axolotl follows after them as they float out of the prism, eyeing them curiously.

"So, are you going to keep to your word and continue to visit him?" a laugh escapes their lips.

"Of course. I want to see them break him."

"Fix him, my friend." they roll their eyes.

"Sure. But... he won't be able to contact the Pines family, would he? I'm worried he'll manage to reach them somehow, and I don't want their progress going down the drain because he is obsessed with them." Axolotl lets out a soft chuckle.

"They are much stronger than you think, Alvah." they nod.

"I know, I know. I just can't help but worry."

"I am glad you have found something to care for, my friend. It makes me feel overjoyed." they couldn't help but smile at that "Now that you know that Bill is in fact, alive, you must swear that you won't tell the residents of dimension 46'\ until I say that it is okay." they shrugged their shoulders.

"I figured, but I swear I won't. I don't want them freaking out, especially Stan and Ford. They believe they've completely erased Bill from existence, and they've been riding that high for a long time."

"Thank you, Alvah. And do please tell me when you're going to visit Bill, I would like to join you to see his progress."

"Of course, my friend. Until then."

Contract pt. 2

word count: 39,011

Fandom: Gravity Falls Pairing: Stanley Pines x Alvah (OC) Pronouns: He/She/They (usually goes be she/her) Relationship: Problematic Occupation: Guardian Ability: Demonic Powers

Since the individual is a resident of the Nightmare Realm, while also being the embodiment of evil from across multiple dimensions, the power they have is almost unlimited. They are capable of traveling to different dimensions throughout the multiverse but when they do step foot in such dimensions their powers become limited unless they are able to form a contract, similar to Bill through his deals, that allows them to have full access to their powers. They are capable of shapeshifting their appearance to blend in with the locals or at least influence the minds of those who set their eyes on them, but if there were anyone to bear witness to their true form, their own minds would destroy itself and drive them into madness.

Keys:

n/a

Warnings:

blood, violence, and spoilers for those who haven't read the book of bill.

"Contract" pt. 1, pt.3

there are bound to be mistakes in here that I a. missed or b. could not be fucked fixing.

season 2, episode 12. a tale of two stans

Her eyes widened slightly when Ford pulled the gun strapped to his back and aimed it at her, causing her to halt in her tracks and stare at the end of the barrel. She raised her hands and opened her mouth to say something but he had already pulled the trigger and a beam shot out of the gun and shot right through her face, taking out the entirety of the left side of her face.

"Alvah!" Stan shouts, this causes Ford to flinch and slowly lower his gun and stare at the woman in front of him. Her remaining eye slowly moved to look at the giant-sized hole in her face, and instead of the red substance known as blood dripping down her face, there was a black-like tar oozing out and dripping down the side of her body. Her eye looked back towards Ford and the shocked expression slowly twisted into a sadistic grin as maniacal laughter erupted out of her, a black smoke with a red glow burst out of the gaping hole in her face that was full of eyes staring at him. She raised her hand and gestured to the shadow to return inside where it escaped from before hovering her hand over the wound on her face and healing it, the way it healed was odd. Instead of seeing skin weave itself back together, her skin was like a shattered porcelain doll slowly putting itself together piece by piece.

"Is that how you greet an old friend, Stanford?" she asked after the last crack was sealed up, and it was as if she was never broken in the first place.

"Alvah, I... I didn't recognize you." he spoke as he looked her up and down, she did the same thing and sighed.

"That's on me, I suppose. This isn't a form you're accustomed to seeing." they all watched as she approached Ford, placing a hand on his shoulder that slowly glided across to his other shoulder when she moved behind him, soon both of her hands were on his shoulders but when she peeked out they were surprised to see that she-- or rather, HE looked different "This one was more to your liking, was it not?" even his voice made them shudder. Dipper and Mabel take a closer look at Alvah, and their jaws drop when they recognize him, it is him. It was the mystery man from McGucket’s memory that none of them had any recollection of, the man who was the cause of McGucket’s decline in sanity.

"I see you've not grasped the concept of personal space in the years I have been gone." he let out a laugh as he wrapped his arms around Ford's neck, nuzzling his cheek against his more rugged one.

"Nope. But I've missed you, Fordsy~" he cooed out, he snickered and pulled away when Ford aimed the gun at his face again, raising his hands up in surrender "You know those human weapons aren't going to work on me, but it is a pain to fix these bodies. That was the first time it was damaged since I first made it." he let out a huff as he lowered his weapon.

"Then it's a good thing that they can even penetrate a body like yours." he looked towards his brother again, who was staring at the both of them in shock, and grumbled when he felt Alvah's hands caressing his body "What are you doing now?" he let out a grunt when the end of his coat was lifted up a little as his hands glided up and down his torso, squeezing it a little before moving up to his biceps.

"I see you've bulked up a little throughout your travels. You're not that puny little stick that would get blown over by a small gust of wind." Ford sweat dropped when he pulled his hands back, wiping away the imaginary tear running down his face while sniffling a little "I can't help but be a little... proud." he laughed when Ford pushed him away by the face.

"Enough of your needless chatter, devil." Alvah let out a laugh as he lifted himself off the ground, floating in front of Ford with a cheeky grin.

"A devil you summoned to care for your loved ones." Ford let out a sigh at Alvah's childish behavior, seems he hasn't changed a bit. He turned towards the audience staring at them in bewilderment as Alvah hovered close behind him, his head hovering over his shoulder with his long black hair draping itself over his shoulder "I did as our contract stated, Ford. I kept your loved ones, and their loves ones, alive." his eyes zoned in on the poor state they were in and glared at Alvah.

"You were supposed to protect them, Alvah! Protect and keep them out of danger!" now this caused him to scoff as he rolled off of Ford's shoulder, he continued to float in front of him as he snapped his fingers and they all watched as his hand burst into a black and red flame and a scroll formed in his hands that slowly unraveled. In a text they could not understand, except for Ford himself, Alvah pointed to a specific section.

"It says I am to keep your loved ones alive. Not keep them out of danger, nor protect them. As long as they do not die under my watch, I haven't broken our contract." he shrugged his shoulders as Ford took the contract, reading over it to see that it in fact, did say that "Perhaps you should have worded it like that." he lowered the contract and glared up at Alvah, who continued to grin.

"You..." he then sighed.

"But it's also my fault that I got stuck here for thirty years." this caused him to raise a brow, Alvah points to a different section this time "For the time you are not in Gravity Falls, I am to remain here until you return. That was technically to protect your research and whatnot, but I never would have thought to change it when you disappeared." this managed to crack a smirk on his face.

"So you could not return to the Nightmare Realm?" this caused him to scowl.

"No, no I could not."

"Hang on, hang on." they both look to where Stanley spoke up, approaching the two of them with a confused expression "You... you two know each other? And Alvah, you're... a man?" Ford shook his head with a sigh.

"Yes, we know each other. I am the one who assigned him to take care of things in my absence, but I see that he failed to stop you from reactivating the portal." he just shrugged.

"And for me being a man, well, no." they watch as he lowered himself to the ground "I am neither man nor woman, I am not a being that can be identified by something like sex or pronouns. I am an interdimensional being, an embodiment of all that is evil. An amalgamation of evil from across multiple dimensions and parallel worlds. I am... evil itself." he looked even more confused, Ford raised his hand in front of Alvah's face.

"He is quite literally the embodiment of all that is evil, created in the Nightmare Realm that managed to gain a consciousness." he nods.

"In simpler terms, yes. My name wasn't even Alvah, to begin with," he then gestures to the man beside him "Ford is the one who bestowed the name "Alvah" onto me because he didn't want to call me by my title." this caused him to huff, pushing his glasses up a little.

"The Harbinger of Chaos is hardly a name." he shrugged, he winced when he was flicked in the nose.

"You were trying to be sweet when you gave me the name as well, not knowing that the biblical meaning behind "Alvah" means evil." he then chuckled, leaning back and allowing his body to float again while resting his head in his hands "It's the reason I even kept the name." Ford sniffled.

"Wait!" turning their heads, they see Dipper looking up at Alvah in shock while flipping through the pages of the third journal "Harbinger of Chaos? That's you? That was you, Alvah?" Ford's eyes widened at the sight of his journal, along with the fact that there were children present, now that he fully registered it.

"Aw~ you read my chapter. He said some real nice things about me, didn't he?" Dipper gasped when Alvah snapped his fingers and the journal disappeared from his grasp, he read through a couple of lines and snickered softly while showing Ford "With the few details I gave you, I think you captured my likeliness rather nicely." he tried taking the journal from him but this only caused Alvah to laugh and pull it away from Ford's reach.

"Alvah, give it back to me!" he laughed.

"Nuh-uh, it's his now." with that he tossed it back over to Dipper, who just barely caught it "He managed to find it all on his own, I don't think that hiding spot was good enough. A different snot-nosed brat managed to find your second journal as well, so you're not good at hiding things."

"Right." he cleared his throat and dusted himself off, Alvah floated behind him and wrapped his arms around his shoulders "It seems you already know who Alvah is, but allow me to properly introduce him. This is the Harbinger of Chaos, a being I contacted to keep my research safe and those I care about alive." he glared at Alvah, who snickered beside him.

"And you only did it because things went south for you. You never would have formed a contract with me if he didn't--" Ford promptly slapped his hand across his mouth, silencing him.

"They do not need to know the full details." Alvah scoffed and pushed his hands away, his eyes then moved to where Stan stood along with the kids.

"Other than that, he is correct. From the time you all stepped foot in Gravity Falls, I have been watching every little thing you've done. Every. Little. Thing." when he said that he booped them each on the nose "However, I am not allowed to directly interfere with what you do with your daily lives. So with each adventure you've been on, I was just watching in the shadows and making sure you didn't die at the end of the day. Like so." with a snap of his fingers, a burst of smoke formed in front of them that was playing back to each adventure. If they were being honest, it always felt like they were being watched, but seeing it for themselves, made them shudder "At times I had to rush you for you to get to places in time, at others I would manipulate the background to help you."

season 1

for the gnomes, she knew mabel would be walking into a trap to become the gnome queen and hurried dipper along to go save her.

when the "sea monster" was trapped in the cave entrance, she snapped her fingers so when it was thrashing, a particularly large chunk of debris would fall and make it malfunction.

made the sun rise so that the wax figures would melt.

spoke to mabel to get her to hurry along and stop gideon from killing dipper.

couldn't do much but would have stepped in if the ghosts were going to kill dipper, mabel and the other teenagers.

kept an eye on dipper in case the manotaurs or the multi-bear were going to double cross him.

kept her eye on the doubles if they overpowered dipper and would set off the sprinklers if things went south.

their lives weren't particularly in danger but if they got too far from gravity falls she would have chased after them herself.

each time they went back in time she was there to make sure they didn't get stuck in that point of time.

made sure mabel and stan wouldn't fall to their death and would prevent dipper from getting too hurt against rumble.

kept a close eye on the twins when gideon shrunk them down as well as stan if they didn't figure out he was ticklish.

kept her eye on the summerween trickster so he didn't get too close to the kids, almost interfered if soos didn't eat it from the inside.

if they weren't able to apprehend the monster she would have interfered.

no real threat.

just kept a close eye on them.

kept a close eye on the children in case they weren't able to figure out the body swapping.

no real threat.

was there to help them save waddles, but if push turned to shove, she would have interfered.

was the one to keep bill in check and save the children, stan and soos from intentionally losing to bill. 

would have killed that little brat gideon if he did serious damage to the twins.

season 2

was there to protect the children and stan from becoming zombie food.

distracted the shapeshifter when they were in the caves and would have killed it if they didn't manage to capture it in the cryo-pod.

would have set the mini-golf park on fire if those little "golf people" really did hurt the children.

made sure bill didn't do anything "too" bad to dipper when he took his body.

kept her eye on giffany and would have short-circuited the place if things got out of hand.

no real threat.

was the one that got mcgucket moving so he could protect them from getting their mind erased by his memory gun.

kept her eye on the children when they went through globnar.

she and the love god kind of know each other, so she threatened that little cherub to not do anything funny while she was there.

kept her eye on them but couldn't do much with that ghost lingering.

"I now see what you meant by just "keeping them alive", Alvah." he just giggled with a shrug.

"I have seen every possibility, every timeline, every choice, every win, and every failure you have ever chosen. I know the outcome of every scenario, and even today, I knew would be the day Stanley succeeds in finishing the portal to bring Ford back to his original dimension." this revelation slowly caused Stan to look up at him.

"So... did that mean you knew that my brother would be trapped in the first place?" this caused them to look at him, a hint of betrayal in his eyes as he looked towards Alvah "If you were watching that whole time, did that mean you could have helped me save my brother? You could have helped me speed up the process instead of watching me wallow in misery for thirty years as I tried to fix my mistake?!" Alvah, whose face was blank as he stared down at Stan, blinked slowly before a soft but pained smile appeared across his lips.

"Yes, I could have." Stan's face slowly scrunched up in anger as he grabbed a hold of Alvah, pulling him close.

"You did nothing! You could have done something to help me, but you didn't! You said you were on my side... you said..." Alvah exhaled deeply through his nose as he gently took Stan by his wrists and pulled them off him, he lowered his face and gave him a sympathetic look.

"I would have if I could have." he spoke, Stan takes his hands back from Alvah as he refused to look at him "There are events in this timeline that I am not allowed to prevent or speed up. Thirty years ago, your brother was meant to go through that portal, he was meant to be trapped and it was on this day at this time that he was meant to return because of you and your efforts."

"Still, you could have helped me." this caused Alvah to sigh.

"Alright, let me break it down for you." they watch the smoke disappear when he slaps his hands together and then pulls them apart, they watch a blue thread surround the room as he pulls his hands away. He floats off the ground and starts looking through the thread before finding a specific one, he brings himself down and holds it out in front of them "Here is the timeline we are currently in. Here it contains every event that's occurred leading up to today. See how the thread is flowing smoothly? No hiccups or anything. My interferences are minor, and it doesn't cause any damage. Now let's go back thirty years, to the day where all this began." he pulls the thread back and it stops at a park that was glowing bright, he enhances on it, and they see in both awe and shock the exact moment Stan accidentally pushed Ford into the portal.

"Now let's say I did help you on the reconstruction of the portal, say instead, that it took us a couple weeks or months to get it fixed and we bring Ford back. Ta-dah, the day is saved." pulling his hand back a thread branches out from the original one and expands out "Because of this change, a new timeline is created out of the original; a new story is born. So, what happens to the original one?" his hand hovers under the original thread and they flinch when he closed his hand over it, crushing it beneath his palm and severing it completely "It's effectively destroyed and erased like it never existed, meaning everything that's happened so far never-- or rather, it never WILL happen. And even so, I'll get into serious trouble if I were to mess with serious events in the timeline."

"But, like," Alvah makes everything disappear when Mabel spoke, looking all nervous under his gaze "aren't you like a super powerful being? Can't you break the rules? Couldn't you have helped Grunkle Stan save his brother?" this caused him to chuckle, kneeling to Mabel's level so his drastic change in height didn't scare or overwhelm her.

"I find it flattering that you think I'm oh so powerful, I am, and I do tend to bend the rules a little bit, but if I were to break this..." they watch his already pale skin turn paler as fear struck his face, he's now curled up in a ball while clutching his head "I'll get in trouble with... them. It's been thirty years, and I've neglected my duties because I was stuck here, they're gonna yell at me." the sound that escapes him is like a whine like croak.

"Ah hem, uh, who exactly is them?" he points at Dipper, shaking his head.

"Someone you don't wanna know and don't wanna cross. They may seem all nice and mystical, and sure they're an extra-dimensional being that could wipe out my very existence but doesn't because if they do then they're erasing the very aspect of evil and they can't have that because it's just a pain... anyways, they're basically god." he lets out a sigh, pressing his hand against his forehead "So you see, Stanley, I couldn't help you even if I wanted to. The only thing I was allowed to do was... watch." his shoulders slump when Stan refused to look at him.

"So, when you say you're evil..." 

"I am every bad choice you make, every selfish action, every terrible mistake. You could say I'm like that devil on your shoulder telling you to ignore the angel."

"So, you tell us to do bad things?"

"Pft, no. I'm just giving you the option, I'm not telling you to do anything. You're the one who chose it in the end, so that technically makes you a bad person." he then shrugged his shoulders, they then point up at him.

"Then what about old man McGucket? We saw that memory of you two, or the woman you. You two were arguing about something." he then let out a sigh, running a hand through his hair and messing with it.

"I went to see him to say sorry, and what did I get in return for my efforts? I got shot in the face!" he looked at Ford and saw him looking up at him in confusion "It was back when you two were first testing out the portal and he got sucked in by accident, remember how he lost his mind because he saw something that freaked him out?" he nodded his head.

"Yes? It was what convinced me to quit the project." he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Hehe, yeah, well he saw... me." they all stare at him in confusion, not understanding what seeing him mea-- they were taken aback when Ford grabbed him by the arms and started shaking him.

"You mean Fiddleford saw you? He saw the real you?!" Alvah manages to rip himself free from Ford's hold and push him back.

"Yes! But it was completely by accident. We figured you two were getting close to finishing the portal but we didn't realize just how quickly, so imagine my surprise when I was relaxing in the Nightmare Realm and some scrawny little human poked his head through a hole in our dimension." he can almost remember it like it was yesterday, just casually relaxing in the Nightmare Realm because there's basically nothing to do except laze around when a hole opened up. Curiously, they did approach it and concluded that Ford and his little assistant Fiddle-whatshisname had finally managed to successfully finish the portal, but what caught them by surprise was when a head poked through. They recognized the human as Ford's assistant, they tilted their head to the side as they stared at him while the human looked up at them and their face slowly morphed into one of pure terror.

"You... aren't supposed to be here." they spoke, voice disoriented through the chaos that was their body. They sighed softly when the human screamed in fear so they did the only sane thing they could think of, they raised their hand and pushed him right back where he came from, and the hole disappeared just as quickly as it appeared.

"What was that?" looking over they see Bill approach them, his singular eye tinged with curiosity.

"I believe your toy has finally finished his project." this made the triangular figure glow with glee, clapping his hands joyfully as he floated circles around their head "Congratulations, Bill. You're finally getting your doomsday." he let out a laugh as he hovered in front of their face.

"I know, right? I'm gonna go round up the others!" ah, good times, he then shrugs his shoulders.

"He saw my real body and I pushed him out before any more damage could be done, or if he saw anyone else." Ford starts rubbing his temples to ease the forming headache, Mabel raises her hand "Yes?"

"What does having seen your body have anything to do with McGucket going coo-coo?" he opens his mouth to speak but stops when Dipper opens the journal.

"Oh, I know the answer to that. It says here that since their body is made of all the evil throughout countless dimensions, parallel worlds, and alternate universes their body is so corrupted that if anyone were to gaze upon their true form then their minds would slowly descend into madness from all the chaos stored into one being." Alvah snaps his fingers.

"Ding, ding, ding. You are correct." he then sighs again "Because of that and our contract, I went to say sorry but even in a different form Fidds still recognized me and lost his mind. I tried to calm him down but in the end, he made me lose my temper and then I got shot with the memory gun." Ford heard him use the nickname he usually used for Fiddleford, sputtering a little when he used it.

"Fidds?" Alvah laughed.

"Oh, yeah! Ever since you kids helped him jog his memory, he came to me and asked, or more like demanded, I tell him everything he's forgotten. So once a week I'd visit him to help him remember what he's forgotten, we've gotten quite close since then." he winks at Ford, shrugging his shoulders as he floated off the ground again and wrapped his arms around his neck to nuzzle into his cheek once more "Aren't you happy we're getting along? You always scolded me when I made fun of him." he snickers when he started pushing him off again, struggling against Alvah's iron grip.

"Sure, but I'm not happy that he spiraled so deep because of my mistake." Alvah hummed softly.

"Then what are you going to do now?" this caused him to look up at the demonic being, he pulled himself away and smirked at him "Now that you're back, I have completed my end of our contract. But how about we extend it a little longer?" Ford narrowed his eyes on him.

"What do you mean?" Alvah placed a finger on his chin as he looked up in thought.

"Well, since Stanley opened the portal a second time, the connection between this dimension and the Nightmare Realm has gotten stronger. Who knows how long until Bill forces his way through, and the end of the world happens." a look of concern immediately crossed his face, he looks away to think but gasped softly when Alvah was directly right in front of him "Extend our contract, Stanford, and I'll continue to keep you and your family alive. I'll make sure Bill doesn't come into contact with them this time. I'll make sure he won't be able to make deals with them like he did with Dipper. You can leave their well-being to me while you focus on keeping him at bay." his gaze hardened on the man floating in front of him, showing off those pearly whites that could tear him to shreds.

"... the last time I didn't listen to you, I was met with betrayal and nearly lost my mind." Alvah was silenced when Ford glared at him, knowing what he was going to mutter "If we change up the conditions of the contract... then so be it." Alvah's grin returned, this time stretching from ear to ear as he clapped his hands.

"You made a fine choice, Stanford!" snapping his fingers, the contract reappeared before them once more. A red spark of lightning shot out of his finger, and he changed that he was able to come and go from this dimension to the Nightmare Realm whether Ford was in Gravity Falls or not, Ford himself changed up the part where Alvah was to protect his family instead of just keep them alive. They made a few more changes here and there before concluding that they were satisfied with the new contract, Alvah grins as he reads through it "Now, until the defeat of Bill Cipher, I am to protect your family from any potential dangers while making sure you don't make any past mistakes. In return, I have more access to my powers while I am in this dimension, and I can do whatever I want as long as no human gets hurt in the process." Ford reads through it one more time before nodding his head.

"Yes... I am satisfied with the changes to the contract."

"Wonderful!" they watch as both Ford and Alvah lift their thumbs to their mouths before biting into their flesh hard enough to get it to bleed, they hover their open wound over the contract and let a few droplets get on the golden parchment until Alvah snaps his fingers again and the palm of his hand burst into flames. This time a quill appeared, and he used the blood as ink to sign his name then he gave the quill to Ford to do the same, after he finished signing it Alvah felt a surge of power course through his body "Oh, yeah. Now that's what I'm talking about!"

"Just remember to keep up your end of the contract." he only grinned as the contract rolled up and flew into his hand, it disappears when he closed his hand into a fist.

"Wouldn't have it any other way." his hands were then enveloped with a bright yet dark red flame, he stared at the smoldering flame before waving it off and booping Ford on the nose "With that I'll finally take my leave and return to the Nightmare Realm." this caused the others to stare in shock.

"You're leaving?" he laughed softly.

"Yeah, but not forever. I've been away from my real body for thirty years and I need to go and check up on it to see if I'm alright. I might be a little stiff for being away from it for so long." he then crossed his arms with a smile "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you'd miss me." the twins look at each other, still a little intimidated under the gaze of his red eyes, but they did nod a little.

"We'd like to think that you didn't lie to us this entire summer, Alvah. That the woman we've been hanging around didn't just look after us because of a contract, that you genuinely did it out of the kindness of your heart." this comment caused the smile on his face to drop a little, his face twitching as guilt ate at his nonexistent heart.

"I..." he couldn't finish his sentence and instead turned towards Ford, they let out a sigh but then gasped softly when something was thrown at them, Mabel was able to catch it and when they saw what it was their eyes widened "Take a look at that when you're not busy. You might find something worthwhile." it was his memory tube they were searching for that they couldn't find, he winked at them before finally turning away. Ford took a step forward and they watched as Alvah's body went limp, his body falling into Ford's arms before it could fall to the ground. There they watched as his shadow leaked out of him and loomed over them despite being attached to the wall "See you later." it spoke before a burst of laughter rang out through the room and the shadow disappeared.

Elsewhere... 

In the chaotic hell that was the Nightmare Realm, a somewhat surreal unstable void filled with swirling shades of dark purple, red, and yellow almost like a lava lamp. However, the being we're focusing on resides in a different section of the Nightmare Realm. Though the sky was still red they were surrounded by stars as they lay motionless in a body of clouds, that was when their body twitched as they stirred awake. After being in a coma for about thirty years, the Harbinger of Chaos arose rather slowly and weakly from where they had been lying for the past three decades. With a body made of a chaotic tangle of writhing, red tendrils and jagged lines adorned with numerous glowing red eyes that peer out from the dark depths of its flesh, they opened their mouth, and a horrific scream roared out that would deafen the ears of mortal beings... turns out they were just yawning. 

"Mm, it's been a long time." with a voice made up of the screams of all that they have slain, they spoke for the first time, and it almost felt foreign "I need to remember not to make the same mistake twice the next time I form a contract with a different being. I do not want to be stuck in such a predicament ever again." they note to themself, grabbing onto nothing to pull themself up until they were no longer laying in the luscious clouds that was their bed. Since their consciousness had been in that vessel alone, their main body had remained dormant the entire time and gave off the atmosphere like it was dead, but now their power was surging through their body and anyone residing in their section of the Nightmare Realm could feel that they had returned.  

The Harbinger of Chaos, the embodiment of evil throughout entire realities woke up one day and decided that they weren’t just going to be just a meaning, they were going to be alive. Where there is good, there will always be their counterpart that is evil, influencing individuals to do what they believe is the better option. As the devil on their shoulder, as the temptation that led Adam and Eve into biting into god’s sacred fruit, they are tasked with bringing the darkness out of people’s hearts. They do not crave world destruction, they do not want to destroy or take over dimensions, they think that’s just hard labor and a waste of time and effort, they’d rather just let their influence seep into the minds of others so they can destroy their own worlds. 

“My old friend, it has been a long time.” this being of evil perked up at the voice, tilting their head to the side at the sight of such a majestic being “I am a little hurt at the words you spoke.” they let out a chuckle themself. 

“I was only teasing. Besides, I knew you were watching ever since Stanley completed his mission to save his brother. And was I lying? The only reason you haven’t wiped me from existence is because if you do, the very concept of evil would disappear? But wouldn’t that be a good thing? Worlds without evil would be… perfect.” they let out a sigh. 

“But a world without evil would be out of balance. Good and even coexist together for a reason.” a hum is the only response they get. 

“Anyways, what are you doing in the Nightmare Realm? Did you venture across worlds just to visit little ol’ me? I’m flattered, really? It does things to my already inflated ego~” a chuckle leaves them as they float off, the Axolotl following close behind them “Are you worried Bill might pick up a fuss now that I’ve returned from dimension 46'\? He always avoids areas that you’re in.” the ethereal being let out a sigh. 

“I suppose. He was always one to bottle up all his feelings then let it all out at once rather than sharing his thoughts.” this caused them to let out a laugh while snapping their fingers to open windows to other worlds, peering into one they were met with talking frogs “I think it would be better for him to show a different side, don’t you think?” this caused them to roll all their eyes. 

“The last time he showed a vulnerable side he got his “heart” broken, remember? It’s the whole reason I was in dimension 46'\ in the first place.” they swipe their hand and peer into another window, now seeing a bunch of magic fly across their vision “If you want him to share his thoughts, you’ve got to force it out of him. The only way I see him talking about his feelings is in Theraprism.” 

“You’re right.” this earned them another laugh, they watched as a dark energy seeped out of the tip of their hand and infested the open windows that surrounded them, corrupting a few individuals before quickly closing the windows “I hope you don’t make too many changes with the Pines family, friend.” 

“You don’t need to worry about that, Axolotl. I’m a tough nut to crack.” this earned them a raised brow, and they shrunk a little under their gaze. 

“Perhaps, but what about that vessel of yours?” 

“What about it?” Axolotl gave them a knowing look, floating around them as they laughed softly. 

“You and I both know what I’m talking about.” they laugh a little more when they see all their eyes look in different directions, avoiding their bright gaze “Oh, I am only teasing. But you’ve been in that vessel for over thirty years. Sure, time works differently on beings with such a long lifespan, but your mind was in that of a human body for so long. You and I both know that things changed, whether for the better or for the worst.” they were met with silence, they peak over their shoulder and saw their gaze was back on the Pines family once again, namely on the Stan twins. 

“It… really complicates things.” 

“What will you do now?” their hand hovered over their view of dimension 46'\, their finger tapping against the image before swiping it away. 

“Fulfill my contract and come right back, I suppose.” 

“I see. Then, I’ll take my leave. I hope to see you well, my friend.” and with that, Axolotl left as silently as they appeared. They floated aimlessly in the chaos that was known as their home and sighed to themselves, this is why they preferred to laze around instead of doing fieldwork, it was always stressful and required too much thinking. They spent most of their time taking care of businesses that had been left unattended due to their absence and watched their influence fill the heads of people who couldn’t make a choice, it was always fun watching people be conflicted in their choices. Time certainly worked differently in the Nightmare Realm and different dimensions because when they looked back to dimension 46’\ the two brothers had left the basement and were staring at each other’s reflection, Ford even had a different change of clothes. 

“Perhaps I should inform them that I might be gone for a while to catch up on my work.” they thought it over before nodding their head and expanding their view on dimension 46’\, their finger circled around the image before allowing some of their consciousness to seep into the dimension before continuing their work. Alvah manifested within the second dimension (as a flat figure within the shadows) and looked around to find himself in the hallway, he travels through the shadows (similar to how giffany traveled through digital screens) until he found himself in the room where Stan and Ford were arguing with each other “I don’t suppose I’m interrupting anything, am I?” they both jump at the sound of his voice, turning in the direction it came from, they found the male version of Alvah in the reflection of the mirror in between them. They both turned their heads to look but found the space empty, so they looked back toward the mirror and saw him pressing his fingers against the glass, showing off the sharp, pearly whites as he looked at them. 

“You’re back, Alvah.” he chuckled softly, pushing himself off the surface of the mirror to cross his arms. 

“Yes, but not for long. I’ve got a lot of work to catch up on, so don’t expect to see me lingering around for a while. It won’t take me long to finish up, but I won’t physically be around to keep an eye on your family. But if you really need me, just say my name and I’ll be there to save the day.” he snickered softly when Ford scoffed, readjusting his glasses. 

“I highly doubt we’ll need you to “save the day”, Alvah. You’ve made it clear that you’re not allowed to directly interfere with events, as you’ve put it.” he chuckled and looked Ford up and down, Stan was a little startled when he saw the end of his brother’s coat lift up to mirror what Alvah was doing in their reflection. He was looking him up and down once more, throwing his coat open to see he swapped out that black sweater for a red one while also messing with his hair “Would you quit it, Alvah?” he demanded and attempted to smack his hands off him through their reflection, it almost looked like he was fighting air, but Alvah just laughed and pulled his hands back. 

“Oh, you know I’m just teasing.” he giggles softly when Ford tugged on his coat and tidied up his hair. 

“If you want to make yourself useful, could you deal with the U.S. government? Stanley here tells me that they know about the portal, I’m just surprised they haven’t kicked down the doors to the shack yet.” this caused Alvah to start laughing, throwing his head back before wiping away a tear and leaning against the mirror with his elbow. 

“Oh, you don’t have to worry about those government officials. They won’t be bothering us again.” they both shudder when they saw him lick his lips “I made sure of that.” Ford glared at him. 

“Alvah! I specifically told you not to harm humans.” he rolled his eyes with a groan. 

“Hey! That was after we signed the updated version of our contract! I did it before then, okay? I also made it look like an accident, so you shouldn’t have to worry about backup coming to check up on things. Oh, and I gathered up all the evidence they managed to secure while they were stalking us.” he snapped his fingers, and a stack of discs and folders appeared behind them on a desk “You’re welcome.” Ford hummed softly as he looked over the documents. 

“Well, this is perfect. Well done, Alvah. I knew I could count on you to handle matters like these.” Alvah bows his head rather dramatically with a smirk “I’ll deal with these; I’ll call you when I need you.” he twiddles his fingers to bid Ford goodbye, this leaves Stan and Alvah alone, to which the demonic being pressed his hands against the glass of the mirror once more to look at Stan, who refused to look at him. 

“Are you mad at me, Stanley?” he asked, tilting his head to the side to try and get a look at his face but with the angle the mirror was facing he couldn’t properly see him “Is it because I didn’t help you with the portal, or because I knew the truth the whole time? Or was it because I knew what exactly you were suffering and did nothing about it?” he continued to watch him through the mirror for any sort of reaction but even then, Stan didn’t give any sort of reaction. Lowering his gaze to his hands, he saw that they were balled up into fists and shaking a little, was it anger or sadness? His fingers tap against the glass a little in thought, thinking of any way to get him to turn around “… do you hate me, Stanley?” Stan flinched at the sound of the voice and that was enough to turn him around, and there he saw the version of Alvah that stood by his side through thick and thin, his Alvah. Looking at him were those sharp green eyes that held a warmth like an early morning day, that kind and beautiful smile that lit up a room, and hair that was as soft as a freshly washed blanket. 

“You…” she tilts her head to the side and watches Stan approach the mirror, finger raised to point at her face “You don’t get to ask those questions, Alvah. From the beginning, you knew who I was, but I didn’t stop to question you. I should have known that someone like you wouldn’t have stuck around for as long as you did out of goodwill. You probably programmed that body of yours to meet my preferred standards, huh?” she tilts her head again, her eyes looking around the room in thought before landing on his again. 

“That is how I construct my vessels, yes. They take up the physical traits that would best suit those who gaze upon it, just like the male version of this vessel. I adorn that appearance because when I was first summoned, I knew how much the female population made Ford uncomfortable. I copied the personality of somebody he once cherished, but I didn’t drop it because it’s quite funny.” she took a step back and opened her arms to gesture to herself “For you, this was the ideal type of woman you have been craving; both in appearance and personality. This body was modeled just for you.” she watched the way his face screwed up but this time he looked like he was in pain, he swallowed thickly while gritting his teeth. 

“Then, did anything… did anything matter to you?” he wasn’t looking at her, so he didn’t notice the way her eyes twitched a little “Did any of what we had… matter to you, at all?” he looked up at her and saw the way she just continued to stare at him, his shoulders slumped, and he turned away to leave. 

“… from the day we first met to today, I have never lied to you.” this caused him to look back at her but noticed that she was no longer in the mirror “Take that as you will, Stanley.” 

season 2, bonus episode. harbinger of chaos 

“So, dudes, Alvah gave you that memory tube that contained the memory old man McGucket erased from way back then?” Soos, who was unconscious the entire time Alvah revealed she wasn’t who she seemed, questioned as he and Wendy followed the twins to where they could watch the memory tube. They hadn’t seen Alvah in a couple of days, Grunkle Ford told them that he, she, they? Whatever, she was so busy in her dimension that she wasn’t going to be around much, and the times she was she was down in the basement helping Ford out with his stuff. It was quite odd in the beginning, mostly because Alvah usually stuck by Stan’s side, but from what they were told, when he first met her, she always stuck by his side and watched him through mirrors or shadows. Anyways, they snuck back into the former base of the Society of the Blind Eye to steal the contraption that allowed them to watch the stolen memories of Gravity Falls and hauled it back to the Mystery Shack “What do you think we’re gonna see?” he asked curiously as they hooked it up in the attic. 

“Do you think we’re gonna see the world's secrets?” Mabel suggests rather excitingly. 

“We don’t know what exactly McGucket put into the memory gun, but I highly doubt it went that far. It would probably be something recent during that time.” Dipper answers, Wendy hums softly. 

“Whatever it is, I’m glad I brought snacks. We can munch on these while we watch.” Dipper laughed softly at Wendy, lightening the mood. Now that they know that Alvah is actually a being of pure evil, he was a little nervous to peek into that mind of hers to see what was going on thirty years ago where it all began. Soos and Mabel rearranged the room a little so they would be more comfortable to watch, so after finally setting it up he inserted the memory tube and took a seat beside Mabel. The screen spurred to life and the dark room was filled with static until it turned black, it stayed like that for a couple minutes and it confused them, was something wrong with it? 

“Hey, dude, did you set it up right?” Dipper scratched his head as he stood up, approaching the screen to see if he had done something wrong. 

“I thought I did, maybe I missed—” he let out a startled shout as he fell backward when a loud crash came from the TV, looking back up at it, they were all startled to see the shadowed figure of Stanford in a mirror, and he looked enraged as his fists banged against the mirror glass. 

“FORD!” he shouted as he continued to bang on the glass, he pushed his face against the glass to get a look at Stanford and he found the young man hunched over his desk. He looked as if he hadn’t slept in days, which was true, now that he had angered Bill Cipher, that triangular bastard had been tormenting the poor human to the point he couldn’t even sleep anymore in fear that his body would be taken advantage of “You’re going to allow yourself to wallow away in this shack? You’re not going to do anything to retaliate against him, and why? Because you’re afraid? You allowed him to take advantage of you despite all my warnings, and now that you lost poor little Fiddlesticks you’ve come to realize that you’ve got no one left. Tell me, what exactly are you going to do now? Have you finally given up, Stanford?” 

“As… as long as I don’t give in, he won’t win.” he glares back at the mirror where Alvah lets out a malicious cackle, his fists continuing to bang against the glass. 

“You think that’s enough to keep him at bay? Do you think that’s enough to keep him from getting what he wants? Unless you dismantle that portal of yours or destroy those journals, he’s going to continue torturing you until he succeeds. You sealed your fate the moment you took his hand, Stanford.” he scoffs, red eyes void of emotion but you can tell that he is giving him an unimpressed expression “You were such a gullible and naïve little thing that just a tiny bit of praise had you dancing in the palm of his hand; had you constructing the very thing that could destroy your universe.” he let out a laugh when Stanford stood to his feet and approached the mirror, slamming his hands against the frame and glaring at his shadow. 

“Mock me all you want, Alvah, but I made the discovery of a lifetime. I was able to create something that could have changed the world; that should have changed the world.” 

“Yeah, in a bad way. And sure, you were able to create it from scratch, but that idea wasn’t yours. You weren’t able to create something without his blueprints, this portal was his idea in the first place, and you were foolish enough to make it for him. To him, you were the perfect little puppet that didn’t even realize his strings were being pulled.” he laughed when Stanford punched the mirror, shattering it to pieces as the shards scattered across the floor beneath his feet, but he still saw his shattered reflection through the shards “If you had just listened to me from the very beginning, none of this would have happened. But why listen to me? As a being made up of an amalgamation of evil, of course, you shouldn’t trust me. Your muse would never lie to you~” he watched Stanford continue to glare down at his reflection before walking off, Alvah chuckled and followed him through the shadows that lingered through the barely lit house “He is never going to quit. He is never going to leave you alone. You will never be safe. You will never get to live a normal life again. You will never be sane. He sees everything no matter where you are. He is always watching.” Stanford stops in front of another mirror and faces Alvah once more, glaring at the shadowed version of himself instead of his own reflection. 

“Then what do you suppose I do? The only other option would be to…” his eyes glance over at a closet that kept his weapons, he hears another chuckle and raises his head to see Alvah leaning against the mirror. 

“You really think a bullet would end this madness? Hardly. You can’t get away from him, not even through death. Unless you can figure out a way to sever the connection between your mind and his control, you’ll never be able to get away.” he thoroughly enjoyed the way Stanford’s face crumbled up in pain “Well, what if I can help weaken it?” this caused him to perk up. 

“What… what do you mean?” he jerked backward when a bright light burst out of the mirror, his face hardened when he saw the same scroll of paper Alvah first introduced to him a few months back when things weren’t so bad “You know I’m not going to agree to that after what happened.” Alvah’s hands rolled along the side of the scroll as he peeked his head out from the side, lowering it a little as his fingers tapped against it. 

“You should know, Fordsy, that my contracts are different from his deals. He always manages to find loopholes through his deals and is generally the one at an advantage, while my contracts are stricter on myself and those who sign them.” he then gestures to the blank canvas “Whatever your demands are, I will match them to either an equal value or lesser. Through my contracts, I don’t need that portal to cross over to this dimension.” 

“If that’s the case, why would I—” Alvah raised his finger to stop him. 

“That’s where the contract comes into play. While I can access this dimension, my powers are much more limited than if it were the real me.” he holds the contract out to him once more “State whatever you want, Stanford. Whether it be keeping you safe from the dangers that linger outside this shack, or something minor like keeping an eye on your family while you stay here, I’ll be forced to do whatever it is. I don’t seek destruction, that’s not my thing.” Stanford stared at him in confusion. 

“But you’re also a being that influences the minds to do atrocious things. Why would you do something so unlike you for me?” he flinched when he was met with a vicious grin. 

“Because taking his toys is so much more enjoyable. When you two broke off, whatever your relationship was, he caused quite a ruckus in the Nightmare Realm that I found unbearable. I’m gonna enjoy the face he’s going to make when he realizes I took the one thing he thought was going to be his until the end of time.” Stanford clenched his hand into a fist as he stared at the blank contract waiting to be filled with his demands, what other options did he have? With the help of this demonic being, he can get Bill out of his mind so he can focus on more important matters, and even if he manages to get into his mind, Alvah is more than powerful enough to get him out “So, what do you say? Wanna sign a contract with me?” 

“… I can state whatever I want, and you’ll have to abide by it, no matter what?” the grin on his face grew wider. 

“Whatever you want, and I’ll do it for you.” Ford’s hand slowly lifted from his side and pressed against the mirror, in an instance, the demands he wanted were being written across the once blank page. A few other spots were filled in and he knew they were for Alvah, while they were allowed to travel between the Nightmare Realm and his dimension, they were to remain in Gravity Falls if he wasn’t there to keep it from being destroyed by the anomalies within this hick town, while in turn they were allowed access to their powers in order for that to happen. The contract turned towards Alvah, and their grin didn’t disappear, instead, he watched as they tore into their thumb to drip what he believed was blood and signed the end of it. Stanford took a step back when the contract came out of the mirror and a quill appeared beside it, Alvah pressed against the mirror and looked at him with anticipation “All you’ve got to do is sign it, and I’ll be at your discretion.” he swallowed thickly as he stared down at the part where he was supposed to sign it. Looking back at the quill he saw it swing side to side for him to take it, so with a deep breath he raised his thumb to his lips and tore into the flesh. He winced in pain but shook it off, hovering his thumb over the page and allowing a few drops of his blood to drip onto the page before taking the quill and signing his name. 

“Now… now what?” he was met with silence when the contract disappeared, leaving him and the shadow of his reflection within the darkness of the room. He stood nervously as those beading red eyes stared right back at him, slowly, he watched his reflection raise his hands and start banging against the mirror. He took a step back when each strike against the glass started getting more and more violent to the point the glass began to crack, when the glass did shatter a black liquid spilled out and poured onto the floor. He watched as the liquid bubbled and sizzled until a hand burst out and slammed against the floorboards, slowly, through the gurgling and groaning noises that emitted from this blob of goo, a figure pushed themself out of the puddle of tar. 

“What a pain…” he flinched at the sound of the voice as the figure stood to its full height, one that was looming over him, and threw their head back, which caused some of the black tar to splatter across the room and some even got on Ford. Their hands ran up their face then threaded through their hair and after wiping away the black tar from their face, he was met with a pale face a bright ruby red eyes with thin slitted irises. The figure before him appeared as a tall, long-limbed, broad-shouldered adult man of indeterminate but reasonably young age, with jet-black hair with his bangs falling slightly over his eyes and strands on the sides of his bangs framing his face though the length seemed to vary because his hair seemed to be part of his shadow while bearing this form. The outfit he wore comprised mainly in a classic Victorian fashion. It includes a white long-sleeved shirt with an intricately knotted red cravat under a black double-breasted suit with red buttons, matching black trousers, and a pair of dark brown leather riding boots, covered by a red, split, and full-length, long coat with ruffles exclusive to the shoulders “I must say, you have quite a sense of fashion, Fordsy~” the man cooed softly, twirling a strand of his black hair around his finger. 

“W-What?” he spread his arms open then gestured to his being. 

“This vessel was created to adorn the appearance my contractor so desires. As I said, I have no face, no sex, no appearance of my own. Whenever someone signs one of my contracts, I take up the appearance that my contractor feels most comfortable.” he then leaned down until his face was inches away from Stanford’s “This appearance was modeled just for you, Fordsy~” he was promptly shoved away, causing him to break out into a fit of laughter. 

“And the personality?” he shrugged. 

“Taken from someone you once cherished.” this caused him to look away, he dusted himself off and bowed his head once more “I am Alvah, the Harbinger of Chaos, and I am at your every beck and call until our contract is fulfilled. How may I be of assistance today?” Stanford stares down at the demonic being he summoned, his eyes full of so many thoughts, before taking the hand that was offered to him. 

“We’ve got a lot of work to do.” 

… 

… 

“So…” the children, Wendy and Soos, stared at the screen with mouths agape after the screen turned back to static, indicating that the memory had finished “McGucket erased the memory of when Alvah and Ford made their contract.” 

“That he did.” they all let out screams of surprise at the sudden voice, looking up, they were met with the female version of Alvah, who was chuckling softly that she managed to scare them “I believe he was going to shoot Fordsy with it, but since I came to his house that fateful day, he used it on me instead.” they all stare up at her in shock before calming themselves down, she then casually leans against the TV as Dipper approaches her. 

“But… if he erased that memory, wouldn’t that mean you should have forgotten what you were meant to do?” she shook her head. 

“Oh, no. You can’t erase a mind so vast. To me, it felt like the moment you walk into a room and forget what you were supposed to do but remember it an instance later when you’ve left that room. If he wanted to completely erase my deal with Ford, he would have had to shoot me with that gun a good hundred times.” she takes the memory tube and tosses it up and down a couple times “That day was one of Ford’s lowest moments, where he didn’t know what to do and had nobody to turn to. Yet, I had not abandoned him. I believe that since he was in such a dire situation, that was the reason he agreed to sign a contract with me. If he were any saner, I don’t believe he would have.” 

“So… how did you and Stanford meet anyways?” Wendy asked “From what we saw, you were confined to mirrors and shadows. What was your relationship with him?” this caused her to laugh. 

“For the second part, I was more like a caretaker or maybe a babysitter?” she shrugged her shoulders while giggling “That man could not look after himself, and after Fidds left him, it was up to me to keep him from doing something that would end up with him not waking up the next morning. It was almost sad.” 

“And the first part?” she raised a brow, Dipper twiddled his thumbs nervously “H-How did you two meet?” she looked up in thought, exhaling deeply through her nose. 

“Well, that’s a long story.” she glanced back over at them, chuckling a little when she saw them looking up at her with anticipation “Well, it all started about… thirty years ago, I believe.” 

Flashback… 

“What do we have here?” the Harbinger of Chaos approached Bill within the Nightmare Realm after his return from a dimension, to which he was peering into said dimension through their windows “You seem to be in a jolly mood, Cipher? May I inquire why?” they hummed softly when Bill let out a boisterous laugh, looking away from what he was looking at to look up at them. 

“Hahaha, I just found the most gullible human ever!” he gestured for them to peer into the window, and there their eyes laid upon a young-looking human man “Get this, I recognized his brilliant but cocky and insecure nature, and I used his near-friendlessness as ideal conditions for manipulation, so I introduced myself to him as a muse who chose one brilliant mind every century to inspire.” they let out a hum as they watched the human man write stuff down in a worn-out journal. 

“So, he’s the next pet to build your portal?” he nods his head. 

“Uh-huh. I showed him the blueprints for the portal, and he said he’d get started on it immediately. Psh, this has got to be one of the easiest suckers I’ve ever got to construct the portal in like, what, centuries?” 

“Possibly longer, but I must agree, this guy seems to be very naïve.” 

“I know, right? At least the other humans I tried to get to build my portal were more skeptical, but this guy is just dancing in the palm of my hand. It won’t be long before I can finally get out of this janky hellhole.” he heard a chuckle and let out an oh, looking back up at them “A very nice hellhole, since you can’t exactly leave.” they just gave a shrug in response. 

“Oh, it’s bearable. And besides, I can technically leave whenever I want, I just have to abandon this body in the process.” he lets out a hum “I’m somewhat curious about him, you wouldn’t mind if pop in and bother him from time to time, do you? He looks fun to make fun of.” Bill laughs. 

“Sure, go ahead. As long as you don’t distract him from completely the portal, I don’t care what you do.” 

And that’s where they found themselves watching Stanford Pines, hidden within the shadows that surrounded the man. They had to admit, he definitely had a brilliant mind from the mass amounts of research he managed to accumulate throughout the six years he resided in the hick town that was Gravity Falls, but he was just so damn stupid. Apparently, he found murals about Bill Cipher hidden within a cave and thought “oh yes, this doesn’t scream demonic entity at all” and managed to summon him, or rather, just caught his attention. As they continued to watch him, before his little assistant arrived, he was rather neglectful of his own well-being and would go days of staying hunched over his desk figuring out equations. 

“You’re quite dumb for a man who proclaims to be a genius.” they laughed to themself when they saw Stanford, who was currently brushing his teeth, spit out what was in his mouth and whip his head around in search of the voice “I’m right here, dumb, dumb. Look up.” he slowly raised his head to look at the mirror, squinting his eyes the longer he stared at his reflection before jerking backward when a grin spread across his lips. His reflection slowly started to laugh until a sort of darkness wrapped around his body and he was staring at a shadowed version of himself, a bead of sweat bled down his face when beading red eyes appeared all over his body and stared at him. 

“W-What…?” his reflection chuckled. 

“For a human who uses such big words to make himself much smarter than he actually is, I feel quite proud that I’ve rendered you speechless.” it felt unsettling to hear his voice even though he did not speak, his relfection’s finger draws circles in the glass “I’ve been watching you for some time, Stanford Pines.” he quickly grabbed his glasses that were sitting on the sink and put them on, staring at the figure in shock and awe. 

“You know my name?” they roll their multiple eyes. 

“Yes, I just said I’ve been watching you. I was bound to pick up your name.” they hum softly when his face flushed up in embarrassment “Anyways, I can’t help but say that I’m impressed that you managed to gain Bill’s favor.” the mention of Bill caused him to perk up, a little smile gracing his lips. 

“Really?” they huffed. 

“Sure. He’s gathered many brilliant minds over the years throughout the multiverse, but I’ve never seen him favor one specific human before. He’s given a lot of his time to you, and as I said, I’m impressed. Humans, in particular, are his least favorite. Still, he seems to put his distaste towards them to the side for you.” their gaze hardened a little when he saw the way his face flushed up, but this time, for a different “… anyways, I was just spying on you to see what all the hype was about. I don’t really see much.” they snickered when they saw how his face fell and looked back at them, his face scrunching up in confusion. 

“What do you mean by that?” they hummed softly, crossing their arms and turning away. 

“I thought you were smart, perhaps you can figure out why I don’t find you as interesting as your little muse does~” they laughed to themself when his face flared up, so they pointed at him as they continued to laugh “Haha, your face looks so funny when you do that! Do it again.” Stanford scoffed and turned around to leave, thinking that whoever this being was could only communicate through mirrors. 

“Hmph, I don’t know what you are, but I’m smarter than you think I am.” 

“Oh, really?” he gasped and saw the way the red eyes appeared on his shadow on the wall “I bet you were thinking I was confined to mirrors and your reflection, but no. I can appear within your shadow as well. Nowhere is safe for you!” throughout the day Stanford had to put up with them making fun of him and teasing him, even when he tried to cancel out the noise with music, they found a way to interfere with the soundwaves so he could hear their voice. They were now back in the Nightmare Realm laughing their head off with Bill Cipher, who was now dealing with the aftermath of what they did to Stanford “He is so fun to mess with!” Bill snorted. 

“I’ve got to thank you, though he’s just complaining, he seems to be leaning on me more. Telling me how this “shadow has been bullying him”, just a little bit of reassurance has him trusting me more and more. Keep it up, would you.” 

“Hah! Like I’d give up making fun of this human! I haven’t been this entertained in years.” 

Over a couple of months when the progress of the portal had just begun, both Bill and them would play their little game with Stanford Pines. Where they would poke fun at him and point out his little mistakes while Bill would reassure him and help him figure out the problem, this led to Stanford trusting Bill more and more and cementing them as the bad guy. Though their power didn’t revolve around the mindscape like Bill’s did, they were still very much able to enter it, and they made the poor mistake of entering Stanford’s mind and witnessing how deep his obsession with Bill ran. Hmm, though they also made fun of that Fiddlestick guy, they were now beginning to prefer him with how… weird, Stanford was. 

“So… Bill tells me you’re known as the, Harbinger of Chaos?” he asked questionably. 

“Ooo, finally curious about me?” they asked within Stanford’s shadow, he had the light cast behind him so they could be “sitting” across from him “I thought you’d never ask any questions about me. Bill tells me you’re not quite fond of me.” he huffed. 

“Of course, because unlike him, you make fun of me.” he saw the way they rolled his eyes, if only this poor sucker knew “But I can’t stop my curiosity. I asked Bill about you, but he told me if I wanted to know more about you it’d be best if I were to ask the source itself.” they leaned back in the seat they were in and shrugged their shoulders. 

“Well, shoot, dumb, dumb. Ask away.” they laughed again when he pouted, calling him dumb dumb always got that reaction out of him so they resorted to calling him that from time to time. 

“Mm, so what Bill has told me, you’re not exactly a… person, per say?” 

“Well, it is hard to put it into words, but let’s just simplify it and say I wasn’t exactly born like you, your friend, or Bill Cipher. I was not created either. I have been around since the beginning of all that was created. I am simply the manifestation of evil throughout countless dimensions; an amalgamation of all that is evil. I AM evil itself, that managed to conjure a consciousness and become the very being that I am today.” they raised their hand and Stanford managed to see their hand glow red “I am every bad choice you make, every selfish action, every terrible mistake. I am the influence that drives you to do bad things.” 

“So, you tell people to do bad things?” they shook their head. 

“No. I don’t tell people to do anything, it’s their fault that they ended up doing something bad, not mine.” he nods his head as he writes down what they said in his journal. 

“Does that mean you’re the very definition of evil?” 

“That it does, but that doesn’t particularly mean that I am evil.” he watches as the glow floats around their hand “My being doesn’t exactly have the concept of “feelings”, you know? I don’t feel like being the bad guy or being the good guy either. I don’t feel joy, anger, sadness, fear; I can replicate those feelings, but I myself can’t exactly feel anything.” 

“Do you feel pain?” 

“Hmm, well, there hasn’t been anything in existence that’s able to harm me. Bill is quite literally the only being that is of equal power to me, but there is a being more powerful than us. You could say that is when I do feel the fear.” Stanford perks up at that, raising his pen a little. 

“Oh! Bill has mentioned such a being before.” they nod. 

“So, he has. He doesn’t like to mention it, but they make him nervous as well. Don’t tell him I told you that, he’ll get fussy. Anyway, there hasn’t been a time where somebody has managed to hurt me, much less leave a mark. I’m more of a neutral being, I don’t care for world domination, and I don’t care enough to save worlds. It’s none of my business; not my circus, not my monkeys.” 

“I see. Bill tells me that his and your powers are somewhat similar.” it takes them a second to understand what he meant before perking up, snapping their fingers in remembrance. 

“Ah, yes! Bill has his “deals” to inhabit his host's minds and “cross over” to your world. Unlike him though, I can appear here whenever I want. I don’t need a gateway like he does. Anyways, while he has his deals, I have my contracts. The terms of the contract are set by both me and my contractor, only when we agree and sign the contract may I physically enter their world. They’re stricter as well, we must abide by the terms and conditions, or else the contract with be null and void. We must follow it to a T, or else the contract with destroy itself, and my physical body will cease to exist and I return back to the Nightmare Realm.” 

“And what about your real body?” 

“It becomes stationed. While I am still able to infect other universes with my chaotic influences, it’s not nearly as effective if I were to do it myself. If I want to control the physical body I created in this dimension, I would have to give up the consciousness in my main body to control that other one. My powers are also limited, so while I can easily erase a planet from existence, my powers would simply be reduced to where I can only decimate a city.” 

“That’s… still very threatening.” they shrug their shoulders. “You mentioned your real body? Each time I’ve seen you, you’ve only taken up my appearance. Are you faceless?” they hum. 

“I am. I am neither man nor woman, I am not a being that can be identified by something like sex or pronouns. I have no face and no physical appearance to call my own. However, if a being lesser than I were to witness my true form, their minds would slowly descend into madness from all the chaos stored into one being.” 

“Can you describe what you look like? 

“Hah, are you going to attempt to sketch me?” he nods. 

“Your chapter won’t be complete without it.” they stared at him for a couple seconds then laughed when he raised his head, waiting for them to say something, they just gently shook their head. 

“Alright, okay. I have a body made up of a chaotic tangle of writhing, red tendrils, and jagged lines adorned with numerous glowing red eyes that peer out from the dark depths of my flesh. That’s all you’re going to get.” this caused Stanford to look up at them, mildly frustrated at the brief description, but he took up the challenge and started sketching with what he was given. They both sat in silence and all that was heard was the repeated strokes of Stanford’s pen sketching across the page, they were quite impressed that he was drawing with a pen instead of a pencil. After what they believed was an hour of Stanford consistently stopping to think and continue to draw, he let out a sigh and dropped his pen to pick up his journal. 

“How does this look?” they lean forward and Stanford watches as their collective eyes shoot open and look at the page, he was startled when his journal was plucked out of his hands by an invisible force but when he looked down, he saw that the journal’s shadow was grabbed by them. Looking back up at them, he saw how they held the journal close so their eyes could take in his sketch “Is it… good?” a soft chuckle left them. 

“Hah… alright, I’m starting to see it.” they lowered the book, and he saw something genuine in their eyes “With the limited information, this is surprisingly the most accurate depiction of me. Well done, Fordsy, you’ve won my praise.” they hummed when he became flustered, of course, he would, he’s never been praised by them before, so it made him feel special. 

“Oh, well, it’s nothing much. I did struggle a bit.” 

“Don’t humble yourself, Fordsy.” they turned the book around so he could see his sketch “Not once, in the trillions of years I’ve been alive, has anyone made a sketch as accurate as you have. Nobody can look at the real me without their minds declining into madness, and lesser beings aren’t skilled enough to draw a sketch this good with the lack of details. This is most likely the first and last sketch of me. Be proud, Stanford.” they huffed softly at the soft hue of pink appearing on his cheeks as he sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. 

“Thanks.” he gasped softly when his journal was tossed back into his hands. 

“Don’t expect to hear more praise from me for a while, that’s Bill’s job.” Stanford chuckled, feeling more at ease with the being that was harbored within his shadow. 

“Sure…” their eyes stared curiously at him when his face scrunched up in thought “I hate to be rude, but is there anything else I can address you by? The Harbinger of Chaos is a bit of a mouthful, and I don’t exactly want to call you chaos or evil, so…” this got a laugh out of them. 

“I don’t have a name. Not even Bill calls me anything. I just… exist.” Ford blinked at them, his face softening a little. 

“Can I… give you a name?” 

“What am I? A pet?” they laughed when he raised his hands and shook them. 

“No, no! It just… it just makes it easier to address you? Yeah, that’s it!” they sat there staring at him as he tried to defend himself, but they just scoffed, leaning into their seat as they crossed their arms. 

“Alright, Einstein, give me a name.” this ceased his needless chattering, and they sat in silence once more as he tried thinking of a good name that would best suit them, he mumbled a couple under his breath but he noticed the way their eyes would crease in displeasure at a couple so he kept thinking “If I don’t like it, I’ll skin you alive.” this caused him to start thinking harder. 

“Um, how about—no, no, that doesn’t sound good. Uh, erm… oh!” he snaps his fingers, face as bright as a child on Christmas day “Alvah! How does that sound?” he started to shrink in on himself when they said nothing but stare at him “W-Well, Alvah is a gender-neutral name with Hebrew roots. Translating to “his highness” or “rising,”.” 

“… you do know the biblical meaning to the name “Alvah”, also means evil, right?” this caused him to pause, looking up in thought before crumbling due to the fact he forgot that small detail, he jumped a little when they started to laugh “I like it.” 

“W-Wha— really?” they nod their head. 

“Yes, Alvah. It has a nice ring to it; I like the name, and I like the fact that it correlates to my being. You’ve won my praise again, well done.” Alvah rolled their eyes when Stanford became flustered once more “Don’t let it go to your head, alright.” 

“Heh, I’ll try.” they both share a laugh. 

Alvah didn’t want to admit it, but Stanford was beginning to grow on them, not enough to stop him from completing the portal, but enough that they started to… care, bleh. They never once cared for him when he would wound up falling asleep at his desk how his sleep schedule became worse and worse, or how he would never eat or restock on food, or even have a shower once in a while. Never once they did care about how he neglected his well-being but ever since the day he gave them that name, their perspective on him changed. 

It was one of those days were Stanford decided to continue working on the portal and he fell asleep at his desk, his shadow loomed over him and Alvah’s form slowly took over and looked over his sleeping form. Humans don’t particularly feel great in the morning after sleeping in such an uncomfortable position, and because they can’t exactly touch his physical being, Alvah used different shadows to pick Stanford up using his shadow and carry him to his bed where he could get some hours of comfortable rest. Stanford would always wake up confused when he found himself in his bed, sometimes asking Fiddleford if it was him that moved him to his bed, but his assistant would deny any involvement in such a thing. He thought it was his muse that possessed his body to move him to his bed, so after asking him, he was met with laughter. 

“Oh, that? Alvah, or whatever you named them, is the one that moves you.” this stunned him, Alvah? “I’m surprised too. Sometimes I would catch them in the act, but they just say they’re doing it, so you won’t cause any hiccups when building the portal. Gotta say they’re always one to think ahead. So, stop falling asleep at your desk, alright?” Bill’s eye narrowed on Stanford when he rubbed the back of his neck. 

“R-Right, I’ll try and stop that.” back in the Nightmare Realm, Bill found Alvah peering into a universe with a human and talking dog. 

“I didn’t think you’d begin to care about our little pet human, Alvah.” this caused their hands to jerk back as they turned to look at Bill. 

“Whatever do you mean?” he hummed. 

“You don’t like humans. You find them one of the most repulsive living flesh bags there is, so I don’t understand why you’re beginning to care about this one.” this caused them to huff, snapping their fingers and the window of the universe they were just looking at disappeared and the one of dimension 46’\ appeared so they could watch Stanford and Fiddleford continue their work on the portal. 

“I thought I was doing a good thing for you, Bill. His progress has slowed a little because of him neglecting his body, would you rather his health to decline while he’s in the process of completing his project?” Bill narrowed his eye on them for that, he had noticed the way Stanford’s work had become a little sloppy because of his wanting to please his muse “I’ll stop if that’s what you want.” 

“Hmm, I guess you can continue your babysitting. I wouldn’t want him to mess up when he’s so close.” they laughed as they gently tipped his hat, causing him to reach for it when it fell off “Hey!” 

“If I didn’t know, you sound jealous.” their eyes creased when they saw his yellow body hue a slight red, whether it be of anger or embarrassment, they weren’t going to question him on it. 

“Jealous? Of what? You taking care of him? I can take him to bed as well!” 

“Mm, without hurting him?” Alvah laughed when he glared at him, the last time he possessed his body, he accidentally fell down a flight of stairs, but they were lucky he was only on the middle part of the staircase instead of the very top “Alright, alright. Now go, he looks like he misses you~” they cooed while pointing at Stanford, who was writing a new paragraph in his journal about his muse. 

“Well, duty calls.” they waved him goodbye and went back to doing their job as Bill returned to Stanford, however, even they began to question why they were looking out for the human. They jotted it down to just looking out for the human for Bill, he needed him alive and healthy for his portal to be complete so he could leave this awful place. If he leaves and takes over dimension 46’\, it’ll leave them in the Nightmare Realm all by themself, which they honestly would prefer. They would have their peace and quiet once more and not have to hear Bill’s consistent chatter about world domination, perhaps he’d let Stanford live, he did have a soft spot for that human. Whatever, it’s none of their concern. 

Until it was. 

“Hey, Alvah.” they let out a hum as Stanford sat across from them as they played a game of chess, letting him know that they were listening, they stared at the pieces on the board as they thought of where they should move their rook “You know a lot about, Bill, right?” he noticed the way their hand pause for a second before slowly moving their rook across the board. 

“I do. Why? Are you curious about something, Fordsy?” their eyes look at him curiously. 

“I believe he is… hiding something from me.” they hum again, watching Stanford move his pawn forward “I can trust you, right?” they shrug. 

“Whether you trust me or not, I don’t care.” 

“Let me rephrase it then; have you lied to me at all?” they rolled their fingers on the armrest of the chair before letting it rest there but their finger started drawing circles in the air. 

“I do not lie. I may keep secrets, but I am not prone to lying. I don’t see a point in lying to someone.” 

“Even if it were to hurt their feelings?” 

“I don’t care about people’s feelings. I’ll tell you a bit of the truth, but I won’t tell you the full truth. It isn’t considered lying if I don’t tell you the full story.” he narrowed his eyes at Alvah’s logic, to which they shrugged again as they moved their bishop to take the knight that was previously being protected by the pawn “Now, why do you believe Bill is hiding something from you? Don’t you trust him?” they raised a brow when they saw him hesitate, now this is new. 

“It’s just, well,” he let out a sigh as he moved his other knight to take their bishop “Fiddleford and I are so close to finishing the portal and he’s been acting… different.” they tilt their head to the side. 

“Different? How so?” he laces his fingers together, pursing his lips as he tries to think of the words. 

“Well, he started to question where the origin of the portal had come from. When I told him it was from a close source of mine, he didn’t fully believe me but didn’t stop to question it.” he looked up at Alvah and saw that they were still listening, going so far as to roll their wrist to get him to continue “When I brought it up with Bill, he told me that Fiddleford was merely jealous that I managed to create such a complex machine.” 

“And? Do you believe Bill?” his eyes hardened a little. 

“I want to believe him, but Fiddleford would never think like that. He’s been my intellectual equal since our days in Backupsmore. I don’t believe he’d ever be jealous of me, but I don’t understand why Bill would say such a thing.” 

“How can you be so sure? Things could change over time.” they watch as he moves his rook but in retaliation they move their other bishop across the board, forcing him to use another one of his pieces to shield his king from being claimed “You should always be careful who you place your trust in, Stanford. One might take advantage of your friendliness, and you would never know which one is doing it. They’ll say nice things to weaken your resolve, and the moment you open your arms out to them, they’re stabbing you in the back to get what they want. But what do they have to gain out of it.” 

“What do you mean?” 

“Well, on one hand, Fiddleford dropped everything just to come and help you with this project. He left his wife and child and didn’t even stop to question what he was getting himself involved in, quite the dedication he has for his best friend. On the other hand, we have Bill Cipher. An interdimensional, dream demon who acknowledged your brilliance and chose you out of billions of other humans to be the one to complete his lifelong project. Taking time out of his routine to come visit you, whether it be in reality or within the sanctum of your mind. Both these individuals seem to hold a place in your heart, they are something special to you, and you are struggling to decide which one you should place your trust in.” they moved their rook forward and took out another one of his pieces, which forced him to move his king “So, who do you trust more? The one who was there when you were nothing, or the one who was there when you became something?” they moved their queen across the board and smirked to themself “Checkmate.” his eyes widened as he looked at the board and saw that their pieces cornered his king, he let out a sigh as he collapsed into the back of his seat. 

“I don’t know what to do.” 

“Well, sort your feelings out. Your mind is clouding your judgement, and one day, someone is going to get hurt because of your foolishness. Decide who to trust. But let me tell you one thing.” he swallowed thickly when their tone got dark “Be careful around Bill. He’s not all that he makes himself out to be. He is one too hold a grudge to those who have double crossed him, and though you might be his favorite, don’t expect him to go easy on you.” they started laughing before raising their hands to form a triangle over their left eye “Beware of the beast with just one eye.” Stanford shielded his face when darkness enveloped the room as their laughter rung out before it all disappeared, he swallowed thickly as he looked around in a daze. 

“Beware of the beast with just one eye?” Alvah watches Stanford in the shadows as he mulled over their words, they themself grinned rather mischievously. 

“The seed of doubt has been planted.” they snickered quietly before returning to the Nightmare Realm and waited for the chaos to ensue. 

And so, we’re getting closer to wrapping up this flashback, but also not quite there yet. Alvah already knew that Stanford and Fiddleford have almost completed the construction of the portal, but they hadn’t realized just how close, because whilst they were minding their own business in the Nightmare Realm, relaxing after fulfilling their daily chaotic routine, they were startled when a hole opened up and out of nowhere. Curiously, they did approach it and concluded that they had finally managed to successfully finish the portal, but what caught them by surprise was when a head poked through. Upon closer inspection, they recognized the human as Fiddleford, they tilted their head to the side as they stared at him while he looked up at them and their face slowly morphed into one of pure terror. 

"You... aren't supposed to be here." they spoke, voice disoriented through the chaos that was their body. They sighed softly when he screamed in fear so they did the only sane thing they could think of, they raised their hand and pushed him right back where he came from, and the hole disappeared just as quickly as it appeared. 

"What was that?" looking over they see Bill approach them, his singular eye tinged with curiosity. 

"I believe your toy has finally finished his project." this made the triangular figure glow with glee, clapping his hands joyfully as he floated circles around their head "Congratulations, Bill. You're finally getting your doomsday." he let out a laugh as he hovered in front of their face. 

"I know, right? I'm gonna go round up the others!" they wave him goodbye and can only imagine the look of devastation on Stanford’s face the moment he realizes that everything he had built was all for nothing, that Bill was taking advantage of him the whole time while they themself knew about it all and said nothing about it. It was probably a couple hours later where Alvah was laying in a body of clouds relaxing, they didn’t really feel fatigue or exhaustion like living beings, but it was very relaxing to just longue around and do nothing. Well, that was until they heard something in the distance. One by one their eyes would slowly open and dart around to try and locate the source of the sound but couldn’t find anything, so with a low groan, they pulled themself up to try and find it but jumped when something flew into their face. 

“What the—" suddenly their face started getting wet and when they moved their eyes to look at what it was, they saw that it was Bill “Bill? What happened? What are you—” they let out a grunt as they managed to rip him off their face like a sticker, they held him in front of them and there they saw that he was… crying? 

“Y-You’ll never believe it…” their eyes look at him in confusion. 

“What? What happened? Why are you crying?” he sniffled and moved so that he was sitting within the palm of their hand. 

“Sixer figured out what I was planning after that little mishap with specs, he swore “eternal vengeance” and shut down the portal.” this revelation caused a few of their eyes to widen a little, they didn’t expect that outcome “But it’s not like I was going to let him get hurt, when we were going to ravage his dimension, I was going to let him join our band of freaks. With that sixth finger of his, he would have fit right in!” they nodded their head and laid back down on the clouds. 

“So, what are you going to do now, Bill? That portal is practically finished, all you’ve got to do is switch it back on and you’ll have your apocalypse.” Bill knew he wasn’t able to do anything in the physical realm unless he possessed Stanford’s body, so he looked up at them with a hopeful look in his ey— “I’m not doing it for you.” he let out a huff at their words. 

“Why not?! You’re able to manipulate their dimension however you please! You’ve been watching him so you know how to turn the thing on, so you could just do it for me!” they just shrug. 

“Don’t wanna.” Alvah laughs when he got angry “It’s none of my business whether he abandons you or not. I never said I was on your side, nor was I on his side. I’ll do whatever is most entertaining to me.” they hear his growl under his breath before he floats off their hand. 

“Fine! Don’t help me. But I’m not letting Sixer get away with this.” they shrug and relax into the clouds. 

“Do what you want.” they laugh quietly to themself and watch Bill float away, probably heading to O’Sadley’s, a multidimensional pub in the Rock Bottom Asteroid Belt of the Vicious Spiral Nebula. They wait until they could no longer feel his presence within the Nightmare Realm before appearing within Stanford’s dimension, they’re in his house but they couldn’t find him, so they search outside and found him standing in front of a bonfire with all three of his journals in his hands “Whatcha doin’?” they laughed when he jumped, panicking when he nearly dropped his research into the fire but quickly caught them and held them close to his chest. 

“A-Alvah…?” he looked down and found them inside his shadow, they waved up at him but noticed how his face hardened “Did you know the purpose of the portal?” they titled their head to the side. 

“Yes.” he let out a groan, throwing his head back in frustration “I warned you from the very beginning, Fordsy? You’re quite dumb for a man who proclaims to be a genius. He was playing you from the beginning and I was giving you subtle hints about it, but you weren’t able to pick up on it. This is exactly why I called you dumb, dumb, dumb.” he never did like it when they called him that, but that’s exactly what he was, a complete and utter fool. He can recall the times where they hinted at the fact that Bill was lying to him, it was mostly during the times when he praised Bill, and they would call him a fool for saying such a thing and mock his intelligence.  

“Are you here to stop me?” 

“Stop you from doing what?” 

“From shutting down the portal! Isn’t that why you’re here?” they laughed again. 

“Hah! No. Bill did want me to switch it back on, but I don’t wanna do that. I could care less about what he wants. I wasn’t on his side to begin with, I was just here for the entertainment.” they blow a raspberry as they shrug “But remember what I told you, Stanford. He is not going to go easy on you, you better find a way to keep him out.” he swallowed thickly at their words. 

“Yes, you are right.” 

“I was right from the start. I told you; I don’t lie.” 

“No, no you do not.” 

Alvah watched from within his shadow as he tried figuring out a way to keep Bill out of his lab but allow him in, since he made that deal with Bill that allowed him into his mind, he was worried that when he fell asleep Bill would possess his body and attempt to reactivate the portal. Alvah clearly doesn’t care about the outcome, they stated they’re not on Bill’s side, but they didn’t say they were on his side either. He didn’t know if he could trust their word on it, Alvah wasn’t confined to his mind and could freely travel through shadows and any reflection, so he couldn’t think of a way to keep them at bay like he could with Bill. 

Alvah thought it was quite impressive that Stanford managed to input a retinal scan on the door to his lab, knowing that when Bill was in the possession of any sort of body, the pupils of their host tend to become thinner while their sclera turned a shade of yellow. So, when he did eventually fall asleep and Bill did come into possession of his body, they watched within the shadows how Bill punched the steel door until his knuckles started to tear and bleed, he then resorted to scratching at the door like a caged animal until he split his nails. Bill, when possessing a body, was restricted to the physical capabilities of his host, so they were a little surprised at the strength Stanford had to be able to leave marks on the door. When Bill eventually gave up and returned to the Nightmare Realm, they appeared on the wall where Stanford lay unconscious and stared at the state of the door. Covered in scratch marks and smeared with his blood, if they hadn’t witnessed what happened, they would never have guessed a human man caused that much damage, rather a blood thirsty beast clawing desperately to get inside.  

Stanford woke up in the morning and his hands were in agonizing pain, he thought he would have found himself in front of his lab door but instead he was in his bed once more. Lifting his hands out from under the covers he was surprised to see they were wrapped securely in bandages and on his desk was a bowl that had a hand towel drenched in a mixture of his blood and water, alongside it was a glass of water and what looked like his aspirin. He would have thought that it was Fiddleford that treated his hands, that he had returned after what he had put him through, but beside the glass of water was a tiny note. 

‘you’ve got a bit of cleaning up to do ~ a’ 

“Alvah…” he whispered softly, he looks back down at his hands and noticed that his nails were a little shorter than the last time he checked. He took a breath as he gently rubbed over the bandages; they were on his side. Back in the Nightmare Realm, Alvah ignored the distant crying and screaming and watched Stanford closely, their finger drawing circles through the window to his dimension. 

“Ah, I’ve got too much work cut out for me.” 

Alvah watched as Bill grew desperate while Stanford’s mind slowly descended into insanity, they didn’t know if his desperation was what kept their involvement with Stanford to a minimum, but he had yet to notice how it was them patching up Stanford with everything that geometrical freak was throwing at him. They themself didn’t understand why they got involved with Stanford, they didn’t understand why they were helping him, they kept telling themself that it was just to spite Bill. They didn’t like Bill all too much, that’s why they were on the human’s side. Well, it was quite funny seeing him throw tantrum after tantrum each time Stanford denied him access to his mind. The zombie incident was a mess, it was a little hilarious watching Stanford and Bill converse through sticky notes like the humans do in their educational prisons, the oddest one by far was Bill taping a snake into his journal and how he retaliated? Playing Bill’s favorite song “the world is small ever after for always” by Inkwell, unfortunately it was now replaying within the Nightmare Realm. 

They appear within Stanford’s room but noticed that he was nowhere to be found, they reappear inside his lab and don’t find him in there either. He couldn’t possibly be outside, the season changed to the colder one so there was no way he was outside unless he wanted to be frozen like a popsicle. Roaming the hallways of his barely lit shack, Alvah was struggling to find him, but when they searched upstairs, they noticed that one of his windows leading to the roof was open. It was the early morning, and the sun was up, but it was barely peaking through the thick clouds that blanketed the earth with layers of snow, but outside on the rooftop was Stanford. He was woken from his slumber when he felt a blast of freezing cold air blow through him, his eyes shot open, and it took him a couple seconds to realize that he was outside. His eyes slowly trailed downwards, and he realized that he was on the roof of his shack, his foot hanging off the edge as if he was about to step off. If his body wasn’t already shaking due to the cold, then his body started to tremble at the thought of Bill… he slowly pulled his foot back and inched away from the edge, hugging his body that was turning blue due to hyperthermia. How long had he been out here? He could barely feel his fingers and the snow was seeping into his clothes and melting, nothing feels worse than wet socks. Maybe it was due to him being lost in his thoughts or the sudden gust of wind, but his eyes widened when he lost his footing and started to fall. He clawed desperately at anything to catch himself but due to the layer of snow on his roof he found nothing to grab, a gasp left him he had practically fallen off the roof but was caught in midair by his wrist.  

“How’s it hanging?” looking up, he didn’t see anyone but when he looked forward, he had realized he had fallen in front of the open window where his shadow cast inside and there he saw Alvah had caught him by his shadow “Now what are you doing outside? It’s cold out, isn’t it?” they laugh as they pull him inside, placing him gently on the ground. Their head tilts to the side when they saw him shivering so they closed the window and drag him to where the fireplace was well lit and the song “Sweet Dreams” by Eurythmics was softly playing in the background, they disappear but reappear to drape a blanket over him to help. 

“T-Thank you…” they let out a hum, he looks down at his hands and saw they were wrapped in bandages and his body felt oddly sore, had the shock made him unaware of the pain he was experiencing? 

“Bill knows.” his eyes flicker towards Alvah. 

“He knows? H-He knows what?” 

“… he knows that I’ve been the one helping you.” he jumped to his feet but fell back down when a wave of exhaustion washed over his body, what did Bill do to him? “In the beginning I kind of let him do what he wanted with your body, but he almost took it too far and I had to intervene. Questioned what I was doing so I told him how I was just doing it because it was funny seeing him all angry at the loss of his favorite toy.” 

“What did he do?” they snapped their fingers, and he was suddenly in front of his TV and in their hands was a VHS tape. 

“You’re really not going to like this.” they put the VHS in the player and watched as the TV spurred to life, they watched Stanford’s face closely, and he was completely stunned. He almost didn’t recognize the wild-eyed hermit staring back on the TV; it was him. Or rather, Bill in his body, from the previous night.  

“Welcome back to the puppet hour with Bill! Say hi, kids! Today’s puppet is my old pal Sixer. Sixer’s had a rough day. But his night was rougher, wanna see?” as the TV displayed what exactly happened the night prior, they watched how his face contorted with a range of different emotions; disbelief, shock, anxiousness. On the floor, Bill had graciously littered the floor with polaroids of his adventures with little headings on them. He picked them up slowly but paused when Bill started speaking again, but this time, he heard another voice “What do you think you’re doing?” what he was watching was the moment when Bill was hammering nails into his hand, or, he was planning on hammering nails into his hand. He placed the first nail into the center of his hand but before he could swing the hammer down, his wrist was caught by Alvah grabbing him by Stanford’s shadow. 

“What does it look like I’m doing, Cipher? Interfering~” within the restrictions of Stanford’s physical capabilities, he struggled under Alvah’s hold “It was quite funny watching you mess with his body in the beginning, but come on now, doesn’t he need his hands? How are you going to get him to turn the portal on if you mess up his hands?” they’re laughing at the way Bill struggled to free himself from their grip. 

“So, you’re the reason sixer hasn’t given up yet!” 

“Am I though? Just watching the back-and-forth banter between you two is just so funny! If I didn’t know it, it seems like you need him more than he needs you! I didn’t think you’d be such a clingy, little ex.” Bill manages to throw their hand back, his twisted grin turned into a glare “Oh, but that’s right. You aren’t the one that’s meant to be thrown away, it’s supposed to be the other way around. I just didn’t expect the great and mighty Bill Cipher to be so… desperate.” 

“Clingy…? Desperate?!” they continue to laugh. 

“Am I wrong?” the video of their interaction ends there but he could tell that any time when Bill attempted to harm his body, Alvah interfered and made sure that not a lot of damage was inflicted on his body. Picking up a polaroid, he found one where a dart from a dart board was lodged into his temple, so he raised his hand and felt more bandages “I don’t think you want to watch this part.” this caused him to look back towards the TV, he watched in confusion as Bill limped towards a payphone and… he punched in Stanley’s phone number, h-he wouldn’t. 

“Hey, brother, it’s Sixer. I’m going to take a swim in the frozen lake tomorrow, so if you don’t hear from me, I just want you to know that it’s because I never loved you. Buh-byeeeee!” Stanford felt as if his heart was in his throat, but his eyes closed in relief when he heard the dial tone, the pay phone was out of order. The message hadn’t gotten through, he opened his eyes and saw how Bill turned back to address him “Tsk, tsk, tsk. Look what you made me make you do! Tomorrow’s tape is gonna be much worse. Want the show to end? Go downstairs and work on the portal. Or I’m gonna have to show you what I’m really made of.” Alvah eyes Stanford as the TV screen turned static, his face seemed to be a mixture of emotions again. This time, however, he looked completely livid. He stood to his feet and ripped the VHS tape out and threw it into the fire, watching it turn to cinders before screaming. 

“You have no power here! You’re just in my mind! I can outlast anything you can—” Alvah watches as he halts in all his movements, they let out a sigh when they know that Bill’s power over Stanford must before taking over his mind. They grabbed him by his shadow when he started to sway and placed him back down on his coach, laying him down as his body twitched and trembled due to the chaos going on inside his mind. They loomed over and watched him, his face contorting in pain, his breath becoming heavier as sweat dripped down his face.  

I don’t care. 

This human means nothing to me. 

Their misery is entertainment, that’s all. 

But… 

They lean closer to his face before letting out a sigh, raising their hand over his face and pressing their index finger the center of his forehead, whispering a few words under their breath and his face visibly relaxes. 

"That should be enough... hopefully."  

Stanford felt as if his body was paralyzed.  

Where am I? 

It felt as if his bones were being pulled slowly, slowly out from their sockets. 

It was excruciating. 

I tried to scream, but nothing came out— 

“Think, Sixer. You let me. In. Your. Head. Do you realize what I can do in here if I want? I can flip a switch that makes every neuron burn with pain beyond imagination. I can rewire your optic nerve so that the sky is below you, play a tone that gets louder and louder until you bash your own skull just to make it stop. I can delete memories randomly, just for fun. Maybe I already have. What do you want to remember? Your mother’s face? Your own name? Who are you anyway?” 

“That’s ridiculous! I’m… I’m…” his tried to think of his name but his mind what completely blank, a snap echoed through his head, and it came to him “I’m Stanf—” and he lost his train of thought again when the snap echoed once more. He pressed his hands to his head when he felt his sockets start to strain. Any and all his tendons would pop, his bones would slinter. He fell to his knees, on the verge of emptying what was in his stomach. 

“You’re my property. Don’t forget it. The hillbilly abandoned you, your father won’t want you returning without millions, you have no friends, and if you died out here in the snow, who would even miss you? And let’s not forget about your Alvah. You think they actually care about you? You think just because they’re still around they’re doing it because they like you? Don’t make me laugh. They don’t care about anything, much less a human with little to no value to them. They are one of the most neutral beings throughout the universe who never picks a side, who would watch a universe burn to cinders than lend a hand, who wouldn’t shed a tear or bat an eye at the sound of screaming and anguished cries! They won’t help you; they won’t save you, and they won’t interfere so long as I—Ah!” Stanford let out a gasp when Bill was suddenly blasted away from him, he felt something embracing him and pulled him back as Bill collected himself and came back “Wha—you! What are you doing here?!” he tried to look up at the figure, but a shadowy hand covered his eyes, their arms wrapped protectively around him as a voice spoke. 

“I’ve come to steal your precious little toy, Bill~” they let out a laugh, Stanford shuddered out a breath at the sound of a voice that was made up of what seemed like thousands of screams and cries, possibly even more “You sound like you’re projecting, poor, sweet, little Billy. Are you still mad about what happened all those years ago? Talk about holding a grudge, huh? I was right about that one about you, Bill.” he managed to peek through their hands and saw the way Bill turned a bright shade of red as he got angry, his eye glaring at what he knew was to be Alvah. 

“You… why are you choosing to help him?! You don’t even have a contract with him, and yet you’re going to help him?! You’ve never done that for anyone! You’ve always just sat by and watched things happen! You’ve never interfered! You’ve never done anything!” 

“Who knows, but I do know that watching you like this is just the best thing I’ve seen in over trillions of years!” Stanford was pushed back, and he was met with the overwhelming sight of a dark black and red storm cloud where you could hear disoriented and agonizing screams “If taking Stanford Pines is what’s going to keep this game going on a little longer, than I’m willing to interfere just to see you become less of what you believe you are, Bill Cipher!” 

“I will never forget this!”  

Stanford awoke with a fright, shooting upwards and panting out in exhaustion. Looking down, he found himself sitting on his couch but after looking around he found his living room cleaned up with the polaroids pilled together and placed in a shoebox on his coffee table. He stands up and finds a little note sitting on top of the pile, picking it up, he felt his lip tremble as he read it. 

‘fine, I may care a little ~ a’ 

He didn’t care if Alvah was on his side because they found it amusing when Bill threw a tantrum, or because they found it entertaining to watch him lose his mind, but this goes to show that they were willing to keep Bill at bay for him. He holds the note close to him before turning on his heel, he knows what he has to do now.  

Meanwhile, the residents of the Nightmare Realm hid in the deepest corners of their dimension in order to keep away from the onslaught that was going on. Bill was screaming out in frustration while Alvah laughed their head off, the two of them in an ongoing battle where the Harbinger of Chaos wasn’t taking anything serious while Bill was trying everything in his power to erase them from existence. Two of the Nightmare Realm’s most powerful beings were fighting because one of going through a messy break up while the other was just bored, the Axolotl would be severely disappointed in them.  

… 

… 

“And that’s my past with Stanford.” she ended with a fond smile, thinking back to that day thirty years ago. While she was telling this story, she refrained from dropping Bill’s name or any involvement of him and merely referred to him as “his muse”, Ford would be angry if she told them about his deal with Bill instead of him, so she was going to wait “In the beginning I was just an insufferable guest, he came to like me over the course of the portal’s construction and when Fidds left him and went insane, I became a sort of caretaker to him. With how stubborn he is, I’m probably not going to get a thank you out of him.” she stood there and waited for a response, she looked at them and saw the way they were staring up at her with teary eyes. 

“You… you really cared for Grunkle Ford.” her face twisted into an incredulous one. 

“Care? That’s funny. I cared enough to keep him alive, but I didn’t care enough to keep him out of harms way.” she deadpanned when Mabel wrapped her arms around her legs. 

“You’re not denying that you care.” Alvah scoffed as she scooped up Mabel and placed her back down beside Dipper “Then what about Grunkle Stan? Do you care about him? What’s your past with him? When did you two first meet?” she chuckled softly. 

“Hmm, that’s something you’ve got to ask him about. Ever since my contract with Stanford, I had kept an eye on anyone relating to him. Albeit friends or family, but I kept my eye on Stanley for a long time.” she places a finger to her chin, looking up in thought “My first genuine meeting with Stanley is something I can’t particularly remember, I was always lingering around in the shadows helping every now and then. But I don’t think he’ll want to discuss such a memory, he’s been distant from me since the reveal, which is understandable.” she raised a brow when she saw the determination on Mabel’s face. 

“I will get that backstory, no matter what it takes!” with that the girl rushed off to find Stan, she just shrugged her shoulders with a shake of her head. 

“Did you, though?” she hummed at Soos’ question, he shrunk a little as he twiddled his thumbs “Did you actually care about Mr. Pines? O-Or even us? Was everything you did just an obligation?” they didn’t notice the way her face twitched a little, she let out a breath as she looked towards nothing in particular. 

“Who knows? But whether I care or not does not change the fact that I am here to protect you. You are under my protection, and I will make it so that Bill does not bring you any more harm.” Dipper flinched at the mention of Bill and rubbed his arms, he looked up and jumped slightly where he sat when he saw Alvah kneel down in front of him “And I am so sorry that I stood by and let you make a deal with him, Dipper. I saw you when he took your body, but I wasn’t allowed to do anything.” she could remember that day as if it were yesterday, when she, Wendy and Soos approached Bipper and when Dipper tried to stop them, he flew through her body. She remembered turning around and seeing the distraught look on his face, but she was forced to look away and pretend she didn’t see him, it really did make her feel remorseful. 

“W-Why couldn’t you?” 

“You should know about time anomalies, Dipper. That stupid time baby or whatever would be furious if I were to mess with this timeline even more so than I already have, if I were to have prevented such a thing I would get into even more trouble. My contracts can bend a lot of rules, but messing with the flow of time is a definite no.” she took his hat and ruffled his head “Why do you think I was lot more attentive back then?” he thought back to that day and did remember the pained expression on her face when she and Stan brought him to the hospital. 

“So, you couldn’t directly interfere with what happened over the summer, but you could intervene as long as you didn’t stop us directly?” she nods “Then, could you tell us what’s going to happen next?” she pressed a finger to her lips as she placed his hat back down on his head. 

“I can’t share any spoilers, now, can I?”  

“Alvah!” she let out an oh at the sound of her name being called, they all looked up and saw Ford at the door “I need you down in the lab, could you come and assist me?” she saluted him with a smile. 

“Coming~” he waits for her behind as she looks back down at Dipper, she winks at him and boops his nose “Duty calls. See you later, sweetpea.” they watch as she turned on her heel and walked out with Ford, her appearance changing back into her male version, the one that Ford prefers. He follows closely behind Ford, chatting with him as he speaks about a rift, and as they pass the living room his eyes catch Mabel and Stanley. He lifted his head up and noticed his brother and Alvah walk into the gift shop, the latter laughing softly as Ford spoke, he flinched when Alvah turned and met his gaze. He twiddled his fingers to greet Stan before turning away and going down into the lab with Ford behind him, he let out a sigh as he fell back into his chair. 

“Do you miss her, Grunkle Stan?” he looked down at Mabel before letting out a scoff, crossing his arms and looking away. 

“Miss her? After everything? Pah, I say good riddance! Am I a little upset that she’s hanging around my brother now? Maybe. Am I sad that I no longer talk to her anymore? Kind of… but that doesn’t mean anything! Clearly what we had meant nothing to her!” Mabel looked up at him, a brow quirked upwards as he rambled about everything that happened between them would be forgotten sooner or later. 

“I didn’t want to bring this up with you, Grunkle Stan, but I saw the night you two dance together.” she had to hold back a squeal when he flinched, his face turning bright red at the thought of that night “I saw the way you looked at her, but I also saw the way she looked at you. She told us how she isn’t able to properly feel emotions, but what I saw that night, I can guarantee you that wasn’t fake. She said it herself; she isn’t a liar.” he let out a groan. 

“But she hasn’t be truthful either!” Mabel’s gaze hardened on him. 

“Neither have you.” his shoulders slump, she let out a huff “I understand that you’re upset, but from what I can tell, everything she’s done leading up to this point has been on her own accord. Her helping us and everything, and with whatever you two had going on, I’m sure she did it all for a reason.” he rubbed the back of his neck “But she said she couldn’t quite remember when you two first met? She said she was always lingering around and watching, but her first interaction with you, she can’t really recall it.” he let out a breath as he leaned against the table, looking up in thought. 

“First interaction, first interaction…” her fingers were crossed, repeatedly thinking in her head “please remember, please remember”, he then shoots up and snaps his fingers “Oh, yeah! I totally remember!” she’s quick to take a seat beside him, looking up at him excitedly. 

“Really? What happened?”  

“Well, it was when the Mystery Shack was finally getting some traction.” it was just like any other day at the Mystery Shack, people come in, he lies through his teeth about the attractions in his house while sprinkling jokes in every now and then before scamming those poor suckers out of their money. It was at the end of the day when the most beautiful woman he’d ever laid eyes upon approached him at the counter, he was at a loss for words as she looked at him. She had blonde hair that was the softest tone of blonde that he’d compared to sand on a beautiful sunny day, eyes as green as freshly cut grass that shun like an emerald if the sun hit them just right. Compared to these hicks, she was wearing elegant and formal clothing, so she stood out compared to the rest of the crowd.  

She was like a gem amongst a pile of rocks. 

“Good evening, Mr. Mystery.” she giggled softly as he gawked at her, his eyes blinking rapidly as she spoke to him in a soft voice, she laughed when he pointed at himself with a confused look “Well, yes. Is there anyone else that goes by the title of Mr. Mystery?” he cleared his throat and quickly collected himself, pulling on his collar but unable to cover the flush that spread across his cheeks. 

“I guess not. I am the one and only, Mr. Mystery.” he holds his hand out to her “The name’s Stan Pines, pleasure to meet you.” she takes his hand and shakes it. 

“I am Alvah, it’s lovely to meet you too.” she took her hand back and continued to smile up at Stan, he let out a nervous laugh. 

“Are you new around here? I don’t think I’ve seen you.” 

“I’ve been around here and there, but normally keep to myself. I heard the attraction going around these parts and decided to pay a visit to the “Mystery Shack” everybody was raving about.” she hummed softly as she gently flicked a jar of eyeballs “And I have to say, I see what all the hype is about. You have a very fascinating collection on your hands. Did you hunt them down yourself?” she slowly raised her brow when he pulled on his tie. 

“Ah haha, well. You could say I did, I mean, they’re here now, aren’t they?” 

“I suppose so.” they both noticed how the tourist was beginning to leave so Alvah took that as her cue to leave as well, she twiddled her fingers at him to bid him goodbye and proceeded to walk away but stopped when he called out to her. 

“Hey!” she stopped in her tracks and turned back to him, curious at what he had to say “Will you come again?” she tilts her head to the side. 

“Are you personally asking me to come again? I’m honored.” she giggled when he scoffed, messing with his tie again “I’ll come back every now and then. I’ll go broke if I come back every day with how much you charge.” 

“Y-You can come back any time! Hehe, free of charge…” she hummed softly, twirling a strand of her hair around her finger. 

“Well then, I’ll see you tomorrow, Stan.” she winks at him before walking out the door, unbeknownst to her, he had the derpiest grin on his face as he waved her goodbye. 

“Hehe, you’ve still got it, Stanley.” now he couldn’t help but scowl at the memory “I believe she only did that out of pity. Oh wait, she can’t feel pity, now, can she? She must have saw how pathetic I looked and decided then and there would be when she asserted herself with that appearance, knowing it would ruin me.” Mabel placed a hand on his arm and gave it a light squeeze “I knew… I knew that smile was just too good to be true. She outconned me.” 

“Well… what if she meant it? Didn’t she say that everything she’s done leading up to now, she’s never lied to you.” his resolve softened a little before shaking his head upon realizing what she said. 

“How do you know that? We were alone when she said that.” Mabel let out a nervous laugh. 

“Ah hahaha, were you? I totally wasn’t listening in on your conversation. Nope, not at all.” Stan shook his head and gently ruffled her head. 

“Our first meeting wasn’t anything special. She was just a tourist who claimed to be fascinated by what the Mystery Shack had to offer, but she’s probably seen even grander things than this junk house.” with that his face saddened once more, seemingly missing the bond both he and Alvah had before the cat got out of the bag, he had almost wished she wasn’t who she claimed to be. 

“Do you hate her?” there it was again, this time spoken by his niece.  

“… I don’t know.” Mabel just couldn’t stand for this. She may just be twelve years old, but that’s old enough for her to see what Stan and Alvah had. She saw the way they looked at each other, the way they spoke to each other and how could she forget that tender and intimate moment they shared on that night. This mishap couldn’t be the undoing of their relationship, and she’ll make sure of it “H-Hey, kiddo, where are you going?” he asked when she jumped off the stool and started running towards the vending machine. 

“Just to ask Alvah a couple questions!” he stood to his feet, reaching his hand out to stop her but was too late when she punched in the code to the vending machine and walked down the hallway to Ford’s lab. Back with Alvah, he was currently leaning over Ford’s shoulder as they were discussing their plan to seal a leakage caused by Stanley reactivating the portal once more. 

“So… are you really not going to thank Stanley?” he let out a scoff. 

“Thank him? For what?” 

“Well, for returning you back to your dimension. Surely you must feel some sort of gratitude.” he leans back when Ford turned around, giving Alvah an irritated expression. 

“He was the reason I fell in in the first place. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have had to be in there.” he hums softly. 

“That is true, then how about impressed?” this got a short chuckle out of him. 

“Impressed by what?” 

“Well, how about him teaching himself about quantum physics? Reconstructing the portal with only having a third of the portal’s instructions, completely unaware there were more instructions due to the invisible ink? Building it all by himself while also maintaining a business that was so successful and also looking after his great niece and nephew? He had no help either. Not from McGucket, Bill or even me.” he raised his finger, wagging it side to side in front of Ford’s face “If anything, your brother is goddamn genius. He has my praise.” he laughed when Ford smacked his hand away. 

“You’re giving him too much credit if you’re calling him a genius.” he shrugged and allowed his body to float, leaning backwards and resting his head in his hands. 

“What can I say? For a high school dropout who had no further education for himself, I am very impressed that he managed to reconstruct the portal the way he did. He had almost completed it by the time he got his hands on journal two and three, and it didn’t take him too long to complete it.” he smirked down at Ford, giving him a toothy grin “If that doesn’t make him a genius, then pardon me.” 

“You seem to like Stanley a lot. When we first met, you did nothing but ridicule me.”  

“Hah! Of course, I told you it was because you were stupid enough to fall for Bill’s flattery. The self-proclaimed genius who didn’t even realize he was being played. Unlike you, Stanley is emotionally intellectual. Though he didn’t admit it, he knew there was something wrong with me, always questioned why someone like me would hang around him. Sure, it was the same between you and Bill, but he had you in the palm of his hand in a couple hours. Stanley was a harder nut to crack. He liked the fact that he was getting attention from a beautiful woman, but he was so guarded it took a couple years for him to fully allow me in. Hmm, but I believe we’re back in square one now.” he shrugged his shoulders “He also makes me laugh.” this earned an eyeroll.  

“Yes, yes, because all you care about is whether or not you are entertained.” he snapped his fingers, now leaning forward. 

“Yes, exactly.” 

“Alvah!” both men jump at the loud call, turning around, they see Mabel abruptly enter the room with a determined look on her face. Ford briefly looks up at Alvah and saw him change back into their female appearance, he noticed that they tend to do that around the children and Stan’s employees. 

“What is it, sweetheart?” she answered, continuing to float in the air but this time positioning herself as if she was in a chair with her legs crossed “How may I assist you now?” she let out a yelp when Mabel grabbed her by the ankle and yanked her down. She now sat on her knees as Mabel held her by her collar, staring her in the eyes with a serious look, a bead of sweat bled down the side of her face. 

“How do you feel about Grunkle Stan?” she let out a sigh as she slumped in her hold. 

“This again? Are you ever going to let this go, Mabel?” she allowed the young girl to thrash her around and hang by her grip. 

“How can I?! His feelings are all over the place ever since learning that you were lying who you were all this time.” she muttered under her breath that she didn’t exactly lie if she didn’t tell the full truth, she was kicked by Ford, who promptly looked away when she looked back up at him “It’s up to me to clear up this entire misunderstanding. To help you fully understand your feelings for Grunkle Stan.” she only deadpanned. 

“Good luck with that, kid. This body isn’t exactly designed to comprehend emotions, I don’t even have a personality to call my own.”  

“That’s really sad.” Mabel let her go and she allowed herself to fall to the ground, the young brunette stepped over her and rushed towards Ford, who awkwardly stared down at her in mild curiosity “Grunkle Ford, do you have anything that can project people’s thoughts?” this caused Alvah to look up at Ford, who he himself looked up in thought while rubbing his chin. 

“Do I have something that can project people’s thoughts? Why, that’s very specific. If only I—hah! Of course I do.” he continued to rub his chin as he debated whether it would be a good idea “As much as I’d like to decline the usage of this machinery, I am also more curious as to what you have been up to with my brother the past three decades.” Alvah let out a huff as she pushed herself off the ground and began to float again. 

“And why should I allow you to use this on me? It’s quite dangerous to peer into the mind of the embodiment of chaos. Aren’t you afraid you’ll end up like McGucket?” Mabel let out a laugh. 

“Psh, like you’d let that happen. You like me too much, and besides, I’m adorable! Would you deny this cute face?” Mabel doesn’t wait to answer as she turned back to look up at Ford to ask, or rather plead, to use the device he mentioned. This left him to look up at Alvah and see the way she pouted with a tinge of pink flushing her cheeks, she was trying so hard to deny Mabel’s claims but was ultimately failing. That’s where she found herself sitting on the chair in front of five monitors, sitting particularly in front of a large screen while two smaller ones were to her right and left. If she remembered correctly, Ford dubbed this device as Project Mentem as a defense against Bill, which main functionality was that it could scan one’s mind and bioelectrically encrypt one’s thoughts “So we just put this thingamajig on her head and we can see her thoughts?” Mabel asked as she held the helmet in her hands, Ford nodded as he took it from her and approached Alvah. 

“It’s much more complicated than that, but yes, that’s basically what it does.” she looked up at him and saw he had a cheeky grin on his face, she sneered at him while shaking her head. 

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” he chuckles softly. 

“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. To see the thoughts of an actual deity is something I wouldn’t have imagined. I thank you greatly for this, Mabel. You children have quite the rein on Alvah.” she just shook her head; he placed the helmet on her head then pushed a couple buttons on the control console to which it on. All five screens spurred to life and the room illuminated with a green light, the two wait patiently for something to appear on the screen but were left confused when it remained blank.  

“Is it working?” Mabel asked, his face furrowed in confusion as he pushed a couple buttons. 

“It should be.” she snickered softly. 

“You’re going to have to try and little harder than that. If you want me to think about something specifically, you have to ask~ I can blank out my mind all willy nilly. Either that or I overload your machine. My mind has a vast amount of information.” Ford huffed at her, it was never going to be that easy “Of course not.” she stuck her tongue out at him when he glared at her, she turned her attention to Mabel when she approached her, grabbing her by the legs and looking up at her with a serious expression. 

“Think about your first real encounter with Grunkle Stan.” this sparked something within her mind and the screens behind her displayed her first real encounter with Stanley. Mabel was expecting the same thing Stan told her but was greatly surprised to see something entirely different, both herself and Ford took a step towards the monitors to try and figure out what they were looking at but couldn’t quite place it. 

“The first time I met Stanley was when you wanted me to give him that postcard, Ford.” his eyes widened when he saw Alvah’s male appearance appear on the monitor walking across an empty street to approach a rundown motel, he glared at a pedestrian that bumped into him but ignored them in favor to accomplish the task at hand. He looked at the postcard once more and shook his head at the lack of information on it, in handwriting unbecoming of Stanford that read “PLEASE COME”. He just shrugged his shoulders and walked through the parking lot and towards the various rooms, Mabel let out a soft gasp when she saw Alvah walk past the Stanmobile, so this really was her first meeting with Stan. His hand glides across the many doors until stopping at one in particular, he looks at the mailing address once more before raising his fist and knocking on the door “I have a postcard for Stanley Pines~” he called out as he repeatedly knocked on the door, Alvah had all the time in the world, so he continuously knocked on the door until it swung open. Stanford already knew that this was thirty years into the past but seeing the disgruntled version of his brother was something that caught him off guard, it almost felt like it was yesterday he saw this worn-out version of Stanley. 

“Alright, alright! Don’t you see the mail slot?” Alvah just chuckled as he held the postcard between his two fingers. 

“Sorry, but the sender wanted me to make sure you got your hands on this. Didn’t want this getting lost in the mail.” he holds it out for him to take and as Stanley reaches to take it, he cheekily pulled it back “Make sure not to lose this.” he laughed when it was snatched out of his hands while the shorter man glared at him, he just backed away slightly while raising his hands up. 

“Whatever man.” the door is then slammed shut, Alvah rolled his eyes as he dusted his hands off. 

“Welp, did what I was supposed to do.” with his task done he snapped his fingers and returned to Gravity Falls, the memory ends and they look towards Alvah “My very first impression of Stanley Pines was that of a pathetic human who had hit rock bottom. I was honestly surprised that this was the brother that caused you so much discontent, Ford. This was the so-called man who “ruined your life”, talk about living up to what little his name had other than disappointment.” Alvah was smacked in the leg by Mabel, who glared up at her after hearing what she had to share about Stanley. 

“That isn’t very nice, Alvah.” she shrugged her shoulders. 

“Well, that was me in the beginning, when I was still just Fordsy’s little shadow. After you disappeared into the portal and I was stuck in this hick town, I remained within Stanley’s shadow.” the monitors flicker on once more and they watched as she watched over him, while he worked days and nights to repair the portal and would fall asleep at his desk trying to solve Stanford’s notes. She would appear behind him and instead of returning him upstairs, she would retrieve a pillow and blanket and drape it over him so he would be more comfortable. When the Mystery Shack was slowly building up fame, she would be out influencing people to go pay a visit to the man displaying a world of mystery, and it was on that very day Alvah finally became the woman she was to the Pines Family “My opinion of Stanley changed over time. You could say his devotion to bring you back and to fix his mistake, dedicating his life to save you swayed my feelings about him. There was nothing more to it.”  

“Can you think of the instance you felt something for Grunkle Stan? Something that wasn’t displeasure or just an obligation to look after him? Something that had caught you off guard.” they watched as she furrowed her brows as multiple instances went by, but nothing stood out until she slowly perked up. 

“It was… the year before you two were supposed to have arrived. It was your birthday.” this startled Ford a little “Stanley never celebrated your guy’s birthday, I knew the reason, but he told me it was because he didn’t really have anybody to celebrate it with. I wasn’t around in the beginning because I was doing other stuff, but apparently, he planned a whole party. He spent hours writing up comedy roasts about his employees, but in the end… nobody came.” they look back towards the monitors and are met with Alvah walking down a street where she accidentally bumped into Soos. 

“Miss Alvah!” she smiled at him, waving her hand to greet him. 

“How are you, Soos? Today’s a lovely day for a stroll, is it not?” she raised a brow at the glum look on his face “What’s the matter, big guy?” he let out a sigh as he took his hat off and rubbed the back of his head. 

“Mr. Pines is celebrating his birthday this afternoon, but I won’t be able to make it. My Abuelita needs my help all afternoon and I won’t be able to make it.” that and the fact that he himself didn’t exactly like celebrating his birthday caused her to nod her head “I was hoping you would tell him I said happy birthday. There’s no way you would miss it!” she didn’t even realize it was their birthday that day, but she wasn’t going to tell him that. 

“Of course I will. I’m sure he’ll be saddened without you in attendance, Soos. Give your Abuelita my regards, sweetheart.” she let out an oof when he pulled her into a hug, squeezing her tightly while lifting her off the ground. 

“Thank you so much, Alvah!” he puts her down and rushes off, waving his hand goodbye as he ran off “I’ll make sure to make it up to you!” she kept up her happy face and the moment he disappeared her face relaxed as she looked away. 

“I spent the rest of that afternoon looking for a gift for Stanley. He is quite easy to please, so I found a vintage and expensive wine, but the hard part was finding a cake.” she laughed softly at the memory, the monitors display her at multiple bakeries and pastry stores in search of a cake but for some reason they were all sold out “In the end I had to make the cake myself. It didn’t end… quite well.” the monitors flickered to her attempting to make a cake but instead setting a kitchen on fire with a panicked look on her face, by the time the sun was beginning to fall she had finally made a decent looking and tasting cake after many trials and errors. She found herself in front of his front door and proceeded to knock on it continuously until it was thrown open, she pulled her hand back when he looked ready to shout at whoever was knocking before pausing when he realized who exactly was in front of him. 

“… Alvah?” she let out a soft laugh as she leaned forward to take in his appearance. 

“Haha, what happened to your eyebrow? Did you burn it off?” she questioned as she reached forward and brushed a few of his locks out of his face to get a look at the singed hair, she giggled when he smacked her hand away and turned away to hide it. 

“No! Anyways, what are you doing here?” he sputtered backwards when she lifted something up with a bright smile on her face. 

“It’s your birthday! I came to celebrate with you.” he stares at the rather pretty looking cake as she pulled something out and saw it was a bottle of wine “I would have come earlier but would you believe it? The whole town was out of cake, so I had to make one out of scratch. Let’s just say I’m not particularly good at baking.” she titled her head to the side when she noticed he was just staring at the cake. 

“You made this… for me?” 

“Who else would I make this for?” she pushes him inside and closes the door behind her, he follows her like a lost puppy as she walks into the kitchen and places the cake on the table. He takes a seat as she grabs two glasses out of the cabinet and places one in front of Stan and another where she was going to sit, she uncorks the bottle and pours them both a glass before pulling out a candle and placing it in the center of the cake “Soos wanted to be here as well, but you know how he is around birthdays. And besides, having a simpler birthday is much better than going all out. Saves you a lot of money, doesn’t it?” she finally took a seat at the table and stared at him with a fond look in her eye, leaning against the table with the side of her head resting on her knuckles. 

“You…” she hummed softly. 

“Happy birthday, Stan.” Alvah’s face turned confused when Stan abruptly stood up and walked over to her, she was startled when he pulled her out of the chair and wrapped his broad arms around her, embracing her in a rather bone crushing hug. Her eyes widened as he buried his face within her shoulder, her arms were pinned to her side while her head was over his shoulder, she managed to twist it a little to try and look at him but noticed the way he nuzzled into her shoulder to hide the fact that he was tearing up “S-Stan? Are you—” 

“Thank you, Alvah. I really, really needed this.” Mabel and Ford noticed the way her eyes twitch when Stan tightened his grip on her, she managed to slowly lift her arms up the best she could and gently pat his back. 

“O-Oh, it’s no problem. You know there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for you, Stan.” she purposefully didn’t address him as Ford because that would have saddened him and taken his special moment away from him. They stayed like that for a couple seconds until Stan finally let her go but continued to hold her by the arms, she tilted her head to the side to get a look at his face but saw him turn away to hide his tear-stricken eyes “Hah, are you crying?” he frees one of his hands to cover his eyes, wiping at his eyes with the back of his hand. 

“No! I don’t know what you’re talking about!” he flinches when she pulled him forward by the hand that was holding her so she could cup his cheek, he blinks at her and felt her wipe away a few of his tears while smiling softly at him. 

“Come on, tough guy. You don’t have to hide your vulnerability from me, I’m not going to make fun of you.” he huffed at her as she takes her hand back, he sniffles a little and wipes away the remaining tears and gives her a toothy grin. 

“I appreciate this a lot, toots! I’m gonna go find a lighter so I can light this candle! I’ll be back in a sec!” she waves him off and stands in the kitchen alone, Mabel and Ford soon notice the way her smile dropped from her face as she looked down at the wooden floor with a conflicted expression. On the smaller monitors they saw a flurry of words come across the screen, words that had her questioning herself. 

WHAT IS THIS? 

WHY DID I DO THAT? 

WHY DID I DO THIS? 

I DON’T CARE FOR HIM. 

I’M DOING THIS FOR STANFORD. 

THIS MEANS NOTHING TO ME. 

I DON’T ACTUALLY FEEL... 

“In the beginning, I didn’t feel anything.” Alvah spoke as she stared at the monitor when Stan walked back into the kitchen with a lighter in hand and in a chipper mood, she smiled at him and the two sat at the table where he lit the candle and blew it out with a face that reminded her of a child on their birthday “I knew he was going to drink himself into a stupor had I not arrived, but I didn’t expect to feel...” Mabel looked up at her, a curious look in her eyes. 

“What?” her eyes flicker towards the monitor and saw only one word. 

“Pity.” coming from her, it could be condescending, but by the remorseful look on her face as she stared at Stan’s face, they knew that she meant it in a genuine way “He just looked so sad, like a kicked puppy out in the rain. I had watched him at even worser times than that, but for some reason, actually being there made it different.” soon the summer played out for them and Mabel watched every interaction she had with Stan, and she watched intently as the way Alvah’s eyes started to look genuine. 

“Alvah, you...” 

“It was nothing. The personality I adapted was merely to match his own, but...” since the children were always off doing their own thing, they never knew the type of relationship she and Stan actually had. Ford witnessed firsthand the closeness she had with his brother and Mabel concealed her excitement of the hidden lore her great uncle had with this interdimensional being “My mind had been inside a human body for so long that it started acting like it, started feeling like it.” Mabel looked away to look up at Alvah after watching the memory where Alvah and Stan danced at the party where she first met Candy and Grenda. 

“Feeling?” her face scrunched up and instead of just Stan, it showed the children, Soos, Wendy and a few others as she thought of each emotion. 

“Anger. Sadness. Joy. Remorse. Guilt.” the memory of when the children were forced to be sent back home when Gideon had won and they couldn’t do anything about it, how when they did win, she felt an immeasurable amount of guilt inside her because she knew this was going to happen but it was at the cost of the possibly of the children losing that had her mind racing. The next scene had Ford’s eyes widened to the point his eyes were bulging out of his eye sockets while Mabel let out a squeal, that was because it was when Stan had kissed her “L-Love...” 

“You kissed my brother?!” he was shocked to see her face a bright shade of pink, she suddenly sprung to her feet as she placed a hand on her chest. 

“No! He kissed me! And it’s not like I continued to think about that moment! It was just a spur of the moment and Stan probably would have done it to anyone that was next to him! It didn’t mean anything at that moment!” 

"... I didn't, NOT, like it." she looked like a dear caught in headlights when her thoughts were exposing herself "You just... caught me off guard, is all. I wasn't expecting it." 

"Oh? So, are you saying if I were to kiss you again, you wouldn't protest?"  

"Don't push your luck, Stan. Just because I said I liked it; doesn't mean you'll get a taste anytime you want." Alvah refused to look up at Ford from where she was sitting because she knew that man was going to strangle her, however, Mabel was in front of her and started shaking her arm. 

“So you two were in love! That’s so cute!” she let out a scoff, face still flushed with embarrassment from being caught while throwing her hair over her shoulder. 

“Psh, in love? That was the only time--”  

"Stan... Stan, s-stop it!" Mabel was busy staring at Alvah so she didn’t see what memory was playing but Ford was, and to think he’d wish for the day he wasn’t wearing his glasses. Before Mabel could see what was playing Alvah hurriedly lifted the helmet off her head and the monitors switched off, they both look up at her and saw the look of shame on her face. She pushes the helmet into Ford’s hands before slowly kneeling on the floor and curling up into a ball, her hands clutching her head “I wasn’t supposed to get attached... I wasn’t supposed to gain human feelings.” Mabel knelt down and placed her hand on her back, gently rubbing circles into her back to comfort her. 

“But you did, and it looks like it’ll really upset you if Stan started to hate you.” her face scrunches up in confusion. 

“I am hated by millions of people just for simply existing. I am the devil on people’s shoulders who they blame for why their lives have fallen apart. I am so used to being the source of their hatred that I never once cared for the opinions of beings lesser than I am. But... I—I can’t stand the thought of Stan not liking me anymore.” she looked up at Mabel with a sort of desperation in her eyes “I wasn’t supposed to care, but I hate that I do now.” 

“And I’m happy that you care.” Alvah huffed “Now just repeat what you just said now and go say it to Grunkle Stan.” this snapped her out of whatever melt down she was having; she stood to her feet and shook her head. 

“No way! He doesn’t need this now!” Mabel shook her head and took Alvah by her hands. 

“But he does! He looks so lost without you. You two were always together throughout the summer, and not having you by his side is making him upset.” this caused her to start overthinking everything, should I actually tell him how I feel? Should I say sorry? Should I-- 

“Wait a minute, why I am taking the advice of a twelve-year-old?” she suddenly glares at her “I don’t got to listen to you! I am going to deny the fact that I have feelings for this old man and suffer in silence. Yes, that sounds much better.” Mabel face fell. 

“What? No! Are you seriously not going to tell Stan that it was him that caused you to develop human feelings? That it was him that got you to care?” 

“The last thing I need to hear is him gloating that he got an agent of chaos to fall in love with him. And besides, I highly doubt he wants me dating his brother.” at the mention of that, they both look at Ford and saw the way he was shaking his head at the thought “So, we are going to leave what we have just discovered in this very room. I don’t want to hear any of this outside this room. I don’t want to have to talk about the fact that I’ve grown soft. This conversation stays and dies here. Got it?” 

“But--” Alvah gives her a sharp look, Mabel let out a sigh and kicked at the floor “Got it.” she nods. Mabel leaves dejected that Alvah wasn’t going to do anything about this but she was determined to help her confess her feelings to Stan, yes, with a newfound determination, she was going to play cupid once more. Alvah stood in the room with Ford staring at her with an incredulous expression, she turns her attention to him with narrowed eyes. 

“You don’t get to speak. You had a relationship with a triangle.” she holds her hand up to keep him away when his face turned red from embarrassment “Oh, my muse~ I would do anything for you, even if it means the collapse of my mind, body and soul! Ooo, woe is me!” 

“Stop talking!” 

“So poetic, Fordsy!” 

season 2, episode 13. dungeons, dungeons and more dungeons 

after the fiasco that was the reveal of alvah’s true feelings, she had now taken it to the point of avoiding everyone and keeping herself in the basement unless she’s needed.  

that being said, mabel would come bursting into the lab and attempt to drag her upstairs so she could interact with them all, especially with stan. 

she swore never to talk about what happened, but she never said she wouldn’t do anything about it.  

dipper was really confused as to why mabel was more love crazy than usual. 

he felt sorry for the poor sucker his sister had her sights on this time. 

ford found it amusing seeing her act like a deer caught in headlights whenever she spotted stan before he saw her. 

it went so far as to her jumping out a window. 

she fixed it immediately. 

anyways- 

“Alvah... Alvah...!” Dipper shook the empty body that was Alvah until it stirred to life, her eyes blinked to life and looked around before settling on him in confusion. Ford explained to them that her body in this dimension was merely a vessel for her to take control of so whenever she was “sleeping”, it was actually her signing off and returning to her main body. Dipper calling for Alvah warranted her attention and caused her to come back to see what the young boy wanted, she didn’t expect to see him staring at her with a pleading but enthusiastic expression as he held a book in front of her “Alvah? Yes! Um, hey! Do you want to play Dungeons, Dungeons and More Dungeons with me and great uncle Ford? He’s already agreed to play with me and two players is enough but three players would be even better! But you don’t have to play with us, I’m sure you’ve got even more important matters to attend to that I probably pulled you out of. You can totally say no! It’s fine. It’s totally fine. Ah haha, heee...” she stared at him with a rather scrutinizing gaze as she looked between him, the book and Ford standing behind him. 

... 

... 

She now found herself laying on her side with a thirty-eight-sided die in her hand, shaking it within the palm of her hand before tossing it onto the play mat where the other two nerds leaned down close to see what she rolled, she chuckled softly when Dipper cheered that she rolled a high roll while Ford sighed bitterly. Whether it be the fact that within this flesh bag she had grown soft or it was just the children having a way with her, she couldn’t deny Dipper’s plea to play his favorite role-playing game with him and Ford. She was well aware of the concept of Dungeons, Dungeons and More Dungeons after watching Ford and Fiddleford play it during their time building the portal and how it was similar to a different game, but she allowed him to explain it to her in great detail while giving her an already made character for her to play with. 

“Are you sure you’re not cheating, Alvah?” she scoffed, twisting her body so that she was laying on her back with her legs crossed, bouncing her knee every now and then. 

“Maybe you just suck at this game, Ford.” she smirked when she got a snicker out of Dipper, Ford hmphed at her while she stuck her tongue out at him. Dipper was having even more fun because instead of having figurines representing their characters, Alvah was using her powers to bring them to life while also creating a real layout of the story Ford created for their characters to move around. Both Alvah and Ford were magic casters, though Alvah was a sorcerer and he was wizard, while Dipper was a little ranger. Quite the odd party, but Alvah refused to be anything else “What are we up to now?” he hummed softly as he rolled a die between his fingers. 

“Alright, you enter the chamber. Princess Unattainabelle beckons you. But wait, it’s a trap!” she rolled her eyes as Dipper gasps “An illusion cast by Probabilitor the Annoying.” Dipper hands Alvah a couple die for her to roll as he and Ford shake their fists to scramble their own die within their closed fists. 

“You know his weakness, right?” Ford grins at Dipper. 

“Prime statistical anomalies over thirty-seven but not exceeding fifty-one.” the two throw their rolls down first, Dipper taps her shoulder and she throws down her die and allows them to tally up the amount “Yes! Ungh! In your face, cardboard wizard!” the older man hummed softly as he picked up the little cardboard screen meant for the DM to look at the main antagonist. 

“Hmm, the old boy looks a bit different than he did back in my day.” Dipper nodded in agreement. 

“Yeah, they change the art every few years. Thankfully, you missed the period when the creators of the game tried to make it cooler.” this got a chuckle out of Alvah, he shuddered at the memory “Must’ve been dark times, those 90’s.” he spoke as he picked up a red card, even Ford grimaced. 

“Yeesh. Sounds like a good time to be stuck between dimensions.” 

“Great uncle Ford, I’ve been meaning to ask you. Where were you before you came out of that machine, and what have you and Alvah been doing down here? Are you two working on something behind that curtain?” this question caused the two of them to look at each other, she shrugged her shoulders and gestured for him to speak. 

“Dipper, it’s best if you and the family stay away from that subject. Honestly, I’m not sure any of you could handle the real answer.” 

“But-- But I can handle it.” Ford raised his finger to cut him off. 

“Ah-ah. But I can show you a little something I brought back with me.” they watch as he pulled out a little red bag from his pocket and empty the contents out beside him, a few more die spilled out from it but a peculiar black box caught their attention, her eyes widened when he opened it. 

“Is that... an infinity sided die?” she asked, Dipper looked at it in awe as Ford nodded his head as the young boy watched the symbols continuously change. 

“That’s so cool... and impossible.” Ford opened his mouth to explain but let out a soft gasp when the die flew out of the case and into the hands of Alvah, who held it close to her eye while turning it over. 

“I haven’t seen one of these suckers since the last galaxy was formed. I’m pretty sure these things are outlawed in over nine thousand dimensions.” Dipper gasped at that. 

“Why?” 

“Well, take a look at the symbols. Infinite sides mean infinite outcomes. If you rolled it, anything could happen. Your faces could melt into jelly. The world could turn into an egg... or you could just roll an eight. Who knows?” she huffed when Ford snatched it out of her hand and placed it back into the case, closing it before she could take it again. 

“And that's why I have to keep it in this protective cheap plastic case.” she scoffed with a laugh. 

“How safe.” he ignored her. 

“Now, back to the game!” Dipper had a splendid time playing DDMD with Ford and Alvah, she may not have been engaged like they were but at least she put in the effort to play with them and with her powers making it all come to life just felt magical to him. 

“I had so much fun! Thank you so much great uncle Ford, Alvah!” she twiddled her fingers from behind Ford. 

“Perhaps you could make the next one, sweetheart. I just know you’re full of ideas, Dipper.” he lights up. 

“Does that mean you’ll play again?” she gave shrug but nodded her head. 

“Yeah, sure.” she huffed softly when he wrapped his arms around her waist and hugged her close, she leaned down to hug him back while patting his back “Perhaps you should go back upstairs. You’ve been down here all day, and surely it takes a lot of time to create a new adventure.” he pulls away from her, snapping his fingers at her. 

“You’re right! I’ve got a lot of thinking to do! Thanks again!” they both wave him goodbye as he ran to the elevator to head back to the shack, the both of them drop their friendly facades and turn back to where the curtain Dipper previously mentioned was. 

“So, you’re really going to keep this between us?” he spoke, his body naturally turning back into his male form “He’s going to figure it out, whether he stumbles down here accidentally again or you tell him yourself.” Ford let out a sigh as he looked over the console, tapping his fingers across the metal surface. 

“Stanley told me to stay away from the children, but so far, it’s been proven difficult because they keep approaching me. Or rather, they keep approaching me since you’re around.” he shrugged.  

“I’ve been looking after those kids the entire summer. I’m surprised they still even want to hang around me.” he said as he laced his fingers and cracked his knuckles above his head ”Anyways, where were we before Dipper interrupted us?” he approached the side of him with a sort of glass case in his hands. 

“Cleaning up my brother’s mess.” 

“Ah, right.” he entered the portal room and it took Ford a second to register what he said. 

“Hey, wait! What do you mean we? You were in the Nightmare Realm, dammit!”  

that entire week mabel and stan were preparing for the duck-tective finale and the day had finally arrived. 

mabel invited grenda to come over and watch it with them, she was more than happy to attend. 

stan, mabel and grenda enter the living room and were shocked to see ford and dipper had taken over the room, it being littered with papers of various equations from their ddmd campaign. 

they were even surprised to see alvah laying behind ford covered in papers herself. 

she was "asleep" after failing a saving throw and her character was killed off so she returned to the nightmare realm to take care of some business as she waited for them to finish but continued to use her powers to bring their game to life.  

they pleaded with them to move their game to a different room so they could watch their show but they were very adamant that they couldn't, saying they were going for a world record. 

stan takes it upon himself to remove a few of the graph papers but ford caught him by the wrist, halting him in his tracks. 

"Move that and pay the price." Ford threatened, his grip on his brother tight to prevent him from reaching any further. 

"Oh, what, fifty magical dwarf dollars?" 

"Don't mock our fantastical monetary system!" 

"I'll mock all I want. It's my TV room." 

"It's my house! You..." Ford takes a breath, sighing to himself as he squeezes the bridge of his nose "Listen, Stanley, did it ever occur to you that if you joined us, you might actually have fun? I mean, Alvah didn't need to but joined for Dipper's sake. I'm sure they'd love it if you played with us as well." Stan's gaze hardened at the mention of her. 

"What? Now you listen to me. As long as I live, I will never--" he snatches the bag of Ford's dice out of his hands, ignoring Dipper shouting at him to wait "Ever. Play your smarty-pants nerd game!" he declares before throwing it to the ground, spilling all the dice out onto the floor including the case that secured the infinity-sided die. Ford and Dipper watch in a panic as the case opens and the die bounces out and lands on a wizard symbol, the dice sparked onto the cover of the DDMD box and they all watch as the characters from the game come to life. 

"Mortals of Dimension 46'\, kneel before me and..." he rolls a couple die and throws them onto the board, leaning down to get a look at what he rolled before grinning menacingly at them "snivel! I am Probabilitor, the greatest wizard in all mathology, give or take an error of 0.4." 

"Uh, is this normal?" Stan questions as they all back away, Mabel and Grenda grabbing Alvah to pull her unconscious body away. 

"Have you come to send us on the quest of a lifetime, because we're the smartest players you've ever met?" 

"You are the smartest players I've ever met. That's why I'm going to eat your brains to gain your intelligence. Especially that one lying there. It's what I do." 

"It's his thing." 

"What?!" Dipper turns and grabs Alvah by her collar, shaking her body back and forth "Alvah! Come back! Come back right now! The game came to life and they're going to eat our brains!" Ford throws his coat back to reveal the gun strapped to his waist, he pulls it out and spins it around his finger before aiming it towards Probabilator. 

"Your math is no match for my gun, you idiot!" 

“Math ray!” Ford grits his teeth when he feels a blast of wind blows past him after shielding his eyes from the bright light that came from the man before him, he thought he was going to be thrown out of the room but was surprised to see a sort of red force field shield them all from the attack. A groan came from behind him so he looked back and saw it was Alvah slowly pulling herself up from the floor while her hand was shining a soft hue of red, Dipper let out a sigh of relief that he managed to get through to her and her body instinctively put up a shield to keep them out of harm's way. 

“I wasn’t even gone for that long, and you guys managed to get yourselves into trouble?” she’s on her feet now ripping off the graph papers they so rudely stuck on her when her body was unoccupied, it was when she took off the one stuck to her face was when she paused and stared at Probabilator when she turned around and started to leave “Good luck, you guys.” they stare at her in shock. As she passes Stan, he caught her by the arm to stop her in her tracks, and though the situation is dire, Mabel doesn’t miss the way Alvah flinches when he turns her around. 

“What do you mean good luck? Didn’t you say you’d keep us out of danger?!” she gave a shrug, face turning a soft pink under his gaze. 

“I did, but didn’t I also tell you I can’t directly interfere with events in time? This so happens to be one of them.” she then points behind her with her thumb “I’ll just be in the background. I’ll make sure you guys don’t die under my watch; I promise.” 

“What?!” 

“You guys are going to have so much fun! Family bonding, yaddy yaddy yah! The whole shebang. I can’t just obliterate him out of existence, that’d be cheating.” she takes her arm back and goes to walk off again but this time Probabilator causes her to freeze. 

“Obliterate? Hah! With that mediocre display of magic? I have a hard time believing that!” Stan watched how her face twitched and how she fought down what he believes was anger and irritation. 

“Mediocre...? Me? My magic is mediocre? Me!” she startled them when she suddenly grabbed Stan and shook him while glaring at him, and while it wasn’t directed at him it still scared him to see the angry side of Alvah “If you think you can get away with calling me mediocre, you’ve got another thing com—no, no.” she let Stan go and approached Probabilator with the intentions of strangling him but managed to rein herself in before she could lay hands on him “No, no, no. You can’t do anything, Alvah. Calm yourself. Be the bigger person and let it go. Yes, that is what you’re supposed to do.” she nods her head and starts walking away. 

“Is she oka--” Dipper cut himself off when she came rushing back in. 

“No, I’m not.” they were taken aback when she punched him square in the face that she probably broke his nose, he fell to the ground with a cry but he also threw his staff in the air, and she caught it and stared at the die at the end of it before turning her gaze down at Probabilator “Here’s a lesson on magic. Though it varies depending on which dimension you’re in, they all circulate around the same thing. Magic is recognized as the use of mana to create phenomena, outside the limits of normal science. The usage of magic has varying degrees, with only the skill, personal power-level, imagination/knowledge, and/or morality to define the borders of the magician's limits.” as she explained, they watched as she started drawing a magic circle in the air that glowed an ominous red “Magic is all about bringing something that didn’t exist into reality, and that is the beauty of magic.” after completing the magic circle she tapped on it and they watched as it glowed so bright before blasting a pillar of fire at their foes, burning them to a cinder. 

“Well...” Dipper spoke, she then started to laugh as she kicked at the box art of Probabilator. 

“Hah! How was that for mediocre, huh? Try using your mathology in the afterlife!” she leans to the side when she notices that she accidentally overdid it with the magic and destroyed the kitchen and left burn marks everywhere “... I’ll fix that.” now they’re outside the shack while Alvah was floating around and fixing it up after what happened during the portal's reactivation, she didn’t have time to fix it earlier but after the mess, she made she finally made time to do it. 

“Mabel, is Miss Alvah a witch?” Grenda asked as she watched Alvah float off the ground after taking a tree that had lodged itself into the roof and replanted it back into the ground, they all kind of forgot that Alvah being a supernatural, interdimensional demonic being was a secret. 

“Well, Grenda, actually--” 

“That’s so awesome! Do you think if I asked, she would teach me how to use magic as well? I wanna be a witch!” they hear a laugh and see that it is Alvah slowly descending from above but continuing to float as she holds the staff over her shoulder. 

“That would be quite difficult, little Grenda. In this dimension, you humans don’t particularly have mana or any other sort of energy that allows you to wield magic. But you do have science, which happens to be the more limited but modernized version of magic.” she chuckled softly when Grenda huffed, kicking at the grass while crossing her arms. 

“That’s not fair!” she pats her head. 

“Life’s not fair, kiddo. Perhaps you should go punch someone, it always brings a smile to my face.” 

“You’re right!” with that Grenda runs off to go punch the nearest person, she chuckled at the young girl before throwing her arms towards the newly fixed Mystery Shack. 

“And there you have it! Good as new!” they all hear a creek so they look up and see the iconic S from the Shack slowly slip off and fall to the ground, she let out a breath as she dropped her arms “I’m not even going to bother.” she looks down when she saw Dipper approach so she lowered herself to the ground and sat herself down on her knees. 

“Thanks for helping us, Alvah.” she smiled softly and gently patted his head “You’re not going to get in trouble, are you? You said that was an event that you weren’t supposed to interfere with.” this caused her to let out a huff. 

“I really wasn’t supposed to do what I just did. I was technically supposed to allow him to kidnap you and Ford, and take you guys into the forest while Mabel and Stan came to your rescue. It was to help your guy’s development and relationship; you guys are trapped within the game and they were going to play it to save you.” this caught them by surprise “Since I’ve already interfered, I don’t think I’ll get in trouble for telling you what was supposed to happen. It was my first offense; I’ll probably be let go with just a warning. So, if you guys see the time police, tell them you never saw me. I don’t want to deal with that stupid Time Baby.” 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, you mean to tell me that we actually played that nerd game? For real?” she nods. 

“Yes, you played that “nerd game” to save your brothers, and you actually had fun doing so, and won against his smarts with your dumb luck. If you remove the mathematical and hard-thinking concepts out of DDMD, you will greatly enjoy the game. You put aside your distaste for the game to save both Ford and Dipper, which helped with your guy's relationship, and you guys realize that your bit— I mean, bickering isn’t going to do you any good, blah, blah, blah.” she thanked Dipper when he helped her up while she tossed the staff behind her “So, I’m sorry that I let my ego get the best of me and ruined your adventure. This is why I don’t really get in the way of these things, because it takes the fun and development you guys were supposed to have, out of it.” she hummed softly when Mabel approached her, taking her hand and tugging her forward. 

“And we greatly appreciate your help, Alvah. Is what why you’ve been staying out of things as of lately?” she nodded her head. 

“Uh-huh. You should spend as much time with each other as you possibly can because you don’t know when it’s going to be your last.” Mabel pouted at that, Alvah didn’t realize where the little girl was leading her until it was too late, because the next thing she knew was Mabel grabbing Stan and pulling the two of them together and they fell into each other. 

“Then will you watch the season finale of Duck-tective with us? It wouldn’t be the same without you, and since you played with Dipper and Grunkle Ford, then you’ve just gotta watch it with us!” she swallowed thickly as she slowly looked up at Stan, her face slowly losing its composure with how close they were as she started sputtering out any sort of excuse to decline “Come on, pretty please~ won’t you do it for me?” looking back down at her she saw her infamous puppy dog eyes with her trembling lips, she let out a sigh. 

“Alright, fine.” both she and Stan take a knee when they were yanked down so Mabel could hug them both, they plant a hand onto the ground to stabilize themselves while wrapping another arm around the young girl. 

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she hugged them a little longer before letting them go and jogging over to Dipper to urge him to join them, Ford was planning on declining the invitation but looked over towards his brother and demon and saw the way the two of them acted like awkward teenagers. It was honestly quite amusing, two people who are known for being outspoken and confident were reduced to nothing but silence, and from what he learned through her memories the two of them were known for flirting with each other and couldn’t keep their hands off each other. She wrapped an arm around herself while her free hand rubbed her face, Stan himself hand one of his hands caressing the back of his neck while the other planted itself on his hip. 

“So...” they startle each other when they spoke at the same time while turning to look at each other, they immediately turn away when their faces were inches apart, she starts playing with her hair as she took a breath while Stan took his hat off “How have you been?” she perked up when he spoke to her, looking up at him, he was dusting his hat off before placing it back on top of his head. 

“Well. Could I assume the same for yourself?” he gave a shrug. 

“Eh, I’ve been better.” she nodded softly, and her mind went back to the conversation she, Ford, and Mabel had in the lab and that feeling of guilt started pooling up in her stomach again, she’s grabbed a fistful of the skirt of her dress and was playing with the bundle rather nervously. 

“Stanley, I... I’m--” he looks down at her, curious as to what she had to say, she looks up at him and he saw this look in her eyes when they locked eyes, she looked like she was going to say something before her body slumped and she instead reached up to fix his fez that was slipping from his head “I’m happy you are faring well.” her hand slips down to his face where it briefly rests upon his cheek before she pulls it away, she holds her hand close to her chest as she walks towards the shack to follow Ford inside where she misses Stan reaching up to place his own hand on the cheek she last touched. 

“Alvah.” upon joining them in watching Duck-tective, she sat on the ground beside Grenda while Stan, Dipper, and Mabel all squeezed onto the small sofa. She found the plot to be a little amusing, that the season finale revealed how the duck protagonist had a secret twin brother, which almost reminded her of someone. She felt a little nudge so she looked up and saw Mabel wiggling her eyebrows at her, she rolled her own eyes and shook her head before looking back at the TV. 

season 2, episode 14. the stanchurian candidate 

alvah is, of course, with stanford when dipper comes down to complain about stan stubbornly refusing to listen to him and mabel about running for mayor. 

while he ranted on and on about the fact, ford looks at alvah to see whether or not his brother actually wins the election. 

she gave a shrug while making a “sort of” gesture. 

she watched in amusement when ford pulled out a necktie that had the capabilities to control the wearer. 

“use it responsibly” he said, like hell they would. 

when it was the day of the election, ford couldn’t seem to find alvah until he looked upstairs and found her watching the election. 

he saw the way she was giggling softly to herself as she watched stan, a soft hue dusted across her cheeks. 

not in love, she says. 

ford ridicules her but he was swiftly punched in the face. 

season 2, episode 15. the last mabelcorn 

Alvah wasn't allowed to join Mabel on her quest for the unicorns because Ford said that "a being as rotten as her would scare them off", or whatever that means. She thinks he's just a sucker that believed that whole pure of heart sham all those years ago, she already knew that was a farce from long ago but thought it was too funny to reveal. She could easily get past those stupid unicorns and either a. take their hair by force or b. compliment their hair and ask for tips, that usually works. Ford told her that he wanted to spend some time alone with Dipper, having already revealed what they were doing in his lab all those nights ago, and Dipper practically pleaded with her to allow him to spend time with his idol. 

So here she was, sitting outside the shack with nothing to do. She watched aimlessly as the little critters that roamed the forest would peek out and approach her curiously before wandering back into the forest where she would reward their curiosity with little peanuts left out by Soos, she had a walnut in her hand so she swiftly crushed it within her palm before outstretching her hand to a squirrel that padded up to her. She watched as it sniffed her hand curiously before eating right out of her palm, it would be so easy to close her hand around its neck and tighten her hold around it. She could do it slowly and watch it struggle within her grasp, clawing at her hand to escape despite knowing its attempts would be futile. Or perhaps she could just crush it like she did with that walnut, how she would feel its neck snap in an instant; quick and painless. She let out an oh when it suddenly scampered away, she flicked the reminisce of the walnut onto the grass and relaxed back on the steps. 

"... I know you're there, Stanley." she hummed softly when she heard a crash from behind her, she waited a couple seconds before the door opened, and out came Stan dusting himself off while clearing his throat "Come to have a chat with me, Stan?" she pats the free space beside her and waits to see whether or not he'd take her up on the offer, he grumbles to himself but plops himself beside her. 

"Why aren't you with brainiac one and two or Mabel? You're usually hanging off his shoulder or keeping Mabel out of trouble." she merely shrugged her shoulders as she plucked another peanut from the bowl and tossed it toward another squirrel. 

"Fordsy wanted to spend some time with Dipper alone to devise a plan against Bill, and Mabel will be just fine. And you didn't hear this from me, but she's gonna punch a unicorn in the nose. It's rather glorious." she giggles softly to herself at what the future has for Mabel, sure her love for unicorns vanishes because they're nothing but a sham, but it sure was a spectacle to witness. 

"What? She punches a unicorn?" this got a laugh out of Stan "Almost tempted to follow them just to watch."  

"She might need comfort when she returns. Because of their little "purest of heart" scheme, they make her a little insecure about how good of a person she is. She might need some reassurance when she gets back, but those other girls keep her from falling too deep." they sit in silence and Stan watches her closely, he stares at her face specifically. Ever since it was revealed that she wasn't all that she seemed to be, whether she was a man or not, she wore a rather cocky grin on her face and carried a haughty attitude, she was just unrecognizable to him. But right now, under the grace of the sun and a calming summer breeze, he was blessed with the Alvah he had grown rather attached to... like he'd ever admit that part out loud, god he hoped she couldn't read minds (she can, in fact, read minds). 

"You're staring." he jumped at her voice, fidgeting from where he sat when her eyes trailed away from the wilderness that surrounded them and onto him, he swallowed thickly and stared deep into those soft, rich green eyes of hers. He was the most socially aware between himself and Stanford and took pride in himself with how well he could read people, he thought he read Alvah well, but there was just something lacking within her eyes "What's on your mind?" 

"Pointdexter refers to you as a devil, so are you like Bill?" 

"By that, are you asking if he and I are the same species?" he gave a kind of gesture. 

"Do you have a shape form like he does?" this question causes her to burst out into a fit of laughter. 

"I'm not a Euclydian, Stan. Their species have been long wiped out like their dimension, no thanks to Bill." she paused when she saw the confused look on his face "They are, er, were a two dimensional species that were only shapes like squares and circles." 

"And triangles?" she nods. 

"Uh-huh. They were incapable of seeing the third dimension, but Bill, he was different. But due to that, he accidentally destroyed Euclydia. He'd say otherwise, but we beings know what happened that day." 

"So you're saying that you were there?" she shrugs. 

"More or less. You're technically not supposed to know this, not even Ford knows this, but I could care less. Bill tells an entirely different story, saying he did it for power, but he only says that because he doesn't want to confront the fact that he erased his species off the face of this universe. He refuses to see that it was his fault." 

"Whoa." she nods, he looks at the ground as he thinks of another question to ask "But you do have many forms, right? This and the one you use for Ford aren't the only ones, are they?" she shakes her head. 

"No, they aren't." Stan then watches as she changes shape into a variety of different people, or rather, species "I have contracts with many people for trillions of years and taken the form of different species. I don't really have a proper identity to call me own." she spoke in different voices and even languages as she changed from a monster with tentacles for a face and even a tall newt with a purple skin tone before finally changing back to Alvah. 

"That sounds sad." 

"It really isn't. The contracts were easy to fulfill and I didn't have to stay in a body for too long. This one, however, is the longest it has existed." she said as she raised her arms to look at her hands "Without me even realizing, it started developing..." he raised a brow as he looked at her hands then back up at her. 

"A consciousness?" she chuckled softly. 

"Feelings." he blinked at her words "Every body I made moved like a machine with simple instruction. Listen to the contractor, fulfill the contractor's wishes, and complete the contract. Simple." 

"But?" she finally looked away from her hands and stared at him, long and hard. 

"I would leave these bodies and return to my own so I wouldn't get... attached. But, I was stuck in this one for so long it-- or I, started to feel. That is impossible, I'm not supposed to feel anything." the longer he stared into her eyes the more he started to see something that once wasn't there "And yet here I am beginning to enjoy the company of a small human family to the point I would do anything to secure their safety; to the point that I don't want you... to hate me." his eyes widened at her words. 

"Alvah." she turns away and wraps her arms tightly around her torso 

"Stanley, I am... sorry, for how I've treated you these past couple of weeks. I'm sorry I've been distant, I'm sorry I've avoided you. It’s just... so hard for me to come to terms with these feelings that are so foreign to me. These feelings are something I can’t control, and no matter how hard I’ve been denying them... they just keep coming back.” he sees how her arms tightened as she spoke “I don’t know if it’s this body or my feelings. I’m supposed to know everything, I’ve seen countless possibilities, millions upon trillions of endings but not one... not one where I--” he blinks when she abruptly cuts herself off. 

“Where you what?” the suspense was killing him, he tilts his head to try and get a look at her face but instead he saw a faint hue on the tips of her ears when she spoke so softly it would’ve been lost to the wind. 

“Where I...” he couldn't quite catch what she said but he saw the way her body suddenly froze, as if the sudden realization of her feelings finally caught up with her. He was startled when she quickly shot up to her feet and turned around, speedwalking to get inside the shack and possibly hide from him “I-I—I need to go! It was swell talking with you again, Stanley! Talk to you later!” she tries to get away but Stan was fast enough to stand to his feet and catch her wrist before she could get too far. 

“No, no! You can’t just stop there! You can’t just leave me hanging there, Alvah!” each time he felt her try to get away he would tug her back, he knew that she was much stronger than him, he knew that she could throw him off but this was a rare moment of Alvah being vulnerable with him so he wasn’t going to lose her when he was so close “You don’t get to spill that all on me and expect me to just sit there! I still... I still care about you! I still think about what we had, about what we did and said to each other and I hoped it wasn’t something you did out of obligation. That what we had meant something to you, the real you! That you actually... care for me. That finally someone chose me, and that since you knew it was me from the very beginning, you actually wanted me.” she stopped fighting him but she didn’t turn to look at him, his grip on her tightened as his face hardened “Won’t you say something, Alvah?!” he tugs at her and forced her to turn around and there... there he saw a sight that will forever be engraved in the back of his mind. The color red had practically covered her entire face as she tried her best to shield it with her forearm but failed, she was looking everywhere but at him and she looked so flustered; so, embarrassed that she looked so adorable in his eyes that it made him forget that the person in front of him was the embodiment of chaos and evil.  

“I... I do care about you, Stanley. I care when I-I shouldn’t be able too.” she moves her arm so her hand could cover the lower half of her face as she looked away “I’ve seen those kids die—I've seen you die so many times. To the monsters that roamed the forest... or by your own hands, and it scares me so much. Is this how you humans feel when you care about something so much that you feel like you’re dying? I don’t know what I’d do with myself if I were to lose you...” his hand slowly reaches for her other wrist and pulls it down so he could look at her clearly, the one that caught her slid up her arm and rested on her cheek where she finally looked at him and he saw so many different emotions swirling in those beautiful eyes of hers. 

Fear, anguish, regret, confusion. 

“Humans are more... complex than machines. We feel things that can spiral out of control if left alone.” his thumb started stroking her cheek in a form of comfort and she melted at the affection, her eyes fluttering close as she leaned into his touch “If what you say is true, then running from it will make you hurt more.” her eyes opened again and he couldn’t tell if the glisten in her eyes were tears or something else. 

“You make my nonexistent heart beat. I... I...” he saw the way that word was stuck in her throat, how she struggled to say it as she hid her face in the palm of his hand. Instead, she blinked when she felt his other hand cup her cheek and slowly turn her towards him once more, the two of them stare at each other until he started leaning in. A weak gasp left her when he pressed his lips against her, unlike the other kisses they’ve shared, this one was so short and faint she’d compare it to a peck. He pulled away and she saw his cheeks were tinted the faintest shade of pink but her face turned even more red, however, it didn’t stop her from wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him into a much needed kiss. He didn’t hesitate to wrap his arms around her waist to pull her close and reciprocate the kiss, they’d pull away briefly to allow him to breath but they’d pull each other right back in for more. Her hands removed themselves from his neck to cradle his face within her hands while his own roamed her body, he manages to catch them when they fall back into the door behind her with his hand slamming against the door frame, when they break away, they rest their foreheads against each other with his hands caressing his face affectionately “Stanford’s gonna kill me.” Stan snorted softly at what she said. 

“Why do you say that?” they move from the door to take a seat on the yellow sofa, all the tension from earlier gone as she cuddled up to Stan’s side, his arm wrapped around her side to keep her close. 

“He has come to realize my infatuation with you and threatens me about getting close. Says he doesn’t want a repeat in history, but I’m insulted that he compares me to Bill and you to him. If I’m being honest, you are much smarter than your brother.” 

“Hah! You’re just saying that because you like me.” she shakes her head, lacing her fingers with his and giving his hand a squeeze. 

“No, I am being very honest. You are much smarter than people give you credit for, Stan. I have watched you ever since you stepped for in Gravity Falls and your actions leading up to your brother’s return have been remarkable. If anything, your brother has much to learn from you. Be proud of your actions.” she quirked a brow when she felt his grip on her hand tighten a little as his body trembled, looking up, she giggled quietly to herself when she saw him covering his eyes with his hand “Stan, are you crying?” he looked away from her. 

“No! I don’t know what you’re talking about!” she hummed and reached to grab at his wrist and pull it away from his face, she gave him a soft expression as she cupped his cheek and wiped away his tears. 

“I told you this before, Stan, you don’t have to hide your vulnerability from me, I’m not going to make fun of you.” with that she kissed his tears away and nuzzled her cheek against his, he laughed softly and returned the gesture to know that it was appreciated “I still don’t fully understand what these feelings are or how I should confront them, but I do know you are something dear to me, as well as those children, and Wendy, and Soos and even Stanford. I’ll do anything to keep you safe, but there are just some things I just can’t prevent from happening in order to do so.” he hummed softly at that. 

“So, there is more to come?” 

“More than you could think.” he let out a grunt when she wrapped her arms around him and buried her face within the crook of his neck, hugging him tightly “So when that day comes, please know that I am so sorry that I had to let it happen.” he opens his mouth to reassure her that he’d forgive her, that it couldn’t possibly be as bad as she’s making it out to be, but seeing how she tightened her grip on him made him think otherwise. 

“Whatever you say, toots.” they decide to go back into the shack in fear that Mabel and her friends would reappear and catch them doing something they definitely didn’t want them to see. Alvah hadn’t realized just how much she missed spending her time with Stan, whether it doing something productive or just simply lazing around doing absolutely nothing but basking in each other’s company. She found herself craving more of Stan then she ever realized, she wanted him to smile at her more, she wanted to be the reason of his laughter, she wanted to be the center of his universe, but she knew deep down that she could never replace the love he had for his family. So, even if she had to be fed breadcrumbs in order to stay in his mind, she wouldn’t mind. 

“Did somebody say unicorn hair?!” both herself and Stan jump at the sound of Mabel’s voice, has it been that long already? She hadn’t even realized how long she and Stan spent together to the point that Mabel had returned from retrieving the unicorn hair, she guessed Dipper now knows that the muse she was talking about long ago was now in fact Bill Cipher and that she and that triangular freak have got ongoing beef. They both leave the room they occupied and make their way to where everyone was huddled in, however, the moment Stan’s eyes caught the glistening shine of gold he was quick to leave her side. 

“MONEY!!” she sweat dropped when he grabbed an armful before breaking down the backdoor as he fled, she sighed but clapped her hands when she entered the room. 

“Well done, Mabel, I knew you could do it.” taking in their disheveled attire, she snickered softly when she saw the unicorn tears and blood that covered the girls followed by scratches and bruises “You did a good job, kiddo. I’m real proud of you.” she praised as she knelt down and gently ruffled her head, she pulled her hand away and saw the way her eyes glistened with tears. 

“Thanks, Alvah, I really needed that.” she winked. 

“Don’t worry about it. Those unicorns don’t know a thing about you, but I know for sure that you’re the greatest little girl there could ever be.” she soft gasp left her when Mabel threw herself into Alvah’s arms, her eyes widened a little at the action as she slowly lifted her arms to wrap around Mabel and embrace her. Her mind went back to what she said to Stan and she immediately felt the guilt pool in her stomach, but she ignored it to nuzzle her cheek against the side of Mabel’s head. 

when stan came back, he and alvah spent a few more quiet hours to catch up on lost time. 

she made sure that mabel was busy with her friends so the young girl wouldn’t catch them doing anything. 

it was when things were getting more intimate when she was suddenly ripped from his grasp and a crash followed close behind.

opening his eyes, he was met with a hole in the wall as well as a loud thud. 

that was due to the fact when dipper and ford put up the protective barrier to bill-proof the shack, ford made a few miscalculations and demon-proofed the house. 

so when the barrier went up she was repealed out of the shack, to which she was on the top floor and fell from a great height.  

dipper was immediately apologetic and ford chuckled when she glared at him to fix it, well, that was until stan popped his head out from where she was thrown out. 

the next hour is spent with her running away from blasts from his gun while stan, dipper and mabel try and stop him. 

season 2, episode 16. roadside attraction  

“You really don’t want me anywhere near your brother, huh?” Alvah, who was in his male form, cooed from where he was floating over Ford, who was currently trying to figure out a way to fix the rift after it was damaged by Dipper when he learned the truth about Ford and Bill and shot him with the memory gun, only for the blast to ricochet off his head. After learning that Alvah and Stan settled the awkward tension they had and were acting flirtatious again, seeing them acting all lovey dovey and not getting enough of each other. He would try to ignore it but knowing what they were doing in just a room across from him had him storming in, no matter what they could be doing, and ripping her away from Stan to confine her in the lab “So overprotective, Fordsy~” he giggles to himself and twirls and strand of his long black hair around his index finger. 

“I do not want to know what kind of tomfoolery you and my brother get up to.” he huffed, crossing his arms. 

“Like you and Bill?” he snickered when he saw Ford stiffen, dropping the pen he had in his hand as he slowly turned red. Whether it be from embarrassment or anger, or perhaps both, he’ll never know. He scoffed when Ford whipped his head over to where he was floating and glared at him with such vigor, if looks could kill, he’d be dead where he stood—er, well, floated “Hit a nerve, did I?” he hummed softly when Ford grabbed him by the ankle to yank him down, making sure they were face to face as when he spoke. 

“How dare you bring that up, Alvah. You know exactly what Bill did to me.”  

“Then you should know better than to compare me to Bill, Stanford.” he opens his mouth to protest but was shushed when Alvah shook him off “I can hear your thoughts without needing to read them, and to say I’m insulted would be an understatement. My adoration for Stanley is completely different from the obsession Bill had for you.” 

“I-It wasn’t an obsession!” 

“I stalked you two for over a year, and he would not shut up about it either. I will go through those journals just to find those receipts; I will do it. I will give you the time and date for each instance, don’t tempt me.” they stare at each other for an intense few minutes until Ford breaks away with a disgruntled sigh, he watches as he returned to where he was before in silence before speaking “... I’m not going to hurt him, if that’s what you’re thinking. I already know what he’s been through. From his upbringing, the ten years he spent alone on the road to the thirty years of bringing you back. I don’t plan on damaging him even further, intentionally, that is.” 

“Intentionally?” Ford waited for an answer but was met with silence, he turned back to look at Alvah to question him but paused when he saw the distraught look on his face “Al--” 

“Let's just say, there’s just something I can’t prevent from happening.” Ford wants to question him on what that means but knows that if it has something to do with the timeline then Alvah will not tell him, despite being an all knowing and powerful being, there seems to be some rules that even he cannot and will not break. He goes to return to work but saw the way Alvah perked up like an internal alarm went off in his head, he raised a brow curiously. 

“Now what?” Alvah lifted his hand up and the shadows beneath him rose out of the ground. 

“Your brother seems to be in need of assistance.” Ford furrowed his brows in concern and got off his seat, standing beside Alvah as the shadows acted as a way to see what was happening. Ford always wondered what Alvah saw whenever she was, as he called it, the Shadow Realm, when they conversed. The image was distorted and hazy but clear enough for them to see what was going on on the other side, and there they saw Stan encased in webbing in some sort of cave. 

“Wasn’t he going on a road trip with the kids?” he nods. 

“He is, but it seems he ran into an arachnimorph. Quite nasty, if I say. If he’s lucky, he didn’t run into a female one.” 

“Why’s that?” 

“They’re more aggressive than the male arachnimorphs. You know, like normal spiders.” the image then shows a tan skinned woman with tan marks over her eyes in the shape of her sunglasses and on her shoulders where straps were present. She had sandy-blonde hair and a brown birth mark on her left shoulder, and though her torso was that of a normal human woman, her lower half was that of a spider “Him and his dumb luck.” 

“Are you going to help him?” he shakes his head. 

“As much as I want to, it’s one of those moments where I can’t.” he nods his head. 

“I see.” he goes to make the image disappear until that woman started getting closer to Stan. 

“You tricked me!” he shouted at her “I’m eighty-percent certain you don’t really love me at all!” this comment caused Alvah to furrow his brows, though he already knew the plot of this adventure, he still was a little jealous that Stan and this spider-woman went out on a date. 

“Ha! Men will fall for anything. You’re so funny. Great story. I love a man with shoulder hair.” 

“You... you didn’t mean it about my shoulder hair?” Ford and Alvah to roll their eyes. 

“Tell me, Stan, before I transformed, who’d you think was in charge? You, with your cheesy lines and fake confidence? I’m the master pick-up artist here. Sorry, toots. This time, you’re getting used for your body, which, to my species, is food. Allow me to slip into something more horrifying.” with that, the arachnimorph pulled its mouth open like that of a body suit and revealed its true form “I wonder what beverage pairs well with a vintage seventy-something-year-old man."  he grits his teeth as he glared at her from where he was hanging. 

“Why I oughta, when my partner gets here, you’ll be sorry!” this caused the arachnimorph to let out a laugh as she got close to him once more. 

“If you already had a partner, why’d you flirt with little ol’ me? Wouldn’t that break their heart if they learned of your infidelity?” he just let out a laugh. 

“Not really. I used my better lines on her and I’ve practically got her wrapped around me finger.” Ford looked up at Alvah and saw the irritated look on his face followed by the soft blush tinting his cheeks, he rolled his eyes knowing that what Stan had said wasn’t too far off from the truth “Besides, unlike her, I didn’t really like you all that much. Just trying to show off to my nephew how professionals work.” she let out a laugh at what he said. 

“Hah! Thanks to you, that boy will probably do more harm than good with your advice. It’d probably be better if he didn’t listen to you, because in the end, look where you ended up.” 

“Sure, but my partner surely won’t leave me hanging and come to my rescue!” the way he emphasized on the surely was meant for him to appear right that moment to save him, Darlene looked around for the appearance of such a partner but no one came “Come on, Alvah! I know you’re watching!” Darlene laughs once more as she got close to his face, he winced and leaned as far away as he possibly could while being confined to the webbing. 

“Sorry, sweetheart, but it looks like you’re all alo—ah!” Stan was startled when a fist appeared from beside his head and punched Darlene in the face, knocking her a few feet away from him, though he gradually calmed down when said fist uncurled and a hand glided across his jaw and caressed his cheek. 

“Hello, beloved. Can’t go a day without causing trouble, huh?” Stan smiled at the sight of Alvah appearing from out of his shadow, her arm around wrapped around his shoulder as she pulled herself close to him so she could rub her cheek against his “I, for one, like your shoulder hair.” he giggled bashfully to himself as he nuzzled his cheek into hers. 

“Aw~ I knew you would.” before she could say anything else she let out a grunt when she was shoved away from him by another figure, Stan was surprised to see Ford appear as well by grabbing Alvah by her face and pushing her away while pointing his gun towards the arachnimorph. 

“That’s enough of that.” she glared at him but scoffed as they both step out of the shadow “This isn’t a good idea, Alvah.” she shrugged as she stood in front of the twins to ensure she was the first target that Darlene woman would go for. 

“As long as I’m not the one to take her down, we should be fine. Now hurry up and free your brother, I’ll keep her back until the kids get here.” 

“Mister Pines!” she chuckled at the sound of Grenda’s voice echoing through the cave. 

“Speak of the devil.” the children came rushing in to save Stan but were greatly surprised at the sight of Alvah and Ford already in the process of saving him “Children, take your uncles and get out of here. I’ll hold her back while you get away.” 

“Miss Alvah! How are you here?” 

“Magic~” she quickly turned her attention back towards Darlene when she came charging at her, she caught the six-legged creature by her hands and dug the soles of her feet into the ground to keep her from pushing her back. She grimaced when the pincers on her face chittered as she leaned close, Alvah winced when she heard the sound of subtle cracking so she glanced over at her arms and saw tiny cracks forming around her elbows “Yeesh, have you ever thought of eating a couple breath mints? You smell as bad as that guy back there.” she said while motioning to Ford with her head. 

“Hey!” Stan snickered. 

“She’s got a point, Sixer.” she leans away again when Darlene let out a chuckle. 

“So, you must be the partner, huh? Did you know that your Stan over there whispered sweet nothings into my ear? He thinks he’s such a smooth talker with his cheap flattery and cheesy one liners.” Alvah rolled her eyes. 

“Well, they worked on me.” she looked away when Darlene gave her an incredulous look. 

“Wait, seriously?” she shrugged her shoulders. 

“What? I’m a sucker for flattery.” she let out a yelp of sorts when she was lifted off the ground then slammed back down into the ground, it didn’t hurt, but she grimaced when she heard more parts of her body start to crack “Hey, hey, now. Let’s be gentle, I’m a fragile little thing.” 

“You also look like a sweet little thing, I wonder what you taste like.” 

“Well, you’ve got to ask Stan if you want to answer to that question.” she winked but let out another grunt when she felt this overweight arachnid push her deeper into the dirty cave floor, she was getting dirt and cobwebs in her clothes and hair, what a pain “I beg, please get your ugly face away from mine. I don’t appreciate it.” Darlene laughs again as leans in close, her pincers wiggling inches away from Alvah’s face. 

“I won’t let any of you get away. You’ll make a perfect addition to my collection.” Alvah scoffed. 

“And I won’t let that happen.” the moment she heard them finally free Stan she hiked her legs up and kicked the overgrown spider off of her, she springs back up to her feet then held up her hand when she noticed them start to approach to help her “No, get out of here! I can’t handle her.” 

“But--” 

“I said go!” though reluctant, the group turn tail and ran out of the cave, leaving Alvah and Darlene alone together “If this were any other situation, I would finish you in an instance, but this ain’t. I’m just gonna give you a hard time.” she winks at the arachnimorph and uses two fingers to gesture for her to come. 

“I'll make you regret not running with the rest of them.” with the others, they were all high tailing it down the moment and towards the skyline, Candy looked back towards the cave entrance that got smaller and smaller as they ran further down the moment. 

“Was it right for us to leave Miss Alvah the way we did? I can’t help but worry for her.” Ford shook his head as he ushered the children to run ahead of him and his brother, occasionally looking back towards the cave in case the arachnimorph did manage to get past Alvah. 

“Oh, no. I believe she would be very cross with us if we didn’t leave. She can handle her own, I promise you that.” 

“Yeah, but you should have seen here when we had to fight against zombies. She looked hot as hell.” Dipper covers his ears at the words that were used, and though Mabel couldn’t help but agree, she did awe a little. 

“Ew.” 

“I don’t need to know that, Stanley.” 

“Zombies?” Candy and Grenda question, though neither got an answer when the sound of shouting came from behind them followed by loud crashes, they didn’t have time to turn around when flying over them was Darlene and Alvah tumbling down the mountain. Alvah was shouting as she punched Darlene in the face each time they were in the air and Darlene would retaliate when she was on top of her, Alvah would sometimes be able to catch her fist and punch her right back across the face but other times she would have to take the hit. Alvah couldn’t really feel pain each time a strike connected but she could feel her body crack more and more against the super strength the arachnimorph species possessed. They both crashed into a tree with Alvah landing on top of her, she continues to land blows on her but Darlene used her legs to kick her off her. She manages to catch herself and rushes towards Darlene and when her fist connects to her face, this time, her left hand all the way up to her forearm completely shatters. 

“Well.” 

“Alvah!” she looks back at the group and saw them stop when they notice her missing limb, she looks back down at her shattered hand then quickly looks back at them and waves them off. 

“I’m fine! Just hurry onto the sky tram! I’ll catch up!” Ford was quick to heed her demand and ushers them all into the tram, having to force Stan on before he could rush off to help her.  

“Hah! So, you’re not a human! Should have figured that one out, Stan seems to have a type.” Alvah shrugged then twirled a strand of her blonde hair. 

“Yeah, seems to me he’s into blondes. At least I was right on that mark, hmm?” Darlene laughs. 

“Well, since you’re down a limb, you won’t be that much of a threat!” with that she was quick to run off and chase after the fleeing group, Alvah scoffed and looks back down at the hole her shattered arm left. 

“That’s where you’re wrong.” Ford looks back and saw Darlene was leaping from tram to tram and gaining on them fast, no thanks to the stupid tram going at the speed of 0.1 miles per hour, however he perked up at the sight of Alvah not too far behind and instead of fixing her arm like she did when he blasted a hole in her face, the same black tar oozed out from the hole the damage did and became her new arm that grew larger with claws instead of hands. He also noticed that she ripped off her other arm so she could have two, so he saw her running along the cable while also using her new arms to swing herself towards them. When Darlene finally caught up to them and started encasing them in her webbing, Alvah swung herself up and kicked Darlene off and onto a different tram that was ahead of them “Is that all you got, freak?!” 

“Are you alright, Alvah?” she leaned back to see Ford peaking his head out of a window “You took quite the damage fighting that arachnimorph.” 

“That’s because this body isn’t meant for fighting, it’s only meant to look good. Besides, this vessel doesn’t seem to be able to contain the updated version of our contract.” she should have known when Ford allowed her more access to her power her body would become more brittle with how old it is “But I'm fine, nonetheless.” a soft gasp left her when a couple pieces of her face chipped off and fell, more black ooze leaking out of her face.  

“What was that, Alvah?”  

“I-It’s nothing!” Darlene lunges for Alvah once more but she swung herself around the cable holding up their tram and kicked Darlene back once more before lowering herself down to get a look at the group through the glass window “Candy!” the little girl jumped at the sound of Alvah’s voice, looking at the older woman, she gasped at the sight of her disheveled state. 

“M-Miss Alvah? Are you alright?” she waves her free hand, her claws digging into the roof of the tram to keep her from falling. 

“Don't worry about me, sweetheart. You’ve got this though, right?” Candy blinked at Alvah’s words, taken aback that she knew that Candy had a plan to deal with Darlene if she hadn’t showed up, so she smiles and nods her head while giving her a thumbs up. 

“Affirmative.” Alvah returns the gesture before hoisting herself back up, one of her arms wraps around the attachment that connects the carriage to the cables above them while the other is pressed against the roof just as Darlene jumps back. 

“Don’t think you can get rid of me that easily.” this earned her a chuckle “What’s so funny?” 

“Well, you don’t seem to realize you’ve walked into my web.” this caused Darlene to look down and noticed how the hand that was pressed against the roof allowed the black ooze to cover the surface and the moment her legs touched it they covered her legs completely to restrict her from moving “Hope you ain’t afraid of water!” she lets out a maniacal laugh when Candy pulled the emergency lever and the latch that connected the carriage to the cable above them released and they fell, they fell directly into the geyser “old reliable” that went off and shot them right back up into the air. They were sent flying down the mountain with Darlene taking the brunt force of crashing into everything while Alvah was running on top of the carriage as it continued to move, she made sure to release Darlene when they made it down and broke through the kiosk at the bottom of the mountain, right underneath the boot of the old statue that came down and crushed her. 

“My only weakness, a giant boot!” she cried out as she struggled to get out from underneath said boot “A giant newspaper or a giant cup would also have been pretty bad.” Stan and Ford managed to break down the carriage door where all occupants came tumbling out after rolling down the mountain. 

“Kid, that was ingenious! How’d you know it would work?” Stan raised as he pulled Candy into a side hug. 

“Useless travel pamphlets.” 

“Stanley.” they all flinch and look back towards Darlene, who transformed back into her human form “I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me. You’ll let me out, right?” she spoke while twirling a strand of her hair, batting her eyes to lure him in. 

“What? After all that? Seriously, do I look like an amnesiac?” he shouts as he approached her weakened form. 

“Haha, you’re so funny. Have you ever considered becoming a comedian?” before Stan could answer her, he was pulled back by Ford just as Alvah stood over her with the carriage held above her head. 

“Stan’s already got a supernatural being in his life and that isn’t you, sweetheart.” Alvah ignored her cries and dropped it on top of her, she makes sure her legs stopped twitching and goes to turn around until she caught her reflection in the glass “Well, that was irritating, she broke my face.” she murmured as she brought her hand up to caress her cheek that was missing a couple pieces. 

“Are you alright, Alvah?” she moved her eyes and saw Ford approaching her, she huffed and turned around. 

“I already said I was fine. And again, this body was not meant for fighting, only to look good.” she let out a grunt when he grabbed her by the face, pulling her close so he could examine the damage “And you say I’ve got issues with invading personal space.” she squeaked when he tightened his grip on her face, squeezing her cheeks and yanking her closer to glare into her eyes. 

“At least I don’t do it in every waking moment.” she just shrugged her shoulders, he threw her head back before grabbing at what was left of her arms to look at the ooze that replaced what was missing “Is this your blood?”  

“Close, it’s my “flesh”, more or less.” 

“Not that smoke?” 

“The smokey version of me you see is the power I simply use to invade your head, you know, like that sand man? This goop would be the more accurate term to what my body is made up of, dead flesh.” she pulled a face when he pulled out a vial and scooped some of it up, he dangles it in front of his face and shakes the glass bottle “Really?”  

“The more I learn about you, the better.” she rolled her eyes then paused when she heard someone clear their throat, peering past Ford, she saw that it was Stan sheepishly kicking his feet while rubbing the back of his neck. 

“Oh Stanley, are you okay?” she cooed softly while reaching for him only to recoil back when she remembered the state she was in, but she was taken aback when he reached forward and grabbed her clawed hand “I thought you wouldn’t want to touch these rather grotesque hands of mine.” he laughed. 

“I got acid spit in my face, your arms are the least of my worries.” she giggled softly and used her other hand to covered her face. 

“You sap.” Stan opens his mouth to add something else but felt something rest on his shoulder, he turned his head to see what exactly it was only to let out a startled shout at the sight of a severed hand laying on his shoulder. The others watch in shock when Stan let out a scream and threw the arm in the air but stopped when Alvah burst out into a fit of laughter, she raised her hand and caught the arm then waved it cheekily at them “Thanks for the “hand”. Haha, get it?” she continued to laugh as she let the ooze slither back into the hole it came out of then connected the severed arm in its place, she rolled her arm a couple times then grinned when the cracks fused together smoothly. 

“Fascinating, but wasn’t that the arm that shattered?” 

“It was, but as long as I can find the pieces, I can put myself back together. Like so.” Dipper shrieked when he saw another arm drag itself over to where Alvah was, she picks the arm up abd repeated the same process she did with the first arm “Ta dah, good as new.” she let out an oh when Mabel tugged on the end of her skirt, she kneels down and tilts her head in mild curiosity then blinked when Mabel placed a rainbow band aid over crack and hole on her face. 

“There, now you’re as good as new.” she caressed her cheek and smiled softly. 

“Thank you, Mabel.” she let out a yelp when she was pulled back by Ford, she huffed at the action. 

“Let us return, Alvah.” she rolled her eyes and stood to her feet, snapping her fingers to rid of all the cobwebs and grime that got on her after that distasteful squabble. He raised a brow as he watched her approach him and reach for his hand, she laces her fingers with his as best as she could and pulls him close until they were practically cheek to cheek “What are you--” she ignored him to look back at the group. 

“See you back at the Mystery Shack.” with that she fell backwards and pulled Ford with her, he wasn’t prepared for the sensation that was them falling into their shadows and it felt like they were submerged briefly in a body of water before falling upright back in his lab. She chuckled softly when she felt his grip on her hand tighten significantly but when he came to realize they had returned he immediately let go, he looks back at her and saw Alvah changed back into his male appearance and rubbed his cheek that was bandaged. 

“How long will it take you to repair your face?”  

“It shouldn’t take too long since it’s small.” he hummed softly when he realized Ford was staring at him rather intently “What? Something else on my face?”  

“... you really have changed, Alvah.” his face twitched at Ford’s statement “You never stepped in whenever someone was in trouble, you always watched as if it were the most boring thing you ever had to do. You’ve stated you are a neutral being that’s job was only to spectate and observe, nothing more than that.” his fingers picks at the small band aid on his check while averting his gaze from Ford’s. 

“Why? You prefer if I abandon your family’s safety instead?” 

“No, I’m more curious as to why you would risk yourself getting into trouble to step in when you know you could face dire consequences.” Alvah continues to pick at the band aid as he thought back to his time spending every waking moment with the Pines Family and he couldn’t help but smile rather bitterly. 

“I, too, am very curious.” he then chuckles “I’ve got your brother to blame for half of it, though.” Ford scoffed. 

“I’ll say.” he rolled his eyes. 

Contract

word count: 27,331

Fandom: Gravity Falls Pairing: Stanley Pines x Alvah (OC) Pronouns: She/Her Relationship: Platonic - Romantic Occupation: Guardian Ability: N/A

Keys:

n/a

Warnings:

spoilers to those who haven't seen the show, violence.

"Contract" pt. 2, pt. 3

had to split this into two parts because I wrote too much and hit the word limit, which is bullshit because a different post has over 60,000 words while this was about 30,000. so now I've just split them into seasons one and two, despite me wanting them to be together.

it was going to be broken up into two parts between season one and two but I reached the word limit again in the second part, and I didn't want it to be three parts because then the third part would be too short.

was gonna publish this when I finished the second part but literally screamed "fuck it", so now I hope I don't surpass the word limit again but I'm nearly done.

bound to be a lot of mistakes that I haven't fixed but fuck it. might fix it later.

season 1, episode 1. tourist trapped

Ah, summer break.

A time for leisure, recreation, for taking her easy.

Unless you're me.

We are now met with a scene with twin siblings fleeing for their lives in a golf cart while an unknown monster follows close behind them, knocking down trees in its pursuit for the siblings.

My name is Dipper, the girl who is about to puke is my sister Mabel. You may be wondering what we're doing in a golf cart fleeing from a creature of unimaginable horror, rest assured. There's a perfectly logical explanation for this situation.

Let's rewind. It all began when our parents decided we could use some fresh air. They shipped us up north to a sleep town called Gravity Falls Oregon to stay at our great uncle's place in the woods. My sister tended to look on the brighter side of things, but I was having a hard time getting used to our new surroundings. And then there was our great uncle Stan, that guy. Our uncle had transformed his house into a tourist trap called the "Mystery Shack", the real mystery was why anyone came. And guess who had to work there.

It looked like it was going to be the same boring routine all summer, until one fateful day.

"He's looking at it, he's looking at it!" Dipper, who was currently cleaning, looked at his sister oddly as she watched a boy open a letter she left out "I rigged it."

"Mabel? I know you're going through your whole boy crazy phase, but I think you're overdoing it with the crazy part." he comments as he sprays a jar and wipes away the dust.

"What? Psh, come on Dipper, this is our first summer away from home. It's my big chance to have an epic summer romance."

"Yeah, but do you have to flirt with every guy you meet?" they then recall each time she flirted with any passing guy, to the point she actually scared a boy guy whilst he was working.

"Mock all you want, brother, but I got a good feeling about this summer. I wouldn't be surprised if the man of my dreams walked through that door right now." and out walking through the door was none other Stan, looking disheveled and everything, holding his stomach as he burped "Argh, why?" Dipper laughed at her misfortune.

"Alright, alright. Look alive, people. I need someone to go hammer up these signs in the spooky part of the forest."

"Not it."

"Not it." the twins immediately protest, behind them, the handy man Soos, raises his hand.

"Not it."

"Nobody asked you, Soos."

"I know, and I'm comfortable with that." Stan turned his attention to the young lady working at the cashier, Wendy, ignoring Soos when he pulled out a bar of chocolate and started eating it.

"Wendy, I need you to put up this sign." Wendy, who was leaning back in a chair with her legs perched on the counter while reading through a magazine, raised her hand and lazily reached towards where they stood without taking her eyes off the page.

"I would but I, urgh, can't, urgh, reach it... urgh." he glares at them.

"I'd fire all of you if I could." he then looked back towards the twins "Alright, lets make it... ennie, meanie, minie... you." he stops and points at Dipper.

"Ah, what? Grunkle Stan, whenever I'm in those woods I feel like I'm being watched." the older man rolled his eyes.

"Urgh, this again." Dipper shook his head.

"I'm telling you, something weird is going on in this town. Just today my mosquito bites spelled out beware." he then showed his arm to Stan, to which he leaned down and squinted his eyes to take a look at the text.

"That says BEWARB." Dipper awkwardly scratches his arm "Look kid, the whole monsters in the forest is just local legend. Dumbed up by guys like me to sell merchandise to guys like that." he then gestures to a guy weirdly staring at a bobbly head figure that was of Stan, he then chucks the signs at Dipper "Now quit being so paranoid!" Dipper sighs in defeat.

A half hour later Dipper returns back to the shack after putting up all the signs but brought back something he managed to discover hidden out in the forest, a mysterious journal that was labeled three in the centre of it. Upon reading it, the author had logged down discoveries of creatures that plagued Gravity Falls from gnomes to flying eyeballs. He enthusiastically confesses everything to Mabel, who didn't quite share the same amount of interest as he did, but she did listen nonetheless as he babbled about everything that the journal had, that was until they heard the doorbell ring.

"Who's that?"

"Well, time to spill the beans." she then promptly spilt a can of conveniently placed beans, she then proceeds to point at herself with both her thumbs "This girl's got a date, woo woo!" she then falls back on the sofa, laughing to herself.

"Let me get this straight, in the half hour that I was gone, you already found a boyfriend?"

"What can I say? I'm just irresistible." the doorbell then rings again "Ooo! Coming!" she shouts and rushes to the door, Dipper than takes her spot of the sofa and opens the journal to start reading it, only for Stan to come walking in drinking a can of soda.

"Whatcha reading, slick?" caught off guard, he quickly shuts the book and hides it behind the sofa cushion and grabbing a magazine off the dino head beside the sofa.

"Oh, I was just catching up on uh..." he narrows his eyes on the page he opened to and saw it was of gold jewelry, he then closes the magazine to get a look at the cover to see what on earth he was reading "Gold chains for old men magazine?"

"That's a good issue."

"Hey, family." the sound of Mabel's voice caught their attention, causing them to stop what they were doing and look over to the girl who entered the living room with someone by her side "Say hello to my new boyfriend." turning around to face them, they were met with a boy(?) with ridiculously pale skin as he wore a hoodie with the hood over his head and his hair covering his left eye, he had a rather unsettling feel to him and what made them feel even more uncomfortable was the red stain on their cheek.

"Sup."

"Hey."

"How's it hanging?"

"We met at the cemetery, and he was really deep." she spoke as she caressed his arm "Oh, a little muscle there. That's... what a surprise."

"So... what's your name?"

"Uh, normal... man!"

"He means Norman." Dipper raised an eyebrow.

"Are you bleeding, Norman?"

"It's jam." Mabel gasps and shoves him.

"I love jam! Look at this!"

"So, you wanna, go hold hands or whatever?"

"Oh, oh my goodness." she giggles softly "Don't wait up." she then dashes away, Norman does the gun gesture to them before oddly walking away from them to follow Mabel, smacking into the doorframe in the process and crashing into something on the way out, causing Dipper's eye to twitch.

There was something about Norman that wasn't right. I decided to consult the journal. Known for their pale skin and bad attitudes, these creatures are often mistaken for... teenagers! Beware Gravity Falls' nefarious... zombies! At the revelation, he puts the journal down and looks out the window, eyes widened in shock when he saw Mabel sitting rather unbothered on a bench while Norman approached her, arms stretched out and groaning with each step he took.

"Oh no, Mabel!" he let out a scream when he saw Norman slam his hand down on her shoulders, when he backed away it was revealed that he had placed a necklace made of daisies around her neck "Is my sister really dating a zombie, or am I just going nuts?"

"It's a dilemma to be sure." Dipper gasps in fright at the unsuspecting voice, looking up, he saw that it was only Soos changing a lightbulb "I couldn't help but overhear you talking to yourself in this empty room."

"Soos, you've seen Mabel's boyfriend. He's gotta be a zombie, right?"

"Hmm, how many brains did you see the guy eat?"

"Zero."

"Look dude, I believe you. I'm always noticing weird stuff in this town, like the mailman? Pretty sure that dudes a werewolf, but you gotta have evidence. Otherwise, people are gonna think you're a majority coo coo clock.'' Dipper lets out a sigh, hands on his hips, as he nods to Soos' words.

"As always, Soos, you're right."

"My wisdom is both a blessing, and curse."

"Soos! The portable toilets are clogged again!"

"I am needed elsewhere." after readjusting his cap he backs away into the darkness, and by that, he backs away until he walks out of the room.

My sister could be in trouble. It was time to get some evidence. And after spending the entire day recording everything he could get on Norman he concluded he had gotten what he wanted, from the way he collapsed after getting hit by a frisbee, to punching through a glass window to open a door and struggling to walk straight, to even them frolicking through the cemetery and him falling into a grave and scarily bursting through the dirt... like a zombie.

I'd seen enough.

"Mabel, we've got to talk about Norman."

"Isn't he the best. Check out this giant smooch mark he gave me!" he screams in fright at the large red circle on her cheek, she then laughs "Haha, gullible. It was just an accident with the leaf blower. That was fun."

"No, Mabel, listen! I'm trying to tell you that Norman is not what he seems." he starts as he pulls the journal out from his vest, she gasped softly.

"You think he might be a vampire? That would be awesome!"

"Guess again, sister. Shabam!" he then proceeds to open the book to the page about zombies, she screams at the page, he looks at where he opened it too and saw it instead was on the page about gnomes "Oh, wait. I'm sorry, shabam!" she tilts her head to the side.

"A zombie? That is not funny Dipper."

"I'm not joking! It all adds up! The bleeding, the limp! He never blinks! Have you noticed that?"

"Maybe he's blinking when you're blinking."

"Mabel, remember what the book said about Gravity Falls? Trust no one!"

"But what about me, huh? Why can't you trust me?"

"Mabel! He's gonna eat your brains!" he shouts as he shakes her back and forward, this was when Mabel's face hardened as she pushed Dipper's hands off of her.

"Dipper, listen to me. Norman and I are going on a date at five o'clock, and I'm gonna be adorable and he's gonna be dreamy and I'm not gonna let you ruin it with your crazy conspiracies." she shouts as she jabs her finger into his chest until he backs out of their room and slams the door shut in his face. A few hours later, Dipper is in the living room when Mabel rushes down from the attic to answer the door where Norman was waiting for her and so the two were off for their date.

"Soos is right. I don't have any real evidence. I guess I can be kind of paranoid sometimes and-- wait, what?!" after going through the footage he found a clip of Norman and Mabel together, but what caught him off guard was Norman's hand falling off and him picking it up and reattaching it "Ah! I was right! Oh my gosh, oh my gosh! Grunkle Stan, Grunkle Stan! Grunkle--" he runs out of the living room in search for Stan, when he makes it outside he accidentally runs into someone and falls to the ground.

"Oh?" looking up he was met with the eyes of a kind woman, she chuckled softly at his disheveled self sprawled on the ground, so she kneels down slightly to offer him a hand to stand "Good evening Dipper, what seems to have you in a rush this fine afternoon?"

"Alvah!" to Dipper, she seemed to be the only sane person in the quiet town of Gravity Falls but he didn't seem to understand why she would ever associate herself with a man that was his uncle. Alvah was a middle-aged woman with long blondish grey hair that she had tied up in a braid with pale but sharp green eyes that held a warmth like an early morning day, despite coming out into the forest to visit the Mystery Shack daily she always wore rather elegant clothes wherever she went. Upon meeting the Pines twins she became somewhat of a maternal figure towards them, always being so calm, kind, and patient with the two of them and they would tend to run to her whenever she came to visit. He didn't know what sort of relationship she and Stan had but the only thing their uncle would tell them was that she was a long-lasting visitor of the Mystery Shack that just stuck around, she grew on him that he always expected to see her anytime throughout the week "You aren't-- Mabel is-- there's a-- I need--" she places her hand on his shoulder and gave him a comforting smile.

"Slow down, sweetheart, calm yourself." she takes a breath and he follows her, when she exhales her smile softens when he managed to calm his nerves "Now, tell me, what's gotten you so worked up?" she was still kneeling down when he stood up straight, hands waving around wildly as he spoke.

"Mabel's got this boyfriend and I believe he's a zombie! He's gonna eat her face!" she raised a brow.

"And what makes you believe that? Don't you think you're being a little overprotective of your sister to be throwing wild accusations like that?" she jerks back a little when he thrusts a video camera in her face, he then plays her the exact clip of Norman's hand falling off and him putting it back on "Well... that could just be a prosthetic, you know?"

"Alvah!" she chuckles softly, pulling her hands up in surrender.

"I'm pulling your leg, sweetpea." she then boops his nose "If you believe that this boy is a zombie, then you should go and prevent your sister from becoming his next meal." she then gently pushes him to where the golf cart was.

"So, wait, do you believe me?" she gives him a shrug.

"Whether I believe you or not, what matters is if you believe in yourself, first and foremost. If you think your sister is going to get hurt, trust your gut feeling before it becomes too late." she then nudges him once again, tossing him the keys that she managed to snag off of Soos "Now get going, I'll distract your uncle from questioning where you guys have wandered off to." he gives her a thankful smile.

"Thanks." she winks and waves him goodbye, by the time he drove off Stan had finished his spiel on a rock that looks like a face and dealing with the tourist and their stupid questions on it, they rushed into the Mystery Shack to look at the attractions while Stan approached and stood by her side.

"What's got him in a rush?"

"He said he needs to go save Mabel from her boyfriend that could possibly be a zombie." he laughs and slaps his knee.

"Woo, that kid is a riot!" she smiles.

"You aren't worried about them getting hurt, Stan?" she asks as they both turn to enter the Mystery Shack, her following behind as he led her through the gift shop to where the tourist were currently looking at a couple taxidermized creatures.

"They'll be fine. If I know anything about those little twerps, they wouldn't get themselves into any situations that would get them killed." this caused her to raise a brow at him.

"... tell me Dipper's real name." she stifled a laugh when she saw him pause, he folds his arm and looks up in thought before letting out a groan and hitting her shin with his eyeball cane.

"Irrelevant." she shakes her head while soothing her shin, for the rest of the afternoon she spent it observing Stan lying through his teeth to the unsuspecting tourists who awed at each other his words. Whenever he'd tell a joke he'd look to the back and see he'd get a laugh out of her, that prompted him to tell more jokes before he continued the tour, they were now back in the gift shop where Stan was showing them a new item, which was nothing more than a spiral on a stick that would spin and the gimmick was that it was a "very distracting object". The sound of screaming and something big approaching caused her to look out the open window, there she saw a giant... gnome amalgamation that was chasing after Dipper and Mabel? She turned away while closing the shutter doors to the window, yeah, no thank you "What's got you spooked?" her eyes move to Stan, who was staring at her questionably, she shook her head.

"You would be better off not knowing." he raised a brow at her.

"Well, alright." he then pushes her off the wall she was leaning "Anyways, man the cash register. Wendy isn't here and Soos is busy."

"I don't work here."

"Yeah, but you come here every day like you do. Enough chit chat, I don't pay you to stand there all pretty and talk." she deadpans when he walked away.

"... you don't pay me at all." she doesn't complain though, taking care of all the costumers who came up to pay for what they wanted to buy from the gift shop, no matter how absurdly overpriced everything was. She let out a sigh when the last of them finally finished looking around and left, stating that they were definitely coming back again. She was sitting on the counter, having a pleasant conversation with Stan while he was counting the cash they earned for the day when Dipper and Mabel walked through the door, both adults look at the children in amusement and concern.

"Yeesh, you two get hit by a bus or something?" she shakes her head at Stan when he laughs, smacking him on the shoulder before looking down at the twins, she smiles fondly and gives the boy a thumbs up. Dipper smiles at her as they both ignore Stan's comment and start making their way to their room so they could clean themselves up, the older man noticed their indifference to him and so he quickly changed up "Uh, hey! U-Uh, wouldn't you know it? Um, I accidentally overstocked some inventory so, uh, how's about each of you take one item from the gift shop? On the house, you know?"

"Really?"

"What's the catch?"

"The catch is do it before I change my mind. Now take something." Stan elbows the cash register so it would open but then felt like he was being stared at, looking up, he flinched under the softened gaze that was Alvah warmly smiling down at him.

"That was sweet of you, Stan." he just rolled his eyes, quickly averting his eyes away from her gaze.

"Didn't you hear me? I said I overstocked is all." she just hums.

"Sure." she was smacked in the leg this time, in retaliation, she kicked him in his side. Looking over she saw Mabel looking through boxes while Dipper was looking at hats, upon noticing, she only then just realized that he had lost his old raggedy hat and now replaced it with a blue one with a pine tree in the middle of it.

"That oughta do the trick."

"And I well have a," she pulls something out of a box and holds it to her chest, when she does a twirl she reveals it to them "grappling hook!" they all stare in bewilderment.

...

...

"Wouldn't you rather have like, a doll or something?" she then shoots the grapple and hoists herself off the ground, knocking over a couple boxes on her way up.

"Grappling hook!"

"Fair enough." she and Stan are left in the gift shop alone once more after the children picked out what they wanted, she hops of the counter and turns to speak again with Stan but stopped when Mabel ran up to her to give her a hug before finally leaving with Dipper.

"They're such sweet kids, don't you think?" he scoffed.

"They're unappreciative."

"Other than the fact you're giving them a roof over there heads, I don't think there's much you've given them to appreciate." she raises her hands when he narrows his eyes on her, she gives him a laugh "You should spend some quality time with them."

"I do." she deadpans.

"Forging bills is not family bonding, Stan. I was not pleased when I had to bail you out." he just laughs.

"Well, I'm way ahead of you, toots!" she raised a brow when he stashed the cash and walked over to where he had a calendar, his finger goes across the days until stopping on a specific date that was circled "It's fishing season on this day, so I plan on taking them fishing!" this made her smile and start clapping her hands.

"Ooo, how fun. I'm sure they'll love it." he nods.

"I know. Will I see you there? I'm sure the whole town will be out." she shrugs her shoulders.

"I'm not sure, I don't really know how to fish." his jaw dropped at the information.

"You're kidding?" she shook her head "Now you gotta come down! If I see you, I'll be sure to teach you a thing or two! I'll impress you with my killer fishing skills." she chuckles, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear.

"I'm sure you will."

"Is that a challenge?" they grin at each other before bursting into laughter.

This journal told me there was nobody in Gravity Falls I could trust, but when you battle a hundred gnomes side by side with someone, you realize they've probably always got your back. Our uncle told us that there was nothing strange about this town, but who knows what other secrets are waiting to be unlocked.

--

season 1, episode 2. the legend of the gobblewonker

"Stan!" Alvah shouts, bringing her fingers to her lips and blowing hard so a sharp and loud whistle would rip through the air, she smiles when she saw the old man perk up at the sound of her whistle and the call of his name. She smiles as she waves her hand to greet him from the docks, she saw how he smiled when he saw her and waved his hand while mirroring her expression, as he made his way over to where she was she noticed how neither Dipper or Mabel were with him.

"You made it, toots." she crouches down so she wouldn't need to look down at him and so he wouldn't need to crane his neck just to look up at her, she then looks around in search for the twins.

"Where are the kids?" he huffed at the question.

"They decided to spend their time with Soos, rather than their old man." she raised a brow.

"You jealous?"

"Hah! Me? Jealous? Of what?" he flinches under her gaze, arms folded and eyebrow raising even higher, telling by that he could tell that she didn't believe a word he said "Sure, I brought them out here so we could have a family bonding moment, and sure it hurt a little that they preferred to go on an adventure with Soos instead, but I'll show them I don't need them to have a good time myself!"

"Sure you don't." she laughs when he splashed her with some water.

"Are you going to ridicule me or something? I thought you were supposed to be nice."

"I'm just teasing." he watched her stand up and shrink in on himself when she walked off, he sighed to himself when he was left on his own once more but perked up when a shadow cast over him. He glances up and saw Alvah standing over him with a basket of what he could only guess was food and a case of Pitt Cola, she dangled them in front of him "Don't you gotta show me your "killer fishing skills", Stan?" he smiles up at her.

"I'll knock your socks off." he takes both the basket and case from her, sitting them down in the boat, before standing up so he could help her into his boat. He gently takes her hand and guides her into the boat, being careful so she wouldn't fall with how jankey his boat is, and smiles when she settles in across from him "You ain't afraid of getting your hair wet, are you?"

"Of course not." she answered while readjusting her sunhat "Now let's go, I wanna see a trout." he raises a brow as he starts the engine.

"You know fishes?" he watches as she pulls a book about fresh water fish, she grins at him and flips through a couple pages.

"Did you know that there are nine species of sturgeon that are listed as either threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act? They are considered one of the world's most endangered groups of species." he makes a face when she continued to ramble about different species of fish, listing down from the most common to the rarest "Did you also know that catfish are a diverse group of ray-finned fish? Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers--"

"Sweetheart, if I wanted to learn about fish I would have stayed in school." she pouts.

"It's good to know what you fish, because you could get fined for fishing endangered species. But that's only if you knowingly fish them out." she lowers the book and saw the way he was muttering about selling an endangered fish, he was promptly hit over the head by the book. She was currently eating a sandwich while watching Stan trying to tie a thread through a hook, laughing quietly to herself as he struggled to get it through the hole "I thought you said you could tie a knot with your eyes closed." she looked away when he glared at her.

"If you think it's so easy, why don't you give it a shot?" he shoves the thread and hook into her hands, knocking her sandwich out of her hands and into the lake.

"Hey!" she shouts, glaring at him for the loss, he just laughs as he takes a sandwich from out of her picnic basket and lounges in the boat.

"It's all you, toots." she narrows her eyes on him, she doesn't break eye contact as she sits back and holds both up in front of him. In the blink of an eye, she manages to loop the thread through the hole before tying a uni-knot "Wha-- how'd you--" his face hardens when she pulls out another book, this time it was about fishing; specifically how to tie knots.

"Boom." she giggles when he snatches the book from her and starts reading through it, she looks at him when he lowered the book then picked up another hook.

"Show me how to do the trilene knot." she grins. After patiently teaching Stan how to tie a trilene knot they finally threw out their lines into the water, Alvah quietly listening to Stan ramble on and on with stories from his youth, she'd ask a question here or there and laugh a little. They would both cheer when they'd catch a couple fish, Stan muttering about cooking them for dinner later, then they would settle into a comfortable silence as they basked under the sun's rays "Hey, Alvah."

"Yeah?"

"Wanna hear a joke?"

"Psh, sure." he clears his throat.

"Here goes. My ex-wife still misses me, but her aim is getting better!" she tears her eyes away from the water and stares at Stan, who was looking at her with the biggest grin on her face "... but her aim is getting better!" his grin slowly starts to drop the longer she stared at him.

"... today at the bank, an old lady asked me to check her balance." he stares at her "So I pushed her over." they now both stare at each other in silence before bursting out into laughter, Alvah has her hand hovering over her lips while Stan slapped his knee and laughed to his hearts contents.

"I didn't know you were a comedian! That was comedy gold! Here, here! I got another one! How much does a chimney cost?" he makes a face that begs her to ask, she chuckles and decides to play along.

"I don't know Stan, how much does a chimney cost?" he giggles to himself.

"Nothing! It's on the house!" they're both laughing hysterically once again, getting odd looks from others nearby but neither paid any notice "Woo, I gotta go out fishing with you more often! I haven't had this much fun in years!" she giggles.

"As flattered as I am, that sounds a little sad."

"You're a riot." she turns her gaze back to her line and frowns when she wasn't getting any bites as often as she did when they first started, she looked across the lake and saw the Corduroy family, her eyes specifically on Daniel Corduroy, aka, Manly Dan. She watched as he kept his eye on the water before grabbing a fish with his bare hands, yanking it out of the water then proceed to crush it in between his biceps.

"Hmm." she looks at Stan and saw he pulled another sandwich out from the picnic basket, she then proceeds to take it from his hands and turn back towards the water.

"Hey! What are you--"

"Shush." he huffs, crossing his arms and watching in amusement as she concentrated on the movement in the water. She wriggles her free hand as she hovered the sandwich closer to the water, her eyes dancing across the water to detect any sort of movement. Her head then snaps in a direction before reaching into the water, Stan raised a brow then his eyes widened in shock as he watched her drop the sandwich in favor of the king salmon she managed to pull out of the water.

"Wow! A king salmon! What a beaut!" he looks back at her and sweats a little at the bright look on her face, hair a little disheveled after staring at the water so closely for what seemed like ten minutes.

"Haha, did you know that they're called chinook salmon and that it is the largest and most valuable species of Pacific salmon? Salmon is rich in vitamins B6, B12, D, phosphorus and omega-3 fatty acids and that they play an important role in the culture, diet, economy and religion of several Northwest Tribes."

"Didn't know, don't really care." her face drops at that "Dang, if only we had a camera. Would love to take a photo of this monstrosity."

"Maybe you should catch the next one, Stan."

"I'll make sure to catch a bigger one!"

"Didn't I just say that they're one of the largest?"

"Then I'll catch an even BIGGER king salmon!"

"Go right ahead." he laughs at her and stands to his feet, he's getting ready to toss his line out when something blows right by them at great speed, then something even bigger that forms a giant wave. The king salmon that was in her hands got caught in the wave and swam to freedom while Stan and Alvah got completely soaked, Alvah stared rather owlishly at nothing in particular while Stan had an angered expression, he tore his hat off and threw it on the ground before letting out a defeated sigh and sitting down "Well, that was certainly... something." she mutters to herself and attempts to flick the water off her arms then grabbing a fist full of her dress and squeezing some of the water out.

"Today has been a disaster." Stan admits, she tilts her head to the side.

"Really? I thought you were having fun." she says, taking her hat off and cringing when she felt more water drip down her face "Did I bore you, Stan?" he immediately shakes his head.

"Oh, no, no! You definitely made everything all the more fun, honestly! It's just that..." she then finally noticed his gaze on the few boats still out on the lake, which all consisted of one thing, they were families spending time with each other "I really, REALLY wanted to go fishing with those knuckleheads, instead they wanted to go hunt some sea monster while I got stuck with you." she huffs with a laugh, grabbing strands of her hair and twisting it to squeeze the water out as well, she then throws her hair over her shoulder.

"That better be a good thing." he only smirks.

"You wish. I want them to know that I genuinely want to spend time with them, like a family."

"I'll say it again, Stan, but that's really sweet of you." she picks up his hat he threw to the ground and squeezed the water out of it then placed it on his head "I'm sure they'll come around eventually, at the end of the day, you're their great uncle Stan. I'm sure they'll see the error of their ways and come back to spend the rest of what is left of today with you, just like that." she reassures as she snaps her fingers, she then leans down to grab two cans of pitt cola, handing one to him to take.

"... you really know what to say to mellow a fella out." he says and takes the drink from her, she just gives him a soft expression in return. They both crack their cans open, thrusting them together then taking long gulps from their fizzy beverages. The rest of the day is spent with them lazily drifting with the water in a comfortable silence, it was only when they started to get cold that Stan decided it was time to head back and wait for the kids to return. She looks at Stan and saw he had a blissful smile on his face, a smile of her own stretched across her face the longer she gazed at him before she looked behind him to gaze at the lowering sun.

"Hey, over here!" both are caught off guard at the sound of Dipper's voice, looking behind them, they were taken aback at the sight of what was left of Soos' boat, they were surprised that it was still floating.

"What the... kids?" a flash from Dipper's camera made Alvah jump, not expecting it to go off, though it was more or less aimed at Stan so her eyes were spared "I thought you two were off playing spin the bottle with Soos."

"Well, we spent all day trying to find a legendary dinosaur."

"But we realized the only dinosaur we want to hang out with is right here." Stan scoffs while Alvah chuckles.

"Save your sympathy! I've been having a great time without ya! Making friends, talking to my reflection," Alvah was caught of guard when Stan raised his leg and saw an ankle monitor that she didn't not notice the entire "I had a run in with the lake police! Guess I gotta wear this ankle bracelet now, so that'll be fun."

"When did you get that? How did I not notice that?" he ignores her.

"So I guess there isn't room in that boat for three more?" the older two share a look then look back at the three in the sinking boat, Stan's eyes narrowing in on them. His gaze faltered when he saw the two put on fishing hats with awkwardly sewn names of "MABEL" and "DIPPY" on them, she thought they were real cute.

"... you knuckleheads ever seen me thread a hook with my eyes closed?"

"Five bucks says you can't do it."

"You're on!"

"Five more bucks says you can't do it with your eyes closed plus me singing at the top of my lungs!"

"I like those odds!" they had to rearrange a few things on the boat for the three of them to fit but they made it work, Stan, Mabel and Dipper sat together while Soos and Alvah sat across from them.

"Soos, what on earth happened to your shirt?" she questions, only now just questioning it.

"Long story dude." Dipper than pulls out his camera again.

"Alright. Everybody get together and say fishing!" Soos, Stan and Mabel get close, he then looks up at Alvah "You too." she chuckles and takes the camera from him, gently pushing him towards his sister.

"Let me take the picture, sweetpea." though hesitant, he was reassured by the older woman that she did not mind and so he joined his sister's side. The rest of that day was spent with Alvah capturing sweet moments of them having a great time, Stan indeed trying to thread the hook with his eyes closed but Mabel was covering his eyes when he started to peek, Soos and Mabel laughing as Stan read through a book of jokes with Dipper looking less than amused, Dipper actually catching a fish with Mabel pointing at it, Soos took the camera from her and snapped a shot of Stan with only half his face then proceeding to try and get one of Alvah to include her but missed up the timing because she was taking her hat off and so he only got the side of her, the next two were of Stan helping Mabel steal fish from another family by cutting their net then them fleeing from the lake police.

"Ahem." if it weren't for the fact that they were sitting next to each other he probably wouldn't have been able to hear it over the engine, he looked to his side and saw Alvah with a brow raised as she snapped her fingers "Just like that." he huffed, laughing to himself as he shook his head.

"Don't go getting a big head."

--

season 1, episode 3. headhunters

she doesn't really play a significant roll in this episode, only really appearing when stan reveals his wax stan.

scolds stan about lying to the people who came that there will be no free pizza, that being the reason they actually came.

she was thoroughly impressed with mabel's wax carving skills, getting every detail of stan.

alvah helps stan set up a memorial for wax stan, encouraging the twins on their search for the killer.

she did find the wax figures unsettling during the funeral and left to "comfort" stan when he ran out of the room crying, followed by soos.

when they return to the destroyed room and the children say it was because they "came to life" and what not, the adults laughed and stan thanked them for finding his head.

season 1, episode 4. the hand that rocks the mabel

doesn't really appear in this episode.

she thinks gideon is a little creepy, from his song to the way he pressures mabel into going on more and more dates with him, taking advantage of her kindness.

she alongside wendy, albeit the latter unaware, help mabel realize that she should be honest about how he makes her feel.

mabel laughs when alvah threatens to strangle the little boy if he decides to do anything to retaliate against her.

she appreciated it.

was standing beside stan when soos became a human disco ball, staring questionably at the man as he spun in circles.

season 1, episode 5. the inconveniencing

not really present.

season 1, episode 6. dipper vs manliness

is at the diner when the pines family come to get food.

they join her at her booth where she is drinking a cup of coffee and eating a plate of scrambled eggs and toast.

when stan was being a cheapskate, she tells them that it'll be on her and to get whatever they want.

mabel is ecstatic to be getting pancakes that morning.

when dipper says "pancakes are on me" and is laughed at by stan and mabel, and a small laugh that leaves alvah, the former doubt him.

when stan brings up his little "disco girl" fiasco, alvah tells him it's alright to listen to pop music while being a boy.

he asks her if he's plenty manly, she could only look away and silently sip at her coffee.

when dipper does the whole "test your manliness" contraction and fails, alvah is the only one that comforts him while he was being teased by the other patrons for getting the weakest score.

though she couldn't help but be impressed when manly dan broke the machine and impressively the stack of pancakes landed on other patron's plates.

when dipper leaves and it's just the three of them left, stan embarrassingly admits that he has a small crush on lazy susan.

alvah teases him about it.

she's with mabel helping her "spruce" up her uncle who's a "cranky, cross, weird old man" with the power of mabel.

she laughs at that.

she's really enjoying mabel, wendy and soos do their best to help the poor old man.

at this point she's not even helping, she's just laughing at their failed attempts honestly.

trying to get him to smile?

failed.

give him a facial?

failed.

try and shave his outrageous chest hair?

don't even remind me.

etiquette?

doesn't exist.

by the end of all mabel's "training" he looked even worse than when they first started, which only frustrate mabel.

"Your niece is SO adorable, Stan. Never knew she would be quite the cupid." Alvah teases from where she was, he just huffed at her, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms "Come on, she's doing you quite the favor if you're asking me. You could learn a thing or two from your love obsessed niece." he waves his hand at her.

"You've been nothing but a bother ALL day, Alvah! Just tell me I don't gotta shot and be done with it." Mabel, who was in the middle of a rant, briefly looked up when Alvah left their side to approach Stan. Wendy and Soos were chattering about other stuff that could help so they didn't notice how Alvah approached Stan, hands on her hips as she stood a little too close to him.

"Not at all. I heard back in the day you were quite the charmer, I believe you've got a good shot with her." she says and leans in close, he scoffed and leaned in, not backing away despite the small distance between them "Shoot your shot, I'm sure you'll hit a home run if you just be yourself."

"You're only saying that because with how perfect and pretty you are, you can just do or say about anything and people will gobble it right up." she laughs as she leaned back, hand to her chest and face flushed with how much she's been laughing that day.

"You think I'm pretty~?" his hands are now on his hips, eyes averting her teasing gaze, his own face flushing a little.

"I would be a fool if I said no."

"Oh my gosh!" Mabel suddenly squealing caught them off guard, the four of them all looking down at her when she sprung off the sofa with her hands to her cheeks "Grunkle Stan and Alvah! Alvah and Grunkle Stan! You two, you're perfect!" they both share a look then burst out into laughter.

"That's really nice of you sweety, but I'm way out of her league." Alvah raised a brow, twirling a strand of her hair around her finger.

"Really? And here I thought I was, and I quote, "perfect and pretty". Your words." he laughs.

"Yeah! But I'm irresistible and dreamy! No woman would deny me!" she jokingly rolled her eyes with crossed arms, she hummed softly when she felt Mabel tug on the skirt of her dress, when she spared her a glance she winced at how shiny her eyes were.

"What do you think of my grunkle, Alvah? Is he dating material?" she looked at Stan once more, eyes looking him up and down as she took in his character, and Mabel was graced with a soft and serene look on her face as she didn't break away from him.

"I think he's perfect for her." the sincerity in her tone was enough to satisfy Mabel, though the young girl did not miss the longing in her eyes the longer she stared at him.

"That's good enough!" she shouts then rushes out of the room, they all wait because not even a minute passes when she comes back "Grunkle Stan, come with me! And leave your pants at home."

"With pleasure." the two disappear and left Alvah, Wendy and Soos alone in the living room, to which Wendy and Soos look towards Alvah.

"You know, Mabel isn't wrong." Wendy quips.

"Hmm?" Soos nods his head.

"You and Stan, well, you two are like two peas in a pod! He doesn't get mad at you like he would at us."

"You laugh at his jokes."

"He enjoys being around you."

"You don't barf whenever he's next to you." as they continue to list more things about them, she just laughs at waves her hand.

"Me and Stan? As flattering as that is, I don't see him like that." she admits as she picks up the photo Mabel dropped, laughing at Stan's poor posture in the photo "He's just a really good friend, honestly." Wendy huffs with a smile, crossing her arms as she narrowed her eyes on her.

"With how you two dance around each other? Yeah, right."

"Believe what you wanna believe."

season 1, episode 7. double dipper

alvah probably wouldn't have gone to stan's "party" if it weren't for mabel's insistence that she just had to be there to keep stan company, or whatever that means.

she argues that she didn't have anything to wear for the occasion, but that doesn't stop mabel from making an outfit out of nothing but left over fabric.

that kid never ceased to surprise her.

"How do I look, Stan?"

"Same old, same old, I promise you that." upon seeing her he felt his words get caught in his throat, staring owlishly as she tugged on the scarf wrapped securely around her neck "W-Where did you-- ahem! Where..." she sighs to herself.

"I don't know how I feel about sequin, but Mabel insisted that I wear them so I could shine." upon that they notice the way some of the lights that shun down on her reflected off the glittery-like pants and sparkled "I don't quite like the way it feels, but I'll put up with it if it makes her happy. So Stan, I ask again, how do I look?" she asks once again and opens her arms, going so far as doing a little twirl with a giggle.

"You look..." she slowly raises a brow, waiting for an answer "you look real pretty, doll face." she continues to giggle when he shoved his hands in his pockets, face turning red while her own cheeks turned pink.

"Thanks, you look quite dashing as well." he clears his throat as he tugs on his collars.

"D-Don't I? I'm glad you noticed." he then holds his hand out to her, the other rubbing the back of his neck nervously before gesturing towards the dance floor "Wanna dance?" she looks down at his hand and noticed that it was shaking, if she took his hand would it be sweaty?

"You are so adorable, Stan." she coos and takes his hand, and it was indeed, sweaty "What are you, Dipper?" he gasps, hand to his chest.

"I am offended. Alright, toots, I may not be as young as I was before but I'll show you I still got it."

and he most certainly did.

at first she wasn't so sure when he led her to the dance floor and shouted at soos to play specific songs, but as the night went on she noticed that he was a really good dancer.

he was light on his feet and definitely had rhythm.

he knew just how to guide her, how to hold her.

she's laughing to her hearts contents with every swing and every twirl, the both of them ignoring when they hear mabel squealing in the background when she found them.

with how smooth stan was she hadn't even realized that she was dipped until she opened her eyes and saw her vision was upside down.

stan is grinning down at her when she looks up at him, panting softly at how long they've been dancing for.

"Speechless?" he laughs some more, hands holding her by the waist while one of her hands goes to her chest while the back of her other hand is pressed to her forehead, head leaning to the side.

"You've swept me completely off my feet." he laughs when he hoists her back up and the two of them are spinning around together, her hands resting on his shoulders while his stayed on her waist "This is fun, thanks for tonight." he chuckles.

"We oughta thank Mabel for this, you wouldn't even have come if it weren't for her."

"You're right." he leads them over to where the food was when Soos announced it was time for the competition between Mabel and Pacifica Northwest to continue, she's drinking from a cup while Stan was unnecessarily taking a lot of marshmallows when a bill strung from what she guessed was a fishing line hung in front of him.

"Right, like I'm gonna fall for that." she doesn't say anything as she watched Stan ignore the money dangling in front of him... for about a second before jumping for it, taking out the table and knocking everything to the floor then cashing after it, leaving her alone "Gimme that money, sonny!" she sighs, deflating a little.

"And there the night goes."

season 1, episode 8. irrational treasure

shows up at the end only to make fun of stan.

season 1, episode 9. the time travelers pig

shows up at the end to make fun of stan... again.

season 1, episode 10. fight fighters

helps mabel with stan's fear of heights.

and by help she's just in the background, encouraging stan that he doesn't have anything to be afraid of.

is with stan and mabel on top of the water tower, nonchalantly leaning against the railing while stan's gripping onto it like his life depends on it.

"Take off your blindfold, now!" when he does he's met with the daunting sight of being meters off the ground.

"Yeah, that's pretty much what I was expecting." Alvah snickers at Stan's frightened face, eyes widened in fear as he couldn't tear his eyes away. Stan briefly looks at Alvah and saw the way she was casually leaning against the handrail, arms crossed without a single care in the world "You're enjoying this too much." she nods.

"I am."

"You're doing better than I thought! Now let go of the handrail." Mabel instructs, Alvah stifles her laughter by how much he was trembling.

"No!" he answers back, voice all strained, that was enough to get Alvah to burst out into laughter.

"Hey, do you smell anger and hormones?" as soon as she said that they look behind Mabel and saw Robbie, who's supposed to be off fighting Dipper, climbing up onto the water tower.

"Finally, I'm safe!"

"Hey, Robbie, get your own water tower!"

"Shh! Keep it down! He'll find us!" she raises a brow at his sudden appearance and leans back to get a look at what he was fleeing from, she squinted her eyes when she saw a pixelated figure at the bottom of the water tower. Before she could do anything he kicked the supporting beams, causing the water tower to shake.

"What was that?!" Mabel shouts, Stan's grip on the handrail tightens as sweat bleeds down the side of his face.

"Oh boy!"

"We're safe, right?"

"Of course not! This thing is on stilts high, high up!" whoever the pixelated figure was managed to break the support beam, Robbie unfortunately fell off while Stan and Mabel were able to run to the opposite side from where it was falling, but Alvah was too also unfortunate and fell off but managed to catch herself.

"Alvah!" she looks down and breaks out into a cold sweat at the distance between herself and the ground, sighing nervously to herself.

"Well... this is an unexpected predicament." whatever was going on below them quickly moved elsewhere, she looks back up and quickly reaches her other hand to grab a hold of the railing to pull herself back up. She grows a little nervous when she felt the tower sway due to it now only being supported by three beams, she starts to pull herself up but cringes when she heard the handrail itself creak "Uh... a little help, please!" she shouts.

"Hang in there!" she sighs to herself.

"I already am." when she felt a hand she thought it would have been Mabel to come to her rescue, instead when she looked up she was met with Stan instead. He takes one of her hands first to pull her up and when she was above the handrail he grabs the back of her legs to swing them over and pull her back to safety, he was still a little weak to the knees so they collapsed to the ground with her laying on his chest, the both of them unmoving after the drastic turn of events "Thanks for helping me, Stan." his chest rumbles as he laughs weakly.

"Right back at cha, toots." she rolls her eyes and pats his chest, she finally manages to push herself up and stand to her feet, albeit with shaking legs, and helps Stan to his feet "I finally got over my fear of heights."

"So you actually WERE scared of heights."

"Don't push your luck."

season 1, episode 11. little dipper

makes a brief appearance to tell dipper that it's okay to be short and that he shouldn't need to be insecure about it.

soos points out that she and stan are about the same height when she wears heels.

they tell her to take off her heels.

she takes her leave.

season 1, episode 12. summerween

wears a simple angel costume and gives the children candy in stan's stead while he was scaring the children.

or attempting to scare them.

joins them at the end of the night for the horror movie marathon.

season 1, episode 13. boss mabel

finds it real cute how both mabel and dipper are similar to stan.

season 1, episode 14. bottomless pit

doesn't fall in like the other four do.

hears their screams fade out into existence and kind of just sits there and waits to see what happens.

not even a couple seconds later and the screaming returns and the four of them are thrown right back out.

she greets them like nothing even happened.

shakes her head when stan falls back in.

season 1, episode 15. the deep end

is just casually sunbathing.

season 1, episode 16. carpet diem

only appears to stare weirdly at soos, who's technically waddles, as he passes by.

season 1, episode 17. boyz crazy

not present in this episode, only at the end to comfort wendy after her break up with robbie.

season 1, episode 18. land before swine

joins them on their rescue mission to save waddles, and because stan called her so she could help comfort mabel.

she was always good at that.

after being told what happened by stan, she gave him a skeptical look and knew that he was lying to mabel about how waddles disappeared.

following the trial of yarn, it led them to what they believed was an abandoned church out deep into the woods.

"Okay, the red yarn leads to..." she trailed off when she saw at the end of the church was old man McGucket rocking back and forward in a rocking chair while playing a banjo... rather creepy that he was there in the first place "Old man McGucket?" he turns at the sound of Mabel's voice, smiling at them and waving his hand to greet them.

"Howdy, friends!"

"What are you doing out here?"

"You'll never believe me. So I was doing my hourly hootenanny..." Stan scoffs, rolling his eyes as he crossed his arms.

"Ohh! This guy."

"When this enormous wingly critter stole my musical spoons and flew lickety split into the abandoned mine down yonder." they all lean over to take a peek down the hole in the floorboards where the red yarn was leading, Alvah reached forward to grab Dipper by his shoulder when she noticed that his hat was going to fall in.

"Looks kinda hairy down there."

"Come on, Grunkle Stan, you can handle it. You punched a pterodactyl in the face, remember?"

"Oh, yeah. Haha! I did do that, didn't I?" Alvah side eyes him, she looks away when he glared at her.

"My! What a suspicious laughter!" he then looks at Alvah, who looks back at him with a kind smile, she leans back a bit when he points directly at her face "I remember you! I remember you from all the way back then!" he shouts, she tilts her head to the side.

"And I remember you from, like, last week?" he laughs wildly.

"I know what you are!" Stan and Soos got in front of her, making sure to make some distance between her and McGucket while the kids pulled her away "You can't fool me!"

"Knock it off, loon." Stan growls.

"That ain't cool, dawg." Soos says disappointedly, Dipper and Mabel look up at Alvah all worried.

"Are you alright?"

"Why's old man McGucket acting more crazy then usual?" Alvah just gave an innocent shrug.

"Perhaps I remind him of someone." that seemed like a logical answer, though when the others turned their attention back to the hole, they failed to notice the way both Alvah and McGucket stared at each other.

they go down with dipper first, then mabel, soos, alvah, stan and unfortunately mcgucket tell about how he kissed raccoon or something. none of them were really paying attention.

when the rope snapped and they all fell down into the chasm, they were lucky that they landed on a mushroom to break their fall, though alvah did land on top of soos.

following the trail of red yarn deeper into the mine shaft they found interesting plants, skeletons but what really caught them off guard were the dinosaurs trapped in tree sap.

from the famous tyrannosaurus rex to the stegosaurs, this cavern seemed to have them all.

but then they found where the pterodactyl was supposed to be, but due to the summer heat, the tree sap melted and it broke free.

they grew nervous when they found where a raptor was, its claw wiggling free.

they should probably hurry up.

alvah is with mabel when stan admits out loud that it was actually him that let waddles out and was the reason that he was snatched up in the first place.

mabel threatens stan that she'll never talk to him again if they don't find waddles, which causes an argument to break out between the two of them.

soos tries to mediate by reassuring mabel they could just continue to follow the yarn, but accidentally wound it back up into a ball.

mcgucket stands beside her when they all start arguing with each other, looking up at her when he saw that calm demeanour that she usually wore start to drop as they yelled at each other.

"Enough!" she shouts, shocking them all into silence. Not once have they heard Alvah raise her voice so angrily before that it echoed through the cavern, or with such an angered look on her face that if looks could kill they'd all be dead "I understand we're all under a certain amount of stress, but acting like children aren't going to get us anywhere!"

"Listen, we just--" Stan raises his hands, flinching back when she directed her fiery glare at him.

"Stan! It was wrong of you to lie to Mabel about what happened to Waddles. Mabel, you have a right to be angry but now isn't the time. Soos, I get that it was an accident but we're in a bit of a bind now that we've lost both the trail and the lantern. Dipper, he's doing his best so take a step back." she lets out a deep sigh, squeezing the bridge of her nose to calm her nerves "You guys are going to shut your mouths, we're going to go down that tunnel because that's where the yarn was leading to last, we're gonna find Waddles and do our best to avoid that pterodactyl because our lives damn well depend on it."

"Hey! Cheer up fellers!" her intense gaze turned to look behind her and it dropped immediately at what she saw "I fixed your lantern!"

...

...

"Oh, dear."

alvah was already running away with the kids in her arms, prioritizing their safety first while leaving the other three behind to catch up.

they're all hiding behind rocks when the tunnel they fled down led them to a cliff where a railway led to what seemed to be a nest.

the rocks they were hiding behind were shaped oddly like them.

she smacks stan when he suggested they use soos as a human sacrifice.

she glares at them all when they were going to start arguing again, that shut them right up.

the sound of oinking caught their attention and so they peek out of their hiding spot to find waddles in the nest along side a giant egg, that doesn't look good.

alvah was the first to chase after mabel when she left their hiding spot to go and retrieve waddles, carefully chasing after her as she crossed the rusting railway tracks.

she ushers the young girl to hurry but keeps close as she looked at the pile of skeletons that surrounded the nest, but kept a closer eye on the looming egg beside them.

the sudden appearance of the pterodactyl startled waddles, which caused the pig to run out of her arms in his harness and towards stan, who was still on the tracks.

they all watch in horror when the pterodactyl nose dives for them but missed and instead destroyed the tracks, causing the two of them to fall towards the wilderness below.

"Oh, no!"

"Stan!"

"Mister Pines!" Alvah slaps a hand onto her forehead when Stan disappeared into the jungle below them, she could only hope that he managed to survive that fall, but she has other things to worry about. She pushes the two children down then yanks Soos down to avoid being caught by the giant prehistoric lizard flying above them, now beginning to stress a little.

"This is just... wonderful." she says through gritted teeth, they all then gasp when Stan's hat fell into the nest "And I say it again, this is just wonderful."

"Guys, we've gotta save them!"

"McGucket, do you have an invention that can distract the pterodactyl?"

"Do I?" he pulls his hat off and starts rifling through it, when he didn't find anything he slumps down "Nope!" Alvah squeezes her temple again, the sound of crackling turned their direction towards the egg that was shaking and when it fell over they all pushed themselves as far away from it as possible.

"Aw..." Mabel cooed when a baby pterodactyl peeked out from the top of the egg, its beady little eyes staring right up at them, but Alvah got in front of Soos and the kids and kept them away.

"McGucket..." she spoke, reaching for him as well, but he just slipped through her fingers.

"Well, welcome to the world, little feller." she closes her eyes when the hatchling snapped its beak shut and proceeded to swallow him whole, she shook her head.

"He will... probably not be missed."

what stood between them and getting out of the nest was the baby pterodactyl, and with the looming threat of being eaten by either it or its mother, they were limited on options.

that was until soos suggested they get in a straight line, since a pterodactyl's vision is so far apart it won't be able to see them.

dipper doubts their theory, but with the apology and reassurance of soos, they eventually agree and get in a straight line.

alvah had to admit, she was very impressed when soos' theory was correct because the moment it laid its eyes on them, it was as if they were invisible.

"I gotta admit, that was real wise of you Soos." Alvah praised as they hid behind the rock formation once more, the young man smiles at her praise.

"Haha, thanks." a distant screech caused them to jump and peeking out of hiding spot to see what it was, they were met with the sight of... you can't be serious.

"Was that?"

"Stan?" right on the back of the pterodactyl with Waddles strapped to his chest was Stan, repeatedly punching it in the face "Waddles!"

"He's punching him in the face!" she couldn't help but whistle at the astonishing display of strength, not expecting Stan to pull of such a stunt.

"From heck's heart I stab at thee!" he shouts as he brings down both his fists to the top of the pterodactyl's head, the mighty creature lets out a screech before crashing into the cliffside and falling in its demise. Stan managed to jump off in time and pull himself up so he didn't fall with it, Alvah whistles again.

"Oh, yes! Haha!"

"You're alright, Stan?" he's panting tiredly, worn out after punching the living daylights of the flying lizard, he perks up when he hears clapping.

"I guess your story was true after all, Stan. I guess I've got to cross "watch Stan punch a dinosaur in the face" off my bingo card." he just laughs tiredly, rubbing the back of his head as she approached him.

"Ah, you're just saying that, but flattery won't get you anywhere." she knocks his shoulder, they then look down to see Mabel wearing Stan's hat, beady little eyes looking up at him "Here's your pig, kiddo." Alvah awes when Stan waves Waddle's hooves, how adorable.

"Ooo, Waddles! You saved him for me."

"Yeah, well, sometimes you just gotta... look out!"

stan takes alvah by the hand when the pterodactyl climbed back up from where it had fallen and started to chase after thme again.

they found themselves back where they had fallen in the first place and realized they had no way of getting out.

upon seeing the geysers shooting up debris, dipper points it out and says they can ride the water up.

however, when they got in the water was still.

they all scream out in terror when the pterodactyl was right before them, but soos screams "bros before dinos" and slams his fists down to get the geyser to activate and shook them straight through the room but out of the mineshaft.

mabel landed in the chandelier with waddles.

soos and dipper ended up in a piano.

stan with alvah on top of him landed in an open casket, with his hat somehow ending up on her head.

the destroyed ceiling collapsed and filled up the hole, hopefully sealing it up where the dinosaurs can't get out.

they all left that day, with alvah feeling satisfied that this experience brought stan and mabel closer, as well as soos and dipper.

she did, however, glance back towards the destroyed church before shrugging her shoulders.

she wasn't forgetting anything, right?

season 1, episode 19. dreamscaperers

"Hmm?" Alvah entered the shack and it was eerily quiet, usually, there would at least be some noise whenever she came by, especially at this hour. Entering the living room, she was met with the odd sight that was the Pines twins and Soos laying unconscious in front of Stan as he sat on the sofa, were they having a sleepover or something? She leaves the room and returns to drape blankets over their sleeping bodies and put pillows under their heads, when she reaches Stan, she throws the blanket over his lap and reaches to take his hat off when she felt something. When she removes his fez her fingers gently brush his hair out of his face, her hand recoils back when she hears a familiar laughter ring out through the room "Now that's a laughter I haven't heard in three decades." she mutters to herself, her hand reaches for his face again but this time she takes him by the chin to turn his face so she could get a good look at him.

"Ah... wha..." he muttered in his sleep, well, at least he still seemed sane. She pulls her hand back and laces her fingers together, pushing them forward to crack her knuckles then pushing her head up to crack her neck. Her fingers brush against his hair that fell over his forehead and she moves it to the side, her index finger presses against the center of his forehead as she whispers a few words under her breath and his face visibly relaxes.

"That should be enough... hopefully." she gently flicks his nose before turning on her heel to leave them be, she's done enough.

the dream demon summoned by gideon gleeful was running amok inside stan's mind in search for the code to stan's safe that secured the deed to the shack.

dipper, mabel and soos jumped into his mind to prevent that from happening but bill was just a force to be reckoned with.

unaware of how to defeat this demonic being, when dipper separated from them, bill was unleashing mabel and soos' worse nightmares.

soos' nightmare was a talking british dog man, odd.

mabel's nightmare was losing her cuteness and looking grotesque.

the two brightly colorful men, previously imagined by mabel, were erased from existence.

bill was having the time of his life bringing misfortune to these two humans.

"And now to finish you off, once and for all!" he points his finger at them, ready to blast them out of existence as well when he felt a presence he had long forgotten about. Dipper arrives after learning that they were in Stan's mind and that anything is possible, he flies up to confront Bill but instead, he was met with the demon slowly lowering his hand "Is that who I think it is?" they all look to where Bill was staring and saw in the distance an abnormal storm approaching them, the once star-filled sky was covered in dark black and red storm clouds where you could hear disoriented and agonizing screams.

"Cipher." the humans within Stan's mind tremble when the voices within the storm cloud came together and spoke, somewhat of a body formed that took the shape of a shadow and loomed over them "I didn't expect to see you here." Bill, whose body was red itself, turned back into its normal yellow color and his jolly personality returned.

"Well, well, well! Shouldn't I be saying that? You aren't one to enter a human mind, much less one so pathetic." the voice let out a deep chuckle.

"Well, my contractor states I must keep those they hold dear alive. Knowing you, you'd cripple this mind beyond saving." Bill let out a laugh as straightened his tie.

"Is that why you've been gone for thirty-odd years? Hah! I gotta thank this contractor of yours for keeping your butt out of the nightmare realm for this long!" he raised his hands in surrender when the figure raised its own hand, the outline of it glowing a bright red to charge up an attack "Hey, hey, now! Knowing that you're still around, I'm not dumb enough to mess with stuff you've claimed. I was on a job as well, and since these dummies thwarted my plans, I was dealing with them." he lowers his arm to take aim at them again but paused when the figure reached down, its own hand getting in front of them to protect them.

"Unfortunately, they're under my protection as well. So I'm going to have to ask you to leave." Dipper looks up at the figure, not expecting some supernatural being to come to their rescue. If he picked up anything from their conversation, this creature was in a contract with someone to protect Stan; to protect them. But who could it possibly be? "This form of mine may not be as powerful as my original, but I won't hesitate to erase you out of existence." they stare at each other in an unsettling silence until Bill starts to laugh so hard that a tear forms out of his singular eye.

"That's so hilarious! You and I both know that I can't be erased!" the red storm huffed.

"Yeah, but it's a threat nonetheless. So long as I am around, you will not be able to kill the humans under my protection." Bill huffed himself, he straightens his tie once more then his hat.

"Fine. Alright you kids, I'm gonna let you guys off the hook because of this old bat. Though, you might come in handy later. But know this. A darkness approaches, a day will come in the future when everything you care about will change." he tips his hat to bid them farewell "Until then, I'll be watching you. I'll be watching." and when he disappeared, a circle surrounded him that had various symbols that flashed until he was gone.

"Well he's annoying to deal with." the voice speaks, it then looks down at them, Dipper specifically "You better watch yourselves, Pines family. Now you've got a serious stalker on your hands." with that the storm started to disappear like, but Dipper reaches his hand out.

"Wait! Who are you?" the voice chuckles.

"That journal should know."

"Ah!" Dipper, Mabel and Soos wake up with a shout, shooting up from where they were lying down, they all then cheer when they realize they had awoken after such a confusion ordeal "We did it!" Mabel cheers, they then hear a groan coming from behind them and see that it was Stan waking up.

"What? Did what? What are you all doing here?" he asks confusingly, rubbing his head "And why was I dreaming of two brightly colored and radical young men?" the three of them stand up and approach him, though it was Dipper who rushed to his side first.

"Grunkle Stan, you're okay!" he exclaims, jumping up to hug him.

"What is this, a hug?"

"Nope. It's a chokehold." Dipper then maneuvers himself around him, wrapping his arm around his neck and proceed to lock him in a chokehold, causing the others to laugh as Stan struggled in his hold.

"Not bad, kid." he praises after being released from his hold, smiling at Dipper "Not bad."

"Oh?" they all perk up at the voice, looking towards the doorway, they were met with Alvah "You guys are finally awake? Were you having a sleepover, or something? I came in earlier and saw you guys sleeping, so I brought a couple blankets in so you'd be more comfortable." they all then finally noticed the blankets and pillows littered across the room.

"Alvah!" she watches in mild confusion when Mabel runs up to her, kneeling down so the young girl could leap into her arms "You won't believe how crazy our dreams were!"

"Really? I'm almost jealous I didn't join you." she lets Mabel go and watches as she lets out a breath of relief.

"I'm just glad Gideon didn't get into the safe. I really love this old shack." they all look up when the shack suddenly shock, a loud rumble being heard in the background.

"Hey, do you guys feel a..." they were all suddenly blown away when the wall exploded, Alvah was lucky she was behind Mabel so she wrapped her arms around the girl so she could shield her from the debris.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Pines family, did I wake you?" walking out of the hole in the wall was Gideon, with the safe destroyed and the deed to the shack in his hands.

"But we defeated Bill."

"Bill failed me! So I switched to plan b. Dynamite."

"What? Bill? Who... wha-- what are you guys talking about?"

"Spoilor alert, Stanford. I've got the deed! The Mystery Shack belongs to me! So, get off my property!"

season 1, episode 20. gideon rises

alvah apologizes to the pines family, not being able to house them because she lives in a small one bedroom apartment that charges her a ridiculous amount of rent.

her small apartment definitely didn't have room to house the twins and stan himself, so she was deeply sorry that she couldn't provide a roof over their heads.

she helps them however she can, whether it be giving them money or food, she'll do whatever she could for them.

she visits them when soos offers them a place at his abulita's home, and comforts stan when he was having a crisis about not being able to provide for the twins.

she isn't with them when they sneak into the "grand closing" of the mystery shack, she's watching behind the fences and cringes when they get caught and thrown out.

she was there when stan admits to the children that he couldn't take care of them, telling them that they had to go back home and that he bought them their tickets; it wasn't up for discussion.

they plead with him, even with alvah, but she couldn't do anything to help them and said it would be for the best.

"Bus fifty-two departing Gravity Falls. All aboard." the twins board the bus and take the seats at the very back where they looked out the window to see Stan, Alvah, Wendy, Grenda and Candy outside waving them goodbye.

"Sorry kids, it's for the best." he then turned around, not being able to face them after all that they've lost, Alvah placed her hand on his shoulder in a form of comfort as she looked up at the twins in the bus and gave them a sad wave goodbye. He does look back at them when the bus drives away but he quickly turns away, not being able to handle the look of sadness on their faces "What should I do now, Alvah? I've got no job, no house, I've got nothing." he looks up at her for a sign of hope but saw the conflicted look on her face.

"I... I really don't know." she muttered to herself "Everybody in this town is unwilling to see the truth that's in front of them because of the story Gideon wrote out unless we're able to help them open their eyes... there's nothing we can do about it. I am so sorry Stan, but I don't know if there's anything I can do to help you." his shoulders slump in defeat.

"I expected that." she finally looks down at him and gives him a weak smile.

"I may not be able to do anything to get you out of this, but I won't leave your side. Until you're able to get back on your feet, I'll be sure to see it through the whole way with you. I promise you, you've still got me by your side." she pats his shoulder and gives him the best smile she could muster, he looks into her eyes and despite the tears glistening in her eyes at the loss of the Pines twins, he could tell that her words were genuine "It'll take you dying to get rid of me." she let out a soft grunt when he pulled her into a hug, her eyes widened in surprise when she felt his fingers cling desperately to her blouse but she eventually relaxed as she wrapped her arms around him and leaned into him. 

"Thank you..." she gently rubs her hands up and down his back to comfort him.

"Don't mention it." when she finally managed to calm him down she bid Wendy, Grenda and Candy farewell and led Stan back to Soos' home. They were sitting on the couch with Alvah continuing to comfort him as he buried his face in his hands, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Well, Stan, this is it. Rock bottom. No family, stuck watching infomercials for that is." they both briefly look at the television to see an infomercial about an "owl trowel", or whatever that is, he then picks up the Gideon pin on the coffee table "How did you do it, kid? Why are you always one step ahead? Maybe he really is psychic after..." they both wince when a high pitch ringing went off, Alvah's eye twitched as she stuck a finger in her ear and twisted it around.

"Ah, what was that?" Stan jumped when the ringing went off due to his hearing aid.

"What keeps causing that?" she confusingly looked at him when he glanced down at the pin and a sudden realization dawned on him "Wait a minute. That's it! I know Gideon's weakness!" she still didn't understand what was going on when he sprung to his feet as he took her with him, she goes to question him but when he suddenly grabbed her by her biceps what happened next stunned her to silence. She let out a muffled gasp when Stan pulled her into a kiss that didn't last more than a couple seconds, when he pulls away he let out a cheer and quickly ran out of the room, leaving her standing there in shock. Abuela entered the room when they shared that intimate moment and looked up at Alvah, their brow raised when she saw her face slowly turn red.

"Are you alright, senorita Alvah?" her face finally crumbled, that gobsmacked expression crumbled and she was left looking flustered and embarrassed and shocked and-- she slowly raised her hands to her lips, still remembering the feeling of his chapped lips against hers and the brush of his stubble "Senorita?"

"I-I'm-- I'm alright." she let out a gasp when Stan ran back into the room, taking her hand and dragging her outside to where his car was.

"Come on, toots! We got a brat to expose!" will only music to make up any noise, the car ride was relatively quiet. Stan took a quick look at Alvah and saw she was just staring ahead of them, he would have guessed she was fine by the composed look she had on but telling how red her face was, it was giving her away. He glanced down at her lips and saw they were slightly smudged from where he had guessed her, well, guess he smudged it from when he kissed her rather out of nowhere "L-Look, I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable or whatnot. But it was just a spur of the moment, and the sudden shot of adrenaline got me going and-- what I'm trying to say is, it doesn't have to mean anything. It doesn't..." he looked at her again and saw the way her face turned a shade of pink this time, her thumbs fiddling together.

"... I didn't, NOT, like it." she murmured, pushing a strand of her hair behind her ear "You just... caught me off guard, is all. I wasn't expecting it." she narrowed her eyes on him when he stared rather smugly at her, wiggling his eyebrows a little.

"Oh? So are you saying if I were to kiss you again, you wouldn't protest?" he teased as his hands extended out to her, they were promptly smacked away.

"Don't push your luck, Stan. Just because I said I liked it, doesn't mean you'll get a taste anytime you want." they were both smirking at each other now, luckily they were at the red light or else Stan would have likely crashed the car, but Alvah noticed something in the distance behind Stan "Is that..." she started then grabbed Stan by his face and turned him around, they both squint their eyes at it.

"... Gideon?" they muttered, if either of them remembered back to the shack, Gideon was constructing a giant mechanical statue of himself and it looked like this thing could move. 

"Drive."

"Wha--"

"I said drive!" he was quick to ignore the law of the road and gun it down the road, he watched as she looked through his car and she surprisingly found a pair of binoculars... odd, she wasn't serious about finding binoculars, but Stan was a jack of all trades that just seemed to have anything and everything. He let out a shout when she threw herself over his lap so she could look out his window, he struggled to drive and went to shout at her but caught himself when she gasped "That little brat!" 

"What? What is it?!" she lowered the binoculars as a look of horror took over.

"He's got the kids!" she was thrown back into her seat when Stan took a sharp turn, she looked at him when she saw the serious look on his face.

"Buckle up, Alvah. We've got our kids to save." she was quick to buckle her belt and grab ahold of the handle above her head, gripping it rather tightly. By the time they arrive at the scene, after following it for some time and seeing it explode from a distance, Alvah's nails were digging into the handle but also the center console between herself and Stan. She was as pale as a sheet of paper when Stan came to a screeching halt, taking out the police cruiser in the process, he then throws his door open and steps out "Wait! Wait! Stop everything! I've got something to say!" he rushes ahead as Alvah shakily exits the car, using the side of it to steady her trembling legs.

"Gideon... is a liar!" she shouts weakly, now placing a hand on her chest to soothe her beating heart. She yelped when he grabbed her hand once more and dragged her over to the wreckage that was of Gideon's giant robot, she dusted herself off as they now looked at the crowd.

"You guys all think Gideon is so perfect and honest! "Oh, I could never tell a lie! I'm Gideon!" Pah!"

"He's more honest than you! And we expected more from you, Miss Alvah. To think you'd take his side." 

"Yeah! And he's psychic, too!" she chuckles softly, hand to her chest.

"That's where you're wrong, officer." both she and Stan look at each other and nod.

"How's this for psychic?" he kicks a loose panel while she hits it, and when it comes down it reveals a dozen monitors that have secretly recorded the lives of the many townsfolk of Gravity Falls "Bam! Take a good look!"

"Wait a minute! Is that me?"

"The secret ingredient to my coffee omelette is coffee!"

"And me!"

"I can verify that that birthmark is indeed disgusting."

"Hurray!" slowly everyone started pointing at monitors that had recorded them unknowingly.

"That's right!" Stan then pulls out the pin he had and pointed it at them, behind them, they got live footage of the crowd as it scanned them "These pins are hidden cameras! And my hearing aid was picking up the feedback! Who's the fraud now?" Alvah crushed the one in her hand and saw the camera lens, after the reveal, they all threw the pins to the ground and then turned their attention towards Gideon Gleeful.

"Gideon, we gave you our trust."

"You lied to us!" Gideon backed away from the crowd as they approached him with angered expressions, he then backed into the debris that was his robot and fell to the ground.

"Please, I... it's not what it looks like. What are you gonna do with me?" Deputy Durland raises his head and looks behind him.

"Tyler?" said man sniffled, wiping away the tears that started to shed.

"Get 'em... get 'em!" Alvah is giggling softly behind Stan, a hand placed on his back as she watched over his shoulder when Deputy Durland pulled out tiny handcuffs and slap them down on Gideon's wrists. She let Stan rush over to them when they started taking him over to a different police cruiser, she let out an oof when something ran into her, and when she looked down, she smiled happily when she saw that it was Dipper and Mabel.

"Are you two alright?" she asked as she knelt, opening her arms to them so they could fall into her embrace. She held onto them so tightly, her hands rubbing up and down their heads while nuzzling into their cheeks "I'm so sorry we didn't come to you in time. I'm sorry we gave up on you." they let out weak laughter, tears of relief slowly running down their cheeks.

"Don't worry, Alvah, Dipper had it all under control." Mabel says with a cheer, said boy sniffled as he pulled himself closer into Alvah's embrace "You should have seen him! He punched Gideon right in the face!" she pulled away so she could get a look at Dipper, astonished at what she just heard, and there she saw Dipper's face turn red from embarrassment.

"Oh, psh, it wasn't anything too crazy."

"Dude, you jumped off a cliff. I think that's pretty crazy." they both let out a startled cry when she ruffled their heads.

"Sounds to me you take after your uncle." she lightly punches him in the arm, winking at him "I'm proud that you stood your ground and protected your sister. I'm glad you followed your gut." Dipper's lip trembled at her words, eyes swelling up with tears again before throwing his arms around her neck.

"Thank you, Alvah." she chuckles and brings them back into a hug once more, gently carding her fingers through their hair.

"Don't mention it, kiddo." she briefly looked up and saw Stan standing in front of a camera, posing after he managed to retrieve the deed to the shack back from Gideon. She pulls away from the twins and gestures for them to be by their uncle's side, it was their moment. Stan meets her gaze as she stands in the back with the crowd, waving for her to join them, but she politely declines with a smile. As she watched them celebrate, the longer she stared the more she felt something eat up inside of her.

What was it called again?

Oh, right.

Guilt.

season 2, episode 1. scary-oke 

"Welcome to the grand re-opening of the Mystery Shack!" the crowd starts cheering, applauding at Stan's announcement that they could finally return "We're here to celebrate the defeat of that skunk Lil' Gideon." the mention of his name caused them to boo as Stan pulled out a makeshift doll that was of Gideon "Please, please... boo harder. But I didn't catch that pork chop all alone. These two scamps deserve some of the glory. Well, most of the glory." Toby, the local news reporter, raises what they believe to be a camera. 

"Smile for the camera." Stan deadpans at him. 

"Your camera's a cinderblock, Toby." the man immediately sulks. 

"I just want to be a part of things." Shandra Jimenez, the real news reporter, gets in front of them with an actual camera. 

"Smile for a real camera." 

"Everyone say "something stupid." 

"Something stupid." the flash of the camera goes off after they do funny poses "And don't forget to come to the after party tonight at eight." Mabel smiled as she knelt to grab a karaoke machine from below her. 

"We're doing a karaoke bonanza, people. Lights! Music! Enchantment! And an amazing karaoke performance by our family band, Love Patrol Alpha!" Dipper and Stan are immediately reluctant, not remembering about agreeing to do something like that. 

"Oh, I don't know about that." 

"I would never agree to that ever." 

"Too late, I wrote your names on the list." she then holds the sheet to her face, eyebrows wiggling up at Stan "I even got Alvah to agree." this caused him to flinch and look out into the crowd to try and find her, shoulders slumping a little when he wasn't able to spot her. Wendy bursts into the room with an airhorn and gets them to follow her outside so they could buy tickets to the party, when it was just them in the gift shop, Stan let out a sigh of relief with a smile on his face. 

"Ha! The town loves us. We finally got that Gideon smell out of the carpet. Everything is finally going my way." 

"Hey, Grunkle Stan," Stan let out a hum, looking down at Dipper "now that we have a moment, I've been meaning to ask for my journal back." Stan raised a brow. 

"What? Journal?" he pats himself for it then knelt down and lifted up the counter to pull the journal out from underneath it "Oh, you mean this old thing? It was so boring I couldn't even finish it." he then thinks back to how he photocopied the pages, he shakes his head as he hands it back to the young boy. 

"Wait, you're just gonna give it to me? Just like that?" 

"What else do you want? A kiss on the cheek?" Dipper was quick to flee with Mabel. 

"... I wouldn't mind a kiss on the--" 

"Not gonna happen." 

"What about me?" turning his head, he was met with Alvah, who was leaning against the counter with her chin resting on the back of her hands while she was kicking her feet back and forward. He felt his lips crease into a smile once his eyes landed on her, she winked at him "Think you can spare me a peck?" she giggled when he pulled at his tie to loosen it. 

"Thought you'd never ask." she tilted her head to the side and giggled again when she felt his lips press against her cheek, they were both laughing like high school students on their first date. Since the day where Stan kissed her they've become a lot more open about affection, there isn't a definite label for them, but they're more openly flirtatious than they were in the beginning "So, Mabel tells me you're doing a song for karaoke tonight." he laughed when her face dropped. 

"I am?" she then looks off, scratching her cheek in thought "I don't ever remember agreeing to something like that." she hums softly when he leans against the counter, their faces inches away from each other. 

"Well, I'm sure you've got the voice of an angel." 

"Mm? Then you better kill it, Love Patrol Alpha." she snickered softly when his face turned a shade of pink, she reached forward and pinched his cheek "Your adorable little niece told me about that one." she laughed when he smacked her hand away, pushing himself back and rubbing his cheek. 

"That ain't happening. Nope. Nah dah. Never." she walks out from behind the counter and drapes herself over his back. 

"Oh, come on. You don't wanna disappoint Mabel, do you? Do it for her." he lets her hang off of him but their attention goes over to Soos, who is currently looking out the window. 

"Hey, Mr. Pines, what's that code word I'm supposed to yell when I see a government vehicle?" the moment Stan heard "government", Alvah was thrown off him as he rushed over to the window. 

"Wait, what? Government vehicle?" the moment his eyes landed on said vehicle he quickly pulled himself back inside and quickly closed the windows, he then rushed over to the intercom and spoke into it "The Mystery Shack is now closed. Everybody out! I will not hesitate to use the hose on the elderly." Soos helps Alvah to her feet just as Dipper and Mabel run back into the room. 

"Grunkle Stan, what's happening?" 

"Yeah, you never shut down the gift shop." Alvah is ushering the kids to the side as Stan paces back and forth, Wendy and Soos watch in concern when the doorbell rings and Stan approaches the door. 

"Welcome to the Mystery Shack, gentlemen. What can I get you? Key chains? Snow globes? These rare photos of American presidents?" the two men at the door pull out government badges, each displaying their ID. 

"My name is Agent Powers. This is Agent Trigger. We're here to investigate reports of mysterious activity in this town." 

"Activity." 

"Mysterious activity in the Mystery Shack? You got to be joking." 

"I assure you I am not. I was born with a rare disorder that makes me physically incapable of experiencing humor." Stan lets out a nervous laugh "I don't understand that sound you're making with your mouth. Now if you'll excuse us, we're conducting an investigation." they then brush past Stan, who started to sweat nervously as they searched the gift shop. Alvah was holding both Dipper and Mabel by the shoulders as they watched the two men look around but she let out a gasp when Dipper slipped away from her. 

"Did you guys say you're investigating the mysteries of this town?" 

"That information is classified. But, yes. Look, between you and me, I believe there is a conspiracy of paranormal origin all connected to this town. We're just one small lead away from blowing the lid off this entire mystery." Dipper's face brightened. 

"Are you kidding me? I'm investigating the exact same thing. I found this journal in the woods which has almost all the answers. If we work together, we could crack the case." the agents share a look. 

"If you have evidence of these claims, we should talk." Agent Powers starts as he pulls out a business card. 

"We can talk right now. Please, please, come in. I have so much to show you!" it was at that moment when Stan and Alvah interfered, Dipper didn't expect Alvah to get in between him and the agents and push him backward while shaking her other hand in front of Agent Powers, a casual but warm smile on her face as Stan got behind her to usher Dipper away as she captured his attention. 

"Isn't his imagination just something? If you ask me, there isn't anything weird going on around here. Probably just the locals playing pranks and whatnot. You shouldn't believe the rumors that circulate around this quiet little town." both she and Agent Powers stand up straight, both their eyes locked on each other "There is no mysterious activity going on around here. Stuff like that just... doesn't exist. If I were you, I'd forget all about this town and get as far away as possible." the two of them just stare at each other, neither breaking eye contact until Stan got in front of her. 

"She's right, agents. Kid has an overactive imagination, and, like, a sweating problem." 

"Zing!" Mabel shouts from the background and Alvah giggles. 

"Paranormal town stuff, like Alvah here said, it's just part of the gift shop lore. Sells more tickets, you know." he snaps his fingers and Soos proceeds to put bumper stickers on their chests and headbands on their heads. 

"We have other spots to investigate. We'll be on our way." Agent Powers leaves while Agent Trigger grabs a couple of bobblehead dolls his arms can carry. 

"I'm confiscating this for evidence." 

"Smart move." she let out a breath of relief when they left, having them around was going to be a pain in the-- 

"Wait! No, wait! We have so much to talk about." they were already gone by the time Dipper reached the door, but Stan placed his hand on Dipper's shoulder and turned him around. 

"Hold it, kiddo. Trust me, the last thing you want around here at a party is cops." he then takes the business card from Dipper's hands "I'm confiscating that card. And how's about you go be a normal kid? Flirt with a girl, or steal a pie off a windowsill." 

"But Grunkle Stan, you don't understand." 

"And don't go talking to those agents." Dipper looks at Alvah for help, eyes pleading for her to talk to Stan and convince him, but she just gives him an apologetic look with a shrug and follows after him. She was the last person he expected to side with Stan, well, not really, but whenever it came to anything that Dipper was passionate about or set his mind to, she was always the first one to encourage him. But weirdly enough, she was openly against the idea of those government agents being around, going so far as to claim that there was nothing weird going around in Gravity Falls. It was hours later and Alvah was helping set up for the after-party, helping Mabel set up her karaoke machine. 

"You look cute, Mabel." the young girl giggled and did a little twirl. 

"Thanks, Alvah." she then gestures for her to step aside, pulling out some sort of glittery gun, she then witnessed her shoot confetti out of it at Stan "Boom! Well, the confetti cannon works. And the karaoke machine has all the best songs. "We built this township on rock and roll", "Danger lane to highway town", "T8king over midnight" by &NDRA." Alvah hummed softly, what old songs. 

"Listen, kid, you do not want to hear this voice singing. Trust me." 

"Grunkle Stan, karaoke isn't about sounding good. It's about sounding terrible, together." 

"Together." Alvah echoes before letting out a grunt when Mabel hugs her face, Mabel is standing on the stage so she had the elevation to do so. 

"And Alvah wants to see you sing as well, don't you?" they look at each other and she gives a cheeky smile. 

"Scared?" Stan scowls at them, he opens his mouth to say something but instead closed it and stomped off, the two laugh "Surely he won't back down from this fight." she hummed softly when Mabel kissed her cheek. 

"You're just the best, Alvah." she winks. 

"I know." she stands off to the side as guests start pulling up, she greets the few people who walked past her and quietly enjoys the party. Soos and Mabel were having fun at the party, Stan was outside at the admission stand, but she couldn't spot Wendy or Dipper anywhere. 

"Hey, toots!" she perks up and looked over to see Stan approaching her, she smiled and waved her hand "Have you seen Wendy and Dipper anywhere?" she shook her head with a shrug of her shoulders. 

"Nope, was just questioning that." she looked towards the crowd and spotted Mabel, she lifted her fingers to her lips and blew on them "Mabel!" the girl paused in her movements and looked to where she heard the sound of her name when she spotted Alvah she grinned until she noticed she was waving her over, so she quickly rushed over. 

"What's up?" 

"Have you seen your brother anywhere?" she snorts. 

"Yeah, he went inside with Wendy." she then wiggles her eyebrows at them "Hopefully they're not doing you know what." they both look at each other. 

"I hope they're not doing you know what." Stan rushes inside, Alvah snorts at the panicked look he had on his face and ushers Mabel back to enjoy the party. After a couple of minutes, she only sees Wendy, and still no sign of Dipper, perhaps he wasn't feeling up for a party after what happened that morning. She should probably apologise to him about not having his back, but it's for the best if government officials are left in the dark about what's going on in this quie-- she let out a whoa when she suddenly felt rumbling, she then glances over at the food bar and her eyes widened when she saw the bowl of punch splashing around as the earth shook. 

"I think it's an earthquake!" Wendy shouts as she blows an airhorn "Hey, everybody! We got to get out of here!" as soon as she announces that everyone starts fleeing back to their cars, Alvah tries pushing past the crowd to get to Mabel but is unfortunately carried off with the panicked citizens. It was only when the crowd dispersed that she was able to run back to the shack to check up on the kids when she saw... zombies? 

"What the...?" she muttered under her breath as she saw the zombies surround the shack, she panicked when she couldn't find Dipper or Mabel anywhere, what made it worse was she saw a zombified Soos, who was now looking at her. 

"Hey, dude. Would it be cool if me and my new buds eat your brains?" she gave him a scrutinizing stare, gaze hardening the longer she stared at him "I'm not hearing a no." 

"Soos!" she yelped when they started approaching her so she was quick to run away, she tried opening the doors but they were locked so she went to try and find an open window but they too were closed and latched shut. She didn't have any time to properly find a way inside because the zombies were beginning to surround her, she backed away from the window then rushed forward and jumped through the window, breaking through the glass while shielding her face from any broken glass. She let out a sigh when her clothes got caught in the broken shards and tore a little, but that was the least of her worries, what she needs is to find those ki-- she gasped when a zombie appeared out of nowhere, grabbing her by the shoulders and pushing her into a door hard enough that it broke and they both fell in. She managed to kick the offender off of her but it was crawling back with the determination to eat her face, she looked around the closet for anything to defend herself and her face lit up at what she found "Oh, Stan, you shouldn't have." back to Dipper, Mabel, and Waddles, the two of them were cornered in the gift shop with nowhere else to go. 

"Dipper, isn't there something in the journal about defeating zombies?" 

"No! There's nothing in here about weaknesses. This can't be happening. I wanted answers so badly that I put everyone in danger. Now we're toast. It's all my fault and no one can save us." Dipper gasped when he was grabbed by the zombie and pulled off the ground "No, Mabel! I'm sorry!" 

"Dipper!" he screams as he's faced with a groaning zombie but is suddenly released when the zombie was hit in the head, he falls to the ground and Mabel was quick to rush to his side, looking up at their savior they are met with a disheveled looking Stan. He was missing his fez hat, his tie was loosely hanging from his neck, he had several tears in his suit and zombie blood splattered over him. 

"You two, attic. Now!" 

"Grunkle... Grunkle Stan?" 

"I said now!" they didn't need to be told twice, they quickly ran past him to get upstairs while he swung a bat down on the wave of zombies that surrounded him "Alright you undead jerks, ready to die twice?" he's panting as he's backed into the living room, taking down a few more zombies "The only wrinkly monster who harasses my family is me! Take that, and that!" it was only when the kids were safely upstairs he stops to take out a couple more zombies, shoving the bat into a zombie's mouth and went it snapped in two he punched it wearing his brass knuckles "Anyone else want a piece?!" he punches down a couple more just as the front door is busted down, he dodges a couple of swipes but was nicked in the stomach, he pulls his fist but stopped when he heard a shout. 

"Get down!" he quickly falls back into the staircase just as the zombie's brains are blown right out of its head, turning his head, he was met with Alvah just as disheveled as he was. Her dress was torn and was covered in dirt and zombie blood, and her hair was still tied in a loose braid but some strands of her hair were sticking out, what did it was the double-barreled shotgun she held followed by the shotgun shell strap wrapped around her body "I'm gonna get that kid, for sure." she pants, she let out a grunt when one of the zombies that was on the ground grabbed at the end of her dress so she pointed the barrel at its head and shot it dead. 

"Alvah, are you--" he sputtered out his words when she grabbed her dress and tore it down the side, spreading her legs a little wider for more leg room. 

"That's much better." she muttered as she flipped the latch to open the barrel of the shotgun, she flicked the empty casings out and slipped two new shells down the barrel before snapping it shut and pointing at a new group of zombies "Where are the kids?!" 

"Um, um-- uh, they're, uh--" 

"Stan!" she snaps, shooting a few zombies at once and quickly reloading "Now is not the time to gawk! Where are the kids?!" she asks again, he shakes his head to get a hold of himself. 

"Right, they're upstairs!" she nods. 

"Good! Let's go join them." they stand back to back as they punch and blast the zombies away, he pushes her up the staircase first then follows after her, they look at the father clock and proceed to push it down the first flight of stairs to create some distance before rushing up towards the attic. The door is closed when they reach it, she's standing behind Stan as he bangs on the door to open it, keeping an eye out for any zombies that could appear anywhere and when he finally got the door open she quickly pushed him inside and shut the door behind him. 

"Grunkle Stan, Alvah!" he gently pushes her to the side as he grabs a chair and lodges it beneath the door handle, Dipper lets out a nervous laugh as he approached the two tired adults "Well, at least, you can't deny magic exists anymore, right?" the two of them take a second before letting out sighs. 

"Kid, I've always known." 

"Wait, what are you talking about?" Alvah stands behind Stan as she turns around, a guilty look on her face. 

"I'm not an idiot, Dipper. Of course, this town is weird and the one thing I know about that weirdness is that it's dangerous." Alvah let out a scream when a hand broke through the door and grabbed her by her hair, Stan punches her free and grabs her when she fell forward, pushing her backward alongside the kids "I've been lying about it to try to keep you away from it, to try and protect you from it." when another zombie burst through the window she let out a growl and shot it right back out, she and Stan peek out and grimace when the shack was surrounded "It looks like I didn't lie well enough." Dipper then looked at Alvah, waiting for her explanation. 

"Ignorance is bliss, Dipper. Some people just don't need to know about all this supernatural stuff, and the less I know the better it does for my mental well-being." she fell to the floor and leaned against Mabel's bed, the young girl hurried to her side, and held her arm when she started rubbing her scalp where she was yanked back by the hair "I know it's not ideal to ignore it, but if I think about it, I find it hard to sleep at night. And if you tell the wrong people, welp, I guess tonight is a great example of that." Mabel was now applying rainbow band-aids to the open cuts on both Stan and Alvah as they try thinking of ways to get out of their current predicament. 

"What do we do? What do we do?" Waddles takes cover under Mabel's bed beside Alvah, who rests her hand on top of the pig's head to comfort him. 

"Normally, the journal would help us, but there's nothing in there about defeating zombies." Dipper says as he opens the book and flips through pages before showing them, and under the UV light, there they see words written on the blank page. 

"Wait, wait, wait, the text. It's glowing in the black light." 

"What?" he turned it around and under the light as he flipped through pages he saw words written in some sort of invisible ink "All this time I thought I knew all the journal secrets, but they're written in some kind of invisible ink." 

"Invisible ink." Dipper quickly goes back to the chapter about the zombies and sees instructions on how to defeat the zombies. 

"This is it! "Zombies have a weakness! Previously thought to be invincible, their skulls can be shattered by a perfect three-part harmony." Three-part harmony? How can we create that? I have a naturally high-pitched scream." 

"I can make noises with my body. Sometimes intentionally." 

"Whoop, whoop!" they looked towards Alvah, who was bumping her hands in the air "Love patrol alpha!" she cheered then giggled, trying to make light of the situation despite the possibility that their faces could get eaten, Mabel grinned and snaps her fingers. 

"Exactly." they all find themselves standing on the ledge of the second floor window, well, Alvah was casually sitting on the edge as she leaned against the karaoke machine while Stan and Dipper stood as stiff as a board holding microphones, Mabel was the one that looked like she was having the time of her life despite her life being in danger "Zombies and gentlemen, I'm Mabel, they're Dipper and Stan and together, we are Love Patrol Alpha!" 

"Whoop, whoop!" Alvah goes off in the background, she laughed when Stan glared at her to be silent. 

"I never agreed to that name." Dipper says quickly. 

"Hit it!" Alvah quite literally hits the top of the karaoke machine and "Taking over Midnight" by &NDRA starts playing, she giggles softly when Stan squints at the screen. 

"Uh, Mabel, our lives may not be worth this." Dipper pursed his lips and tried getting into the beat. 

"Friday night, and we're gonna party 'til dawn. Don't worry daddy, I've got my favorite dress on-- Mabel, this is stupid." she ignores him and sings the next part. 

"We roll into the party, the boys are looing our way. We just keep dancing, we don't care what they say. And all the boys are ganging up in my face--" Mabel let out a startled scream when a zombie climbed up, Stan pulled her back just as Alvah stepped forward and shot it off. 

"Come on you guys, you have to sing together or it won't work." she urged while reloading the shotgun, Dipper and Stan swallow their pride. 

"Boys are a bore, let's show 'em the door." 

"We're taking over the dance floor." Alvah couldn't help but smile when they all started singing together "Oo-oo, girls do what we like. Oo-oo, we're taking over tonight. Oo-oo, girls do what we like. Oo-oo, we're taking over tonight. We're queens of the disco!" Alvah laughs and claps her hands but notices that it's actually working, looking over at the horde of zombies, one by one their heads started exploding. 

"You're doing it! Keep it up!" as she watched them she saw that they were actually having a good time, perhaps it's because no ones around that Dipper and Stan aren't embarrassed. 

"Oo-oo, girls do what we like. Oo-oo, we're taking over tonight." 

"Taking over tonight!" she quickly pulled Dipper back when a zombie climbed up once more and punched it in the face, knocking its head right of its neck and it landing in a bowl of soda, she winced and shook her hand. 

"Ow." she let out a whoa when Stan pulled her close and that was when she noticed that all the zombies were dead. 

"Thank you! We'll be here all night!" 

"Deal with it, zombie idiots!" 

"Pines! Pines! Pines! Pines!" Alvah only laughed, they were back inside and she managed to find Stan's fez hat and placed it on top of his head, he thanked her and adjusted it himself just as Dipper started apologizing. 

"I'm sorry about this, guys. I totally ruined everything." 

"Dipper, are you kidding me? I got to sing karaoke with my two favorite people in the world. No party could ever top that." she stands back as Stan crouches down to Dipper and Mabel's level, hands on their shoulders. 

"Kids, listen, this town is crazy. So you need to be careful. I don't know what I'd do with myself if you got hurt on my watch. I'll let you hold onto that spooky journal as long as you promise me you'll only use it for self-defense and not go looking for trouble." 

"Okay, as long as you promise me that you don't have any other bombshell secrets about this town." 

"Promise." 

"Promise." Alvah pulled a face when she noticed both Dipper and Stan cross their fingers behind their backs, she sighed while shaking her head, Stan then let out a sigh. 

"Man, we have got a lot of zombie damage to clean up. Where's my handyman anyway?" they look up when they see Soos enter the room, still zombified, Alvah aimed the shotgun at him while Stan picked up a chair "Holy moses!" 

"Wait!" they both paused and looked down at Dipper to see him pull out the journal "There's a page in here about curing zombification. It'll take a lot of formaldehyde." 

"Ooo, and cinnamon." 

"Come on, Soos, let's fix you up." Mabel takes the chair from Stan and starts pushing Soos away, scolding him when he kept muttering about brains, with Dipper following behind and leaving Stan and Alvah alone in the living room. Stan looks at Alvah and saw she was rocking back and forth on her feet with her hands behind her back, he looked away when she spared him a glance and whistled. 

"So..." he cleared his throat, placing a hand on the back of his neck "you were pretty cool back there, with the shotgun and all." she gave a nervous laugh herself. 

"Hehe, yeah. I found it in one of your closets when a zombie fell into me, I got real lucky." she says as she tosses the gun on the sofa "You looked pretty cool as well, punching those zombies left and right. I think I hurt my hand a little." she admits as she waves her hand once more, her knuckles a shade of red after punching the head off the zombie. 

"Well, your hands are pretty delicate, toots." Stan says as he takes her hand into his, rubbing his thumb along her knuckles while blowing cool air onto them "Thanks for protecting the kids." she gave him a reassuring smile. 

"There isn't anything I wouldn't do for those kids." she then bumps her hip into his "Including you, Stan." he just laughs, his eyes then landed on the karaoke machine that Mabel left behind. 

"Well, sweetheart, you heard my magnificent singing voice, now it's time I heard yours. You even got a performance out of me." she scoffed jokingly, placing a hand on both her hip and chest. 

"And you think that's enough to convince me?" 

"... pretty please?" her resolve broke a little at the plea, he watched her raise her leg before kicking the karaoke machine and a song started to play, she raised a brow at the song but shrugged, nonetheless. He watches as she grabs a bundle of her dress, lifting a hand to her chest and lowering her head to curtsy. Stan couldn't help but chuckle and return the formal greeting with his own awkward little bow, she giggled softly before reaching a hand forward for him to take just as she started singing.

Mabel returns to the living room, leaving Soos in Dipper's care, upon realizing she left her karaoke machine and went to retrieve it, only to pause and hide in the hallway when she heard music followed by the most beautiful voice singing alongside laughter. Peeking into the room, she gasped softly when she saw Alvah and Stan dancing alone in the living room, he held one of her hands above her as he spun her around then pulled her into his arms, her back to his chest as he held her close. She looked up at him over her shoulder and continued to sing, turning around to throw her arms over his shoulders and pull herself closer. Mabel covered her mouth when she saw Stan kneel down a little to grab Alvah but her waist and hoist her up, she planted her hands down on his shoulders to stable herself and let out a squeal as Stan spun her around before gently tossing her up, catching her bridal style in his arms as he continued to spin, she giggled as she kicked her feet and threw her arms around his neck and hid her face in the crook of his neck. 

"Ooo, Dipper's going to flip when I tell him this." she whispered under her breath before running back to where she left Dipper, missing when Alvah pulled herself out of his shoulder and how both herself and Stan stared into each other's eyes. 

"Try once more, like you did before. Sing a new song, chiquitita~" they continued to stare at each other as the song slowed down before she let out a gasp when Stan laughed just as the music started picking up again, he placed her down and grabs her hands so they could spin around. Since the song had ended she was just laughing as they spun around like idiots until they collapsed on the ground, panting softly and staring at the ceiling "That... was really fun." Stan chuckled from beside her. 

"It was." he stared at her from where they lay, he looked at her and saw that one of her hands was resting on her chest while the other lay motionless between them. They were already so close when they were dancing together, he held her close to the point he could feel her breathing against his neck and the way her heart was beating like crazy, hell, he held her hand the entire duration they were dancing, so why the hell was he getting nervous now? Was it because the adrenaline was finally dying? He taps his fingers against his chest as he continues to stare up at the ceiling before going for it, Alvah flinched at the sudden contact and looked down to see Stan placed his hand on top of hers. Her eyes trailed up his body and they saw the way his eyes refused to move away from the ceiling but she could see the way his neck to the tips of his ears had tinged a shade of red, he gulped when he felt her hand move from under his but instead of taking it back, she simply twisted her hand around so she could intertwine their fingers together and give his hand a squeeze. 

"All you had to do was ask, Stan." she giggled quietly when she saw him turn his head away from her, throwing his other arm over his face to hide the embarrassment flush across his face. 

"Shut up." she hummed softly, but that feeling of guilt started to eat at her once again as she looked away. 

season 2, episode 2. into the bunker 

only appears at the beginning with stan, helping guide the construction workers where stuff goes. 

season 2, episode 3. the golf war 

joins them to play mini golf and is pretty good at it, that is until she hits the golf balls too hard and sends it flying. 

stan laughed at her when accidentally hit someone in the head. 

mabel gave her a sticker that said "be PAWsitive". 

she'll take what she can get. 

she comforts mabel when pacifica insults her once more but couldn't help but burst into laughter when mabel fires back and calls her a "walking one-dimensional bleached blonde valley girl stereotype". 

she was so proud. 

season 2, episode 4. sock opera 

mabel is begging on her hands and knees for alvah's help with her sock puppet show, knowing how good the older woman is when it comes to sewing. 

she has to pick mabel up to get the girl to cease, mostly because they were in public and it was making alvah look bad. 

she laughed at the sock puppet mabel made of her, she thought the likeliness was almost uncanny. 

as the days grew closer to mabel's puppet show, she noticed with each passing day dipper's desperation to unlock the laptop they found in that underground bunker was getting to him. 

she told the boy to take it easy, that the laptop was going anywhere and he could put his focus on it when he isn't so busy helping his sister. 

she found it sweet that he was helping her in the first place. 

"Oh, hi, Dipper. There you are." Alvah was with Wendy and Soos, planning on going to the theatre with them since Stan's car was full with the girls and the stuff for her puppet show, they walk out of the shack and find Dipper standing outside. 

"What up, dude?" Wendy greets, Alvah herself smiles at the boy as she waves. 

"You excited for your sister's play?" she felt a chill run up her spine when they approached him, she patted her chest and looked behind her but ignored the feeling when she didn't see anything "You're not catching a ride with Stan and the others? Guess they didn't wait for you." 

"We're headed to the theatre." 

"Need a ride, Dipper?" the boy let out a laugh. 

"Anything for you, Red." Alvah raised a brow at the odd nickname Dipper gave Wendy, she decided to ignore it and takes a seat in the backseat of Soos' truck, leaving Soos, Wendy and Dipper in the front. They arrived at the theatre and had taken their seats, Stan was to her left with Soos, Dipper and Wendy to her right, and the entire time she kept her eye on Dipper because he was just acting weird "Ah, nothing like the theatre, huh, toots? Hey, Soos, want to hear the exact time and date of your death?" Soos laughs. 

"Okay." she opens her mouth to say something but then Mabel appeared, looking happy upon seeing them. 

"Hey, guys, you all made it." 

"Are you kidding me? I would never miss, whatever this is." Alvah elbows him in his side. 

"By the by, Mabel, where'd you put my journal again?" 

"I used it as a prop for the big wedding scene. I still need a reverend though." 

"Hey, what if I play the reverend? I mean, someone's got to hold that journal, right?" 

"Great, let's go." that feeling of a chill running up her spine returned again the moment Mabel ran off with Dipper to get behind stage, she pulled a face but instead of doing anything she crossed her arms and leaned back into her seat. Stan looked down at her and saw the way her face twisted with concern, she let out a hum when he elbowed her. 

"You alright, toots?" she let out a sigh. 

"I don't know. Dipper's just been acting... off? He's become so desperate to find the author of that journal of his that he's losing himself, you know? I'm worried about him. Maybe you should talk to him that this summer is not just about uncovering the mysteries of this town but about having fun, it's like he's almost forgotten." Stan let out a huff. 

"Yeah, yeah, maybe I shouldn't have given him that journal back, but uncovering mysteries is how that kid has fun. He's just got to stop taking it so seriously." he then places his hand on her shoulder, causing her to look up at him "Alright, I'll talk to him and try and get him to settle." she smiles. 

"Thanks, Stan." he chuckles. 

"If I didn't know it, you're acting more and more like the kid's guardian than me." she laughed and shoved him gently. 

"Oh, how could I replace you, Stan? You're their great uncle Stanford." they're both laughing but quiet down when the play begins. 

alvah, no matter how confusing the play was, was quite impressed with the story and found herself applauding throughout the night. 

she made a few comments here and there but other than that she was enjoying herself. 

it was during the wedding scene when everything seemed to fall apart. 

alvah let out a gasp when mabel and dipper fell from above and crashed onto the stage, she was confused as to why they were fighting over the journal. 

she side-eyed stan when he pulled out a camera and started recording them, saying how he could "sell this". 

she pushed him off his seat. 

the "fight" lasted a couple seconds with mabel slamming the journal on dipper's face before running around in circles and dipper eventually tiring himself out then collapsing. 

soon enough they were all ducking when a box of pyrotechnics went off and fired off into the crowd, one even landing in the box of sock puppets and exploding all over the stage. 

the stage was promptly destroyed. 

season 2, episode 5. soos and the real girl 

only really appears to tell soos that he's a really swell guy and that he'll find a girl perfect for him. 

smacks stan when he says he doesn't like soos' chances. 

is also really creeped out about "old goldie". 

season 2, episode 6. little gift shop of horrors 

doesn't really appear in this episode. 

season 2, episode 7. society of the blind eye 

only appears at the end of when the children, soos and wendy return with old man mcgucket after their fiasco with the society of the blind eye. 

after discovering that mcgucket was the owner of the laptop they suspected that he was the author of the journals. 

so they went on this whole adventure to the museum so they could recover his memories. 

that was when they stumbled upon the cult that was "the society of the blind eye", who were erasing people's memories of the paranormal activities that were going on. 

when they were finally able to defeat this club of freaks and get a hold of mcgucket's memories, that's when they discovered his past and his connection with alvah. 

"Alright, McGucket. Are you ready to see your memories? Find out who you really are?" Dipper asks as he switches the machine on that allows them to play back the memories that were unrightfully stolen, McGucket doesn't look all too thrilled, or nervous about what he is going to see. 

"I'm not so sure. What if I don't like what I see?" Mabel places her hand encouragingly on his arm. 

"We've come all this way. Go on." with his memory tube in hand, he approaches the machine and slots it into place. The television spurs to life and they wait a couple seconds before it reveals a younger less crazy version of McGucket. 

"My name is Fiddleford Hadron McGucket, and I wish to unsee what I have seen." they all gasp, finally seeing who exactly the old man-- or rather, Fiddleford McGucket really was "For the past year, I have been working as an assistant for a visiting researcher. He has been cataloguing his findings about Gravity Falls in a series of journals. I helped him build a machine which he believed had the potential to benefit all mankind, but something went wrong. I decided to quit the project. But I lie awake at night, haunted by the thoughts of what I've done. I believe I have invented a machine that can permanently erase these memories from my mind. Test subject one. Fiddleford." 

"It worked! I can't recall a thing." 

"I call it "The Society of the Blind Eye. We will help those who want to forget by erasing their bad memories." 

"Today, I came across a colony of little men. Very disturbing. I would like to forget seeing this." 

"I accidentally hit another car in town today. I feel terri-bibble. Terrible. I've been forgetting words lately. I wonder if there are any negative side effects..." 

"I saw something in the lake, something big!" 

"My hair's been a-fallin' out, so I got this hat from a scarecrow. Hey, are my pants on backwards?" 

As they watched the days go by with each clip, they saw how Fiddleford descended into madness and by the time the days reached ??? he had become the senile old man McGucket they all knew today who had laughed maniacally at the end while spouting out senseless words, the screen was filled with static. The room fell into silence as they looked at the once renowned inventor become a shell of his former self. 

"Oh, McGucket, I'm so sorry." 

"Aw, hush. You kids helped me get my memories back, just like you said." 

"But did you want those memories back?" 

"After all these years, I finally know who I am. Maybe I messed up in the past, but now that I seen what happened, I can begin to put myself together again." he reaches for his memory tube when the TV spurred to life again, causing them to jump back in surprise. It wasn't over yet? McGucket takes a step back and watches the TV once more and they heard the audio first before they saw any visual of what was going on, but from what they could tell, whoever McGucket was talking to he didn't seem all too pleased. 

"Get away from me! I don't want you anywhere near me!" they hear a clatter followed by glass shattering as Fiddleford tried getting as far away from whoever was with him "I know what you really are! I know you're just a wolf in sheep's clothing! You're a monster amongst us lesser beings!" they hear a sigh. 

"Fiddleford, you're being overdramatic." the voice was of a man that they could not recognize, it was hard to determine who it could possibly be "I'm not here to hurt you, I just wanna apologize for what happened back then." 

"So, you're acknowledging the fact that you did it on purpose!" 

"No, I didn't! You just appeared unannounced and caught me off guard! How on earth is that my fault?! It's not my fault you saw something you weren't supposed to see. Now look at you, you've started some... some, some cult!" 

"It ain't no cult! We're helping people, you see? We're erasing the bad things that people don't wanna remember." 

"And what if you're erasing too much? What if people start to forget who they are? And what about you? I know you've been using that thing one too many times on yourself to the point you're forgetting who you are. Do you even remember what you were doing in Gravity Falls in the first place?" 

"U-Uh, I was... I-I was--" the sound of a slam caused Fiddleford to shriek, they all then noticed how a picture started to form and at first all they saw was a still somewhat decent-looking Fiddleford looking absolutely terrified as he stared at the looming individual who was slowly approaching him. 

"What happens when you start to forget about your wife? And your son? Do you even remember their names? What if they come up from California and they see something they weren't supposed to see? Are you going to erase their minds as well? How selfish can you be?" the individual takes another step just as the picture is formed and their eyes widened when they saw a pair of uniquely colored red eyes that held nothing but disappointment "How do you think he'll feel if he saw the state you've fallen into?" he didn't flinch when he pointed the gun at him, his gaze only hardened. 

"Don't-- Don't come any closer or else I-I'll... I'll use this on you!" he rolled his eyes. 

"Yeah, you don't have the guts to shoot me with that thing." Fiddleford's shaking got worse with each step he took "Now put that thing down before you hur--" their eyes widened when he shot him with the memory gun, even he was surprised that he actually shot him, he stumbled back in surprise and fell into the table behind him while clutching his head. They saw a wave of confusion wash over his face as he looked around before looking back over at where Fiddleford was, when he saw the way, he was panting as he stared at him, his face hardened with anger. 

"I-I... I warned you." he let out a shout when he lunged at him to smack the gun out of his hand. He brought his arms up to shield his face from what he believed he was going to attack him, but instead he let out a frustrated huff. 

"Fine then, have it your way. I'm only checking up on you as a request from your old friend, but I have no obligation to actually care for you." turning around and despite the TV failing to capture a high-quality image they were able to distinguish a fairly young man dressed in rather odd clothes, it was someone that they didn’t recognize from anywhere. Not from the town, not a tourist who could have visited the Mystery Shack. It was a total stranger to them. Who were they? They mentioned a friend. Could that friend the author or someone else entirely? "Perhaps when you come to your senses, I'll be nice and fill in the few blanks of what you can't remember. But that'll be until then." the video cuts off and they're left in silence once more, they all look at McGucket and see him shaking. 

"I... I remember him. I still can't remember everything exactly, but... but he's one of the reasons I became like this. But he didn't do it intentionally, I think?" 

"Does that mean whoever the man was had his memory erased? Does that mean his memory is somewhere here as well? Maybe if we find it, we might get some more answers." 

"Oh, you kids can go do that without me. I've got some remembering to do." they were hesitant to let him go but he reassured them that he’d be fine, he took a pair of glasses he found on the TV and left them to search for the mystery man’s memory tube. 

Meanwhile... 

"Stan... Stan, s-stop it!" Stan laid on top of her, laughing alongside her as he kissed up her neck and all over her face, his hands holding her by her waist as she did her best to push him away by his face and shoulder "I'm ticklish! Hahaha, stop it!" he only continued his attack just so he could continue to hear the melody that was her laughter, his grip on her tightening as she squirmed underneath him. 

"Nah uh, sweetheart. I don't know how long those kids are gonna be, but I wanna spend the rest of my night with you." she smiled up at him, wrapping her arms loosely around his neck and pulling herself up so she could press her lips against his and he welcomed it warmly. His hand moved up to her lower back to lift her closer to him so she tightened her hold around his neck, they both pulled apart to take a breath and before they could dive in for more, they heard the front doorbell ring. They break apart and look to where the door is, waiting breathlessly for it to ring again, they think they're in the clear and go to continue until it rings again "Urgh, dammit! I'm gonna strangle whoever's at the door." she giggled softly when he lifted himself off of her, grumbling to himself as he went to answer the door. 

"Go easy on them." she teased, she hums to herself as she waits for Stan to tell whoever it was to get lost but jumped when he instead shouted for her. 

"Alvah, it's for you!" she raised a brow, oh? She shrugged her shoulders and pushed herself to her feet, cleaning herself up a bit before leaving the room. She had her calm and kind demeanor as she peeked over Stan's shoulder, greeting whoever it was with a smile but her face twitched a little when she saw who exactly it was "How old man McGucket knew you were here, I'll never know." she and McGucket stared at each other, similar to how they stared at each other back at the mineshaft, but she saw a different glint in his eyes the longer they held their stare. 

"I'd like a word with you, Miss Alvah." 

"Well now, wait just one moment bus--" 

"Of course, perhaps we'll settle the feud between us." Stan stared at her in shock, giving her puppy dog eyes to get her to come back inside, but she simply patted Stan on the head and pushed him gently inside "I promise we won't be too long, just go back inside and wait for me. I'll even stay over, if that's what you want." he stared at her before throwing his head back with a sigh. 

"Urgh, fine! But don't take too long! We were just getting to the fun part." she laughed and ushered him inside. 

"I won't!" she leaned her head inside and waited for him to be fully gone before closing the door behind her, her face completely changed as she leaned against the front door, arms crossed and attention back on the man in front of her "So, Fiddleford Hadron McGucket, what would you like to remember?" a smirk stretched across her face when she saw Fiddleford glare up at her. 

"Everything." she chuckled cruelly. 

"Oh, with pleasure." 

season 2, episode 8. blendin's game 

the children don't bring up knowing that alvah and mcgucket have history amongst each other. 

either that or they just don't want to believe that alvah did something bad that caused mcgucket to spiral the way he is. 

in the episode, alvah knows the history behind soos' tragic tale of his birthday and, despite the heartache it gives him, encourages the twins to make this birthday worth it. 

she was also there ten years ago when stan first hired soos, patting his head with a smile. 

season 2, episode 9. love god 

doesn't involve herself with stan when he tries to appeal to the "hippy weirdos" during the festival. 

she does laugh when she saw his failed attempt at making a hot air balloon. 

she quotes "I heart kids" for the rest of the day, irritating him. 

season 2, episode 10. northwest mansion mystery 

doesn't make an appearance in the episode. 

season 2, episode 11. not what he seems 

"What happened here?" Alvah arrived at the Mystery Shack when the Pines twins were putting out a fire with water balloons, she greets the twins when they came running up to her with hugs and looked over at Stan, who was casually sitting on the outside sofa while drinking a pitt cola. She waved her hand and perked up when he waved his hand to greet her back before gesturing for her to come over, she ruffles their heads before making her way over to him and taking a seat beside him "Good morning, Stan. You seem to be in a chipper mood." he lets out a laugh. 

"I'm in an even better mood now that you're here." she giggled softly. 

"Stop it." they're laughing together until they're both looking out at Dipper and Mabel, she snickers softly when Dipper throws a balloon rather weakly that it barely makes it a foot from him, he's immediately wiped out by a balloon to the face by Mabel "But seriously, what's gotten you smiling this morning?" he clears his throat as he rubs the back of his neck. 

"Well, do you remember how I told you I've been working on something for the past thirty years?" she raises a brow but nods her head "I think... I think it's coming together now. I'm so close to it now that I'm not gonna let anything get in my way from my greatest achievement." her gaze softened as she placed her hand on his knee. 

"Then I hope everything goes your way, Stan." he smiles at her and places his hand on top of hers, however, her eyes widened in surprise when a water balloon was thrown at her, soaking her. They look over and see that it was Dipper who had thrown it, whose face was frozen with horror. 

"O-Oh my gosh, Alvah! That was meant for Stan!" said man was howling with laughter, she stared at Stan and promptly shoved him off the sofa, which caused the kids to laugh, and then proceed to shower him with water balloons. 

"Alright, alright! Hahaha! I tell ya, it's unnatural for siblings to get along as well as you do." Mabel lets out a laugh. 

"Haha! Don't worry, we've still got plenty of summer left to drive each other crazy." she cheers as she grabs a hold of Dipper, he then pushes her back and splashes her with a water balloon. 

"Heh, yeah... plenty of summer left." she grabbed his hand from behind him after hearing the way his voice dampened a little, he squeezed it and smiled when she squeezed his hand "Kids, there's something I... something I should tell you. It's, um... w-well it's complicated. I..." she was startled when he abruptly took his hand back from her "I'm gonna go refresh my soda." she and the children watch him rush off in a hurry, they look up at her to see if she knew why he fled the way she did but even she looked confused. 

"Alvah?" her face saddened when he disappeared but she shook her head and smiled at the kids. 

"I'm sure whatever he has to tell you is just hard for him to expl--" she shot up to her feet when she heard shouting, immediately getting in front of the kids to protect them "Stan? Are you alri--" she lets out a gasp when a group of armed men came out from around the corner and pointed guns at her, the kids jumped back when she was tackled to the ground. 

"Alvah!" she lets out a grunt when the man above her grabbed her by the wrists and slapped handcuffs around them. 

"Target secure." she turned her head and her eyes widened when she saw the soldiers surround Dipper and Mabel. 

"Kids are secure." she was lifted to her feet as a squadron of government soldiers broke into the house through the windows, she glared at the man who was handling her. 

"Hey! I haven't done anything! I know my rights." she turned her head when she saw Stan was being escorted by another government soldier "Stan! What's going on? Why am I being arrested?!" 

"Alvah, I-- hey! Hands off, you stooge! I don't understand. What did I do that warrants this much arresting?" Stan shouts as he was held down on the boot of a car, she was treated nicer than him and was left standing, she scoffs when she saw Agent Powers and Agent Trigger appear. 

"The government guys? I thought you got eaten by zombies." 

"We survived... barely." 

"I used Trigger as a human shield. He cried like a baby." she deadpanned, she didn't need to know that "This is security footage of a government waste facility. At 0400 hours last night, someone robbed 300 gallons of dangerous waste." 

"What? You think that's me?" 

"Don't play dumb with us, Pines!" 

"But I actually am dumb! Last night I was restocking the gift shop... I swear!" he was then taken into the car, leaving Alvah with the kids still handcuffed. 

"Why am I being arrested? What did I do?" she leaned back as her face scrunched up with anger when he got close to her. 

"We've been keeping an eye on Mr Pines ever since that zombie incident and we've noticed that you have a close relationship with him." she let out a gasp when she was being led away to a different government vehicle, her eyes not leaving Agent Powers "We might not have any video evidence of you helping, but we can't write you off the list just yet." 

"I'm being arrested for mere association with him?! I swear, this isn't going to end well for you!" 

stan finds it slightly amusing seeing alvah get a mugshot but is silenced when she glares at him from across the room. 

she and stan are separated into different interrogation rooms but she could just hear him fumbling over his words, trying to say "he's innocent until proven guilty", but failing. 

they really had no need to take her in as well but from what they've observed, she and stan were nearly always seen together. 

what's to say she wasn't with him during that ordeal? 

they asked her questions to get her to talk, to get her to prove that it was indeed stan who stole the nuclear waste. 

but throughout the interrogation, she was eerily quiet. 

giving short or one-worded answers. 

what really disturbed them was how calm she looked, her eyes and voice devoid of any emotion. 

from what they got from the locals, alvah was a walking ray of sunshine. no matter who saw her she always had some way to make them smile. 

she was kind, nice, and polite and the type of person who you could talk to no matter the topic. 

but the woman sitting in the interrogation room, a singular light hanging above her head as she stared at them without blinking... it terrified them. 

"She's a lot creepier than I would have thought." 

"Let's get some air. Her answers are getting us nowhere." Alvah watched them leave the room before slumping back in her seat, she knew this day was coming but she didn't expect she'd be arrested like Stan, it was a little humiliating if she was being honest. She hoped the kids were alright, she knew Stan was fine telling how the agents left him alone in the room, but she was getting a little frustrated that they were holding her here all because she and Stan were close. She began to scowl but let out an oh when everything, including herself, started floating a few feet off the ground before dropping back down with a notable thud. 

"Huh, now ain't that interesting." unlike Stan, she was handcuffed to the table in front of her so she tugged it back when it dropped a few inches away from where it originally was. This was going to get a lot more fun, a few hours rolled by and the group of agents came back into the room with determined expressions. 

"Look here, lady. You may not be guilty of any crimes unlike Mr Pines in the next room over, but you could get into serious trouble for withholding information. If you tell us what you know, you can go home." she just raised a brow at him. 

"Uh huh." she answered boredly, leaning back against her seat while letting her head hang back, looking up at the ceiling like it was the most interesting thing she's seen all day. She didn't flinch when the agent slammed his hand onto the table, she simply raised her head to look at the agent, expression indifferent "Struck a nerve?" she snickered when he grabbed her by the collar of her chest, yanking her out of her seat and scowling at that smug look on her face. 

"You're stepping on thin ice, lady." 

"Ooo, I'm so scared." she let out a laugh when he threw her back into the chair and she waved her hands from where they were chained "Now that ain't a way to treat a lady. Have you no manners?" she then started laughing rather manically, this was the first emotion they got out of her that entire time and it really freaked them out, with how far her smile stretched across her face and how her laughter echoed throughout the empty room. 

"God, you're creepy. I don't know why this town likes you so much." she winked. 

"Thanks. I take that as a real compliment." she grinned cheekily at him when he slumped against the table, she glanced over at a clock and saw that it was seconds away from nine o'clock "Hey, do any of you guys get motion sick?" they look at her with confused expressions. 

"What? No?" she chuckled. 

"Good, then you'll be just fine." the moment the clock struck nine everything in the room started floating just like before, but this time it lasted much longer and the agents in the room began freaking out. She continued to sit calmly in her seat while the other men tried their best to find anything stable, she glanced to the side when she heard in the room over a whole lot of shouting, she figured Stan had managed to free himself and was effortlessly getting himself out of the room. The moment the gravity came back everyone fell to the ground with a grunt, she just looked down at them amused, she perked up when she saw something run across the window of the door before coming back. 

"Alvah! Let me--" she raised her hand and shook her head, gesturing for him to leave. 

"You clearly have somewhere to be, Stan. I'll be fine. I'll catch up with you later." she winked at him and though he seemed reluctant he dashed out of the police station, now that Stan was finally gone, she inhaled deeply while rolling her shoulders "Finally, the day of his return has arrived." the agents were slowly peeling themselves off the floor when they finally noticed Alvah stand to her feet, the one that was being violent with her pulled himself up by using the table but noticed that when she stood up the handcuffs that kept her secured to the table snapped off. 

"Hey, lady..." he paused when he saw her lace her fingers together and push them forward so she could crack her knuckles, followed by rolling her neck before finally settling her eyes on him "y-you can't just--" he was cut off when she grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, the same way he grabbed her, and pulled him until they were inches away from each other's faces. 

"What happened to that big boy attitude from before? Don't tell me that was all for show." that same grin that scared them stretched across her face again but this time her eyes held a sort of viciousness, or rather, insanity "You should have left us well alone, and maybe then you wouldn't have to suffer such a gruesome fate." the next couple of minutes the room was filled with cries and screams followed by maniacal laughter that slowly died out as time ticked by, the agents in the next toom quickly burst out of the room the moment they collected their bearings and ran out to chase after Stan but first checked up on their fellow agents interrogating Stan's part-- they all recoil back at the stench of death lingering out of the room, how blood was splattered across the floor and walls and even the ceiling, and at the center of it all was Alvah, holding the broken arm of the same man who was acting up on her. 

"Y-You..." her head snaps towards them like a doll, they flinch back at the sight of blood dripping down her face as she presses the heel of her boot into the agent's head to keep him still. 

"You should have heeded my warning, Agent Powers." she spoke, she took a step forward but raised the leg that was on the agent's head, they flinched back when she slammed her foot down and crushed his head "If I were you, I'd forget all about this town and get as far away as possible. But now... I can't let you leave. You know too much." Agent Powers takes a step back when she snaps her head again, her pupils moving erratically within her eye socket. 

"We should have kept our eyes on you, not Stanford." 

stan was running as fast as he could back to the mystery shack, hoping that soos did as he was asked and protected the vending machine. 

little did he know that dipper and mabel found his stash of fake id's, the newspaper article that proclaimed he was dead and the code that unlocks the vending machine to reveal the hidden door that leads to the basement. 

soos, dipper and mabel venture down into the basement and in horror found exactly what the government agents were searching for. 

the machine that could potentially destroy the world. 

with only a minute to go, the trio found a manual override that could possibly shut the machine down and stop it from tearing the universe apart. 

turning the three keys at the same time, it powers up a button directly in front of the machine that could shut down the machine. 

they quickly rush over to it, intending to shut it down for good when stan finally made it back. 

"Don't touch that button!" they all whip their heads towards the door and see a panicked look on Stan's face as he shouted at them to stop, he saw the way they stared at him with mixed feelings. Betrayal, anger, confusion, Dipper's hand was hovering over the button that could potentially ruin thirty years of his progress "Dipper, just back away. Please don't press that shutdown button. You gotta trust me." the boy's gaze hardened on him as he looked between him and the button. 

"And I should trust you, why? After you stole radioactive waste, after you lied to us all summer! I don't even know who you are!" 

"Look, I know this all seems nuts, but I need that machine to stay on. If you just let me explain--" his head snapped towards his watch and started beeping, indicating that another gravitational anomaly was going off "Oh! Oh, no! Brace yourselves!" the machine that Stan had been working on spurred to life, a gateway of sorts opened up as they were lifted off the ground, this anomaly was much more powerful than the previous ones because it started to lift the shack off the ground along with the other buildings within Gravity Falls. 

"T-Minus thirty-five seconds." they're all floating off in different directions, Mabel, however, got her foot caught in the wire attached to the shutdown button. 

"Mabel! Hurry! Shut it down!" Stan panics when he saw her pulling herself towards the button, he manages to plant his feet on the wall he was thrown into and push himself towards her. 

"No! Mabel, Mabel, wait! Stop!" he let out a grunt when Soos slammed into him to stop him "Soos, what are you doing? I gave you an order!" Soos tightened his hold on Stan. 

"Sorry, Mr Pines, if that really is your name, but I have a new mission now, protecting these kids!" 

"Soos, you idiot, let me go!" Dipper manages to throw himself at Stan, sending the three of them flying through the air. 

"Let me go!" 

"Mabel, press the red button! Shut it down!" 

"No, you can't! You gotta trust me!" 

"Grunkle Stan, I don't even know if you're my Grunkle! I wanna believe you, but..." 

"Then listen to me. Remember this morning, when I said I wanted to tell you guys something?" they briefly looked away when the timer went off, saying that they had twenty seconds, the gateway surged with energy and threw the boys back into the wall opposite to where Mabel was, she raises her fist to push the button but stopped when he started speaking again "I wanted to say that you're gonna hear some bad things about me, and some of 'em are true, but trust me, everything I've worked for, everything I care about, it's all for this family." 

"Mabel, what if he's lying?! This thing could destroy the world! Listen to your head!" 

"Look into my eyes, Mabel! You really think I'm a bad guy?" 

"He's lying! Shut it down, now!" 

"Mabel, please!" Mabel looked between Stan and Dipper, her head swirling with all kinds of thoughts. Mabel didn't know who to choose-- who to believe. On one hand, Stan was pleading with her to not push the button? But what did he gain from this machine being on and possibly destroying the universe. On the other, Dipper was telling her to push the button to prevent such a catastrophe from happening. The timer slowly counted down as her hand lowered towards the button, she looked back at Stan and saw how much he was begging her not to do it. 

"Grunkle Stan... I trust you." with that she raised her hands above her head and allowed herself to float away from the button. 

"Mabel, are you crazy?! We're all gonna--" the moment the timer struck one a blister of white light exploded out of the machine and enveloped the entire room, this lasted for a couple seconds before gravity returned and everything fell back to the ground. Looking towards the machine, it was completely destroyed at this point but the gateway was still powered on and Dipper saw through the smoke a figure walking through. The figure approached them but stopped right in front of one of the journals, Dipper watched as he placed his six-fingered hand on top of the cover before lifting it off the ground and putting it in his coat "W-What? Who is that?" Stan, who lifted himself off the ground and adjusted his hat, stared up at the figure with disbelief. 

"The author of the journals... my brother." 

... 

... 

"Is this the part where one of us faints?" 

"Oh, I am so on it, dude." with that Soos fainted, but as they all slowly took in what just happened in the span of a minute, the sound of someone slowly clapping echoed through the room along with their footsteps. Looking towards the entrance, through the dust, Stan recognized the figure as she slowly approached them. 

"Well, well, well. You did it, Stanley. I just knew you could." Stan's eyes widened at the sight of Alvah, he had completely forgotten about her at the police station, but now she was here... different. She had blood splattered across her face and dress, the ends of her hands dripping with it while the end of her dress looked soaked along with her boots. As she gets closer he reaches his hand out to her but she completely ignored him, her eyes fixated on the man he proclaimed as his brother "Welcome back, Stanford." 

Siblings pt. 3

word count: 60,230

Fandom: Stranger Things Pairing: Robin Buckley + Steve Harrington x Female!Harrington!Reader Pronouns: She/Her Relationship: Romantic/Familial Occupation: University Student Ability: N/A

Keys:

[F/N]: Female Name [L/N]: Last Name [N/N]: Nickname [H/C]: Hair Color [E/C]: Eye Color

Warnings: child abuse, character death, violence, vulgar language, alcohol.

“Siblings” pt. 1, pt. 2

this part is going to be dedicated to my friend’s friend @puresass​​.

the unknown guy’s name from hellfire will be nathan, he looks like a nathan to me.

the harrington couple’s name will be richard and lauren harrington. those seem like the most basic bitch names I could think of.

there was a part in here where I just didn’t give a shit and I feel like y’all will be able to pinpoint where.

there’s bound to be a lot of mistakes in here but I a) can’t be fucked fixing and b) I can’t be fucked fixing.

the endings a little anticlimactic and not what I would have wanted but I can’t be fucked and it’s too long so I just needed to put a stop to it. maybe i’ll change it or I won’t, I’ll see how i feel.

that is all.

Steve felt numb.

He couldn’t believe that this was actually happening.

He couldn’t believe that he was attending his sisters and boyfriends funeral. The last time he attended a funeral was the year prior for Barb, and even then he still hasn’t fully gotten over the guilt of what happened to her to the point he can’t even go swimming in his own goddamn pool. Staring at his reflection, he caressed his face that was still recovering from the onslaught his sister and the Russians did to him, but his heart hastened at the sight of his eyes in his reflection. Tears gathered in his eyes quicker than he realised, a sob escaping his trembling lips that he had to cover his mouth and quickly look away before he broke down before arriving at the actual funeral. Peering one last time at the mirror he looked away immediately when all he saw was her staring right back at him, but not his sweet and beautiful sister that he grew up with, but the monster who’s complexion was comparable to that of a sheet of paper, veins as black as tar and a dead expression that glared at him from behind.

Dustin enters the room to check up on Steve, he was taking longer then the allotted time Steve had given him, to find him collapsed on the ground unable to quell the tears and broken cries for his sister. Dustin was quick to rush to Steve’s side, wrapping his arms around his shoulders and letting the older man cry into his shoulder. Dustin didn’t quite understand what Steve was going through, he himself hasn’t met [F/N] like the others did, whether it may be the flayed version of her or not, but he understood that their relationship ran deep. He remembered the rare few times Steve did mention his sister, and when he did, Dustin would have to listen to Steve’s rambling about how cool his older sister was and how she did absolutely everything in her power to ensure he was happy. There wasn’t a bad thing he could say about his sister, everything about her was just praise after praise.

Jonathan was the one to get Steve to calm down, completely understanding exactly what Steve was going through. Before it was him that lost Will, when he FIRST lost Will to the upside down and when the police found his “body” in the quarry. It was gut wrenching to see Steve, who never let anyone see that they got to him, unable to control the tears running down his cheeks or the violent shaking his body was suffering through. But unlike him, [F/N] was really gone, they all saw her dead body along side Billy’s, neither one of them were walking that one off. They weren’t recovering from that wound like they did with others, they were really gone and they weren’t coming back. Robin wasn’t doing so good either. Arriving at the burial, they noted how exhausted she looked with dried tear tracks staining her cheeks. Upon seeing each other, a new wave of anguish washed over them as tears threatened to spill, but they managed to pull themselves together and used each other for support and comfort. Nancy didn’t really know Robin all to well but she offered her comfort, placing a hand on her shoulder and gently squeezing it while Dustin stood at Steve’s side and rubbed circles into his back. It took them everything not to collapse to their knees when they finally lowered the caskets into their craves, Max herself wasn’t doing so great as she stood with her mother with El at her side and watched as Billy’s casket disappeared under the earth. Steve couldn’t stand being there any longer than he had to be, the moment both caskets were buried he didn’t hesitate to turn tail and return to his car where he spent the next couple of minutes balling his eyes out because he just couldn’t believe this was happening.

He didn’t want to believe the fact that he was now outliving his sister, he was now an only child. He pressed a hand to his mouth when a sob rippled out of his throat, pressing the heels of his hands against his forehead while gritting his teeth. God, what the hell was he going to tell their— his parents that she was dead? How the hell were the going to react? He already tried calling for them, others tried notifying the Harrington couple that their eldest child and only daughter had died in the Starcourt fire along side thirty other people, counting Billy Hargrove who was known as her lover and Police Chief Hopper, dubbed a hero for rescuing the surviving few that managed to escape. [F/N] herself hasn’t really spoken or seen their parents in a long time, only tolerating their mere existence for the sake of Steve but the moment she was free of school and their hold, she ditched Hawkins without a moments hesitation. She only came back for Steve, it was always for Steve. Maybe if he hadn’t stuck around because he couldn’t get into a good college out of Hawkins, maybe [F/N] wouldn’t have returned to bum fuck nowhere just to see him. Goddammit, it was always his fault!

She became the disappointment of the family for him.

She laid down her crown for him.

She became the local freak for him.

She died for him, and maybe that might not be true, but he was never going to forget that look of absolute pain she had in her eyes when she realised what she had done. He finally had her back, he was finally in her arms safe and though she was bawling her eyes out because she had hurt him, it was his [F/N]. That was his big sister that adored him with all her heart, but it was exactly what Jonathan said, her love for him is both her weakness and her strength. She loved him too much that she threw her last chance away just to get back at the monster that ruined her life, in doing so she died in the arms of her supposed lover.

Billy, oh poor sweet Billy. Not a single day goes by where knowing what exactly was going on in Hawkins, the guilt of not telling the blonde the details will continue to eat at him until the day he reaches his limit. Things were finally going good for both him and Billy, they finally pushed the events of the year prior to the side and started getting along, but dating? Gosh, Steve wasn’t so sure when he fell in love with Billy exactly, but it felt ethical. He was helping Billy work on himself, helping him think of ways to mend his relationship with Max. He was Billy’s safe haven away from the horrors of his father, that sick bastard that didn’t hesitate to sell all his shit, divorce Susan and abandoned the Mayfield family to flee Hawkins. Maybe he was already planning it from how fast he reacted to the news of his deceased son, but that didn’t matter, Billy was trying and that’s all that matters. He was trying, he was trying to be better, but none of it matters anymore because he’s gone.

“I-I’m not ready…” he mumbles under his breath, sniffling to himself as he tries wiping the tears away but were replaced by more. He lets out a groan, looking over at the passenger seat, his mind began playing with memories of her “I-I’m not ready, [F/N].” she lurched forward when Steve abruptly stepped on the brake, glancing over at her brother, she saw that panicked expression on his face that reminded her of the time she tried teaching him how to ride a bike. Right now she was teaching him how to drive a car after he passes his learners, though perhaps it wasn’t a good idea to teach him in her mustang.

“Well,” she takes a breath, grip so violent on the handle above her while her other was placed on his knee that she would occasionally squeeze “not everyone is ready to drive. You’ve got plenty of time to get the hang of it, I promise.” he lets out a sigh, head bumping against the wheel.

“But Tommy said he understood on his first go.” she scoffed, rolling her eyes.

“That virgin? Psh, please. Pretty sure he flunked the first time trying for his learners.” that made a smile crack onto his cheeks but that didn’t stop his nervousness, she lets out a sigh “… I couldn’t go to mum and dad to help teach me to drive, and though I was better off teaching myself, guess who I went to for help?”

“Who?” she was already grinning before she answered him.

“Munson.” now she bursts into laughter when he whipped his head so fast she was surprised he didn’t break his neck “Oh, come on now! I was desperate, and though it was a mistake in itself, he did make it more fun to learn. But in the end it was his uncle that taught me, he’s such a gentlemen. Love the guy to bits.” now they burst out into laughter, [F/N] smiled brightly when that managed to calm him down and he didn’t look as nervous as he did.

“Well, I needed that.” she huffs.

“Hey, when you get comfortable enough to drive, I might even let you take my baby out for a drive.” his face lights up.

“Really? You’ll let me drive your mustang?” she rolls her eyes, pushing his head by the cheek to look back out towards the road ahead of him.

“Don’t get your hopes high, first learn how to pull out of the driveway then we’ll talk.” in the end [F/N] did let him take her mustang out for a spin but was quickly banned from driving it again when they blew past Hopper and [F/N] was fined for letting a learner drive and over the speed limit, they never spoke about it ever again. Just the memory of him together with [F/N] made him happy but the bitter thought that she wasn’t around anymore just made every happy memory of her sour now.

*knock knock*

“Hey, dude.” Steve lets out a gasp at the soft knocking on his window, thinking it was maybe Nancy or Robin, he hurriedly wipes his tears away before looking over but was surprised to see who it was.

“Munson?” Eddie gives him a nervous smile followed by a wave, he then gestures with his hand to roll down the window and so he does “What are you— what are you doing here?” Eddie couldn’t help but frown at the state the former “King” Steve Harrington was in, he couldn’t believe it. From that cocky little shit that went humble after newbie from cali, who’s also dead, overthrew him, he didn’t know who was in front of him. Maybe this was [F/N]’s crybaby brother that she gave up everything for, he takes a breath as he rubs his neck.

“[F/N] was my friend, man, there’s no way I’d miss her funeral.” Eddie pulled away briefly to look over at his uncle, to which he was gesturing to the small box that Steve failed to notice until now “Um, I know we’ve never really talked or nothing but… I think she’d want you to have this.” he then hands Steve the box, shoving his hands into his pockets the moment Steve takes it from him. He wants to tug against the suit and tie Wayne forced him into, saying he should at least look a little appropriate for [F/N] and Billy’s funeral, he at least let him wear his ripped jeans if he wore the tie. A reasonable bargain.

“What is this?”

“Open it, and you might find out.” Steve couldn’t help but scoff at his words but heeded them, taking the lId off before freezing up at what he saw. Eddie swallowed thickly, not expecting this kind of reaction so he leaned over to see his expression and his heart dropped when he saw the tears running down his cheeks again. Steve’s trembling hand reached into the box and he pulled out one of the many polaroids that filled the box, the one he had in his hands was of her with Eddie and his frie— their friends laughing together in what he could make out was the hideout. FUCKING KILLED IT, was what was written at the bottom of the photo “Hey man, I’m sorry if that didn’t help or anything— she always mentioned you, you know? She loved talking about you with any chance she got to bring you up to the point it got annoying, but she loved you. Thought you might have wanted to know that.” he raised his hand to caress his arm then looked back towards Steve to see that he was looking up at him with those tear filled eyes. God, he felt his own tears threatening to fall cause looking down at Steve just reminded him of [F/N]. Why the hell did the two of them have to look so alike? He had to same exact heartbroken look on his face the day she and Eddie first became friends, when she begged for him to help fix her relationship with Steve even if it meant destroying her reputation.

“I-I— thank you, Munson…! You’ve no idea what this m-means to me.” Eddie glanced at Steve and saw him looking through the other the other photos, and though he still had tears running down his face, he had a bittersweet smile on his face “She looks so happy in m-most of these.” he muttered softly, he remembered how his sister hated taking photos, especially if it was for their parents. She made it her personal mission to frown or look as miserable as she could in each family photo, so seeing a genuine smile on her face really meant something to him.

“She was always happy around us, called us the family she wished she had.” Eddie cursed under his breath when he noticed Steve flinch “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—” Steve shakes his head.

“No, no, I understand where you’re coming from.” he wipes away the tears and some of the snot, sniffling to himself then looked up at Eddie with those red doe eyes, glassy with new tears threatening to fall at any moment “She was the sister I took for granted, and now that she’s gone… I don’t know what to do with myself.” Eddie takes a breath, taking a step back and pinching the bridge of his nose to calm himself down, when he looks back at Steve he places his hands on his hips and gave him the same look he did with [F/N] whenever she was feeling depressed.

“Listen, Harrington.” Steve looks up at him “Your sister and I were close, as I’d like to say, she was my platonic soulmate. She’s told me things that I am more than willing to take to the grave, but I think she would want you to know what great lengths she went to just for the sake of your happiness over her own. So now that she’s gone, I hope you don’t let her efforts die in vain. She would want you to live your life to the fullest even if she’s gone, if not, we both know that she’d kick your ass.” this caused the both of them to laugh softly, Steve looked up at Eddie with a newfound fondness, feeling grateful for his words.

“Thanks for that, I really needed that.” his thumb caressed against a different polaroid, one where she looked drunk and was hanging off of some big guy with short curly hair, though the both of them were laughing happily while Gareth looked confused in the background, at the bottom was captioned with [F/N] + NATHAN HAVING A BLAST w/ GARETH “I’m glad she at least had one friend that understood her; that was there for her when nobody else was on her side. I wish I had that.” Eddie frowned softly.

“No offence dude, but you did have that.” he scratches at his cheek, trying to hide the guilty look on his face but he was struggling “She was always there for you, even when you thought she wasn’t. There wasn’t a single time that she was against you.” Steve swallowed a lump down his throat, feeling a pang of guilt in his heart for every instance he thought [F/N] hated his existence as much as he hated her, but that hate was one sided.

“I really took her for granted.” Eddie presses his lips together and slowly nodded his head.

“Yeah…” his eyes perked up when he saw a small group huddle up, there he saw his friends looked as disheveled and upset as he was standing beside his uncle “H-Hey, I’ve got to go now. But if you ever need to talk, or want to hear some funny stories of how dumb your sister was in high school, you know where to find me?” he offered, not really expecting Steve to take him up on that offer, but he nodded his head.

“I’d actually like that a lot. She hasn’t told me much of what happened in high school, saying it all went by like a blur.” Eddie stuttered over his next words, waving his hands around before rubbing the back of his neck.

“O-Oh, yeah, totally! Then I guess, see you around?” Steve nods his head and waved his hand goodbye, Eddie returns the gesture before jogging back over to his uncle and friends. Steve watched them for a bit, watching the one he knows as Gareth fail to keep his tears under control because the moment Eddie was in front of him he broke down crying, and soon a chain reaction broke out through the lot of them and they were all crying together. He inhales shakily through his nose, he sets the box of polaroid photos on his passenger seat then digs through his pocket, upon finding what he was looking for he pulls it out and grimaces at the sight of Billy’s signature necklace hanging through his fingers. Max was kind enough to give him at least one piece of Billy with him, it wasn’t his ring but this was more than enough to give him some closure. Putting it on, he clutches onto it tightly, his knuckles turning white from how harsh his grip was, before raising it up to press his lips against it.

“I’m sorry we didn’t have enough time, Billy. I’m so sorry.” he lowers it until it sits against his chest, he pats the space over his heart and takes another deep breath, this time to calm the new wave of tears that threatened to fall. Another knock on his window has him turning his attention towards the glass, his eyes lit up slightly at the sight of Robin knocking gently on the glass of the passenger side “Robin…” he called out weakly, she gives him a strained smile before opening his door and taking a seat, moving the box onto the floor.

“Hey…” she greeted in return, the two of them sat in silence. It was comfortable, just the two of them together, simply acknowledging each other’s existence. Robin flinched slightly when she felt something brush against her arm, sparing him a look, she saw that he offered his hand for her to take. Her bottom lip trembled softly but she took his hand nonetheless, giving it a tight squeeze before hunching forward, burying her face into the palm of her hand as her shoulders shook when she started to cry again. Steve, this time, inhaled sharply to stop himself from crying once more. If he knew his sister, and he’d like to think that he did, then she wouldn’t want him crying over her death as much as he was right now “What do we do now, Steve?” Robin asks through her tears, looking at him in a desperate plea.

“… move on, I guess.” Robin knew that was the answer, but god forbid she wished there was another one, where this wasn’t happening to begin with. She wanted Steve to take her to their place and there she’ll find Billy and [F/N] soaking it up in the pool complaining about how hot it is. Maybe her heart wouldn’t ache as much as it did if she never met [F/N] to begin with, maybe she’d feel better if she didn’t get to know Harrington at all. But how could she think that because now every time she looks at Steve she at least sees a part of [F/N] in him, or maybe that’s the reason she’s coming to hate looking at him. They share the same sad little look, resembling that of a kicked puppy begging for attention. “Is that all we can do…?” she muttered softly.

“What else is there to do?” she couldn’t think of anything, he gently squeezes her hand “Do you want to come over?” she nods her head.

“Yeah.” they spent the rest of the day sitting silently in his room, neither one of them had the heart to go into her room because they knew they wouldn’t be able to control themselves from having another meltdown. Robin’s eyes lingered over to Steve and saw that his hand was fiddling with Billy’s necklace, glancing down at herself, her bottom lip started trembling when she remembered she was wearing [F/N]’s jacket despite the intense heat of the summer “Steve, can I take something of [F/N]’s?” “You’ve already got two of her jackets, what more would you want?” Steve then noticed where her gaze was fixed and so he let out a soft sigh but nodded nonetheless, this is where the two of them found themselves standing painfully in the middle of [F/N]’s room. Honestly, Steve didn’t know what to do with her room anymore. The day she moved out and left for university their parents wanted to throw all her stuff out, saying that she was no longer welcome in their house ever again, but Steve was adamant on keeping her stuff there and prided himself on managing to convince them, but now he wanted nothing to do with any of her stuff. Everywhere he looked was just a reminder of what he had done to cause them to drift apart in the first place.

“I’ll be quick, I don’t want to be in here any more than you do.” Steve watches from the door as Robin looks around [F/N]’s room, looking for something specific. He almost felt like it was a preach of [F/N]’s privacy seeing Robin open draws and nearly throw things around in search for whatever she was looking for, she finally stopped at [F/N]’s bedside table, opening up the top draw and pausing in her search. Robin sniffled softly as she pulled out a cassette tape, she smiled sadly as she flipped it around and saw what was labeled on it “for my song bird”. “Song bird?” she hadn’t realised Steve was behind her until he spoke, though she wasn’t startled by his sudden appearance, she just nodded softly as she looked down at it.

“She called me her song bird whenever I tried singing, and though I thought my voice was terrible, she told me she loved it.” her thumb caressed the cassette as she stared at it fondly “She told me she was working on it, even if she already made a tone of mixtapes for me, she told me that this one had songs that told me how much she loved me. I don’t know if it’s finished or not, but I thought I’d take it, finished or not.” she thought back to that memory fondly, she was sitting in [F/N]’s room listening to a different mixtape she made for her, glancing over at the girl occasionally from where she laid.

”What’s got you thinking so hard, [F/N]?” Robin questioned, seeing the way her forehead creased as she stared down at the piece of paper intently. She could always tell when her [F/N] was in deep thought, from the way she was bouncing her leg along with the cigarette that hung from her lips. She always did try not to smoke around Robin, saying how she thought smoking was gross, so she tried to hoard off her addiction but when her mind got too much for her she’d have a cancer stick on her lips, a window was open so the room wouldn’t get too overwhelming for her though.

“Thought of a new mixtape for you, song bird.” Robin blushes softly at the nickname, she always loved the sweet pet names she thought for her revolving around her name “I think this one will be my best one yet.”

“Really? I don’t know about that, I think the last one you made for me was your best one.” Robin giggles to herself as she thought about it, [F/N] labelled that one “rage” that the two of them would play at full blast whenever either one of them was feeling like letting loose because of how shitty Hawkins was.

“Say all you want, but I believe you’re really going to like this one.” she says, pointing the pencil in her hand towards her “Each song is going to represent just how much I love you.” she blinked at that declaration.

“How much you love me?” she nods her, making a little “mm hmm” noise as she took the cigarette from her lips and taps the ash onto her ashtray “How much more can you love me?” [F/N] chuckles affectionately.

“I don’t think I’ve ever felt the way I do with any other girl I’ve been with, Robin. You’re very special to me and I just want you to know that.” she looks down at the sheet of paper with jotted down love songs and blushed softly “I really want you to know that you have a special place in my heart… though you do come second to Steve.” Robin’s face fell the second Steve was mentioned, [F/N] snicked and quickly pocketed her list of songs just as Robin jumped to her feet.

“I don’t want to be second to Steve!” [F/N] puts out her cigarette just a second before she was tackled out of her chair to the ground, she burst out into laughter as Robin sat above her, holding her down by the shoulders as she laughed “Why can’t I be your first place?” [F/N] fondly rolled her eyes, hands lingering onto her thighs whilst turning her head to kiss the hands on her shoulders.

“The moment we’re married you’ll be my first place, my sweet. The day you become my wife will be the day I’ll put you before anyone, but until that day, Steve will forever be my first place.” Robin pouts but that didn’t settle the pink flush rising to her cheeks, she scoffed and rubbed her thumbs into her shoulders.

“You’re saying that as if I’ll say yes.” this earned her a chuckle.

“So you won’t marry me?”

“I didn’t say that…” the two of them were thrown into a fit of giggles, Robin collapsing onto [F/N] in the process of it all. A fond smile worked its way onto her face as she reminisces about that night, each time Robin brought up the mixtape, asking when will she be able to listen to it, [F/N] would give an excuse saying how she needed to add a few more songs to it before she’d consider it done, but Robin knew she’d be nervous to give it to her “I wonder what songs she chose.” she muttered softly, placing the cassette into her pocket as she stood to her feet.

“Think she picked cheesy love songs?” Robin snickers at the thought.

“As funny as that thought is, you and I both know she would choose songs with meaning behind them.” the two of them now stand in silence just staring at each other, Robin was the first to break. She throws her arms around Steve and starts sobbing into his shoulder, Steve just stands there motionless for awhile as Robin cried into his shoulder before finally raising his hands to wrap around her torso. Steve offered for her to stay the night if she needed it but she couldn’t handle the thought of being in that house, and though she felt awful that she was going to be leaving Steve all alone in that empty house, she just couldn’t bear the thought of it. She left with an apology with her parents where she now her room clutching the cassette tape, she was nervous after all. This was probably the last gift she was ever going to receive from [F/N] and she didn’t want to use it recklessly. When she couldn’t handle sitting in silence anymore she finally sat up and grabbed her cassette player, taking out [F/N]’s other mixtape for her and replacing it with the new one before putting on her headphones.

’[F/N] and Steve have drastically different taste in music, but I can totally imagine hearing her listen to George Mic—’ her thoughts were caught off guard when she heard the track of an old classic, her eyes started to water at the sound of “So This Is Love” sung by Ilene Woods beginning to play. Robin’s parents peek into her room and their hearts broke at the sight of Robin, openly crying as she held her cassette player close to her chest as classical love songs played one after the other. Robin couldn’t believe she forgot how in love [F/N] was when it came down to classics and orchestra type songs, having seen her punk/alt girlfriend blast music like Led Zeppelin and Ozzy Osborne more than sitting down to appreciate classics like Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata or even Claude Debussy’s Claire de Lune. The first time she caught her listening to an old classical was when [F/N] had quite a hard time that day and needed to settle and relax and classical music always seemed to calm her down.

”I don’t know, honestly. It’s something about the melody that feels so… euphoric. Maybe one day you’ll feel the same type of love I do for the old classics, huh?” Robin gasped when the tape ended drastically, her trembling lips let out a sob when she came to the realisation.

She didn’t get to finish it.

Steve wasn’t doing any better. He found himself situated in his room, sitting on the floor with the box of polaroids Eddie had given him and was looking through each and every one of them. Each one looked better than the last, her smile getting bigger and bigger whenever she was with her group of friends she called family. In the background he was playing a tape that he and [F/N] grew fond of together when they were young children, “Go Your Own Way” by Fleetwood Mac was adored by [F/N] despite its meaning but both herself and Steve loved the way it sounded to their ears. He was planning on sharing this with Robin but he probably will on a later date, right now, he just wanted to be alone to reminicent on the good old days by himself.

“I wish I told you what was going on, [F/N]…” he murmured to himself, finding a polaroid of [F/N] by herself this time, she looked the calmest in this one compared to the rest but she still had that genuine smile on her face. MOVIE NIGHT was captioned at the bottom, ah, so that explains the bowl of popcorn that sat in her lap “Maybe if I warned you beforehand, none of this would be happening in the first place. Maybe then you and Billy would still be here, alive and breathing.” he shakily spares a glance towards his mirror but quickly turned away when he saw her once more, whats even worse, he saw Billy standing beside her. Everything was just getting so much harder.

[time skip: a few days later]

His parents coming home was unexpected. He was in the middle of cleaning his room when the front door to the house was unlocked and opened, voices filling the usually cold and empty house. How were they going to react knowing that their daughter was dead? How are they going to react at the sight of Steve’s still healing face? What about how he was involved with the fire that went down at the Starcourt Mall and that he was unemployed? His thoughts were brought to a hold when his door opened, glancing over, he winced at the sight of his mother. Both himself and [F/N] took most of their physical traits from their mother, from the skin tone to the shade of hair to the eyes and moles covering their bodies, so staring at his mother that mirrored his sister almost made it hard to look at her.

“Oh, Steven, you’re home. Good, your father and I need some help bringing our luggage in from the car. Be a dear and give us a hand.” he felt his body twitch, what? How is that the first thing she says to his face? Weren’t they told that their eldest daughter was dead? “Steven? Why haven’t you move yet? I asked for your help, did I not?” she was taken aback when a look of anger flashed across his face.

“Mum, did you not hear the news on [F/N]?” an immediate reaction came from his mother, she let out a sigh as she rolled her eyes.

“What? Did she flunk univesity? I had a feeling she would, she didn’t come crawling back here did she? Your father is going to be upset if he sees her, he’s already irritated that you still haven’t cleaned out her room like you were supposed to.” his hand balled up into a tight fist, weren’t they told that she was dead? Is that why they didn’t come rushing home? Is this why it took them fucking days to get back?!

“Did no one tell you?”

“Tell me what?” she blinked in surprise when tears, whether it be of anger or grief, began to swell in his eyes as he stared down at his mother.

“[F/N] died, mum. We had her funeral a couple days ago.” now she wasn’t expecting Steve to say that, she blinked in confusion as she thought back to what happened a few days ago. She did remember both her’s and Richard’s phones blowing up, people they didn’t know calling them in regards of what happened to their children and what happened while they weren’t in Hawkins. They brushed it off their shoulders, thinking the two of them just simply got into trouble, but looking at Steve’s bruise face and heartbroken expression gave her a different impression.

“She’s— no, she’s not.” Lauren shakes her head “I refuse to believe that your sister is dead, okay? There’s no way that girl could have possibly died, alright? If she’s anything from how I remember her is stubborn. If anything, she’s probably doing it for the attention. You know how much she bathed in the light of everyone’s attention, so that’s probably just it—”

“Mum! I fucking SAW her die!” Lauren flinched back at Steve raising his voice “Why the HELL would she kill herself for attention, mum?! That’s the most self-centred thing you could ever think of when she was the most selfless person to have ever existed! She died and I saw it happen, she died and there was nothing I could do to save her! She was suffering and I didn’t even notice!” Steve was going to fall into a rant but swallowed back his next words when his father walked into his room, standing behind his mother with that disappointed expression that never seemed to change.

“Why are you yelling at your mother, Steven? Much less swearing at her.” Steve let out a shuddered breath, raising his arm to wipe away the tears.

“[F/N] is dead and neither of you knew about it.” Richard’s face surprisingly showed a sign of surprise before quickly disappearing when he shook his head, he then let out a sigh as he crossed his arms.

“Is that all?” Steve flinched back “I don’t see why you’re making such a big deal over that girl being dead.” Lauren wore a saddened face, reaching up to grab at her husband’s forearm.

“Richard…” she murmured softly, Steve adverted his eyes when his father glared at him.

“B-But, she was your daughter. Don’t you care that she died at all?” Richard scoffed.

“That girl hasn’t been my daughter for years, Steven. When are you going to accept that she is no longer a Harrington? I guess her death was the final nail in the coffin, but physically and metaphorically.” Steve’s shoulders slumped as he stared at both of his parents, both unsympathetic that their daughter was dead and their son was grieving over her “Now stop this foolish behaviour at once, Steven. We have more important matters to attend to.” with that. Steve was left in his room alone once more but this time he was feeling a different sort of emotion for the parents that emotionally and physically neglected him… resentment. He didn’t understand why their— his parents came to hate [F/N] the way they do now, he just didn’t understand. Just [F/N] rebelling against them and basically flunking school until her last semester wasn’t a good enough answer for him anymore. Did he really not pay enough attention to his sister? Did he really not know how much she was suffering all because… all because of him? He needed answer, and he knew just the man that had them.

“Eddie Munson!” he shouts at the top of his lungs, Eddie, feeling a sense of deja vu, opened the door to his trailer and raised a brow at the sight of Steve. He felt a pang in his heart when he saw Steve standing at the foot of the stairs leading into the trailer, it hurt because it reminded him of how his and [F/N]’s friendship first began.

“Harrington?” Eddie mutters questionably, about the ask what he was doing there in the first place but caught himself “You here to learn a few things about your sister?” Steve swallowed thickly, he couldn’t find the right words so he just let his head fall, hands behind his back as he sheepishly nodded his head. Two completely different personalities, he thought to himself. With a sigh, he took a step back and gestured with his arm just Steve to enter his humble abode, Steve now found himself sitting on the couch a little nervously while Eddie took his uncle’s favorite chair. Steve looked around the trailer, awing at the impressive collection of mugs.

“Um… nice place?” Eddie huffed softly.

“Well, [F/N] loved the trailer. She didn’t care that it was small, it was less suffocating compared to the literal mansion you Harrington’s got yourselves. She hated the simplicity of it all. Wayne always tried to clean up because he thought it didn’t suit a young lady like her, but she always told him that the trailer was perfect.” Eddie hadn’t realised he was rambling in a bad way because when he looked at Steve he saw the brunette had a guilty yet knowing look on his face “Oh, sorry.” Steve shook his head.

“No, no. I-I get it.” he laughed nervously as he rubbed his hands together, looking up at the ceiling to stop the tears from forming in his eyes “She complained that even with the two of us in the house, the silence felt overwhelming to her. I guess that’s why she was always out and away from the house, even more so having her music on at full blast. It was a comfort, she said.” Eddie nods his head.

“Therapeutic.” Steve laugh so weakly.

“Yeah, that’s what she would say whenever I would complain about her music.” Steve and Eddie soon found themselves sitting in silence, whether it be awkward or comfortable, they didn’t know. Steve sniffled to himself, inhaling deeply as he brought his hands to his face then dragging them down “I didn’t notice a lot of the problems she was suffering, did I?” Eddie pulled a face, that was enough to get Steve to close his eyes and the guilt that was in his stomach started to bubble.

“Dude, there was so much wrong with your sister I was surprised she was able to function properly.” he collapses into the chair, running a hand through his hair then waved his hand around “So, what exactly would you like to learn about your sister? Her first time at a rave? How about the time I let her play my sweetheart and she broke one of the strings for shredding to hard?” Steve felt his hands start to get sweaty, his head hanging in front of his head once more.

“… how badly did our parents treat her?” Eddie felt like the air was knocked out of him, his eyes now staring at Steve in disbelief.

“Come on now, you should know how bad it was.” the pain in Steve’s eyes said otherwise, he let out a breath as he turned away, rubbing the back of his neck nervously “I told you there a few things she told me that I was more than willing to take the grave, right?” Steve nods his head.

“Right.”

“That happens to be one of them.” Steve goes to detest, saying that he should know why their relationship turned into the dumpster fire it is now but Eddie just refused to meet his eyes “She told me if you were to ever learn you’d blame yourself, Steve. She didn’t want you to feel the guilt of it all, so as her best friend, I’m not going to touch that subject. I’lll answer all your other questions, but not that sensitive topic. But if that’s all you want to talk about, then I’m going to have to ask you to leave. Talking about her hurts my heart too, man.” Steve bit his lip, Eddie watches him close, watches as all sorts of emotions pooled in his eyes.

“… [F/N] mentioned how you two would get into the dumbest shit when you two attended high school together, could you tell me a few of the shenanigans the two of you got into?” Eddie couldn’t help but snort softly, raising his hand to cover the lower half of his face as he thought back to his— their high school days. Where to begin. Steve watched Eddie closely, he watched as his hand slowly dragged down his face before he cupped his own face and leaned into his palm, slowly a smile worked its way onto his face as he thought back to one memory.

“This… was back during our second year of high school.”

”Suck in your gut, Eddie!”

“What gut? Are you calling me fat?”

“Yes! This was your idea, so shut up and suck in that gut!” when you put Eddie and [F/N] in a room together, or if they’re together regardless, they tend to share one single brain cell between each other. It was just like any typical day at Hawkins High where you could find the troublesome duo for once not doing anything too chaotic, they were just causally chatting about anything that came to mind, Eddie himself rambling about his new campaign idea and a few lyrics he managed to add to the song he was writing with [F/N] listening closely to each and every one of his words. Their conversation came to a halt at the sound of shouting and struggling, leaning forward, they see the jocks shoving a poor nerd into his locker and left him in there. The two stare at the poor fellow before turning to look at each other, the same brain cell that they share sparking as they shared the same thought. Eddie, who was now in his locker while [F/N] was pushing at the locker door with everything she had, were being complete idiots.

“Push harder!” [F/N] scoffed at him, pushing herself up so she wasn’t leaning against the locker door anymore, cracking her knuckles then rolling her sleeves above her elbows. She sucked in a breath then proceeded to shoulder the locker to close, when she noticed that it moved she moved so that her back was pressed against it and went back to pushing. She lets out a grunt when she suddenly fell from the lack of pressure, when she fell to the ground she heard a click and laughed when the locker finally closed.

“Haha! It worked!” she quickly rises to her feet and looks at Eddie through the gaps on the door, he too had a big grin on his face “You cozy in there, Eddie?” they both laugh.

“Nope, I’m cramped as shit! Get me out of here.” she rolled her eyes, she grabbed the handle and pulled but her face scrunched up in confusion when it didn’t open “[F/N], that’s not funny, hurry up and open it already.” now she grabbed onto the handle with both hands and started yanking at the door for it to open but it still wouldn’t budge.

“Um… I think I busted the latch.” they stare at each other in silence, moments later [F/N] is now desperately trying to open the locker door but everything she tried wasn’t working “Goddamn, this shit ain’t budging!”

“Try harder!”

“I am!” [F/N] let out an exhausted breath when she tried pulling with everything she had, she then knocks on it “Dang… I guess you’re stuck in there for the foreseeable future, it was nice knowing you.” she then proceeded to turn on her heel as she started walking away, this caused Eddie to cry out for her.

“Hey, wait! Don’t go! [F/N], please! Don’t leave me in here, I’ll die!” she rolled her eyes at his overreaction, she placed her hands on her hips as she thought of different ways to get Eddie out of his current predicament, when a thought did come to mind she lit up.

“Oh, I’ve got an idea. Stay right there, I’ll be right back.” he let out a sigh as she rushed off to do whatever she needed to do, slumping back in what little space he had in that cramped locker.

“Sure, it’s not like I can go anywhere.” [F/N] had gone off to her car to grab a crowbar from her boot to get him out, they were then given detention for damaging school property. Eddie laughs fondly at the memory going so far as to throwing his head back and running a through his hair, his laughter grew louder when Steve joined in. He could think of other stories he, [F/N] and Hellfire had gotten into from their high school days. How [F/N] jumped out of a window because she saw a five dollar bill laying on the ground, or maybe how she and Jeff convinced Gareth that Eddie wouldn’t mind that he sat in his precious throne… he did very much mind, or maybe the time when they performed at the Hideout and Nathan got a little too drunk and proceeded to jump off the stage to go crowd surfacing but instead landed on the ground with a loud thud.

Those were the days he missed.

“Haa… when your sister left, god, it felt like a piece of me left with her.” he felt the tears begin to sting in his eyes, he looks up whilst inhaling deeply to stop the tears from shedding “I honestly didn’t think my relationship with her would become something so deep, but I’m so glad we became the greatest of friends in the end. I am going to cherish the moments I had with her.” Steve stared blankly at Eddie after he spoke those words, he then looks down at the ground once more.

“Cherish the moments, huh?” he mutters softly.

Nightly chats soon became a daily routine between the two of them, each sharing a new story they had about [F/N]. Steve told Eddie how [F/N] allowed him to drive her mustang, to which Eddie was jealous that [F/N] let anyone beside her behind the wheel of her precious car. Eddie told Steve about how whenever the both of them shared a class he would often cheat off of her, they got in trouble because Eddie wrote down her name when it asked for his name. Soon topics changed from [F/N] to Billy, he knew what happened with Billy back in ‘84 and was surprised that Billy lived to tell the tale when she came back to Hawkins to visit Steve, though Steve did tell him that the two of them got into a scuffle until they got along and became pretty good friends. He met Billy a handful of times when the blonde would come buy weed off him, sometimes they’d chat about their favourite song from any metal bands they collectively listen to. Hargrove was a pretty chill dude under all anger and leather, sometimes he’d see that rare genuine smile that he couldn’t help but associate with [F/N]. Those two were so alike he couldn’t help but feel worried for him whenever he had to go home, if he could call that situation he lived in a home.

Soon the stories of Billy and [F/N] changed to normal conversations between Eddie and Steve. Eddie learnt that Steve now worked at Hawkins’ Family Video with his best friend Robin Buckley, Steve learnt that Eddie was writing a new song to perform live at the Hideout with the rest of Corroded Coffin and so on so forth. Sometimes the two of them would share a blunt and sit on top of Eddie’s trailer, chatting about the dumbest of things as they watched the clouds pass by or how the stars shun brightly in the dark sky. Tonight was one of those nights, Eddie glanced over at where Steve was laying and his face softened when the dark circles under his eyes have eased up so now that they were barely noticeable, at least they were making some progress. His brow perked up slightly when a strand of Steve’s hair fell down and was now laying in front of his eyes and without thinking her reached forward, this caught Steve’s attention so he looked over at Eddie and froze up a little when Eddie tucked his hair behind his ear. The two of them wordlessly stared at each other and upon realising what he had done he quickly pulled his hand back, muttering short apologises as he held his hand to his chest.

“I-I’m sorry if I… made you uncomfortable.” Steve blinked at Eddie then turned away, a sudden wave of heat flushing to his face as he tucked the same strand of hair behind his ear, Eddie watched this and felt butterflies in his stomach when he saw the tips of his ears turn a shade of red.

“It’s fine.” wow Steve, no wonder Mike thinks you’re lame.

Similar instances occurred after that.

It started off as small compliments. Steve spiced up his hair by a little? Eddie is the first to notice and tells him that he looks nice. Eddie leaves a jaw dropping cliffhanger at the end of one of his D&D campaigns? Steve applauds him for his excellent story telling and tells him he’d make a great book if he put himself to the challenge. Steve asks him if the outfit he was wearing looked good on him? Eddie is now one of his best hype men (other than robin, of course) and he thrives off the fact that he his face turned a bright pink because of it. Eddie performs a song for Steve that he thinks is lacking something? Steve in return encourages Eddie that it’s perfect and he too thrives off the fact that he made him as flustered as he did and that he pulled his hair over his face. Steve’s happiness was contagious because when he came into work Robin immediately noticed his happy mood, telling by the bright smile on his face and that joyous aura radiating out of his body.

“What’s got you so happy? You cheating on me?” she joked, she raised a brow when it looked like he wasn’t really paying attention to what she was saying.

“Huh?” he mumbled in response, she furrowed his brows and looked at him closely “Oh, yeah.” she pursed her lips at that.

“So you are cheating on me?” it took him a second to realise what she was saying, she snickered softly when he whipped his head back to look at her to the point she laughed at the face he was making.

“What? No, no! There’s no one that can replace you, Robin!” she hums with a nod, crossing her arms and leaning to the side so that her hip was resting against the counter “Come on, Robin! Do you really believe I know anyone else that could replace you?” she hums.

“Well, I haven’t felt this sort of happiness like that ever since…” she quickly cut herself off before she could finish her sentence, he himself flinched softly at the remembrance of Billy. Would it be wrong if he moved on from Billy? His shoulders slumped as he thought about Billy and yet he couldn’t help but chuckle softly when he noticed a resemblance between the two of them, three if he counted his sister. He seemed to have a distinguished taste if he really thought about it, his face now drops into the palm of his hands while letting out a groan “You good?”

“… would it be wrong if I found someone else?” Robin’s eyes widened softly at that, Steve managed to find someone else? She hummed softly at the information and leaned backwards, crossing her arms and looking up in thought.

“Well… I don’t think so, no. Just like [F/N], I think he would have wanted you to move on. And as awful as this sounds, there’s no point in waiting for someone if they aren’t coming back.” she reaches forward, grabbing him by the bicep and giving it a light squeeze “It’s okay to move on, Steve.” she says that and her heart can’t help but cling onto that last bit of love she had for [F/N], her eyes lingering to where she left her bag and inside was the same mixtape she’d been listening to on repeat.

“She’s been so hung up ever since that funeral.”

“Well, what do you expect? Her apparent girlfriend died right in front of her, I think I’d be just a distraught as she is if that were you.” Robin closed her eyes at the sound of her parents discussing how depressed she had gotten, still not being able to move on from [F/N[. She had noticed recently that Steve was getting better with each passing day and to say that she wasn’t jealous, that’d be a lie. Steve had someone he could talk to about what happened, all she had was Steve and the times she needed him he was too busy with that other person. She let out a sigh, curling deeper into her blankets and tried so hard to forget about [F/N]; tried to replace her with someone new she could fall in love with and treat her right. But who could that be if not [F/N]? She was the type of girl she dreamed of and now that dream has ended, her heart stilled when the mixtape ended as quickly as it began. A single tear ran down her face when she closed her eyes, sitting in silence for a couple seconds in hopes that something else will play, that this wasn’t the last song, but of course nothing would play. She let out a shuddered breath while wiping away a her tears, raising her other hand to reach for the cassette player but before she could start from the beginning she heard a voice.

“Jesus fucking christ, how do I even use this shit?” she let out a gasp, body sitting up abruptly at the sound of her voice. Was that [F/N]’s voice she was hearing? She pressed the headphones closer to her ears, waiting for something else and she felt her heart beat faster when she heard her laughter “Um, I think I’ve gotten the hang of this…? Yeah, no I don’t. Um— shit.” more laughter followed after that, Robin quickly reached for the cassette player and held it close to her chest.

“[F/N]…” she whispered out, oh how she missed her voice. How she longed to hear her voice, and now she’s got it right here. She never knew there was more to this cassette because she would always replay it before the last song ended.

“Hi Robin, if you’re listening to this then you’ve finally made it to the end of this mixtape. Um, I’m still learning how to use this thing and I’m probably gonna have to cut some of this shit… somehow, whatever!” she sniffles softly, hearing [F/N] shuffle through something then pick something up “Uh, I haven’t done something like this in a long time and I might be a little rusty, but bear with me. This is my little gift to you, songbird.” her eyes widened softly when she heard the swipe of her fingers running along guitar strings, she can play the guitar? Soon she heard the guitar begin to play “I don’t want to set the world on fire” but the moment she heard [F/N] start singing her heart was already on cloud nine, she could sing as well? Robin was slowly coming to realize that she didn’t really know much about [F/N], not really. [F/N] probably knew about her to the point she could right a three page essay about her favourite ice cream flavor and why it’s her favourite, but her? She barely knew anything outside of the fact that she hated her family and that she loved Steve, she was only now coming to realize how little she knew about the one she loved.

“Oh, [F/N]… I’m so sorry.” she muttered softly, falling back onto her pillows and letting her mind drift off at the sound of [F/N]’s voice.

“I’ve lost all ambition, for worldly acclaim. I just want to be the one you loved~” I want to love you as well, Robin thought, imaging that [F/N] was there. She was sitting at the edge of her bed, playing the guitar while singing to her, singing her to sleep to stupid little love song. Robin dreaded the moment [F/N] reached the end of the song and instead of replaying it to the beginning so she could hear it again, she was going to listen to it to the end this time “Haa, how did you like that songbird? Didn’t expect I could sing, could you? It’s not something I’ve done for a long time, but I thought it’d work wonders on you. I love you, Robin. I hope you enjoy this gift from me.” she was then met with silence once more and those tears she was holding back came flooding out, she was beginning to hate the silence. She screwed her eyes shut and shook her head to rid the memory and looked back at Steve who stared back at her, who then closed his eyes, thinking of each passing interaction he’s had with Eddie that’s made him feel giddy like he was still in high school. The times when Eddie would grab him by the shoulder to keep himself together after hearing the most ridiculous joke Steve had ever told, or the few times there fingers would touch when passing a blunt between each other, or maybe the time where he would just watch the way Eddie’s eyes would sparkle whenever he spoke about his music or D&D or his favourite bands or— Robin blinked when his face turned red.

“Oh.” he mutters, and now he finds himself sitting in the Munson trailer with Eddie sitting across from him. The brunette was talking about something but Steve’s mind was blanking out and the only thing he was paying attention to were his lips, he suddenly came to a realisation when his eyes snapped up and his lips pulled into a straight line “Oh.” this caught Eddie’s attention, the older one of the two chuckling softly at the face Steve was making.

“What’s the matter, Stevie?” his smile grew when Steve raised his hand, placing it on his neck and squeezing it.

“N-Nothing, just thinking is all.” he raised a brow.

“Really?” he nods, pursing his lips.

“Uh huh, totally!” he hums, where has that Harrington charm gone? He remembered his time when he and Steve attended at the same time and the halls were filled with how good Steve was with his words, always making girls swoon and sink to their knees. The man before him was anything like the rumours detailed, he would have mistaken Steve for one of the many girls he flirted with by how his eyes averted away from his while Eddie himself never tore his eyes off him.

“Eddie, I swear to god if you don’t tear your damn eyes away from my brother I’m gonna use this fork and tear them right out of your goddamn eye sockets.” Gareth and Jeff cringe at the threat while Nathan takes the fork away from her when he saw that her hands were reaching for it, the others doing the same with their own forks “I thought you said you couldn’t stand my brother with how much of a, and I quote, “a prissy little jock boy he is”. And for you information, he’s a great jock.” without her fork she grabbed a handful of the mac and cheese she was eating and stuffed it into her mouth, Nathan cringing once more at the sight of the cheese dripping from her fingers.

“That’s disgusting, [F/N].” he complains and hands her a napkin, to which she takes and wipes her hands “And she’s right, Eddie. It’s not that we’re making fun of you, we’re judging you. I mean, it’s kind of pathetic.” Eddie let out a groan, his pale skin flushed red.

“I know.” he grumbles under his breath, slapping a hand onto his face and dragging it down “[F/N]! Tell me something that’ll immediately kill my interest!” her eyes rolled backwards and they looked up at the ceiling for a couple seconds before landing on him once more.

“He thinks D&D is a nerd game and doesn’t understand why I like it.” she pursed her lips at that, squinting her eyes in confusion while also shrugging her shoulders. Gareth scoffed and smacked her arm, to which she snickered that it was a pretty lame reason “Um, uh, eh… he thinks you could do better with your hair?” Jeff rolled his eyes.

“We all think that way, [F/N].”

“It is the truth, and though I’m not as much of a hair fanatic as my brother, you disgust me with the fact that you use that three in one crap.” they all then give him judgemental looks, he gasps at them and give him an offended look.

“I thought we were… friends!” he cried out, they all just continue to stare at him in silence. He pouts at the memory, his hands subconsciously reaching up to grab some of his hair and play with it. Eddie hated to admit it but back in high school, he too, couldn’t help but swoon for that Harrington charm. That cocky little grin, that perfect skin, his luscious brown locks and those sparkling brown eyes. He was just perfect but there was no way to confirm that he would ever look at a man the same way he looked at a woman and [F/N] wasn’t going to out her brother even if he did swing that way and Eddie asked, she probably would have killed him for even considering asking her “You know, I just thought of another memory of your sister.” Steve’s brows perked up, his flustered face cooling down.

“Another story time?” Eddie snickered at that, yup, any story they could think of was now declared as story time.

“Yeah, but it’s kind of a… bad one?” Steve’s face scrunched up at that “Please don’t be mad at her, she was honestly trying to do it for your own good.” now this really had Steve’s attention.

“What did she do?” he inhaled sharply.

“So, you think you’re good enough to be my brother’s girlfriend?” Eddie and the rest of Hellfire were shaking their heads in slight disappointment at [F/N]’s actions, going and threatening another one of Steve’s “girlfriend’s” all because she didn’t like them. [F/N] and Steve had only just recently fixed their broken relationship and Steve thought it would be a good idea to introduce his sister to his latest girlfriend. [F/N] was only just doing what was best for Steve, honestly, so she tried to give the girl some time to be that so called “loving and caring” girlfriend that Steve had told her all about, but [F/N] could never see that. All she could see was some girl that was only with Steve for the popularity, for the financial gain with being with a Harrington and possibly gain the favor and protection of his sister “You’ve done nothing to prove that you’re a good match for Steve.” [F/N] had backed the poor girl behind the school, looming over and making sure the girl knew that the truth was the only thing that could get her out of that situation.

“P-Prove myself…?” she stuttered out, looking around to find a way out of her current predicament “Didn’t Steve tell you how much he l-loves me?” she shrieks when [F/N] glared at her.

“Him telling me that he loves you doesn’t mean that I trust that you’ll love my brother the way he loves you.” the girl is trembling when [F/N] raises her hand to twirl her finger around a strand of her hair, humming softly as she plays with her in between her thumb and index finger “My brother showers you with love and affection, but also in extravagant gifts because that’s his way of showing love. Giving. He gives, and gives, and gives. But there are only the rare few people that give him something in return, and not once have I seen you return the favor. Whether that be in gifts or love, you’ve given him nothing.”

“T-Then— Then what do I have to do to p-prove it?” she lets out a small cry when [F/N] grabs a fistful of her hair and yanks her up, tears swelling in her eyes when her smile dropped at she was full on staring death in the eyes.

“The fact you have to ask tells me exactly what you’re up to.” her other hand grabs her by her cheeks and she gives it a squeeze “If I ever find out that you’re only with my brother because of his looks and wealth and not because you genuinely love him, I’ll make sure that your heart is not the only thing that gets broken. Do you understand me?” she loosened her grip on her and watched as she weakly nodded, [F/N] was satisfied with that and let her go, chuckling evilly to herself when she didn’t hesitate to get the hell out of there. Eddie approached her and watched as she pulled out a cigarette and let it, letting out a long drag then watched the smoke disappear.

“You know your brother isn’t going to be happy that you’ve been interfering with his relationships like this, [F/N].” she nodded her head.

“Yeah, but I rather he be single than in a one sided relationship.” she inhales sharply “He’ll thank me later for this, and I’m sure he’ll find that perfect someone someday.” Eddie eyes her.

“And if he doesn’t?” for a brief second he saw a frown appear on her face, but it disappeared as quickly as it appeared because she was smiling confidently at him.

“I’m sure he will. I mean, who can resist that Harrington charm?” Eddie snickers at that and looks at Steve’s face, he could understand why he looked hurt right then and there. Each time [F/N] gave those girls her version of a “shovel talk” it would always end with them ending things with Steve, and of course she felt and immense amount of guilt because those relationships with those girls barely lasted a month because of her interference, but it was better for him to know that those girls never really wanted to be with him for his love.

“You must be angry with her, maybe even me for never stopping her.” Eddie thought Steve was foolish to never notice that those girls were only using him, but maybe being deprived of love he couldn’t help but cling to the next best thing and he refused to believe that it wasn’t true love; what a hopeless romantic “I’ll understand if you’ll need a bit.” Steve does, his opens his mouth to say something but shuts it and looks away from Eddie to collect his thoughts.

“… I always knew she was doing something.” he started, lacing his fingers together and squeezing his hand “Whenever I mentioned her at all, my exes would all freak out. The ones that stuck around for longer than a month looked like they were ready to have a melt down the moment we were in a room with her, I never knew what she was doing but I always had a suspicion she did something.” it was true, she always had that soft smile on Steve’s face whenever he was around, but the moment he was gone, her face turned cold and she would stare his ex down as if they were the filth of the earth.

“I’m sorry you had to go through all that.” he waved his hand to dismiss Eddie.

“Eh, sure I’m a little upset, but in the end she was right.” Eddie nods.

“All those girls were not good for you man, the only one I knew she didn’t give a warning to was Wheeler.” Eddie missed the way Steve froze, flinching at the mention of the one that got away. [F/N] did spare her after she learnt that her friend, Barbara Holland, had disappeared on their property and she knew that that girl was going through it so she let her be, unbeknownst to Eddie, the year she came to visit she got possessed by a monster and nearly killed her “You still looking for a girl? You can freely date them now without your sister scaring them off.” he inhales sharply, wrapping his arms around his torso and leaning backwards.

“Well, there is someone that’s caught my eye.” Eddie lights up at that, a small tinge of jealously bubbling in his stomach.

“Ooo, really~ pray tell.” Steve clears his through, rubbing his hand up and down his bicep.

“Well, I’ve been seeing them frequently and they’ve helped me a lot. They’ve become someone I can really rely on, someone other than my friend. I look forward to each time we’re going to meet and dread the moment I have to leave, seeing them has become the new highlight of my life and I hope that it never ends. Because of them… they’ve helped me come out of a very dark place, even without them knowing it.” he looks up at Eddie, chuckling softly when he was pouting and giving him a confused look “They’re really cute, actually.” Eddie’s pout deepened.

“Cute?” he nods.

“Mm hmm, whenever they’re concentrating they tend to stick their tongue out without realising, and when they’re confused they tend to pout and tilt their head, almost like a puppy. They’ve got the prettiest long, curly brown hair with matching eyes. They tend to be loud and assertive but I know that they’re actually really soft and quite reserved, and they’ve always got a way to make me laugh.” he takes a breath and leans back into the sofa “I’d like to say something but I’m afraid I might scare them off, whether it be because of who I used to be or the fact that I might want something more with them than just a one time fling. You get what I mean?” Eddie’s clenches his jaw and flexes his hand when he realised he balled them into a tight fist.

“If you’ve been daydreaming about them this much, then I’m more surprised that this person hasn’t seen the signs. They’re quite blind if I say so myself.” Steve couldn’t help but squint his eyes at him, uh huh “If you really like them as much as you say, then you should go for it. It’s never stopped you before, so what’s stopping you now? Just go up to them, look them in the eyes, and ask them to be yours.” the two of them sit in silence and Steve can hear the way his heart was beating wildly in his chest, was he really going to do this? Will Eddie take him seriously? Eddie raises a brow when Steve stands to his feet and approaches him, taking a seat beside him and proceeded to look him in the eyes.

“Eddie, will you be mine?” Eddie blinks at him for a couple seconds until he smiles, nodding his head and giving him a thumbs up.

“Yeah, man, exactly like that!” Steve looks away and deadpans, what was he even expecting? “I’m sure they’re going to swoon, man.” Steve shakes his head and takes Eddie’s hand, startling the poor man.

“No, Eddie! I’m asking you if you’ll be mine! You, I want you!” he curses and looks away “Okay, look. Things have been so tough for me ever since my sister and Billy, and I know things have been tough on you since the two of you were really close, but you pushed your feelings aside just to comfort me. I noticed the way you would get sad each time either one of us mentioned [F/N] name and I would try my best to comfort you the best I could, and yet you still chose my feelings over your own. Eddie, it probably would have taken me a lot longer to accept my sister’s death than I would have liked, so I will never take for granted what you have done just for my sake. But the more we hung out, the more time I spent with you I realised the conversations about my sister and even Billy had been becoming less frequent, a-and I was getting to learn more about you. I started to like learning about you and being with you, I liked the stories you told me about you and your friends, about your nerd game and your band practices. I liked being with you, and how I felt like I can just be me without being worried that you’ll judge me. Eddie, you’re a very selfless person and I admire that about you. You’re caring, and sweet, and very charismatic and you’re… amazing. I really like that about you, I really like… you.”

…

…

Steve was beginning to think that this was a mistake, Eddie was just staring at him wide eyed and he hated the fact that he just couldn’t read the emotions he was making. Surprise? Disgust? Rejection? Dread began to fill his heart that he might have jumped the gun, spilling his heart out the way he did was probably not the best idea and Eddie probably might not even swing that way, let alone want to be in a relationship with his best friends brother. He stuttered out an apology and tried to pull away but realised that Eddie was holding his wrist in a rather tight grip, he looked down at where he was holding him then back at his face, blinking in surprise when Eddie’s face turned bright red to the point he’d compare it to a tomato.

“M-Me?” he stuttered out “You like… me?” Steve swallows thickly then slowly nods, his cheeks turning rosy. Eddie stares at him again then looks away, he then looks at their hands and slowly laces their fingers together.

“E-Eddie?” he closes his eyes, his hand squeezing Steve’s hand tightly.

“I liked you back in high school, Steve.” this caught him by surprise “Hah, you could say I couldn’t resist your charm. I told your sister, obviously, and she proceeded to verbally abuse me for a good week, along with the rest of our friends. I tried to get over you, tried to convince myself that my attraction towards you wasn’t going to last and that I was pathetic for falling in love with a guy that would never love me back. Hoo boy, was I wrong! Every time I thought I was over you it would come right back each time I saw you and each time I saw that you had your new toy with you, I would be happy when [F/N] scared them off because then I wouldn’t have to be jealous. Never in a million years would I have thought that you’d return those feelings, if [F/N] were here I’d tell her to eat it. I’d say I’m happy she’s not around because at least I don’t get her infamous shovel talk, but to shove it in her face that you chose me would totally be worth it.” Steve couldn’t help but burst out into laughter at that, even Eddie was laughing along to the point the two of them were leaning against each other.

“You’re totally right about that.”

“Of course I am.” the two of them then fall into a comfortable silence, both eyes staring at their hands that continued to stay connected. Steve pursed his lips and turn his attention back towards Eddie’s face, letting his thumb caress Eddie’s hand.

“Um, I like you, Eddie Munson.” he snorts at the confession.

“Yeah, thanks, like I didn’t realize that after that whole confession.” Steve smacks his shoulder, Eddie snickers “Hey! Haha, I like you too, Steve Harrington.” Steve nods his head, a dopey smile on his face.

“Does that make us… boyfriends?” he mutters softly, his hand subconsciously reaching up to grab the pendant around his neck and thumb at it. Eddie goes to answer but he eyes the pendant in between Steve’s fingers, he narrows his eyes at the jewellery and they widened softly in recognition.

“Is that… Hargrove’s?” he was taken aback at the question, looking down at what he was doing then dropping his hand to his side “Steve, were you and Hargrove… an item?” just that subtle detail had Eddie realize that they was much more to Steve and Billy’s relationship. He found it odd that [F/N] let Billy off the hook for what he did to Steve, he found it more odd that [F/N] let the rumours fly around that she and Billy were an item instead of killing the person who started those rumours, but now he understood it. It was a cover for her brother, for he was the one that was actually in love with the california boy, he felt his heart hurt more for Steve when he realised that Steve not only lost his sister but also his boyfriend on that tragic night. Steve looked like he was in the middle of spiralling now, taking his hand back from Eddie and clutching the pendant in both hands, his knuckles turning white from how tightly he was gripping it.

“I— I-I—” he blinks back the tears when he saw Eddie raise his hands up, he hovers them out in front of him and Steve just watches him closely.

“Steve, can I touch you?” he continued to stare at him, a good few seconds past and Steve slowly nods his head. Eddie’s hands settle down on Steve’s shoulders, they slowly glide down to his biceps, to his forearms then finally resting on his wrists. He’s patiently tapping against his enclosed hands as his thumbs rub into his wrist, when Steve finally manages to compose himself and loosen his grip Eddie slips his hands back into Steve’s and squeezes them reassuringly “So… you and Hargrove, huh?” he nods softly.

“Uh huh.” he answers “He really was a good guy, he just didn’t get his chance to show the world. He died a hero that night, so at least he did something right at the very end.” Eddie clears his throat at that, readjusting where he was sitting.

“Um… you were there, right? On the night they died?” Steve looks at Eddie, already knowing where he was going.

“… he saved us, both him and [F/N]. They saved us, and look where that got them.” Eddie knew that there was more to this story, more to unpack about that night, but he knew not to push it while Steve was this far gone “I will always regret that night, because in the end it was my fault.” Eddie shakes his head.

“You don’t know that, Steve.”

“But I do.” Steve closes his eyes shut, trying not to remember their screams of pain when they were killed by the Mind Flayer. He tried to shut out the way the two of them died in each others arms, tried not to think of their lifeless bodies haunting him or their flayed versions glaring at him each time he looked at his reflection. He was slipping further and further away and when everything was beginning to overwhelm him he felt something press against his cheek, opening his eyes, he saw that it was Eddie kissing him on the cheek to calm him down.

“Steve.” he says firmly, favouring to look him in the eyes instead of the way his face flushed “Whatever you’re going through, whatever you can’t tell me, I’ll be by your side through it all. You don’t need to be alone for this.” Steve wordlessly stared at him then felt himself melt at the sight of Eddie’s eyes, a feeling of warmth bubbling in his stomach that he felt himself lean forward to rest his forehead against his.

“Eddie…” he murmurs, he closes his eyes and hums softly “Thank you.” he gets a hum back, chuckling softly when Eddie nuzzles his forehead against his own.

“No problem, boyfriend.”

Steve felt bad for keeping their relationship only to themselves, he wished he could tell Robin but for Eddie’s comfort he decided that it would be best if they kept it on the down low. Their days now consisted on cuddling in bed or couch, a few quick pecks here and there or the occasional sweet kiss when either was feeling confident enough. Eddie was still quite new to this type of relationship, Steve being his first offical boyfriend that wasn’t a one time fling, so Steve understood that they were going to take things slow, but he wouldn’t take it any other way. He felt special that he was the first to treat Eddie with so much love though it times it did make his heart ache because he felt like he was with Billy all over again, and as shitty as that sounds, it was still taking some time to accept that Billy was never going to come back. Eddie himself noticed at times Steve’s mind would wonder off at times, especially when Steve would run his hands through his hair and would stop to turn away, because in his mins he was picturing Billy all over again. Steve would always apologise whenever he reacted like that, feeling guilty that he still hadn’t gotten over it, he was scolded by Eddie for thinking like that.

“Hey, Eddie.” Steve says, laying on his back with his legs over Eddie’s back “You’re starting school again in a couple months, yeah?” he questions, to which Eddie let out long groan and let his face fall onto his bed.

“Don’t remind me.” he replies, voice muffled under the blankets.

“Heh, well, do you remember those kids I told you about?” Eddie lets out a grunt “Well, a few of them actually play your little Doofuses and Dorks game.” he snickers softly when Eddie pushed himself up immediately, turning to face Steve with an excited look on his face.

“First of all, it’s Dungeons and Dragons, second of all, go on.”

5t“Well, they’re entering high school and I was wondering if, I don’t know, you watched over them? I’m sure they’re going to feel a little nervous and maybe left out, and I’d really appreciate it if you could keep an eye on them. It would really mean a lot to me.” Steve hums when Eddie shimmied over to where Steve was laying, crawling on top of him through his parted legs before letting his body drop on top of him.

“I’d be more than happy to oblige, Stevie. Anything to keep you at ease, mama bear.” Steve let out a chuckle when Eddie booped his nose, Steve readjusted himself when he felt Eddie slide his arms from under his body until his hands were resting at the back of his head, Steve all but purrs when he feels Eddie’s fingers thread through his hair “But don’t you think your kids are going to question why I’m approaching them? I’m still pretty notorious around in school, won’t they get scared?” he almost laughed at that, those kids have been through so much worse that he shouldn’t feel at eased that they won’t get scared if they meet Eddie, but it’s the truth.

“Please, the moment they learn they can still play that D&D game while in high school, they’ll get over their initial fear of you and worship the ground you walk on.”

“Oh, so like that Dustin kid does with you?”

“Heh, you flatter me.” they share a kiss, both smiling into the kiss “Thank you Eddie.”

“No problem.”

[time skip: late in march]

Eight months have past since the Starcourt Mall had burnt down along with the death of his sister and boyfriend, and though he was still mourning the loss of them both, he had definitely gotten better over time. He’s got his best friend at his side and his new boyfriend that he completely adores, so Steve would like to think that he drew the lucky end of the straw even after everything he lost. Eddie also kept his promise to Steve, the moment Dustin, Mike, Lucas and Max had entered high school he made his presence known and welcomed them warmly to Hellfire, and though the same couldn’t be said for Max, the other three joined with open arms. Steve loved hearing stories from both his kids and boyfriend, Dustin telling him with great enthusiasm that they joined a Dungeons and Dragons club, or Eddie telling him how he was right and that Dustin, or rather Mike, was literally breathing in every word he spoke. Robin was another case, since school was back, Robin had to go back to school while he manned Family Video after dropping her off at school, and she found a new girl to crush over ever since they lost [F/N]. This girl, her name was Vickie and she was in band alongside Robin so she had a lot of time to spend with her, so now their conversations were filled with Vickie, Vickie, Vickie! He almost missed the conversations when it was just about [F/N] because at least he could understand.

“It is seven in the morning, we have the stupid pep rally, and I woke up looking like a corpse.” Robin complains, Steve scoffs softly and looks over at her, seeing her pull her face back as she looks at her reflection through the rear view mirror.

“You’re worried about a pep rally? Expect me to believe that?”

“Yeah, so?” he narrows his eyes on her.

“We both know what this is all about. Not buying that, this is about Vickie.” she whips her head towards him.

“Absolutely not.”

“It is, and you know what else?”

“I don’t care—”

“You gotta stop pretending to be someone else when you’re around her. You just gotta be yourself.” now it was Robin’s turn to eye Steve down.

“You’re literally quoting me to me. You do realize that, right?” he shrugs his shoulders.

“Well, maybe you need to listen to yourself. Ever think about that? I listened. Look at me, boom! Back in business.” she scoffs at him.

“It’s not the same thing, okay?”

“Well—” she shakes her head, cutting him off before he could explain himself. “Look, your ask out a girl and she says no. Big deal, nothing happens. Maybe your ego’s a little bruised.” he makes an offended look but they both know that he wasn’t really offended “I ask out the wrong girl, and bam, I’m a town pariah.” Steve nods at that last part but shakes his head.

“I’d buy that, expect Vickie is definitely not the wrong girl.” Robin sighs.

“Yeah, but we don’t know that Steve, do we?”

“She returned Fast Times paused at fifty-three minutes, five seconds. You know who pauses Fast Times at fifty-three minutes, five seconds?” she shakes her head “People who like boobies!” she cringes at him.

“Ew! Gross, stop! Don’t say boobies.”

“Boobies!” he repeats “Not a big deal, okay? I like boobies, you like boobies. If my sister has taught me anything about stuff like this, I can definitely tell that Vickie likes boobies. My gaydar goes off around her, I’m telling you.” she shakes her head at him, closing her eyes when she hears him say boobies again. After dropping Robin off at school and waving her goodbye he peels off and heads to Family Video, tapping away at the counter in boredom as customers cane in and out, browsing here and there and the occasional few renting out movies for the weekend. He makes yet another successful purchase when the phone goes off, so he waves the customer goodbye before proceeding to pick up the phone “This is Family Video, Steve spe—” he pulled a face when he was cut off.

“Steve!” he pursed his lips at who was on the other line, narrowing his eyes on the phone.

“Oh, it’s just you. What do you want, Dustin? Aren’t you at school right now?” he questions as he leans back to look at the time, squinting his eyes at what the clock said.

“Never mind about that, Steve. I need a favor.” he rolls his eyes, so demanding “So Lucas just pulled out of Eddie’s campaign, it’s the Cult of Vecna and it’s like the finale and everything! It’s gonna be great, and we need a sub because—” Steve cuts him off.

“Because Lucas has his game tonight? Yeah, not gonna happen. I already promise him I’d be there for him.” Dustin lets out a groan.

“Come on, Steve! You and I both know that you’re just going on a date with some girl that doesn’t like you as much as you think, so just move your date this one time!” Steve scoffs, feeling a little offended at the accusation.

“What, to hang out with you and play that little nerd game I told you I’d would never play? Uh, yeah, I’ll pass.”

“You’re just jealous cause I have another older male friend.” jokes on him, he’s actually dating said older male friend.

“Ew, ugh, whatever.” his eyes perked up at the sound of the door opening, a group of people entering the store “Oh, I got some customers. Call you back, bye.” he laughs to himself when he hangs up the phone, knowing full well that he can’t call him back because he’s at school. Hours go by and finds himself at said basketball game, smiling brightly when he sees Lucas and waves his hand when they make eye contact, Lucas’ frown disappeared slightly when he spotted Steve and he returned the gesture. The game went on without a hitch, silently mouthing towards Robin to talk to her about the game while also mocking her previous crush, Tammy Thompson and how he was right that she was just a tone deaf muppet. Though, watching the game play out he couldn’t help but think about his time when he played and sitting out in the bleachers was [F/N]. Their parents never came to their games and though she herself hated being there she was always there to support him throughout his games, even at the ones he never wanted her to be at; she was always there. So here he was, in place of his sister, to support Lucas as he wins Hawkins their first win against their rivalling team. Is this how his sister felt when she watched Steve making the winning basket on all his games? That feeling of adrenaline pumping through his body as the feeling of how proud he was filling his heart while he cheered with the crowd, the only disappointment he felt was how the others weren’t there for Lucas to witness this astonishing victory.

“That was amazing, Lucas!”

“You did great out there!”

“Way to go, Lucas!” it would be an understatement if Lucas didn’t feel overwhelmed, that giant smile stretched across his face as the feeling of winning the game continued to play throughout his mind. Everyone was congratulating him and he was giving his thanks, however, his eyes drifted over to where he heard laughter. His smile died immediately at the sight of his friends laughing together and chatting about the campaign he bailed out on, what stung more was that his sister was walking with them with a proud look on her face. His mood deflated at the sight and before he could begin to sulk he felt himself get pulled into a hug, looking up at how it was his eyes widened.

“Steve?” he questions, Steve had a big smile on his face as he hugged Lucas tight.

“Well done, Lucas! I’m so proud of you!” he exclaimed loudly, when he pulls him back he shakes him lightly “You did great out there, kid, you’re going to be the next star player.” Lucas felt his lips begin to tremble while his eyes started water, Steve hums softly and pats his shoulder.

“Really?” he nods.

“Uh huh, you’ve got serious potential.” Lucas smiles softly, letting his head fall and rest against his chest, Steve smiled and caressed the back of his head to comfort him. Looking up, his eyes met with Eddie who was staring at the both of them. He gave a wave and winked at him, his smile grew soft when Eddie giggled and waved back before getting into his van. Eddie told him after he got off of work that he had a deal to make before coming over to Steve’s so they could hang out, saying that the famous Queen Chrissy Cunningham had wanted to purchase something strong from him. And so that’s where Steve was waiting hours for Eddie to appear, waiting for Eddie to come into his arms and ramble about how epic his grand finale was. He waited, and waited, and waited, but Eddie never came. He felt like a fool for how long he stayed up waiting for him, he felt like a moron for thinking that he’d call him to say that he couldn’t make it. Did he think that Eddie could be getting high off his mind with Chrissy Cunningham? Maybe. Was his heart crushed at the thought that he was getting high off his mind with Chrissy Cunningham…? Perhaps, but— Eddie wouldn’t do that, maybe he smoked a little and got tired after his campaign and went to sleep, forgetting to call Steve that he couldn’t make it. He’ll visit Eddie tomorrow and ask for an explanation, yeah, that’s what he’ll do. Maybe he’s just overreacting and Eddie has a plausible reason as to why he couldn’t come over, yeah, he’s gonna sleep this off and feel better in the morning when he goes see Eddie.

This was not what he was expecting to see in the morning.

His blood ran cold when the news came on and airing on it was that someone was murdered, but the location? The trailer park right in front of Eddie’s house. His heart dropped into his stomach at the possibility that it could be Eddie, that the reason he didn’t come around last night was that he and Chrissy were murdered by some psychopath. That thought replaced his anxiety with guilt that if he wasn’t so hung up about Eddie and called him, maybe even stormed over to his place to see what was taking him so long, maybe he wouldn’t be watching the news that his boyfriend was dead.

“Hey, Steve!” his attention tore away from the T.V at the breathless call of his name, turning towards the door to see Dustin and Max entering the store.

“You see this?” he started, trying to play off the fact that he was freaking out.

“How many phones do you have?” he frowned when he was ignored.

“Someone was murdered.” he continued.

“How many phones do you have?” Dustin repeats, he scoffs slightly and turns to look at Robin.

“Two, why?”

“Technically three, if you count Keith’s.” Dustin and Max nod to the answer.

“Yeah, three works.” Steve and Robin pull a face when Dustin proceeded to pull his backpack off.

“Wait, what are you doing?” they were taken aback when he threw his bag over the counter, the two backing away in surprise and shouting at him “What are you—” “My pile!” he then jumps over the counter himself, kicking another pile of tapes onto the ground.

“No, no, no! My tapes! Dude.” Steve deflates at the chaos that ensued “What are you doing, man?”

“Setting up base of operations here.” “Base of operations? Get off.”

“I need it.”

“For what?”

“Eddie’s friends’ phone numbers.” his eyes widened at that, he then shakes his head to help Robin pick up the things that were knocked down because of Dustin jumping over the counter.

“Seriously, you guys, maybe on a Monday you can play around, but it’s Saturday. It’s our busiest day.” Robin explained, but was ignored by them both.

“Robin, I empathise, but this cannot wait.”

“Oh my god.”

“Calling Eddie’s friends is an emergency?”

“Correct!”

“Want me to strangle him or you?” Robin chuckled.

“We could take turns.” the two of them smile at that, Dustin sighed and turned towards Max.

“Could you fill them in while I do this?”

“Fill us in on what?” Steve felt that same guilt start to bubble in his stomach when he learnt that the murder in the Munson household could possible be linked to the Upside Down, and at that thought he couldn’t help but think back to Billy and [F/N]. Because he didn’t tell them what was actually going on in Hawkins the two of them wound up getting possessed by the Mind Flayer then proceeded to commit several murders then died themselves the moment they broke free. If the same thing was happening to Eddie he really wasn’t going to forgive himself for keeping this secret from him, he was going to die if Eddie got caught up in all this and he got hurt because he never spoke up about it. It was going to be his fault all over again that someone he loved got hurt.

“Dustin, get your shit, we’re going.” the three of them look up at Steve as if he was crazy.

“What? Why?” they watch as he takes off his work vest, throwing it away in favor of his jacket “Where are we going?”

“To find Eddie. I know where he’ll be.” Dustin stares at him in disbelief, nearly ignoring his order but paused when he saw that Robin was doing the same thing.

“How? Steve! You don’t even know him. Steve!” he just ignored Dustin’s comments as he ushered them out of the store, closing the door behind them and flipping the “OPEN” sign to closed before jumping into his car and peeling out of the parking lot. He was anxiously tapping his fingers against the wheel, his mind thinking back to the one time both he and Eddie got high off their mind and how Eddie mentioned Reefer Rick’s place. A nice little house by the lake all the way out of prying eyes, a place perfect for Eddie to go into hiding, all he could do was hope that that was where Eddie went. Pulling up to the house the sun had long gone down, Steve was the last to hope out of the car and watched as the trio approach the house but he ushered them towards the shed at the back quietly, opening the door and peeking in to try and spot where Eddie could be.

“Eddie?” Dustin whispered out as the others searched the room, not noticing how Steve was approaching the boat that was covered by a large tarp “It’s Dustin, are you here? Eddie?” he called out again, Steve should have spoke out to let Eddie know that he was there. It was foolish of him not to at least reassure Eddie that he was there because the moment he touched the tarp he was suddenly being shoved back until his back hit the wall and a broken glass bottle was pressed against his throat. He could see it, that look of absolute terror in his tear filled eyes. [F/N] flashed in his mind, the moment she broke free from the Mind Flayer and how absolutely distraught she was after realising what she had done to him, that same look could be seen in Eddie’s but it was just slightly different.

“Eddie.” he spoke out softly, not tearing his eyes away from how much Eddie’s body was trembling, or how he still hadn’t recognized who exactly was in front of him just yet “It’s me, Eddie. It’s Steve, I’m here.” he whispered out, the moment Eddie started breathing properly he let out a gasp and dropped the broken bottle.

“Steve?” he whispered out, his arms enclosed on his body, his shoulders shaking from each deep breath he took.

“Eddie, can I touch you?” the moment Eddie helped Steve calm down from his near mental break down came rushing back to him, his hands coming up to hover over Eddie’s shoulders. He waited for Eddie to respond to him and when he was given that moment his hands settled down on his shoulders, they slowly glide down to his biceps, to his forearms then finally resting on his wrists. Eddie let out a soft whimper at the feeling of Steve’s touch, still not opening his arms but leaning forward to let his forehead rest against his chest “I’m here, baby. I’m here, and whatever happened isn’t going to happen to you. I know you didn’t kill Chrissy, I’ll believe whatever you say because I know you didn’t do anything.” Eddie finally broke down into tears, his arms dropping from where they were and quickly wrapping around Steve’s neck.

“Jesus, Steve. I-I— I didn’t hurt you, did I? God, I’m sorry I just— everything happened so fast.” he started, his tears beginning to soak into Steve’s shoulder “H-Her body just lifted in the air a-and her body just started to break, her bones man— I’m NEVER going to get that sound out of my head. I-I couldn’t help her, man, I couldn’t wake her up! I fucking left her and ran because I—” Eddie whimpered when he felt Steve’s hands cup his cheeks, his thumbs wiping away his tears and she shushed him.

“You were scared, I get it. I’d be scared if I was in your place, too.” he was scared, each time he was thrown into any situation regarding the Upside Down and he was still terrified “And as shitty as this sounds, I’m just so glad that you’re okay. I’m so happy that you’re safe, Eddie.” he gently pulls Eddie back so he could let their foreheads rest against each other, Eddie’s hands slipping from around his neck to hang around Steve’s wrists.

“Steve…” they were clearly in their own little world of comfort, only then just realising that there were others in the room when they heard someone clear their throat.

“Um, I’d hate to interrupt… whatever is going on right now, but— what is going on?!” Steve winced when he heard Dustin shouting, Eddie flinched and curled up on himself.

“Dustin, cool it.” he said sharply but was ignored.

“No, wait, Steve! How long have you known Eddie? How long have you been this close with him? Is this why you haven’t gone on any dates as of recently?” he holds his tongue when Steve gave him a glare.

“Dustin, I said cool it.” he repeats and this time Dustin listens, he makes sure Eddie was calm before turning to look at Dustin “Since the funeral, a couple months and… yes?” he spares Robin a look and she was just as surprised, maybe a little betrayed that he never told her, but surprised nonetheless.

“Is this the guy, Steve? Is this the guy that leaves you awestruck all the time?” Eddie couldn’t help but snicker.

“I leave you awestruck?”

“Now’s not the time.” Eddie pursed his lips and nodded, raising his hand to wipe away any lingering tears.

“Are you going to explain what’s going on between you two? I highly doubt you coddling Eddie like that is because he’s your former drug dealer.” Steve was really nervous, he never told anyone outside of his sister and Robin, and Eddie found out on his own, that he was dating Billy. He hadn’t really registered his sexuality until his sister explained that it was possible for him to like both women and men, and though he really wanted to tell Dustin for a long time he was still really scared how he would react.

“Steve, you can tell him. I’m sure he’ll be understanding.” Steve looks at Eddie, swallowing thickly, but nodded.

“Well, Dustin… Eddie, uh— he’s my, boyfriend.” Dustin stared up, he narrowed his eyes on him then shook his head.

“But you’re not gay.” he deadpans.

“Yeah, I’m bisexual. Meaning I like both guys and girls.” he narrows his eyes even more, looking between him and Robin.

“But what about Robin?”

“Strictly platonic, dude. Don’t like her like that.” Dustin shakes his head once more, pointing between the two of them.

“But— you and Eddie?” Steve rolls his eyes.

“Oh my god— yes, me and Eddie! Please tell me you don’t have a problem with us, or I swear we’re gonna have problems.” Dustin raises his hands, now shaking his head for a different reason.

“No, no! It’s just that… I looked up to you two as brothers, you know? So know I’m gonna have to rethink that or else it’s gonna look really weird in my brain.” Eddie laughs at that, feeling a little better now that he wasn’t freaking out after everything that occurred. He then looks back at Steve and found it odd how relaxed he was, even after he explained how ridiculous of a scenario he had to suffer through. Steve believed him and didn’t think he was making it up, even he didn’t believe himself… no, no way.

“Steve.” this soft whisper almost fell to deaf ears but Steve just barely managed to hear him, looking down at Eddie and saw that terrified look on his face “What’s going on… is this what happened to [F/N] and Billy?” at the mention of their names they all flinched, Eddie noticed this reaction from all of them and his eyes widened even more, no way. He glanced back at Steve and saw he had a pained expression on his face, his hand reaching up to caress Billy’s pendant while Robin lifted her hand to cover his lips, even Max looked away.

“Eddie, I—”

“I-Is this what you couldn’t tell me? That this shit— this shit is what killed them? They didn’t actually die in a fire, did they? Oh shit, and you had to witness that happen to your sister?!” he couldn’t imagine Steve had to watch both his sister and boyfriend get broken down like that, Steve shook his head once more.

“No, no. What you had to go through, it wasn’t what she suffered through. If I’m being honest, theirs was a little crueler.” Steve didn’t want to have to recall this memory, he wanted to forget all about it but his boyfriend was asking what really happened “Their body’s were possessed by a monster and they had to do some really… gruesome things, and when they broke free they were killed by the same monster.” he toned it down by a lot, not really knowing how Eddie would react to [F/N] and Billy being the actual culprits to all the people that died last year. The other three in the room noticed as well and decided it would be best not to tell Eddie either, for his own sanity.

“Oh…” he muttered softly “I see why you could never bring that shit up in a conversation.” he nods.

“Yeah, not a real good conversation started.” trying to lighten the mood worked a little, he appreciated it, but he was still freaked out “Okay, um, I know you have a shit tone of questions Eddie, but I think we should go to my house. I don’t think anyone would come looking for you there, and if we were able to find you here then I don’t think it would take long for others to find you either.” Eddie felt this heart drop into his stomach at the thought of others coming so he nodded.

“Y-Yeah, good idea.” he nods.

“Dustin call the others and tell them to meet at my house, ASAP.” Dustin nods and pulls out his walkie talkie, he didn’t know who’d be awake to get the message but he’ll have to relay it again in the morning. Driving all the way back to the Harrington household Steve was holding Eddie’s hand, squeezing it every now and then each time he felt it tremble within his hold. They were going to be okay, he thought, everything was going to be okay because Steve was here and he believed him. Everything was going to be just fine.

Everything was not fine.

If Eddie’s week was already shit it just got fucking worse because he was literally staring death in the eyes, or maybe it was the back of his head because he was being pressed against his stomach while someone was holding him down by his hair while their foot was against his back. He’d find it kinky any other day but currently he was in an alternate dimension of Hawkins where everything is out to kill them and said thing above he was going to kill him, so yeah, his week is going pretty shit. As Steve predicted someone did end up going to the lake house to try and find Eddie, but someone died and blamed said death of Eddie despite the fact that he wasn’t even there. They also learned that Vecna targeted Max and he almost got her but thanks to Robin and Nancy’s little investigation on Victor Creel they learnt that music is the key to fight off Vecna’s control, or something like that. They now found themselves at the at Lovers Lake, the children staying at the foot of the lake while he and the other three sat in the dingy little boat followed the direction Dustin’s crazy little compass was taking them, stopping directly in the middle of the lake.

“Uh, Dustin, your compass has gone from wonky to wonky with a capital “aah”!” while the others continued to watch the needle go bonkers Steve was pulling his shoes and socks off.

“Steve, what are you doing?”

“Somebody’s gotta go down and check this out. Unless one of you three can top being a Hawkins High swim co-captain and a certified lifeguard for three years, then… it’s gotta be me. No complaints, alright?” Eddie furrowed his brows as Steve stands up, not liking that his boyfriend was going down there towards potential danger.

“I’m complaining. I don’t want you to go down there.” he murmurs softly, Steve hums softly as he tugged his shirt over his head, smirking softly when he noticed the way Eddie was ogling at his chest, Eddie shakes his head and takes the little plastic bag out of his pocket and grabbing the flashlight from out of her hands, almost glaring at her when he noticed that she too was ogling at Steve. He flinched when he heard someone clear their throat so he turned and saw that it was Robin, who was just blatantly staring at him. He chose to ignore her and continued what he was doing, putting the flashlight in the bag then handing it over to Steve “Hey, good luck.”

“Thanks.” he let out a grunt when Steve chucked his sweater at him, pursing his lips when Steve winked at him before finally diving into the water. He inhaled deeply and watched the water, waiting patiently but anxiously for Steve to resurface, he didn’t tale his eyes off the water until Robin tapped his shoulder.

“Huh, yeah?” she pursed her lips as she looked him up and down.

“Steve never told me about…” she then gestured with her eyes towards Nancy, who too was looking towards the water as they waited for Steve, but he understood what she meant “Steve tells me everything, so I was a little upset that I finally learnt about it when we found you.” he swallows thickly.

“So, does that mean you know about—”

“Billy? Yeah.” he nod his head, the two settle in silence for a bit “I may not be [F/N], and I may not be as scary as she is, but I’ll have you know this Munson. He’s already gotten his heart broken so many times and his last lover broke it to the point I didn’t think he could pick up the pieces, but you managed to do that and fix it. But if I hear that you smashed it beyond repair, the one who is going to be wanted for murder isn’t going to be you.” he swallowed thickly at the threatening tone in her voice, it only reminded him more of [F/N].

“R-Right, right. No broken hearts, got it.” she only narrowed her eyes on him but was satisfied with her work, only for the three of them to let out startled shouts when Steve broke through the surface of the water unexpectedly.

“I found it!”

“You found it?”

“I found it. Yeah, I found it.” Steve pants as he swings over to the boat, grabbing onto it with one hand while the other swipes along his face “It’s pretty wild. It’s more like a snack size gate than the mama gate, but still, it was pretty damn big.” he let out a grunt when he felt himself get pulled, all three of their heads whipping towards him when he bobbed down and yanked the boat. They’re all shouting when Steve was pulled under, Nancy and Robin were talking amongst each other to decide what they should do while Eddie was freaking out. He just watched his boyfriend get dragged down to the bottom of the lake where he could potentially die, he could practically hear his heart beating in his chest at the possibility that he could be dead. He didn’t know where he got the sudden confidence because he pushed pass the two bickering girls to jump into the water and after his boyfriend. He’ll complain about being wet later, right now he needs to make sure that Steve is okay and alive, he couldn’t stand the thought of losing Steve as well.

If he didn’t know that this was Hawkins then he’d believed he was in hell, perhaps this was hell and it was in Hawkins all along. He shook his head and pulled himself out of the crack like gate and looked frantically for Steve only to find him when he heard his cries for help, his eyes widened in fear at the sight of him being held down by these bat like monsters as they ate at his body. That sudden confidence still hadn’t worn off and he was charging over to him, grabbing an oar in the process as he got closer. He kicks the one eating away at his stomach off first then bats it away with the oar, he swings at the other one on his stomach then zones in on the one holding him down by the throat, evidently choking him, and starts doing a number on it before one of the bats attach itself to his back. The girls finally made their appearance and came to their aid, beating the bat off of Eddie’s back while Steve manages to loosen the hold of the one around his neck before repeatedly bashing it to the ground then pressing his foot to its back and ripping it apart, spitting out blood from his mouth while panting from exhaustion.

“Steve…” Eddie muttered out, quickly rushing to Steve to help him “Oh my god, are you alright?” he questions, his hands reaching up to cup his face, Steve let out a tired laugh and let his face fall into Eddie’s palms, raising another hand to touch his.

“Honestly no, but thanks for coming to my rescue.” Eddie giggled softly, their moment would be cute if not for the fact that they almost died, seeing that Steve was okay everything was finally setting in and Eddie cursed out.

“Jesus H. Christ!” he then throws the broken oar to the ground after doing a little stamping tantrum, Steve found it quite cute. Nancy then came over and looked over the wounds he got from the bats eating him, Robin winced at the sight of them.

“Well, they took about a pound of flesh.” Steve said “But other than that, yeah, never better.” his voice was hoarse from the bat that was strangling him, he coughs a little and spits more blood out from his mouth.

“Uh, do you guys think these bats have, like, rabies? It’s just that rabies are, like, my number one greatest fear. And I think we should get you to a doctor soon because once symptoms set in, it’s too late. You’re already dead.” both Nancy and Steve deadpan at her words, Eddie just looking at her in confusion. They flinch and turn their attention back towards the gate when they heard chittering noises, a new group of bats appeared and were guarding the gate to block their attempts from getting to it.

“Alright, there’s not that many.” he muttered softly as the others huddle around him “We can take them, right?” their heads then look up when they heard more chittering noises, this time a swarm of bats were coming their ways but they jump when they hear a roar in the distance coming from where the bats were. It wasn’t close but it sounded like it was getting closer, they weren’t going to take their chances against the swarm or the incoming monster. Nancy pants from behind Steve and looks around, her gaze settling on the woods.

“The woods, come on!” with that they all take off running towards the woods, they later find themselves at skull rock huddled together and hiding as the bats fly over them. With the coast clear Robin steps out from under the rock and looks around, Nancy follows behind her while Eddie stays beside Steve in case he still needed help, to which he did because the moment he stood up he collapsed against the boulder.

“Oh sh… shit.” Eddie is immediately at his side, wincing softly when Steve clutches at his sides “I’m… I’m fine, I swear.” Eddie shakes his head as he helps Steve sit back down, his hands hovering over his body.

“You’re not, sweetheart, stop acting like you are. You’re losing blood.” he looked at his person and saw that he didn’t have anything to bind his wound, he then looks over at Nancy and saw the shirt she was wearing had ruffles at the end of it so he snaps his fingers in her direction “Wheeler, gimme that. It sounds weird, but your shirt. Gimme it.” she looks down at it and nods.

“Good thinking.” he nods, watching her start tearing it off.

“I know.” while he waited for her to finish Robin knelt down to talk to Steve.

“Okay, so the good news is that i’m pretty sure wooziness is not a symptom of rabies. But if you start having hallucinations and muscle spasms or you start feeling aggressive, like you wanna punch me, let me know.” he settles a glare at her.

“Robin.”

“Yeah.” “I kinda wanna punch you.” she smiles.

“Sense of humours still intact. That’s a good sign.” he gives her a look and she finally backs off, he then turns his attention back to Eddie. Nancy was able to tear it all off and so she handed it to him, he then looks back at Steve and he wiggles his finger to get Steve to come close.

“Okay.” he starts, kneeling closer and holding the fabric to his wound “You ready?” Steve swallows thickly as he had his hands hovering above his head.

“Just do it.” they both suck in a breath as Eddie pressed it against his wound, Steve winces and stifled a groan, his hands now pressing against the back of his head while Eddie wraps the torn fabric around his stomach. Eddie mutters a soft apology as Steve throws his head back, his eyes squeezed shut as he tried to distract himself from the pain and the fact that Eddie was just so close to him right that moment. He wraps it around as much as the fabric would allow him before tightening it, looking back up at Steve to watch his reaction each time he tightened it.

“Too tight?” he mutters.

“No, that’s good.” he nod.

“Good.” Steve relaxes back against the boulder and watched Eddie tie a knot, nodding to himself when he was satisfied with it. Eddie glanced back at the girls and saw that they were looking around the area so with them distracted he gave Steve a quick peck on the lips, Steve looked at him a little bewildered and saw him look away bashfully “That should do it, Harrington.” Steve smiles softly.

“Thanks, Munson.” the two of them look at each other and snicker softly, Eddie pats Steve on the shoulder and leaves him when Nancy came along to look over him once more. Eddie looks around before deciding to scale a different boulder and once at the top he looked around, grimacing at the sight of everything looking so grim and dead.

“So uh, this place is like Hawkins, but with monsters and nasty shit?”

“Pretty much.” he pulls a face, looking down when he decided to get down.

“Wait, watch out for the vines. It’s all a hive mind.”

“It’s all a what?” he asked as he looked to Steve.

“All the creepy crawlies around here. They’re, like, one of something. Step on a vine, you’re stepping on a bat, you’re stepping on Vecna.” Eddie shakes his head at that.

“Shit.” he mutters as he now has to watch his step as he carefully makes his way back down, Robin then chimes in.

“But everything from our world is still here, right? Except people?” Nancy nods.

“As far as I understand it, yeah.”

“So. theoretically, we could go to the police station and steal guns and grenades and whatever we need to blow up those bat things that are guarding the gate.” Steve scoffs.

“I highly doubt the Hawkins PD has grenades, Robin. But guns, yeah, sure.” Nancy purses her lips.

“Well, we don’t have to go all the way downtown for guns.” they all look at her “I have guns in my bedroom.” Eddie makes a face as he stares at Nancy.

“You, Nancy Wheeler, have guns, plural, in your bedroom.” Robin’s face lights up.

“Full of surprises, isn’t she?”

“A russian makarov and a revolver.” Steve scoffs softly at the mention of the revolver.

“Yeah, you almost shot me with that one.” she looked up at him with a smirk.

“You almost deserved it.” Eddie’s face scrunched up at the tone she used, he then proceeded to take off his battle vest and chuck it and Steve’s face, who let out a grunt.

“For your modesty, dude.” he raised a brow at Eddie’s direction and if it weren’t for how dark it was he could have sworn he saw Eddie’s ears turn red, their heads all snap up when they heard that roar again in the distance followed by a small earthquake. Steve grabs Nancy while Robin stumbles into Eddie, both men do their best to cover their partners as they wait for the earthquake to settle. They sit in silence for a couple seconds until they hear the bats along with that roar again but this time it was closer “So guns seem like a pretty good idea to me.” Robin nods against Eddie.

“Yeah, me too.” they all quickly stand to their feet and start walking, though the moment they were a distance away from Skull Rock something arrived. It stared at the small stain of blood on the boulder and inhaled the scent of it, a growl rippling through its throat before training its eyes on the footprints left in the dirt.  Steve lagged behind the other three but quickly hurriedly to watch Eddie’s pace, jogging up to him so that they were walking side by side.

“Hey, Eddie, thanks again for coming down to save me.” Eddie only smiled, pumping his shoulder against his.

“I’d say it was no problem but I was scared shitless, and there was no way I was going to leave you down there.” he shakes his head, a sad look appearing on his face “I couldn’t lose you when you were right there.” Steve’s shoulders slumped at that, now pumping his shoulder against his.

“Eddie—” he shakes his head.

“Nope. Outside of D&D, I am no hero. I sense danger and I just turn heel and run. Or, at least that’s what I’ve learned about myself this week.” he inhales sharply “Your sister was so different. She was always full of confidence, but she acted like a stray dog. She didn’t start unnecessary fights unless she got cornered or we were threatened, and when she did, god she was so vicious. Besides, if she were here, I think she’d kill me if I left her brother for dead.” Steve snorted at that.

“Yeah, you’re probably right.”

“No, I know I’m right.” the two were now giggling “Anyways, that was a real Ozzy move back there.” Steve raised a brow.

“Ozzy? Like that Osborne guy you listen to?” Eddie nods his head, face lighting up that Steve remembered.

“Uh huh. He bit a bats head off on stage, it was a real metal move man.” his face brightened when Steve’s flushed up a little, he lifted his hand to gently caress his bicep and winced softly at the torn skin on the entirety of his back and the back of his arms “We really should get you to a doctor after we’re out, that could leave so serious damage.” he shrugged his shoulders.

“Eh, from the year to year beating I get I kind of got used to it.” Eddie winced at that, shaking his head at that.

“No, sweetheart. Just, no.” Steve pouts, he quickly glanced at the girls and saw they were a good distance away from them so he leaned for to give Eddie a quick peck on the lips. He immediately turned away and started speed walking away, giggling softly to himself when he heard Eddie let out a shout of protest then proceed to chase after him. He was waiting for Eddie to grab him from behind, wrapping his arms around his waist and pull him back to smother him in his own barrage of kissed, but that never came. His heart started beating in his chest when it was silent so he turned around and his eyes widened in shock when he didn’t see Eddie behind him, frantically he looked around for him and his gasped when he saw that he was being dragged away.

“Eddie!” he cries out, catching the attention of Nancy and Robin, who turned around and saw that he was running off to where Eddie was being dragged off to. Eddie tried to grab at something— anything to stop himself from getting dragged further and further away but he couldn’t grab the vines unless he wanted to gain the attention of all the creatures in this Upside Down hell or the main monster himself, Vecna. When the thing finally stopped he turned around and kicked it off of him, the thing letting out a whine at the action, he then gasped at what he was staring at. He’d probably mistaken it for a dog if not for its head, it was flower like by the way it opened but inside were rows upon rows of teeth that were stained with blood. He really didn’t want to stick around to be its next meal so he kicked it away when it got close again then turned around so he could push himself onto his feet but let out a grunt when he was kicked in his stomach. Eddie fell back down onto his stomach and grovelled in pain, not being able to handle the growing pain the blow to the stomach gave him, he then let out a grunt when he was grabbed by his hair and was kicked in his back to keep him down.

“U-Urgh… please…” he whimpered around, feeling the tears swelling in his eyes. He really didn’t want to die, not just because he wanted to live, but because now he couldn’t stand the thought of dying and leaving Steve. That man has already lost everything and he couldn’t lose him either, he let out a cry when whatever was holding him by the hair tightened their grip, their heel digging deeper into his back.

“Eddie!” he winched when he heard Steve’s voice, but knowing that his sweetheart was going to come to his rescue made this a little bit better. However, the thing above him flinched at the call and froze up, he then gasped when something slammed beside his head. Peeking to the side his eyes were met with his reflection through the blade of a blood stained axe. The hand that was holding him down loosened its grip and instead was gently caressing his head, the hand then slipped off from behind his head and instead moved his head so that he was able to look over his shoulder. He peeked through his eyelids and was met with those eyes that he had fell in love with, but this thing that was above him wasn’t his Steve, it was—

“Eddie…?” the voice whispered out, the axe was soon abandoned and the figure grabbed him by his shoulders and turned him around so he was now laying on his back. He grabbed at the wrists that was holding him and looked up at the figure, this thing was staring down at him with such intense eyes and he was trying to register as to why it wasn’t killing him. He felt it tug at its hand so he let go and watched as it grabbed at the thing covering its mouth and tug it off, his eyes widened at the face that he was staring up at.

“No… no way.” the tears that began to sting in his eyes appeared but this time for a different reason, his hand reaching up to caress at the face above him.

“Heh, hi Eddie.” Steve was running full speed to where Eddie was dragged off, the tears running down his face at the thought of losing him. His mind flashed back to Billy and [F/N], being helped down by Jonathan and Nancy only to find his lover and sister dead in each others arms. He couldn’t go through this again, not again. His heart wasn’t going to handle another intense heartbreak again, if he lost Eddie then he didn’t know if he was going to pick himself back up like last time; he didn’t know if he could find someone else to glue his heart back together. His blurry eyes widened when he heard the sound of laughter, laughter? Why was he hearing laughter? What could possibly be so funny that he could hear laughter? He finally approached the clearing where Eddie was an his was taken aback at what he was seeing because before his eyes he saw Eddie laughing while twirling someone around, who was also laughing “Eddie, you knucklehead! When’d you get so strong? You were never able to lift me up so easily before!” Eddie just snickered, pulling whoever it was close and squeezing them tight.

“I don’t know, had someone a little heavier than you to lift is all.” they let out a sigh and let their body drape along his body, their head resting against his while his buried into the crook of their neck. When he finally put them down and pulled away they felt his presence and turned to look in his direction, though Steve never met Eddie’s gaze, he was staring directly into the eyes he once remembered were cold and dead.

“Steve…” Nancy and Robin finally caught up to Steve, looking up at him and were confused as to why he looked like he saw a ghost. They finally look over at what he was staring at and froze at who was standing beside Eddie, said person lost that smile they had on their face and it morphed into one of absolute dread. Steve’s eyes, that were already full of tears, felt a new wave of tears run down his face.

“W-What are you doing here…” he stuttered out, dropping the flashlight to the ground and taking a step forward “[F/N]!”

[eight months earlier]

*GASP*

She awoke in a great amount of pain, her entire torso feeling like it was ripped apart before being put back together but in an incredibly shit man. She pushed herself so that she was no longer laying on her back and instead grovelled in pain on her side, coughing up the little spurts of blood that were still pooling up in her mouth. When she finally managed to collect herself she pushed herself up so that she was sitting up straight but now she was taking in her surroundings, she was back in that same hell she and Billy first experienced when that thing— she slapped a hand over her mouth but couldn’t stop herself from throwing up whatever was left in her stomach, her body shaking from the aftershocks of everything. When she was finally able to push herself onto her feet she clutched her arms against her stomach, looking around at what was supposed to be the starcourt mall but it was nowhere to be seen. It was nothing more than a barren land as if it was never built in the first place, damn, not even her car was there. She looked back down at the ground and grimaced at the sight of the axe she used to kill so many people, stained red with the blood of all her victims. She glared down at it and inhaled deeply, kneeling down to grab it and take it with her on her walk home, just in case.

Walking through this literal hell wasn’t exactly ideal in her books, so maybe her car was left at the storage unit where it previously was before she came home and when she made it downtown she was distraught that it wasn’t there either. She was really coming to regret ever coming back to Hawkins, swearing to herself that possibly in her next life she was going to live a different life and never ever step foot in this shitty little town if it still existed. Walking home she thought back to her twenty years of being alive and tried to think of any possible reason as to why she was suffering such a fate, why the fuck was god punishing her so much when she tried so hard to survive? To live? Was it so wrong that she was alive that god still hadn’t put her out of her misery and instead was punishing her further by putting her back in the hell that raised her? She was already exhausted by the time she got home so instead she just pushed open the door to the house she hated since she was young and shuddered at how grotesque it looked, everything was covered in vines and grime, dust partials in the air that she was surprised she hasn’t gotten poisoned by it from how much she was inhaling. She chose to ignore her house’s new interior and just walked up to her room, collapsing onto her bed and just crying silently now that her mind was finally quiet.

“Steve… Robin…” her lips trembled as the last memory she had of either of them was when she was beating them to the point of death, her heart started to ache in her chest as she buried her face into her pillow “I’m so sorry…”

[F/N] Harrington did not believe in god, she did not believe that there was a place that souls moved onto like heaven or hell. She didn’t believe in the nonsense that was written in the bible because that shit could have been edited throughout history to fit the belief of the white man. She wouldn’t believe in god until it was too late and right now, she was almost starting to believe that there was an even greater being out there. She didn’t know whether or not she was dead or alive, she didn’t know what to believe, but all she knew was that she wasn’t going to give Steve or Robin a proper apology for what she had put them through. She wasn’t going to be able to apologise to Nancy or Jonathan for almost killing them all because that monster took away her rationality and really let her express her true psychotic personality. She knew she was mentally unwell, she knew that she wasn’t truly sane in her mind, but that monster pushed her to her limit that she couldn’t control herself. She was a mess and what she had become she was only proving her parents right, that she was just a monster they couldn’t tame. Whatever that thing had done to her, it hadn’t fully disappeared.

As the days rolled by while she was stuck in the remains of Hawkins, she noticed that the things regenerative powers hadn’t disappeared because each time she got hurt her wounds simply healed. Her body was still ridiculously durable and strong to the point she could lift things that were usually too heavy for her body, and though she spent a couple days in her room tending to her torso that was healing much slower in comparison to the rest of her smaller wounds, she kept her guard up in fear of other monsters appearing. If that goop monster came from this world and she and Billy helped built a body in their world, then the real body must be somewhere in this version of Hawkins along with other monsters that can and will kill her. The day she was able to leave the house she explored Hawkins on what her body could handle, Hawkins really was nothing but a barren wasteland, as if this was what the world was going to become when it ends. She didn’t want to think about it, but was this what that monster was trying to achieve while she and Billy were under its influence? A chill ran down her spine at the thought of that thing unleashing hell upon earth, and if it weren’t for that kill and those children, it would have gotten what it wanted and it would have been both hers and Billy’s fault. This was all their fault, all because they didn’t go home.

She let out a gasp when she heard a snarl, whipping her head in the direction she heard it coming from. Her body froze up at the sight of a monster with a large, hulking body that easily towered over her, what terrified her was its flower-like head that had rows upon rows of teeth on each of its “petals” while at the centre of its face was a gaping hole that she could only guess was its mouth. Sure that thing that took control of her body was terrifying on its own and she had a burst of adrenaline that allowed her to swallow that fear and fight it, but she didn’t have that confidence right that very moment. She felt like she was that little girl that was afraid of her father and mother when they raised their voices, her body freezing up and refusing to listen, it felt like that thing was inside her all over again and wasn’t letting her move. It snarled as it got closer to her, she let out a whimper as she fell to the ground. She couldn’t stop her body from shaking when it leaned forward, she shuddered when she felt it breathe on her face, breathing in what she believed was her scent. When she thought it was going to kill her it let out a grunt of sorts before pulling away and stalking off, she continued to sit in that spot, her body continuing to shake in fear as realisation began to sink in. That thing didn’t recognise her as its next meal. but simply as a monster like itself. Has she really lost her humanity and become a monster like that thing intended? She slowly pulled her knees to her chest, hugging them closely as tears ran down her face.

She really was a monster.

To say she became colder would be an understatement, she didn’t know exactly how long she’s been in this hell but it was long enough that she was no longer holding back against this monster. She was no longer hiding whenever she came across them, wielding her now signature axe and swinging it at anything that breathed. Killing things almost became as easy as breathing but it really did fuck her up even more, because all she could think of is when she killed those poor people back at Hawkins. Man, she could really go for a cigarette right about now but she didn’t want to put anything from this place in her mouth if she even found one. Strolling through downtown as she tried to find something to preoccupy herself she came across one of those monsters and thought, why the hell not? Killing a few of them brought some sort of sick entertainment that she was satisfied with for the next couple minutes but she flinched when she heard a noise, turning around she didn’t see anything until she felt something on her foot so she looked down and saw a… slug? She was quick to flick it off but knelt down to inspect it closely, poking at it to see its reaction but recoiled when it gurgled at her. If she really looked at it she’d mistaken it for those dog-looking fuckers.

She lurched backwards when it started jumping towards her, letting out all these noises as it started to follow her when she backed away. Choosing to ignore it she stood up and quickly left, grimacing when it followed her out and continued to follow her no matter the distance. When she thought she lost it she was laying in the front yard of someone’s house but pulled a face when she could just feel it breathing, turning her head to look at it in defeat, if it was an actual dog she could just see its tail wagging while sticking its tongue out for winning this game of tag. Finally, she opens her hand out to this little thing and raised a brow when it happily jumped onto her hand and settled in nicely on her palm. She was never allowed pets, her father was allergic and her mother didn’t want fur getting stuck to anything in the house, not like she was ever around to clean it up herself. Her thumbs gingerly caresses the side of its face and her cold heart couldn’t help but melt a little when it purred softly at the small gesture of affection, hmm. She grinned to herself when a couple weeks later and she had herself three mutated dogs running around her feet yipping happily together, she’d probably get herself more but I think three is more than enough to quell her loneliness. They made things much more fun down in this hell, hunting down the adult versions of her babies was a team thing now and feeding them the carcasses of each of their hunts was more than enough of a reward for them other than her praise.

“Ah, you really are adorable.” she cooed softly, caressing the first little slug that followed her around like a duckling imprinting on the first thing it sees. She chuckled softly and fed it a leg and it ate away at it without question, she smiled and pats its body. She was currently wandering aimlessly around the woods that surrounded the Harrington property as she let her three babies chase each other, going deeper and deeper into the woods to the point she was pretty sure she was getting closer to the Byers residence. She hadn’t really realised how close they were to their home along with the Hawkins Lab, she was going to call her puppies back when they caught the whiff of something and started running in that direction. Thinking it was another one of those monsters she bared her axe and jogged after them but made sure she lagged behind so she could get the jump on the bastard, she paused when she saw them snarling up at something and possibly waiting for her to give them the order to attack. Her hand grips onto the tree as she walks past it to see what exactly has them stuck in place, but her heart suddenly stops at what, or who, exactly she was staring at.

“[F/N]…?” it, or he, muttered out in disbelief. She drops the axe and it lands beside her with a thud, her eyes shaking in shock at who exactly she was staring at. Her lips trembled as tears began to sting in her eyes, she sniffled to herself and instead of saying anything she brought her hands up to cradle her stomach once more as she fell to her knees. She sobbed in silence but didn’t flinch when he approached her, kneeling down and wrapping his arms around her, pulling her into a comforting hug.

“Billy…!” she wailed out, now throwing her arms around his shoulders so she could pull him close, the both of them now clinging to each other in fear that this wasn’t real; that one of them was going to disappear. How the two of them avoided each other for these past couple of months, neither of them will know. How the two of them weren’t found together when they woke up in this hell? That’ll be a question left for another day because right now the two of them just needed each other, like how they only had each other when under that fuckers control. Billy found himself in a similar situation to [F/N]’s when he woke up and instead of going to the Harrington’s he went to his home but it was completely different from when he was last there, it was as if it wasn’t his home and someone else’s. He set up camp in a different house because he couldn’t handle the thought of being in the house that gave him nightmares, hunting down those monster freaks and even adopting his own little mutated dogs, two of them. The two of them now found themselves back in the Harrington household, Billy being somewhat impressed with how much she reinforced it, and the two of them stayed huddled together in front of the fireplace.

“Hey.” she let out a tired hum, holding her side of the blanket that was draped over them while continuing to watch the fire burn “Your parent’s are pretty shit.” she snorted softly.

“Yeah, yours are pretty shitty as well.” he laughed weakly at her, the two of them we surprised they hadn’t found each other sooner, because now that they were together they could feel everything the other could feel; hear whatever the other thought. When the monster took over their body they were more connected to each other compared to the others under its control, so they could hear and feel and experience the other could, but the connection tended to get weaker the further the other was. But since the two of them were always together they only found peace in each other because that’s when things were the most quiet, but it was also where they could each find themselves in each other’s memories. [F/N] tended to relish in the warmth of the California beach while Billy enjoyed seeing the pure joy on Stevie’s little face, the two of them found comfort in each other’s happiest memories, but they also felt each other’s worst. [F/N] knew Billy’s shitbag for a father was a piece of shit, but watching that garbage of a human being beat his mother to the point she abandoned poor Billy and turned his attention to him, was devastating. Billy in turn watched [F/N]’s childhood where she was nothing more than a doll for her parents to play the game of life with to only later throw away when she became outdated, the two of them really were too much alike.

“Hey.” she hums again. letting him know that she was listening “… why’d you really come back for me?” she finally tore her eyes away from the fire and looked up at Billy, who was already looking down at her.

“What?”

“As cute as that answer was, I know that wasn’t all of it. Why didn’t you leave me behind? Everyone else did, I was nothing more than a lost cause and you probably wouldn’t have gone through what you had if you just left me.” his lip trembled when he saw her look away, he does the same but flinched softly when she let her body fall against his with her head resting on his shoulder.

“I never opened my heart to anyone except for the select few, and I must admit that the idea of leaving you did cross my mind, but I couldn’t do that to you. I already left my brother and my friends, I could have left you as I left them, but I wasn’t going to do that again. I made up my mind when we became friends that I wasn’t going to abandon someone again, I wasn’t going to be a coward all because I was scared.” she closed her eyes “And look where that got us, huh? Maybe I should have been selfish, but I wasn’t going to be able to live with the guilt if I did leave you there. I love you, dude.” she looked up at him with her eyes and saw his eyes tearing up, she hummed softly when he let his head full and rest on top of hers.

“I love you too, nerd.” she rolled her eyes but leaned closer into his body, using her other hand to find his and when she did they laced their fingers together and basked in each others presence “What do you think Steve is up to?” she closed her eyes, oh, Steve.

“Probably finding his replacement boyfriend.” she snorted softly when Billy let out an offended gasp, she laughs when he shoved her to the ground “Ah hah! You know I’m just kidding, Billy.” he rolled his eyes, grabbing the blanket and draping it around his body.

“Your thoughts say otherwise.” she scoffed, wrapping her arms around her torso and leaning against his body “… do you really think he’d look for someone else?” she frowns softly, she then inhaled deeply and looked up at the ceiling.

“Well, we’re dead, Billy. Why would they wait for someone who isn’t coming back?” Billy flinched at that, she closed her eyes and brought her hand up to caress his forearm “I think it’d be best for them to move on if they found someone else that could love them, rather than clinging to us.” Billy sighed softly at that.

“I guess.” his body tensed up when he felt her start shaking, peering down at her, he saw tears quickly gathering in her eyes. His body relaxed sadly when he could feel the great amount of guilt and sadness she was suffering through, knowing exactly what she did and now that they were dead she could do nothing to atone for what she had done. He lifted his arm and she was quick to huddle to his side, crying into the crook of his neck when his arm came down and draped itself over her body.

Now that the two of them had each other it made things easier in hell for them, they weren’t alone anymore. Billy decided it was better to hang around at the Harrington home better than his makeshift base, their house was much bigger than what he had, though the two of them decided it would be best if they avoided the pool after what [F/N] found in there. They were also happy that their dogs got along swimmingly, it would have been sad if they didn’t. Now since hunting those monsters was nothing more than a sport to them they turned it into a game; a competition to see who could kill the most and the winner had bragging rights for the day. One thing the two of them had noticed when exploring Hawkins was that they couldn’t LEAVE Hawkins, if they strayed too far somehow they’d be brought right back to the entrance of Hawkins as if they hadn’t just walked from the opposite direction, it was very odd the first time it happened. Billy now found himself sitting on the hood of a car as he stared up at something that was perched on a lamp post, it was another monster, but one that he didn’t recognize.

This thing was new.

“Oi, [F/N].” he called, not taking his eyes off the new creature while leaning backwards in her direction. He furrowed his brows when she didn’t answer but he felt a wave of sadness wash over him, finally breaking eye contact with the creature, he looked at her and saw she had a pained expression on her face when she woke up from her nap “Are you alright?” he asked, she slowly opened her eyes and a single tear ran down her cheek. She stared up at the sky above them and her face turned bitter when she raised her hand, swiping the tear away in one swoop.

“Yeah, I just had a nice dream.” she sniffles then turns her attention from the sky to Billy “What’s up?” he simply points so she follows and furrows her brows at the thing that’s been watching them, she furrows her brows in confusion.

“Is that thing new?” she tilts her head.

“Maybe, I’ve never seen it before.” it screeches at them “Looks like a mutated bat.” she murmurs, Billy nods.

“I agree. Think it’s hostile?” they wait for a bit but came to regret it when a hoard of those things appeared and were charging towards them, they didn’t hesitate to hightail it out of there at full speed, yeah, those things were definitely hostile. Those bats were new, the mutated dogs and monsters tended to ignore their existence on the fact that they were basically the same as them and would only fight them when they struck first, other than that they were merely coexisting when each other. On the other hand, these bats acted on a kill on sight mindset but they tended to attack as a pact, never alone. Those bats acted like some sort of surveillance because whenever they were out and about at least one of those fuckers was watching them wherever they went, it was troublesome when either of them split just a tiny bit of blood, because those fuckers would come hurdling towards them like a moth to a flame.

“Annoying bastards.” [F/N] growled out, lifting her hand and gently patting a few of her dogs “Where the hell did they come from?” Billy shrugged, wiping the blood of one of those monsters off his face.

“Don’t know, don’t care. All we know is where their little hive is.” at the mention of that they look over where they saw the whole swarm of those bats surrounding a house “Do you recognize that house, [F/N]?” she hummed to herself, rubbing her chin.

“Um… I think that’s the murder house.” Billy raised a brow “Oh, um, a married couple with their two children moved into the house. Everything was fine and dandy until one day the father brutally murdered his wife and daughter but spared his son, it was pretty gruesome. Reports said that he broke the bones of each of their limbs, dislodged their jaws and even gouged their eyes out. It’s been left abandoned ever since because people didn’t want to live in the house where a family was brutally murdered.” Billy winced, caressing his jaw.

“Yikes.” she nod her head.

“Uh huh.” her gaze hardened softly at the sight of the bats and house “But I’d guess that that incident wasn’t exactly a murder.” a bead of sweat rolled down the side of their faces at the thought.

“If you’re right about that, how come all this shit is happening now? Didn’t that happen a long time ago? Why would a ghost kill a family, take a break, then come back again? Would that mean it’s killing people again?” she shrugs her shoulders.

“Just a thought.”

“Your thoughts are unsettling sometimes.” she winks at him.

Not even a couple weeks later the two of them, who were sleeping soundly in the safety and comfort of each others arms, wake up abruptly when they felt a surge of power. Their eyes simply snap open as they break into a cold sweat, a chill running down their spine at what they were feeling. [F/N] pulled herself towards Billy, burying herself into his chest as her hands gripped onto the back of his shirt, fear beginning to take over her body. His arms tightened around her while his hand moved up her back and gently held the back of her neck, his thumb caressing her neck in an effort to comfort her. They weren’t the only ones that felt this new power because even their dogs were acting off but they didn’t stray far from their masters, instead they huddled around them to barricade them from what was to come. Neither of them got much sleep that night, not only because of that but because not too long after that happened an earthquake shook the entirety of Hawkins and they weren’t too sure if another would go off. The next couple of days the earthquakes kept happening and that surge of power that shook them to their core happened approximately three more times that had them on edge, they were now being extra careful in what they were doing.

“Hmm? Aren’t the bats acting a little differently than usual?” Billy pants at what she says, blood dripping from his knuckles as he wipes some of the blood that splattered onto his face with his sleeve and looked over at what she meant. They watched as a group of bats left the swarm surrounding the haunted house and flew over to what they believed was Lovers Lake, they look at each other “Wanna go check it out?” he clicks his tongue in thought, leaning back with his hands on his hips.

“Um… yeah, why not. It’s not like we’ve got anything better to do.” she grins, clapping her hands.

“Wonderful.” she then whistles, this catches the attention of the dogs to which they all whip their heads over to her, she then points in the direction the bats went and all five of them went running without question. The two of them are quick to follow and they find themselves at a dried up version of Lovers Lake, [F/N] places her hand on a tree and steps forward to see what was there a saw something flee from the lake into the woods but her attention tore away from them and to what the bats were guarding “What is that?” she muttered to herself, Billy comes up from behind her while placing a hand on her shoulder.

“They’re guarding something, a hole?” she tries to get a closer look but they’re too far away to get anything clear “I’m gonna go check it out, you go chase after the things the bats chased off.” she raised a brow.

“You sure?” he nod.

“Yeah, it’s nothing I can’t handle without these bad boys.” his dogs yip happily at his feet, she chuckles softly and pats her own puppies.

“Alright then, don’t take too long.” her dogs brought her to Skull Rock and they were sniffing at a specific spot beneath the giant boulder, [F/N] approached it and furrowed her brows at the sight. Blood? It was red, her eyes then looked at the ground and saw a barrage of footprints in the mud, who the hell…? She shook her head and swiped some of the blood onto her fingers then brought them towards her favourite baby, it sniffed the blood and let out a growl “Go get ‘em.” all three of them let out a snarl before running off to chase after whatever it was, she bounces her axe on her shoulder as she takes her time to catch up with her puppies. Her brows perked up when she heard shouting followed by a struggle, hmph, they must have gotten someone because over the struggling she heard other voices shouting after the one that was being dragged away. She stepped into the clearing where her three puppies were, she felt anger bubble in her chest when she saw the struggling fool kick at her baby to keep it away twice, now that won’t do. She didn’t hesitate to kick them in the stomach to wind them, but that wasn’t enough to satisfy her current anger, so she kicked them in the back to keep them down then reached down to grab them by the hair and yank them up but still keeping her foot pressed into their back so they couldn’t get up.

“U-Urgh… please…” begging? Pathetic. She readjusted her hold on her axe and raised it above her head, one clean swing should be more than enough to decapitate this foo—

“Eddie!” her eyes widened at the call, quickly redirecting the axe so it missed their head and lodged itself into the ground, her head whipping in the direction that call came from. Eddie? Did they just say Eddie? Her trembling hand let go of their hair as she lifted her foot of their back, she then gently caresses the back of their head before pushing it so she could get a look at their face, her gaze softened when does sweet doe eyes looked back at her.

“Eddie…?” she whispered out, almost not believing that it was true. She was quick to grab him by the shoulders and turn him around so that he was laying on his back, his hands quickly slapped onto her wrists as her fingers started to dig into her shoulders. She saw his eyes flicker while trying to recognize who exactly was above him but couldn’t put a name to her face, she then realised she was still wearing the bandana over her mouth so she quickly tore it off so Eddie could see her face. There… there she saw recognition finally click in his head as he stared up at her, she smiled softly when his hands reached up towards her face, gently caressing her cheek with tears forming in his eyes.

“No… no way.” she giggled sadly, raising her own hand to rest against his.

“Heh, hi Eddie.” he was quick to sit up and bring her into a hug, burying his face into the crook of her neck as he held her tight, she was quick to throw her arms around him and tug him just as tight. She let out a whoa when he suddenly stood to his feet, bringing her up with him, then squealed when he started twirling her around. She’s laughing to her hearts content as she pulls herself closer to Eddie as he continued to spin her around, him grinning the entire time he does this “Eddie, you knucklehead! When’d you get so strong? You were never able to lift me up so easily before!” Eddie just snickered, pulling her close and squeezing her tight.

“I don’t know, had someone a little heavier than you to lift is all.” she let out a sigh and let her body drape along his body, her head resting against his while his buried into the crook of her neck. He finally puts her down but their continued to hold each others hands, she opens her mouth to say something but felt like she was being stared at so she turned her head at where she felt it but soon felt the color in her already pale skin drain.

“Steve…” she whispered under her breath, the dread on her face got worse when she saw Nancy fucking Wheeler and her sweet songbird Robin appear behind him and share the same look of shock and disbelief at the sight of her.

“W-What are you doing here…” Steve stuttered out as tears started rolling down his cheeks, dropping the flashlight he had to the ground and taking a step forward “[F/N]!” Eddie looked down at [F/N] and his eyes widened at the emotion he saw on her face, that look of absolute fear as she stared at her brother. He’s never seen [F/N] wear such an expression on her face, she was the embodiment of confidence, of pride… no, no. He remembers a time when she had this look of fear, this look of vulnerability.

“[F/—” he’s not able to finish his sentence when she takes her hands back from Eddie, taking a step back when Steve took a step towards her. She felt herself start to hyperventilate when Steve kept getting closer and closer to her the more she kept trying to distance herself from him, she looked down at her hands and in her mind she saw Steve’s blood on her trembling hands, looking back at him she saw the damage she did to him when she was under that fuckers control. She saw the monster she had become when she laid her hands on her brother that tried to save her from her insanity, her vision started to get hazy but her eyes snapped up when she felt him reach for her. In her mind she saw it was Steve reaching for her to stop, to stop beating him when he only tried to help.

“Don— Don’t touch me!” she screamed, smacking his hand away before he could touch. She lets out a gasp as she stared at the heartbroken look on his face, she grits her teeth at the sight of him and knew that she couldn’t bear to look at him anymore so she screwed her eyes shut, turned around and started running away. Goddammit, she was running away again. Was all she could do was run away when she was scared? Where had that adrenaline gone when she fought monsters?

“P-Please, [F/N]! Don’t leave! Don’t go away, please!” dammit, she really was pathetic. She just couldn’t muster up that courage to face her brother again, he was probably crying again and it was all her damned fault. When she thought she was far enough she leaned against a tree, hunching over and throwing up the contents that were in her stomach. She felt her stomach start to churn the moment her eyes settled on Steve and Robin, all the memories of what she did to them coming back at her full throttle. She hadn’t realized she pushed all of that into the back of her mind until she saw them again, she let out a whimper when she pulled herself up, crying as she clung to the tree.

“B-Billy…” she whimpered out, lifting her hand to wipe at her eyes “I need you, Billy.” her head shot up when she heard screaming, that sounded like Wheeler? Was it her babies? Were they attacking the group for her reaction? She raises her fingers to her lips to call them back but paused when she saw that they were with her, if that were the case, then what was that girl screaming abou— her eyes widened when she realized just where exactly they were. They were basically in the monsters hunting ground and with all the noise they were making, it was bound to attract a few of them.

Shit.

Steve felt like his heart was ripped out of his chest, chewed up, spat out then stomped on all at once. The anguish he was feeling felt like he had just watched [F/N] die in front of him all over again, like he was at her funeral all over again and that he was reliving the worst moments of his entire life. He cried out for her, like all the other times he did, and when he did, she would always come rushing to his side to comfort him and tell him she was going to be right by his side until he was better. But she didn’t do it this time, he cried for her when she ran away but she didn’t even bother to turn around to see that he needed her. She ran away, she left him, she left him behind like she did when she left him alone in Hawkins. He was in a dire moment when she left for university, her last year was the year when Will went missing and he first got roped into the Upside Down and he fought the Demogorgon after getting his shit rocked by Jonathan. He wanted her to tell him it was alright, that he was okay and that his big sister was going to make sure he wasn’t going to be alone, but she ignored him in favor of studying so she could pass that year and graduate so she could get the fuck out of Hawkins. They had only just rekindled their relationship and she was leaving him all because she was done with Hawkins, all because she couldn’t put up with it anymore.

“[F/N]…” he whimpered out, falling to his knees and clutching onto Eddie’s battle vest. His forehead was pressed against the ground as he sobbed out his heart, his nails beginning to dig into the skin of his hands “Please, don’t go…” Eddie fell to his knees, placing a hand on Steve’s shoulder to calm him down.

“Stevie, babe…” he whispered softly, Steve shook his head as his shoulders continued to tremble.

“If she’s here…” he whispered, his hands now coming up to grip at the pendant dangling around his neck “does that mean BIlly’s here too?” this caused Eddie to flinch, Billy? What are the odds that that blonde is here as well? Would that mean that Steve would want to get back with Billy then? Is he going to break up with him so that he could get back with him? Eddie didn’t want to think that Steve would do such a thing, but he could tell that he still had feelings for the blonde.

“Steve—”

“Steve!” his head snapped up when Nancy screamed his name, his eyes widened at the sight of a Demogorgon appearing out of nowhere. Those demodogs that were here with [F/N] followed after her when she ran away, he looked down at himself and cursed when he realized that the demogorgon was probably there because it could smell his blood. His guess was right because it completely ignored Eddie and came straight towards him, he tried to stand to his feet but his knees where numb from how long he was kneeling down so it was quick to grab him by the throat and lift him up into the air.

“Steve!”

“Steve!” the demogorgon swats them away easily as its grip on Steve tightened, he grabbed onto the demogorgons wrist and flailed in the air to try and get away but his efforts were futile. This one was much bigger than the one he fought back at the Byers house and he didn’t have his signature nailed bat with him to kill it. There was the axe [F/N] left behind but it was nowhere to be see— nowhere to be seen? He gasps when he was suddenly dropped to the ground with a thud, he jumps when something fell into his lap and he saw that it was the demongorgons arm that was cut off. He looked up and tears gathered in his eyes again when he was met with [F/N]’s back, she came running back to see that one of those monsters was holding her sweet little brother up and was getting ready to eat his head in one bite. She noticed that her axe was still lodged in the ground so she didn’t hesitate to rip it out and cut the monsters arm off in one swift swing. Now she was standing face to face with the monster, a dark sneer on her face as she gripped onto her axe that was dripping with its blood.

“You hurt my brother.” she growled out, feeling the veins in from her veins to her forearm along with her neck and the corner of her eyes turn black when her anger started boiling “NO ONE hurts my brother.” she doesn’t flinch when it roared in her face, she in turn roared right back before lifting her leg to kick it in the torso and send it flying backwards. She raises her hand to her lips and blows into them, a sharp whistle calling her three puppies who snarled at the monster that was slowing picking itself up as she twirled her axe around as if it were a bat.

“[F-F/N]…?” Steve whispered out from behind her, hoping— begging that she’d turn around so he could see her face, but she continued to ignore him.

“Billy!” she screams as she charges towards the monster, raising her axe just as Billy finally caught up to her and grabbed the monster by its legs to lift it up, when it started to fall she swung her axe back then swung it forward to swiftly cut its head right off its neck. Both its body and head fell to the ground with a thud and the two just stared at its fallen corpse, watching its black blood pour out of its body and soak into the ground beneath it. She raises her eyes and saw that Billy was staring at the group behind them, he turned his attention towards her and noticed that she was refusing to turn around and just kept her head down, he sighed softly and approached her.

“You okay?” he whispered softly, grabbing her by the forearms and gently rubbing his thumbs into her arms. He tilted his head when he saw that she didn’t want to look at him, he tugs at her and that gains her attention “We talked about this, [F/N].” she sighed, still not looking at him but looking to the side.

“Yeah, but I didn’t expect to actually see them.” his face saddened when she finally looked up at him, tears brimming in her eyes “I’m terrified to face him, Billy. I— I don’t think I can do it.” the axe falls from her hands when he pulled her into a hug, she quickly wraps her arms around him and falls into his embrace.

“Baby steps, [F/N], baby steps.” she nods her head, letting out a shaky breath. Billy raised his head and saw the group slowly approaching them, he loosened his hold on [F/N] but her fingers tug into the leather of the jacket he was wearing “It’s alright, it’s okay.” he whispered softly, though she was still shaking, she nodded her head and loosened her grip.

“B-Billy, is that really you?” Steve croaked out, he reaches his hand out but flinched back when [F/N] let Billy go and instead of standing beside him she actually hid behind him but made sure she was still holding his hand to calm herself “[F-F/N]…?”

“What are you doing here, Harrington?” Billy spoke, this caused them all to look at him “Why the hell are you here in this hellhole?” Billy’s eyes trailed down and widened softly at the sight of his pendant dangling from his neck, his thumb subconsciously rubbing against his ring.

“I-Isn’t that what I’m supposed to be asking?” Billy cocked his head in confusion.

“What do you mean? Aren’t you guys dead like us? Why would a saint like you be in hell?” Robin and Nancy look at each other.

“Billy,” Nancy starts, taking a step forward and placing a hand on Steve’s shoulder “we’re not dead.”

“Then?” she swallows thickly.

“This… might be a lot to take in—” he scoffs.

“[F/N] and I had a monster forced into our bodies, we killed a whole bunch of people and said people melted to form a body for the fucker that possessed us. I think we can handle whatever the fuck you’re talking about, Wheeler.” she takes a breath.

“If we’re here, and you’re here as well, then you’re not dead.” this caused them both to jolt up, what? “This place is an alternate dimension of Hawkins, we don’t fully understand it, but it’s a different world compared to our home. This place is called the Upside Down, and if you two were here this whole time, that means you two never died in the first place. You two are still alive.” she felt a bead of sweat form on her cheek at the blank stare she was getting from Billy, his face scrunches up at the information as he feels [F/N]’s grip on his hand tighten.

“What?” she muttered out, now peaking out from behind Billy and staring Nancy dead in her eyes “What the fuck do you mean we’re alive?” Nancy stumbles back at the dark look in [F/N]’s eyes, and though it wasn’t particularly aimed at her because [F/N] couldn’t control herself, she couldn’t help but swallow thickly as she tried to put her thoughts into words.

“U-Um, what I mean is— I don’t know, and I don’t know how it’s possible, but you guys aren’t dead. You’re alive and you’ve been stuck in the Upside Down this entire time.” anger slowly started building up inside of [F/N].

“Why are we alive?” she muttered, turning away to look down at her hands and her mind flashed once again to see blood staining her hands “Why the fuck do we get to live after everything we did? Why do I get to walk away while everyone that died by my hands didn’t get that second chance?” she soon started to feel an aching pain in her chest and the sides of her stomach, her nails tug into the fabric of the clothes she wore as her mind started to relive the moment that monster tore her body apart because of her betrayal.

“[F/N]—” Eddie speaks, not being able to stand watching his friend in so much pain.

“No! I don’t understand why we’re getting to walk away from this!” she always had a harder time accepting what she did, Billy had a hard time as well but [F/N] knew that her mind was much more twisted in comparison to Billy, that’s why that monster always sent her out to kill people while Billy was left to kidnap people. Her arm wraps around her stomach as she slaps a hand over her mouth, her body threatening to vomit out whatever was left in her stomach but she was able to swallow it down and instead drool and saliva dribbles out of her mouth “Why are we to be spared after all the pain we but those poor people through?” Billy gently places a hand on her back, rubbing circles into her back to comfort her and try to calm her breathing down.

“I know it’s hard, [F/N], but it wasn’t your fault.” Nancy says, [F/N] couldn’t help but scoff at her words.

“Wasn’t our fault? You don’t get it, Wheeler. I always knew deep down I was fucking crazy, that thing just intensified that craziness to the point I lost my rationality. Death was going to be my atonement for what I had done, what I did to you two.” she spared Steve and Robin a look but quickly tore her eyes away before she could look at them for too long.

“.… I forgive you.” she raised her head and looked over at Steve, who never tore his eyes away from her “I forgave you long ago, [F/N]. I wish you’d stop blaming yourself for what happened to me, because it wasn’t you.” she grits her teeth at that, shaking her head.

“B-But it— you don’t understand.”

“[F/N], please, we know it wasn’t your fault.” Robin speaks next, begging for [F/N] to look at them with something that wasn’t just anguish “We know what you did was to keep us safe, but we need you to know that you’ve been forgiven.” Billy knew she was having a difficult time to believe anything they were saying, still so deep in denial that it was going to take a lot for her to forgive herself, so he went back to shielding her from the others and left a comforting hand on her back.

“Alright, fine, we’re alive and shit, but that still doesn’t explain how you four ended up here.” Nancy was the one to answer again, being the more levelled headed out of the three and most knowledgeable by standards.

“Well, a crack of sorts that acts as a gate from this world to ours is open and we came through one.” Billy immediately pulls a face at the information.

“Wait, wait a minute. Are you telling me that there was a way to get the fuck out of this shithole this whole time?”

“Well, yes and no. Is there a way to make these gates? Yes. Is there a way for you to make them? No. It would have been impossible for you to get out of here without a different force from opening one.” [F/N] could feel Billy’s frustration so she looked up at him and saw he inhaled sharply before letting his body fall to the ground, his back landing with a thud.

“Billy, for fuck sakes.” she curses out as she kneels down, placing her hand on his chest while their puppies hovered over him.

“You’re telling me there was a way out of here this whole time?” he repeats, she rolls her eyes.

“Not for us to figure out, no.” she pats his chest twice then looks up at the group.

“So where were y’all heading before I sent my babies out to get you?” she looks at Eddie with an apologetic look “Real sorry about that, by the way. Can’t help but be cautious over anything new when in this hellhole.” Eddie raises his hands while shaking his head, nervously eyeing the one demodog that was growling at him as it stuck to [F/N]’s side.

“We were heading to the Wheelers place.” she raised a brow at the destination, she whistled sharply when she heard her baby growling a little louder while grabbing him by the chained collar around his neck to keep him from pouncing again “Nancy here said that she’s got a couple guns in her room.” [F/N] scrunched her face up in confusion then let out a snort, standing to her feet and dusting her pants off.

“You, Nancy Wheeler, have guns, plural, in your bedroom.” Eddie’s face lights up as he points at her.

“That’s exactly what I said.” though it was a little weak, a smile similar to his stretched across her face.

“And this is why we’re best friends.” they both giggle to themselves then high five each other.

“What about us?” she glanced down at Billy, scoffing slightly with a roll of her eyes when she saw him pouting up at her “I thought WE were best friends.” she gently kicks him from where he was laying.

“We’re trauma besties.”

“I can get behind that.” she shakes her head and looks around at their general location, they were still a good few miles from the Wheeler residence and they already look exhausted.

“Were you guys planning on walking?” Steve shrugged.

“Well, what other option do we have?” Billy, who was now up and on his feet, glanced down at [F/N], who in turn looked up at him, and smirked at each other.

“We know a much quicker way.” obviously they were a little nervous at the suggestion, Billy let out a sigh at their reluctance “Well, would you rather walk and risk another encounter with one of those fuckers?” they all glance down at the dead demogorgon, shuddering in disgust at the sight of the demodogs eating at its corpse.

“It better be worth the detour.” Nancy murmured softly, [F/N] chuckled.

“It’ll definitely be worth it, little miss Wheeler.” both she and Billy bring their fingers to their lips and let out a sharp whistle, their demodogs were quick to react and waited for their command. Billy gestured with his head for his dogs to go in the direction he came from while [F/N] snapped her fingers and hers surrounded them “Shall we?” they flinch a little when they see [F/N] lean down to pick up her fallen axe and throw it over her shoulder before they started walking away, they only started to follow when one of her puppies gave them a little nudge from behind. Eddie glanced at Steve and saw that he was staring intensely at Billy and [F/N]’s back, because in his mind, the two of them looked exactly the way they did when they died. Sure they looked a little worse for wear, covered in dirt and grime from being stuck in the Upside Down for the past eight months, but other than the fact that they’re wearing the same torn clothes they were left in covered in some gear they found around in this wasteland, their appearance didn’t seem to have changed that much. [F/N]’s hair might have grown maybe a few inches as well as Billy’s who also started growing a bit of a stubble, but it wasn’t much. It was as if they hadn’t even aged.

“Steve…” he muttered softly, reaching to grab his hand and softly rub his thumb over his knuckles “Are you okay?” he sniffled softly.

“Yeah… yeah, I’m good. I just never thought I’d be given a chance to see them again.” his other hand then reached up to cradle the pendant around his neck, Eddie’s eyes saddened a little at the way he saw Steve was staring at Billy. He then turned his attention towards Billy and [F/N] himself, the two of them were walking shoulder to shoulder in silence as they led the way to wherever they were taking them, Steve let out a noise when Eddie let go of his hand and sauntered over towards the two “E-Eddie?” the two let out a grunt when Eddie practically shoved himself in between the two of them.

“Munson? What the hell?” [F/N] lets out an oh when she felt him link his arms with hers, Billy scowled when he blocked his view of [F/N].

“[F/N], I am quite hurt that you didn’t come visit me when you came around last year. I heard rumours that you were back, so color me surprised when both uncle Wayne and I didn’t even get to see you. Even the boys were sad that you didn’t pop in to say hello.” she smiled sadly at that, gently patting her hand on top of his.

“Eddie… I did some real unspeakable things last year.” his eyes saddened when that same look of terror washed over her face, her eyes fluttered shut as a pained expression appeared “That thing made me kill so many people, man. I-If that thing made me hurt you as well… I-I don’t think I’d be here talking to you. I owe you for everything you’ve done for me Eddie, really.” he gives her a smile at that.

“That means a lot to me, [F/N]. Still a little hurt that you didn’t even come by the say hello, you were still around for quite a long time.” she shrugged softly.

“I was distracted, alright.” he raised a brow.

“With what?” at the mention of that she glanced back towards Robin, who perked up when she saw [F/N]’s gaze. She quickly looked away but her eyes landed on Steve, she gritted her teeth at the sight of the marking along his neck and the small blood spot on the makeshift bandage along his stomach. However her eyes caught onto the battle vest that she for sure knew Steve didn’t own, she then glanced back towards Eddie then back at Steve before settling her gaze on Eddie… Steve flinched when she whipped her head back towards him and stared intensely at him.

“Eddie, lend me your vest, yeah?” [F/N], who was soaked because she got doused in alcohol by a few drunk patrons at the Hideout, asked as she took off both her jacket and her shirt because the smell of alcohol was clinging to both items of clothing and so she was shamelessly left in her bra. At least the other boys were gentlemen because they stood around her to block the eyes of others to gaze upon her half naked body, she herself was quite calm despite the predicament she was in.

“No can do, sweetheart.” she scrunched her face up in confusion, twisting her shirt and gagging at the sight of booze that dripped out of her shirt “This is my prized possession, I can’t just hand it out.” she scoffed at him.

“So you’d rather I flaunt around in just my bra?”

“Yeah.” she let out an offended gasp at his audacity, Gareth was kind enough to take off his flannel and hand it to her. She gave him a thankful look as she put it on but rolled up the sleeves and left a couple buttons undone because it was in the middle of summer and though it was night time it was still pretty hot “Don’t you know the importance of a battle vest, [F/N]?”

“I honestly don’t care.” she was promptly ignored.

“Letting someone wear your battle vest is like claiming them as yours, you know. It’s like when jocks let their girlfriends wear their varsity jackets, to let others know that they’re taken. It’s just the metal head way of claiming what is theirs.” the four of them just stare at Eddie.

“… if you didn’t want me to wear it you could’ve just said so.”

“I bet he’s saying that because he believes he’s going to hitch himself a lover or something.”

“Oh, how sad.” they all laugh at that, causing Eddie to glare at them.

“Alright, fine! Sure, yeah, the only reason you’ll ever see someone else wearing it is because they’re my boyfriend, alright! Just you wait!” Steve felt a bead of sweat roll down his face the longer she stare at him, going a little pale when he saw her smile sweetly at her, though the grip on the axe gave away how pissed she actually was. Billy felt the rise in anger coming from [F/N] so he peeked down at her and raised a brow when she turned her gaze towards the man in between the two of them.

“Eddie.” she spoke softly, he hummed softly when he felt her raise her hand and cup his cheek, leaning into her soft and delicate touch “Do you remember when I told you that someday Steve would find that perfect someone someday?” when she spoke those words Eddie immediately understood what she was doing.

“H-Huh?” her fingers dig into his cheeks as she grabs him by the face and lifts him up off the ground, whether that be by her own physical strength or with the aid of the Mind Flayers left over power, we’ll never know.

“I didn’t mean you, you son of a bitch!” Steve and the others were clearly freaking out because they couldn’t tell if [F/N] was under the control of the Mind Flayer again but since Billy wasn’t reacting like that then it slightly calmed them down… slightly “I love you Eddie, I really do, but what makes you think you’re good enough to be my brother’s boyfriend?” to think Eddie would be at the end of her hand like this, she never thought she’d see the day.

“C-Come on, [F/N], let’s talk about this!” her gaze hardened, her grip tightening and would likely leave bruises.

“No, we’re doing this now! You should have realized that just because you’re my best friend, it wouldn’t keep you safe the moment I learnt that you were his boyfriend! And you two got hooked up while I was in the grave? That’s cold. So tell me, Munson,” his hands grip onto her wrist tightly when she pulled him close to stare him closely in the eyes “what makes you think you’re good enough to be my brother’s boyfriend?” she repeats.

“… he was really sad, [F/N].” he noticed the way her tough resolve break a little, her eyes softening just briefly before hardening again “He looked just like you when you first came to me, there was no way I was going to leave him alone with how vulnerable he was. If he really was like his sister, I didn’t want to take the risk of leaving him alone with all his bad thoughts. I helped pick up the broken pieces of his heart and put them back together, and without me realising it, he was doing the same thing for me. I hadn’t realized just how much losing you hurt me as well, [F/N].” he noticed that it was working because she was slowly losing her grip on his face and lowering him down “I love him, really. I’m in love with your brother and you and I both know that these attractions began far before your funeral. I promise you, [F/N], that unlike all those other girls that you scared off, my love for him in genuine.” she had finally put him down and was giving him a sad look.

“Eddie…”

“i know all you ever wanted was the best for Steve, and I swear I’ll do the best I can to give it to him.” [F/N] sighed softly and gave him a meaningful look, she however made a face.

“Don’t.” she suddenly spoke, her gave her a confused look as he slowly turned around to look at Billy, paling at the dark look on his face “Don’t, Billy. Don’t!” she pushes Eddie away when Billy was getting ready to swing.

“You’re dead, Munson!”

“Fucking run Eddie!” he didn’t need to be told again and so he hightailed it out of there in the direction they were going, she grabbed Billy by the arm when he was going to run after him and before she could even get a word out he pushed her to the ground and ran after Eddie “Ah! Did you just shove me?!” she screamed but was ignored, this pissed her off even more before she chased after them with a shout. So running away really was Eddie’s thing because he was using every bit of stamina he had left to run away from the extremely pissed off Billy that was out to kill him, he took a brief peek behind him and picked up the pace when he saw that Billy was gaining some ground behind the two of them.

“I just wanna talk, Munson!” he shouts.

“Nah uh! No thanks, don’t really feel like dying to the hands of Steve’s ex!”

“Ex?!”

“I’m sorry!”

“Just stop talking at this point, Eddie!” he let out a shriek at the sound of [F/N]’s voice that was slowly catching up to them, Eddie made it to a clearing and stood on the spot because he didn’t know where to go so he turned around and let out a scream when Billy was going to grab him. He jumps to the side when Billy was tackled by [F/N] and the two of them go tumbling to the ground, [F/N] coming up on top with Billy laying beneath her and fighting to get her off “You gotta stop, Billy!” she was pushing his hands away when he tried shoving her off.

“No! He’s a dead man!”

“You’re being dramatic!”

“I’m not being dramatic!” they both just scream at each other at this point with [F/N] holding Billy by the shoulders to keep him pinned to the ground while Billy is holding her wrists.

“We talked about this, Billy!” she shouts and this causes him to waver, she takes a breath “We talked about this.” she repeats and immediately his eyes start to water.

“B-But—” she shakes her head.

“We both know that this was bound to happen. It’s for the best.” he grits his teeth because he knew that she was right, when the ladies and Steve caught up to them Billy had calmed down enough to not attack Eddie when he was back and on his feet “Good, y’all caught up. We’re here.” she then gestured to what was behind her and they were shocked to see what it was.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” [F/N] just grinned. That familiar roar that scared the lot echoed throughout the Upside Down once more but this time they knew where it was coming from, and that was from the engine of [F/N]’s prized mustang. [F/N] explained that instead of it being at the Starcourt Mall, that doesn’t exist there, or in the storage unit she left it in, it was sitting right at home inside the garage where she usually left it. It was an older version of her usual modded mustang that she upgraded throughout the years. She told them that this was their way of getting around Hawkins instead of walking because the monsters, Demogorgons and demodogs from what they call it, would stay away because of the roar the engine gave off, and their “demodogs” would either be sitting in the back or following alongside her car, like they were doing right now.

“Stop it.” the group sitting in the backseat sat in silence when they heard [F/N] speak, glancing up, they noticed that Billy was peeking back towards them, though he was glaring at Eddie. Whenever she caught him looking back at them she would scold him and he would stop but eventually would go back to looking at him, she rolled her eyes as she tightened her grip on the stirring wheel, shifting gears and pressing harder into the gas. The group then notice her raise her hand then strike it across Billy’s face, what took them back was when both their heads flew in the same direction she hit him.

“What the hell!” she scoffed, bringing her hand to caress her stringing cheek.

“I told you to stop it, Billy.” he scoffed at her as he caressed his cheek that was turning red, she perks up when she saw Eddie raise his hand.

“Um, hate to ask, but what the hell was that?” she hummed.

“Oh, why we both reacted when only I hit him.” she shrugged softly as she looked ahead of them “Ever since that thing welcomed itself into our bodies, we began to feel each other’s pain but also thoughts. Now we know exactly what the other is thinking, and you gotta stop thinking about plotting his murder.” Eddie flinched when Billy glared at him through the rear view mirror.

“I will…” she rolled her eyes.

“But since we were the first, we were especially close with each other. That’s why we stuck together, it’s what kept us from seriously losing our minds.” Nancy perked up at that.

“The hive mind.” this caused Billy and [F/N] to glance at her “The Mind Flayer, the thing that possessed you two, shared a mind with everything in the Upside Down. From the monsters to the vines, you hit one of them you get all of them. It happened to Will as well, he acted as a spy for it back in ‘84.” Billy couldn’t help but shudder.

“Damn, poor kid.” [F/N] nods her head.

“Yeah, it was so painful when that thing was there.” she felt her hands tremble, shaking her head to rid the thoughts of that thing invading her mind all over again “Would not like that to happen again. Besides all that shit, what’s been happening since we’ve been dead? Especially with you, Eddie. You look like hell.” he let out a groan.

“I’m wanted for murder.” the car falls silent until Billy and [F/N] burst out into laughter to the point they were shedding tears, they only stop when they realized that they were the only ones laughing.

“W-Wait a minute, you’re serious?” they share a look “Seriously? Dude, you’re like the biggest softie I know, if anyone would be wanted for murder, it’d be me. And this would be before I actually did kill a bunch of people.” he let out a sigh.

“Yeah, I was dealing with a girl back at the trailer when Vecna, the guy behind all this voodoo shit, killed her. I ran away because I didn’t know what the fuck was going on.” [F/N] let out a sad sigh, reaching back to pat his knee.

“It’ll be alright… hopefully.”

“Thanks.” she let out a breath, looking back at the empty roads.

“Damn, maybe you can ask Hopper to let out off with a slap on the wrist.” [F/N] and Billy notice them flinch, she let out a sigh “Well, shit, what the fuck is wrong with him. Don’t tell me he’s dead.” she closed her eyes with a sigh, already knowing that their silence confirmed the fact that he is, in fact, dead.

“I don’t believe that.” Billy says, leaning back into the leather seats “If we’re not dead, then surely he’s alive as well. We survived getting our intestines ripped out of our chest, surely whatever killed him didn’t actually kill him and he’s just somewhere else.” Nancy goes to rebuttal his theory but paused when he did have a point.

“If, your theory is correct, would that mean he’s here as well?” [F/N] shook her head.

“If he was we probably would have found him already, we’ve searched the entirety of this shithole and even our babies haven’t found anything. Besides, with those bats on constant surveillance, there’s no way we wouldn’t have noticed them swarming his ass.”

“Maybe he was kidnapped by the Russians.” Robin snapped her fingers.

“Yeah, he did go down into the Russian base.” Eddie, Billy and [F/N] look at them.

“Excuse me, what? Russians?” Steve and Robin share a look and decided that yeah, maybe they shouldn’t mention the fact that they were tortured by Russians before [F/N] beat the ever living shit out of them “Hey, hey now! You can’t just say something and not finish yourself.” they shake their heads.

“Sorry, we’re already living through traumatic events. We’re not reliving another one.”

“What?” [F/N] didn’t even want to think about it anymore, her head perked up at the sight of the familiar road so she lifted her foot off the gas but proceeded to show off by drifting into the curb and parking the car flawlessly with a screech of her tires. She laughed a little manically at the screaming coming from her backseat while Billy just laughed, already used to her reckless driving now that she didn’t need to follow the road code and could basically do whatever the hell she wanted “And we have arrived at our destination, as promised.”

“T-Thanks.” she winked at them through the rear view mirror, she hops out of the car but leans against it as she waits for the four of them to stumble out so she could follow behind them. She closes the door behind Nancy and pushes herself up to follow but a wave of anxiety bubbled from inside her stomach so she lagged behind while the others went ahead, leaning her head back to peak inside the passenger side and saw Billy hunched over and trying to control his breathing.  Billy was anxiously bouncing his leg, nervously grasping his hands together and occasionally squeezing them to ground him, he didn’t even flinch when [F/N] opened his door and knelt down.

“Hey… are you okay?” he let out a shuddering breath.

“Being here… I don’t like being here.” her frown deepens, already seeing the memories of each time Karen Wheeler had harassed him. His thoughts went straight back to 84′, the night his father threatened him in front of that Susan woman to find that Maxine girl. When arriving at the Wheeler residence, Karen couldn’t even control herself and made it obvious that she was staring at Billy with such a lustful gaze and wouldn’t even give Billy a clue as to where his stepsister was until he gave her what she wanted. From then on she continued her antics, getting close to him, touching him and trying to get the two of them alone, going so far as to try and sleep with him but he always declined her advances “I just— I can’t— I don’t…” she shook her head, placing a hand on his knee and rocking it a bit.

“We don’t have to go inside, we can simply sit out here and wait for them to be done. They’ll be in and out.” he slowly nods his head.

“R-Right, in and out.” he let out a shaky laugh when his demodog came into view, whining softly while caressing its body against his in a way to comfort him “Yeah I’m alright, you dope. Don’t have to worry about me.” she smiles softly at him, standing to her feet and leaning against the side of her car once more “… do you really believe there’s a way out of here?”

“There goddamn better be, I need a shower.” he snorts.

“Yeah, this place has fucked up my curls.” she laughs “But seriously, [F/N], do you think we can actually get out of here?”

“Honestly, I really hope so… think my parents are gonna use my death as clout?” he nod.

“One hundred percent.” she nods with a purse of her lips “They’re grade a assholes.”

“Yup.” what [F/N] thought was going to be an in and out situation turned out to be much longer because she found herself laying on the ground staring up at the lightning, dark clouds, the passing demobats, more lightning and even more clouds as they waited for them to be done with whatever side quest they were on. She only sat up when she heard rushing footsteps from inside the house until they came barging out, kicking the door open as they rushed towards them.

“Jesus, what took you so long?” Billy complained, she was slowly getting up but Eddie pulled her to her feet and pushed her to the drivers seat.

“What’s the rush? Why are you pushing me?!”

“Dustin believes he’s found a way out of here!” he shouts, she stared at him in confusion “Oh, um, Dustin? He’s one of Steve’s children, and maybe one of mine. Anyways, this kid that’s been in this kind of shit longer than I have thinks he knows a way out of here and if you want out of here then lets get a move on!” she nod her head and his words but continues to lean against her car.

“That’s fascinating and all, but we can’t go anywhere if I don’t know where we’re going.”

“My trailer! Take us to my trailer!” she was even more confused but listened nonetheless, she cocks her the moment she slips into the car seat and the demodogs understood, letting out barks and ran ahead so she could follow after them. She was going a moderate speed as she drove to Eddie’s trailer, glaring back at them when they told her to drive faster but warned them that at the speed they were going it was quiet enough to not get the bats on their case She really didn’t want to have to deal with those fuckers, they were annoying as is and she and Billy would have a tough time fighting against them while having to protect the other four.

“So what exactly is at your trailer?” Billy questions when [F/N] pulls up to the trailer park, screeching directly in front of Eddie’s trailer, the two of them sputtering a little when the four in the back quickly hop out “Or don’t tell me, that’s fine as well.” [F/N] just shook her head when they step out, leaning against her car again to watch them rush to his doorstep.

“You’re not gonna tell us what’s here?” Eddie rushes back over to her, grabbing her by the hands and tugging her to come with them.

“I told you, [F/N]. There’s a way out of here.” Eddie saw the look of hesitance on her face as she looked at Billy.

“Eddie… I-I, I don’t know.” he’s quick to hold both her hands in his, rubbing him thumb along the top of her knuckles.

“I don’t want you to hate yourself even more than you already do, [F/N]. I understand that you’re conflicted whether or not you should stay here to repent your sins or some shit, but I want to you and Billy too to come with us.” he gives her a tug “Come on, man. I know you don’t want to stay here when there’s a way out.” she stared at him, Eddie chuckling when he saw her eyes tear up.

“O… Okay.” Eddie thinks she’s going to follow but stopped when he saw her throw herself onto her prized mustang, crying a little as she hugged the hood of the car “I’ll miss you, my baby! My totally rad apocalyptic mustang!” she cried out, Billy in turn started patting their demodogs and giving them a sad look.

“It was nice while it lasted, but this is probably for the best.” Eddie pouts softly when he saw them cuddling their pets, giving each one a hug before having a group hug “I’d say see you later, but I hope that day never comes.” [F/N] nod her head, standing to her feet and approaching Eddie.

“Honestly, same. Unless they can survive in our world, let’s hope we never have to come back here again.” they fist bump, Eddie was the last to enter the trailer to make sure the two didn’t run off while he wasn’t looking, there they found Steve, Nancy and Robin were staring up at a hole in the ceiling that certainly wasn’t there before, though he shuddered softly as he stared up at it.

“This is where Chrissy died.” he muttered softly, [F/N] looked at him but reached over to take his hand, pausing when she noticed Steve doing the same thing. She stared for a couple seconds before deciding to leave it be, she’ll let him have this moment to help calm him down “Like, right where she died.” they all flinch a little when they noticed that there was something moving inside the fissure.

“I think there’s something in there.” they were a little startled when [F/N] and Billy made sure to get in between them, [F/N] raising her axe to get ready to swing at whatever comes through that crack in the ceiling. Something seemed to be poking through it from the other side, causing it to dip down.

“What the hell is that?” they continue to stare at whatever was causing it to move before jumping backwards with a yelp when the fissure burst, Steve grabbed Billy and [F/N] when they didn’t move but was shaken off by them who weren’t startled in the slightest. Billy was the one to take a step first before [F/N] followed suite and eventually the others did the same, he peeked his head under the opening then his eyes widened at what he saw on the other side, [F/N] gave him a questioning look before doing the same, only to have the same reaction.

“Well shit.” she muttered, the other four take a peek but have a different reaction from the other two, letting out breaths of relief at the sight of Eddie’s trailer, along side Dustin, Lucas, Erica and Max, to which Max was staring intently at her brother that was supposed to be dead.

“Hi there.” Dustin greets with a laugh followed by a wave, Steve mirrors it and gives a little wave.

“Hi.” Dustin continues to laugh before shuffling away with Erica, leaving Lucas and Max to stare at the four along with Billy and [F/N], to which they couldn’t believe they were actually seeing them.

“Billy…” Max murmured under her breath.

“And [F/N]…” she crossed her arms and looked away, Billy let out a breath and did the same, Eddie and Steve were quick to comfort them. Max didn’t stay there for long and left to help Dustin and Erica with whatever they were doing, Lucas doing the same thing because he couldn’t look at the two who caused him the most pain, both mentally and physically. In their world, Dustin was getting to work with making a makeshift rope with some sheets while Lucas and Max were hauling Eddie’s mattress out from his room, pushing it over so it was directly under the fissure. They all narrow their eyes at the different stains on the mattress, Eddie squirming a little.

“Those stains are, uh…” Robin is already giving him a look when he looked at her, he quickly look away “I dunno what those stains are.”

“Mm.” [F/N] is giving him a look, crossing her arms.

“Whore.” she murmured, he whips his head to glare at her but she’s ignoring him to look at Steve, who was avoiding her gaze and caressing his bicep “We’re gonna talk about this later, trust me.”

“I’d rather not.”

“Don’t test me.” she kicks him, they’d get into a scuffle if it weren’t for Billy getting in between them and stopping them, she lets out a huff and looks away. Dustin and Erica collect the rope they made and bring it over to the fissure, everyone watching in anticipation for what Dustin was going to pull of.

“Not quite sure how these physics work, but, uh… here goes nothing.” the group take a step back when he tosses an end through and it lands in front of them, they look back up at him and see he was still holding his end before slowly letting go and the rope dangled perfectly in between both worlds “Huh, abracadabra.”

“Holy shit.”

“Alright, pull on it! See if it holds!” Robin looks at Steve and he gestures for her to give it a go, so she grabs it and gives it a nice couple tugs, the rope holds still.

“This is the craziest shit I’ve ever seen in my life. And I’ve seen some crazy shit.” Erica says, she looks down when she sees Dustin raise his hand so she high fives it.

“So… who’s first?” [F/N] raises her hand.

“Me! I want to get the fuck out of here, no offence.” Eddie chuckles softly and takes a step back.

“By all means, ladies first.” she shoves him back and he laughs a little, the children on the other side back up when she throws her axe through first then climbs through rather effortlessly, she was a little startled that when she entered through the real world the natural law of physics started up again and she was falling through but managed to flip her body around and land on the mattress with a thud. Lucas and Max take a step back when she stands up straight, grabbing Dustin and Erica to pull them back to moment she stands at her full height. They didn’t know exactly how it was possible that she was alive and back and standing right in front of them, covering in dirt and blood while wearing clothes that’s seen better days, but they didn’t want to take any chances that she could possible kill the—

“Oh my god, I never thought I’d be so happy to see your trailer, Eddie! Still a massive pigsty, as usual. I’m sure you’re making Wayne do all the work while you laze around.”

“Hey…! I do some work to help out.” she rolled her eyes.

“Sure, sure.” she then turned her gaze to look down at Dustin, swaying side to side then putting her hands on her hips, if Dustin didn’t know any better he’d think it was Steve in front of him because of the iconic pose she was doing “So you’re the infamous Henderson that I’ve heard so much about, from both my brother and Eddie.” he clears his throat, standing up straight while [F/N] stood rather relaxed.

“R-Really? Why’d they— ahem, what did they say about me?” she chuckled, lifting one of her hands and reaching towards them. She didn’t react when Lucas and Max flinched, going so far as to grabbing Dustin and tugging him back but he tore his arms free from them, letting out a gasp when she grabbed him by his cap and started pushing and pulling his head back and forward.

“Said you’re a real piece of work, a pain in their ass, really.” she laughs with a shrug of her shoulders after pushing him backwards lightly, though the shirt he was wearing certainly caught his eye “Hellfire, huh? That club still going on? I’m surprised the teachers allowed it to continue.” Dustin stared up at her in wander, straighten his cap out when it sat awkwardly on his head.

“You know Hellfire?” she nod her head, grinning at him and pointing her thumb at her chest.

“Uh huh! I’m an honorary member, kiddo! One of the few originals, beside Eddie and Gare-bear. Oh, I miss Gare-bear.” she wipes away a non-existing tear and saunters over to the trailers kitchen, pushing past the group of children and leaving Dustin to gawk at her.

“You were apart of Hellfire?! You played D&D!” she nods her head, glancing over at the wall and smiling when she saw the photo that Wayne probably framed.

“Yeah, I’ve been friends with the Hellfire boys since high school.” she then gestures to the photo and Dustin was quick to look at each, taking it off from where it was hanging to get a closer look. There he saw Eddie, Gareth, Jeff and Nathan smiling and grinning like idiots and in the middle of them was [F/N] with her arms around Jeff and Gareth’s shoulders, all five of them wearing the Hellfire shirts and it looked like they were in the drama room “I think that was the day we had our very first D&D campaign, was pretty shit because Eddie was still a newbie at DMing, but he got better.” Dustin nods his head.

“Yeah, he’s really great.” she smiles at Dustin, such an innocent smile that she was glad she didn’t seem him the year prior, that was because Lucas and Max were staring at her in fear; waiting for her to snap and reach to kill them. She clears her throat and looks down at her axe, picking it up but throwing it on the counter then approaching the fridge.

“Eddie, I’m raiding your fridge! I’m hungry as shit!”

“Wha— no!” she ignored him, letting out a squeal when she saw that it at least had food in it when she opened it.

“Yo! Billy! Get your ass in here, man! There’s beer!” she laughed when she heard shuffling from the other end, she grabs a couple and cracks open one to down it in less then a couple seconds. She was in the midst of chugging down a second one when Billy falls through the fissure, she grins and makes her way back over to him, setting her beer down and offering a hand to him “Welcome to the land of the living.” he chuckles, taking her hand.

“It’s great to be back.” she let out a grunt when helping him to his feet, well, that was until he wrapped his arms under hers and hoisted her up into a hug. She looked down at him but smiled and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, hugging him tightly and shedding a couple tears, when he put her down her hands slid down to rest against his cheeks “We’re alive.” she nod her head.

“We are…” they only pull away when they realise Robin was coming out next, she and Billy were eating Eddie’s food when Robin falls through and was laughing after experiencing such a disorienting feeling.

“That was fun.” she giggled out, taking Dustin’s hand to help her to her feet. Robin looked over at [F/N] when she felt her gaze on her but the other quickly looked away, going back to chugging down what seemed to be her fourth beer “[F/N], I—” she shakes her head.

“C-Can we talk about this later?” she asked, she closed her hand and let it drop to her side.

“Okay, but we will talk about it later, right?” her eyes dart to hers a couple times but she made sure to keep them down as she nods her head.

“Yeah.” she spoke, her voice barely above a whisper. Their heads whip over back towards the mattress when Eddie falls through, just as disoriented as who also laughed when he took Dustin’s hand.

“That… was fun. Shit.” when he was on his feet his attention quickly moved to Billy and [F/N], who were still eating his food and drinking his beer, [F/N] gave him a cheeky grin “Stop eating my food, man! Some of it is Wayne’s, come on!” they just ignored him and continued to eat.

“You try living off of shit in the hellhole and not eat like a starved man when there’s actual food presented to you. Your basic diet is beer, chips and Wayne’s famous pork chops.” she then flipped him the bird and drank her beer, Robin ignores their squabbling in favor for Steve and Nancy who still haven’t left the Upside Down.

“What’s taking them so long?” Robin muttered, Billy’s head perked up at that as he left [F/N] to defend herself against Eddie, who was trying to steal his food back from her, and took a spot beside Robin to look back into the Upside to see Nancy standing idle. A chill suddenly ran down his and [F/N]’s spine, this caused both their heads to look back towards the fissure.

“Nancy?” Steve murmurs softly, approaching Nancy when she didn’t answer him “Hey! Hey! Stay with me, Nancy! Hey!” his shouting is what caught all of their attention, the rest of them approaching the fissure to see what was going on “Nancy, wake up!” Max swallows thickly.

“Vecna.” Billy and [F/N] look at each other.

“Who?” they whisper, soon they’re left in the living room while the others rushed to Eddie’s room to do who knows what “What’s going on? What’s happening?” [F/N] questions them as she enters Eddie’s room, leaving Billy with Erica to watch Steve and Nancy, who was now cradling her face and gently shaking her to try and wake her up.

“Vecna— he’s— we can’t explain! Just find something!” Dustin thrusts a box of Eddie’s tapes into her hands and she nearly drops it but manages to catch it, she looks at them and saw they were grabbing random tapes, Erica then comes running down the hall to shout at them.

“Steve says you need to hurry!”

“Yeah, no shit!” Dustin screams as he and Lucas are looking through another pile of tapes.

“We’re trying, we can’t find anything!”

“What is all this shit?!” she then scoffs and sets the box down, kneeling down to start searching as well.

“What are you even looking for?” she asks, Robin then starts fumbling with a bunch of tapes in her hands and drops a few of them.

“Madonna, Blondie, Bowie, Beatles? Music! We need music!” Eddie was quick to grab one of the tapes she still had in her hand, glaring at her.

“This. Is. Music!” [F/N] just shakes her head, giving up knowing that they weren’t going to find anything that Nancy liked within the Munson residence, knowing that neither Wayne nor Eddie listened to any of the trending pop songs that everybody normal liked.

“Well we might as well give up, Eddie doesn’t listen to that shit! And I highly doubt little miss Wheeler listens to Iron Maiden.” she drops the tapes on the ground, grabbing Eddie and shaking him “We’re fucked! Why can’t your taste be more diverse, Eddie?!”

“Shut up!” they soon resort into arguing because they had nothing, absolutely nothing to help Nancy through this possession thing and they were running out of time. That feeling she and Billy felt was intense, it was as if that Mind Flayer fucker was back and she was feeling nauseous again, cutting her argument off with Eddie to control her breathing so she didn’t end up throwing up again “Whoa, whoa, [F/N]! Are you okay?” she shakes her head, leaning against the wall to calm the throbbing headache exploding within her brain.

“Y-Yeah, yeah, I’m good. Just need a minute.” Billy was having the same reaction but not as bad as hers, he was just caressing his forehead and keeping his eye on Nancy and Steve. The moment the headache went away they knew that Nancy was free from whatever hold that Vec-bitch had on her because she gasped and fell backwards, but Steve was quick to catch her.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay.” Nancy was gasping, trying to catch her breath as Steve caressed her face to comfort her, pushing her hair out of her face “It’s okay, I’m here. I’m right here.”

[time skip: in the morning]

“He showed me… things that haven’t happened yet. The most awful things.” the group now found themselves huddled in Max’s house that was across from Eddie’s trailer, listening to Nancy as she recounted what Vecna had shown her when he had her under his control “I saw… a dark cloud spreading over Hawkins. Downtown on fire. Dead soldiers. And this… giant creature with… a gaping mouth. And this creature wasn’t alone. There were so many monsters. An army. And they were coming into Hawkins. Into our neighbourhoods. Our homes. And then he… he showed me my mum. And Holly. Mike. And they… they were all…” she lets out a shaky breath, [F/N] was watching her talk before looking away and letting her head fall against the wall.

“That… Mind Flayer, was it? It would show Billy and me things to keep us in line, to keep us under its control. It would show us things to scare us, Wheeler, to make sure we didn’t defy it. So, what I’m saying is, this Vecna guy, he’s just trying to scare you.” Billy nods his head, caressing her leg from where he was sitting on the floor.

“Right, I mean… he only showed us things that could possibly happen, but it didn’t, because none of it was real. They were only possibilities.” she shakes her head.

“Not yet. But there… there was something else. He showed me gates. Four gates. Spreading across Hawkins. And these gates, they looked like the one outside of Eddie’s trailer, but… they didn’t stop growing. And this wasn’t the Upside Down Hawkins. This was our Hawkins. Our home.” Billy and [F/N] share a look, what she was talking about, they had seen that future. They had seen it when they were building the Mind Flayers its body for it to move from the Upside Down to their world, and it really wasn’t a pretty picture.

“Four chimes.” Max suddenly spoke, causing them to look at her this time “Vecna’s clock. It always chimes four times. Four exactly.”

“I heard them too.”

“He’s been telling us his plan this whole time.”

“Four kills. Four gates. End of the world.”

“If that’s true… he’s only one kill away.” Eddie was quick to panic, burying his face into the palms of his hands.

“Oh, jesus christ, jesus christ.”

“Try ‘em again. Try ‘em again.” Billy and [F/N] are zoning out when Max walks over to the landline to dial a number, a chill runs down their spines and they sense somewhat of a presence. They look over at Max and were a little startled to see that same little girl the Mind Flayer tasked them to kill, [F/N] opened her mouth to say something but that girl, El if she remembered correctly, seemed to have noticed they were both looking at her and quickly raised her finger to her lips to shush them both. They narrow their eyes on her but do so, shutting their mouths as she continued to watch them before finally disappearing.

“Did you see her as well?” she whispered to Billy, who nodded and continued to look in the spot where she was previously.

“Uh huh.”

“But the others didn’t see her?”

“Uh huh.” he then bats her leg lightly “Must be because she visited us that one time.” she nods her head, humming softly.

“We have to go back in there. Back to the Upside Down.” this immediately got everyone’s attention, protesting because the thought of going back in there was crazy.

“Whoa, no, no, no. What?”

“Nope. Nope.”

“Wheeler, think this through.” [F/N] spoke after pushing herself off the wall.

“What is there to think through?”

“Y’all barely lasted a couple hours inside the Upside Down. What makes you think you can last long enough to get to Vec-bitch to kill him?” Steve nods his head, standing to his feet and approaching Nancy.

“She’s right, we barely made it out of there.”

“Yeah, because we weren’t prepared. But this time, we will be. We’ll get weapons and protection. We’ll go through the gate, we’ll find his lair, and we’ll kill him. We even have Billy and [F/N] to help us, the most experienced inside the Upsi—” Billy interrupts her, holding his hand out to cut her off.

“Are you crazy? We just got out of there after, how long has it been?” [F/N] mouthed out eight months to him “Eight months? Eight months! We’ve been STUCK in there for eight months and you really expect us to waltz straight back in there? You’re crazy, Wheeler. You can count us OUT.” Steve sighed at the thought of the two most experienced sitting this out, but he couldn’t help but nod his head to agree with what Billy said, maybe feeling a little relieved that they’ll be as far away from this war as possible.

“Yeah, or he’ll kill us. The only reason you survived is because he wanted you to. He’s not scared of us, maybe those two, sure! But not us.”

“And for a good reason.” Robin speaks, standing up from where she was sitting on the ground “We were wrong about Vecna. Henry. One. Sorry, what are we calling him now?”

“One.” Lucas and Dustin say.

“Vecna.” Erica says.

“Henry.” Nancy says . “A bitch.” Billy and [F/N] say, Robin just shook her head at the two of them.

“Right. We’ve learned something new about Vecna/Henry/One.” the two pout when she didn’t include their name “He’s a number like Eleven, only a sick, evil, male, child murdering version of her with really bad skin. But my… my point is, he’s super powerful. Could turn us inside out with a snap of his fingers. It’s not a fair fight.” at the mention of that, [F/N] looked down in thought.

“Then why fight fair?” she murmured, eyes trailing off to the side when she could feel that gaze again “If what you said is true, that he’s similar to the Eleven girl, then doesn’t he have the same powers as her? Didn’t she have that power where she could leave her body and some shit to visit people, it’s what she did to Billy and me when we were… flayed? Wouldn’t that give us the upper hand? You know Eleven’s strengths, but you also know her weakness.” Dustin seemed to understand where she was coming from.

“She’s right. When El remote travels, she goes into this sort of trance like state. I bet the same is true of Vecna.” Lucas nods.

“That would explain what he was going in that attic.”

“Exactly. When he attacks his next victim, I’ll bet you he’s back in that attic, physical body defenceless.” Steve shook his head, gesturing to his neck as he spoke.

“Defenceless? What about the army of bats?”

“True. We’ll have to find a way past them. Distract them somehow.” Eddie raises his hand.

“Didn’t [F/N] and Billy mention something about how they’re attracted to noise? We could use that to our advantage.” Dustin snaps his fingers.

“Good idea. And once they’re gone, he doesn’t stand a chance. It’ll be like slaying sleeping Dracula in his coffin.”

“That all sounds good in theory, but there is no pattern to Vecna’s killings. Not one that I can decipher. We don’t know when he’s going to attack next.” [F/N] raised a hand.

“We don’t know if this is much to contribute, but we can feel when he’s going to attack.” Max shook her head.

“That’s not enough, but… we do, we do know. when he’s going to attack. I don’t know about you two, but I can still feel him. I’m still marked. Cursed. I ditch Kate Bush, I draw his focus back to me.” Billy looked around the room when he saw they were all protesting the idea of Max giving herself up just to be a distraction.

“Max. You can’t. He’ll kill you.”

“I survived before… I can survive again. I just need to keep him busy long enough so that you guys can get into that attic. Then you can chop his head off. Stab him in the heart. Blow him up with explosive Dustin cooks up. I honestly don’t care how you put this asshole in his grave. Just… whatever it is… whatever you do… try not to miss.” no one speaks up.

“Are you seriously going to let her do this?” Billy questions “You’re seriously going to let that fucker into her mind just so she can distract him? Are you out of your damn minds?!” [F/N] shakes her head, grabbing him by the arm.

“Billy, not now.” he quickly shakes her hand off him.

“What will happen if you miss your chance? What happens in that measly little split second that you’re late and he’s got her? What will happen then?” Nancy shakes her head.

“We won’t let that happen.”

“Yeah, but you can’t guarantee that! There’s still a chance that something could go wrong and she’ll be killed! Or even worse, mutilated and she’ll end up suffering far worse than we did.”

“Billy stop it.” Nancy couldn’t help but scoff a little as she stared at Billy.

“I don’t see why you’re worrying, Billy.” she crosses her arms, not wavering when he glared at her “Do you think just because you died and survived you’ll get your chance to be her brother again? Even before you were flayed, you did a lot of unspeakable things.”

“Nancy!”

“It’s the truth.” she takes a step forward, looking up at Billy as his glare hardened on her while his hands balled into tight fists “You don’t get to be her brother after everything you’ve done. You don’t get to be worried when we know you didn’t care in the first place.” [F/N] sucked in a breath when she could just feel Billy’s anger boil over, she rushed over and hooked her arm around his to stop him from evidently punching Nancy across the face, pulling him back when he started fighting against her.

“Fuck you, Wheeler!” he shouts “You don’t what I had to put up with to keep her safe! You don’t know what I had to do to keep my dad from laying his hands on her!” [F/N] yanked him back.

“That’s enough!” she pushes him back then points to the door “Cool yourself, Billy.” he stared at her for a couple seconds before storming out of the room, nearly kicking the door off its hinges from the amount of brute strength he put into it. With him gone, she started to feel uncomfortable surrounded by them all, with the people she hurt, the people she scared and the strangers. She raises a hand to caress her forehead, feeling a headache forming from the shared anger and frustration from Billy “You stepped over a line, Wheeler.”

“I-I— I just—” she shook her head.

“You don’t know what went on in that house, not a damn thing.” she looks at Max “He cares, he really does. It might take you some time for you to accept it, but he worries for you. Just like what any other older sibling would do.” she spared a glance at Steve but then quickly averted her gaze, grabbing her axe that was leaning against the wall and leaving to go check up on Billy, leaving the others to settle in that tense and awkward air. She sat down on a nearby law chair and watched Billy tear up and trash pile, only coming over to her to grab her axe and proceed to axe at anything and everything he laid his eyes on. After what felt like ten minutes he finally begrudgingly returned back to her side, dragging the axe behind him and then sitting on the ground by her legs.

…

…

“Have you calmed down now, you big baby?” he scoffs at her, tossing the axe in front of them.

“I don’t like the way she talked about me like that.” she let out a hum.

“She had a point, Billy.” he turned his glare to her but she raised her hand before he could get another word in “But that doesn’t necessarily make her right either. Your father was a mean piece of work, and with how stubborn that Maxine girl is, you knew that the moment she crossed your father he’d turn his attention from you to her. So you made sure that he never took that attention away from you, you made sure she made no faults. That’s why you threatened her friends, especially that Lucas boy, and why you were so mad at my brother that you beat the shit out of him.” he grimaced at that.

“[F/N], I’m sor—” she shakes her head.

“He lied to you, you had every right to be mad, but just let me finish.” she takes a deep breath, leaning back into the lawn chair and stretching her legs out a bit “You scared her, man. You threatened her to keep her in line, and though it was out of the betterment of your heart, she didn’t know that. We both know your father pitted the two of you against each other so you’ll both feel isolated within your own home. You were angry at both her and your father, even that Susan woman because everything was against you. They can’t trust your words, Billy, and even that one moment where you saved that girl, I’m sure it’s not enough to redeem a whole year’s worth of torment.” she stared down at him as he silently listened to her words, he then hikes his knees up to his chest but let his body lean against the chair.

“I’m… I’m trying.” she nods, reaching down to gently pet his head.

“I know you are, I feel you. But the others don’t, so it’ll be harder for them to accept that you’ve changed for the better. Steve and possibly Robin are probably the only ones that will understand, but the others will take time.” she lets out a shaky breath, looking up at the clear skies that she hadn’t realized how much she missed “I of all people should know that shit like this… it takes time.” she raised a brow when he went silent.

“… I could really go for a drive right now.” she closed her eyes, going for a drive meant that he needed to clear his mind, it helped clear his mind; helped him think. She scanned the area for something until her eyes settled on it, he let out a grunt when she abruptly stood up and started walking away, kicking the axe up as she went. He sat by and watched as she approached a car, a beat-up 1970 Chevrolet Monte Carlo Convertible, but drivable. He raised a brow when he saw her jump into the car and tears open the underside of the steering column, exposing the many wires for her to play around with. Billy was finally by her side and saw her cut a couple wires to expose the conductors from the cable jackets, striking two specific ones together a couple times until the car roared to life, some smoke spitting out of the exhaustion pipe, but it was on nonetheless “You, [F/N] Harrington, know how to hot wire a car?” she winked at him, making sure to wrap the two different conductors together to keep the car alive.

“Uh huh, a jack of all trades and a master of none.” she raises her hands to grab the steering wheel but stopped when she saw the eager look on his face, she let out a chuckle “You can drive.” she smiled when she felt his excitement.

“Finally. You never let me drive your car.” she let out a laugh, jumping over the centre console to get into the passenger seat as he tosses the axe into the back seat and then jumps into the driver's seat.

“You can go get fucked.” he laughs with her, he switches the gear to drive but didn’t even pull out when she sat up “Oh, wait a second!” he watches her search around the car for something, watching her manage to find a crumpled up piece of paper and a marker that looked like it was at the verge of dying. She writes something down then jumps out to slap it on the door before rushing back, jumping back into the passenger seat “Now they should know where we’ll be.”

“And where are we going?” she gives him a grin.

“I wanna see our gravestones.”

[with the party]

“Check this out. The War Zone.” Eddie says, slapping down the newspaper onto a table and pointing at a specific section, the others leaning over to get a look at it “I’ve been there once. It’s huge. They’ve got everything you need, for, uh… well, killing things, basically.” Robin scoffed lightly, leaning in closer to look at the ad.

“You think fake Rambo has enough guns there?” she narrowed her eyes at it, pointing at it “Is that a grenade? I mean, how is any of this legal?”

“Well, lucky for us it is, so… this… this place is just far outside of Hawkins. As long as we steer clear of main roads, we oughta be able to avoid cops and, uh, angry hicks.” Erica rolled her eyes.

“If we’re trying to avoid angry hicks, maybe we shouldn’t go to some store called the War Zone.” Nancy shook her head.

“Normally, I’d agree, but we need the weapons. So I think it’s worth the risk.” Lucas nods.

“Me too.” Dustin shook his head, letting out a sigh.

“But is it worth the time? It’ll take all day to bike there and back.”

“Who said anything about bikes?” Steve cocked a brow, scoffing slightly with a smirk at Eddie’s words.

“What? You got another car I don’t know about?” Steve questioned, Eddie rose up to Steve’s level with a smirk of his own, tilting his head to the side when he saw his doe eyed boyfriend give him such a baby face.

“It’s not exactly a car, Steve. It’s not exactly mine, but, uh… it’ll do.”

“Um, I’d hate to interrupt.” Max suddenly spoke up from where she was standing away from the others, they all turn to her and saw she was peeking outside “But it’s been far too long since Billy and [F/N] left, and I can’t see them outside anymore.” Steve stood up straight.

“What?” he’s quick to go around the table and to where Max was, throwing open the blinds, jaw dropping when he saw no sign of his ex and sister. He then draws back and opens the front door, whipping his head around to find any trace of the two but saw neither, his eyes then caught the piece of paper attached to the door so he tore it off to see what it was, groaning at what he saw “They’re gone!” he shouts, Robin was by his side the moment he said that.

“Gone? Where could they have gone?” he sighed, handing her the note, to which she read it and immediately recognized it as [F/N]’s handwriting.

“They’ve gone to the cemetery to look at their graves.” Nancy slaps a palm on her forehead.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” she then looks at Eddie, who was laughing because that was so like [F/N] “Eddie, we’re gonna need whatever vehicle you’ve got in mind and we need it now.” he nods.

“Got it.”

[with [f/n] and billy]

“Ooo, score! There’s booze in the back!” Billy chuckled as he looked through the rear view mirror to see [F/N] hanging over her seat to search through the backseat, finding said booze and turning back over to show him “Ooo, it’s gin. Somebody has taste.” she’s quick to take the cap off and take a long swig from the bottle, Billy eyes her from how long she was chugging it before she finally pulled it away from her lips with a gasp.

“Struggling alcoholic, I see.” she chuckles, voice a little hoarse from the sting of alcohol that she hasn’t drank in over eight months.

“Recovering, actually. Went to rehab once for how bad it got.”

“You’re horrible.” she raises the bottle.

“I am.” when he pulls to a stop light she offers the bottle him, jiggling it slightly when she saw the look of hesitance on his face “Come on now, I know you want some.” he scoffed at her as he looked back towards the road.

“You know it’s illegal to drink and drive?” she rolled her eyes.

“You know it’s illegal to murder people?” her gives her a look as she gives him one back, she heard him mutter fuck it before taking the bottle and gulping it down, she snickers and starts looking through other compartments for anything else. He lowered the bottle when he heard her squeal, sparing her a glance when he saw her pull out a pack of cigarettes “I’m in heaven.” they were red marlboro cigarettes, she was quick to pop one out of the pack and light it with a lighter that was conveniently hiding in the glove compartment.

“Hey, don’t hold out.” she settles one of his lips and lights it, the two of them exhaling the smoke then letting out a deep and satisfying sigh “That… that definitely hits the spot.”

“It really does.” they were taking the long way to get to the cemetery, while they were [F/N] was taking in the scenery, head resting on her arms on the door. Her mind would flashback to the Upside Down each time they passed a significant part of Hawkins, and all she could think of is how if they let that Vecna bitch have his way, the Upside Down will become their reality. They were stopped at another stoplight and [F/N] was looking ahead this time, bobbing her head as Motley Crüe blared through the shitty speakers the car had. Though it didn’t take them long to reach the cemetery because now they were standing over their graves, wow “Damn, I wish I had a camera.” Billy shakes his head.

“Why?”

“Because I’m standing over my fucking grave?” she then kicks at the stone “If we’re here, then the fuck did they bury?” he shrugs, taking another puff from the cigarette.

“Don’t know, don’t care.” he watches her lower down to her knees, placing her hand on her headstone.

HERE LIES [F/N] HARRINGTON. BELOVED FRIEND, SISTER AND DAUGHTER. 07/12/65 - 04/07/85

“Daughter, huh?” she scoffed, taking the cigarette from her lips and putting it out directly on DAUGHTER “I haven’t been their daughter in years.” Billy could feel her disdain where he stood, that anger that dwindled away seeming to resurface just at the mere thought of her parents. She didn’t move when he placed his hand on her shoulder, giving it a light squeeze.

“Steve deserves to know.” she closed her eyes at that, turning her face to the side at the thought.

“He doesn’t need to know.” he let out a sigh “Y-You don’t get it, Billy. You don’t know Steve like I do, a-and I know he’s going to take it the wrong way and end up blaming himself.”

“So you’re going to let him live on, not knowing the reason as to why his parents disowned their daughter in the first place with only Eddie and I knowing why?” he squeezes her shoulder once more “He deserves to know.” he repeats.

“It’ll do more harm than good.” he let out a sigh.

“… Steve is tougher than you think, [F/N]. You’ve clung too hard onto the Steve you think is so fragile, further damaging him. Whether or not you tell him, I think it would be best for the both of you if you tell him the truth.” with that he backed away and let her contemplate her options, she let out a sigh and let a hand drag down her face. She watches from the corner of her eye as Billy approached his grave and stopped directly in front of it, she raised a brow when she saw him kneel down and pick something up.

“What are you doing?” she turned her body towards him and saw he had a letter in his hands addressed to him, she crawled over to him and draped herself over his body to read the contents with him, her eyes following the words as he read them aloud.

“Dear Billy, I don't even know if you can hear this. Two years ago, I would've said "that's ridiculous, impossible." But that was before I found out about alternate dimensions and monsters, so I'm just going to stop assuming that I know anything. So much has happened since you left. Your dad was a total mess. He and my mum started getting into fights. Bad fights. I don't think he could stand being here without you. So he left. And he didn't leave mom much. She's taken an extra job, and we moved to that lovely trailer park off Kerley. Basically, ever since you left, everything's been a total disaster. And the worst part is, I can't tell anyone why you're gone. I can't tell them that you saved El's life. That you saved my life. I play that moment back in my head all the time. And sometimes I imagine myself running to you, pulling you away. I imagine that if I had, that you would still be here. And everything would be right again. I imagine that we could've become friends. Good friends, like a real brother and sister. And I know that's stupid. You hated me. I hated you. But I thought that maybe we could try again. But that's not what happened. I just stood there and I watched. For a while, I tried to be happy. Normal. But I think that maybe a part of me died that day too. And I haven't told anyone this. I just can't. But I had to tell you. Before it's too late. If you can even hear this, and I really hope that you can. I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry, Billy. Love, your shitty little sister, Max.”

[F/N] scoffed a little when she read the part where Billy’s father was apparently “a total mess”, saying how “he couldn’t stand being here without him”, what a load of bullshit. Other than that, it was pretty heartfelt and genuine, especially the part where she wished the two of them could be like real brother and sister. Her eyes drifted to look at his face and saw that his bottom lip was trembling, eyes becoming glassy once more at the possibility of him and Max rekindling their relationship. She pats his back in a comforting manner as she stands to her feet, hand pressed to her mouth as she rubs her fingertips into her cheeks. Maybe… maybe she should—

*HONK*

*HONK*

“Hmm?” she raised her head while Billy turn his head to the right, there the two of them saw some RV honking its horn “Is it honking at us?” she murmured as she looked around for any other residents but saw no one, her eyes widened when she saw her brother stick his head out of the window and waving his arm.

“Come on, you two! We’ve got shit to do!” they stare incredulously at him.

“… did you steal an RV, Harrington?!” Billy shouts.

“No, I just— I’m just driving it!”

“So it’s stolen?” he deadpans when [F/N] starts slow clapping “I knew you had it in you, a true Harrington.” Billy slaps her leg.

“So your parents have stolen a car before?” she purses her lips.

“You’d be surprised.” Dustin pops his head out from around the RV, waving his arm rather erratically.

“Come on! We got to get going before the roads get busy!” they just stare for a couple seconds before shrugging their shoulders, Billy wipes his arm under his nose when [F/N] offers her hand to him. He stares at it then up at her before chuckling softly and taking her hand, they share a hug before letting go and walking over to the RV “You guys are taking forever, hurry up!”

“You’ve got quite the attitude for a child.” [F/N] says to him when she and Billy finally approach the RV “We could hurt you at any given moment.” he laughed, crossing him arms.

“You wouldn’t knowing that you’d upset Steve and Eddie.” this definitely startled the two of them, he smirked knowingly at them before hoping back into the RV.

“I wanna strangle him.”

“Wanna take turns?” she chuckles, the air immediately tensed the moment she stepped into the RV but she didn’t settle into the back yet, popping her head into the drivers seats and looked at Eddie, who say in the passengers seat “So where are we heading?” Eddie grinned, eyes glancing backwards when he saw Billy come in and take a seat on the floor.

“We’re heading to the War Zone.” she cocked a brow.

“The War Zone? Hah! I haven’t been there in ages.” this caused several heads to turn but she just ignored them.

“You’ve been to the War Zone? Why?” Nancy asked.

“If it makes you feel better, it wasn’t when I was flayed.” at that she turned on her heel so he back was facing Billy, who opened up his arms when she started falling backwards while taking another swig from the bottle of gin. She let out a long sigh at the feeling of the alcohol burning in her throat once more, offering the bottle to Billy who didn’t hesitate to drink it.

“How did you guys even get here? I highly doubt you walked.” Erica asked.

“Hot wired a car.” this turned even more heads.

“You know how to hot wire a car? How?” she offers a hand to Eddie, who chuckled nervously.

“I’m friends with Eddie Munson, was bound to learn some useful skills if I hung around him.” she then leaned back deeper into Billy’s chest, humming softly when she felt him wrap his arms around her waist to keep her close “I also know how to pickpocket, use slight of hand, gamble, pick locks, steal gas. A whole lot of illegal stuff, basically. Oh! I also know how to tend bar, and some other shit.” they all stare at her in disbelief, if Billy hadn’t seen all the crimes she’s committed when they shared a mind he too would have been just as shocked.

“You’re related to that, Steve?” she snickered softly at that “Your sister seems awesome!”

“I literally tried to kill your friends and my brother the year prior, and yet you think me doing illegal shit is cool?” he nods.

“I didn’t get to meet you last year, not this version of you or even the flayed you. I don’t really have an opinion on you except for how much Steve loved you.” the soft smirk on her face dropped at the mention of that, her eyes looking up to see that Steve peeked back at her before quickly looking away, she too averted her eyes.

“Right.”

[at the war zone]

“I’m hungry.” [F/N] suddenly spoke, Eddie, Lucas, Dustin and Billy who were left in the RV while the others went into the War Zone to buy whatever they needed, turn their heads to look at her, watching as she laid on her back and tossed the now empty bottle of gin up and down “Do you think they’ll bring back food?” Lucas sighed at the compliant.

“I highly doubt the War Zone has food.” she let out a dramatic groan, this caused Eddie to roll his eyes.

“Why are you so hungry? You weren’t satisfied with what you ate back at my trailer?” she scoffed.

“You try going eight months with eating nothing but whatever we could salvage.” Dustin raised his hand.

“On that note, what exactly did you guys eat?” both Billy and [F/N] paused, their faces turning pale then a shade of green as they tried not to remember what exactly they had to eat in order to not die of starvation, Lucas and Dustin wince when they see [F/N] turn away and try not to throw up.

“You really don’t wanna know.” they decided to leave it at that, a few more minutes go by when [F/N] lets out a sigh as she stood to her feet.

“Fuck it, I’ll just go myself.” Dustin was quick to stand in her way “What are you doing?” he shakes his head, she chuckled softly when she saw him place his hands on his hips, perhaps he was trying to imitate Steve when he was putting his foot down.

“Sorry, Steve and Nancy told me to keep you and Billy in check while they were gone. I can’t let you leave my sight.” she hummed softly, placing her own hands on her knees and lowering down to meet his eyes.

“You are so adorable.” they stare at each other for a couple seconds until [F/N] pushes his hat down so it blocked his view, he let out a cry when his vision was block and she took that as he chance to push him to the side and leave the RV with Billy by her side. She didn’t have to turn around to know that Dustin wasn’t too far behind them, the RV door being thrown open when he rushed out to chase after them “See? We’re still within your sight, are we not?” he let out a tired huff, grabbing her arm.

“Well, you need to stay within five meters of me.” she rolled her eyes.

“Sure, kid.” he let out another cry when Billy shoved his hat down again to cover his eyes, the two of them laughing as they walked ahead of him when Dustin stopped to fix his hat.

“Five meters!” Dustin was in between them, holding them by their forearms to ensure they didn’t go too far “How exactly are you going to buy food when you don’t have money?” Billy nods.

“I, too, would love to know.” she chuckled, her eyes already zoning in on a poor chap.

“Then I guess you two weren’t listening.” she pats Dustin’s arm to let her go and he reluctantly did so, watching her lace her fingers together then crack them “Watch and learn.” they watch as she walks by the man she was eyeing before but purposefully walked into him, Dustin was startled to see her face immediately change into one that was apologetic.

“Oh my—”

“Oh, I am so—” they’re both laughing as they stare at each other, he’s holding her by her biceps while her hands were resting against his chest “I’m sorry, I didn’t see you.” she then places her other hand on her chest, giving him an understanding look.

“Oh, no, it’s not your fault. I’ve been feeling a little under the weather as of lately, felt a little dizzy and accidentally walked into you. Terribly sorry about that.” he gives her a reassuring look, his hands dropping from her biceps to his sides.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but I can see why.” she looks down at herself and huffed slightly with a laugh “You look like you’ve been through hell.” she gives him a look.

“You could say that again.” they exchange a few more words until he finally walks off, she immediately drops the facade as the two of them approach them “Well that was exhausting.” Dustin taps her arm.

“What was all that about?” she grins at him and pulls out a wallet, causing him to gasp at the sight.

“I told you, mama can pickpocket. It’s all about the slight of hand.” Dustin was now staring up at her in awe but she chose to ignore it and approach a very convenient convenient store, opening the wallet and snooping through it, chucking out anything unnecessary, scoffing a little what she saw his license then whistled at hefty amount of cash “Hello gorgeous.” she then throws the wallet over her shoulder without a care in the world.

“Wish I could do that. I used to just threaten people to give me money.” she rolled her eyes at Billy, slapping the back of her hand into his chest.

“That’s so classic high school bully, dude.” Dustin was laughing as he grabbed her arm again.

“You gotta teach me how to do that.” she laughs.

“I think my brother would kill me if I taught you something like that.” he shrugs his shoulders.

“He doesn’t need to know.” she hummed softly, ruffling his head with a smile.

“And I’m beginning to like you, Henderson.” her smile grew when he smiled at her, teeth and all, she can see why Steve and Eddie liked this kid so much. When they enter the store Dustin told them that they should still feel wary despite there only being a few people in the store, they were still legally deceased so it would be rather awkward if someone from Hawkins was there and recognized them “Get whatever you want kid, we’re going to do something very dangerous so you should fuel up.”

“Energy for the journey.” she chuckles.

“Sure, whatever floats your boat.” despite him being the one to set the five meter rule he didn’t hesitate to leave her side to get “whatever he wanted”, felt like she was the one keeping an eye on him.

“Think they’ve got beer?” she scoffed at the question.

“We’re in america, I believe they do.”

“Just asking.” she just shook her head and pats his shoulder, Dustin was more or less just getting junk food than proper food, not like they had to time to actually prepare the food. He glanced over at where [F/N] and Billy were and saw they were where the drinks were, he let out a sigh with a shake of his head when he saw [F/N] pull a drink out and crack it open then drink it. He really didn’t know much about [F/N] other than the stories Steve had told him about, nearly talking his ear off about the countless tales [F/N] Harrington ventured on. He didn’t know whether or not he was lucky that he didn’t get to meet her the year prior, the one that traumatised them all to the point they couldn’t even look at her without a hint of fear or sadness, Erica was rather neutral but mad because she did hit her brother, but he had a positive feeling about her. To him, she was the overprotective yet doting older sister that was funny and cool, she was a literal mixture of both Steve and Eddie; the female version of Steve with the personality of Eddie.

“I hope she and Steve make up.” he mutters to himself, he returns to [F/N]’s side and she looks down at him, letting out a chuckle when she saw his arms were full of junk food.

“Is that all you want?” she raises a brow when she saw him look up in thought, she let out a gasp when he abruptly dropped everything into the basket she grabbed and rushed off.

“There’s one more thing I want!” she rolled her eyes when he just disappeared, Billy shakes his head.

“I don’t see what Steve and Munson likes about that kid.” she shrugs her shoulders.

“The kid brother they never got?” they decide to leave it at that, Dustin was looking for something in particular and yet he was having a hard finding it, his hands were on his hips as he looked back and forth for it until his face lit up when he finally found it. He reaches to grab it but was suddenly yanked back by the scruff of his shirt, thinking it was Billy telling him to hurry up, he was ready to lash out but froze when he saw that it was none other than one of Jason Carver’s lackies.

“Henderson.” his hands immediately fly up and grip onto the wrist that was holding him in place, nearly fumbling with his footing when he was being manhandled “It took a lot of time and trouble finding you.” he let out a nervous laugh, sweat beginning to bleed down the side of his face.

“O-Oh yeah? What for? I don’t remember doing anything to piss you guys off.”

“Right, right, but you’re friends with that Freak, aren’t you?” he swallowed thickly at those words, he takes a quick glance towards the counter and saw that [F/N] was completely oblivious to the harassment while Billy was nowhere to be seen, typical “Your other friend Sinclair ditched us as well to protect that murderer; to protect you.”

“Eddie’s not a murderer!” he let out a grunt when he he was pressed against the aisle roughly.

“Oh yeah? Then how come he was the last with Chrissy, and in the morning she was dead in his trailer?” Dustin couldn’t say it, he couldn’t tell this egotistical jock that Eddie wasn’t the one that killed Chrissy but that it was some supernatural force that killed her in order to open the four gates of hell. If he were to say that, he would be labeled as crazy along with him jumping to conclusions that Eddie was in fact a satanist like everyone in this shitty town made him out to be “Huh? Got nothing else to say? You were so quick to come to his defence, and now you’ve got nothing to say.”

“B-Because… because—”

“Because what?!” the jock was yanked back, letting Dustin go out of surprise from the violent treatment. He glares back at the individual but froze at the sight of who was in front of him.

“Because Munson is too much of a loser to kill anyone.” Billy grinned maliciously as the jock trembled a little, his tongue peek past his lips to glide along the ends of his teeth “If it was anyone, it’d be that mentally unstable boyfriend of hers.”

“H-Hargrove? You’re dead.” Billy raised a brow at that, now beginning to sneer at him.

“Dead? Is that supposed to be a threat?” he yanks him forward and glares straight into his eyes “Do I look dead to you, dumb bitch? What part about me looks dead?” he shakes him a little and he sputters, his hands flying up to grab at Billy’s shoulders to try and rip himself free from his frighteningly strong grip. His mind went back to the rumours about how he beat Steve Harrington black and blue, the evidence all over his bloodied and bruised face when he was ballsy enough to show it the next school day. Billy Hargrove was a psycho, someone that wasn’t to be missed with no matter who you were.

“Billy…” Dustin muttered out softly, not really expecting Billy to come to his rescue, not after how he was ready to beat the ever living shit out of Lucas and instead did that to Steve. [F/N] was in the midst of paying for everything but paused when she remembered Dustin still hadn’t something he wanted, she let out a groan and turned her head to search for him only to see Billy manhandling some guy.

“Goddammit.” she murmured to herself, she goes to shout at him but stopped when she saw Dustin’s tousled shirt but what angered her was when this stranger freed himself and roughly shoved at Dustin, oh, that was it. She looked around the store until her eyes settled on a part of the convenient store that served fresh, hot coffee… that’ll do “You didn’t see anything.” she casually says, grabbing the cashier by their own collar gently to slip the entire wod of cash into their breast pocket, giving it a light tap before turning on her heel and heading over to the coffee pot. The cashier watched in confusion as she grabbed a coffee pot that was full to the brim of hot, scalding coffee, nodding to herself when she confirmed that it was indeed at a dangerous temperature before making her way over to the arguing boys. None of them noticed her approaching them until she grabbed the jock by his shoulder and spun them around, they didn’t expect her to throw the hot, scalding liquid into his face. He screamed in pain, hands flying up to his face in an effort to quell the burning sensation in his face but was suddenly kicked onto his back then someone climbed on top of him. Dustin shivered a little as he watched start to beat his face in with the coffee pot, not even flinching when he clawed at her to pull her off or how he cried out for her to stop.

[F/N] was the real psychopath.

She finally stopped when he was no longer moving and laid limp on the floor, usually when she did this type of beating she’d be breathless and left panting, but she had barely broken a sweat. Perhaps the eight months of hunting demodogs and demogorgons had improved her stamina a little, she looked at the pot hanging loosely by her fingers and saw blood staining the glass, she just let out a huff and tossed it to the side as she stood to her feet. Billy just shook his head at the helpless pile on the floor, kicking at his unconscious body while [F/N] turned her attention to Dustin. She didn’t miss the way he flinched a little upon her gaze but that was to be expected, however, she merely reached forward to fix up his collar and shirt, straightening it out then dusting his shoulders off. His eyes widened softly when she gave him a gentle smile, her hands now resting on his shoulders.

“Are you alright, Dustin?”

“U-Um, yeah. Billy actually helped me out.” said man let out a scoff, kicking her gently in the shin.

“Yeah, there was no need for you to go that far.” she rolled her eyes, now standing up straight then gesturing to the bastard she beat cold.

“Oh, please! He laid his hands on the kid, the last thing I need is Steve breathing down my neck because we let someone put their hands on his kid.” she shakes her head, she then messes with Dustin’s head before finally going over to their neglected groceries “Sorry for taking so long.” the cashier shook their head.

“N-No, it’s fine.” she smiles, Billy grabs the bags as she waves her hand.

“Remember what I said?” they nod their head.

“I didn’t see anything.” she winks.

“Good.” she gives their cheek a little tap before finally leaving, grabbing Dustin by his wrist and walking out of the store. Dustin spared her a look and saw her pull out a cigarette and goes to light it but noticed that Dustin winced “Sorry, do you not like the smell of cigarettes?” he gives a little nod.

“Yeah, the smell is kind of overwhelming.” she gave him an apologetic look and took the cigarette from her lips “Thanks.” she gave him a kind smile.

“No, I should have known not smoke around a child.” he scoffs.

“I’m fifteen years old.” she laughed.

“Yeah, still legally a child.” Billy laughs when he saw the way Dustin pouts, she gently pats his shoulder as they make their way back to the RV, Dustin now relaxed and casually talking with [F/N[ and even Billy. Meanwhile, the gang that went into the War Zone were quick to rush out when Nancy accidentally came across Jason Carver. Eddie and Lucas’ head shot up when the door open and instead of seeing [F/N], Dustin and Billy enter it was instead the others, oh no, this wasn’t gonna be good.

“What happened?”

“We gotta go.” they all come rushing in, Eddie was startled when Steve threw his battle vest into his lap before rushing into the drivers seat and everyone else filled into the back of the RV.

“Your old friends are here.” Robin comments as she passes Lucas, Eddie’s face dropped at that and quickly tried to hide himself.

“Shit!”

“Let’s go! Let’s go!”

“I’m going! I’m going! Sit down!” Nancy settles in the back but takes a quick mental roll check as she scans the RV for everyone but fell short; they were missing three people.

“Wait, where are Dustin, Billy and [F/N]?” this caused the others to look around, her eyes settled onto Lucas and Eddie and saw how they just wanted to shrink in on themselves and disappear “Eddie, where are they? They were supposed to be here waiting with you while we were in the War Zone.” he gives a nervous laugh, raising his hands and shrugging his shoulders.

“Well, you see—” he quickly looks away when she glares at him “They were hungry.”

“Oh my god.”

“They’re unbelievable.”

“I told Dustin to get an eye on them.”

“Well technically he is… he went with them.” they all collectively let out a groan, Steve unbuckles his belt because he knew that he was the one that had to go get them, Robin and Erica follow after him and left Nancy to scold Eddie and Lucas for letting them leave in the first place. They turn the corner and they see [F/N] talking with, goddammit, Jason Carver of all people. They were quick to pick up pace when they noticed the way she was holding him by the arm though they broke out into a sprint when they saw her shove him down and start beating the shit out of him. And what brought us to this predicament? Well—

“Hargrove?” Dustin and [F/N] turn their heads, the former paled at the sight of the head jock while [F/N] merely raised a brow in confusion, who was this guy? She looked at Billy and saw how he immediately got irritated the moment he set his eyes on him, she looked him up and down and saw that he was wearing a similar outfit to the same poor sap she just beat down and left in the store “You’re… alive.” Billy let out a laugh.

“Yeah, what great observations, Carver.” [F/N] placed her hand on Dustin’s shoulder when she noticed he was getting nervous, she then leans down.

“Who is this guy?”

“U-Um, he’s Jason Carver.” she raised a brow, that still didn’t answer her question “Oh, right, you probably weren’t around when he started high school. He’s the captain of the basketball team, he was Chrissy boyfriend and he harassed Eddie and the rest of us a couple times during school.” that definitely caught her attention, harassed? She remembered when she was still apart of Hellfire no one dared touch them because they knew how unhinged she was, she literally bit someone’s ear off because they called Jeff racial slurs.

“Harassed? So bullied?” he nods, now she was even more confused “Why the hell would they bully Eddie? Didn’t he graduate?” Dustin pulls a face.

“Well—”

“Henderson.” Dustin froze up when Jason turned his attention from Billy to him, Billy felt a little offended when Jason ignored him in favor of getting to Dustin. [F/N] was still behind him and watched to see what this guy was going to do, she was taken aback when she saw Jason quickly grab Dustin by his collar and yank him forward “You. You’re the one who’s always hanging around Munson, where is he?”

“I-I—”

“Hey!” Billy was quick to yank Jason away while [F/N] grabbed Dustin and pulled him back, pushing him behind her as they got in front of Dustin, the discarded bags of food laid behind them as they glare at Jason “I don’t know who the fuck you are, but you’ve got some nerve.” she turns her back to him to straighten his shirt out again, sighing sadly when he was scared again.

“Get out of my way, I need to find Munson. He’s going to kill someone again and sacrifice them to his satanic cult.” she couldn’t help but look back at him like he was crazy, scratch that, he probably was crazy.

“What?” was all she could say, Billy just shook his head.

“He’s religious.” she rolled her eyes.

“God, not another one.” she’s had to handle and talk with so many different religious people that it was ridiculous, saying how she was straying from the path of god for even being friends with the wayward, trailer trash freak known as Eddie Munson “If I believe anyone was going to kill anyone, I would think it was you.”

“I am.” they blink at his statement “I am going to kill Eddie Munson.” Dustin peeks his head out from behind [F/N].

“We won’t let you!” [F/N] felt a chill run down her spine at the look in Jason’s eyes.

“And how are you going to stop me?” he reaches for Dustin again but this time [F/N] grabbed him by the wrist, he growled at her and tried yanking his hand free from her hold but she only tightened her grip “And who the hell are you? What relationship do you have with Munson and Henderson that you’re protecting them? Why would you protect that murderer?!” she glared down at him, her gaze cold.

“Eddie Munson is my best friend, and Henderson?” she hummed softly then glanced back at Dustin “Hey, kid, does my brother see you as his brother?” Dustin didn’t understand the question entirely but he thought hard before slowly nodding his head.

“Y-Yeah, I’d like to think so.” she hummed again, her shoulders giving a little shrug.

“Well, then I guess that makes you my little brother then.” Billy’s brows quirked up at the statement before letting out a chuckle he knew was she meant, Jason tried ripping his arm free again but let out a cry when she twisted his arm in a way it shouldn’t go while pulling her other arm up “And nobody hurts my little brother.” she shoves him back and he fell back into his car, he starts to get back up but she smashed his nose in with her knee, promptly breaking it. The other jock that was just watching finally got up and decided to help Jason when [F/N] grabbed him by the tufts of his hair and repeatedly slammed his head against his car before smashing it against the concrete ground, jesus, is this really what she did what someone made fun of Steve. Dustin let out a whistle at how absolutely mental both [F/N] and Billy were, how glad he was that they were on their side.

“[F/N]!” Dustin whips his head to the side and grimaces when he saw Steve, Robin and Erica rushing over “Dustin, we’ve got to go!” Erica grabs Dustin’s arm to tug him back while Steve and Robin approach [F/N].

“You okay, nerd?” he nods.

“Yeah, they made sure I didn’t get hurt.”

“Well, you better hope Wheeler doesn’t tear you a new one.” he winced at the thought of getting yelled at by Nancy. [F/N] heard her name but chose to ignore it, forgetting how exhilarating beating the shit out of someone was and reviling in the feeling. She finally did stop when Steve told her that it was enough, she let out a huff and looked at the blonde who was hanging loosely within her hold.

“If you really want to do your girlfriend a favor, instead of chasing after an innocent man maybe you should just go kill yourself and go see her in the afterlife. Though, you probably won’t find her where you’re heading.” she lets his body drop to the floor and stands up, laughing when Billy hands her the jacket he stole from the other motionless jock so they could wipe their hands of their blood.

“Did you really have to go and say that? It was pretty morbid.” she laughs, throwing the jacket to the ground and going so far as to walking on it.

“Please, I could have said something far worse. Besides, if that Chrissy Cunningham is anything like you described her as, revenge is probably the last thing she would want her boyfriend doing.” she spares Steve and Robin a glance but ultimately ignores them, walking past them to pat Dustin on the shoulder “Shall we go? We took up a little bit too much time.” he scoffed and smacked her off, to which she let out a laugh.

“Yeah, no thanks to you! Now I’m gonna get in trouble.” Billy shrugs, leaning down to pick up the discarded bags of food.

“And whose fault is that? Stop being such a target, loser.” Dustin shoves at Billy when he messes with his head walking past him, [F/N] laughed and they’re walking back to the RV as if nothing happened, leaving Steve, Robin and Erica speechless. Dustin was indeed scolded by Nancy, so were Billy and [F/N] but they didn’t really care, they just stared at her with amused expressions and just ate in her face. The gang now found themselves out in the fields out of sight, preparing themselves for the battle they were about to fight. Eddie and Dustin were nailing nails into rubbish bin lids, Steve and Robin were making molotovs, Max was beside Nancy as she was sawing a Winchester Model 1200 so that the barrel was shorter and Erica and Lucas were making spears, meanwhile, Billy and [F/N] were sitting on a hill away from the others and thinking about their options “So what are you doing after all this?” Billy asked, she scoffed at the question.

“Well, I’m definitely getting the fuck out of dodge! There’s nothing left for me here, why bother stay.” she sighed when he gave her a knowing look.

“Nothing?”

“You know what I mean.” Billy noticed her eyes were settling on Steve and Robin once again, a feeling of regret and guilt rising to her chest once again the longer she stared “It’ll be better for the both of them and myself if I just stayed as far away as possible.” he hummed.

“But is that really what you want, [F/N]?” she doesn’t answer him, he huffed and pulls out the letter Max wrote him, his thumbs caressing the paper lightly “Well, I’m going to apologise to Max. I’ve been meaning to do that since we got out but couldn’t really find the right moment to pull her aside and do it. It’s the least I could do.” she, however, remained silent. Ever since they visited the cemetery and he found that letter, he could feel [F/N]’s doubts on whether or not she should keep a relationship with Steve and Robin or whether to just remain a bystander within their story despite how much they want her to be involved in their lives. He could tell that she was struggling to reveal the truth to Steve, that being her biggest concern.

“That’s… good for you.” she finally spoke, he hummed with a nod before both their heads snapped over to where Eddie and Dustin were when they heard laughter. [F/N] chuckled when she saw that it was just Dustin and Eddie roughhousing, reminded her of the time when she would just randomly tackle Eddie in the middle of school, him doing the same thing when she was in the middle of a conversation with someone and he would come running down the hall and tackle her to the ground. She hadn’t realized how long she was watching them until she noticed that Billy was no longer by her side, she was quick to look over to where Max was and saw he was making his way over to her and Nancy. Nancy noticed his approach and jumped to her feet to keep Max and him separated, she was talking to him but she could feel that he was calm throughout the entire exchange, and when she was finished talking he just pulled out the letter and waved it a little to get Max’s attention. She pushed Nancy to the side so she could grab the letter from Billy’s hands but he pulled it back and out of her reach, they shared a couple words from simple banter, to shouting, to crying then to promises. At the end of their conversation Billy goes in for a hug but she stopped him and instead grabbed his other hand to give it a shake, Billy had a look of understanding and instead just nodded his head and shook her hand with a smile “Fuck.”

“Honestly, this feels like a perfect time for that little pull of the rug because…” from a conversation that started with Steve talking about that guy that was kissing Robin’s crush to the possible end of the world, Steve and Robin sat together and spoke about both their troubles in romance and Vecna “in the face of the world ending, the stakes of my love life feel spectacularly low.”

“Yeah, I mean, I get you there, but… I still have hope.”

“Not everything has a happy ending.”

“Yeah, yeah, believe me, I know.” at that he spares Billy and [F/N] a glance, noting how Billy was now casually standing next to Max while watching Nancy testing out her new shotgun with a shortened barrel, he turned away to find [F/N] but narrowed his eyes when she was in the last spot he saw her in “Where did she—”

“Steve?” his head snaps up when he saw [F/N] standing right in front of him, he swallowed thickly as he stared right at her “C-Can we… can we talk? Just the two of us?” he noticed the way she tried to keep her eyes on him but she couldn’t keep it up for long because she quickly averts her eyes away, he spares Robin a look but she nods and gestures for him to go.

“Y-Yeah, sure!” maybe he was a little bit too enthusiastic but he didn’t care, it was her coming to him to talk instead of the other way around. Robin let out a sigh when [F/N] led him away from the others so they could speak privately, feeling a little bitter that she was talking to him first, but she could wait. [F/N] promised they would talk, so she was going to wait. Billy felt nervousness so he looked towards [F/N] and a faint smile graced his lips when he saw that [F/N] was finally going to talk to Steve, good for her.

“Why are you smiling, Billy?” he raised a brow as he looked down at Max, he let out a chuckle and messed with her head.

“None of your business, shitbird.” Steve now found himself standing across from [F/N], he nervously rubbed at his forearm as she stood with her back to him. He didn’t know what was going on in her mind as she stood with her hands to her hips while her foot tapped on the ground, he knew that she was nervous, that he could tell. She was so confident, and arrogant, and crazy like her usual self but now… now she wasn’t the sister he was so used to seeing. This was the fragile part of his sister that he rarely got to see, only on the very rare occasions did he see his sister’s mask slip from her face and the true [F/N] Harrington would show itself.

“[F/N], before you say anything, I just… I just want to say that I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I didn’t notice how much you were struggling when we were kids. How badly mum and dad treated you after you threw everything away, I’m sorry I did nothing to help you. I don’t get— I don’t get why you stayed behind or why you came back.” he let out a sigh, bringing a hand to drag down his face “I don’t— I don’t get why you did it for me when I told you I hated you. You stuck around for so long despite how much I hated you when we were young, I was delusional and selfish that I didn’t understand. I know there’s something that you’re not telling me, something that Eddie knows and he swore he’d never tell me because of how bad it wa—” he was cut off when she was suddenly on him pulling him into a tight hug, he could feel his body begin to tremble when her hands slipped up his body to wrap an arm around his shoulder while the other was soothingly threading through his fingers. It was something she used to do when they were kids and he was scared of being alone, it was something she used to calm him down from nightmares.

“I should be the one apologising, Steve.” she spoke, she was fighting down every urge in her body to not let him go so soon while also trying not to tremble with him in her hold “I was so scared of you knowing the truth, that you’d take it the wrong way and that you’d hate yourself for what happened. But Billy told me that you deserved to know that truth… that you should know the truth.” Steve sniffled then quickly brought his arms up to wrap around her and keep her close, not knowing how long this embrace was going to last so he was going to milk it for everything that it was worth.

“N-No, I get it. It’s fine, I jus—” she shakes her head and let him go, giving him a smile when he whined at the loss.

“No, Steve. You should know.” she turns away again, bringing her arms up to hug herself “You should know what drove me away.”

[the hideout, 1983]

“Once had a love and it was a gas~” it was late at night and it was Corroded Coffin’s live performance at the Hideout, what made that night so significant was because [F/N] had agreed to sing for them that night. Since she worked at the Hideout just to get some extra cash here and there, she was always there to watch their performances and though they weren’t as popular as they wished they were, they were still pretty great. [F/N] wasn’t an official member because they were Corroded Coffin long before they met her and she didn’t want to feel like she was stepping in to steal one of their spots, mostly because she was pretty musically talented all thanks to her mother’s insistence. But tonight was different, Eddie had lost his voice and the other boys were pretty tone deaf when it came to singing so since they knew [F/N], who was pretty well gifted in singing, they begged her to take the spot as their lead vocalist to sing for them. She obviously declined the invitation because a) she hasn’t sung properly in years, and b) they were out of their damn minds, she hasn’t sung in years! They were begging; pleading to get her to agree so when they finally did get her to agree she wanted to be the one to choose which song, if not, they can go get fucked “It soon turned out, I had a heart of glass~” and what better song than “Heart of Glass” by Blondie. They obviously refused because they didn’t want to sing some pop song but that was the only way she’d agree, so when they relented she taught them to play it differently so the patrons of the Hideout didn’t entirely hate them.

“Wow, I didn’t think I was going to like a Blondie song, but they’re pretty good.”

“Yeah, and the vocalist sounds great.” he raises his glass, gaining [F/N]’s attention “Hey! You should sing for those guys more often! You’re great!” she gives him a grin, [F/N] was quickly drawing in a crowd and Eddie couldn’t help but admit that this was the best crowd they’ve had in a long time. [F/N] was having a great time, not remembering the last time she’s felt this exhilarated.

“Riding high on love's true bluish light~” the mic stand stood in between her legs and with each time she sung out “whoa”, her body went lower and lower until her knees were touching the ground while her head was thrown back, mic stand in between her legs as she continued to sing with the mic in her hands “Once had a love and it was a gas. Soon turned out, to be a pain in the ass~” [F/N] was laughing the moment the song was over, panting wildly as she was helped to her feet by Jeff and Nathan, having to be held up by them after losing the feeling in her legs after being on her knees for too long.

“That was fantastic, [F/N]!” Gareth cheered from backstage, she laughed at his enthusiasm from where she was sitting “You should preform for us more often! We basically got a full house!” at the mention Eddie was peeking from behind the curtains, face bright and sweaty.

“You know that this is temporary, Gare-bear.” she thanked one of the waitress’, a friend of hers, when they brought them a round of beers for their great performance “This was a one time thing only since Eddie lost his voice, don’t expect me to relent next time.” as she’s saying this Eddie was grabbing one of the beers but it was taken from him and replaced with a glass of water with a slice of lemon on the rim of the glass, he glared at her and she gave a stern one back.

“But come on, [F/N]! They loved you, don’t you miss performing?” Jeff asked, she made a face.

“Eehhh… maybe.” she answered truthfully, bringing the beer to her lips and taking a sip “But this is your thing, Corroded Coffin? I wouldn’t want to step in on something made and started by the four of you.” they watch Eddie move his hands a little wildly to try and mime what he was saying, luckily for them, they speak Eddie quite fluently so they understood what he was saying.

“Eddie’s right. You’re not coming in uninvited, we’re asking you to join us. You’re a jack of all trades, like if one of us is down, you can take over while we recover. A perfect backup.”

“Y’all are insufferable, you know that right?” they laughed when she walked off, saying she was going outside to get some fresh air or to smoke, she couldn’t remember. She past many drunken patrons but each one of them gave here their compliments on her performance, to which she thanked them with a laugh and smile before finally managing to squeeze her way outside. [F/N] was leaning against a wall outside the Hideout, smoking a cigarette while bobbing her head to the muffled sound of the music inside, today was great. Waking up and not seeing her parents, to her and Steve actually having a good conversation, to now where she actually enjoyed herself singing in front of a crowd. Maybe, just maybe, today will end on a great no—

“[F/N]!” damn, she spoke too soon. The shout of her name startled her, lurching off the wall and coughing up to smoke she had just inhaled into her mouth while also dropping her cigarette. She fans the smoke away while coughing into her fist to see who could have shouted her name, only for her heart to drop into her stomach to see that familiar White 1976 Buick Regal Turbo (this honestly seems like a car he would own)… that was her father’s car.

“D-Dad!” what was he doing in Hawkins? What was he doing on this part of town? He wouldn’t be caught dead here, how did he know that she was there when he basically neglected her entire existence? The only person that could have any clue on where she was would be— ah, goddammit, Steve. She really didn’t want to be alone anywhere near her father, the last time the two of them even acknowledge each other was when they were literally screaming at each other for something she couldn’t remember, probably something about her failing grades or some shit. She saw her father step out of the car along side her mother, but instead of striding up to her like her husband she remained by the car “W-What are you— what are you doing here, dad?”

“I think we both know why I’m here, [F/N].” she hadn’t been afraid of her father in years, he was nothing more than a joke in her eyes, but there was something in his eyes that frightened her that very moment. He stood before her, looming over her as he glared down at her while she struggled to keep her eyes on him, just the haunting look in his eyes made her nervous.

“I-I— I don’t—” she was startled when he grabbed her wrist and started tugging her towards his car “What are you— dad! Stop!” she tries tugging herself free but the grip he had on her was tight and definitely going to leave a bruise. Lauren frowned at the rough treatment but it had to be done, their daughter just wasn’t listening to them anymore and she needed to be taught that the consequences of her actions have finally caught up with her.

“Richard, is this really necessary?” she asked, he only scoffed at his wife’s thoughtless question. 

“If we don’t punish her accordingly, she’s never going to learn.” punishment? What the hell were they planning on doing to her? She was roughly thrown to the ground a few meters away from her mother, wincing when the rough concrete scraped at her hands and arms from the rough landing, she turns her head to look up at her father until her head was thrown in the opposite direction. Why, you ask? Well, that was because Richard Harrington struck his daughter across the face. Lauren flinched when she saw the red mark blossom on that side of her cheek and she could even feel the sting, her own hand subconscious lifting up to caress at her cheek. [F/N] was in disbelief that he father had actually struck her because he didn’t dare do it again when she stormed out of the house and the first person she saw the moment she stepped out of the Harrington household was Jim Hopper himself, and though he could easily have thought that it was just [F/N] picked another fight at school or some random person off the street, the look in her eye said otherwise.

“D-Dad—” she let out a gasp when he grabbed her by her hair and yanked her up, her hands flew up to grab him by his wrists to try and lessen the pain but there was just so much she could do.

“You’ve embarrassed me enough, [F/N]. I feel embarrassed having to be in this part of town just to come find you.” this time he punched her in the face, leaving her to grovel on the ground when he let go of her hair. She tries to push herself up but was only to be kicked down again, he scoffed as he watched his daughter grovel, pathetic “What did I do to have you as my daughter?” Lauren gave [F/N] a pitied look.

“R-RIchard, please—”

“Be quiet, Lauren!” she flinched back, [F/N] looked up at her mother in hopes that she would at least get her father to calm down but her heart dropped into her stomach when she looked away. Ah, so that’s how it is, huh? She grits her teeth when he grabbed her by the shoulder and turned her around so that she was on her back, grabbing her by the collar of her shirt before proceeding to beat her face in. Sure, she’s taken beatings from people at the Hideout and the few random strangers looking for a fight, but her father was by no means a weak man. He was big and if he really put his mind to it, he could beat you in a fight. Lauren was struggling to keep her composure each time Richard struck her face, her hands balling into fists each time his fist connected with her face, she let out a breath when Richard stopped for a second to catch his breath “I really didn’t want to have to come to this, [F/N], but you left me no choice.” [F/N] let out a groan when he pulled back to shake his hands, her blood splattered over the concrete floor.

“Don’t you think you’re being a little… drastic? That Sheriff is going to question why she looks like… that in the morning.” Richard scoffed, rolling his eyes.

“This is all because she can’t control herself, Lauren.” [F/N] manages to weakly lift her hand up to caress her face, let out a whimper at the amount of pain she was suffering through, she then weakly pushes herself onto her stomach tries to drag herself away to create of distance “Because of her, Steven is beginning to act rebellious! He’s starting to ignore us just like she did, and who knows how long till he stops caring! His grades are beginning to fall and he’ll end up just as much of a failure as our daughter who will never amount to anything! Because of her, Steven is started to act up towards us that he even told us to think of her!” [F/N] paused at what he said, Steve did… what? She knew that he was probably doing it out of the kindness of his heart, but because Steve stood up to their parents— to their father, he was taking his anger out on her? God, these were the times she wished Steve would just stay out of her business. She didn’t need his help for something as useless as mercy from their father, this never would happened if he just kept his goddamn mouth shut!

“Where did we go wrong?” 

“It doesn’t matter. I’ll just make sure she doesn’t get any future ideas.” her heart dropped into her stomach when she realised he turned his attention back to her, but she wasn’t going to take it anymore, not this time. The moment she felt him grab her by the shoulder she let out a grunt elbowed him hard in the nose, causing him to cry out in pain when she managed to break his nose, Lauren was quick to his side as [F/N] pushed herself so that she wasn’t on her stomach anymore and pushed herself away “You little brat!” she was panting wildly as she stared up at her parents in fear, but slowly, it turned into a burning hatred. She weakly pushes herself onto her feet, swaying a little after the continuous blows to the face, but manages to stand tall and glare at her father.

“You’re pathetic, mum.” she sneered out, spitting out the blood that pooled up in her mouth and wiping away the blood dripping from her nose “Fuck you too, dad. You’re an asshole and you’re both terrible parents.” she stared at them for a couple seconds before finally turning her back to them and walking back towards the Hideout, she didn’t bother giving them the satisfaction of looking at them when her father shouted at her.

“I’m no father of yours, [F/N]! From this day going forward, you’re no longer my daughter! You’ll never become anything without the Harrington name! You’re nothing!” she scoffed. “I was never your daughter to begin with.” she grits her teeth when she was left alone in the car park when she heard the tyres from her father— no, from Richard’s car screech when they pulled out and drove off. Her bottom lip trembled but she refused to cry, refused to give them the satisfaction that they got to her, so she held her head up and—

“[F/N]…?” her eyes widened when they met with Eddie’s, a look of absolute horror on his face. Did he… did he see all of that? His words fell to deaf ears because she was looking everywhere but at his face, her eyes started to blur with tears while her arms brought her hands to her face in an attempt to hide the damage Richard did but there was nothing she could do when Eddie grabbed her by her wrists and tried to pull them away so he could get a look at what he did to her “[F/N], oh my god, I’m so sorry I did— I heard you shouting and then I saw— I’m sorry I didn’t step in! I’m sorry!” he winced at the sound of how hoarse his voice was but he had to speak, he had to apologise that he couldn’t help her. He watched as that terrified look on her face melted away and was replaced with one of deep sadness, she let out a whimper until it turned into full on sobbing. Eddie pulled her into a hug and she cried into his chest, her arms weakly wrapping around him. He didn’t care if her blood mixed with her tears were smearing on his t-shirt, he could always get a new one, just right now he knew he needed to comfort his best friend.

“I-I don’t know what I did… I don’t know what I did to deserve this, Eddie.” he shook his head.

“You didn’t deserve this, [F/N], not at all. They just weren’t made to be parents, they didn’t know how to value you and your brother. Don’t even think for a second you deserved to be beaten like this.” she let out a cry and pulled herself closer to him, her fingers digging into the fabric of his shirt “You’re better than what they say you are, you are perfect and you are amazing.” she whined into his chest, when she finally pulled away she wiped at her face but winced at the pain.

“H-How much— how much exactly did you hear?” he frowned at her.

“Everything.” she grimaced and looked away, he tilted his head to get a look at her face “You gonna tell Ste—” a panicked look immediately appeared on her face.

“No! No, you can NOT tell Steve, you can’t!” she pressed a hand to her mouth “We only just fixed the damage of our relationship, if I tell him that it was because of what he said to them then he might not forgive himself, he might never look at me the same.” “But—” she shook her head.

“Eddie, promise me that you’ll NEVER tell him. I’ll take this to the grave if I have to, but he can never know about this from anyone but me.” he knew by that that she was NEVER going to tell him, but that desperate look in her swollen eyes got him to nod his head, albeit reluctantly.

“Alright, fine. I promise.” she softly nod her head.

“Good… good.” he catches her when she starts to sway again, he finally takes that as a sign to bring her back inside to help tend to the wounds he knew how to aid.

[present time]

“M-Me…? It was me?” the moment she finished her story Steve was staring at her in shock, he remembered that day. He remembered that day when their parents gave them their surprise visits, how their father complained about their useless daughter and how he couldn’t wait for the day she moved out so he didn’t have to house filth like her, though he shouldn’t have his expectations high for the one that was probably going to fail. Steve remembered how he finally raised his voice to their father, yelling at him that he shouldn’t talk about [F/N] like that when she used to be their pride and joy until they noticed how she had no more value to them and that they only had him because their first born was a mere daughter, something insignificant to them. He remembered how their parents left and soon as they returned and in the morning he was shocked to see [F/N] beaten and bruised at school, everyone thought that she had gotten into a fight at the Hideout because that was usually the reason as to why she’d ever look like that, even he thought that was the case “D-Dad, he— he did that to you?” she meekly nodded her head.

“I thought… I thought he was going to kill me, honestly.” she felt tears in her eyes “I was so scared, Steve. And I was angry because— because I just— fuck! I hate him, I hate him so much, Steve! And I hate mum because she went to him when I fought back! She didn’t even try to help me, and so I hate her for not trying! And I hated you, Steve! Because of you my life fell apart because I loved you, I loved my baby brother that hated me! I don’t know why I tried, but I knew if I gave up I’d just be letting them win! I just— I just wanted what we had before everything went to shit. I just wanted us to be siblings.” her face fell into her hands and she started to cry, wrapping her arms around herself and cried in front of Steve. She felt Steve approach her and instead of pulling her into a hug he just simply placed her hand on her shoulder.

“I… I’m glad you told me, [F/N]. I can tell that this is the first time you have been honest about your feelings.” he gave her a nervous laugh, looking away while scratching his cheek “I was a real asshole, I don’t know why you stuck around when you did. I don’t know why you loved me when you had every right to hate me, so in every twisted way, I’m glad you at least hated me.” she stared at him weirdly before bursting out into laughter.

“You’re weird, Steve.” soon he’s laughing with her after her claim, now they’re staring at each other breathless with silence falling over them. She flinched lightly when he raised his arms as an indication for a hug, she stared for a couple seconds but sighed and hugged him, and this time… this time she was able to relax into it, the two of them smiling brightly in their embrace. She let her head rest on his shoulder, her head leaning against the side of his head while her eyes closed. Her eyes opened and there she saw Billy staring at her with a warm smile, his hand lifting up to give her a thumbs up then turned his attention back to Max “I’m sorry, Steve.” he nod his head.

“And I’m sorry too, [F/N].” they stand there a couple seconds longer before letting each other go “Will you talk to Robin? I think she really needs it.” [F/N] takes a deep breath, closing her eyes and pinching her nose.

“Steve, taking to her might be a little harder for me.” her hand moved to her cover her mouth “I cheated on her, man, and she saw me doing it. Then I left her alone after breaking up with her and threatening her.” he placed a hand on her shoulder.

“And as much as I hate you for it, you and I both know you did it to protect her from the Mind Flayer.” she closed her eyes.

“But… you didn’t see the look in her eyes. I really am… our father’s child.”

“There’s no need for you to stoop so low just to insult yourself, [F/N].”

“But it’s true, isn’t it? I’m so much like him that it’s almost scary.”

“Then be better than him, because unlike him, you actually apologise.” he watched for a couple seconds when she finally nodded her head.

“What about you?” he raised a brow “You gonna talk with Billy about sort of relationship you’re going to have after all this? He still loves you, man.” she raised a brow when he let out a sigh, rubbing at his neck.

“I-I don’t know, I love Eddie, but Billy…” he shook his head, she pats his arm.

“Talk to him— them, talk to them both and see what to do from this point forward. If I’m talking to her, then you’ve got to talk to him. You’ve been dodging him as much as I’ve been dodging her. It’s only fair.” 

“… alright, fine.” she smiles, they both go off in opposite directions and [F/N] found herself taking Steve’s seat beside Robin. She was startled when she took a seat beside her, to which she thought it was Steve at first, so imagine her surprise when she turned to ask how his conversation went with [F/N], only to see her herself in his spot.

“[F/N]…” she muttered out softly, [F/N] still didn’t look at her and just looked up at the sky, her eyes closing as she felt the sun shining down on her.

“I missed the sun.” she spoke “Spent eight months in the dark with nothing but dark clouds and red lightning, We couldn’t even tell how many days went by because we had no sun to show if a day went by, not even clocks worked. I’d honestly rather not help with this suicide mission, I’d honestly rather just lounge around and bask in the sun, feels more productive if I’m being honest.” Robin nodded her head.

“I agree.” [F/N] hears Robin shuffle around for a couple seconds before settling down, she heard something rattle and only turned to face her when she spoke her name “[F/N], I have something of yours.” she looked down at her hands and her eyes widened when she saw what it was.

“That— I wasn’t finished with that!” it was the mixtape that she made her, she tries to take it but Robin pulls it out of her reach before she could take it “Robin, I—”

“I got pretty depressed, [F/N].” her eyes widened slightly at that “Maybe I would have gotten Vecna’ed if it weren’t for your mixtape, I didn’t know you sang at the very end because I would constantly replay it just because it was the last gift I got from you. It was the only thing I had left of your voice, and I’d be lying if I didn’t crave more. Man, I haven’t even told Steve about it.” [F/N] dropped her hand to her side.

“I-I’m… I’m sorry.” she takes a deep breath “I didn’t want to do what I had done, Robin. Believe me, I didn’t. I did everything to divert its attention on others so it wouldn’t target you and Steve, but that once instance you saw us in that alleyway and you were within arms reach… it made me want to strangle you and watch as the color would drain out of you.” Robin looked down and saw how one of her hands closed into a tight first, her other hand clamping down on her wrist “I couldn’t let it take you away, so I did the only thing I could think of to drive you away… even if it meant I’d lose you forever. I’m [F/N] Harrington, the one who lost everything.”

“I’ve forgiven you, but I can’t lie and say I didn’t hate you. I thought you loved me, that the rumours that the eldest daughter of the Harrington couple was a heartbreaker wasn’t true. You clearly loved me more than all those other flings, but that instance broke me, because you made me feel like all those other girls she tossed aside. I thought of was different from those other girls, that we were simply meant to be and you were my dream come true. I want us to work, I want us to be together… but I don’t know.” 

“Why would you want to be with me again?” she asked “I… I heard yours and Steve’s conversation before I took him away. You’ve clearly met someone else, Robin, don’t you want to try and work it out with them first before giving me a second chance?” she let out a sigh.

“I don’t think it’d work out with her, I saw her at the War Zone kissing her boyfriend.”

“Oh.” wow, what a way to rub salt into the wound. 

“Besides, I don’t even know if she swings that way to begin with, so I can’t take any real chances.” she nod her head and neither one of them know how to continue the conversation so they settle in silence once more, [F/N] flinched when she felt Robin’s hands bump against hers, she looked over and saw her offering her hand “It will take a long time for the both of us to love each other the way we did before, so before that, how’s about we settle with being friends again?” [F/N] looked down at her hand then at her face, Robin saw the way her hand hesitated to take hers, it flinching back when it lightly touched hers before finally settling down into the palm of her hand. Robin closed her hand around her and gave her a tearful smile, she could feel [F/N]’s hand tremble within hers so she squeezed her hand reassuringly. 

“Yeah… yeah, I can settle with being friends again.” they’re holdings hands and smiling nervously at each other, yeah, this will do. Robin noticed her flinch once more before turning her head in the direction where Steve, Billy and Eddie were. They watched the inaudible conversation to see that Steve was doing most of the talking, keeping a hand on Billy to keep him calm as he spoke to them both, they could only guess that Steve still had a bit of love left for Billy and unlike [F/N] who did break up with Robin, Steve and Billy’s relationship statue was a little unknown. In the end it was Steve pulling Billy into a hug then Eddie joining them with a big smile, Eddie felt eyes on him and saw it was [F/N] staring. She gave a questionable thumbs up but her face brightened when Eddie smiled and gave her a confident thumbs up, she grins and nods her head “Aw, it looks like they worked things out… hopefully.”

“Hopefully?”

“Remember how I said Billy and I feel the same thing?” she nods her head “I still feel a tiny bit of anger inside of Billy, though that’s probably just the possessive side of him and how he just wants Steve to himself. Unfortunately for him, he’s going to share now. I told him it would happen.”

“Would you be angry if I moved on?” she shook her head.

“I would have preferred it, because at least you would have found happiness with someone else instead of clinging to me who could no longer give it to you.” they enjoyed the rest of the time they had left together, still holding hands until Nancy called out to them that it was time. They first dropped Lucas, Erica, Max and Billy off at the Creel house, though [F/N] was a little hesitant to let Billy go because they haven’t been apart since they found each other in the Upside Down. She called him lucky that he didn’t have to go back in there, but he reasoned that someone had to keep an eye on his stupid little sister, so why not him? The others in the RV immediately noticed [F/N]’s change in character, how she settled herself in the back and was gripping her axe pretty slightly that could hear the wood begin to snap from the constant pressure they were sure she was going to snap it in half but was calmed down when Eddie moved from his spot beside Steve to comfort his friend.

“You doing alright?” she let out a shaky breath, her grip loosening for a second before going tight again.

“No.” she spoke, her voice strained “Throughout everything that happened with us, we were always together. I was losing my mind when I was in the Upside Down all alone, and now I’m going in there again without him. I’m anxious, Eddie.” she growled softly when he smacked her in the arm, glaring at him for doing such a thing but her gaze softened when he gave her a confident grin despite the nervousness seen in his eyes.

“But… you’ll have me.” her face softened at his words “And Dustin, but— you get the point, right? You won’t be alone, and you won’t be possessed/brainwashed/flayed. You will be you.” she stared at him then chuckled, dropping her face into her hands and shaking her head lightly.

“Sure, alright. You’ll make do, I suppose.” he gasped, placing a hand on his chest in an offended way.

“Is my presence not enough for the [F/N] Harrington? Why, I never.” she laughed and pushed him, Steve glanced back at the two through the rear view mirror, grinning himself when he saw Eddie wrap an arm around [F/N]’s shoulders and shake her around, at least he managed to calm her down. When he returned his gaze towards the road he let out a shaky breath.

“We’re here.” he announced, the mood immediately shifted and they hastily got ready.

“Okay. I wanna run through it one more time.” Nancy speaks, all eyes on her as she goes through the plan one more time “Phase one.”

“We meet Erica in the playground.” Robin starts “She’ll signal Max, Lucas and Billy when we’re ready.”

“Phase two?”

“Max baits Vecna.” Steve adds “He’ll go after her, which’ll put him in his trance.”

“Phase three?”

“Me, Eddie and [F/N] draw the bats away.” Dustin adds, to which both Eddie grabs places his hand on Dustin’s head to ruffle his head while [F/N] grabbed his shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

“Four.”

“We head into Vecna’s newly bat free laid, and… flambé.” Robin finishes.

“Nobody moves on to the next phase until we’ve all copied. Nobody deviates from the plan, no matter what. Got it?” they all nod their heads and with that they collect their gear and head out to Eddie’s trailer. Steve’s the first to enter the trailer, taking his bag off and tossing it to [F/N] who walked in behind him.

“Be careful.” she warned, he nods his head.

“Thanks. Here goes nothing.” they watch as he climbed through the fissure and when he was inside the Upside Down and gravity did its thing, he managed to flip his body around and land on his feet.

“Copycat.” [F/N] murmured, Robin chuckled.

“What does he want us to do, applaud?” this caused [F/N] to laugh and lightly tap her arm.

“I think it’d inflate his ego.” this caused them all to share a laugh, when Steve disappeared she cracked her neck and through her axe through and followed right after Steve, landing perfectly on her feet inside the Upside Down and giving Steve a smug look just as he came back into the room with another mattress.

“Show off.”

“Says you.” she picks up her axe, throwing it over her shoulder and watched Steve put the mattress under the fissure so the others could have a softer landing. Nancy was next through, Robin going to a knee so Nancy could step onto her thigh and lift herself through. She let out a grunt when she landed on the mattress and when she opened her eyes she was met with both [F/N] and Steve offering her a hand to help her up, letting out a yelp when she was literally thrown to her feet by the both of them. Next to go through was her stuff then Eddie, [F/N] let out a giggle as she hovered over his face with a grin to which he slowly mirrored it when she offered her hand to help him up. Followed him was his stuff then Robin, being helped up by Nancy and Steve and lastly the rest of the stuff and Dustin, who was yanked up by Steve and Eddie “Oh my babies! Mummy’s back!” [F/N] cooed as she kicked the door to Eddie’s trailer open, her arms wide open as she stepped out to greet her babies that waited patiently by her car.

“She’s got demodogs?” Dustin shouted at Steve, watching as [F/N] dropped to her knees to coo and coddle the five demodogs that were chittering and jumping around in excitement, happy to see one of their owners again.

“Yeah, she and Billy trained them better than you could ever.” Dustin let out an offended gasp, [F/N] just shook her head and pulled out some beef jerky and feed them to the demodogs.

“I’m sorry daddy isn’t here, but he wants me to send his love to you.” they whine at that but were happy nonetheless to see her after being separated from her for so long, she goes a few gestures with hands as she stood up then pointed her fingers to where Steve, Nancy and Robin were, they understood and left her side to stand with them “I told them to go with you to help take down Vecna, they should listen to you, Steve. And if they act smart, tell them they’re being bad.” Steve nervously looked down at the demodogs that stared up at him, he wished they had a face so he could tell if they were thinking of eating him “They’re not gonna eat you.”

“I wasn’t thinking that!” she just nodded her head.

“Right.” she shook her head and went over to where Eddie and Dustin were, Steve let out a sigh and turned towards them.

“Hey. If things here start to go south, I mean, at all, you abort. Okay? Draw the attention of the bats. Keep ‘em busy for a minute or two. We’ll take care of Vecna. Don’t try to be cute or be a hero or something, and I’m looking at you, [F/N].” he takes her hands and rubs his thumbs over her knuckles “I-I can’t… I can’t lose you, not again.” she gave him a soft smile.

“Yeah, I promise, I won’t do what I did last time. You’ll come back and I’ll be right here in one piece.” he raises his head and saw she was giving him a big grin, he let out a shaky breath, Eddie smiled himself and placed his hand on Steve’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry. You can be the hero, Steve.” Dustin says from behind him, to which Eddie nods.

“Absolutely. I mean, look at us. We are not heroes.” he nods at Eddie’s words but still hesitates to leave, scared that this was going to be the last time he saw Dustin and Eddie… that this will be the last time he was seeing [F/N]. He let out a breath when [F/N] pulled him into a hug, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and letting him relax into her hold.

“I promise you Steve, we’ll be right here waiting for you.” she feels him nod and though reluctant she let him go, she gives him a nod and gestures for him to go. He slowly nods then finally turns to leave with Nancy and Robin, well, that was until Eddie stepped forward and spoke.

“Hey, Steve?” despite only calling his name, they all turn around and look at Eddie. Steve raised a brow to indicate that he was listening, and though he felt like he was on the spot, he glanced back towards [F/N]. She gave him a look but she could see in his eyes that he was asking for permission to— she stared at him and likely glared at him for even thinking about— oh what the hell, she let out a sigh but nodded. He gave her a grateful smile before surging forward and grabbing Steve by the collar of his jacket, yanking him towards him and pulling him into a kiss. Nancy and Robin respectfully looked away while [F/N] rolled her eyes and lifted her hand to cover Dustin’s eyes. They were panting when they pulled away but chuckled softly together, letting their foreheads rest against each other as they caught their breath “Make him pay.”

“You’ve got it.” Eddie finally lets them leave, he watched him a little longer than he should have because when he turned around he was met with [F/N] glaring at him with her arms crossed.

“What?” she rolled her eyes.

“Make him pay.” she mimicked in her best Eddie voice before scoffing “Real smooth, romeo.” he shoved her.

“Oh, yeah? Like you can do better!” she raised a brow at him, giving him a incredulous expression.

“Please, you reek of virginity. Despite being with Steve for as long as you did, I know you’ve gotten no dick nor ass.” she snickers when his face turned bright red, she ignored his shouting but stopped when she heard panting, looking down only to see one of the demodogs had stayed behind “You— I told you to go help Steve and the others! Go!” it only let out a whine while tilting its head to the side, she let out a sigh as she kneeled down to pet its head “Oh, how could I stay mad at you. Staying by my side till the very end, such devoted loyalty.”

“Shall we get started?” Dustin asked from behind her, she glanced in the direction Steve at them went and let out a sigh.

“Yeah, let’s do this.” the two use bolt cutters to clip away at the wires on the fence while [F/N] effortlessly tears it off herself with her barehands, she glares at the two when they forced her to carry the heavy stuff they needed to barricade Eddie’s trailer. She’s holding Dustin by the scruff of his jacket so he could help Eddie screw sheets of iron over the windows, she gave up helping them and in the end sat on the hood of her car feeding her demogorgon bits of beef jerky while eating some herself.

“You going to help us?!” she looked up at them.

“Nah, you got this.” they groan at her, she got up when she saw they were done and stood beside Dustin.

“Not bad at all.” she hummed.

“Well done, doesn’t look like it’s gonna fall apart.” he glare at her.

“No thanks to you.” Eddie shook his head.

“Now for the fun part.” he spoke and rushes to his room, the other two lagging behind. He came to a stop at the sight of his prized guitar, a gift both herself and Wayne pitched in the moment he desired to own such a beauty “Jesus chr… it’l like… she was destined fo ran alternate dimension. What do you say Henderson, Harrington?” he spoke, slowly approaching his guitar before grabbing it and picking it up from where it was hanging “Are you ready for the most metal concert in the history of the world?”

“That a rhetorical question.” [F/N] chuckled at him.

“Let’s do it.” they’re back outside setting up the rest of the stuff on top of Eddie’s trailer, him leaving the technical stuff to the two smart people but stopped [F/N] so he could talk with her “Hey.” she smiled softly at him.

“Hey. What’s up, dude?” she looked down when she noticed he had something behind his back before revealing it to her, her eyes widened slightly at what she saw “E-Eddie, no. I can’t—” what he was handing her was a microphone he found laying around.

“It’s been years since the last time I’ve heard you sing, [F/N].”

“And you know why I don’t.” he nods softly. 

“Yeah, and I don’t want to overstep, but I’d love to hear you sing… even if it’s for the last time.” he pushes the mic into her hand and walks off, she stares at his retreating form then glares at him.

“Are you guilt tripping me, you son of a bitch?” he didn’t answer her and left her to mull over the option of singing as he played, she was sitting over the edge of the trailer and felt a tug on the end of the mic to see that it was Dustin plugging it in, he gave her a thumbs up and she thought, fuck it, why the hell not?

“She’s in. Move on to phase three.” hearing Robin’s voice through the walkie talkie caused them all to look over at each other, they share a nod and get ready as Dustin brings it to his lips to speak.

“Copy that. Initiating phase three. Let’s hope they hear this.” [F/N] lets out a yawn as she stands to her feet, grabbing at the mic stand and setting up the mic while grabbing at the discarded bottle of alcohol she brought and took a swig from it then throwing it away.

“Don’t worry about that, they’ll hear it for sure.” Dustin plugs in the amp and nods at Eddie, who returns it.

“Chrissy, this is for you.” he rips his pick off his neck and strikes his guitar, the intro to “Master of Puppets” by Metallica beginning to play, both herself and Dustin smile and bob their head to Eddie shredding on the guitar and absolutely having the time of his life but paused for a second to look over at [F/N]. They stare at each other for a couple seconds before she rolled her eyes and looking down at the mic, she let out a sigh before grabbing it and screaming into it.

“Yeeeah!” the shout definitely startled Dustin because he wasn’t expecting it but Eddie grinned, this was the [F/N] he knew and missed. The gang heading into the Creel house heard from where they were Eddie’s guitar but they didn’t expect to hear [F/N]’s voice singing along to Eddie’s playing, Robin and Steve look at each other and smile. [F/N] was grinning, tapping her foot against the ground and head banging to the sound of music in her ears, her mind going back to the time when she wasn’t so afraid of performing, this was something she definitely missed “Master of puppets, I'm pulling your strings~” at the break of the song she lets out a pant and looks over at Eddie, their eyes meet and they start laughing. She steps towards him with the mic and then they’re singing together as if it were old times, not like they were about to get eaten by a flock of deadly demobats.

“Eddie! [F/N]!” they look over at him “We gotta lock down in t-minus thirty seconds!” they nod and keep going.

“Master, master! Just call my name ‘cause I’ll hear you scream~” both her and Eddie then shake their heads, hair flying everywhere when Eddie starts to shred of the guitar as Dustin gives them their countdown and they only stop when Dustin screams out one, the cord of the last note echoing through the now empty Upside Down but then they’re screaming when they realised a lot of the demobats were heading their way. [F/N] immediately drops the mic and grabs Eddie by his arm and shoves him forward, to which he drops his guitar and the both of them are rushing over to grab Dustin and push him back.

“Move! Move! Move!”

“Let’s go!”

“Hurry it up!” she brings her fingers to her lips and whistles sharply, her demodog shooting past the lot of them and waiting by the door.

“Eddie, come on!”

“Hurry!” Dustin was the first in the trailer followed by [F/N] and her demodog, leaving Eddie to close off the fenced gate he and Dustin made before finally jumping into the trailer and closing the door right behind him. [F/N] is panting, trying to catch her breath after just singing and then running away while also checking on her demodog, leaving Dustin and Eddie to geek out after their performance “Dude! Most metal ever!”

“Oh my… oh my god!” she just shook her head, her hand gently petting her baby “Dude, [F/N]! You were great! I’m was so happy to hear your voice again.” she just shrugged her shoulders.

“Eh, it was nothing. You sounded great on your guitar, never lost your touch.” he pulls her onto her feet and hugs her, smiling when he felt her drape herself over his shoulder and lazily hug him back. They both raise a brow when they felt something else so they look over and see that it was Dustin wrapping his arms around the both of them and leaning into their hug, they shake their head and include him. The three of them now found themselves underneath the fissure back to back, slowly moving and watching for anything, any sign of one of the demobats breaking through the barricade as they banged at the walls and screeched. [F/N] furrowed her brows when the screeching stopped, even her demodog snapped its head up when it noticed the lack of noise.

“Hey, dipshits!” Dustin’s sudden screaming startled her and Eddie, causing the two of them to whip their heads towards him “Give up that easy, huh?!” [F/N] slams her hand on top of his head and shakes it while Eddie hisses at him.

“Shh! Is that really necessary?”

“Don’t try and be brave, kid.” they hear clattering and look up, [F/N] grimaced at the realisation “Just great.”

“Shit, shit, shit.”

“They’re on the roof.” they’re following the sound though [F/N] made sure her demodog went ahead of them as they stuck close to Dustin, they were making all sorts of noise on the roof that they all grimaced at the thought of them somehow getting inside. They stop when her demodog was growling at the vent, Dustin paled and look back at them.

“They can’t get in through there, can they?” their eyes widened when one of the bats broke through the vent and snarled at them.

“Oh yes they can! Move!” she shook her head when they both started yelling, she grabbed her demodog and pulled him back to allow Eddie and Dustin to stab at the thing through the vents.

“Die! Die!” it was a little funny watching them jab at the thing while continuously screaming “die” at it, it was amusing “You gonna help us or what?!” she just shrugged.

“You guys look like you’ve got this handled!” it was startling to see how calm she was in this situation, well, what did they expect from someone who survived in the Upside Down for eight months, half of it spent alone while also fighting monsters bigger than herself. She wasn’t scared in the slightest, the only thing that made her nervous was Eddie and Dustin getting hurt. Her eyes then settled on the nailed shields and thought of an idea, she leaves their side and picks one up “Move, move!” they move and she blocks the vent, the nails digging through the ceiling and allowing it to stay in place.

“Good thinking.”

“Thanks.” Dustin’s panting on the floor when a thought comes to mind.

“Are there other vents?” Eddie and [F/N] look at each other.

“Oh, shit!” [F/N] was quick to leave his side and rush to his room with the other three following, when she got to his room a swarm of them burst through the air vent and were quick to fill up the room. She let out a growl and quickly closed the door before any could get any further, she grimaced as she backed away and kept her eyes on it, pushing Eddie back into the living room where her demodog was tugging Dustin back.

“That’s not gonna hold!” he shouts.

“Let’s go! Let’s go!” Eddie looked at [F/N] and saw she still hadn’t moved yet, her grip violent on her axe that he was sure it was going to snap in half. She jumped when he grabbed her by the arm, she looked back towards him and he gently tugged her arm “Let’s go.” he gestured with his head towards Dustin and there they saw the terrified look on his face, she looked back at Eddie and nodded her head.

“Alright.” they let Dustin go through first, her kneeling down and cupping her hands to give him a hand, she didn’t want her demodog getting torn to shreds either so she chucked him through and went to follow. She didn’t bother catching herself this time and instead landed on the mattress, laying on it for a couple seconds before rolling off it and letting out a tired groan “This better be over.” she pushed herself up so she was leaning on her hands, chuckling softly when her demodog rubbed his head against her shoulder.

“Eddie?” she looked up and noticed the way Eddie stopped climbing as he looked back at them then back at the door to his room, some sort of realisation dawned on his face that caused [F/N] to stand to her feet when he moved away from the rope connecting them to the Upside Down.

“What are you doing?” she called out to him, her eyes widening when she saw him grab his spear “Eddie, no!” he then cuts the rope, she reached forward and their half dropped into her hands.

“Eddie! Stop, what are you doing?!” Eddie goes so far as to move the mattress so if they did manage to get through they had nothing to break their fall, he comes back into view and gives them an apologetic look.

“I’m sorry, but I’m buying more time!”

“No!”

“You’re going to get yourself killed! You don’t stand a chance against them alone!” he gave a shrug and turned, her hands were in her hair as she tried to think of anything to get him to stop “Ste… Steve loves you, Eddie!” this was enough to get him to pause, she took that as her chance to keep going “He loves you, Eddie, and I do to. I don’t know what I’m going to tell him if you’re gone… he already lost me and Billy, I don’t want to be there to tell him he lost you too. Please, don’t do this.” Eddie looked up at her.

“Are you saying that to guilt trip me?” the sadness in her voice immediately dropped as she gave him a glare.

“Is it working?”

“Yeah, it almost did.” he turned his back to her and started walking away, laughing softly when he heard her shout at him.

“You motherfucker! I’m gonna break your goddamn legs when I come get your ass! Just you wait, you piece of shit! I’m gonna kick you ass if you walk away, Eddie! Don’t you fucking dare, Eddie!” and with that he was out the door and drawing the demobats away liked he said he would, her hand closed into a tight fist as a deadly look washed over her face.

“[F-F/N]! What are we going to do?” he flinched back when he saw how livid she was.

“I’m going after him, that’s what I’m doing.” she whistles and her demodog was at her feet, he jumps into her arms to which she quickly but as gently as she could chucked him back through into the Upside Down, letting out a breath of relief when he didn’t get hurt too badly because there wasn’t a soft landing to break his fall.

“A-And what about me? What am I supposed to do?” she ignored him to find a chair.

“You’re staying here.” was all she said when she found a chair high enough to help her jump through, she sets it down when Dustin grabbed her arm. “No! I want to help! Let me help you!” his breath hitched in his throat when she turned back towards him, grabbing him by his biceps and shaking him softly.

“YOU are staying right HERE!” she gave him a sad look by the terrified look her gave her, she shook her head and let him go “You have to stay here, because if you get hurt Steve will have my head that I wasn’t able to protect both you and Eddie! We’re supposed to be waiting right here for them… but he just had to go off and save this shitty town that doesn’t deserve him!” she left him with that, turning away to jump onto the chair then pull herself through the fissure, letting out a grunt when she landed on the ground on her side. She dusted herself off and quickly stood to her feet, not sparing Dustin another look despite him calling her name, throwing the door open and grimacing at the sight of the swarm of demobats following after Eddie. Her face relaxed when she saw that her car was still where she left it so she reached into her pocket for her keys, only to pale when she didn’t feel them anywhere so she desperately pats at all the pockets she had and didn’t find them anywhere. Where were they? She always kept them in her pocket, she couldn’t have— she paused when she remembered him pulling her into that hug, that bastard must have taken them then.

“Ah!” the pained scream caused her to whip her head around to see that Dustin have followed her, spraining his ankle in the process from the awkward landing.

“What are you— why did you follow me? I told you to stay back!” she rushes to his side to turn onto his back, he grabbed her by her shoulder and pulled himself up so that they were face to face.

“Like hell I was going to be left behind, you’re taking me with you!” she stared at him, he saw her face twitch as she debated her choices “We don’t have enough time, come on!” she let out a groan.

“Fucking, fine!” when she stood up he expected her to help him up but instead she picked him up and threw him over her shoulder, kicking the door open and whistle again to get her demodog to follow her. She opens the passenger side door and plops him down in the sit, closing the door behind him then going over to the drivers side. Dustin watched as she punched through the underside of her stirring wheel and rip out a couple wires, using her axe to cut through a couple to expose the conductors, striking them a couple times and gritting her teeth when her engine sputtered but didn’t roar “Fucking asshole! Stealing my keys. Making me hot wire my own car. I’m gonna kill him! He’s gonna be revoked of his best friend rights.” she and Dustin let out a cheer when she finally managed to get her car to start, her hand slapping against her console before jumping in.

“Let’s go, let’s go!” she didn’t hesitate to change gears, her foot slamming down on the gas and driving like crazy to where the bats and hopefully still Eddie were. Right now she didn’t care about how much noise she was making, driving cautiously in the Upside Down didn’t matter because she needed to get those fuckers attention so they weren’t swarming Eddie as much, but the roar of her car did little to nothing in comparison to a real meal being presented to them. She slams on the breaks when she finally finds Eddie, her heart dropping into her stomach at the sight of him being held down by those fuckers as they ate away.

“Eddie!” she cried out over his own screams, she grits her teeth and kicks her door open while grabbing her axe. She’s running over as quickly as she could to get to Eddie before it’s too late, her demodog running ahead of her to get to the demobats holding him down. Eddie lets out a gasp at the sight but was astonished when the blade of [F/N]’s bloodied axe comes into view, her veins now black as she let out an animalistic roar at the monsters. She’s killing them easily, the blade of her axe splitting them in two and their blood smearing all over her face and clothes, she goes so far as to picking up his fallen spear and breaking the blade of it off, stabbing at one of the demobats that was holding him down and ripping another in half after grabbing a hold of it “You’re a lucky son of a bitch, you bitch.” he let out a wheeze, coughing up blood but still managing to laugh.

“I knew you’d come...” she scowled at him, leaning down to grab him by the waist and hoist him onto her shoulder. 

“I’m still telling on you.” that was enough to get him to shut up, now she was aimlessly swinging to keep the bats away from her, using her arm to bat them away as well. She ignored the few that attached themselves to the few exposed spots on her body, biting into her flesh and ripping her skin off, but she ignored them and hurried along to get Eddie in her car and safe. Dustin was shouting at her to run, for her to hurry, and alright kid she was trying her damn hardest, but she finally managed and threw him in the back sit but before she could even get in she was suddenly grabbed by her ankle and dragged back.

“[F/N]!” she let out a grunt when they were. really beginning to swarm her, raising her arms so they didn’t get too close to her face. She grabs at the fallen dagger and stabs it through the mouth of one of the bats that was aiming for her face, she would have been in real trouble if her demodog wasn’t there as her sidekick. It fought off the remaining few surrounding her before grabbing her by the back of her jacket and dragged her back to her car before jumping in himself “Y-You’re okay…” Dustin breathed out, arms reaching forward when she got in, bloodied and breathing heavily, but otherwise alright.

“Yeah, but not for long!” the screeching of the bats snapped their heads up, now the two boys in her car were shouting at her to drive, she didn’t need to be told that twice. Losing the bats were easy, they were no match for her mustang, but losing them they couldn’t afford. They still needed to do their job and distract those fuckers long enough for Steve, Nancy and Robin to put that Vecna bitch in the grave so she had to keep a fair distance from those bastards until they were done. So for now her arm reached back to where Eddie was laying and started hitting him “You motherfucker!”

“Ah, hey! I-I’m bleeding back here!” she hits him again. 

“How fucking dare you, Eddie! How dare you put me in that situation! You were going to be killed and I was going to have to be that person to tell him that you were gone! You were going to die for something so… dumb!” her eyes started to get blurry with tears, she sniffled “He told you not be a hero, dammit. Why didn’t you listen?” he stared at the back of her head, his own vision getting blurry from the lack of blood along with his new wounds. 

“Don’t know… wanted to be like you.” she looked at him through the rear view mirror “Strong… brave… confident. You’re amazing, [F/N],” she let out a shuddered laugh.

“I’m anything but that. I’m weak, fragile and scared. I’m angry and broken, and I’m about to shatter if you die so if you die I’m snitching on you.” he laughs weakly.

“You’re snitching regardless.”

“Yes, I am.” at this point she was just driving around aimlessly, those fuckers weren’t getting tired and they certainly weren’t giving up any time soon, persistent bastards. She started to slow only when she noticed they were beginning to fall like flies, she came to a halt when they were all beginning to drop from the sky and die, she let out a tired huff and dropped onto her wheel “They did it…” Dustin hobbles out of the car and let out a relieved smile at the sight of all the bats dying.

“Whoo! They did it! They actually killed Vecna!” he let out a scream when a bat landed on the car, he then noticed that [F/N] was in the backseat and giving Eddie basic aid to try and stop his wounds from bleeding. She rolled her eyes when he started complaining that she was making it hurt, oh yeah? Keep complaining and she’ll make sure it hurts even more “Eddie, you asshole! I’d hit you if you weren’t practically dying right now.”

“Hit him, I’ll patch him up.” Eddie and Dustin share a look, she chuckles when Eddie was left groaning because Dustin managed to kick him in the shin “Well done, now sit still you bitch.” she tightens the makeshift bandages she was using out of her torn shirt and try and stop the bleeding.

“Nnhh, I’m tryin…” she frowned when he was started to slur his words, they needed to get him to a hospital quick or at least get him cleaned up and properly stitched up. She knew a thing or two about fixing wounds and shit, but this was seriously out of her hands.

“C-Can’t you do something?” Dustin asked from beside her, she raised her hands.

“Billy and I got wounds from these bastards many times, but we could easily heal from them. See?” she shows her arm and Dustin noticed that the bite marks from the bats healed over as if there was nothing wrong to begin with “I don’t know how much I can help him other then basic first aid. We NEED to get him to a hospital.” Dustin shakes his head.

“N-No! They’ll arrest him.”

“But he’ll die otherwise. I’m no doctor, but he could die if these wounds aren’t treated.” Dustin looked down at his pained face and frowned, knowing that what she was saying was right “But right now, let’s get you both out of here. Let’s get the others and get the fuck out of here.” he slowly nods.

“Okay…” she nods and helps him back into the car, taking off her jacket and laying underneath Eddie’s head, Eddie taking off his own little shawl to lay it on top of Eddie. [F/N] drives quickly but carefully as to not injure Eddie any further to the Creel house, letting out a breath when it comes into view along with the other three. She comes to a stop right in front of them, her window coming down and giving them a nervous grin.

“Get in bitches, we’re getting out of here.” Steve laughs at the sight of his sister and let out a breath of relief when he saw Dustin in the passenger seat, did he manage to fight Eddie for the seat? He opens the back door and he gasped at the sight of his boyfriend, bloodied and wrapped in makeshift bandages who was barely conscious “Just for the record, it wasn’t my fault.”

“[F/N]!”

“And if you don’t want him to die, I suggest you get in the car so we can get him some real help.”

“[F/N]!”

“Just saying.”

Rose

word count: 12,698

Fandom: Stranger Things Pairing: Robin Buckley x Female!Harrington!Reader   Pronouns: She/Her Relationship: Romantic Occupation: University Student Ability: N/A

Keys:

[F/N]: Female Name [L/N]: Last Name [N/N]: Nickname [H/C]: Hair Color [E/C]: Eye Color

Warnings: n/a

this was requested by my friend @unparalleled-slothy​ and her friend @puresass​, so you can go thank them for giving me enough inspiration to write something.

this is going to be if billy and [f/n] didn’t die or get possessed by the mind flayer, so an overall happy ending for those poor unfortunate souls.

I know this is way past valentine’s day but I don’t give a shit, I was just lazy.

that is all.

Ah, valentines the day.

The day where you celebrate love, whether it may be with your significant other or rather suffering in utter loneliness because you have no significant other. A holiday where the price of stuffed toys, a bundle of flowers and chocolate have doubled in price because they can do that. This was the first year [F/N] was going to spend Valentine’s Day with her actual lover, her beautiful girlfriend Robin Buckley, that wasn’t just some on and off fling but a girl she genuinely had a relationship with. Someone she almost loved just as much as her brother— almost, but she still had a place deep within her heart. Sure, [F/N] still had university to worry about but what’s a few missed days? Besides, she’s paid a few of her friends/classmates to take notes for her so when she returns she doesn’t flunk so hard.

Steve himself was just as excited for Valentine’s Day as [F/N] was, this time he was going to spend it with Billy. This was something new for the both of them, not so much Steve, but spending the holiday with another boy, yes. Steve’s heart was filled with so much love, he was ready to shower it all onto Billy, but he knew better than to overwhelm the blonde. Learning from him, he knew that Billy was starved of affection and was slowly getting used to Steve’s lingering touches, so he knew he had to hold back. Steve and [F/N] both had a plan for their lovers, they had all day to play and get their surprise ready for them, especially since neither one of them had school to attend and Steve was taking a day off from Family Video just to prepare.

“So what do you have in store for Hargrove, Stevie?” [F/N] asks, both herself and Steve lounging about outside by the pool despite the weather, a cold beer in her hand as they stared up at the dark sky above them “He’s told me he’s excited for what you have planned out, basically pleading with me to spare some details.” she hums to herself when she saw an excited grin stretch across his cheeks.

“Do you remember how lover’s lake has the best view after dark?” she nods her head, tilting her head back to take a swig of her drink “That’s exactly where I’m going to take him where the two of us are going to enjoy a night dinner under the stars.” her face lights up, snapping her fingers in his direction.

“Oh, I see. Are you planning it so that the stars reflect against the water?” he nods his head, snapping his fingers in her direction.

“Exactly that, sister dearest.” [F/N] applauds him for his creative idea, he sniffles softly and tilts his drink in her direction to gesture for her to speak her idea then took a drink “What about you? Robin has been begging me to spill what you’re gonna do with her.” [F/N] grinned, her couldn’t help but roll his eyes when he recognised that mischievous grin.

“You’re just gonna have to wait and see, my dear little brother.” Steve rolled his eyes.

“Whatever you’re planning, I bet it’s got something that could potentially get you in jail.” she laughs whilst throwing her head back.

“Please, I’ve been to jail too many times to count that it doesn’t even matter to me anymore!” he couldn’t help but stare at her, whether it be with disappointment or disbelief, it wouldn’t matter to her so he tilts his head back and takes a longer gulp of his alcoholic beverage.

And that’s where [F/N] found herself outside of Robin’s house on Valentine’s Day morning, she drove slowly down her street as to not alert the entire street that she was there, especially not Robin. Pulling up just a couple houses down to her house she eyes it closely then nods to herself, no one seemed to be awake in the Buckley Residence so now was her time. She drums her hands against the stirring wheel before leaning over to the passenger side to grab a rose from the bouquet, along with a small box of chocolates. Her plan was to deliver her a rose from the bouquet along with a treat to Robin throughout the entire day until Robin collects all the roses and completes the bouquet, then at the very end of school she would pull up and take her on a sweet date, then to finish it off they were going to watch one of Robin’s favorite movies then cuddle their way to sleep.

She nods to herself. Yes, such a splendid plan. Lacing her fingers together and cracking them, she hastily makes her way over to Robin’s window that she would always climb to secretly get into her room. What a Harrington trait, huh? Her window was a little high, but she always kept the window open no matter the weather. Well, snow days were an exception but they were their favorite cause they could get away with spending the entire day in bed snuggling. Tucking the box of chocolates into her pocket and putting the rose into her mouth, she takes a step back, then leapt up to grab onto the edge of her windowsill then proceeded to push herself up until she was able to reach into Robin’s room. With that, she spat the rose into her hand and gently placed it down on the windowsill followed by the box of chocolates. Glancing up, she smiled softly yet brightly at the sight of her sweet little birdie sleeping peacefully. She wished she could stay longer; she wished she had a bit of time to give her girlfriend and kiss on the forehead but the sound of her door handle jiggling caused [F/N] to panic and lose her balance, evidently falling backwards and onto the ground.

*THUD*

“Ah, hmm…?” Robin let out a tired groan when her door was open. Taking a peek from out of her pillow, she saw her mother standing over her with a kind smile on her face “Argh, mum…. let me sleep.” she giggles softly at Robin, watching her daughter turn her head back into her pillow to bury her face further into the plush cotton.

“Now, now, Robin. You can’t just sleep in today.” she laughs this time when Robin groaned louder “Today’s a special day.”

“Friday?”

“No, sweetheart, it’s valentine’s day. And this year, you don’t have to spend it alone.” this was enough to get Robin to push herself up, her mother was laughing cheerfully now at the state of her daughter. Her short hair was a mess and sticking out in all sorts of places with some drool dribbling out of the corner of her mouth “If you finish your school day quicker, you might get to spend some time with that girl you love so much.” Robin’s face quickly turned a shade of red.

“Mum!” she groans out “You know it isn’t like that.” this caused her to roll her eyes.

“Right, like I don’t see the way you look at her each time she comes to pick you up and drop you off.” she leans down and gently pats her head “No matter how hard you try to hide it, my sweet daughter, your father and I will love you, regardless. Just remember that, Robin.” she then presses a kiss to her forehead, proceeded to ruffle her hair with a soft chuckle, and finally left Robin to wake up and get ready for school. She tosses her head back to shake the loose strands out of her face and in the corner of her eyes she notices the deep shade of red sitting on her desk. Standing to her feet, she gasped softly at the sight of a rose next to a box of chocolates, she giggles lovingly at the sight and picks them up, only then to notice a small note attached to the chocolates.

’good morning birdie,

I hope you had a good sleep, thought you might like a little gift to start your morning. There is plenty to come throughout the day, so forgive me that I do not come to take you to school for I have much to prepare for the evening. But I want you to know that it will be worth the wait, so enjoy your day and wait, you shall be greatly rewarded for your patience.

from yours truly, [f/n] harrington~❤️’

Robin could feel her cheeks already starting to hurt from hood big of a smile she wore on her face, she quickly peeks out of the window to try to at least catch her while she was leaving but frowned softly when she couldn’t see her mustang nor did she hear it when it left. Well, this was enough to know that [F/N] didn’t forget, so she nods her head and gets ready for the day, very excited to learn what her girlfriend had in store for them. Little did she know, [F/N] was beneath her outside the whole time. She laid completely still when she saw Robin stick her head out in search for her, then relaxed when she disappeared.

“How long are you going to be lying there, Harrington?” not even looking up to the owner of the voice, she raised her hand in greeting.

“Good morning to you too, Mr Buckley.” he nods to himself when he looked up from where she potentially fell from then back down at her. He kneels down and gently knocks on her forehead.

“Don’t do anything too frivolous, young lady. She’s still in high school while you’re a university student.” [F/N] nods her head and salutes him.

“Wouldn’t dream of it, sir.” he hums at her, nodding his head.

“Glad you understand.” she was a little startled when he grabbed her by the collar of her shirt, pulling her up slightly but enough so that they were face to face “But if I hear that you did something to her, to my daughter, you’ll have to answer to me. I don’t give a damn if you’re a woman or not, I’m still that girl’s father and I’m going to treat anyone she brings home the same way until they understand that my daughter is not to be messed with, got it?” [F/N] rapidly nods her head.

“Yes sir, I understands sir.”

“I’m happy we could have this conversation. Now run along. I don’t want her getting the wrong idea.” she nods her head and hurries off the moment he let her go, he stood outside the driveway sand watched her flee to her car, hand on his hip with a cup of coffee in his other hand “… that girl’s dead the moment she breaks my girls heart.” [F/N] now found herself trying to hide her car as she pulled up to Hawkins High School and how she was able to pull it off, she didn’t know, she was just that skilled. Sneaking into Hawkins High wasn’t too hard, trying not to get recognised as one of the most notorious student from a few of her old teachers was almost a little tricky, but blending in with a few students made it easier for her to slither past them. The hallways of Hawkins High were littered with hearts, banners saying “happy valentines day” and other shit like that, barf, this school was always quite the try hard when celebrating all sorts of holidays. Her next mission was to find Robin’s locker, and with the help of Billy and even Wheeler senior, she somewhat knows where it is.

“They said it should be around… here!” [F/N] made sure that no one was looking when she proceeded to break into her locker, cracking open a lock wasn’t hard for her, she’s opened up a bunch of lockers when she was still attending this shithole for a school. She grinned when the lock sprung open so with a smug grin and whistle she opened the locker and was greeted with the sight of Robin’s stuff, she did double check to see it was hers and pulled out of her duffel bag the next rose, a box of treats with a note and a trinket from Robin’s favorite book series. Hmm, she wonders what sort of face Robin will make when she sees thi—

“[F/N]?” she lets out a shriek at the sound of her name, slamming the locker door shut and whipping her head over in the direction of the voice, though, she was greatly surprised to see who it was “What are you doing here?”

“Eddie? What are you STILL doing here?” Eddie Munson, [F/N]’s longtime best friend since her last year of middle school and throughout high school up till her last year where she graduated and left Hawkins to study out of state. She was greatly surprised to see Eddie, who was her age, at Hawkins himself. Shouldn’t he be out and about making a name for himself outside of Hawkins, away from this shitty town that thought he was nothing more than a freak? She stared at him closer before making a face of disappointment, Eddie’s face scrunched up when he recognised it “You dumb bitch, were you held back again?” Eddie pulls a face before raising a hand.

“Don’t avoid the question.” she scoffs at him, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms “I don’t see a reason for you to be here, on Valentine’s Day of all days. I thought you’d be out and about getting into any girl’s pants to satisfy your loneliness.”

“Ah hahaha, very funny. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t make jokes on my loneliness. Thank you very much.” she sighed when he made a gesture for her to continue, for her to explain what the hell she was doing there when she had absolutely no business being there in the first place, she sighed as she scratched her cheek “Well… I’m visiting someone.” he raised a brow.

“Visiting someone? Who?” before she could answer, Eddie let out a yelp when she grabbed him by the collar of his jacket and pulled him away and out of sight while also kicking her bag away. She held him close as she pressed herself into the wall behind her while he pressed his hands on either side of her head, their legs in between each other while they were face to face. Eddie was going to ask for her drastic reaction but paused when he saw her lean forward to peek past the lockers that were hiding them from the owner of the locker she broke in to. He leaned back and his eyes widened softly at who he saw. Robin Buckley? That band weirdo? No, it couldn’t be. He goes to make a joke when he turned back to look at [F/N] but paused when he saw that genuine look of love on her face that was only ever reserved for Steve and sometimes him and his group of friends, but this look? This look was new, she sighed lovingly as she draped her arms over his shoulders and rested her head on the side of his as she stared at Robin with a lovesick gaze. Her face brightened when she saw the rose she gave Robin that morning tucked into the breast pocket of her jacket, heh, the jacket she stole the year prior.

Robin was in a good mood that morning, seeing [F/N] definitely would have made it better, but she would have to settle for the surprise she had for her that afternoon. Steve was the one to pick her up that morning, but she sat in the backseat, leaving the front seat reserved for his boyfriend Billy. She drowned out their chatter for their afternoon date out and focussed solely on getting through the day as quickly as she could so she could see [F/N], oh, how she was graving to see her girlfriend right then and there. Pulling up to the school, she quickly gave her goodbye to Steve and Billy and rushed into the school, gagging out the few students who didn’t have enough decency to tongue fuck each other behind closed doors. She practically had to shove some random girl talking to her boyfriend because they were in front of her locker, she scoffed as she puts in the code to her lock then opens her locker, face brightening up to find another rose, chocolate and a gift inside.

’hi songbird,

Did you see the gift I left you? It’s a little trinket from one of your favorite book series you love talking about. I saw it in a shop and managed to buy it. It was the last in stock so I was quite lucky to snag it. Have a good day at school, Robin. Don’t slack off just because we’re doing something this afternoon. Love you~

From yours truly, your girlfriend~❤️’

Aw~ look at the face she was making. Her face was turning redder by the second! Ah hah, she’s hugging the note! Look, she’s grabbing the little trinket and putting it in her pocket. She likes it. She fully melts into the embrace she pulled Eddie into, her arms now wrapping around him as her head slouched into the crook of his neck, sighing dreamily as she watched Robin pick up the rose and add it to the first one inside her pocket. The moment Robin was out of sight [F/N] finally managed to collect herself and acknowledge Eddie, only to freeze up when he was staring at her with a suggestive expression.

“So… Buckley~” she scoffed at him, he laughed when he saw her face turn pink from embarrassment “I didn’t know you were into band nerds.” he burst out into laughter when she peeled herself off of him and pushed him away.

“Coming from a band nerd himself, loser.” they stare at each other this time before grinning at each other and grabbing each other by the hand, a loud clap echoing through the hallway the moment they grasped each other’s hands “So, you finally found the one that captured your heart. Do you love her just as much as you love your brother?” [F/N] pulls a face, tilting her head side to side before shrugging.

“She’s a close second place.” he scoffs.

“Dude, no.” she laughs with a shrug.

“She understood what she was getting herself into the moment she accepted to be my girlfriend, but I do tend to treat her with extra love.” with that she winked and blew him a kiss, he jokingly caught it then threw it in a nearby trashcan, she let out a gasp at his audacity “Anyways, think you know what class she has first? I wanna leave another rose.” Eddie lets out a breath as he looks down at his wrist to check the time.

“I don’t think you have enough time to do that, the bells about to—” the bell rung before he could finish, she let out a sigh at that “Welp, you better leave before you get in trouble. I, myself, have math class to attend.” [F/N] throws her head back with a laugh.

“Damn, math was never your strongest suit. Be well, soldier!” she salutes him and planned to leave but was stopped when a teacher appeared, it would’ve been bad if the teacher recognised her, it was awful because this teacher didn’t recognize her and thought she was a student.

“Oh, trying to ditch school, are you? With Mister Munson, no less.” [F/N] paused in her tracks, glancing back at Eddie then back at the teacher while pointing at herself, the teacher let out a sigh “Yes, you. Goodness, students these days. You think you can just avoid class to fool around because it’s Valentine’s Day, don’t you? Well, I’ve got news for you kiddos, you gotta suck it up and wait for the end of school so get to it!” [F/N] was then grabbed roughly by her arm, along with Eddie, and the two of them were dragged to math class. Eddie was giggling softly to himself as he and [F/N] sat at the back of the classroom, she herself had an incredulous look on her face that screamed she wanted to die. She glanced at him and gave him a glare, telling him to shut the fuck up, but he knew well and just ignored the way she was staring daggers into his eyes. A few other students attending that class were staring at the two in confusion, especially at [F/N] because they didn’t recognize who the fuck she was, the few juniors that were around when she reigned supreme in Hawkins as the fallen queen, were extra confused as to why she was there.

“Now students, I’d like for you to take out your textbooks and flip to the page that we were working on last week.” [F/N] scratched her eyebrow as she watched the lot of students do as they were told, she wanted to slap Eddie when she could feel him smirking at her as he pulled out his textbook that he would usually leave dormant in the bottom of his bag.

“Why am I here? I’m a goddamn university student, for crying out loud.” she let out a groan when her plans to leave gifts for Robin were stopped by this stupid teacher, dumb bitch. Whilst writing down a few problems on the blackboard, the teacher turned to observe the class but huffed when she saw that student she saw outside in the hallway, not paying attention. What irked her even more was that she had nothing on her desk and she looked quite bored, for heaven’s sake, even Eddie Munson has his book out and was at least writing something down “Is there a problem, young lady?” [F/N] glanced up when she spoke, looking around in confusion once more before pointing at herself.

“Me?” [F/N] asked, this caused the teacher to sigh.

“Yes, you. You have nothing out while the rest of the class is taking down notes. Is this class boring to you?” the young student had the audacity to yawn, she sniffled to herself as she proceeded to get comfortable.

“Boring? Oh no, it’s just calculus is quite easy.” she spares Eddie a glance “And I’m not sure why you’re attending this class when it’s quite difficult for the way your brain thinks.” Eddie shrugs.

“Have to pass it if I want to graduate.” he winces when she slapped his knee.

“Then fucking pay attention instead of sketching your D&D characters, numb nuts.” the two of them then proceeded to slap each other. The teacher has enough and slams her book shut.

“Well then, young lady. If this class is SO easy for you, you wouldn’t mind answering the few questions on the board, now would you?” [F/N] briefly looks away from Eddie to see the question. True or False, the graph of f(x) and that of f(x + 2) are the same, she rolled her eyes.

“False. The graph of f(x + 2) is that of f(x) shifted 2 units to the left.” the teacher was a little taken aback at the quick response, she quickly looks through the answers and exhales sharply when she was indeed, correct.

“Alright, what about the second one?” another true or false, the equation x = | y | , with x >= 0, represents y as a function of x.

“False again. Solve for y to find that y = | x | or y = -| x |; for one value of the independent variable x we have two values of the dependent variable y.” [F/N] chuckled with a smirk, now ignoring Eddie in favor of the teacher, leaning back in her seat and resting her face a top of her knuckles, her legs crossed over each other with her free hand tapping against the desk “Is that all you’ve got, ma’am?”

“Alright, fine.” pulling out a book of parametric equations, the teacher was quick to jot down the first question she saw. Eddie spared his friend a glance and saw she was eyeing down the question as the teacher went, in the parametric equation, x = 8 cos At, y = 8 sin At, 0 ⩽ t ⩽ 2π,​ how does A affect the circle as A changes? The teacher turns to face [F/N] the moment she finished, she didn’t spare her a look as she continued to look at the question, continuously muttering under her breath as she drew little equations in the air “Do you have an answer?” she didn’t like the smirk she wore on her face.

“I do.” lacing her fingers together she pushed them out and heard them crack under the soft pressure, she then rolled her fingers then opened her hand out “Eliminating t, x² + y² = cos², At + sin² At = 1, which is still a circle with radius 11 and center at the origin.” the teacher quickly looks through the book for the answer, in disbelief that she was able to solve that question without even needing to write it down, she was taken aback when she was correct.

“And your working out?”

“If we have A = 1/2 A = 2/1​, (x,y) = (cos⁡1/2 t, sin⁡1/2t), i.e. as t ranges from 0 to 2π, 2π, the equation starts at (1,0) (1,0) and stops at (−1,0) (−1,0). This means that it goes halfway through the circle. So A governs the rate at which the equation traces out a circle. Similarly, if A = 2, A = 2, the equation moves twice around the circle.” she winks upon finishing, holding her hand out towards Eddie, who promptly slapped his hand down for a loud high five. She wasn’t valedictorian for nothing, always at the top of her classes without properly needing to pay attention to anything, she really only graduated out of spite “Like I said, ma’am, calculus is quite easy.” [F/N] smirks when the teacher turned red, rather it be from anger or embarrassment, both outcomes were hilarious as she stormed out of the room. 

“Dang, you really made her angry.” Eddie murmured, she just shrugged as she dug her hand into her pocket, pulling out a flask.

“It’s her own fault for picking on me.” she unscrews the cap and takes a long swig, letting out a shudder as the sting of alcohol went down her throat, whining softly when he took the flask from her and chugged some alcohol down as well.

“You still haven’t lost your touch, have you?” she shakes her head.

“Nope.” [F/N] takes her flask back from Eddie to take another swig but paused when she saw a teacher she did recognise and they definitely recognised her, Eddie notices her gaze when she abruptly stands to her feet “I’ve got to go.” she grabs her duffle back and makes a break for it, she throws her bag through an open window before proceeding to throw herself out, letting out an oof when she landed on the ground with a thud. Everyone in the classroom watched as she sprung up, snickering amongst each other when they saw a bunch of leaves and twigs in her hair.

“You good, Harrington?” [F/N] blinked at him, then gave him a thumbs up.

“Spectacular.” she ducks down when the teacher she knew made an appearance, she briefly peeked through the window to mouth out “drama room” to him, he understood and gave her a thumbs up. She grinned softly and ducked away once more, scurrying out of view, then ran full speed to where the drama room was. She runs past a classroom but came to a stop when she saw someone, she briefly walks backwards, then ducks out of sight when she managed to find Robin’s class. A big grin appeared on her face when she saw her, peeking out from the bottom edge of the window to look at Robin. She hummed softly, giggling when she saw the look of absolute boredom on her face. She spares at glance at her duffle bag and smirks softly. Robin was at the verge of yawning during her time in history. The teacher was going on about something that was going through one ear and straight out the other. She was fiddling with the small trinket [F/N] got for her when she felt something hit her on the side of the head, she turned in the direction it came from but the sight of a deep shade of red caught her attention. She raised a brow in confusion when she saw that it was a rose, but where on earth did it come from? Sure Robin had no clue where it came from but [F/N] couldn’t help but smile blissfully, she nod to herself and ducked down once more than scrambled away to the drama room.

And that brings us to…

“Eddie said he wanted to discuss an upcoming campaign, said it was important.” Jeff murmurs softly as he, Gareth and Nathan walked to the drama room with the lingering first years following closely behind them. Glancing back at them over his shoulder, he couldn’t help but think back to the time where he and the other three used to follow behind Eddie and [F/N] during their first year, the two of them were full of so much confidence it was almost envious, though Eddie was the bark and [F/N] was the bite, a very dangerous duo “Don’t understand why he couldn’t talk about it during lunch in the cafeteria.” Gareth sighed.

“And where is he now?” Nathan crossed his arms with a scoffed.

“He got held back in English, he flunked on an assessment Mrs. O’Donnell assigned and she wanted to talk to him.” this caused all three of them to shake their head “At this rate he isn’t graduating, again.” Gareth raised his hand.

“Emphasis on the again.” now they’re all laughing, he then looked back at the first years again and waved his hand to get their attention “You guys are smart, right? Think you can give Eddie some pointers so he can pass SOME of his tests.” Dustin hums, looking up in thought.

“That’s a little tough. We’re all smart in different subjects, Gareth.” Lucas raises a finger.

“And Eddie has a different way of thinking, we all do.” Mike nods his head.

“And to adapt a way to teach Eddie where he can understand what we’re trying to explain to him is a challenge in itself.” he purses his lips “No offences to Eddie.” they all shake their head.

“None taken.” Nathan sighs as they approach the drama room.

“There really was only one person that was able to think down to Eddie’s level, even more so, get Eddie to study.” they think back to the time where on multiple occasions [F/N] was able to explain whatever she was doing and/or studying and explain it in such a detailed way that Eddie was able to follow what she was saying. Her proudest moment was when she managed to tutor him in physics and he got his very first C-, it wasn’t much, but he was better than a lousy F “Where have the days gone.” Nathan adds, a comical tear shedding from his eye.

“Really?” Mike questions, astonished that someone made Eddie STUDY “Who was it?”

“Not anyone you would know, but she’s a graduate and Eddie’s best friend.” Gareth pushes the door to the drama room open as he finishes his sentence, looking up from where he was he was shocked to see who was sitting in Eddie’s prized throne. Upon hearing the door open, [F/N], who was sitting on Eddie’s throne with her legs propped on the table whilst she read a D&D guidebook, looked up to see who it was and was immediately met with shocked looks. The shock quickly morphs into excitement and happiness as the boys cheer upon seeing her, the three first years stare in confusion at what was unfolding. What on earth was Steve’s older sister doing here at school, and why were their three seniors cheering at the sight of her? [F/N] quickly shuts the book and tosses it onto the table, standing onto her feet and throwing her arms into the air.

“Boys!” she cheers happily, she laughs when they copy her.

“[F/N]!” she rushes over to them and doesn’t hesitate to launch herself into Nathan’s arms, wrapping her arms around his neck and laughed aloud when he started spinning her around. When he put her down she cuddled into him as he squeezed her tight, she then moved on to Jeff and gave him the same bone-crushing hug then left Gareth for last. Since he was shorter compared to Jeff and Nathan, she wrapped her arms around his head while his were around her waist, she laughed as she pulled him close “Gare-bear!” she cooed softly, the two boys behind her laughed at the nickname that she and Eddie used exclusively for Gareth.

“Gare-bear?” Dustin whispered to Lucas, who shrugged his shoulders and continued to watch the exchange. Gareth lets out a grunt when she let go of him and instead held him in a headlock, digging her knuckles into his head.

“Dude, [F/N]! Stop that!” Gareth manages to push her off after a couple seconds of torture, she chuckles softly to herself and holds her hand up in front of her “My head hurts, thanks!” she winks at him.

“No problem, Gare-bear.” she hums softly when Nathan places a hand on her shoulder.

“What are you doing here [F/N]? You’re not exactly a high school student anymore.” she gasped, giving them a wounded look as she placed a hand on her chest.

“Am I not allowed to come visit my bestest friends in the whole wide world?” she deadpans when they stare blankly at her, she clicks her tongue and looks away while placing a hand on her hip “Alright, fine. I broke into the school to do some shit, you happy?” Jeff shakes his head.

“Of all the things you could do, especially on valentine’s day, you broke into the school. And here I thought you’d take this opportunity to ask out any unfortunate soul just so you can have your fun with them.” she scoffs at him, now glaring at him and pointing a finger in his face.

“Well unlike you three, y’all are hoeless! From my years of being your friend, I don’t ever remember seeing a girl in your arms!” now it was their turn to look offended, crossing her arms and looking away as they tried giving her every excuse in the book, her brow perked up when she saw Dustin raise his hand to get her attention “Yeah? What’s up little dude?” she questions, raising her own hand to keep Gareth out of her face.

“[F/N]? What are you doing here? And how do you know those three?” she laughs, throwing her head back.

“You seriously don’t know? Wow.” she doesn’t get to answer before Jeff appears from over her shoulder.

“She’s our best friend from back when she attended Hawkins.”

“That’s right! She’s an honorary member of Hellfire and Corroded Coffin.” she nods her head, grin so wide her cheeks started to hurt as she flexed her arm.

“That’s right, I’m one of the original members of Hellfire before I left!” she then let out a sigh, leaning back into Jeff’s chest “Oh, how I miss the good old days.” the four of them then start to talk about anything that came to mind, leaving Dustin, Lucas and Mike to look at each other in disbelief. [F/N], Steve’s older sister, was friends with the members of Hellfire? Does that mean she’s friends with Eddie? If they remembered correctly, [F/N] was at least a year older than Steve, that would make her and Eddie the same age.

“I understand you guys, but what is Eddie still doing in school? How could he flunk school for two years?” Gareth sighs.

“Without you to keep him from getting off track, that moron was pushing his assessments and exams to the side. He focused more on campaigns and his music, you were really the only person that could get Eddie to listen.” she lets out a long groan at the information.

“That damn idiot, I’m not his babysitter. I swear, he’s a dead man.” they all perk up at the sound of the door, [F/N] is cheering again when she saw Eddie enter the room “Eddie!”

“[F/N]!” the two are quick to approach each other, continuously slapping their hands together before grasping their hands together in a tight grip, they both then lean backwards before slamming their foreheads together. They let out dazed snickers, holding their heads after the harsh blow to the head.

“You two are so dumb.” Nathan comments, this caused them to giggle to themselves “Is this what you wanted to talk about, Eddie?” he nod his head, both himself and [F/N] holding each other by the shoulder.

“Yeah, I saw her this morning breaking into a locker and thought I’d keep her a secret for you guys. Did you like the surprise?” the three smile, yeah, they totally liked it.

“But that still doesn’t explain why you’re here in the first place, [F/N].” now [F/N]’s face drops when she felt Eddie smirk at her, before she could do anything to silence him, Eddie covers her mouth with his hand and keeps her locked under his arm as he leaned in close to the three so the three juniors couldn’t hear the private information.

“[F/N]’s got a girlfriend, so she broke into the school to leave her gifts.” Gareth, Jeff and Nathan’s face lit up, both in surprise and joy that [F/N] genuinely found somebody to love. [F/N] was bright pink when she ripped herself out of Eddie’s grip as she stared at them, she was now covering her face when they quickly surrounded her and spoke in hushed tones about who it could be.

“You’ve got a girlfriend? Wow, congratulations, [F/N]!”

“Who is it? Someone we know?”

“When did you meet her?” yeah, the boys knew that she was a lesbian, of course they did. They were the first to know when she realised that she didn’t really feel that sort of attraction towards the male population, she cried in joy when they fully supported her, but it did annoy her when they came to her about advice when it came to picking up ladies because she was still ridiculously good at it. They laugh softly when they saw her look away, twirling a strand of her hair around her finger.

“I met her last year, at the starcourt mall when I came down to see Stevie.” this caused the four of them to look at each other.

“You were here last year? How come you didn’t come see us first?” she and the three children behind her froze up, but she managed to keep her composure as her mind wandered back to ‘84. They look at her in confusion when she just closed her eyes and smiled at them, not knowing the horrors she faced and how she practically died. She let out a shuddered breath but continued to smile at them, her hand subconsciously lifting up from her side to press against her chest, feeling the rough scar beneath the layers of her clothes.

“Oh, I was just really busy I didn’t have the time to pop in.” she knew they wouldn’t buy the lie but if she wasn’t telling them on purpose, they knew better than to pry, so they left it at that. She lets out a grunt when Jeff wraps his arm around her shoulder, pulling her close and giving her a grin.

“Well, we’re happy that we get to see you now. We’ve got to hang out again, just like old times.” they look at her in anticipation, she sighs at the puppy dog eyes staring at her.

“Alright, alright! I’ll make sure i’ve got time so we can hang out.” she laughs when they were all pulled into a group huddle, Eddie and Gareth shouting loudly.

“Woohoo!”

Team Hellfire were now in on the plan.

Gareth, Jeff and Nathan were just as surprised as Eddie to learn that she had fallen head over heels for Robin Buckley. They thought she would have gone for someone like Chrissy Cunningham, and though she was a catch herself, Robin was more of her type. She punched Gareth in the face when he started to tease [F/N] for liking someone like Robin, this caused the other three to hold their tongues if they wanted to keep them. Anyways- they acted like a barrier to hide her from others that could potentially recognise her, she was almost caught when she wasn’t paying attention and Robin appeared from around the corner, the four boys quickly got in front of her and she hid behind Nathan. Robin looked at them, a bead of sweat forming on her cheek when she saw they were acting weird; weirder than usual. She just shook her head and quickly walked by them, tucking her hands into her pockets, she flinched when she felt something. A big smile worked its way onto her face when she saw it was another gift and note, opening the small box, she gasped softly when she saw that it was chain ring. 

’hi robbie,

What do you think of this gift? I saw that you already had one, but what’s more to add to your collection? Besides, you’ll look good in just about anything I give, even more so, I think you’ll look good with not—

Robin quickly closed the note and pressed it to her chest, her face turning different shades of red. She looks around to see if anyone could have potentially have read the provocative note and let out a sigh of relief when no one was particularly close to see the contents, she takes another peek but decides to read it when she’s out of sight. Gareth raised a brow at the reaction Robin gave upon reading the note and looked back at his older friend, sighing softly when he saw that she was hanging off of Nathan’s back, a dopey little grin on her face as she stared dreamily at Robin’s retreating figure. Yup, they can definitely conclude that she had fallen deeply in love with Robin, she didn’t look at anyone like that for just about anybody, this girl was special.

Robin now found herself in band practice, her last hour before school was over and she got to spend her valentine’s day afternoon with [F/N]. Time and time again she got gift after gift, sometimes it was small things like a shiny rock, maybe even a pretty feather, then it ranged to things like rings and necklaces. So far her favourite was a spiked leather jacket, how she managed to sneak that onto her desk without her noticing, she’ll never know. Standing beside her was Vicki, the last person she had a crush on, after Tammy Thompson, and the ginger haired girl was rambling about her boyfriend and how he has plans for a date. She was listening but her words went through one ear and out the other, cause she just couldn’t contain her excitement about finally being in the arms of her gorgeous girlfriend.

“Hey, Robin.” she hummed, not really giving her attention to Vicki “Do you have a valentines?”

“Huh?” she giggled softly.

“I saw the roses and gifts you’ve gotten this entire day. You’ve either got a secret admirer, or you’ve got a boyfriend.” Robin couldn’t help but gag at the thought of being with a boy, people already thought that she was dating Steve while [F/N] was dating Billy. It was for the better that people thought that way, but she really wanted to flaunt about and declaring that [F/N] Harrington was her girlfriend.

“Boyfriend? Yuck. I’ll take the secret admirer, hoping they don’t reveal themselves so they can continue to give me chocolates.” Vicki laughs when she saw Robin pull out one of the many box of chocolates she got, taking out one and throwing it into her mouth “Better than being in such a troublesome relationship.”

“Well, you wouldn’t know how being in a relationship feels until you’ve got one. It feels so nice, when you’ve found the right one, that is.” Robin had to agree with Vicki on that one, it felt very nice to be in a relationship with [F/N]. Even though [F/N] made it clear that Steve was still her number one priority, she still made sure that Robin didn’t feel left out or that she didn’t feel loved. She always made sure that she was going to be with Robin through thick and thin, that they were going to be together until death has them. Robin was called away so she and the other brass players can discuss what parts they’re playing for Hawkins high basketball team, not knowing someone sneaking in through a window that was miraculously left open. By the time Robin returned back to her abandoned instrument she was surprised to see an assortment of flowers inside her trumpet, she looked at Vicki and saw her shrug.

“You didn’t see who put those there?” she shook her head, but there was a knowing look in her eyes.

“Not at all.” Vicki laughed when Robin playfully shoved her, Robin took the flowers out of her trumpet and inhaled the aroma the roses were giving, smiling softly down them “This secret admirer of yours seems to like you a lot.” Robin’s face turned a soft shade of pink, nodding her head blissfully. The tuba player blows softly into their mouthpiece as their eyes drift to the side, raising a brow at the sight of [F/N] hiding behind the large instrument as she watched Robin.

“Thanks again.” she murmured softly, they rolled their eyes as they raised their hand, a smirk grew on their face when she slapped down a fifty dollar bill “We never speak a word of this.”

“Never speak a word of what?” she clicks her tongue and snaps her finger at them, nodding her head.

“Exactly.” how Robin didn’t witness her shuffle out of the room, they’ll never know.

[time skip: end of the school day]

“Whoa! Is that a mustang?!”

“Who’s got money for a car like that?”

“Didn’t Hargrove own a camaro?”

“Yeah, that was until it got totalled.”

Eddie scoffed as he and his lot exited the school and saw the students huddled around [F/N]’s prized mustang, even when she was no longer a student she was still the centre of attention. He furrowed his brows when he saw that there was a bit of a dent on her front bumper and her lights were replaced, what the hell did she do to that caused her to damage her precious car? The other three behind him seemed to have noticed the difference but their thoughts came to a pause when the already loud chatter got louder, they looked up and scoffed when they saw that it was just [F/N] exiting her car. There was no denying it, the Harrington charm was very effective, because both the girls and boys couldn’t help but gush at the sight of [F/N] Harrington. Even though she fell from her grace long ago, they were no denying that she wasn’t the girl people would kill to be.

[F/N] scoffed at the people that started to surrounding, opting to put her sunglasses on and sit on the hood of her car as she waited for Robin. She had this excuse in her head that she was going to pick Robin up and bring her to Steve, confirming the rumour that she in fact was going out with her brother and that she won the approval of his overprotective older sister. Yes, that sounded like a full proof place indeed, now all she had to do was wait for her sweet little birdie and hopefully not lose her temper with the approaching high school boys horny on valentine’s day and wishing to get in her pants. She had a blank expression on her face when some jock slid in beside her, she didn’t pay him any mind and continued to wait patiently…. as patiently as her mind would allow it.

“So, what’s a pretty thing—”

“No.” he sputtered back at her abrupt answer.

“Well, I was thinking that—”

“No.” he felt irritated that she kept interrupting him, Eddie and his lot paled when they saw that jock continue to push [F/N]’s limits but their jaws dropped when he suddenly grabbed her wrist and pull her so that she would look at him.

“Listen, I’m trying to be nice here.” a few people whisper amongst themselves at the ordeal, watching closely as he leaned in closely to her face “How’s about you ditch your lousy date for me? I promise I can treat you… nicely?” he let out a surprised yelp when she grabbed him by his jaw with her free hand and slammed him down onto the hood, this time she leaned down towards his face but pulled down her sunglasses so he could get a good look at the disgust and anger in her eyes.

“What the fuck does no sound like to you? I am not here for a child like you who doesn’t understand basic english, maybe that’s why you’re still in school.” he let out a grunt, grabbing her by the wrist when he felt her tighten her grip on his jaw that was more than likely going to cause a bruise to form, a bead of sweat formed on his cheek when her glare hardened on him “Learn to treat a woman like a human before deciding to treat her like she’s a trophy to be won.” he shouts out in surprise when she lifted him up before proceeding to throw him onto the ground, the people watching all let out a roar of laughter at his shameless display “Don’t waste my time and get out of my sight.” she scoffed when he scurried off, probably off to the other jocks that put him up his poor attempt of getting laid. She shook her head and returned to her spot, flicking down her sunglasses until they perched themselves back onto the bridge of her nose and now waited in peace… despite the unneeded audience.

“What’s going on?” Eddie let out a startled yelp when he was shoved aside, looking to see who it was, he scoffed when he saw that it was merely Hargrove. Ever since 84′, that blonde has been causing nothing but trouble ever since he got here. Not only did he kick Harrington Jr. off his high horse and dethroned him, he apparently beat the guy black and blue at the Byers household. Why [F/N] hasn’t murdered that blue eyed bell yet, he’ll never kn— “[F/N]?” Eddie sputtered, Billy knows [F/N]? If he did, does that mean he survived an encountered with [F/N]?! She seemed to have sensed his presence because her head perked up and her face subconsciously brightened up at the sight of the blonde, going so far as to raising her hand to greet him.

“Billy!” she exclaimed, but then she realised her mistake. The rumour that she and Billy were a couple was still floating around and the fact that she was waiting at Hawkins High for someone, and now that she greeted him, can only confirm the rumour that these fuckers made up. Billy to realised what she had done because now everyone was looking between the two, a few of the female students were looking at [F/N] enviously that she managed to bag Billy Hargrove while the boys whispered their admirations and congratulations to Billy for hitching a date with the most gorgeous person within Hawkins.

“[F/N]…” he said again, muttering it this time. The two of them look at each other and they seemed to have been having a silent conversation between the two of them.

”Forgive me. I did it out of pure habit.”

“Yeah, and now people think you’re here for me.” she shrugged her shoulders, now looking away from him. Billy let out a grunt when he was grabbed by the shoulder and turned around, he raised a brow when he saw that it was Eddie Munson. If he remembered correctly, [F/N] mentioned in a passing conversation that Eddie was her greatest friend and she valued him very much, so he found it interesting that he was now face to face with the brunette.

“Hargrove, you know [F/N]?” Jeff looked him up and down.

“I for sure would have thought she would have beaten him up after what happened with her brother.” Billy flinched softly at the mention of that, thinking back to both events. 

“No, no, she did. We’re just on good terms now, she considers me one of her good friends now.” he raised a brow when a smug aura radiated out of the four of them, a bead of sweat forming on his cheek as they smirked at him.

“Oh, yeah? Well, we’re her best friends!” Billy rolled his eyes.

“Right.” [F/N] slaps a hand onto her forehead as she watched them interact, she drags it down her face and glanced anywhere that wasn’t Hellfire doing their usual tomfoolery and involving poor Billy.

“Hey, weren’t [F/N] and Munson a thing back when she attended?” her face paled at those words, looking over towards the person who said and she recognised it as a junior that attended while she was still around. That’s right, people thought that [F/N] turned baddie because she got together with Eddie, what made it worse was that both of them were always hanging off the other and Eddie was a naturally affectionate person and since she was deprived of any and all physical affection, she couldn’t help but lean into it every once in awhile.

‘No, please god no.’ she thought in her head.

“You don’t think…”

’Please, you stupid high school students!’

”Oh, my, god! Munson is picking a fight with Hargrove!”

“He must still have feelings for [F/N] after the two of them broke up when she went out of states! Ooo, what a juicy thing to see on valentine’s day.” she deadpans when everyone who heard started whispering their own conspiracies, Billy and Eddie were amused at the accusations.

“Really? You with [F/N]? Now that sounds like a fantasy.” Eddie scoffs, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms.

“Says you. You oughta be dead for what you did to her brother.” Billy nods to himself, the two of them then stare at each other “… you wanna mess with her?” Billy couldn’t help but grin mischievously.

“With pleasure.” [F/N] was ready to call it quits and just go and find Robin herself but paused when Eddie and Billy came over and approached her, she stared at them in confusion when they took either side of her but neither broke eye contact with each other. 

“I don’t know what you think you’re doing, Munson, but [F/N] is my girlfriend.” she deadpans once more, what? Eddie laughed, taking [F/N] by her wrist and pulling her towards him.

“That’s where you’re wrong, Hargrove, I’ve known her much longer than you have, and we hadn’t officially broken up, so she’s technically still my girlfriend.” Billy shook his head as he grabbed her other wrist and pulled her towards him.

“Well, I wonder why she came to me when she came back to Hawkins instead of you, huh?” Eddie know couldn’t help but get a little irritated at that, because he too wondered why his friend didn’t come to see him when she was in town.

“You know, I tend to wonder as well.” the two of them then began to bicker about who was better, feeding into the lies that [F/N] was in fact dating one or the either and people were placing their bets on who it was. Did the former queen share her throne with her jester or perhaps with the new king who dethroned her brother? Billy and Eddie were abruptly interrupted when she ripped herself free from their hold then grabbed them both by their faces and pulled them down towards her face.

“What the fuck is wrong with you two? Is it fun that you’re taking great pleasure in my misfortune?” the two glance at each other then grin cheekily at her, she sighs at the silent response and squeezed harder on their faces. Her face then immediately brightens up when she saw the person she was waiting for, both boys let out a grunt when she threw them backwards and opened her arms “Robin~ there’s my favourite person.” she coos, Robin giggles to herself and reaches her hands out towards her girlfriend, to which she lowered her arms and took Robin’s hands into her own.

“You seriously waited for me?” she nods.

“Yeah, Steve asked me to come get you.” Robin’s shoulders slumped slightly, realisation dawning on her that she and [F/N] couldn’t even be open about their relationship, that [F/N] was hers “Lets get going, i don’t want to be here any longer than I need to.” she let out a grunt when she felt Eddie wrap an arm around her shoulder.

“Hows about you give me a lift as well? I missed being in your mustang?” she scoffed at him, smacking his arm off her shoulder.

“What happened to your van?” he waves his hand.

“It’s in the shop? Had to get a few things replaced.” she raised a brow.

“And you can afford that?” he places a hand on his chest.

“You wound me.” she was simply going to abandon him and only take Billy and Robin, which was the plan from the start, but a shout caught her attention. Turning to the source, her eyes widened at the sight of the same teacher that dragged her into her math lesson and she looked downright pissed. Eddie seemed to have noticed her distraction and turned to see what it was but was caught off guard when she started pushing him towards her car, she throws the door open and kicks him into the backseat. Robin and Billy seemed to have gotten the hint when they heard that math teacher screaming out for someone to stop the trespasser, that being [F/N], but no one did anything and just watched [F/N] jump into the drivers seat and quickly drive out of the parking lot.

“Well that was unnecessarily stressful.” she grumbled under her breath “Welp, it’s official, i ain’t ever going back as long as that teacher is still there. I think she’s gonna try and have me arrested.” Billy started to laugh, leaning forward from where he was seated in the backseat.

“I can’t believe you actually broke into the school.” she shrugged her shoulders.

“What can I say? I was aching to see my sweet birdie.” she cooed softly, reaching towards Robin’s face to twirl a strand of her hair around her finger before tucking it behind her hair. Robin immediately looked away to twirl a strand of her hair around her own finger, she then stopped when she realised what [F/N] had done and looked at Eddie in distress. He noticed Robin’s change in expression and raised his hands, giving her a look of reassurance.

“Don’t worry about it, Buckley. I already know [F/N] swings that way, I’m just more surprised she ended up with someone to begin with.” Robin looks at [F/N] and she nods her head.

“Yeah, he was one of the first people I came out to. I trust him with my life.” she then abruptly stops the car and turns back towards them, a look of irritation shining in her eyes “But fuck the both of you for what you did! Now people are going to spread rumours how I’m getting fucked by the both of y’all, and that thought alone is disgusting.” she sneers at them in disgust when they give her suggestive smirks “If you say anything I don’t like I’m gonna have you guys walk.” none of them could really risk going through with the risk so they just kept their mouths shut, she was kind enough to drop Eddie off first because Billy now lived in the trailer park after his father turned tail and bailed after the events that occurred during the 85′ and has been back since. Max’s mum, Susan, was kind enough to keep a roof over his head until he graduated but most of the time Billy was with Steve at their home. [F/N] greeted Wayne and he was more than welcoming when he saw her, opening his arms up and bringing her into a bone crushing hug, Robin laughed upon seeing her winded self nearly collapse to the ground when he let her go. She gifted the Munson’s a rose each and some chocolates, sparing them a kiss before leaving when Billy left the trailer and back into her car. [F/N] was instructed to pick Billy up and bring him around the house after the school while Steve himself hurried to pick the children up and drop them off home then race back to the house before her. He also told her to have Billy’s eyes closed before she made it home so when they was turning the corner to the Harrington residence she told Billy to do exactly that.

“Are we almost there?” she giggles softly. 

“Yeah, we’re nearly there.” she has to silence Robin when she nearly gasped at what was in the driveway, [F/N] instructs Billy to keep his eyes closed when she parks her car and gets out of the drivers seat.

“Oh goodie, you’re here!” Billy’s head perks up at the sound of Steve’s voice, Robin then scoffs softly from where she was.

“You didn’t just say “oh goodie” at the sight of your boyfriend.” Steve playfully glared at Robin.

“Oh, hahaha, very funny.”

“Steve, whatever this is, it better not be stupid.”

“I promise you, blue, that you’re gonna love this surprise. Both [F/N], Robin and I put this together. Just for you.” [F/N] smiled softly at her brother, she waited for him to give her the go to and when she did she gently tapped Billy on his arm.

“You can open your eyes now.” and so he does and his eyes immediately start tearing up at the sight of his new and repaired camaro sitting in the driveway, both girls gently caress his arms before stepping back to let Steve comfort his boyfriend. Yeah, it was Steve’s idea to tow Billy’s car out from the dump and get it repaired. [F/N] found him working on it in their garage and immediately asked if she could help in any way she could, this later led to Robin wanting in to help as well. They had only recently gotten everything repaired or replaced just before valentine’s day and Steve believed it would be the perfect gift for his sweet Billy “And I’ll leave you two here.” she blows Billy a kiss and bids them both goodbye then the two of them were off to enjoy the rest of their afternoon together.

“i can’t believe you actually broke into the school, [F/N]. I thought you put Billy up to it.” she shrugged her shoulders, letting out a laugh.

“It wouldn’t have meant as much as it did if he did it, sweetheart. He only helped me to find which locker was yours, other than that, it was Eddie who helped me get close enough to you to leave little gifts.” 

“Well, I really appreciated all those thoughtful little gifts.” Robin glances at her face and it brightens when she saw a big smile stretch across her lips followed by a soft flush of pink, seeing [F/N] react like this always made Robin feel giddy. She soon bites her lip, her hand slipping into her pocket and feeling for the small little gift box that had been sitting in there the whole day. Of course she had a gift for [F/N], she would have felt awful if she didn’t get anything for her, but it was nothing in comparison to everything [F/N] has given her so far and she wasn’t even finished with her surprise “[F/N].” she gently called, she got a hum in response followed by her turning the music down.

“Yes?”

“I love you.” the flush on [F/N]’s face turned brighter, this caused Robin to giggle once more.

“And I… love you too.” she brought Robin home first so she could freshen up and wear something more comfortable, she had yet another lecture from Robin’s father while her mother told him to lay off, telling [F/N] that she’ll be more than welcome to come by the Buckley residence whenever she was around. Robin now found herself in Billy’s situation, however, she had a blindfold over her eyes as she [F/N] drove her to an unknown location.

“Are you sure you’re not taking me out of town to kill me?” [F/N] laughs.

“Oh, please. If I wanted to kill you I would have done it without the need to leave town.” Robin shudders at the thought “Don’t even think about bringing up last years events.” Robin clears her throat.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” [F/N] takes a deep breath to calm herself down “Are we nearly there yet? I want to look at you.” she chuckles at the impatience coming from her, tapping against the stirring wheel when they were stopped at the red light.

“Don’t worry Robin, you’ll get plenty of me and more when we get there, so be patient.” that comment was more than enough to get Robin to quiet down for the rest of the car ride, when they finally arrived at their destination Robin was led out of the car and taken on a bit of a walk. She held onto [F/N]’s arm as she trusted her not to let go, she let out a soft gasp when [F/N] did let her go but she held onto her hands and kissed the back of her knuckles “Just stand here for a bit and I’ll tell you when to take the blindfold off, mmkay?”

“O-Okay, just don’t take too long.” this earned Robin a soft kiss to the cheek, [F/N] quickly jogs away and sets up when she needs to get done, only a couple minutes pass when she hears [F/N] shout for her.

“You can take the blindfold off!” she was still a bit of a distance away from where she left her, Robin sighs softly and takes the blindfold off and the moment she did the sound of music hit her ears. She gasped softly at the sight of where [F/N] brought her, she had brought her to a beautiful lush rose garden and at the very centre of it all was a beautifully let gazebo and of course her beautiful girlfriend “Happy valentine’s day, Robin.” the wind picked up and blew some of the rose petals into the air, making the scene in front of her more romantic as she began to approach [F/N].

“When did you…?” she began to question, [F/N] chuckled softly as she took a step forward.

“One of the few fortunate things of being a Harrington’s child, you know a few good places for dates.” she sighed softly as she looked up at the gazebo “My mother told me how my father brought her here for valentine’s day, and though I’m not particularly fond of following in his footsteps, this place was too good to pass up on. So, hows about a nicely lit dinner between lovers on this sweet valentine’s day settle for a date?” [F/N] then reaches forward, extending her hand out to Robin for her to take.

“Heh, how romantic.” Robin finally settles her hand down in [F/N]’s hand, letting out a laugh when [F/N] pulled her into her arms and spun the two of them around, the both of them laughing to their hearts content “Did you book this place out?” she asked, [F/N] hummed as the two of them now swayed to the music.

“Mm hmm, I booked it weeks in advance and paid a lot of money so someone else couldn’t buy the spot out of me. You deserve the perfect view as we dine and dance on this very romantic day.” she muses, pressing her cheek into Robin’s “Do you like it?” she briefly pulls away to get a look at Robin’s face but hers dropped a little when Robin looked a little conflicted, she soon holds her hands and rubs her thumbs over her knuckles “What’s wrong? Is it too much?” Robin lets out a sigh, pulling back a little as she looked anywhere that wasn’t [F/N]’s pretty doe eyes.

“No, it’s just… I feel guilty that I won’t be able to treat you to something as grand as this. My gift can’t even match up to everything you put together.” [F/N] gasps softly.

“You got me a gift?” Robin meekly nodded her head “Can I see it? If it makes you feel better, you’ll be the first person— girlfriend, really, that’s gotten me a gift?” Robin whipped her head to look back towards [F/N], who chuckled nervously as she rubbed the back of her neck bashfully.

“Really?” she nods.

“Yeah, I played the male role in the relationship and was the one that usually gave my dates gifts. Most of the times I could tell that each relationship I had was one sided, that my love and attention would never get reciprocated.” Robin pouts softly, reaching forward to cup [F/N]’s face.

“Well, they’re stupid to not think of spoiling you either.” this caused a laugh out of her, Robin pulls away to dig into her pocket. She nervously held the small box in her hand, rubbing her thumb into the wrapping before handing it to her. She waits nervously as [F/N] pulls at the ribbon to unravel it then she removes the lid to look at what was inside, Robin watches her grab it and pull it out, revealing the small little locket that she bought from an antique store. She opens it and her heart melts at the sight of the picture inside, it was taken by Steve when she was in the hospital after she and Billy miraculously survived the onslaught they suffered through, it was of her and Robin cuddled together look happier than ever as they shared a kissed. On the other part of that locket had words engraved on it, ”you’ll forever have my heart, as I’ll have yours. through thick and thin, I will always love you; never forget that”. [F/N] couldn’t help but grit her teeth as her hand enclosed on the locket, her eyes began to water as the tears threatened to fall down her cheeks. Robin quickly cups her cheeks when the tears finally did manage to fall, she understood why [F/N] was reacting this way.

When she and Billy did recover after the Starcourt burnt down, [F/N] wanted nothing to do with Robin and Steve. She wanted to leave the state and stay out, not because she didn’t love them anymore, no, it was because she thought it was safer for the both of them if she wasn’t around anymore. It broke her heart that she was alive after everything she had done, she would have felt better if she died after that because at least she wouldn’t have to feel the guilt of practically cheating on her girlfriend while emotionally abusing her then physically beating the shit out of her and her precious little brother. Robin made it clear that there wasn’t anything that [F/N] said that was going to drive her away, [F/N] needed her more than ever and she was going to stay by her side and give her the help that she needs to recover; both physically and mentally. It took a lot of time before [F/N] was able to look at her again or even touch her without recoiling away, Robin was in tears when [F/N] managed to actually hug her without immediately pulling away, her heart swelled up when they were able to cuddle in bed like they did before. Robin thought of that little gift when she saw that locket in that antique shop she passed while in Indy with Steve, she was grateful for her brother when he still had that photo saved on film and quickly got it developed, shaped and placed perfectly in the locket. She thought that [F/N] would appreciate a gift that marked a pretty intense part of there life along with words that helped ease her mind that Robin was going nowhere.

“W-What did I do to deserve someone like you?” she sobbed into her shoulder, her arms wrapped around her torso as she pulled her close and held her tight so she wouldn’t disappear “Why did you stick around when I’ve become this damaged?” she inhaled deeply, rubbing her hands up and down her back.

“Because I loved you, and I knew what I was getting myself into the moment I agreed to be yours.” she gasped softly at that as another sob left her lips, Robin gently pulls back but doesn’t resist when [F/N] moved her arms from her torso to around her waist. She lifts her face up to gently wipe away the tears before pulling her into a much needed kiss, [F/N] couldn’t help but cry softly into the kiss “You deserve to be loved, and you deserve to be taken care of. You deserve love.” this earned a soft hum, the older woman leaning into the palm that cupped her cheeks as her body relaxed.

“I deserve… to be loved.” Robin nods.

“You do, and I am more than willing to give you my love.” she then takes the locket from out of [F/N]’s hands, quickly clipping it on around her neck then gently patting her on the chest “Happy valentine’s day, [F/N].” she smiled tearfully, sniffling softly as she held the locket in her hand.

“Happy valentine’s day, Robin.” she then kneels down to wrap her arms around Robin’s waist to lift her up and spin the both of them around, laughing to her hearts contents when Robin let out a squeal of joy, her hands planted on her shoulders to keep herself balanced. When [F/N] finally brought her down she continued to hold her in her arms but this time Robin wrapped her arms around her neck, the two of them stared into each other’s eyes then finally shared a kiss that they poured so much love into.

They were in love, and that was their moment.

…

…

“Are you alright?” a voice asked, the person they asked slowly opened their eyes and they had a pained expression on their face as a single tear ran down their cheek. They stared up at the sky above them and their face turned bitter as they raised their hand, swiping the tear away in one swoop.

“Yeah, I just had a nice dream.”

Siblings pt. 2

word count: 28,395

Fandom: Stranger Things Pairing: Robin Buckley + Steve Harrington x Female!Harrington!Reader Pronouns: She/Her Relationship: Romantic/Familial Occupation: University Student Ability: N/A

Keys:

[F/N]: Female Name [L/N]: Last Name [N/N]: Nickname [H/C]: Hair Color [E/C]: Eye Color

Warnings: flayed reader, angst, violence, blood, vulgar language, murder, character death

“Siblings” pt.1, pt.3

@eddiemunsonsmiddlefingers​ has a map of hawkins and I’m constantly using that to reference where shit is. it’s awfully helpful.

I wasn’t planning on making a part two to this story but I suddenly got an idea from a line I kept repeating in my head and thought “why the hell not” to the point I might make this a story.

so I was going to write the scene where el saw billy’s happiest memory but chose against it, since we all know what it is, I’m not going to bother and just write [f/n]’s.

might eventually make this a story on my wattpad account because I dove too deep into this.

I rushed the ending, it sucks but I needed to finish this to settle my mind.

that is all.

“You know? I’d probably find that downright hilarious if not for the fact that you’re dating my brother, Billy.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, really. Plus, that bitch is weird. There’s actually a word in the dictionary for what she’s doing.”

“And what might that be?”

“Grooming.”

[F/N] and Billy were having one of their late night hangouts at the Hideout, sitting at the bar drinking alcohol, not really shit faced yet but they were slowly getting there. Billy was in the midst of telling [F/N] the reoccurring times Karen Wheeler, mother of Nancy and Mike Wheeler, has been opening flirting with Billy. She remembered the first time Billy had told her about this, of course she was weirded out about it but she laughed that this grown ass married woman was flirting with a guy that was about two decades younger than her, basically the same age as her eldest daughter! She would’ve laughed again when he flirted back with her, just to get her off his ass, but now he and her brother were in a relationship. The four of them would never make their relationship public, never. They’ve simply stuck to being friends on the outside, but when they’re alone, they do all things a couple would do. Sometimes when they’re on a double date, people would always mistake Billy and [F/N] as a couple as well as Steve and Robin, mostly because each duo were always seen together. They took advantage of that, so whenever either Billy or Robin came over to the Harrington household, there was never bad air lingering around. So sometimes it would fuck [F/N] off when middle aged women would flirt with a minor, knowing that he was in a committed relationship with her! The people of Hawkins were so fucked in the head.

“Doesn’t she make you uncomfortable, Billy?” she asked out of concern, reaching forward to place a hand on his knee and squeezing it lightly “I won’t bring this up with Steve, but you know in this town, word travels fast. Besides, I don’t want him getting worried and getting the wrong idea.” Billy softly nods his head.

“I know. That pretty boy would probably lose his shit on me first, then go after that Wheeler.” they both look up in thought, trying to imagine the thought of Steve going apeshit on Nancy’s mother, they were almost tempted to tell him just to see it happen to the point that burst out into laughter “He is your brother, so if he’s anything like you, he’ll probably beat the shit out of her!” she throws her head back with a laugh.

“Hah! As much as I agree with that, he respects women now. He’d probably ask me to drag her out by her hair, to which I will gladly do it!” they laugh again before grabbing their drinks and raising it up “To Steve potentially losing his shit on Wheeler’s mum!” they clink drinks before proceeding to down it, when they finish their drinks Billy raised his empty bottle to the bartender.

“Two more, please!” since the two of them drove to the Hideout, and the fact they had things to do early in the morning, they couldn’t get totally hammered so after a few drinks they later stuck to drinking water to sober themselves up then continued chatting or peacefully listening to the music that the Hideout had or the few indie bands that performed that night. After a couple hours of having fun they finally decided to drag themselves out and back to their cars, however, they were both leaning on each other to help each other walk whilst laughing and giggling to themselves. Billy’s laughter echoed throughout the car park as he watched [F/N] collapse to the ground and nearly face plant into the side of her front bumper but managed to catch herself before she gave herself a bleeding nose and possibly a concussion “Will you be alright, Harrington?” she waves her hand to brush him off.

“Please, you’re just as shit faced as I am.” they start laughing again before settling in their cars, [F/N] rolls down her window to let the wind blow through her car after starting her car before briefly pausing when Billy flashed his lights at her, she raised a brow at him then narrowed her eyes when she saw him smirk at her “The fuck are you looking at me like that Hargrove?” his smirk only widens when he revved the engine of his Camaro.

“How’s about a little race? I wanna give my pretty boy a little smooch before going home.” she scoffed, rolling her eyes.

“Gross, I don’t need to know that.” she hummed in thought before raising her finger “I’ll race yah after seeing Robin, alright? We’re passing her house, and I wanna see her if you’re gonna see my brother.” Billy shrugs his shoulder with a laugh, brushing his hair out of his face. 

“Alright, might wanna tell your girlie that you’re gonna lose after I smoke your ass back to your place.” she scoffed.

“Whatever.” they both laugh and finally pull out of the parking lot. Robin was currently laying on her back, head bobbing softly as she listened to the music coming from her headphones playing through her cassette player. [F/N] graciously made her a mixtape of songs that they both liked, she smiled as she remembered that memory fondly. Because of the wealth the Harrington name held, [F/N] would always buy her expensive gifts after hearing the type of lifestyle she had grown up in. As lovely as each gift was, Robin asked her for something sentimental instead of jewellery like necklaces and earrings and rings (though she does appreciate them and wears them on special occasions), Steve told her that [F/N] had been hauled up in her room ever since then and when she came to pick her up, [F/N] presented her the mixtape. She’s probably listened to the entire playlist on repeats so many times that she can remembered ever song in order, but she just can’t help it, she was so in love. 

*TAP*

*TAP*

“Hmm?” she hums out in confusion, just briefly hearing the sound of tapping when the song faded out. She pulled the headphones off her head and looked around in confusion, she got a little angry when she thought that it was her siblings fucking with her but stopped when the tapping was coming from her window. She pushed herself upright and a big smile appeared on her face when she saw [F/N], who was currently looking down and talking to someone before raising her head to look at Robin once more, wobbling back and forward “[F/N]?” she muttered softly in question before stumbling to her feet and rushing to the window, throwing it open to greet her girlfriend, only to wince at the stench of alcohol and cigarettes coming from her breath.

“Robin~” she cooed out with a shout, only to shush herself when Robin raised a finger to her lips while shaking her head so she in turn covered her mouth with her hands “Sorry, sorry, I just missed you.” Robin rolled her eyes.

“We saw each other a couple hours ago.” she giggled to herself when she saw a flash of confusion come across her face before she nodded her head.

“Oh, you’re right… but I wanted to see you again.” Robin shook her head once more with a soft smile, she then realised that there was quite a distance from the ground and her window so she leaned forward whilst looking down and had to slap a hand over her mouth to quiet herself when she saw that [F/N] perched herself on Billy’s shoulders, to which he was just as equally drunk and could barely stand straight “Oh yeah, and Billy is here as well.” he looks up and gives a grin, saluting Robin, to which she returns to gesture.

“Howdy.”  “Hi?” she chuckles and looks back at [F/N], to which she was grinning ear to ear as she leaned forward, closing the small gap between them and pressing a small peck on her lips “What’s with the kiss, [F/N]? Not that I don’t like it.” the slightly drunk girl smiled at her, winking softly.

“Thought I’d drop by and give you a goodnight kiss, why? Don’t want any?” Robin scoffed before reaching forward, grabbing [F/N] by her cheeks and pulling her into a kiss. Robin couldn’t help but let out a groan when she could taste the alcohol and cigarettes against her tongue, she briefly pulled away but was only brought into another kiss when [F/N] grabbed her by the back of her neck to keep her still. By the time they separate [F/N] was grinning ear to ear, Robin flustered up a little when she saw the left over lipstick from her lips smudge across [F/N]’s neck “I’ll see you in the morning, sweets?” Robin giggled, wrapping a strand of her hair around her finger and twirling it around.

“Mm hmm.” Robin and [F/N] were giggling at each other before [F/N] started falling backwards, she let out a startled yelp and looked down at Billy and saw he lost his footing and couldn’t hold her up anymore and was starting to fall backwards, to which she tried to grab Robin’s windowsill to save herself but it slipped right under her grasp and the two of them fell to the ground with a loud thud. Robin gasped and stuck her head out of the window to see if they were alright, shaking her head slightly with a tired smile on her face when she saw the two of them slightly dazed and groaning.

“Nice one, Billy…” she murmured under her breath, grunting softly when he slapped her leg.

“You’re fat.”

“You’re weak.” he scoffs at her before proceeding throw her legs off of him, they then pull themselves to their feet and start retreating back to their cars, [F/N] sparing Robin one last glance followed by a kiss then finally scurried into her car. Robin sighed dreamily when [F/N] waved her goodbye as she and Billy drove off, she closed her eyes then pushed herself back into her room where she collapsed into her bed, smiling like a dork when all she could think of was how lucky she was to finally have someone that loves her. Speaking of which, [F/N] and Billy were gunning it down the streets, they were going to have to deal with the police and Hopper later but they didn’t give a shit as they sped down the empty streets of Hawkins, laughing wildly. They took a slight detour just so their moment of fun could last a little longer, that’s where they found themselves side by side, the both of them trying their best to get ahead of the other.

“We should’ve made a bet, Harrington!” he shouts at her, she scoffs and looks back at him.

“Oh, yeah? Then how about the first one back to my house has to buy us both gas for our cars for three weeks!” he smirks at that.

“Then I hope your wallet can handle the expenses of gas because you’re on!” he lets out a laugh as he shifts gears while putting more pressure on the gas, she grimaced when she saw him get a head of her and was creating some distance. She knew his Camaro was significantly faster in comparison to her Mustang, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have a few tricks up her sleeves to keep up with him. Billy looked into his rear view mirror and saw [F/N] hot on his tail, he licked his lips with a laugh as he turned his attention back to the road ahead of him, he had this in the ba— he lets out a shout when something flew into the windscreen. [F/N] let out a confused noise when she saw Billy swerving around but when she saw that she was still speeding towards him, evidently going to crash into him, she lets out a shout and slammed on the breaks and quickly swerved out of the way before she could hit Billy. She managed to get control of her car as it comes to a halt, she was breathing heavily at what happened before remembering about Billy.

“Oh my god, Billy!” she shouts, jumping out of her car and running over to see if he was alright “Billy! Shit!” she runs over to his car and winced at the state of it, she moves over to the drivers side and opened the door.

“Piece of shit…” she heard him groan out.

“Are you okay, Billy?” he sucked in a breath, pushing himself back into his seat then raised a hand to press against his forehead, wincing when his hand touched his bleeding forehead “Shit, you’re bleeding.” he scoffs at her.

“No shit.” she frowns at him, reaching forward to cup his face and make him look at her. 

“God, I hope you don’t have a concussion.” he smacks her hands off of him then gestures for her to move, she does so but ultimately helps him out of the car.

“Just great, this is just fucking great.” he mutters to himself as he looks at the state of his Camaro, she in turn approached the front of his car and saw the cracked windscreen, she furrowed her brows in confusion and mild disgust when she saw some sort of slime on the windscreen where it was cracked. She reached forward and gently touched it, only to regret it as she shudder at the feeling, she wiped it off against her pants “Fuck, this is going to cost a fucking fortune to repair.” Billy threads his fingers through his hair, at the verge of yanking them out of his scalp but calmed down slightly when [F/N] placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t worry about it, Hargrove. I’ll help pay for it… with my parents money.” he scoffs, shoving her back softly to sit on the hood of his car.

“I don’t think they’ll appreciate the loss of money in their account.” she scoffs right back at him, sitting down beside him and offering him a cigarette, to which he graciously took and let her light it, enjoying the feeling of the nicotine filling his lungs then letting it all out.

“Please, I’ll be lucky if they notice a couple grand is missing.” the two of them start smoking away, she sniffles a little as she let the cigarette hang loosely by her lips “Perhaps this wasn’t a good idea on our part. We’re drunk, possibly high and extremely tired.” Billy rolls his eyes, taking the cigarette from his lips and held it in between his fingers.

“Yeah, but we’re both competitive and like to win.” she pursed her lips.

“True.” they fist bump each other “Anyways, what hit your car? A bird?” he shrugs his shoulders.

“Not sure, was going way too fast to get a glimpse of what it was.” she looked back at where they were previously then looked around at their surroundings, she suddenly felt a chill run down her back as the abandoned steel works factory loomed over them, she swallows thickly then turned back to Billy and gestured to her car.

“How’s about we get the fuck out of here? This place is giving me the heebie jeebies. I’ll be even more generous as to let you stay at our place while someone looks over your car, I personally know a good mechanic that can get your baby whipped back up into shape in no time.” he looked liked he was considering that option, he then winces when she cupped his face once more and looked at his bleeding forehead “But after we take care of this, I don’t want Stevie getting worried about this.” he nods his head.

“Agreed… we’re not telling him about this, right?”

“Are you crazy? Fuck no.” they both stand up but whipped their heads in the direction they heard something shuffle.

“Who’s there?!” Billy shouts, neither get a reply “I said who’s there?!” [F/N] shook her head, noticing that Billy was getting paranoid. Before she could say anything Billy’s feet were suddenly swept out from under him, he all but dropped to the ground before he was being dragged away. He desperately clawed at the ground to stop himself but there just wasn’t anything to cling onto, this continued as he was dragged through the factory and as he was going to be pulled down into the lower level of the factory he managed to grab a hold of the railing of the stairs. He clung onto it desperately, panic coursing throughout his body when he could feel his grip slowly slipping and when it did he expected to be dragged down the staircase but [F/N] caught him.

“I… got you!” she strains out, her grip on him deathly tight as she tried to pull him back but her feet where being dragged forward. She tries to dig the heels of her feet into the ground to keep herself from moving any further, their sweaty hands weren’t helping their predicament because she did lose her hold on his left hand but she quickly grabbed the railing. All this was for naught when something slithered around her ankle and yanked her, she fell to the ground with a thud with Billy on top of her before they were both dragged down the stairs into basement. The moment the two of them came face to face with this weird goopy looking thing they couldn’t help but scream at the top of their lungs as it roared at them, holding each other right as it loomed over them. The next few moments were silent, just the sound of chains swaying in the soft wind followed by quiet rumbling, this moment was interrupted when both Billy and [F/N] managed to pull themselves out of the basement. [F/N] starts pushing Billy and herself away but they both stumble to the ground, pushing themselves back as they spare a glance back at the entrance to the basement and shudder when they hear a roar come from that thing. Billy pulls himself onto his feet first and grabs [F/N] by the back of her jacket to yank her to her feet, she’s holding onto his arm as they’re scrambling out of the factory and rushing to their respective cars. They don’t waste a second to drive the fuck out of there, Billy driving ahead of [F/N] but he pulls to the side when he saw a phone booth, neither of them turn their cars off as they jump out but Billy makes it into the phone booth to make the call while [F/N] stood outside, breathing heavily as she kept looking back towards the direction they came from.

”911, what’s your emergency?” Billy goes to speak but the words got caught in his throat, I mean, how could it not? What the fuck was he supposed to say? Hey, my friend and I got in a car accident because we were drunk then we found this weird fucking monster, send help right away please! The two of them started to panic when the light in the phone booth started flickering as their surroundings changed ”Is someone there? Hello—” the voice cut off when the light completely turned off, Billy hangs up the phone as he walks out of the phone booth. He hears a noise and starts walking towards it, flinching slightly when he felt something so he glanced down and saw [F/N] just as equally terrified as he was holding onto his arm and hand. He places his free hand on her shoulder then the two of them walked towards the fog where they heard footsteps coming towards them.

“What do you want?” Billy manages to croak out, voice shaky and not sounding like his usual self “Hey, I said what do you want?!” he was desperate for an answer but the two of them started to panic again when they saw a group of people coming towards them. Red lightning struck as the group of people came to a halt, instead two people from the crowd came walking towards them and they both equally froze when their vision cleared up and they were staring right back at themselves.

[time skip: the next day]

Steve stood in front of his full body mirror as he does his hair up, something he always does in the morning though it was usually done for naught because of that stupid little hat he has to wear that was apart of the uniform that was just as stupid. He sets his hairspray on his desk, looking at his iconic hair and touching it up for the nth time of that morning before nodding his head when he was satisfied with how it looked. With everything ready he picked up his keys and tucked them into his pocket then walked out of his bedroom with an extra skip on his step in his step, things were finally looking up for him that he couldn’t not be happy. His sister was home for the summer break, he’s actually enjoying work (kind of), he’s made friends with the girl at said work, his sister is dating said girl while he himself has gotten himself into a relationship that first started off rocky but evidently he fell in love with him. He wasn’t expecting to see his sister as he walked past her room, she was always gone in the morning to go pick up Robin, but he halted at her door when he saw the state she was in.

“[F/N]…?” he muttered softly, pushing open her door that was left open just a bit and his eyes widened when he saw her. She was sitting hunched over at the edge of her bed, elbows planted on her knees as her head rested on her interlocked fingers. She was panting heavily while sweating profusely, she looked downright horrible “Oh my god, [F/N]! Are you okay?” he exclaims as he rushed over to her side, kneeling down to try and get a look at her face and saw her face was pale while her [E/C] eyes were dull from their usual shine.

“Steve…” she weakly breathed out, he moved his hands to gently place a hand on her forehead and quickly withdrew it when he felt a burning sensation under his fingertips.

“You’re burning up, [F/N]!” he shouts then proceeds to push her onto her back so that she was lying on her bed but she shook her head, weakly pushing him back so she could get up.

“No, no… I need to get Robin, I promised to get her.” she weakly hits at his chest, letting out a whine when he grabbed her by her wrists to stop her futile attempts to get him off and gently lays her down on the bed.

“I’ll get her, okay? I think she’ll understand why you couldn’t get her if I tell her that you’re sick, alright? You’ll only worry her if you show up as the mess you are right now, besides, I don’t think you can drive in the state you’re in.” she lets out a groan, slapping her hands onto her face and dragging them down “I’ll open the window so it can help you can cool down, if there isn’t anything in the cabinets I’ll grab some shit from the pharmacy on my way back from work. Don’t do anything that’ll make you feel any worse than you already are.” she chuckles weakly, placing a hand on her chest and looking over at Steve.

“Since when were you the one… to look after me?” he just shook his head, he walks into her bathroom then later came out with a wet cloth to wipe away the sweat on her forehead then placed another wet and cold cloth on her forehead to help cool her down.

“Since my sister was the one that got fucked up in my stead.” she scoffed then hummed when she felt Steve cup her cheek, she leaned into his touch but winced when it got too hot for her liking and jerked away, he sighed sadly and retracted his hand from her “I’ll try and get off early so I can take care of you, alright? Don’t do anything to drastic while I’m gone.” she waves her hand.

“No promises…” she pants out as her hand dropped back down onto her chest, he sighs softly then knelt down to press a kiss to her temple then retreated out of her room to leave for work. Hours go by but not a single thing changed, she only felt worse and worse as she tried to calm her breathing down, tried to stop herself from sweating so much, but the summer heat was just becoming to unbearable. She closed her eyes as she tried breathing through her nose, a horrible mistake on her part when the memory of the night before came flooding back. Her fingers dug into her shirt when the flashing images of those rats scattering along the floor reappeared, being held down by some fucking monster as it forced something into her body. Her eyes snapped opened as she let out a scream, shooting up straight as she continued to pant, she takes the cloth off her head and throws it to the ground as she weakly makes her way to her bathroom. She leans her weight into the sink, her hands gripping onto the sink as her head hung loosely in front of her. She managed to lift her head to stare at her reflection, her vision slowly clearing up so she can get a good look at her reflection but then another flashback from last night appeared before her.

”What do you want…?” she managed to whimper out, her usual personality nowhere to be seen as she leaned closer into Billy’s side, who held onto her tightly but neither one of them could tear their eyes away from their doppelgängers.

”To build.” both doppelgängers said in unison, they even sound like them but their voices were slightly disoriented with a deep, echoing feeling to it. Billy and [F/N] manage to tear their eyes away from them to look at each other, nothing but confusion were seen on their faces ”I want you to build.”

“To build what?” Billy asks.

”What you see.” [F/N] shakes her head.

“I-I… I don’t understand.” they both flinch backwards when that same lightning struck and they were suddenly back on the side of the road, [F/N] all but collapses to her knees as she threads her fingers through her hair, her shoulders trembling at the terror the two of them witnessed. Billy was still standing as he looked around for wherever they could have gone, shaking his head.

“I don’t understand!”

“Ah!” she screamed at her reflection before proceeding to punch it, not bothering to remove her fist when the shattered glass fell into the sink and cut her hand. When her breathing calmed down she pulled her fist and let her trembling hand hang by her side, she took deep breaths through her nose before turning her head to the side “I need to talk to Billy…” she muttered softly then quickly left the bathroom, putting on her shoes and grabbing a jacket that had her keys in her pockets. The drive to the Hawkins community pool felt like a nightmare, her windows were all the way down and her AC was blasting to cool down her overheating body, but what freaked her out was when she was stopped at a red light. She perched her arm on the open window as her finger nervously tapped against the stirring wheel, she hissed in pain when she felt like she was being burn so she glanced down at her hand and furrowed her brows when she saw a burn mark forming on the back of her hand, she immediately pulls her arm back into the car. She pulls up to the pool and quickly hops out of her car, not bothering to lock it up and just simply slams the door shut and rushes into the pool. She spots Billy just as disoriented as she is, she didn’t waste any time to whistle to catch his attention, when his head shot up and looked for her, he managed to spot her waving her hand.

“[F/N]…?” he mumbles in confusion, he pushes himself up when he saw her waving him over, mouthing that they needed to talk. He all but jumps out of his seat and rushes over to her as fast as he could, stumbling with his footing but he managed to reach her in the end, grabbing her by her wrist and dragging her into the changing rooms, the showers specifically “What are you doing here?” she takes a shaky breath, holding her arms and digging her fingers into her jacket.

“Are we not going to talk about last night?” she asked, she inhales sharply as she runs her hands over her face “Have you been seeing things? Hearing things? I feel like I’m losing my mind…” she croaks out, she lets out a yelp when he grabbed her wrist again to look at the burn on her hand.

“What happened here?” her eyes trailed down his arm and noticed a similar looking burn on his elbow, they both started feeling hot again, [F/N] tears her jacket off but that isn’t enough and so Billy shoves her into the shower and turns on the cold water. They both silently soak in the water but start to get distracted when the pain in their burns starts aching, they’re both reaching for their wounds and grimace when they could hear something moving beneath their skin, the moment their hands grazed against the wound a flash of a monster appeared in their heads followed by high pitched screeching. They both fall to the ground, clutching their heads in agonising pain, pressing their heads into the tiled walls to try and lessen the pain but nothing was working, they were yelling in pain but it soon came to a halt when they heard a voice.

“Billy…?” [F/N] couldn’t recognise it, the two of them managed to push themselves back to lean against the wall behind them as they watched the girl kneel down in front of them “Billy. Take me to him.” they both stare at her in confusion.

“What?” they mutter.

“I said are you hurt?” she then looked in between the both of them as they continued to stare at her “What’s going on? I heard screaming. Should I call an ambulance?” she asked out of genuine concern, she then slowly backed away when she noticed the look of pain and confusion disappear and was replaced with one of malice. She lets out a scream when [F/N] shoots towards her, her hand slamming against her mouth to muffle her screams of terror whilst her other hand held both her wrists in an iron grip.

“I’m so sorry about this.” she whispers, she then pulls her up then slammed the back of her head against the ground to knock her unconscious. Both herself and Billy stand up and stare down at the unconscious girl then looked at each other and nodded.

[time skip: starcourt mall, scoops ahoy]

Robin felt a little deflated that entire day, first she wasn’t able to see [F/N] and Steve was the one to pick her up in her stead. She was confused when the younger Harrington pulled up to her house and so she obviously asked where her girlfriend was, the answer she got was a worried looking Steve telling her how awful [F/N] was and that she was very sick to the point she could barely move. Sure, she was worried for her girlfriend and completely understood why she couldn’t come get her, but she just couldn’t understand how she got sick. Last night she looked completely fine, only being a little tipsy but other than that, she was fine. Robin now found herself serving free samples to some little girl that was slowly getting on her last nerve, ready to pop a nerve, but then the sight of [H/C] hair her eyes.

“[F/N]?” she mumbled under her breath, wasn’t she supposed to be lying down in her bed at home? She shook her head and turned towards the window into the back room, throwing it open to get Steve and his little friend Dustin’s attention “Hey, Harrington! Man the counter, will you? I need to go check something out!” she shouts, choosing to ignore his shouts of protest as she abandons the counter and rushes out of the store, pushing past people to check if who she saw was actually her girlfriend. Her face lights up when she heard her familiar laughter so she turned the corner and was going to greet her but froze up at what she saw, there she saw [F/N] talking with some guy as he openly flirted and joked with and she was laughing at it.

“That is the dumbest pick up line I’ve ever heard, you dork.” he scoffs, bumping his shoulder against hers.

“But it made you smile, didn’t it?” she then shoved him back, not being able to hide the big smile on her face.

“Barely.” her heart dropped into her stomach when she saw [F/N] grab the guy by the collar of his jacket and pull him back, the two of them stumbling out of view. Robin grits her teeth and rushes over to where the two disappeared, she rounded the corner but was left flabbergasted when she saw neither of them, they just simply vanished. Maybe she was just seeing things, maybe she was just desperate to see [F/N] that she conjured her up, but why the hell was she shamelessly flirting with some random fucker? The end of the night came sooner than later, from seeing her girlfriend with some guy to helping her brother and some random child with a Russian translation, she was currently sitting in Steve’s passenger seat as he drove them to his house.

“Is she really sick?” Steve let out a dramatic sigh, rolling his eyes.

“Yes! How many times do I have to tell you, Robin? What you saw was definitely not [F/N]. For one, she’d never flirt with a guy. Two, she’d never let a guy flirt with her, because she’d either fight them or throw up.” that option made her chuckle, that sounded like her “My sister isn’t the type of person to cheat, okay? She actually beat that into me, so I highly doubt she would ever do something so frivolous.” Robin sighed, the back of her head hitting the car seat.

“I know… I think I’m just getting paranoid.” she jolts in her seat when Steve placed his hand on her shoulder, she looked at him and saw him giving her a reassuring look.

“Robin, if my sister does anything and says anything hurtful to you, you’ll tell me right?” he inhales through his nose and looks back towards the road “She doesn’t do or say things without meaning it. When she said she was in love with you, she meant it. When she said she wanted to be with me, she meant it. So if she somehow says she doesn’t want to be with you anymore… she’ll say it to you straight and she won’t do it behind your back, she isn’t like that. She isn’t one for hiding her feelings and she isn’t afraid to voice her opinions, rarely have I ever seen her bottle up her emotions. I don’t see any reason why she would ever go behind your back, but if she does anything to you that just doesn’t seem right, tell me. I’ll make sure to talk to her, so don’t worry about anything, alright?” she couldn’t help but get a little teary eyed, Steve smiled softly when Robin tearfully nodded her head.

“Alright, thank you.”

“No problem.” Steve then lets out a laugh when he pulled up to their house, gesturing to the driveway “Look at that, Robin! Her car is here.” Robin shrugs, sure, but it doesn’t cross out the possibility that she still left the house. Entering the Harrington household, Steve flips on the hallway lights and shuffles out of his shoes, letting out a slight grunt when Robin shoved past him to rush up the stairs to get to [F/N]. Steve told her that her condition was horrible, that she was sweating profusely and couldn’t stop her body from trembling, going so far as she couldn’t control her breathing. She needed to see this for herself, she needed to see how sick her girlfriend was to calm her mind of the image of her perfectly healthy girlfriend that she saw at the mall with some gu—

“S-Stevie…? Is that you?” Robin jerked backwards a little shocked after throwing the door open, there in the dark room with the hallway light to illuminate the room, was her girlfriend laying on her back whilst clutching her chest, looking just as terrible as Steve described “Stevie…?” she called out once more, she nearly tripped over her feet when she finally managed to move.

“N-No, [F/N], it’s me.” she saw [F/N] perk up at the sound of her voice and so turned her head towards her, smiling weakly when her eyes set on girlfriend.

“Robin…” she cooed, Robin smiled softly and knelt down, placing a hand on her forehead and let her thumb caress her skin “You’re here… why?” they hear Steve clear his throat, he decides not to turn on the light as he took a spot on the other side of Robin, standing over his sick sister who smiled at him.

“She wanted to see you, asking me after our shift to bring her here to check up on you.” Steve decided it would be for the best to keep Robin’s actual intentions a secret from his sister, it was the better option because that reason made [F/N] smile at the both of them.

“Y’all are saps…” she mumbled out, she then reached for Robin and gently tapped her shoulder “I’m sorry I couldn’t pick you up this morning, I feel so awful for leaving you hanging like that.” Robin shook her head, taking her hand into here and squeezing.

“No, no, it’s fine. I’m just glad that your brother came and got me, would have sucked if I have to bike instead.” they both giggle at that, Steve smiled at his sister and her girlfriend, not understanding where Robin ever got the misunderstanding of [F/N] ever betraying her in the worst way. He then pulled a face when he realised why and swore in his head to never voice that stupid thought of his, he reached forward and placed his hand on [F/N]’s cheek and she leaned into his subtle touch.

“Your fever seems to have calmed down a little, did you take some tylenol?” she nods softly.

“Mm, I found some in my cabinet.”

“Alright, that’s good.” Steve has Robin help him with taking care of [F/N] to the best of their abilities, staying with her until she was drifting off to sleep, and when she finally did he pulled her out of the room and closed the door behind them “See? What did I tell you? She never left the house, Robin.” she nods her head, holding her arms.

“I know, I know. I just can’t help but feel insecure, you know? She’s totally out of my league, and yet she wants to be in a relationship with me! A nobody, a weirdo that’s apart of band and is employed in an ice cream shop.” Steve scoffs at that, placing his hands on his hips.

“That’s exactly what she likes about you, Robin. She finds it cool that you can play instruments.” she rolled her eyes bashfully, spinning one of her rings around with her thumb.

“Stop it.” Robin takes on last peek at [F/N] before finally leaving with Steve so he can take her home, it didn’t take long for the younger Harrington to return home nor did it take long for him to fall into a deep sleep. The moment silence fell upon the Harrington household [F/N] eyes shot open and she no longer looked sick anymore, she sat up and threw the covers off her body to reveal the clothes she was wearing were never changed. She shuffles out of her bed and walks over to her locked bathroom, pushing the door open to find the same boy Robin saw her with submerged in cold icy water. [F/N] did indeed see Robin in the corner of her eye when she was at the Starcourt Mall, that was the reason why she pulled that boy into empty hallway but she pulled him into an empty room before Robin could see them and proceeded to choke him out with little to no effort. 

She now found herself back at the abandoned steel works factory, exiting her car, she lifted her head to see Billy was there as well. Neither said a word to the other, just silently moving to the trunks of their cars and opening them up, finding their tied up victims unconscious, Billy lifts Heather into his arms while [F/N] throws the guy over her shoulder and the two of them walk side by side back down into the basement where it all started. Settling the two down, they hover over their unconscious bodies that slowly started regaining consciousness. Of course the two of them were unaware of the situation they were, blinking their eyes as they looked around in confusion, their eyes met and they were both confused when they saw their mouths were duck taped shut while their hands and feet were bound. Panic started to arise as they tried to free themselves, Heather letting out whimpers as she tried to shake free while the guy was screaming under the tape, they were both silenced when Billy grabbed Heather by her shoulders while [F/N] grabbed the other guy by his face and held his jaw in a tight hold.

“Don’t be afraid.” they said in an emotionless tone, both victims ceased their muffled cries and movements “It’ll all be over soon. Just stay very still.” they then remove the tape from their mouths before finally pulling away and stepping back, standing together as the same monster that did something to them crawled out of the shadows towards its latest victims, snarling at them as they screamed in terror. 

Billy and [F/N] could do nothing but watch.

[time skip: two days later]

The two of them continued to collect more and more victims for the monster to turn into mindless zombies, sometimes almost getting caught by their respective siblings, but they always managed to play it off. [F/N] remembered bringing a girl home she met in the middle of town, she recognised her as an old classmate friend and said how she wanted to reconnect. The girl was helpless against the mind controlled girl, struggling under her iron grip as she ties her hands up but was interrupted when the front door to the house was opened and in came walking Steve. He enters the kitchen and there he found his now healthy sister by the counter with an innocent smile on her face, waving her hand to greet him on his return home.  “Anything interesting happen today, [F/N]?” she only shrugged her shoulders.

“Same old, same old.” he was satisfied with the answer and ventures upstairs to his room, unaware of the whimpering girl under the counter wanting to cry out for him to save her from his crazy sister but could only whimper silently when [F/N]’s fingers dug into the meat of her face whenever she felt her struggle. She was now hauling her down into the basement of the factory, she hummed softly when she saw Billy and Heather already down there with two victims of their own “You’ve been busy, huh?” she mused, Billy glanced up at her and saw the girl over her shoulder.

“So have you.” 

[F/N] now found herself sane and sitting in her car, inhaling and exhaling softly as she watched the unknowing people walk by her, not knowing that she was picking out her latest few victims to bring to the monster. A pinch of her sanity was clinging to the back of her mind, she was already losing her mind because she could do nothing but watch her body go around kidnapping people and offering them up to this monster to do who knows what. She takes a deep breath, running her fingers through her hair before her eyes settled on a group of girls, she remembered one of them as a girl she hooked up with a few times while they were still in high school, this could be an easy catch because the other girl still had some lingering feelings for her. She rolls her neck, ready to do what she’s been doing for the past few days but her body suddenly fought against it. There were two fights going on in her mind right now, one was sweet talking this one time fling into bringing her and her friends back home to have some fun, possibly get them wasted out of their minds then bring them back to the factory, but the other was against it. This last piece of her sanity was fighting against that, she didn’t want to flirt with this girl, she didn’t want to tell her words that were rightfully reserved for her girlfriend. She lets out a groan, aching pain throbbing in her head as she tried taking control of her mind but ultimately lost when the pain became to unbearable.

“Don’t make this harder for you than it already is…” she muttered to herself, her voice not sounding like her own. Flicking down her sunglasses, she pulls at the collar of her jacket before finally opening the door to her car just as the girls were walking past her car. This obviously caught their attention, they were already checking out the ridiculously nice car but the moment [F/N] stepped out of the car the girl she hooked up with couldn’t help but freeze up when she saw her long time crush. [F/N] pretended to pay them no mind, throwing her car door shut and locked it, walking past the group of girls and as she walked further away, she stopped when the girl called out to her.

“H-Hey, [F/N]!” her friends snickered at how shaky her voice was as she stuttered over her words, she cursed at them but straightened up when [F/N] turned her head over her shoulder to look at the group.

“Yes?” she swallowed thickly, taking a step forward as she clutched onto the straps of her hand bag.

“D-Do you— do you remember me, by any chance?” her face flushed up when she tilted her head down, her sunglasses slipping down the bridge of her nose so she could see past the tinted lenses and at the girl in question “We were in the same chemistry class? We sat together and did a few projects together?” she was really hoping that [F/N] would remember, she took a step forward as she turned around fully, raising her hand to grab the frames of her glasses and pulled them down as she looked her up and down.

“Chemistry…?” she muttered to herself, looking up in thought then smirked down at her “Right, you’re— you’re Veronica, right? Veronica Gibbons?” her face lights up immensely because [F/N] Harrington remembered her, she actually remembered her! She enthusiastically nodded her head, reaching forward to grab her hand.

“Yes! I’m so happy you remember me.” her friends were giggling from behind her, knowing just how big of a crush she had on the female Harrington, also remembering how much she cried when she left Hawkins to study in a different state, but now she’s back as she has a chance to be with her. She then tilted her head when [F/N] pouted softly, taking off her glasses then biting the end of one of the frames.

“Actually, I’m still having a little trouble remembering, think you can help jog my memory up?” the group of girls giggled at the suggestion, Veronica turned back towards them and saw them gushing at her and giving her the thumbs up, gesturing for her to shoot her shot with [F/N].

“S-Sure.” 

Robin felt like she accomplished a mission. You could really do a lot with just twenty bucks, she exits the post office and stuffed the entire layout of the Starcourt Mall into her bag and jogs over to where she parked her bike, only slowing in pace when she heard soft giggling. Turning to see what the laughter was all about, she saw a group of girls gushing about how lucky their friend was, she thought nothing of it until the name “Harrington” left their lips. She then glanced over at the parked Mustang and immediately recognised it as [F/N]’s car, she then noticed that they kept glancing back towards the little alleyway and her insecurities started getting the best of her again. The name “Veronica Gibbons” left their loose lips and more thoughts started circulating in her head, she remembered that girl. She was definitely one of the best looking students during her year at Hawkins High School, she was that iconic popular girl that did cheerleading, was beautiful, smart and was wanted by the entirety of the male population. But there was a rumour that she was into girls, that she was into the particular Harrington that was untouchable, a heartbreaker who’s heart would never beat for anyone but her brother.

She didn’t hesitate to drop her bag on the ground and rush over to the alleyway, turning the corner and her heart stopped when she saw it. Veronica was pushing [F/N] back against the wall, her hands tightly gripping onto [F/N]’s biceps as she pressed her lips against her own. [F/N] didn’t bother reciprocating the loveless kiss, just let the shorter one of the two take the lead as she desperately kissed her. She tried not to think about it, she tried so hard not to think how awful she feels for playing with this girls feelings just because she couldn’t control her own body, she didn’t want to think about how much this was going to hurt Robin, but what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her. Veronica pulled away and gave [F/N] a sheepish smile, flushing up when she noticed that her lipstick smeared onto her lips, she turns away to avoid her intense gaze but a gasp left her lips when she noticed a figure at the end of the alleyway.

“[F/N]…?” her heart dropped into her stomach, visible fear in her eyes that were hidden under the tinted lenses of her sunglasses. Robin gritted her teeth when she saw Veronica pushed herself off of [F/N], clearing her throat and fixing herself up, excusing herself from the heartbroken Robin as she tearfully gazed at [F/N], who had yet to acknowledge her existence “[F/N], please… tell me that what I saw didn’t really happen.” [F/N] just let out a sigh, crossing her arms and leaned against the brick wall behind her, finally sparing Robin a glance that just wasn’t kind.

“What’s there to talk about?” Robin’s hand clenched into a tight fist, whoever this person was, it wasn’t her [F/N]. Her loving and sweet [F/N] who’d give her the world, who would fight the world just to see her happy, whoever this imposter was, she hated their guts for what they’ve done with her girlfriend. She marches over to her and stood in front of her, glaring up at her with a tearful gaze and saw that [F/N] had an indifferent expression on her face, like she didn’t care that she just got caught “You seem upset, little birdie.” she cooed out, Robin nearly keened at the nickname, any other time she would turn red, but right now she was filled with anger and anguish.

“Is this just a joke, [F/N]? Are you not going to acknowledge the fact that I just caught you kissing another girl, or the fact that you let that girl kiss you despite already being in a relationship with me?! Is she another relative of yours you and Steve forgot to bring up? If that’s the case, that’s really fucking weird.” Robin turns away, running a hand through her hair than back at her “I thought you loved me, [F/N]. I thought you said you wanted to be with me, but as of lately, I feel like you’ve become an entirely different person. Ever since that night, I haven’t seen a trace of the girl that said she was in love with me. What the fuck has happened to you, [F/N]!” Robin continued to rant and rave at the betrayal and [F/N] just took it, because another war was raging on in her head.

Take her.

Not her.

Bring her.

Ignore her.

Kill her. 

Spare her.

[F/N]’s fingers clawed at the wall behind her, her nails digging into the bricks to the point they were being crushed under her hold. Her teeth were biting down so hard on her lips to the point they were bleeding, she was trying to distract herself from the grotesque thought of bringing one of the few people that she loves to that fucking thing. She was trying so hard the past two days to avoid Steve and Robin, she was trying so hard to limit her time with those two because if she was with them for more than a couple minutes then she would lose all control of her body and she would hurt them. That was the last thing that she wanted, she didn’t want to hurt them, she didn’t want them to die all because she made one stupid decision. She said nothing as Robin continued to question what their relationship has come to after two days of her acting off, she wanted nothing more than to wrap her arms around Robin and tell her everything, tell her that everything is going to be okay and that kiss with Veronica whatever meant nothing to her. But she knew the moment her arms were around her, there was no letting go of her, and not for a good reason either. She wanted to do something to keep Robin away, give her a reason to avoid her, to never see her again.

“You’re making me think that everything about our relationship was for nothing!” she shouts, tears now running down her face, oh how she wanted to wipe those tears away but she didn’t want to touch her with the hands that have been the cause of people losing their minds and possibly their lives “Was there absolutely nothing, nothing special about our relationship?” Robin stood their panting in front of [F/N], the girl silently looking down at her.

“… are you done?” she flinched back at the harsh words.

“Wha—”

“Was anything in our relationship special? Wow, you were really deep in that delusional fantasy of yours, huh? Well, let me tell you something, Buckley.” she harshly jabs her finger into Robin’s chest, causing her to stagger backwards as each jab got harsher and harsher at each step she took “Your love for me was nice, it was, but it’s gotten boring. There’s nothing about you that excites me anymore, so yeah, maybe our relationship was for nothing.”

“[F-F/N]…” she lets out a whimper when her back was no pressed against the opposite wall, [F/N] looming over her with a dark look on her face.

“There is no us, not anymore. I don’t need you.” [F/N] makes sure to grab her by the jaw, lifting her up off the ground as she glared down at her “You mean nothing to me.” Robin lets out a whimper when she felt her nails digging into her skin, she spares her a glance through her teary eyes and when she looked into [F/N]’s eyes, there was no warmth but dull and empty eyes staring right back at her. She let out a gasp when [F/N] dropped her, letting her collapse to the ground and grovel at her feet. She turned on her heel and started walking away, ignoring how much she wanted to stop and apologise to Robin, how this isn’t what she wanted but this was the hill she was going to die on if it meant that Robin was safe from her ”And Buckley, don’t even think about telling Stevie about this, not that he’ll even be on your side in the first place. I’m his sister, he loves me, and you? You’re nothing but a coworker he has to put up with.” she didn’t even bother looking back at Robin when she finally left the alleyway, leaving Robin to wallow up with a broken heart as she cried out in anguish.

“[F/N]?” she let out a hum, turning towards Veronica who now sat in her passenger seat while her friends were excitingly sitting in the back “Are you alright?”  “Why wouldn’t I be, sweetheart?” she flushed at the pet name, she points at her face.

“You’re crying…” her eyes widened softly at that, glancing down at her face to see a single tear running down her cheek, she chuckles softly at that and wipes it away with her thumb.

“Just a little dust that got in my eye, nothing to worry about.”

Hours go by and night has enveloped Hawkins, to which [F/N] was currently loading the drunk, unconscious and tied up girls into her car once more. Getting them completely intoxicated took no trouble whatsoever, they were more than happy to get wasted with the more popular Harrington. [F/N] herself was drinking away her sorrows after breaking up with Robin, wanting nothing more then to numb the pain and forget that look of pain and betrayal on Robin’s face, but it’ll forever be burned into the back of her mind. She lets out an exhausted sigh after loading the last of the girls into the backseat, rolling her shoulders after walking back and forward from the house and her car repeatedly. Steve had yet to return from Scoops Ahoy despite how late into the night it was becoming so she was taking his absence as an opportunity to get everything done. Driving to the factory wasn’t as eventful, driving legally to avoid unwanted attention so she doesn’t get pulled over, when she reached the basement she was quite surprised to see the state Billy was in.

“Fuck happened to you?” she questions, quietly offering up the girls to the monster then returned to his side with a rag and some water “You look like you got the shit beaten out of you.” he looked up at her, letting her clean up the blood and sweat “That girl, was it her?” he nods.

“Yeah. It was her.” she nods softly, taking his hand and wiping away the blood on his knuckles “She knows now. She knows about me. She could’ve killed me.” she nods again, she puts the rag down and gently pats his hand.

“Yes, but not us. Not us.” they then glance at the crowd of people they’ve either managed to kidnap altogether or were infected by the rats that were controlled by the monster “There’s no way she’ll know that there are more of us. She could barely handle you, so what makes her think she can handle all of us?”

“You’re right.”  “I know. Our time is nearly upon us, so we needn’t worry until then.”

[the next day, with the party]

The party along with Jonathan and Nancy were all hunkered down in the Wheeler household in the basement, each discussing what had happened the following night and their latest discoveries. The children told the two young adults how the Mind Flayer had returned and that Billy Hargrove was under its control, in return they told the party how an old woman, Mrs Driscoll, was found eating fertiliser and was acting crazy. Nancy then deducted how that since the attack last night along with their sauna test happened at the same time, the possibility of the Mind Flayer flaying more than just Billy.

“Billy was doing something to her, but there was someone else as well.” they all look at El when she spoke up, she looks at Max “There was another girl, but she looked more worried for him.” she closed her eyes to remember seeing Billy, she remembered seeing that girl who looked terrified as she called out for Billy.

“Another girl? What did she look like?” Max urged, maybe if they find this girl she could help them find Billy and maybe even the Mind Flayer.

“Um, she was tall, maybe about Billy’s height. She had [H/C] hair, [E/C] eyes and a few beauty marks on her neck and face.” she closed her eyes to remember any other features that stood out to her “Her eyes, though, her eyes reminded me a lot of Steve’s.” this subtle feature caught Nancy’s attention, her face lighting up in remembrance, this caused the others to look at her when she started snapping her fingers.

“W-Wait— Wait right there.” the others watch as Nancy rushed out of the basement, questioning what she was planning on grabbing, and when she returned she had a handful of polaroids and a few articles “El, is the girl you’re describing… her?” El leans forward to see Nancy was looking through the photos before pushing a certain article towards her, she ignores the headline as her eyes zone in on the picture. They she saw the girl she saw through her vision but this time she had a giant grin on her face, a bit of a crazed expression on her face as she stuck her tongue out while one of her hands was doing the rock on devil horns.

“Y-Yes, yes! That’s who I saw,” Nancy and Jonathan share a look of disbelief “W-Who is she?”  “That’s Steve’s sister! That’s [F/N] Harrington!” this caused the lot of them to lurch forward and look all the pictures of said Harrington “I remember her being back in town, but to think that she and Billy were actually friends.” she muttered under her breath, Max was looking at a picture had in his hands and her eyes widened when she too recognised her face.

“Holy shit.” Max says, now they look at her when they saw her pick up a different photo, this time it was of a polaroid of the girl at a party, sitting on a couch with her legs over the arm rest as she was chugging down an entire bottle of vodka “That’s Billy’s girlfriend.” now Nancy and Jonathan were in even more shock.

“Fucking, what?!” Max nods her head.

“I’ve seen her around the house a couple times, and whenever she’s around he’s a lot more happier. I remember hearing a girls laughter from his room and when I came in to see what it was…” she shudders at the memory, shaking her head “It wasn’t particularly a fun sight.” the certain memory she’s remembering back to was when she, Steve and Robin snuck into Billy’s room through his window with some weed and alcohol they were planning on sharing with each other. None of them had realised Max was home until they heard her calling Billy’s name followed by her footsteps, Robin and Steve were quick to hide away and when [F/N] attempted to jump out the window, she instead tripped over her own feet and landed on top to Billy, that was when Max walked into the room and misunderstood the entire situation. All the residents of the Hargrove/Mayfield household are one hundred percent convinced that the two are in a relationship, this fact was rather beneficial for the both of them.

“I heard rumours going around that Billy was dating [F/N], but I never believed them.” Jonathan admits “But it makes it all the more believable that the two of them were together.”  “Then do you think she’s flayed? Like Billy?” Nancy takes a breath.

“There’s only one way to find out.” they now find themselves driving to the Harrington household, all feeling concerned and anxious. Nancy was the most worried because she’s witnessed firsthand what the older Harrington was capable of, she was already crazy as is and would only tone it down when her younger brother was in the picture. She loved her brother to bits that the moment someone looked at him wrong she didn’t hesitate to beat their asses with a chair, she remembered how she got arrested for nearly beating a kid near death because they threatened to kill her brother. They reap what they sow, no? Pulling up to the house, Jonathan and Nancy recognise the car that’s in the driveway, it was [F/N]’s infamous Mustang that could rival Billy’s Camaro when it came down to public disturbance.

“Is there anything about her that we should be careful about?” Jonathan looks up in thought as they approach the front door.

“Um, if you thought Billy was bad… I’d say she’s worse.” they pale at that, she’s worse than Billy? “But if you get on her good side, she’s actually a pretty decent person, nice even.” Nancy nods her head, agreeing with what he’s saying. The two now stood in front of the two, both equally hesitating to knock because they share an equal fear of the female Harrington, Nancy was the one to take a deep breath and knock on the door. They waited for a while for the door to open, awkwardly looking around to pass the time, they hear stumbling footsteps and a few things getting knocked over before the door was open. Nancy and Jonathan reel backwards when the smell of alcohol hit their faces, there in front of them was the sight of a depressed and intoxicated [F/N] that was leaning against the doorframe to keep herself from falling to the ground while in one of her hands was a bottle of tequila. 

This is not what the party were expecting.

“Who the fff… phuck are you?” [F/N] slurred out, clearly not in the right state of mind and very much drunk.

“Is that you… [F/N]?” Nancy asked, very much unsure that the girl in front of her was the Harrington that she knew. [F/N] was one to get drunk at the oddest times of the day, but it looked like she had been crying, and she does not shed tears for anything or just about anyone. [F/N] giggled drunkenly, swaying softly before lifting the bottle of tequila and taking a long swig from it, letting out a satisfied breath as the alcohol burned her throat.

“Yeah? What’s it to you?” [F/N] was going to ignore the bothersome people who came knocking at her door while she was trying to wallow up in sadness, ready to just outright slam the door in their faces but paused when in her drunken eyes she could just make out who exactly the girl is “W-Who are you?” she stuttered out, Nancy swallows thickly, patting her dress to smooth it out.

“Um, it’s me, Nancy Wheeler?” [F/N]’s blood starts to run cold, sobering up just at the mention of the name “I dated your brother a while ago, and we’ve met a couple times when we weren’t dating?” the silence scared them, maybe it was because [F/N]’s drunken state disappeared as she stared Nancy dead in the eyes and wouldn’t break eye contact no matter how many times Nancy looked away or turned her head away, [F/N] just continued to stare at her. Soon, a soft smile appeared on her face as she chuckled softly, she then leaned down to put the bottle of tequila on the ground then reached forward to grab Nancy by the sides of her head. The others watch in confusion as [F/N] gently caressed her face but it changed when she leaned her head back then slammed her forehead right into the bridge of Nancy’s nose hard enough to break it. She let go of her head and let her fall back onto the ground, not really caring as the girl cried out in pain and clutched onto her nose, she then leans back down to pick up her tequila as the children and Jonathan surround Nancy.

“Oh my god, Nancy!” Mike shouts as he falls to his knees, comforting his sister as she tried to stop her bleeding nose “What is wrong with you?!” he shouts up at [F/N], who once again threw her head back as she downed another swig from her bottle, completely ignoring him.

“I don’t like you, Wheeler.” she sneers out, taking a step forward and glaring down at the girl “I know what my brother did to you and Byers over there back in 83′, as his older sister I apologise, but what you did to him last year? He told me everything, how the girl he wanted to be with said everything between them was bullshit, then went and ran straight into the arms of the guy she told him not to worry about. You should’ve thought twice before showing your face to me, Wheeler, because now you’re on my number one hit list.” she makes the “I’m watching you” gesture with her fingers then turned around to go back into her house, only stopping when Jonathan used his foot to keep the door from closing properly.

“Wait, [F/N]!” she glared at him “We really need to talk to you.” she scoffs, throwing her head back.

“About what?”

“About Billy.” she was in the middle of taking another long swig from her bottle but froze up at the mention of Billy, slowly lowering the bottle to look at the older Byers “We really need to talk about him, and we’d appreciate it if you could tell us everything you know about him that’s happened in the past couple of days.” she stared at the lot of them being letting out a sigh, that’s where they found themselves in [F/N]’s kitchen as her drunken rage turned into a sob fest.

“You know?! I feel like he’s been acting different as of lately, and— and that he’s been distancing himself! I feel like he’s become a completely different person!” she cried from where she was seated, the others all sat across from her as her body moved dramatically “Then he broke up with me, saying how it was for the best! What the fuck does that mean?! Why does breaking up with me the best for us?! I still wanted to be friends, but I couldn’t even have that either! So here I am, drinking myself into a stupor!” she shouts and goes to drink again but let out a whine when nothing came out, pulling it away from her lips and tipping the bottle only for a few droplets to come pouring out. The others all glance at each other and watch as she moved to a wine cabinet to grab a bottle of expensive looking wine.

“She’s totally not flayed, right?” Lucas questioned, Mike shook his head.

“Not a chance.” they all wince when she trips into the wine cabinet, no chance.

“Hey, where can I get some ice?” Jonathan asked, [F/N] looked back towards him before shakily pointing at the fridge.

“Should be some in the freezer, Byers. Help yourself out.” Jonathan nods and goes to get some but Mike was already on his feet to grab it himself, wanting to soothe his sister’s pain, at least Max and El stopped the bleeding. He’s in front of the fridge and about to open the freezer but stopped when he saw a picture hanging on the fridge, taking a closer look, his eyes widened at what he saw. There he saw [F/N], Steve, Billy and that cashier that works with Steve, Robin Buckley if he remembered correctly, standing together with wide smiles and looking happy “Mike, the ice!”

“Oh, right, sorry!” he opens the freezer and grabbed the ice tray, handing it to Jonathan, and closed the freezer door but continued to look at the picture just as [F/N] came over “When did you take this?” she let out a confused noise and leaned forward to see what he was looking at, they all watch as she froze up once again, her hand lifting up from her side to look at the photo. It was during the time when they were at the fair, Steve wanted to take a photo and there was no saying no to Steve. [F/N], Robin, Steve and Billy, in that order, stood together and took a round of different photos and each kept one, right below it with the caption “night of 85′ where it started”. She closed her eyes as a bitter look crossed her face, nothing will be the same ever again and that memory of the four of them happy together will be one of her fondest memories.

“It… doesn’t matter.” she lets out, grabbing the corner of the picture she yanks it off the fridge and tucks it into her pocket “A-Anyways, what’s this about Billy? What’s he done that’s caused you lot to come to me?” El was the one to speak, reaching forward to hold [F/N]’s hand.

“We would like to know if… if you’ve been with him in the past few days, if by chance you’ve been feeling strange.” she stares down at her hand in confusion, she doesn’t pull her hand back though and just simply squeezes it.

“Well, if drinking before five counts as weird, then not particularly, no.” they all sigh at that, she pulls her hand away and crossed her arms, humming to herself whilst looking up in thought “Um, he and that Heather Holloway have been acting weird together. He doesn’t usually hang out with that girl, but the way he talked about her was weird. He even dressed modestly when planning on having dinner with her parents, and that man usually dresses like a complete whore.” they look at her weirdly as she snaps her fingers, she lets out a grunt as she popped the cork off the wine bottle and proceeded to pour herself glass.

“Heather Holloway?” [F/N] nods her head, head falling backwards as she brings the glass to her lips and drinks the wine “Alright, anything else?” she begrudgingly looked off to the side, thinking of anything else that came to mind.

“Uh, he told me he had been planning on visiting this old lady in the hospital? Does that mean anything to you?” she noticed them all visibly flinch, sharing knowing looks with each other “Telling by the looks on your faces, I guess that was helpful?” she questioned, her face scrunched up when Nancy nodded her head in her direction.

“Very!” she bit her tongue and shrunk back when [F/N] glared at her, El grabbed [F/N]’s hand once more and shook it lightly.

“Billy is in trouble, and what you’ve told us has helped our chances on finding him and helping him.” El’s face lifted up when she noticed the way [F/N]’s face softened up at that, she pursed her lips as she averted her eyes from the girl.

“I hope he hasn’t gotten himself into anything too dangerous.” they all hated how that wasn’t the case, with everything they got out of the drunk yet slightly sobering up Harrington, they left just as quickly as they arrived. Will was the last out the door but he suddenly felt a chill run down his spine, his hand immediately slaps onto his neck and he turned around to see [F/N] following them out so she can shut the door behind them. She felt his gaze so she looked down at him to see what he wanted, the chill went away when her drunken eyes looked him up and down “What?” he nervously shook his head.

“N-Nothing.” she narrowed her eyes on him but evidently shrugged her shoulders, the moment they were at their car she slammed the door shut, not waiting for them to pull out of the driveway.

“Will, are you alright?” Mike asked, his hand reaching over to gently grab his hand, Will looked up at Mike and gave him a nervous smile as he nodded his head.

“Y-Yeah, I’m good.” [F/N] stood in her empty kitchen, wine glass in her hand as she tapped her finger against the marble countertop. If she played her roll well enough, the group will probably go and investigate the Holloway household then make their way to the hospital to check on poor old Mrs Driscoll, she was now rolling her fingers against the counter.

“Well, why not give them a surprise for snooping in things they shouldn’t go poking their heads in?” she laughs to herself, downing the rest of wine in her glass before proceeding to round a few other flayed people to come help her.

[later at night]

The party arrive at the hospital when the sun was down and it was late into the night, they quickly rush out of the car and towards the hospitals entrance, completely unaware of the Ford Mustang that was parked not to far away from where they were. Per hospital visits, only two people were allowed to visit a patient at a time so Nancy and Jonathan went ahead while the others lingered around the waiting room. The two walk down the hallway to get to Dorris Driscoll’s room in silence, but to be honest, it was a little too quire despite it being a hospital. They hadn’t seen a single nurse or doctor since they arrived at the floor, it was rather unusual but they shrugged it off with that it wasn’t that busy of a night. Entering the room, they were met with the sight of Mrs Driscoll nowhere to be seen while the flowers Nancy brought and placed into a vase were knocked over.

“Where is she?” Jonathan asks as they scan the room, Nancy shakes her head.

“I don’t know.” she answers as she rushes towards the fallen vase, Jonathan following right behind her.

“Are you sure this is the right room?”

“Yeah.” they both then look up when the lights started flicking on and off, footsteps were heard from the hallway until a figure appeared at the door, the two turned around just as the figure spoke.

“She’s gone home.” there they see Tom Holloway, appearance looking disheveled as his hands and end of his button up were covered in blood “We were hoping you might come back.” the two start backing away when Tom enters the room and starts approaching them slowly, Jonathan raises his arm in front of Nancy to keep her behind him as they inched further and further away from Tom.

“Who’s blood is that?” Tom doesn’t answer him as he gets closer to them.

“Tom, whatever you’ve done, it’s not you. He’s making you do this.” now that they were practically within arms length from Tom, Jonathan didn’t take any chances and grabbed the vase, smashing it into the side of Tom’s head. The older man fell into the wall giving Jonathan and Nancy a chance to flee out of the room, they didn’t get far when another flayed appeared down the hall with a wound exactly where Jonathan hit Tom with the vase.

“Owie.” he feigns the pain as he caressed where his temple was bleeding but it healed, black veins bulging out from his temple as he started walking towards them.

“Go, go, go!” Jonathan shouts, pushing Nancy towards the staircase in an attempt to escape the two flayed men. The two of them are racing down the stairs, they aren’t really aware what floor they’re on but they don’t want to take any chances as they’re running down the hall, going further and further they see the dead bodies of the hospital workers, at least they now knew whose blood that was “This way, this way!” he shouts as he pulls Nancy down a part of the hospital that had construction being done, the two men that were chasing them weren’t even running and were just simply walking at a steady pace.

“You haven’t got them yet?” Bruce glanced over to see [F/N] on a chair, body hunched over with her elbows resting on her knees. Beneath her foot was a nurse whimpering, crying silently as [F/N] pressed the heel of her shoe into her head and slowly applied more pressure as the nurse squirmed to get free “How hard is it to grab those two idiots?” she questioned.

“Just playing a little game of cat and mouse, that’s all.” she chuckled cruelly, shaking her head.

“Get them before they cause us more trouble. That girl isn’t here to assist them, so one of you should be enough to handle them both, alright?” he nods his head and rushed off to go find Nancy and Jonathan, not like that would be hard. She finally turned her attention to the crying nurse who looked up at her, eyes pleading with her to let her go “It’s a shame that you weren’t able to see the world he was going to create, but I guess it’s better for you not to stay and find out.” [F/N] then reached over to the axe that was resting against the wall, both her hands and the blade drenched in blood of the various victims that were claimed that night. She now aimlessly walked the hospital halls, whistling a random tune as she felt the flayed Bruce find the two and so she made her way over to where they were, Bruce was chasing after Nancy as she screamed for help while Tom was making his way over to where Jonathan was.

Find them.

Kill them.

Erase them.

Annihilate them.

“They’re working on it.” she murmurs under her breath, getting closer and closer to where Tom was with Jonathan, he was playing with his food. She shook her head, maybe it was wrong to bring those two along with her and she probably should have brought two other peo— she suddenly let out a grunt, her head being thrown back as she stumbled into the wall. She brought a hand to her mouth and saw black blood bleeding from her mouth, she drops the axe when she felt another impact smash her across the face and she finally fell to the ground. She was growling under her breath, panting as she starts pushing herself up but fell back when another smash to the head was delivered to Bruce while Jonathan stabbed Tom in the neck. The shared pain they felt sucked and had [F/N] grovelling on the floor, both hands slapped around her neck as black bleed bled from her face and neck, her veins then started bumping black as they started turning visible “You worthless… imbeciles!” she roared out, the Mind Flayer gifted her and Billy more power since they were the first to turn into his mindless zombies, so their regenerative abilities were superb in comparison to the rest. While Bruce and Tom lay motionless on the floor she picked herself back up, rolling her neck and hearing it crack under the pressure, she leans down to pick the fallen axe up and dragged it behind her to find the two causing them so many problems. 

She was greatly irritated, gripping onto the axe with so much force that the wood started to crack under her hold. Those two had one simple job to do and they failed horrendously to the point that their bodies turned into goop, she heard the sound of panting so she looked over and saw a doctor she thought she had killed, dragging himself along the floor to get to safety. The moment he heard footsteps he thought he was saved so he turned to see his saviour but his face fell at the sight of an enraged [F/N], dragging her axe behind her and leaving a trail of blood behind her. The doctor let out a cry as he tried crawling away again but was stopped when she stomped on his back, she brings the axe above her head and swing it down, landing a clean hit into the back of his skull and killing him. Blood splattered onto her face as she didn’t bother wiping it off, just simply yanked the axe out of his head and continued on with her journey. She was walking down the hall when she saw the goop of what was Tom and Bruce form into the monster, a miniature version of the Mind Flayer.

“Now look what you’ve done with yourself.” she speaks, walking out from the hallway as her body was drenched in a mixture of black and red blood, she then turned her head and a wicked smile spread across her face at the sight of Jonathan “There you are~” she cooed, now standing beside the Mind Flayer as she stared Jonathan down while the monster stared at Nancy.

“[F-F/N]…?” they both stutter out, she giggled to herself, throwing the axe over her shoulder and bounced it lightly.

“The one and only.” she winks at Jonathan then turns towards the monster, lifting the axe up to point at it “You had one job, right? One! And you failed it, immensely. All you had to do was kill them, and you couldn’t even do something so simple to the point you’ve gone and turn yourself into that. Good job, really, good job.” she shook her head in disappointment as the monster lets out a whine, knowing that the original Mind Flayer favours her and Billy over the rest.

“[F/N], w-what have you done?” Nancy whispers out as she looked the older Harrington up and down seeing she was covered in blood that just wasn’t hers as her veins were pumping with black blood “You were flayed? For how long?!” she cries out, she just shrugs.

“Does it matter? You’ll be dead anyways.” she looks back up at the monster and whistles, pointing with her thumb towards Nancy “Get her, I’ll deal with the other one. You won’t have trouble with this, will you?” she chuckles when it lets out a roar and starts charging towards her, she in turn starts marching over to where Jonathan is.

“Shit.”

“Nancy! Run!” she immediately backs into the door to the staircase but let out a panicked cry when sandbags were keeping the door from opening fully, Jonathan starts to panic as well because the monster was quickly closing the distance between the two of them and [F/N] was also getting closer to him. When Nancy manages to break through the door and run away he felt a sense of relief but it didn’t last when [F/N] was on him, he grabs one of the IV poles to defend himself but lets out a grunt when she kicked him in the chest, he evidently falls to the ground because of this.

“I’m really going to enjoy this, I never really liked you anyway, creep.” she lets out a grunt as she tries slamming the axe down on him but he managed to roll away just in time. He’s pushing himself back to get away from [F/N] as she leisurely strides after him, dragging the bloodied axe behind her in an almost taunting way “I don’t even need to do much to influence this body into wanting to kill you, it’s already rather homicidal and her hatred for you and that other girl is pretty deep.” Jonathan manages to push himself onto his feet and starts running away from her but in a way that he was chasing after the monster and Nancy.

“Is this because I beat her brother up and Nancy broke up with him?!” she only shrugs, easily matching his pace as she chased after him.

“Probably, but she was already crazy even before that, I’ve just pushed aside her rationality.” she swings at him again but he ducks out of the way, wincing when the axe made contact with the wall and a crack formed under the impact “Her love for her brother is both her weakness and her strength. She’d do anything for him; anything.” she’s swinging at him left and right, him narrowly dodging out of the way when he’s finally at the hallway where he sees the miniature Mind Flayer at a door that he believes Nancy has locked herself in.

“No, Nancy!” this was his shortcoming when he froze up, watching as the monster lost its physical form to turn back into a state of goop so it could slip under the cracks of the door. He was kicked in the back and fell onto his stomach, he pushes himself onto his back but let out a grunt of pain when she hit him with the butt of the axe, causing him to fall limp onto his back and daze him.

“No more running, little Jonathan. You’re making my job harder than it needs to be, so just sit still,” she starts, raising the axe over her head and smiling crazily down at him “and let me kill you.” she laughs wickedly and finally swings the axe down, having a clean shot to kill Jonathan but the axe is stopped inches away from his face. He gasped, eyes widen in shock as he stared up at the blade while [F/N] in turn was confused, letting out a strained grunt as she tried pushing it down but it wasn’t budging.

“Jonathan!” the two of them whip their heads around and see the party down the hall, El’s hand stretched out a stopping the blade from meeting Jonathan’s face. They all flinch back at the vicious look in [F/N]’s eyes, god, she looked exactly like Billy during the sauna test. El didn’t waste any time as she raised her hand, this motion caused the axe in her hands to move away from Jonathan, and because she was still holding the axe in her hands, El used it to send [F/N] flying back and pin her to the wall with it pressed against her throat, just like Billy.

“Holy shit, she was flayed the whole time!” Lucas shouts as they all rush towards Jonathan to help him up, they all spare [F/N] a glance and saw she was growling at them, letting out a animalistic roar as she pushes against the axe that was keeping her at bay, El in turn was putting more power into keeping [F/N] still “Does that mean she lured us here?!”

“It doesn’t matter now!” Mike shouts, they all shudder when [F/N] starts giggling maniacally “Why the hell are you laughing?!”

“You dumbasses a-are… are exactly where I want you.” Mike shakes his head.

“Really? But aren’t you the one being pinned to the wall right now?” she continues to laugh, her head rolling backwards and resting against the wall behind her. The dark blood pumping through her veins become more visible as she lets out another roar, finally managing to push El’s hold off of her and throw the axe towards them, they all duck out as the way just as she lands on the ground with a heavy thud.

“Jeez, way to go dickwad.” Max sneers at him, [F/N] wipes away the blood dripping down her nose as she leaned down to pick up the fallen axe. She throws her head back, running a hand through her hair as she laughs again, El is panting as she ignores the blood running down her nose.

“What’s so funny?” blood is running down her face and she can’t tell whether it’s hers or not, but she doesn’t care as she looks down at the children, she throws her axe over her shoulders and motions with her eyes to the room behind them.

“Aren’t you forgetting about someone?” at the mention of that they heard a scream, they all turn their heads towards the door and [F/N] laughs once more “I know a fight I can’t win when I see one, so here’s how this is going to go. You lot have two options. Option one, I run away and you lot are given the chance to save Nancy from meeting her inevitable end because you choose to save her instead of chase after me. Or option two, you give up on little Miss Nancy to chase after little ol’ me, this gives you the chance to learn things about where the monster is and what he’s planning on doing, but this also means that Wheeler meets her end. So what’s it gonna be? Are you going to be the hero that saves the damsel in distress, or the hero that sacrifices her to save the world?” she doesn’t wait for them to answer as she’s already running in the opposite direction, El raises her arm to stop her but flinched when she heard Nancy’s cry for help.

“El, leave her! Please, you’ve got to save Nancy! You’ve got to save my sister!” Mike cries out, tears swelling in his eyes when Nancy’s screams got louder, he then desperately tugs on her arm “Please, El! Please!” El’s eyes were still on [F/N]’s retreating figure, growling softly under her breath when she saw the light smirk on her face before she turned the corner and disappeared. [F/N] was pouting softly as she exits the hospital, spinning the axe around her wrists, and was slightly disappointed she couldn’t kill Jonathan or that Nancy. Oh well, there was still plenty of time to get them next ti— she jumped up in surprise when the monster was thrown out of the room and landed right beside her, she looked up from where it fell and saw the lot peering outside the window, she then gives them a two fingered salute before rushing over to her car and driving away as the monster turns itself into goop once more to escape through the sewers.

“… so which one of us is telling Steve?” Lucas murmurs, they all pale at that. Back with [F/N], she finally reaches the factory, letting out a groan as she walks down the stairs to the basement, hand on her neck while rolling her neck as the axe rested on her shoulder.

“You look like hell.” she scoffs at Billy, wiping the blood on her face with the back of her hand.

“I feel like hell. I couldn’t get shit done because the two idiots I brought with me were of no help whatsoever.” the goop that escaped from the hospital the appears, slithering towards the original to merge with it, it grows in size as the two stare up at it.

“It’s time.”

[time skip: the next day]

El sat in front of the TV that was playing nothing but static, a blindfold over her eyes to help her focus on finding where the Mind Flayer could possibly be while the others sat back and watched her overexert herself. She was panting as she tried so hard to keep pushing herself but in the end she couldn’t anymore and ripped the blindfold off her eyes, she now found herself in the kitchen getting a glass of water, gulping it down until the glass was completely empty. The others were discussing what they should do, they could possibly go and find [F/N] but they didn’t want to take the chance on fighting the newly psychopath and she probably wasn’t going to be home, the other option was Billy who definitely was home but him being there was just a trap waiting for them. El set her empty glass on the kitchen counter and let her eyes wander under until they landed on a box of lucky charms, staring at the rainbow, she got bitter flashbacks of her mother but then an idea struck in her head that she went back to the ground.

“It’s too risky.”

“Yeah, and unnecessary. Killing the flayed won’t stop the Mind Flayer. We have to find out where it’s spreading from. We have to find the source.”

“Billy and [F/N] know it.” they all turn to El when she entered the room “They’ve both been there, to the source. She even said that if we went after her and caught her, we could’ve learned where the Mind Flayer was.” Mike shook his head.

“Yeah, but—”

“It’s a trap, I know. We can’t go to Billy or [F/N], but I think there’s another way. A way for me to see where they’ve been.” she’s sat in front of the TV once more with a blindfold over her eyes, concentrating on the static noise coming from the TV. She takes a deep breath and concentrates until she finds herself in the void and in the distance she can see something. As she gets closer she finds herself staring down at Billy and [F/N] sitting beside each other on what she assumes is Billy’s bed, [F/N] had her eyes closed as she rested her head on his shoulder and Billy himself was sitting up straight while staring into nothing. The one thing the two of them were doing was holding each other’s hand, occasionally squeezing, as her other arm was wrapped around her waist as his other hand rested on his knee. El now stood in front of the two, who weren’t completely unaware that she was there, but they both had a feeling that someone was there. El lets out a shaky breath as she reaches down, grabbing both of their free hands “Billy… [F/N]. I want to see. I want to see what happened.” Billy raises his head and [F/N] opens her eyes, El could see the tears in their eyes as they stared up at her, she lets out a gasp when the hands she was holding let go of hers and instead held a tight grip on her forearm. She tries to break free but neither one of them were letting go, their hold on her only tightened as she fought against them but when they did let go of her, she falls back but their memories of everything they’ve done flashed in her head. From [F/N] and Billy killing people, from them kidnapping people, from them hurting people, from the Mind Flayer infecting the two of them, from the very beginning when Billy crashed and [F/N] rushing to come to his aid.

El let out a grunt when she fell onto the concrete sidewalk, she groans as she rubs the back of her head and slowly pushed herself up so her hands were holding her up, she looked around and saw that she was on some random street that she couldn’t recognise but the sun was up and there weren’t many people around, it was practically empty. She finally pulls herself onto her feet and starts walking around, maybe trying to find someone or something she can recognise. She lets out a gasp when she heard laughter so she goes to turn around and see what it was but paused when a young child, a little girl, ran past her laughing to her hearts content. Looking her up and down, she wore a [F/C] sweater and shorts while her hair was tied up with a hair tie that had small little ladybugs on it, the girl laughed again before turning around and waving her hand in the direction El was standing in.

“Stevie, come on! You’re so slow.” El gasps softly and when she turns around she sees the child version of Steve Harrington, he looked to be about ten years of age, pushing a bike where the girl was standing “Didn’t you ask me to teach you how to ride a bike?” Steve pants as he walks past El and towards his older sister.

“You’re not the one pushing the bike [F/N].” he complains, she just rolls her eyes.

“Stop being such a big baby, dingus.” he pouts, El follows them and finds that they’re in some neighbourhood in Hawkins that has smooth terrain for Steve to ride his bike. El smiled softly seeing [F/N] tease Steve while he in turn was crying at her to stop, she did eventually stop when she saw his eyes start getting misty and started pushing his bike. It was quite sweet watching the older Harrington treated her brother rather delicately, he seemed like such a crybaby when he was a kid.

“I-I’m having second thoughts, [F/N].” Steve said to her, his voice barely above a whisper. He was currently on the bike, his hands clutching onto the handles as his feet rested on the pedals, [F/N] stood beside him while holding the back because she knew that he didn’t have the balance to hold himself. She exhaled through her nose, looking him up and down.

“Well, we can always do this another time, not everybody can get it on their first try.” she tries reassuring him but noticed that he still looked upset over the matter, her eyes looked down in thought before she reached over and placed her hand on top of his “Hey, Steve, I’ll be right beside you, alright? I’ll always be with you every step of the way, I promise you that.” Steve sniffles at that, looking down at his sister with teary eyes.

“R-Really?” she nods, a big smile on her face.

“Really, I’ll always be there for you.” seeing her smile made one just as big spread across his lips, he then nods as he looked ahead of them.

“Okay, I can do this.” and as [F/N] promised, she was right beside him to help keep him balanced as he pedalled down the sidewalk, but the moment she noticed that he was doing on his own was when she pulled her arms back and instead ran beside him.

“You’re doing it, Stevie! Look at you go!” she cheered, he took a quick glance at her and saw that he really was doing it on his own, a big smile broke onto his face as he went on. When [F/N] could no longer keep up with him, she stopped running at his pace and let out an exhausted breath as she hunched forward to catch her breath. El approached the young [F/N], looking at her face and there she saw the look of pure love as she watched her brother go, she saw that she completely adored her brother to no ends. El remembered Nancy mentioning how [F/N] would do about anything for her younger brother, it didn’t what it was, it’s just that she would go to great lengths for him. [F/N] gasped and this caused El to stop looking at her and instead back at Steve, who winced when she saw the wheel get caught in something, causing him to fly off the bike “Steve!” she shouts out and immediately rushes to his side, to which he was bawling his eyes out as his knees were bleeding and hands were scrapped.

“It hurts, [F/N]! It hurts so much!” he cries out, [F/N] drops to her knees as she looked him up and down, trying to figure out what to do as he continued sobbing. She then tries to calm him down but it just doesn’t seem to work, nothing she was doing was working and he only seemed to be getting worse, so she starts to cry with Steve. El found it a little funny that the two siblings were crying, Steve because he was hurt and [F/N] because Steve was crying. She never would have imagined that the drunk, depressed and psychotic [F/N] she met the day prior was the same caring little girl she watched before her. When [F/N] did manage to calm down, not enough to stop crying, she picked Steve up and carried him on his back and ran to the closets house, abandoning the bike in favor of someone helping her brother. The person she chose was quite startled to find two crying children at her door step, awkwardly question what was wrong but managed to understand what happened through all the snot and tears [F/N] blubbered out.

[you can skip past this, this is basically her past that I accidentally started to write and I couldn’t fucking stop]

[F/N]’s happiest memory was anything that involved Steve, she was the eldest Harrington child of the Harrington couple. The two of them never wanted a daughter and expected their first child to be a son, but when they got [F/N] instead they didn’t hesitate to have sex again just to conceive another child in hopes of getting a son, and their hopes came true when Steve was born. [F/N] noticed at a young age how her parents favoured Steve over her every time, it didn’t matter what it was, it was always him before her, but she never did care about that, because her parents were just assholes and her baby brother didn’t do anything to deserve the anger she had for their parents to be directed at him. There was just something different between the two of them when they started getting older, they were joined at the hip when they were children but the moment they were in middle school, it was a different story. [F/N] naturally entered middle school before him and she already earned herself a title, the up and rising star of Hawkins Middle School that would surely become the Queen of Hawkins High when she graduates middle school. She was beautiful, a Harrington genetic gift, naturally smart and athletic, very kind and charismatic that she was the person everyone wanted to be with.

So her achievements greatly overshadowed Steve’s to the point that their parents attention moved from him to her, at first she was happy that she got their validation, but noticing how her and Steve were drifting apart and his admiration towards her turned green with envy, she started second guessing all the popularity she gained. It got worse for Steve when he started middle school, he was known as the “other Harrington” that just couldn’t match up to his sister, he was just constantly in her shadow no matter where he went. Constantly being compared to her was like a nightmare to him, he was struggling to finish an English essay? [F/N] would have easily gotten it done in half the time it took him to write a single sentence. He managed to score a three pointer in basketball during P.E? How about winning against Hawkins Middle School’s rivalling team with the most points they’ve seen in years. He didn’t want to be known as the younger brother of [F/N] Harrington, he wanted people to know him as Steve Harrington, but that was never going to happen as long as people knew that he was her brother. [F/N] obviously noticed the treatment her sweet little brother was going through, she tried so hard to talk to him or get people to stop with their bullshit, but that made Steve angrier, he didn’t want her pity.

“Steve, why won’t you talk to me anymore? Please, I just want to make things between us better, like what it used to be when we were children!” she pleads out to him, she flinched back when he slammed his hands down on his desk, whipping his head around to glare at her.

“You want to make things right? Alright, maybe stop being better at everything! Maybe stop being the topic of every conversation people have when they come to talk to me! Maybe just stop being the reason my life is ruined!” he pushes his chair back with his legs as he approaches her “Stop being smart! Stop being pretty! Stop people the centre of attention!” she lets out a grunt when he shoved her back, her stumbling out his room as he reached for the door “Maybe just stop being my sister altogether!” he finished and slammed the door in her face, she continued to stand where he left her as she stared at his door, she let out choked up noises as tears glistened in her eyes before finally sniffling and walking away.  That was definitely the last time the two of them properly spoke with each other and no matter how many times she tried to work things out, how hard she tried to make things better, he just never gave her the time of day to hear her out. Her graduation from middle school to high school was probably her worst day because Steve didn’t even want to be there and only came because their parents would be more disappointed in him if he didn’t come to support his sister, and for him it was probably a great day because it meant that he didn’t have to see his sister the following year at all. If she didn’t do anything soon she was possibly going to lose Steve, so staring at her reflection she stared at herself and couldn’t help but hate she was looking at. She never felt like she was looking at herself, just looking at the person her parents made her out to be without her ever being able to properly find herself. She wanted to change, she wanted to be different from the person she saw in the reflection, and there was just one person that could possibly help her.

“Eddie Munson!” she screamed at the top of lungs at the trailer park, she knew the bastard was home, telling how the lights in his trailer were on. Eddie “the Freak” Munson was her polar opposite in middle school and a boy who was in the same year as she was. She remembered first seeing him during their middle school’s talent show with how him and his band “Corroded Coffin” performed heavy metal, it was very loud and a little disorganised, but it was pretty good in her opinion. She met Eddie on a few occasions but each time weren’t really pleasant, mostly because he spoke to her as if she didn’t know how the world worked since she was a privileged little girl that got everything she wanted. She didn’t know what hurt more, the fact that he isn’t entirely wrong or that it was him that woke her up. Eddie opened the door to the trailer and was surprised to see [F/N] standing there, so with his usual cocky attitude, he crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe.

“Well what do we have here? What can this jester do for her majesty, [F/N] “the Queen” Harrington?” he cooed, [F/N] didn’t bother to say anything and just went straight to the point.

“I need your help.”

“And what can little ol’ me do for you?”

“I need you to make me look like you.” now he was a little thrown off at the request, the one and only girl that everybody loves and has everything at the palm of her hand, was asking for his help in making her… look like him? She noticed that he was confused so she raised her hand, she goes to speak but a chill ran up her spine when a burst of wind blew through her body “Can I come in? I’m fucking freezing.” her swearing was even more startling, [F/N] was prim and proper and wasn’t know for using such vulgar language, and yet here she was.

“O-Oh, yeah, of course.” and that’s where Eddie found himself holding a box of tissues for [F/N] as she told him everything that happened during her year in middle school, bawling her eyes out as she told him that her worst fear was possibly coming true “So, let me get this straight… you want me, to make you look like me so that your parents and possibly others start viewing in a different way and that people will start liking your brother?” she sniffles, nodding her head.

“Yeah, that’s pretty much it.” he sucks in a breath, running a hand through his growing hair after growing through his buzz cut.

“I don’t know if I find that endearing that you came to me for help or insulting that you came to me for help.” she gave him an apologetic look “But I see where you’re coming from, female Harrington. You don’t want people to see you in a positive light and if they hate you enough they’ll draw their attention towards the better Harrington.” she nods her head.

“That’s exactly what I want.” he lets out a startled yelp when she grabbed his hand, holding it in between her own and gave him a desperate look “I’ll do anything to drift the attention away from me and give it to him, I won’t care how people view me as long as they stop making my brother feel even worse than he already feels. I want to be there beside him instead of on the sidelines.” he inhales sharply, this really wasn’t what he was expecting to happen on a Saturday night.

“Well… alright.” she lights up, a big smile on her face “But I want no complaining from you, alright? The moment you start doubting anything I do, I’m gonna give up on you,” she nods her head at the terns he set.

“Of course, totally!” she stands up, still holding his hand, and shakes it rather vigorously “If this works, I owe you big time, Munson.”

And being a man of his word, on the first day of her high school year, the soft and kind [F/N] was nowhere to be seen. Instead Hawkins High was met with the new and improved Harrington that wore leather or denim and had several piercings that were definitely not done by a professional, she even wore dark make up instead of the light or natural one. To say everyone was shocked would be an understatement, everyone was in disbelief when she pulled up to school in such attire but it was the fact that she was with Eddie Munson of all people! They were laughing about and talking as if they have been best friends since they were children, even his group of friends were in on the deal of making her less popular so she wasn’t seen without being with Eddie and his group of freaks. Her entire personality was a total flip as well, from the well spoken and polite young lady turned to a rude and vulgar woman who’s attitude was the worst that people couldn’t stand being with her. The teachers couldn’t believe what they were seeing either, she was once a straight A student but now she was barely passing with D+ and C-’s.

She learnt everything from Eddie, and she was always grateful for him because she actually felt free. Being with him and his group of friends was so relaxing because she didn’t have to worry about how she looked and how she acted anymore, she could actually properly be herself. Listening to heavy metal and screaming at the top of her lungs, smoking weed and laying on the floor of his trailer, letting him ramble on and on about some fantasy game called D&D, she didn’t care, it felt nice to actually have real friends instead of those people leeching off of her. But that didn’t matter, well it did, but what really mattered was the fact that it was working. People didn’t want to be associated with the former Queen who now hung around with the freaks and because she was barely pulling her weight in school and was constantly failing, her parents were absolutely livid with her.

“What has gotten into you, [F/N]? You were never like this leading up to this year! It’s all because you’ve been hanging around that Munson boy! He’s not a good influence on you!” she just rolled his eyes as her mother shouts all sorts of nonsense at her, both her mother and father have cornered her and sat her down to have a proper talk with her.

“Not only that, but you’re failing every single one of your classes! You’re barely getting marks above F’s, and at this rate, you’re not even going to pass at the end of your senior year! You’re sullying the Harrington name, [F/N]! I thought we raised you better than this.” she scoffs this time, leaning back into the sofa as she crossed her arms.

“Well I’m sorry for not being mummy and daddy’s perfect little princess anymore, but if you’re not going to accept the me I am today, then why the fuck should I pull my weight anymore? Besides, you still have your perfect little golden child Stevie to take my place if I ever go too far.” she snickers to herself when they continued to yell at her, telling her to that this rebellious act of hers better come to an end or she will face consequences, to which she just laughed in their faces before shoving past them and out the front door where Eddie was waiting for her with his shitty van.

“Dude, we could hear the shouting all the way from out here!” Gareth exclaims, throwing open the back doors for her to jump in, to which she laughed as she took Jeff’s hand as he helped her in “They sounded really angry, you alright?” she just shrugged.

“Honestly I could give less of a shit at what they’re saying, but it’s definitely working, I can just feel them ready to disown me and label me as the family disappointment, I’m just waiting for it now.” Eddie laughs from the drivers seat, glancing back at her.

“You’re crazy.” she winks with a click of her tongue.

“I have you to thank.” they all laugh as he drives to the Quarry.

Steve was completely baffled when people started treating him differently. For some reason he was now known as the better Harrington, the one that didn’t stray from the path of righteousness, or whatever the hell that meant, but it felt good that every topic wasn’t about his sister anymore. Well, when his sister was brought up, it was to tell him how awful it was to now be related to the psycho apart of Eddie Munson’s group of friends. When Steve first saw [F/N]’s transformation and change of behaviour, he didn’t believe it until he saw the way she now argued with everything their parents said. She never used to fight back against them, she would usually just nod and agree with anything they said, but not anymore. Now their parents were looking at him again, telling him they expected great things from him, how he was the new light of the Harrington family and that he was better than his good for nothing sister. As for [F/N], she was happy to see that her brother was finally getting that popularity he deserved and it didn’t matter that she had hell to pay for such a cost, all that mattered to her was that Steve wasn’t bitter having to go to school anymore.

She didn’t care that people insulted her.

She didn’t care that her parents hated her.

If Steve was happy, that’s all that mattered.

Sitting on the hood of her car, [F/N] had blood running down her nose and a bruise forming on the side of her cheek, knuckles torn and bloodied as her clothes were a little disheveled. The bruise on her cheek was given to her during an altercation with her father once again, this time he couldn’t stand her attitude and backhanded her clean across the face hard enough to give her a nose bleed. She didn’t see an ounce of regret on his face and not even her mother did anything to stop anything from escalating, she couldn’t take staying in that house any longer and just left without another word. Her knuckles bleeding were from her brutally punching a brick wall until she physically couldn’t close her knuckles anymore and just tired herself out until she sat on the hood of her car while smoking a cigarette to calm herself down.

“… fuck.” she muttered under her breath, she was totally going to Eddie’s trailer to get high and drunk to the point she couldn’t remember who the fuck she was. When she finally decided she was done, she hopped off the hood of her car and snuffed out her cigarette, getting to ready to jump into her car but paused when she heard her name.

“[F/N]!” she was confused when she saw Steve rushing over to her, she was confused as to why he was there.

“Steve?” she called out, she really didn’t want to deal with him right now be decided to stick it out to see what he had to say “What do you want? Don’t you have basketball practice going on right now?” he scoffed, shaking his head as he looked her up and down, wincing when he saw her bloodied knuckles.

“I don’t give a shit about that.” he reaches for her hand but flinched back when pulled her hand back.

“Why are you here? Don’t you have better things to do than deal with me?” he swallows the saliva in his throat, not liking the tired look in his sisters eyes.

“I-I’m here because I’m worried about you, I just— I don’t understand why you’re acting like this, [F/N]. You’re nothing like the way you were in middle school, what happened to her? Why did you suddenly change? Why are you so different now, [F/N]? I just don’t understand.” he shakes his head as he remembered back to the year prior when his sister first changed, the once quiet house was now filled with arguing and shouting matches between her and their parents to the point that Steve couldn’t handle it “Why are you like this, [F/N]! You had everything and then suddenly you threw it all away because of what? What?! Why did you do it?! What was it?!” Steve didn’t understand why he was yelling at his sister, he usually wouldn’t raise his voice like this and especially not when his sister was bleeding because of their father, but he just needed to quell his curiosity as to why his sister would do such a thi—

“I did it for you, Steve!” she shouts, he was taken aback, what? “I threw away everything for you! The popularity! The attention! Mum and dad’s respect, everything! I gave up everything because I saw how my popularity was affecting you! I couldn’t stand the thought that my brother was feeling the way he was in middle school all because people couldn’t see past me whenever they were with you. I hated the fact that we aren’t as close as we were when we were children, so I thought, if I act differently to what people are used to, then maybe people will start liking Steve Harrington instead of his older sister. And look at that, it worked! It actually worked, because people fucking hate me now and they adore you! You’re the Harrington that isn’t a fuck up!” [F/N] hadn’t realised she started crying until she felt the tears running down her face instead of blood, she pulls back and quickly wiped away the tears, grunting out in pain when she clenched her fists.

“B-But… why? Why would you do that?” Steve stuttered out, not believing she would do something like that, she just rolled her eyes before throwing her arms open at him.

“You said it yourself, Steve! I asked what I had to do to make things right, and you listed everything off! I had to stop being better at everything, I had to stop being the topic of every conversation, I had to stop being smart, I had to stop being pretty, I had to stop being the centre of attention! I did everything! I did everything you asked! Now all that’s left is to stop being your sister!” god, the fact that she remembered everything while he didn’t had Steve start tearing up, she had to tear her eyes away from him to stop her urges to comfort him, she takes a breath and jabs her finger into his chest “I gave you what you wanted, so I hope you’re satisfied with what you’re given. I’m only waiting for mum and dad to fulfil you’re last request and maybe then you’re ruined life will be magically fixed.”

“[F-F/N], I’m sorry— I didn’t—” she raised her hands, rubbing her sleeve under her nose.

“Save it.” she sniffles as she turns her back “Go home, Steve. I’ll stay out of your life as long as you want. Wouldn’t want to ruin the perfect life you’ve accumulated since I’ve fallen from my grace.” with that she leaves Steve standing all alone, feeling even more worse when she finally saw those tears run down his face.

That… that was her worst memory that she regrets.

She regrets shouting at him.

She regrets making him cry.

She regrets that she hurt him and left him alone.

[yeah, that’s all I’ll write for her backstory. I definitely had more to write, but it’s gotten too long and I want to get back to the main plot]

El tears off the blindfold, panting heavily after finally leaving the memories of Billy and [F/N] when she found the location of where the Mind Flayer was located. She looks around to see no one in sight, she was all alone in the cabin despite hearing their voices not to long ago.

“Mike?” she calls out but got no answer, she repeatedly called out his name again but was left unanswered until another voice spoke up.

“He can’t hear you.” turning her head, she gasps when she sees Billy emerge from out of one of the rooms “You shouldn’t have looked for me. Because now I see you. We can all see you. You… let us in. And now… you are going to have to let us stay.” as the Mind Flayer speaks through Billy, he’s slowly approaching El as she backs away from him in tears, she’s gasps when someone was right behind her.

“Don’t you see?” looking over her shoulder she saw that it was [F/N] with that same psychotic grin on her face, leaning over the couch El backed herself into but quickly pushed herself off to get away from her “We’ve been building it… for you. All this time, we’ve been building it. All that work, all that pain… all of it, for you.” the two of them now stood together, eyes misty as they held each other’s hand.

“And now it’s time. Time to end it. We are going to end you. And when you are gone, we are going to end your friends. And then we are going to end… everyone.” they speak in unison and before they could do anything, El screams at the top of her lungs as she throws her hand out towards them, sending them flying back to where they came from, and so the two of them woke up exactly where El found them in Billy’s room. [F/N] had a sad look on her face as she lifted herself off of Billy’s shoulder, neither one of them said a word as they sat in silence and squeezed each other’s hand.

“This sucks.”

[starcourt mall]

It all happened so fast. One moment they’re being attacked at Hopper’s cabin, next thing they know they’re hiding out at the Starcourt Mall because Billy had somehow managed to find them and was waiting out for them in his busted up Camaro. [F/N] was nowhere in sight and they didn’t know what terrified them the most, the fact that she was just lurking around waiting for them or that Billy was ready to run them over without a second thought. Hiding in the mall didn’t go as well as they thought, because the next thing they knew was that the Mind Flayer was right on top of them and broke through the skylight, landing right where they were and was now in search for El. The group consisting of Nancy, Johnathan, Lucas and Will somehow managed to escape and were hurriedly trying to replace their stolen ignition cable, their hearts beginning to race at the sound of Billy’s engine revving.

“Shit!”

“Get the car started, go!” Nancy cocks her gun as Jonathan jumps into the drivers seat to start the car, Nancy raises the gun and aims it towards Billy. She doesn’t back down when he starts driving towards her, she narrows her eyes as she starts firing at him, the others are panicking as she’s shooting at his already shattered windscreen that’s doing little to no damage as he continues to get closer and closer to her. The moment her gun ran out of ammunition was when she started to panic, she looks between the gun and Billy before ducking down and curling up against the car despite knowing that was going to do little to nothing to suppress the pain of getting smashed against the car but was surprised when Steve, in a different car, rammed right into the side of Billy’s Camaro. Both he and Robin grunt out in pain at the impact but were both pretty much okay, Robin looked up at Steve and saw that he had a panicked look on his face due to the fact that his boyfriend almost killed his ex and in order to stop him from doing that he crashed a car into him.

“Steve, are you alright?” she asks him, he’s panting as he continued to stare at Billy’s unconscious body laying limp in his car.

“Ask me tomorrow.” their gaze then goes upwards when they heard snarling, Robin gasps in shock to see the disgusting fleshy monster dubbed as the Mind Flayer on top of the Starcourt Mall, they whip their heads around when they heard the honk of the other car pull up beside them.

“Get in!” the Mind Flayer was quick to give chase but paused when a new pair of headlights flashed on, it decided she could take care of them. Johnathan thinks they’re in the clear, the Mind Flayer isn’t in sight as they’re driving away but he wasn’t taking any chances as he continued to high tail it away from the mall. He spares a glance back at Will and saw he was gently caressing the back of his neck, he was close, and he just wasn’t showing himself.  “What the hell was that thing back there?!” Robin shouts, pointing out the car in the direction they just fled.

“I’m guessing that was the Mind Flayer, and that was the body made of the flesh of various dead people?” Steve sums up as he looks at the other four, to which they all nod their heads to confirm what he said “Great, I can’t wait to get back home and explain to my sister why I was gone and why my face is beaten up. Hopefully she doesn’t go on a murder spree upon seeing my face.” the four of them wincing didn’t go unnoticed, even Robin flinched hearing the mention of his sister.

“Um… about that, actually…” Lucas starts, rubbing the back of his neck “Your sister, uh— she’s kind of um, like…” Lucas peeks back at Steve and felt a chill run down his spine, Steve was wearing an expression that he normally never wore. His expression was a mixture of concern and slight anger, concern for the safety and well-being on his older sister and anger that something has happened to his sister while he was trapped in an elevator then tortured by Russians.

“What’s wrong with my sister?” Nancy licks her lips, not really sure where to begin on the matter of his older sister.

“Steve, your sister…” she sighs, running a hand through her hair “Your sister, kind of…” Steve was getting more irritated over the fact that they weren’t telling him, he grits his teeth as he glared at them.

“What’s wrong with my sister?!” he shouts this time in hopes it’ll get them to spit it out, Will lets out a shuddered breath when he felt a tingle in his neck, he glances backwards and saw a flash of someone’s high beams hit them. They all turn around to see what it was and the roar of a car engine slowly gaining on them made their hearts drop into their stomachs when they recognised the car, Steve and Robin look out through the back window and their eyes widened when they saw the familiar license plate “[F/N]…?” he manages to mutter out then let out a grunt when the car rear ended them.

“Shit! Jonathan!” he curses under his breath as he changes gear to create some distance between them and her but their car was nothing in comparison to her mustang because she caught up to them easily, each time she made sure to rear end them. When she noticed nothing was happening she pulled back a little just so she was now driving beside them, they all turn to look at her but Steve and Robin were the most shocked because they haven’t seen her like this. Deranged looking, eyes bloodshot and teary as her body was sweating uncontrollably while her veins were pumping black ooze throughout her entire body.

“You wanna know what’s wrong with her?!” Lucas shouts, letting out a scream when [F/N] drives the side of her car into theirs “She’s been flayed by the Mind Flayer and this entire week she’s been kidnapping people and offering them to the Mind Flayer, and not too long ago she killed a bunch of people at the hospital and nearly killed Nancy and Jonathan! There, now you know!” Will smacks Lucas for the way he said it, gesturing to Steve and saw how the boy looked confused and scared. What confused them was that Robin shared the same expression, Lucas said that she was under that things control for about a week, so does that mean…

“Wait, you’re telling me that the whole reason she’s been acting different— that she’s acting like that, is because that monster we saw before brainwashed her?!” Will nods his head, she slumps back in the back as she recalls how [F/N] was acting when she broke up with her. She knew that there was something wrong with her but she just couldn’t pin just what was wrong, her eyes had lost their usual shine and she was avoiding eye contact with her, refusing to. It felt like she was talking to someone entirely different, and all that was true, that person from before was not her girlfriend but an imposter in her body. Robin looks at Steve and saw his eyes never left [F/N], she had a crazy smile on her face as she stared Jonathan down “Steve…” she mumbles.

“What did it do to you, [F/N]?” he’s only ever seen that look on her face maybe once or twice, and that was when she was getting some sick pleasure out of beating the shit out of a few high school kids that picked on him, she was crazy like that, but she made sure not to make that face again whenever he was present because it was a little unsettling “That’s… that’s not my sister, that’s not [F/N]. Is this— is this also happening to Billy?” they nod.

“They were together when it happened.” that just made things worse, it must have happened just after they left Robin’s. Was that why [F/N] was sick that morning? Oh my god, it was happening right under their noses and neither of them noticed. Jonathan steadies the car again when [F/N] rams hers into them again but let out a confused noise when she suddenly stopped, he glances over at her and saw she was looking ahead of them. He watched in confusion when she drove ahead of them then turned around but stopped in the middle of the road, Jonathan slams on the breaks to stop them from going any further and there the two of them are staring each other down.

“Jonathan…” Nancy mutters, not a single one of them breaking eye contact with [F/N], Jonathan takes a breath as he grips the stirring wheel, swallowing thickly every time he hears [F/N] rev her engines as her car jerks forward. [F/N] was no longer in control, no matter how hard she was trying to fight the Mind Flayer for control it was no use and she was locked inside her own body as she watched it move on its on accord. A dark grin was adorn on her face, watching closely to what Jonathan was going to do next. Was he going to back up and continue this game of cat and mouse? Was he going to play a game of chicken instead? Both options sounded fun to her, but she decided it was going to be her to choose for him because she pushes the handbrake down and slams on the gas and exhilarates forward “Jonathan!”

“I know!” he fumbles with the gear but switches it to drive and starts driving towards her as well, he had a plan in his head to swerve out of the way just at the nick of them, but he failed to inform the others as he kept getting closer and closer. Steve looked between Jonathan and sister and he couldn’t calm down, he could only think of how bad the collision will have on [F/N]. He was always like this, worrying for his sister than for his own well-being, just like her worrying for Steve rather than herself. Like brother like sister. Neither one of them were slowing down to the point [F/N] was laughing hysterically, changing gears to go fast enough to kill them and quite possibly herself. Well, if she hurt herself it didn’t matter, the Mind Flayer can heal her body no matter how severely injured her body gets.

“Jonathan, what are you doing?!” Will shouts at his brother.

“Relax, I know what I’m doi—” he was cut off when Steve pulls himself out from the back, reaching past Will and Lucas for the handbrake “Steve— what are you doing?!”

“I’m sorry, Jonathan! But you’d honestly do the same.” he pulls the brake up and the car instantly starts to drift, Jonathan tries to regain control while Nancy smacks Steve’s hands off the handbrake but they were too late when [F/N]’s mustang hit the side of their car, luckily. They spin off the road while [F/N] came to a stop in the middle of the road, she didn’t expect that outcome but she was happy that it was in her favor, she guesses Steve doesn’t want to hurt her either. Such a loving little brother.

“I didn’t think things were gonna be this easy, honestly. Even Billy’s having a hard time.” she snickers softly and looks in the rear view mirror, pouting softly when she noticed a small cut on her forehead that was bleeding a little. With a shrug, she swipes her thumb over it and grins when it healed up instantly. Kicking her door open, she steps out then leaned in to grab the axe sitting in her passenger seat and doesn’t bother turning her car off as she starts approaching the other car, throwing the axe over her shoulder and continuously bounced it while whistling a song. Jonathan lets out a groan, clutching his forehead after his head took the force of the airbags that deployed, he really was going to kill Steve later for this, but he couldn’t help but understand what Steve was going through. Not too long ago it was his brother that was under the Mind Flayer’s control and now it’s Steve’s sister that didn’t even know this shit was going on in the first place, oh the irony. He whips his head around when he heard Nancy let out a scream, they all look over to see that it was [F/N] “Yoohoo~ open the door.”

“Fuck no!” Nancy promptly locks the door to emphasise her point but [F/N] just rolled her eyes, pulling her fist back then punching through the door then proceeded the tear it off. Nancy doesn’t hesitate to push herself away from [F/N] just as she leans into the car, her eyes scanning through the many occupants inside but she let out a sigh when she didn’t see the one they were after.

“She’s not here.” she muttered under her breath, probably informing the Mind Flayer that El was still at the mall and not with the others that fled. She was going to leave it at that, the Mind Flayer was calling her back, but those feelings for what Nancy fucking Wheeler did to her brother started to resurface, and that’s where she found herself grabbing Wheeler by her hair and dragging her out of the car.

“Nancy!”

“Nancy, no!” Nancy cries out in pain from the roots of her hair being violently tugged on, the pain gets worse when [F/N] slams the side of her face onto the hood of the car and holds her there.

“[F/N], please… don’t do this. You don’t want to do this.” [F/N] lets out a hum, looking up in thought before nodding her head.

“No, no, that’s where you’re wrong. You have absolutely no idea how much I want to do this; how much I really want to kill you with my own hands.” Nancy starts to tremble, tears swelling up in her eyes when [F/N] raises her free hand that was holding the axe, seeing the dried blood splatter all over the blade and some on the shaft “I’ll pay your little brother a visit after I’m done with you, I’m sure he’ll be happy seeing your decapitated head mounted on a stick.” before she could bring the axe down she’s being pulled back by Jonathan and Steve, Nancy falls to the ground as Robin goes around and tries to pry the axe out of her hands.

“[F/N], please… stop this! This isn’t like you to go this far!” Steve pleads. Steve knew his sister was strong, but right now was just plain ridiculous, it was taking both himself and Jonathan putting their entire weight to keep her from moving but even that wasn’t enough. She lets out an animalistic growl as she lets go off the axe and letting Robin stumble backwards, she throws Steve off next and hunches forward to lift Jonathan off the ground as she grabs his arms that were wrapped around her neck and proceeds to throw him over her, this also causes him to tear her jacket off but she could care less about it. She sets her sights on Robin and doesn’t hesitate to punch her across the face, Steve goes to stand up to reprimand [F/N] again but let out a grunt when she kicked him down and grabbed the axe that she managed to catch. His breath gets caught in his throat as he watched [F/N] swing the axe over her shoulder and it comes down as quickly as it was raised, he wants to raise his arms to shield his face but what can that do? With tears in his eyes, he looks up at his sister with pleading eyes and there— there he saw a flash of color return to her eyes, a flash of regret and confusion when they met his. He saw a glimpse of his sister inside those eyes that were fighting back against the Mind Flayer, but he knew she couldn’t hold it for long but he was grateful for the time given because she redirected the blade aiming for his face into the side of the car. He flinches at the impact, watching as the car rocked back and forth before finally settling down. His sister is now panting above him, staring down at him with a slightly less hostile expression, but he knew she wasn’t herself yet, her eyes were still in a dazed state while her veins were still black “[F/N]…” he whimpers out, all he wants is his sister back.

“S-Stevie…?” she croaks out, he gasps at her voice whispering out to him but soon her face twists in pain. She pulls away, pressing the heels of her hands into her forehead to fight against the aching pain the Mind Flayer was inflicting on her, fighting for dominance within her head and it managed to win because now she was fleeing the scene and back to her car. She did hesitate to leave, her eyes glancing back at the others that were slowly picking themselves off the floor, but she shook her head before driving back to the Starcourt mall.  “Welp, that hurt,..” Robin groaned out, holding her cheek as some blood pulled up in her mouth “I can’t believe she hit me.”

“She… she didn’t mean it.” Steve muttered, hand over his chest. 

“But I don’t understand.” Robin says rather bitterly “Why didn’t she kill you? She was clearly going to do it, but she stopped at the last second.” Jonathan let out a groan as he pushed himself onto his feet, his hand clutching tightly onto the jacket he tore off her body before he was thrown off.

“Back at the hospital, the Mind Flayer said… it said that Steve was both her weakness and her strength. She got more violent with Nancy and I because of what happened in 83, but once she saw Steve it settled, even if it was for a brief moment.” Steve continued to lay on the ground, his hand instinctively reached up to caress his cheek as memory flashed in his mind. He was remembering back to a time where [F/N] punched him across the face because he was basically screaming at her to punch him, he didn’t expect her to actual do it because she swore that she’d never hurt him, but she did.

“W-Why— why’d you hit me?” he whimpered out, tears being to swell in his eyes as he cradled his swelling check, to which she just sighed while rolling her eyes and placing her hands on her hips.

“You told me to, and besides, you were acting like a shit so you definitely deserved it.” his lip trembled and a small sob escaped his lips, she rolls her eyes again and smacks him in the shoulder “I hope you know that this goes for show that I’ll practically do anything for you, Stevie. But this will be the first and only time I’ll hurt you like this, mmkay? You’ve been acting a little entitled these past few weeks and you needed a little wake up call. Your arrogance will be your undoing one of these days, so don’t let it go to your head. I won’t be around to wake you up next time.” he sniffles, raising his hands to wipe away the falling tears.

“I promise, as long as you promise not to hit me like that again.” she chuckles softly, wiping away his tears.

“I promise. From today, I’ll never hurt you like that ever again, not even if you deserve it.” she starts to laugh when she ruffled his hair and he cried out in horror, screaming at her that she ruined his hair, she just continued to laugh as she ran away from him whilst he screamed bloody murder.

“[F/N]…” he starts tearing up but held them back when a hand was offered to him, he saw that it was Robin wearing [F/N]’s discarded jacket.

“Get up, Harrington. We’re gonna save your sister, and when we do, I’m gonna give her a proper ass whoppin!” driving back to the Starcourt mall they sat in silence, Jonathan breaking all the road laws as he sped down road in the car that was hanging onto its life by a thread. Steve raised his eyes from where he sat and saw Robin digging her face into the fabric of [F/N]’s jacket, he noticed that she was thinking about something because she had a look on her face that was debating whether or not she should speak or not “… she broke up with me.” this caused his body to straighten up, even the others in the car peeked back to listen in on the conversation, rude.

“What do you mean she broke up with you? W-Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” she let out a sigh, blinking back the tears that were slowly swelling up in her eyes.

“I guess it was because of that Mind Flayer, or whatever the fuck that thing is. I think she was in the middle of choosing that things latest meal, because I caught her in an alleyway letting a girl kiss her. It was when I went to go look for the blueprints.” Steve gasps softly at that, so that’s why she looked so dejected when she came back “I couldn’t recognise her, she stared at me with these cold, dead eyes and the way she spoke to me… I felt so scared being there. I wish I knew, I wish I knew she was going through that and then maybe I could’ve helped her. Maybe I wouldn’t have felt so angry at her that she broke up with me, left me in that alleyway all alone— and for what? To protect me? So she wouldn’t have to hurt me ever more than she did by breaking my heart? She even threatened me if I told you, saying you wouldn’t believe me because I’m nothing but your coworker while she’s your sister.” she sniffles to herself, wiping away the tears that fell from her eyes, she spared Steve a look but flinched a little. He now wore a very livid expression, Robin became a really close friend to Steve after he and his sister got together and they became closed after their encounter with the Russian soldiers under the mall, so hearing how his flayed sister threatened and broke up with her pissed him off.

“If you don’t kick her ass, I’ll kick it for you. But first, we’ve got to find her and Billy and free them from the control of the Mind Flayer. Whether you forgive her or not, that’s up to you, but she’s still my sister.”  “What about Billy?”  “I hope he can forgive me for totalling his camaro.” they stare at each other and laugh weakly, Robin now rested her forward on his shoulder and let her hands dip into the pockets but she hummed in confusion when she felt something. Pulling it out, her breath hitched when she pulled out the photo of the four of them at the fair. Steve felt her body tremble so he looked down and he himself flinched at the photo, seeing that photo almost felt like yesterday. Steve wished he could go back to the time where the other three were clueless about the Upside Down; clueless about the true horrors of Hawkins and that he was the only one who knew the truth. Where his sister was madly in love with his friend, where his boyfriend was in the safety of his arms, where none of this was happening on the first place and that the four of them were having their weekly sleepover at the Harrington household.

Man, what a distant memory.

[starcourt mall]

[F/N] arrives right on time, finding Billy pushing himself off of El just as the Mind Flayer descends from the skylight. El was regaining her consciousness as the blur of the monster slowly registered in her mind, [F/N] wordlessly stands beside Billy and reached over to take his hand into hers. He doesn’t spare her a glance and neither does she, and though they were still under the influence of the monster in front of them, the two of them squeezed each others hand to let each other know that they were still in there. The Mind Flayer is paying the two of them no mind, slowly approaching the small child to devour her, rid the last obstacle in its way, when something blew up in its face. Billy and [F/N] cry out in pain at the blow, sharing the pain with the Mind Flayer, blow after blow Billy and [F/N] grovel to their knees in pain as the Mind Flayer roared at the intruders. [F/N] peeked through his hands and saw the lot she nearly killed had followed quickly after her, how she never noticed them was beyond her, but she was going to finish what she started.

Deal with them.

Finish the job.

Make no mistakes.

“Shut up…” she growled out, managing to push herself onto her feet and towards the escalator to where their unwanted guests were, leaving Billy to watch over El. Of course none of them were expecting to see [F/N] on them, they were all to preoccupied laying waste to the Mind Flayer to notice that she was there. Lucas was the first to suffer at her mercy, the others heard his cry for help and immediately turned to see where he was, watching in shock when they saw [F/N] turn him around and strike him across the face that he fell to the ground after spitting out blood from his mouth,

“Lucas!” next was Will, who was unfortunate to be within arms length because she did not hesitate to raise the axe and hit him with the butt if the axe and knock him unconscious “Will!” Jonathan screams out and was ready to drop everything to help his brother but was stopped when Nancy grabbed his arm, pulling him back and shaking her head.

“No, no! Jonathan, I understand what you’re going through, but no! She will kill your the moment you’re within her grasp, she’s not letting us go this time.” he shakes his head.

“I don’t care! I need to get Will!” he cries out and rips his arm free from Nancy’s hold but stopped when he saw Steve and Robin already rushing over to stop [F/N] from going any further with the children, Nancy grabs his arm again and tugs at it to get his attention.

“Steve and Robin will deal with her, we’ll keep the Mind Flayer distracted, alright? Steve won’t let anything happen to your brother.” speaking of which, the Mind Flayer’s anger was beginning to mix in with her own, anger for the previous host that managed to slip through its grasp. Placing her foot on Will’s chest, she raises the axe up to slam it down but was once again stopped when it was smacked out of her hands, she growls at the perpetrator and saw that it was Robin, who had her hands out in front of her to keep some distance between her and [F/N].

“[F/N], baby, please… it’s me, it’s Robin.” she pleads, she flinches and takes a step back when [F/N] pushed herself off of Will but kicked his unconscious body away to approach Robin “Whatever this thing has done to you; has made you do, I want you to know that this isn’t your fault, none of it is. You’re just as innocent as the next person is, and I want you to know that I… I forgive you. Everything you said in the alleyway, I know you didn’t mean any of it. I want you to know that I still love you, through everything that’s happened, I love you.” Robin felt hopeful when she saw [F/N]’s hardened gaze soften, maybe she was caught up in her delusions of freeing her mind that she reached for her hand, that was her mistake because her hand quickly grabbed a hold of Robin to keep her from moving and with her other hand sucker punched her straight in the gut so hard that she spat out saliva. She didn’t let when Robin gasped out of breath, collapsing to her knees as she hunched over and clutched her stomach.

“I care not for your words, they mean nothing to me. Didn’t I already tell you that?” Robin lets out a sob at her cold words, wishing nothing more than to feel the warmth she once had only for her, but she could only cry out in pain when [F/N] twisted her arm “You’ve lost your chance of staying away, so I hope you’re prepared for the consequences.”

“Hey!” turning her head, she was taken aback when Steve came rushing over and slammed the bottom of a fire extinguisher into her face. She let out a gasp at the sudden blow, letting Robin go as her head was thrown back after the impact, she then raised her hand to cradle her throbbing nose as Steve’s arm dropped due to the weight of the extinguisher “You need to stop this madness, [F/N], I beg of you. I need you back, I need my big sister back!” he takes a step back when she growled at him but her face screwed up in pain once more, a mixture from getting hit with a fire extinguisher, the fireworks the Mind Flayer was getting hit with, but also [F/N] fighting for dominance over her mind once more.

He’s lying to you.

He doesn’t need you.

You don’t need him.

“Please, let’s just go home. With Robin and Billy, we’ll go home and watch movies like we used to. Talk about how much we hate our parents, how much we hate Hawkins and how we’ll leave as soon as Robin and Billy graduate. We’ll be together, like we always have. Just you, and me.” [F/N) groans out in pain, shaking her head as she slapped her hands against her forehead to quell all the madness that was going on “Just come back to me, my big sister.” Steve takes a step forward, reaching for her but gasped when she punched him in the face.

“Shut up!” she screamed at him, she struggled to stay standing whilst clutching her throbbing head.

Destroy him.

Annihilate him.

Murder him.

Kill him.

Steve couldn’t remember what happened next, first he was struggling to keep himself standing, the next thing he knew he was barely clinging to consciousness as he laid on his back while he suffered continuous blows to his face. [F/N] was currently on top of him, screaming at the top of her lungs as she punched him left and right, holding nothing back as she delivered blow after blow. At this right she was definitely going to kill him, but she just couldn’t stop herself, this time not pulling her punches and putting all her strength into each one. She saw him weakly reach out to her but she merely smacked his hand away then grab him by the collars of his shirt to pull him forward, reeling her head back to slam her forehead into the bridge of his nose. Blood gurgled in his throat and he was questioning why he was still conscious, wishing nothing more then for this continuous chain of pain to end, but he knew his sister was in a lot more pain. Weakly opening his eyes, he saw the pain in her eyes as she unwillingly hurt her sweet little brother that used to cry at the drop of a hat, so he reached for her once more when she held him up by his shirt as her other hand was pulled back.

“We… we were kids.” she furrowed her brows in confusion, what nonsense was he spouting out now? “We were k-kids and you were tea— teaching me to ride my bike. I wouldn’t stop crying, and you were making f-fun of me. You promised you’d be with me every… every step of the way. You never broke that promise, [F/N]; never. Even when you were gone, you made sure to write letters. Even when I s-said I hated you, you were still there.” his trembling hand managed to reach her face, gently cupping her cheek and caressing it with his thumb, her face softened and she leaned into the touch, a single tear running down her cheek “I love you, [F/N]…” his hand finally dropped to his side just as [F/N] took a deep breath, closing her eyes to reminiscent on every good memory she had of Steve, slowly but surely the black veins disappeared and the voice that screamed in her head grew silent. She blinked her eyes a few times in confusion, leaning backwards and looking around to see where exactly she was before finally looking down, and there her eyes widened in horror.

“Steve… Steve!” she screams at the top of her lungs, the tears swelling in her eyes falling freely down her cheeks. She hurriedly jumps off of him and lifts his weakened body into her lap, cradling his body into her arms while rocking back and forward “No, no, no, no, no! I didn’t mean to hurt you, I-I’m so sorry! I tried— I tried so hard to keep myself away from you, to stop myself from hurting you, but I’ve gone and broken my promise to you! I’m sorry, I’m sorry…!” she kept apologising over and over, but she just felt sick to her stomach. She couldn’t look at herself anymore, she couldn’t even look at her hands knowing that she was beating her brother that she swore she’d never hurt anymore. It hurt even more knowing that she hurt the love of her life, breaking her heart to keep her safe but then she hurt her when she was trying to save her from the monster that plagued her mind.

“[F/N]…” she gasped, looking down at her brother and saw that he was reaching for her again, she doesn’t hesitate to take his hand into hers and caress it, nuzzling the side of her face into it “You’re back…?” she chuckles weakly, nodding her head as she smiled weakly at him.

“Yes… yes, it’s me. It’s your big sister, who loves you very much.” he smiles at her but it breaks her heart seeing him looking up at her, face beaten and bleeding as his eyes were barely able to open “Will you ever forgive me?” he chuckles, closing his eyes and feeling his body relax under hers.

“What a foolish question, I’ll always f-forgive you…” she hunches over his body, her own trembling as her tears fell onto his body. A sob leaves her lips but her attention was torn off his body when she heard a loud roar, recognising it, she turned her head towards it and it widened at the sight of the Mind Flayer, her gaze soon hardened in rage at the mere sight of it. This fucking piece of shit was the cause of it all, for her and Billy hurting people, kidnapping people, killing people… her breaking up with Robin, and her hurting both Robin and Steve. She’ll never forgive it, she’ll never forget what it’s done to her and Billy, all because they were foolish enough to not go home and stayed out longer. Steve let out a confused noise when his head was lifted off of her lap, he watched as she picked up the fallen axe and at first he was worried she was back under the control of the Mind Flayer, but her gaze was trained on the Mind Flayer instead of anyone else “[F-F/N]…?” she breaks out into a running start then proceeds to step onto the railing and over it, raising the axe over her head then swings it down on the Mind Flayer.

“[F/N]?!” Billy, who was also free from the Mind Flayer’s control, shouts in surprise. Billy was holding one of the tentacles back that was aiming to kill El, pushing it back with everything he head, when [F/N] jumped off from the upper levels screaming and swinging the axe into the Mind Flayer’s body.

“You fucking piece of shit!” she yells, ripping the blade out of its gooey flesh then swung it down again “You made me hurt my brother! You made me break up with my girlfriend! You made me hurt so many people, and all for what?! Because you couldn’t make your own body?! You rat sack son of a bitch!” [F/N] knew what she was doing was stupid, that what she was doing was going to get her killed, but she really couldn’t care at all. She wanted to pay for what she’s done, why should she get off scot free? She wanted punishment, retribution for her actions “The only ending you’ll get is with your death!” she knew her actions would lead to her downfall, that what she was doing was meaningless, because the Mind Flayer easily threw her off and she landed on the ground with a thud. The next thing she knew was that one of the many tentacles surrounding the monster pierced her body, she slowly looked down and coughed up blood seeing the many teeth sink into her chest.

“Billy!” she hears a scream, turning her head, she sees that Billy has been met with the same fate. Pain runs throughout her body when several more of that things tentacles pierce through her body until it finally let her go, her body collapsing for she had no more strength left to keep her up. This was it, she was going to die alone knowing that she hurt her brother and her girlfriend— her ex? She didn’t know, all she knew was that she was going to die without making it up to the two people she loved the most, especially now that she was leaving her little brother alone. She coughs up more blood as she turns her head, noticing that Billy was still kicking so with what little strength she still had, she pushed herself onto her stomach and started dragging herself over to where he was laying. Finally reaching him, she pushes herself up then collapsed onto him, he looked down at her and saw she was crying.

“I won’t let you… die alone.” she muttered weakly, reaching her hand to rest on his cheek “I won’t leave you alone.” in turn for this final act of gentle affection, he raises his own hand to take her hand into his and the two of them stare into each other’s eyes.

“Why didn’t you leave me…?” he asked her, questioning what sanity she had for going back and saving him. She wouldn’t have had to suffer everything if she just abandoned him, he was used to it anyways, but she just gave him the best smile she could muster.

“Because… I wanted to see yours and Stevie’s wedding.” he stared at her but it did manage to crack a smile onto his face, and that was enough for the both of them.

“You’re stupid.”

“Maybe I am.” Steve was being helped down to the lower levels by Nancy and Jonathan, Robin following closely behind as the immense pain in her stomach still hadn’t settled, and Steve couldn’t properly walk on his own after the continuous blows he took to the face and head. They finally made it to the ground level and Steve looks over to see where Max was, crying in El’s arms, he looks where she was collapsed and his heart immediately dropped into his stomach at what he saw.

“No… no, no, no!” he cries out, Robin follows his gaze and herself saw both Billy and [F/N]’s motionless bodies that continued to bleed out “[F/N]! Billy! Please, god, no!” Steve thrashed in Nancy and Jonathan’s hood until they finally let him go, he fell to his knees but he scrambled to his feet and rushed over to their bodies. His hands trembled over their bodies, the tears in his eyes falling onto them “Please, no. Not like this, please. You can’t leave me, you can’t leave me alone…! You promised to be by my side, you promised!” his trembling hands reached to cup their faces and his face fell when they felt cold under his touch, god, this was really happening. Robin fell to her knees by his side, shaking her head at the sight of [F/N]’s lifeless body, she couldn’t believe that this was actually happening. She doesn’t hesitate to throw her arms around Steve’s body, squeezing him tightly and the two of them cried together knowing that they both lost somebody they loved.

But at least the two that did die, died in each other’s arms smiling.

Siblings

word count: 15,200

Fandom: Stranger Things Pairing: Robin Buckley x Female!Harrington!Reader Pronouns: She/Her Relationship: Romantic Occupation: University Student Ability: N/A

Keys:

[F/N]: Female Name [L/N]: Last Name [N/N]: Nickname [H/C]: Hair Color [E/C]: Eye Color [F/S]: Favorite Song [F/F]: Favorite Flavor

Warnings: slight angst, misunderstanding

“Siblings” pt.2, pt.3

I didn’t mean to make it this long, jesus christ.

that is all.

“Why the fuck did it take you so long to come get my ass, dipshit?”

“I wasn’t that long, you’re just overdramatic.”

“I’m overdramatic? Weren’t you the guy that cried to me that they didn’t have your branded hairspray and that you wouldn’t use some off branded knock off because it wouldn’t have the same effect in your hair like the original?”

“Hey…! You swore you wouldn’t bring that up.”

“You’re such a child.”

[F/N] Harrington, the elder sister of Steve Harrington. There weren’t many things that tore the two apart appearance wise, other than the fact that [F/N] was a woman, but they definitely shared the same eyes. [F/N] was away for University in another state and came back for summer break to visit her favourite brother and the shitty little town they both grew up in. Seeing her brother made her very happy, when they both saw each other after she got off her plane, they both jumped each other and couldn’t stop hugging each other while they both wore the biggest grins. [F/N] was telling Steve everything that’s been going on in the state she was studying in, telling him all the friends she’s made and how much better it was in comparison to Hawkins, telling him he’d like it if he was planning on leaving Hawkins any time soon.

Steve in return told his sister everything she missed out while she was out of Hawkins, though he was smart enough not to bring up anything revolving around the Upside Down. She was stunned to hear that he made friends with children that were about five years younger than him, this earned her a smack to the arm when she said that because they weren’t that young… maybe they were, but that’s not the point. She was more than happy that he was managing on his own, he even got a job scooping ice cream at the new mall Hawkins had called Starcourt, she definitely wanted to see that later.

“So,” she started, the two of them sitting across from each other at the dinner table as Steve served her some food “still single?” she snickered to herself when he jolted in his seat, he then glared at her and threatened her with a spoon, to which she raised her hands in defence.

“You… be quiet you.” she shrugged and started eating, he lets out a sigh and starts picking at his food “After Nancy and I broke up, I’ve been having some trouble finding a new girl I want to spend my time with, I can’t seem to be able to find the one, you know? I’ve been flirting with girls that come and order at the store, but it never seems to work anymore. Maybe I lost my touch, or…” he trailed off when he heard snoring, he deadpans and looks over at [F/N] to see she was resting her face on the palm of her hand as she snored.

“… oh, you’re done bitching?”

“You’re unbelievable.” she scoffs, throwing her hands up.

“So are you!” she shouts with a laugh, pointing at him with her fork “You’re not in high school anymore, Steve. These girls aren’t going to fall for your one liners or your status as King Steve. Right now, you’re just the average joe Steve, the civil citizen scooping ice cream. You need to stop thinking with the mindset that every girl that you flirt with is going to fall head over heels for that bullshit, no offence. Just find a girl that makes you feel like you’re on cloud nine, makes you think that “god, she’s the one” and do everything in your power to make sure she’s yours.” she sighs softly when he sulks a bit, head hanging low as he processed her words.

“You’re right.” she smirks, bringing her food to her mouth.

“I know I’m right.” she chews on her food and points at him once more “You gotta treat a girl like a goddamn queen or else you’ll lose a fine piece of meat because you weren’t careful ” his face scrunched up at the way she was wording it.

“Why do you know so much about how to treat a girl?” she deadpans at him.

“I’ve had many relationships with girls, Steve, and I failed each and every one of them.” he pulled a face at that, nodding his head and then the two of them sat in silence for the rest of the night. Right, he forgot that his sister was a lesbian and the two of them together were the biggest flirts of Hawkins, but of course she kept her sexuality on the down low, Hawkins was the shit hole it was and simply didn’t like things that weren’t… normal. Sure, Steve was an asshole in the beginning of high school, but he loved his sister more than some stupid popularity to out his sister for liking girls more than men. Though because of her attraction towards the female population, the two of them would often gossip about which girls they found cute.

“I’ve got work tomorrow, so I won’t be able to entertain you.” she waves her hand to dismiss him.

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll just visit the Starcourt if I get bored.” he chuckles softly.

“Alright, stop by Scoops Ahoy if you wanna talk.” she salutes him.

“Will do.”

[the next morning]

“Why are you in the pool this early in the morning?” summer was always hot, even in the morning, so [F/N] was soaking in the Harrington pool on top of a float. She was probably going to soak in the sun for a couple minutes before doing a few laps around the pool when she heard footsteps, knowing that it was Steve, she chose to ignore him until he spoke up.

“Because it’s hot, dingus.” she hears him sigh, she then turned to get a look at him before squinting her eyes when she saw what he was wearing, she grabbed the side of her sunglasses and pulled them up as she looked him up and down “What the fuck are you wearing?” he grumbled under his breath when he saw that she was silently mocking him for his choice of clothing.

“It’s the uniform, I’ve got no choice but to wear it.” she snorts before pulling her glasses back down and laying back, moving into a comfortable position to sunbathe.

“Fucking loser.” he scoffed, kicking his feet.

“I’ve got work now, so I’ll see you later.” he turned to leave but stopped when he remembered something “The Starcourt Mall is pretty far out, so you’ll need to find your way there.” she raised her hand, not bothering to look over at him.

“Is my car still in storage?”

“Yes.” she snaps her fingers, dropping her hand into the water.

“Well then there you go.” he sighs but did smile a little when she waved him goodbye “I’ll see you later, Steve.”

“Bye, [F/N].” and with that he was gone, she inhaled through her nose before going slack on the pool float, what’s a few minutes napping in the pool? She shrugged and eventually lolling to sleep, later regretting it when she subconsciously turned and fell into the water of the pool, groaning as she resurfaced. She now found herself at a storage unit where her brother lovingly put her precious car while she was off at university, they would have left her car in the garage but they both knew that it would collect nothing but dust so they put it in storage once every few weeks someone would come in a check on it.

“Hey, look who’s back!” the owner of the storage unit exclaimed when [F/N] walked in, she waved her hand with a grin as she waved her hand to greet him “It’s nice to see you! How have you been?” she snorted softly, leaning against the front counter with a grin.

“I’ve been good. University has been kicking my ass lately, but it’s great to be back in the place I grew up in. I see nothing much has changed while I was gone.” this earned her a chuckle.

“Yeah, just the same old shit.” she nods to that and watched as he went through documents to pull out the one that has of her car, when he found it he lit up and separated it from the rest “Ah, here we go. Your car is in unit 83, I’ll have the key to the unit it just a bit.”

“Wonderful.” the moment they got to the unit and he unlocked it, she had the biggest smile on her face at the sight of her car “Oh baby, mummy’s back~” she cooed and quickly ran over to her car, throwing her arms over the hood off the car and hugging it as best as she could, the owner let out a chuckle as he watched her.

“It’s almost as if you care more about your car than your brother.” she laughed, waving her hand.

“Please, he’d do the same.”

“You’re right, it is a 1976 Ford Mustang Cobra II.” she saved up a lot of money for this baby from all the part time jobs she had, allowance money their parents gave her and even birthday money, all so she could afford this beautiful son of a bitch she took pride in “Well, she’s all yours. She was well taken of while you were gone, so if I see even a scratch on her, I’ll have your head.” she winked at him.

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” throwing a cassette tape into the cars stereo and pumping the volume to max drowned out all the noise as she drove through Hawkins, bobbing her head to the music of [F/S], shouting and hollering like she was a teenager again during her high school days. Oh how she missed those days, but there wasn’t anything she could do to have those days back, so she was making the best of the time she had now. She was now sat at a red light, drumming her fingers against the stirring wheel to the music as she waited for the light to turn green, that was until she heard the revv of a car so she turned her head to see a gorgeous blue 1979 Chevrolet Camaro Z-28, she couldn’t help but whistle at the sight of it “What a beaut.”  “Thanks.” she glanced at the driver, a blonde with sun kissed skin and the prettiest pair of blue eyes she’s ever seen… it’s a shame he’s a man because she definitely would have jumped him if given the opportunity “You new around here?” he shouted, she chuckled and leaned into her seat.

“Not really, just recently came back.” he nods his head to that “What about you? I’ve never seen you around.”

“I moved here last year from California.”

“What a mistake on your part.” he snorts at that.

“I agree.” he glanced back towards the light to see if it turned green yet and when it didn’t he spared her another glance with a smirk “I’m Billy, Billy Hargrove! I hope to see you again, mustang.” her eyes widened slightly at that, Hargrove? She remembered seeing that name when Steve would send her letters, she was pretty sure that Steve wrote he beat the shit out of him, Billy raised a brow when he saw her snort a little.

“Hargrove, huh?” pushing her sunglasses up, he narrowed his eyes on hers, where has he seen those eyes before? “The name’s Harrington, [F/N] Harrington. See you whenever, camaro~” she sent him a wink followed with a kiss, she let out a laugh at his shocked expression before flicking her glasses down then driving off when the light turned green. His reaction was priceless, Steve was going to love this. She now stood outside the Starcourt Mall, leaning against her car and whistling at the sight of it, pushing her sunglasses onto her head to take the full view of the mall. Now this was something Hawkins should be proud of, Hawkins was nothing but a hick town out in the middle of Indiana but this was definitely something to be proud of “I wonder where Hawkins got the money to pay for this.” she muttered before chucking softly, pushing herself off her car and walking towards the entrance of the mall, ignoring the lingering stares of the people around her.

She was even more impressed of the inside, everything was bright and vibrant, there was just so much to look at. What the fuck did she miss that Hawkins had this place made? She wasn’t going to question it anymore than she has to, now she wants to find Scoops Ahoy just so she can make fun of her brother. Looking for it was actually quite the challenge, having to ask a couple people then thanking them when they actually answered her. She stirred clear from boys because when she asked one they thought she was asking them out or something, she turned around immediately and asked the closest girl who was actually helpful. Meanwhile at Scoops Ahoy, a girl who just wanted the day to be over was leaning against the counter and waiting for the next unsuspecting customer to come up and make her day even more horrible for being indecisive.

“Just end me….” she groaned out, taking her hat off to run a hand through her hair before plopping it back on “Harrington! What the fuck are you doing that’s taking this long?” she shouted from the front counter, turning around to through the window open to view into the back where she found Steve looking through the freeze.

“We ran out of a specific flavor and I’m looking to replace it, alright? I just can’t find it, so cool it Robin!” he shouts back as he dug deeper into the freezer, she rolled her eyes then groaned when she heard the jingle of someone entering the store.

“Well, hurry it up! We’ve got customers and I’m having to do everything all by my…self.” she trailed off when she saw who exactly walked through the doors, god… she ain’t ever seen anyone more attractive in her life. [F/C] finally managed to find the shop and was practically dying from all the walking she had to do, she took her sunglasses off once more, throwing her hair back when some of her [H/C] locks fell over her eyes and safely tucked her glasses in her shirt. Robin continued to gawk at this very attractive girl, mouth agape as [F/N] pursed her lips and nodded as she looked around the store before finally locking eyes with Robin. Her body froze up when those piercing [E/C] eyes landed on her but she started sweating when [F/N] started approaching her, her breath getting caught in her throat when she was finally in front of her.

“Hi.” she greets with a smile, Robin swallowed thickly.

“H-Hi.” [F/N] couldn’t help but chuckle softly when the cute girl in front of her stuttered, she looked her up and down then raised a brow when she was wearing the same uniform her brother was wearing, but she looked cute in hers “U-Um, welcome to Scoops Ahoy. H-How can I— how can I help you?” Robin stared up at the slightly taller girl and watched as she looked at the variety of ice cream out on display.

“Hmm… could I just get two scoops of [F/F] please? No toppings.” she found it adorable how she couldn’t stop staring at her, absentmindedly as she nodded her head.

“O-Of course, coming right up.” she almost felt bad with how much this girl was trembling under her gaze, she felt like a predator watching its pray before feasting upon it, but she just couldn’t help it “Alright, two scoops of [F/F].” she said, standing up straight and handing the cone to [F/N], breath hitching when she felt her hand briefly touch hers when she took it.

“How much do I owe you?” [F/N] asks, taking a couple bills out of her back pocket to pay for her ice cream but was startled when Robin pushed her hand away.

“O-Oh! It’s on the house.” her eyes widened at that, she couldn’t hide the smirk that rose to her lips.

“Really?” Robin couldn’t mutter out any words and only hummed as she nodded, [F/N] chuckled as she started to put her money away “Okay, but I feel bad, so have this.” it wasn’t much but she kept a twenty and tucked it into Robin’s hand, she then turned and winked at her followed by a click on her tongue before walking away. [F/N] let out a hum as she at her ice cream, thinking back to the way Robin looked at her, before pausing “I completely forgot the entire reason I was there.” she let out a sigh as her head dropped… well, at least she got ice cream out of it. Meanwhile with Robin, her hand tightly held onto the twenty dollar bill to the point it was crumbled up in her hand, face a bright red as she tried to remember that lingering feeling of [F/N]’s touch.

“Her hand was so soft…” she sighed out dreamily, body going slack on the counter. This stranger had the most beautiful [Long/Short] [H/C] hair she’s ever seen, it looked soft to touch, even those eyes had her getting lost when they looked directly into hers. But, there was just something about her eyes that had her thinking, she’s seen eyes like those but she just can’t remember wher—

“I found it!” her day dreaming was cut short at the sound of Steve’s voice, her smile dropping when he came out from the back with a tub of ice cream “I found it.” he repeats.

“Yeah, I can see that.” he huffs at her tone.

“Grouchy much.” he says as he replaces the empty tub “Did anything exciting happen while I was in the back?” she pretends to think then shook her head.

“Nope, nothing happened.” he shrugged and took over the front counter, flirting with the first girl he saw and left Robin to think about the gorgeous girl she managed to see before Harrington.

[end of the day]

“Welcome home, Stevie!” [F/N] greets from the couch, muting the television and waving her hand as Steve walks in through the front door “How was your day at work, sailor?” he lets out a sarcastic laugh, collapsing on the couch beside her and throwing his legs over hers.

“Honestly, it could’ve been better.” she purses her lips, nodding her head.

“Too bad, so sad. Anyways-” he groaned, his head falling into the arm rest of the chair “I saw the cutest girl when I came into your store to see you, I got so distracted that I completely forgot that I came in to see you.” his head immediately perked up at the mention of a cute girl, to which she rolled her eyes at the sudden interest.

“Go on.”

“It was your coworker, I didn’t manage to catch her name.” his jaw dropped.

“You mean Robin Buckley?” his face cringed when hers lit up.

“So that’s her name, Robin.” her face dropped when she saw him gag, turning away and pointing into his mouth at the mere thought of her having an attraction towards the girl “Why the fuck you reacting like that, dipshit? Is it cause she’s your coworker and you don’t want your sister sucking faces with her?” he lets out a dramatic sigh, throwing his head back.

“No! What’s there to like about her?” she shrugs.

“I don’t know, you tell me. She’s your coworker, tell me about her.” he scoffs.

“Where’s the fun in that? Isn’t the whole point about being infatuated with someone is getting to know them? You’d be cheating if I were to tell you everything I know about her.” she raised a brow at him, watching as he had a triumphant smirk on his lips while crossing his arms.

“Does that mean you’re infatuated with her as well?” it amused her how face his face changes, she kept a straight face as he glared at her.

“Me? Infatuated with her? Pah! I wouldn’t even dream of it. She’s not my type, not even on the ballpark. I know what my type is, alright?” she rolled her eyes, moving to get more comfortable on the sofa.

“What’s your type again?” he scoffs at her.

“For your information, she’s still in school, and she’s weird. She’s a weirdo, and she’s hyper. I don’t like that she’s hyper, and she did drama! That’s a bad look, and she’s in band? No.” she scoffed when he starts shaking his head.

“It’s only been a day, and we’re having this conversation again. Steve, now that you’re out of high school, which means technically you’re an adult, don’t you think it’s time that you move on from primitive constructs such as popularity? Instead of dating somebody because you think it’s gonna make you cooler, why not date somebody you actually enjoy being around?” he slumps into the couch at her words then flinched when she slapped his leg “And besides, I don’t even think you’ve got a chance to be with her.”  “What’s that supposed to mean? You saying I’ve lost my game?” she narrowed her eyes on him.

“Steve, Robin Buckley is the gayest girl I’ve ever seen ever since being back in Hawkins, and it’s only been a day.” they both sit in silence for what seems like an hour before Steve finally processed what she said.

“She’s gay? But I thought that term was used for men.” she slaps a hand onto her forehead “So you’re saying she’s a lesbian? That she’s into girls?” she nods her head.

“Yes, you simpleton, that’s exactly what I’m saying.” she then points at him “Don’t even think about asking her either, Steve. Asking someone about their sexuality is like asking whether or not you want to live.” he pulls a face.

“Wha—”

“I’m serious! It’s either life or death, and I’d rather choose death.” he raises his hands.

“Alright, alright! I won’t say anything.” she nods her head when he understood, the two of them sit in silence until he speaks up again “So, you can just tell when someone isn’t straight?” she closes her eyes in mild disappointment.

“You know what, yeah, some people can. It’s called a gaydar, and you, my sweet little brother, aren’t exactly the straightest man either.” she took great pleasure in seeing the look of confusion cross his face before it changed to panic, she always had fun teasing him.

“No, no!”  “I’m never wrong, brother!”

[time skip: a few weeks]

“Great, just great.” Robin muttered under breath, if her day couldn’t get any worse, it just did. Not only was she late to work, but her bike decided to pop its tire, the bus was late and it was raining. It’s like god decided to pick on her that morning and he was fucking winning. She collapsed onto the seat behind her, her bag dropping onto the ground as her face fell into her hand, she just wished the world would just give her a break, give her something to look forward to “Please, god, just give me one good thing.”

“Buckley?” she heard, her head shot up and she didn’t know whether she should thank god or kill him when she saw [F/N] looking at her through the passenger side window of her Mustang “You good? You look like you’re having a shitty morning.” Robin, who hadn’t realised she was tearing up, hurriedly wiped her tears and hoped [F/N] hadn’t noticed them.

“It could be worse!” she answers, only to flinch when lightning struck followed by the sound of thunder, [F/N] chuckled softly when Robin deflated “I need to learn to keep my mouth shut.” she mumbled softly, [F/N] nods her head as she leans back into her seat before looking back at her.

“Need a ride?” Robin’s head perked up.

“What?” 

“I’m asking you if you want a ride to work? I was on my way to the Starcourt Mall to watch a movie, so it wouldn’t inconvenience me.” she pressed her lips together when Robin raised her hands whilst shaking her head to reject the request.

“No, no, I’m fine. Thank you for offering, but I think I’d be much better off taking the bus instead. I just don’t want to dirty your car, I mean, it’s a very nice car and I think I’ll make a mess. I mean, I’m wet and if I get in your car, I’ll wet the seat. Besides I’m already late and you have a movie to catch, so I think it’ll be better if I just wait.” [F/N] deadpans when Robin started to ramble, what started off of her not wanting to dirty her car somehow turned to how she can dodge the raindrops. Man, when Steve said she talks a lot, this was not what she imagined.

“Get in the damn car.” she says, stopping Robin mid sentence but evidently making her nod.

“Yes, ma’am.” she laughs when Robin picks up her things and hurries over, thanking [F/N] when she opened her passenger door. When Robin was in her car, she rolled up the window and waited for her to fasten her seatbelt, she looked her up and down and noticed that she was shivering even under the hoodie she was wearing so she graced her with the warmth of her cars air conditioner “Thanks.” her face flushed when [F/N] winked.

“No problem.” Robin jerks back when [F/N] shifted gears then slammed her foot on the gas, smirking softly as she drove through the rain to the Starcourt Mall. The two sat in silence as music played through the cars sound system, [F/N] bobbing her head while tapping against the wheel.

“Um, [F/N]…” she lets out a hum, letting Robin know she had her attention as her eyes concentrated on the road ahead of them “This is probably the first proper conversation we’ve actually had where it isn’t me asking for what flavor of ice cream you want, but can I ask you something?” she hums again.

“Sure, what is it?” Robin bites her lip, she was really risking a lot asking her this.

“A-Are you… seeing anyone?” [F/N] purses her lips at that, Robin flinching softly when [F/N] spared her a glance.

“No I’m not, why? You making fun of me?” Robin quickly raises her hands, shaking them and her head to deny the thought,

“N-No, not at all!” [F/N] was still looking at her, waiting for her to explain why she asked “Um, I was asking because, uh… Steve? Yeah! Steve wanted me to ask you if you were single?” that smirk she wore on her face quickly washed away into a look of confusion.

“Steve Harrington asked you to ask me if I was seeing anyone?” she nods her head, fully confident that she bought the lie. She found it very amusing that both herself and Steve have failed to inform Robin that they were siblings, and as much as she wanted to tell her the truth…. she found it more hilarious to see how long it’ll take for her to realise they were in fact related.

“Yes.” she confirmed, [F/N] licked her lips.

“Well,” she starts, shaking her head in mild amusement before shrugging her shoulders “tell him h-he’s weird for asking.” [F/N] lights up when she heard Robin giggle.

“I’ll make sure to tell him.” they both then laugh together, Robin dreads the moment [F/N] pulls up to the mall, knowing that their time was cut short and she knew she didn’t have the confidence to strike up a conversation with her again. She hadn’t even noticed [F/N] stepped out of her car until her door was opened, she looked up and saw [F/N] holding her hand out to her while her other held an umbrella.

“Well? What are you waiting for?” Robin’s hand hesitated a little but eventually she managed to take her hand, [F/N] helped her out of the car then held the umbrella over her head as she waited for her to collect her stuff, when she did she kicked the door closed then locked her car “Come on, lets go.” as they were walking to the entrance [F/N] noticed that Robin kept some distance between them and her shoulder was getting wet, she lets out a hum at that. Robin wasn’t paying attention to [F/N] as they walked together but she jolted up when [F/N] placed a hand on her shoulder and pulled her close so now they were shoulder to shoulder.

“W-Wha—”

“Your shoulder was getting wet, and there’s plenty of space under the umbrella.” Robin couldn’t look her in the eye as [F/N] side eyed her with a soft smirk on her face “I’m not gonna bite.” she has to hold back a snicker when she saw Robin’s face flush red, she can only imagine what’s going on in her head. When they were finally under the shelter of the mall, [F/N] had her back to Robin as she shook her umbrella dry of the rain while Robin’s hands clutched the sleeves of her hoodie.

“Um, thanks for the ride, [F/N].” hearing this caused [F/N] to look over her shoulder at Robin.

“Don’t worry about it.” she reassured, when her umbrella was dry enough she closed it then threw it over her shoulder and turned to face Robin once more “If you don’t have a ride home, do you want me to drop you off?” Robin’s head perked up at that.

“Huh? You want to drop me off home?” she nods.

“Well, yeah. Don’t you finish until the mall closes? That’s pretty late, and I don’t like the thought of you walking home at night. Besides, I highly doubt Steve is gracious enough to give you a ride home.”

“You don’t mind?” she shook her head.

“Of course not, in fact,” Robin watches in confusion when [F/N] pulls out a small notebook and pen and starts writing something down, when she was done she tore it out and handed it to her “call me if you ever need a ride or if you just wanna talk.”

“Y-You’re giving me your number?” [F/N] nods with a chuckle.

“Yeah, why? Don’t want it?” she teased and pulled the piece of paper back, laughing slightly when Robin quickly snatched it back.

“No, I want it!” Robin now had the biggest smile on her face as she clutched the small piece of paper “No take backs!” [F/N] only nodded.

“Alright, then I guess I’ll see you tonight.” she nods then scurries off to get to Scoops Ahoy, finally god has graced her with one good thing. [F/N] smiled as she crossed her arms while watching Robin run off, probably wishing that time would hurry up so the two of them could talk again.

“There you are, mustang.” she let out a whoa when she was grabbed by the waist and pulled into someone, she scoffed when she realised who it was and smacked him in the chest.

“Watch who you’re touching, camaro.” Billy Hargrove and [F/N] Harrington have established an… interesting relationship. The moment the two of them met again, it was on fucking sight. Billy didn’t hesitate to throw hands with [F/N] and she in return didn’t hesitate to fight dirty, she was angry at the blonde for nearly beating her brother to death so she returned all that pain tenfold, but he was definitely stronger than her in terms of strength. He didn’t pull his punches and the first punch to the face he delivered made her rethink her choices, though at the end of their fight, [F/N] had Billy’s neck locked in between her legs while he himself was holding her by the neck. When the two of them finally calmed down they both sat on the hood of Billy’s Camaro, all bruised and bloodied, while smoking a cigarette. They both sat in silence though [F/N] raised a brow when Billy held his fist out to her, she stared at it before bumping it with her own, and from then on the two of them have had a mutual understanding with each other. When [F/N] got home though, Steve was shocked to see her beaten up and when he questioned her, she just told him to not worry about it.

“So freckles there, that’s the girl you’re into?” he asks, he raised a brow when he heard her sigh and lean into him.

“Hell yeah, she’s just so fucking adorable that I can’t help but tease.” she let out a whoa when he shoved her off, she scoffed when he tucked his hands into his pockets and started walking over to the cinema.

“What’s there to like about girls? Men is where it’s all at.” she rolled her eyes, straightening out her jacket then following after him. Another reason to two of them got along, the two of them noticed that they were more alike than they let on.

“Ew, men.” they both stare at each other before bursting out into laughter, now walking beside each other as they made their way to the cinema to watch a movie. The people of Hawkins were always one for gossip, so when they spotted the two most attractive people of Hawkins together, they immediately let their minds begin to believe that they were a couple. The moment that rumour hit their ears they couldn’t help but laugh at the ridiculous claims and just let them talk, though, it was better than being labeled as queer.

“So what’s this movie about again?” Billy questions, pulling out a pack of gum to replace his need to smoke a cigarette, [F/N] hums at the question, squeezing her chin in between her thumb and index finger.

“If I remember correctly, it’s about some guy who goes into the past…?” she trailed off when she couldn’t remember the plot of the movie, he rolled his eyes at her piss poor description of the movie.

“That sounds like a dumb movie. Why are we watching this again?” she rolled her eyes, paying for both their tickets while he bought them food.

“I wanted to watch this movie alone, you invited yourself, remember?” he deadpans at that, the two of them later found their seats and continued to chatter through all the ads “Besides, the main reason we’re here together is so we can bother Stevie later.” he purses his lips, nodding his head.

“Now that’s something I remember agreeing on.” she scoffed.

“You’re unbelievable sometimes, Hargrove.” he snickers at her.

“Right back at ‘cha, Harrington.”

[at scoops ahoy]

“Hello and welcome to Scoops Ahoy, today I’ll be your captain, Steve Harrington.” Robin rolled her eyes from where she was, scooping ice cream for the nth time that past hour whilst Steve flirted with every female customer that came in through the doors. Her mood was slightly better than usual, Steve noticed this as well, telling by the way she had this soft smile on her face even despite getting yelled at by a mother for scooping the ice cream wrong. Scooping the ice cream wrong? How do you even do that? “You seem to be an awfully good mood, did something good happen this morning?” he raised a brow when he saw a wishful look crossed her face.

“This cute…” she paused mid sentence, looking up at Steve and hesitated to finish “guy gave me a ride to work this morning and he even offered to drop me off after I finish.” she felt like she threw up in her mouth saying that, turning away from Steve to let out a slight gag, Steve on the other hand furrowed his brows in confusion at her words. Guy? Didn’t his sister suspect that Robin was a lesbian? Though she also did say that people who weren’t entirely straight wouldn’t nonchalantly say their sexuality, so he just nodded.

“Do you like this guy?” he asked, leaning against the counter and waited for her response.

“… I’d like to say I do, he’s just so perfect.” his gaze on her softened a little, he remembered a time he had that same expression when he thought of Nancy. Now his heart got a little bitter at the memory, he shook his head to rid his mind of the thoughts and gave her a grin followed by a thumbs up.

“You should shoot your shot.” he tells her, she shot up a this words “Do you think this guy is into you?” Robin pursed her lips, rubbing her hands together as she thought of the few short encounters she’s had with [F/N]. Whenever she started rambling without being aware of it, [F/N] never stopped her and just listened to her speak. [F/N] was often very sweet and kind with Robin, giving her little compliments and even putting big tips in the tip jar despite getting one small thing. Then that morning, she went out of her way to drive her to work in the piss pour rain and even drop her off home, going so far as to giving her her phone number to call her if she needs anything.

“Well, he doesn’t seem like he’s not into me.” Steve hummed softly when he saw Robin raise her hand to twirl a strand of her hair around her finger “I’m just scared that I’m looking too far into this, and that if I say anything, I’ll lose him.” she runs a hand through her hair, he nods his head and glances towards the door, when he didn’t see anyone coming towards the counter he put his attention back on Robin.

“Take this from someone who’s had plenty of people crushing on me, and vice versa.” she scoffed at him “You won’t know if they’re the one or not until it’s too late. I understand that it’s scary to confess your feelings to the person you’re in love with, but it feels a lot worse when you don’t say anything and you watch them go off with someone else without even trying. The thought of not saying anything when you could have is much more terrifying, and though you might lose them, it’s better than keeping those feelings to yourself.” she stared up at him in slight disbelief.

“Wow, that was the best thing I’ve ever heard you say, Harrington. Who knew you were capable of saying such good advice.” he rolled his eyes at her.

“Well, take it or leave it, I just want to meet the guy that’s got you all worked up in the future.” she pursed her lips at the thought of actually managing to score [F/N], maybe it was the look on Steve’s face when she pulls up with [F/N] by her side that makes her smirk.

“Whatever you say, Harrington.” they were both smiling at the end of their conversation, perking up slightly when they heard the chime of someone entering the store. Before they could greet the newest customer they were both shocked to see [F/N] walking in with Billy by her side, neither two noticed the shocked stares as they chattered about the movie.

“She totally had a thing for her son, right?” [F/N] questioned “I mean, I understand that she didn’t know that was her son, but imagine her surprise when so plus years later her son looks exactly like the guy she met all those years ago. Those should have set off some alarm bells.” Billy laughs at the assumption.

“No, it was the fact that she named her kid Marty. If I were her husband, I’d be pretty fucked off that my wife named our son after a guy she was attracted to.” she snaps her fingers, pointing at him.

“I know, right?” they both laugh together, they now stood at the counter with smirks on their faces, both individually staring at Steve and Robin. The two of them continued to stare at them in disbelief, [F/N] then leaned against the counter, hand resting down on it whilst her other was placed on her hip “Hi Buckley~” she cooed softly, Billy snickered softly when he noticed the tip of Robin’s ears flushed red, he then turned to Steve.

“Hi Harrington~” Billy said in the same tone [F/N] had, she noticed this and turned back to scoff at him, Steve then scoffed at the both of them.

“What are you two doing here?” Billy raised his hands in defence.

“Why the hostility, Stevie? Besides, this is an ice cream store. We’re here to buy ice cream, duh.” Steve sends [F/N], to which she just snickered with a shrug of her shoulders “Mustang here was in the mood for something sweet, so we came here.” she nods her head and pushes herself up so she was standing beside Billy again, crossing her arms and leaning her weight into one of her feet.

“Mm hmm, I just love the ice cream here.” she makes sure to wink at Robin at that, Steve looks between the two then notices the way Robin was bashfully smiling while trying to hide her red face behind her hair “There ain’t nothing more sweet then what this place has to offer.” whether or not that was directed at the ice cream or Robin, Steve just rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. What do you want?” Steve was almost done with his sister flirting with his coworker while he was there, was this how Robin felt whenever he flirted with girls every five minutes? Man, this sucks.

“You first, sweetheart.” Robin flinches a little at the pet name Billy called [F/N], she awaits her reaction and her heart sunk a little when she saw her playfully roll her eye as she smacks him in the chest.

“Such a gentlemen.” he shrugged his shoulders, she then glanced at Robin and gave her a soft smile “Could I have my usual, Robin? I’d appreciate it.” 

“R-Right, of course! Coming right up.” whilst [F/N] was busy watching Robin with her order, Billy leaned against the counter and had a thoughtful look about what he should order, to which Steve was growing more and more irritated at the smug look on both of their faces.

“Hmm, how about two scoops of vanilla and chocolate?” Steve just nods, when Robin finishes with [F/N]’s order he goes over and makes Billy’s, growing slightly flustered with the way Billy just continued to stare at Steve “What’s the matter, pretty boy? Am I making you uncomfortable?” [F/N] glanced at her brother and noticed the way he tensed up a little, his usually pale skin turning a shade of pink.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Steve felt her gaze on him so he turned and lightly glared at her, it hardened when he saw her smirking at him as she ate her ice cream.

“Called it.” is all she says, he grumbles under his breath when he knew what she was talking about. The two of them were already eating away at their ice cream as Robin tallied up their total, when the estimated amount came back Billy slapped down a twenty dollar bill.

“Keep the change.” [F/N] snaps her fingers and points at Robin.

“I’ll see you after work, Buckley.” she winks at her before the two finally walk out, sparing the two one last glance before they finally left. Both Steve and Robin let out a breath they hadn’t realised they were holding in and fanned their faces, they then look at each other.

“… we never speak of this.”

“Never speak of what?” meanwhile, Billy and [F/N] were sitting a little ways away from Scoops Ahoy and watched the two spiral into both a lesbian and bi panic, [F/N] laughs as she threw her head back.

“Damn, it’s so funny watching him question his sexuality.” [F/N) says, licking at the melting ice cream that ran down her cone and onto her fingers “I appreciate you flirting with my brother, it makes my fucking day.” Billy chuckled at that, eating away at his own ice cream while remembering the flustered spectate he left Steve in.

“Don’t mention it, flirting with him is almost like a sport, and I just love winning.” they both laugh at that. Hours later and Starcourt Mall is finally closed, Robin let out a sigh as she walked out of the mall a little more exhausted then usual but her head perked up at the sound of loud music. A smile graced her lips when she saw [F/N] sitting on the hood of her car smoking a cigarette, bobbing her head to the music while exhaling the smoke circulating in her lungs, breathing it out and watching it blow away in the wind.

“[F/N]!” she jolted up from where she was at the call of her name, turning her head towards the entrance of the mall then smiling when she saw Robin rushing over to her while waving her hand, this made her smile softly as she pushed herself off the hood and go over to the passengers side, opening the door and bowing her head.

“Your chariot awaits, my lady.” Robin giggled softly, shoving [F/N]’s face away, causing her to laugh at the gesture.

“Real smooth.” [F/N] closes the door the moment Robin got in and hurried over to the drivers side, taking the cigarette from her lips and tossing it away before jumping in. She lowers the volume for Robin when she noticed her wincing at how loud it was before starting her car then driving off, she continued to bob her head to the music as she drove out of the malls parking lot before turning her head towards Robin but not taking her eyes off the road. She asks the girl she lives so she knows where to drop her off and pick her up on future occasions, upon telling her address, [F/N] smirks softly and changes gears then slamming down on the gas “You sure like driving fast.” she laughs at that.

“Hell yeah I do, it’s been awhile since I’ve been able to drive my baby so I’m making the most of her.” at that she reached forward and gently caresses her dashboard “Besides, this isn’t even as fast as she can go. I’d go faster, but then I’d get pulled over. That Hopper guy is a real pain in my ass.”

“I’ll say.” Robin pats her hands against her legs and occasionally glances at [F/N], watching her tap her fingers against the wheel, mouthing the lyrics to the music and sometimes watching as her tongue poked out of her mouth to lick her dry lips.

“You know I feel you staring at me, Buckley.” Robin flinches at that and quickly turns away and faces ahead of them “You can keep staring, I don’t mind.” she chuckles when she could feel her grow flustered, it was always so fun teasing her.

“Can I ask you something?” she hums.

“You’re asking me a lot of things today, Robin. But sure, go ahead.”

“Um… is there anything going on between you and Billy?” this was enough to cause [F/N] to shoot forward, her once relaxed body tensing up at the thought.

“Me and Hargrove? Hah! That’s the funniest shit I’ve heard all day!” she laughed while throwing her head back “If this was because we walked in together acting closer than friends, or due to the fact that the people of this town have nothing better to do but spread false rumours, than you’re wrong. I thought I told you this morning that I wasn’t seeing anyone. Why? Was Harrington feeling threaten that I was with a guy that was more gorgeous than him?” she laughs again, she’ll have to bring this up to Steve, she glanced over at Robin and saw her raise her hands and shake her head.

“N-No, no! It isn’t like that!” [F/N] stared at her, slowing raising a brow “… alright, it’s kind of like that, but! You two looked awfully close.” [F/N] just shook her head, eyes looking back towards the road ahead of them.

“Rest assured, Robin, Billy is the last person I’d date, the same going for him. We’re nothing more than very good friends…” she trailed off at the end of her sentence, the two of them together were nothing but chaotic menaces that fed off each other’s tomfoolery.

“Oh, good, good. That’s good.” [F/N] shook her head, Robin was so obvious. Robin internally groaned when she saw [F/N] pulling up to her house, she almost didn’t want to leave because she wanted to spend just a few more minutes with [F/N].

“Do you have work tomorrow?”

“Huh?”

“I was asking if you had work tomorrow. Thought I’d ask just in case you needed a ride.” Robin swallowed thickly at the offer, her bike was still need of repairs and she didn’t really like the option of taking public transportation or bothering her partners for a ride.

“… you don’t mind?” she shook her head.

“No, and I told you before, if you ever need a ride, I’ll be just a phone call away.” Robin bites her lip at the thought of seeing [F/N] every morning and night instead of the few occasions when she came into the store, she can have longer conversations with her instead of the brief ones in the store, she can just spend some more time with the girl she really likes “So, you want me to pick you up in the morning?” she nods her head, clutching her bag to her chest.

“I’d like that a lot.” [F/N] smiled.

“Alright, then I’ll see you in the morning, freckles.” she had to hold back her laughter when Robin all but threw open the passenger door, nearly falling over in the process, before closing the door and rushing towards her house. [F/N] waited until she was in the comfort of her home before pulling out of her driveway and driving back to the Harrington household, then she was met with Steve staring her down like their disappointed mother “Now whaaat?” she groaned out, taking her shoes off and entered the kitchen.

“Why are you hanging around Hargrove?” she smirks at Steve.

“Psh, you sound like a jealous girl mad at her friend for spending time with the guy she likes.” she rolled her eyes when Steve threw his head back while throwing his hands up “Jesus, calm down. Billy and I have established a neutral but nice friendship… after I beat the shit out of him, and him doing the same to me that ended us both at a stalemate.” she then nods her head to him and proceeds to grab a drink from the fridge, watching as the shock in his face grow.

“Was that the reason you looked beat up weeks ago?” she shrugs, closing the fridge and opening the drink in her hands.

“No comment.” he groans, she then snickers “You never told Buckley we were siblings?” he gave her a confused look, sitting at one of the chairs by the counter.

“No? I thought you would have.” she laughs again.

“I figured, you know what she asked me this morning?” he raised a brow “She asked if I was single, when I asked why she was asking me, she told me that you told her to ask me.” now it was his turn to freeze up before bursting out into laughter, his laughter was contagious enough to get her to start laughing as well.

“Really? Ew!” she nods her head “Maybe we should bring this up?” they then look at each other, sharing the same devious smirk as they both shook their head.

“Nah,” they said in unison, the both of them laughter aloud once more “Oh! That just reminded me, I believe Robin was talking about you earlier this afternoon. If you dropped her off this morning, she was in a ridiculously happy mood to the point she was telling me that she might have a crush on this “cute dude that’s just perfect”, aka, you.” Steve chuckled softly when he noticed his sister’s face grow bright, leaning forward.

“Really? What else did she say?”

“I asked if she liked this guy, and she said yeah.” he hums when he saw [F/N] fall back against the fridge “But she’s afraid that you don’t like her the way you do, to which I understand, because she doesn’t know you’re a lesbian like her.” this caused her to smile at him.

“Ah, so you agree she’s a lesbian despite her describing that it was a guy that made her happy?” he nods.

“I saw the way she was looking at you, the way she thought about you. She’s definitely in love, [F/N].” between the two Harrington siblings, [F/N] was the more wilder sibling of the two. The moment their parents knew that there was no controlling her from her random spurs of violence (never at them or her sweet brother), they gave up on seeing her as anything more than a problematic troublemaker. She in turn loved to run free and do whatever she pleased, but she still thrived to be the best at Hawkins High School and going so far as to getting accepted in a top of the notch university in a different state. She was chaotic and always held her head high, a look of cockiness and pride seen on her face, but that was just merely a facade she puts up. Under all that arrogance was the sweet elder sister of Steve Harrington that loved him like any other sister would, the kind girl that grew up a little to fast when their parents did mother but neglect them from a young age. Steve saw that rare soft smile on her face when she thought of the fact that Robin liked her just as much as she did, it made him happy that his sister has found someone that makes her smile like that “You’re smiling.” that smile only grows as she raised her hand to cover her face.

“Shut up…!” she managed to say through a soft laugh.

[time skip: a few weeks later]

[F/N] was now trying harder, flirting with her at any given chance she could take, going so far as to taking her out to different places instead of driving her home. Robin wasn’t complaining at that, she was having fun spending more time with [F/N], heat rose to her cheeks when she remembered the time when a chill ran up her spine when a gust of wind blew past them. [F/N] obviously noticed this and removed the jacket she was wearing and offered Robin to wear it, she hesitantly took the jacket from her hands and put it on, reviling in the way it brought warmth to her body but also the way she could smell [F/N] on it. She was definitely not getting her jacket back any time soon, besides, it looked better on her anyways. Steve and Robin also had to put up with the fact that [F/N] and Billy always came by the store, whether it be to terrorise them through merciless flirting or just being straight up annoyances, it didn’t matter.

“Robin~” she all but jokingly groans at the sound of [F/N] singing her name, she turned her head to look over her shoulder and there she saw her, resting her elbow on the counter with her chin laying on the palm of her hand “Yoohoo, sailor~ you’ve got a customer in dire need of assistance.” she adds, twiddling her fingers in her direction to get her attention before dropping it down to her hip, Robin chuckles softly before striding over to her, resting her own hands on the counter and leaning forward.

“Why ahoy there, straggler. How can this sailor be of assistance?” [F/N] all but coos at Robin, she then pushed herself up so that she and Robin were eye to eye with each other.

“Are you busy this Saturday?” Robin perked up slightly.

“Why?” the woman opposite her takes a breath, lacing her fingers together and pressing the pads of her thumbs against each other.

“There’s a fair going on in the state over, I was wondering if you wanted to join me on Saturday. If you’re not busy, that is.” she gets a little nervous, rubbing the back of her neck the calm her down “I know it’s a bit of a drive, but I heard that it’s where the fun is at! I’d love to go with you, but if you can’t, I’ll just ask someone el—” she was cut off when Robin grabbed her hand, pulling her forward with an excited look on her face.

“Yes! I’d love to go with you, [F/N]! I’d love nothing more than to go with you!” she shakes her hand up and down, the bright shine in her eyes never disappearing “I’m not busy on Saturday, so I’d be happy to go with you!” [F/N] honestly didn’t think Robin would be this enthusiastic enough to go with her, so she lost her composure a little after Robin accepted her invitation before clearing her throat.

“W-Well, I’m glad you agreed to go with me! There wasn’t really anyone else I’d rather go with.” that’s a bit of a lie, she would have liked to go with Steve or maybe even Billy if Robin didn’t agree, but she was glad she did so she can have fun while being alone with her, maybe even pretend it was a date between the two of them “I’ll swing by your place around nine, alright? So be ready by then or else I’ll be honking in your driveway.” Robin laughs at that, shaking her head.

“Don’t! My parents will kill me.” she pulls Robin’s hands towards her and presses her lips on the back of her hand, lips still against her hand while he eyes glanced up at the red face girl.

“Then don’t make me wait, pretty girl.” she winks before skipping out of the store, thankful that she didn’t trip over her feet in the process. She glanced back at Robin and grinned when she saw her jumping up and down on her feet with the biggest smile on her face, [F/N] in return pumps her fist with a victorious grin on her face “Nailed it.” the day [F/N] was taking Robin to the fair came a lot faster than she anticipated because now she found herself standing in front of her full body mirror, wearing her best outfit and styling her hair in a similar fashion to Steve’s. She caresses her cheeks as she continues to stare at her reflection, she was quite nervous to spend a day with Robin instead of an hour or two, honestly, she was very excited. She now sported a big smile on her face, tugging on her jacket then turning to grab her keys from her nightstand and out the door “Stevie! I’m gonna be gone for the whole day, so don’t expect me to be home until really late or maybe tomorrow!” she called out as she sprinted past Steve’s room, only to stop and back step and lean back to peek into his room.

“That’s alright! I won’t be home either.” she raised a brow when she saw he was also getting ready to go out, sporting on a nice outfit that looked similar to her own while he was spraying on some hairspray and lightly pushing his hair into place “Have fun, [F/N].” she continued to stare at him, raising a brow when she saw him smiling softly.

“You getting for a date, Steve?” she noticed him flinch a little, he glanced at her through his own mirror and saw her raising a brow, now leaning against the doorframe while crossing her arms “Did you finally find someone that would give you the time of day?” he lets out a hum, looking up in thought.

“Somewhat?” she was even more curious, she would have pressed for more information but she didn’t want to be late picking up Robin so she raised her hand, waving him goodbye.

“Well, have fun on your date!” she exclaims then rushed downstairs and out the door, sliding over the hood of her car to get to the drivers side and hopping in. The drive to Robin’s house was a cruise as she now parked by the curb outside her house, drumming away on her stirring wheel as music blasted through her cars speakers once more. She perks up when she sees Robin kick open the door to her house and rushes over to where [F/N] was parked, her heart hastened when she saw Robin hurriedly trying to tug her arm through the sleeve of the jacket she gave her.

“I’m not late, am I?” [F/N] shook her head, smiling softly as Robin took her spot in the passenger seat.

“Not at all, you ready?” Robin nods.

“Totally!” she and Robin share a big grin before letting out loud cheering as [F/N] drove out of Hawkins, Robin was rambling about different little things they could do while they were are the fair as music played in the background. [F/N] let Robin make her own cassette tape so she could play music that she liked whenever they went on little drives together, sometimes she would blend in songs they both liked and they would often sit in silence as music played. It was a three hour drive to the state over but they didn’t mind how long it was going to take, they were enjoying the sight seeing that was better than the boring old bland Hawkins. After a few stops to get gas and some snacks, they finally found themselves at the fair.

“And the worst part about all this was finding a parking spot.” Robin pats [F/N] on the back when she finally managed to find said parking lot, slamming her head into the stirring wheel after nearly fifteen minutes of no luck, almost getting out of her car to cuss out a guy who nearly rear ended her when she had to abruptly slam on the breaks when some other douchebag stole her spot.

“Well, all that matters is that we’re here.” she calmly said, [F/N] pushed herself up and took a deep breath to calm herself, she then faced Robin and smiled at her “Now that you’ve calmed down, let’s get out there and have some fun.” [F/N] chuckled and nodded her head.

“Alright, you’re right!” they smile at each other before getting out of the car, Robin closes the door and goes around to stand beside [F/N] after she locked her door, she starts walking off but paused when she saw [F/N] extend her hand out to her. She stared down at her hand then back up at her face and saw she had a sheepish look on her face as she rubbed the back of her neck, her own hand twitched before it settled down into [F/N]’s, who looked more than relived that she took her hand. The two of them were blushing as they walked hand in hand into the fair, sure they got a few funny looks here and there, but that didn’t matter to them at the moment. [F/N] laughed when Robin rushed ahead, dragging her along with her as she pointed at the few attractions with a big smile on her face. She nods to herself, bringing Robin here was definitely the right decision. Neither one of them were paying attention to the time and they spent most of the day going on the rides, playing some games while winning prizing or just simply lazing around eating food and talking about anything that came to mind.

“I’m glad you invited me to this, [F/N].” she looks at her before snorting when said girl was stuffing her face with a hotdog, she laughs as she hands her a napkin and her drink to help her swallow it down, when she calmed down she beamed at the taller girl “I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy myself as much as I did if I were with anyone else, but I had the most fun I’ve had in ages because I’m here with you.” [F/N], who’s face was still stuffed with food, blushed softly at the confession but smiled.

“Oh, I-I’m glad you’re having fun!” she internally face palms, cringing at herself. I’m glad you’re having fun? Jesus fucking christ! You could’ve said anything else, and you went with that. Wow, way to go, nice one, she shakes her head at herself then swallows her food before speaking “A-Anyways, I was wondering, in the near future, would you like to do something like this again? Just the two of us together? Whether it be hanging out by the quarry, or maybe eat out at the diner. I don’t know, and I don’t care, you can pick if you want. All I know is that I want to spend more time with you, Robin.” she then reaches down to take Robin’s hands into her own, rubbing the pads of her thumbs over her knuckles, smiling softly when she felt Robin tighten her own hands around hers, blushing a soft shade of pink.

“I would love nothing more than to do something like this again.” her smile grew bigger and Robin mirrored her expression, Robin then moves slightly to suggest something but [F/N]’s gaze went to a familiar face that was lingering in the crowd. She tried to keep her eyes on Robin but whoever caught her eye made her glance back so she tilts her head to the side to look past Robin and her brows shot up when she saw Steve, she would have left it at that but her eyes widened in shock when she saw Billy fucking Hargrove walking beside him and the two of them were laughing together, going so far as to Steve leaning into his side to calm himself. Steve’s sister wasn’t too far off when she questioned if he was going on a date, it was just a little hangout between him and Billy when the latter invited him to go out of state to some fair. He didn’t think much of it, he totally didn’t put a lot of thought into his appearance, not at all. He totally wasn’t having a great time having fun with the guy that beat the shit out of him the previous yeah, no way. So why is he laughing his heart out with the blonde to the point he had to hold his arm from collapsing to the floor, even Billy had to hold him up.

“Whoa there, pretty boy, can’t have you falling on me.” Steve rolled his eyes as Billy helped him up, he runs a hand through his hair but stiffened up a little when he felt like he was being watched. He looked around to find the gaze that had him frozen in place and when he did his face fell, there he saw his sister staring right back at him with her eyes widened and jaw dropped. She raised her hand and pointed at him while he shook his head and mouthed “this isn’t what it looks like”, Billy noticed his silence and looked at him to see him staring at someone, so he followed his gaze and he himself paused when he saw [F/N]. She looked at the two before shrugging and giving them a thumbs up, Steve’s face fell into his hands while Billy let out a laugh.

“Isn’t something wrong?” [F/N]’s gaze snapped back to Robin when she spoke, noticing she had a concerned look on her face and she was beginning to turn around, her face flushed up when [F/N] quickly grabbed her by the side of her face and turned her eyes back onto her, her hand still resting on her cheek.

“No, no! There’s nothing wrong, don’t worry about it.” when she realised her thumb was caressing into her cheek she yanked her hand back, Robin in turn placed her hand on her cheek to feel the lingering warmth of what was left of [F/N]’s touch “There’s still a lot of things we’ve yet to do, Robin. Lets go enjoy the rest of our day before it’s over.” Robin wanted to say more but was quickly yanked onto her feet and dragged off to ride the rest of the fair rides they have yet to try. A few hours later [F/N] was found leaning against a post as she waited for Robin, who had left to go to the bathroom, she laced her fingers together and cracked them over her head while letting out a yawn.

“[F/N]!” she nearly falls over when her name was called, she looked over and laughed when she saw that it was Steve speed walking over to her “What you saw before… there’s nothing going on between us, alright? We’re just hanging out like two friends!” she rolled her eyes, crossing her arms and clearly not buying.

“Uh huh, that’s not what the Steve from before was saying.” he scoffed, crossing his own arms then stared down at him.

“What do you know about the Steve from before?” she rolled her eyes, pushing herself off the post to reach up and grab the collars of his shirt, neatly folding them out when they were messy.

“I know that in his eyes that he was having the best time of his life with the guy he previously hated. I know that he was smiling ear to ear like he used to when we were just children. I know that he’s slowly falling in love with Mister Billy Hargrove because he has the same look in his eyes like mine whenever I’m looking at Miss Robin Buckley. But I also know that he’s afraid to admit it because he hasn’t properly processed his sexuality like his dearest older sister.” she sighed softly when she noticed he was slowly processing her words, sigh, he always was a slow thinker. She takes a step forward, reaching up so one hand was on his shoulder while the other gently cupped his cheek and offered him a soft smile “I know it’s hard Stevie, I know, but you have me and maybe even Billy to help you through this crisis. I’ll be right there with you, to help you, every step of the way.” he weakly nods his head, leaning his cheek into the palm of her hand.

“I know, you were always there for me when I needed you most.” her smile grew  at the memories. She remembered the time when she was teaching him how to ride a bike, terrible decision on both of their parts, because it ended with Steve falling off and crying because he scrapped his knee. [F/N] carried him on her back to a neighbours house, to which said neighbour stood in slight concern because both children were crying. She remembered the time when he called her while she was in university and over the phone she could hear him trying to talk through tears, it was incoherent that she could barely make any words out but heard him blubber how his girlfriend Nancy Wheeler broke up with him. Oh, she could just imagine the look of heartbreak on his face when he poured his heart out to her, saying how he thought she was the one he was going to marry and spend the rest of his life with, only for her to rip his heart out and spit on it. How she wanted to go back to Hawkins that very moment just so she could comfort her brother, how he wanted to be held in her arms as she comforted him, how she wanted to beat the fuck out of that fucking Wheeler for breaking her brothers heart, but she held back for Steve “I know you would do absolutely anything for me.” she nods her head.

“That’s right, my sweet little baby brother.” he rolled his eyes at that but didn’t stop her when she pulled him down to press a kiss to his cheek “I love you, I love you very, very much! Don’t you forget it.” he laughs at her before proceeding to press his own kiss to her forehead then wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her up into a hug.

“And I love you too!” she laughs as she wraps her arms around his neck, letting him twirl her around before putting her down, but neither sibling let go just yet until they hear a soft gasp. [F/N] lightly pulls away, her hands slipping down to rest on Steve’s chest, and her eyes widened when she saw Robin standing a little ways away from them, a look of heartbreak on her face as tears swelled up in her eyes “R-Robin!” Steve stuttered out, knowing that look all to tell when he saw Jonathan and Nancy together in her room, and he knows the exact thoughts and feelings that were going on in her head right that moment.

“Robin, I swear, it’s not what it looks like!” [F/N] shouts out and reaches for her but the girl broke down into tears and quickly ran away, [F/N] didn’t hesitate to shove her brother off of her and quickly run after Robin. She usually would have apologised to people if she shoved past them or pushed them aside, but she could really give a rats ass at the moment as she ran after Robin, her heart breaking at the sight of tears running down her freckled cheeks “Robin, please! Wait!” she called out, this only made the other girl shake her head and let out a sob.

“No!” being a little athletic than the other, [F/N] easily caught up with Robin, wrapping her arms around her so she couldn’t get away. Robin obviously fought against her hold but couldn’t do much as the other was much stronger than her, so she was dragged into a more private part of the fair “Let go of me, [F/N]! Let go!” not wanting to hurt her, [F/N] does let her go but when she tried to leave she would move in front of her so she couldn’t leave.

“Robin, please let me explain myself! What you saw with me and Steve? There’s nothing go on between us, please, I swear there’s nothing going on.” she tried saying, but Robin wasn’t listening to her words and instead just shook her head,

“No! I heard you say “I love you” to Harrington! I saw you kiss him! In return, he did and said the same thing you did!” she raised her hands and pressed the heels of her palms against her forehead, gritting her teeth at the scene she stumbled upon. She was coming back from the bathroom, ready to enjoy the rest of her time with [F/N], only to find fucking Steve Harrington and [F/N] together. She didn’t think anything of it, she thought that it was nothing but a mere coincidence but then she saw the soft and tender look on her face as she coddled Steve like any other girlfriend would do when their boyfriend was upset. Her heart dropped into her stomach when she saw [F/N] press a kiss to his cheek and him doing the same thing, what hurt the most was hearing them say I love you to each other, nothing hurt more than watching the one you love very much look at someone else “Steve, that motherfucker, he was right! I wouldn’t know if they’re the one until it’s too late, and I guess that applies to right now!”

“No, Robin, it’s not too late.” [F/N] reassures, taking a step forward and wanting nothing more than to hold her but kept her hands back “Steve and I, we’re nothing more than—”

“The prettiest couple? Yeah, I’ve heard people talking. How about you and Billy? You said there was nothing between you two, but I’ve seen how touchy the two of you get. Sometimes you’re hanging off of him whenever I see you two together, or maybe when you and Steve are holding hands. I’ve seen all the signs, but I ignored them because of the way you looked at me, the way you talked to me! You were just leading me on this whole fucking time, and I fell for it! I fell for you, and this is what I get for trusting someone as beautiful as you…!” she takes a breath, threading her fingers through her hair and nearly yanking at them “I want to go home now.” [F/N] lets out a breath, shaking her head.

“How will you get home, Robin? We’re three hours away from Hawkins, I drove us here and you can’t drive! It’s also getting late and I don’t want you taking a bus all the way back to Indiana.” Robin scoffs.

“I’ll do what I want, so don’t try and stop me!” she yells “Maybe you can go spend the rest of the night with Steve, I bet he’ll love that very much.” she scowled when Steve suddenly appeared, clearly out of breath, behind [F/N] and placed his hand on her shoulder “Oh, look! Here he is now!” Steve shakes his head.

“Robin, please, you’re misunderstanding the whole situation.” he tried saying, he flinched back when she glared at him, tears rolling down her cheeks as she points at him.

“Shut up, Harrington!” she lets out another sob, holding her arms in her hands “I hated the thought of you stealing [F/N] from me! You’re just so perfect, you two are just perfect for each other! Steve Harrington who got all the ladies, who was the King of Hawkins High School that everyone wanted! I was so afraid that I’d lose her to you, and I guess I did, because I can’t fucking have anything!” her fingers did into the fabric of the jacket, her jacket, and she wanted to tear it off her body but didn’t want to lose the one thing close to her “I can’t have anything because I’m just fucking different!”  “Robin!” they both shout but she ignored them both, shaking her head but that didn’t stop them “Look at us!” she sneered at them when she did and through the tears she looked at them, she didn’t understand why the said that but as her vision cleared up she saw a bit of a resemblance that she never did see before. Now that they were standing together, the little moles and beauty marks Steve had along his neck and face, [F/N] had a few on her as well. They had a similar jaw line and nose, even their hair looked similar, but what was a dead give away were their eyes. She remembered when she first met [F/N], she remembered that her eyes reminded her of someone, and she couldn’t believe that that someone was Steve.

“Y-You…” [F/N] let out a breath when she noticed Robin was finally calming down.

“Robin,” she says softly, taking a step forward but not moving any closer when Robin flinched back “Steve and I, we’re siblings. Steve is my younger brother.” Steve waved his hand, nodding his head.

“Yeah, she’s my older sister that went to university.” Robin remembered hearing Steve mentioning that as well in a passing conversation but thought nothing of it, not really giving a shit about Steve at that point of time.

“My name is [F/N] Harrington.” she gently says, she and Steve look at each other and smile softly “We were the Harrington siblings, don’t you ever remember hearing people talking about us?” she scoffed, sniffling as she tried wiping away her tears.

“Y-Yeah, but I never got to see who the female Harrington was, all I knew was that she was a wild child that couldn’t be controlled.” [F/N] chuckled weakly at that, remembering being called that as well “B-But if you guys are related, why didn’t you mention this to me?” they both respectively wince.

“Honestly…” Steve starts, pausing for a second “we both kind of forgot.” Robin gasped and looked at [F/N], who guiltily glanced down at the ground while nodding her head, pressing her lips into a thin line.

“Yeah.” she mutters under her breath, Robin scoffs, throwing her head back along with her hands.

“Then what was going on between you two?”  “Steve was going through a crisis so as his sister I was comforting him.” this earned her a smack on the arm, she growled at him and smacked him back “I’m being honest! It’s the least we can do after we bamboozled her for as long as we did, dipshit!” he just rolled his eyes, Robin then watched the two of them bickering like siblings. Argh, how could she not see it? Now that she’s watching them, seeing them together side by side, it’s as clear as day that they’re brother and sister. She then starts to panic, remembering everything she was saying when she thought that Steve and [F/N] were secretly a couple.

“U-Uh, [F/N]…” he stuttered words caught their attention, Robin was now crying for a different reason, now at the thought that the friendship—the relationship she had with [F/N) was going to be damaged because of her foolish mistake of not hearing them out “what I said before, can you forget everything I said? I-I was being foolish and clearly I wasn’t in the right state of mind. I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you guys, and I’m sorry for my outburst. But just please, forget everything I said.” Steve reached forward, ready to apologise to himself but held his tongue when he saw his sister step forward. Robin was shaking her head, lips trembling and body ready to collapse at any given moment. God, she wished she could have just heard them out, now the both of them knew. They knew that she wasn’t like them, that she was just some queer that neither of them wanted to be associated with. She flinched, letting out another sob when she saw [F/N]’s shoes in front of her, and when she stuttered out another apology, she gasped when [F/N] grabbed her by the forearms and pulled her into a much needed kiss. Steve let out a huff, turning around and making sure no one was peeking in on them, but glanced back when he saw Robin’s eyes widen in shock before they gradually calmed down and fluttered shut. [F/N] was the one to pull away and though Robin wanted to avert her eyes from her gaze, she reluctantly met her eyes and saw nothing but love and reassurance swirling in those pretty [E/C] eyes.

“Why would I ever want to forget you ever calling me beautiful?” she shook her head, her hands sliding up from her arms and resting on her face so she could cup her cheeks “I’m so sorry that neither of us told you that we were siblings, I’m sorry I had you thinking so awful thoughts, I’m sorry that I made you cry. I’ll make it up to, I promise you that I won’t ever make you cry, that is unless they’ll be of tears of joy.” she says, wiping away the tears that stained her pretty little face, going so far as to leaning forward to kiss away the few stray ones.

“[F/N]…”

“I love you, Robin.” she confessed, reaching down to grab her hands once more “I love you and I want you to know that I would love it if you would be my girlfriend, that is if you’ll allow me to be your girlfriend?” she held her hands softly, not in a way that’ll keep her from jerking away, just enough to ground them both. Robin’s lips trembled once more, she then let out a weak laugh as she lifted her hands, that were still being held in [F/N]’s grip, and pressed them against her forehead and nodded her head.

“Yes! Yes, yes, yes! A thousand times, yes!” Steve smiled fondly upon seeing his sister let out a loud cheer, throwing her arms up then wrapping them around Robin and lifting her up, twirling her around in a similar fashion he did to her. Hah, the two of them really are sibl— his thoughts were cut off when he felt an arm wrap around his shoulder.

“There you are, pretty boy.” twas Billy, having looked nearly everywhere for Steve, only to find him along with his sister and that Buckley girl in a corner away from prying eyes “What’s going on here?” he asked, Steve chuckled and cocked his head over to them, Billy hummed then raised both brows when he saw [F/N] and Robin share a kiss, a sweet and loving kiss.

“My sister got herself a girlfriend.” he nods his head, smiling softly.

“Good for her, now I don’t have to hear her bitching about freckles.” Steve rolled his eyes, smacking Billy’s arm with a laugh, the blonde pursed his lips, the way he did it was in a similar fashion to [F/N] doing it “Wow, like sister like brother. You two are so alike.” hearing this, [F/N] turned her head over to look at them and gave them a cheeky grin.

“You can say that again.” [F/N] now ignored the two boys in favor of her new girlfriend, she finally put her down and she stared down at her with nothing but love in her eyes. Robin blushed and didn’t hesitated to throw her arms around [F/N]’s neck, who couldn’t held by wrap her own arms around her waist, and together they held each others tight, as if they were going to disappear if they let go for just a second “I love you, Robin. Do you love me?” Robin giggled, moving just slightly kiss her temple.

“I do love you, female Harrington.” the both snort at that before pulling each other into another kiss, clearly the two of them were in love with each other.

Headcanons:

the rest of that night was spent with the four of them on a double date.

[f/n] and billy were being menaces all night long, shamelessly flirting with steve and robin with no remorse.

the two of them together were the biggest flirts and sometimes they said the most unhinged things of existence that earned them the cutest and most flustered reactions out of the two.

they high fived each other.

steve and robin started getting along better now that robin was basically dating his sister. she hated it mostly because now that she’s seen the resemblance in the two of them, she can’t be that big of a jerk to him because a. [f/n] loves her brother and b. it’s like she’s staring at [f/n] whenever she looks harrington in the eyes for more then five seconds.

she hates it.

nothing too drastic changed between [f/n] and robin.

she still picked her up and dropped her off at work.

she still took her out on nightly drives.

the big thing that changed was that [f/n] no longer had to hold back all the affection and love she was storing up in her heart that was meant for robin.

robin had to sometimes tell her no or calm down when [f/n] was expression a little too much pda, but the harrington didn’t care. she loved her girlfriend to bits, and she didn’t give two shits what this shitty little town had to say.

steve and [f/n] were now officially the disappoints of the harrington family.

they didn’t give a shit, not one.

what made it funny was whenever billy or robin mentioned they were dating a harrington, especially not mentioning which one, people would always assume the other one.

when robin told one of the few friends she had she was dating “harrington” they immediately thought she managed to hookup with steve, to which they congratulated her for such a success.

to which she just nodded her head and silently nodded with a “yeah, totally”.

she later told steve, [f/n] and billy and they all had a laugh about it. though it was definitely for the best for the four of them.

[f/n] goes out of her way to express her undying love for robin.

sometimes she gets a little insecure that she might be overdoing it, but seeing how robin never pushed away each gift she’s given her, or shied away from her affection, she believes she’s doing a great job.

the four of them would also often have double dates or shared date nights at the harrington household.

it was the biggest house and definitely better than their own rundown, shithole of a house they live in. and besides, billy and robin just love that harrington siblings give them so much attention.

[f/n] has totally threatened billy about being with steve.

steve is her brother. her brother that’s been neglected by both their parents to the point she’s had to fill in that role as somewhat as a parental figure so she knows just how touch starved and desperate for love he is.

billy understands where she’s coming from and wishes for her to have done faith in him, and though she does by how much her brother now sings praises about billy, she can’t help but give him a lecture.

to which billy listens carefully.

anyways-

sometimes billy and [f/n] would be arguing about who’s girlfriend/boyfriend was cuter. better. sweeter. and list every single detail that just made them perfect and why they love them so much.

said girlfriend/boyfriend are in the background telling them to shut up, sporting a nice little blush on their cheeks as they tried to stop themselves from smiling.

sometimes things would get physical but the two never had hard feelings and always laughed it off.

this earned them a smack across the head.

steve and robin, in the end, just love their wild, hotheaded, temperamental, violent lovers that will only be soft and gentle with them around.

billy and [f/n] in return love their sweet, quirky, fun loving lovers and would do just about anything to keep them from feeling anything but the amounts of love they have for them.

and when I mean anything; I mean anything.

hah! I’m kidding.

but don’t get me wrong, billy and [f/n] will fight anyone that makes their cuties cry.

Obvious

word count: 7501

Fandom: Stranger Things Pairing: Will Byers x Male!Reader Pronouns: He/Him Relationship: Romantic Occupation: Student Ability: N/A

Keys:

[M/N]: Male Name [L/N]: Last Name [N/N]: Nickname [H/C]: Hair Color [E/C]: Eye Color

Warnings: bullying, vulgar language, blood

“Get him out! Get him out!”

“Strike him!”

“Shoot for a home run!”

“Get the win!”

Being the last batter for a really important baseball game puts a lot on your shoulders, especially when you’re the up and rising star of your team while representing your school. He takes a deep breath, tensing his muscles while tightening his grip on his baseball bat. Himself and the pitcher never broke eye contact, that pitcher was out for blood and he was going to make sure he didn’t give it to him. He licked his lips, taking a deep breath when he saw the pitcher finally get ready to throw the ball. He blocked out all the cheering as he focused on the ball hurdling towards him, when it was finally inches away from him he slammed his foot on the ground and let out a grunt, swinging the bat and upon contact with the ball, he managed to send it flying out of the field. He didn’t fight down the huge grin that stretched across his face when he sent that ball flying, letting out his own cheer as he threw down his bat and ran to each base.

“And there you have it folks, Lenora Hills High have won against their rivalling team for the first time in nearly a decade! And all thanks to their new rising star, [M/N] [L/N] who granted them their winning home run!” by the time he returned back to home base, he was greeted by his team and school huddling around him, grabbing a hold of him and lifting him up.

“That’s our [M/N]!”

“Way to go!”

“You did it, [M/N]!” he just laughed as they threw him up and down before finally letting him down, grabbing their jug of water and pouring it on him. He usually would have yelled at them for doing that but it felt refreshing on his hot and sweaty body, he took his helmet off and threw his head back, running a hand through his sweaty hair but grinned nonetheless and threw his fist into the air. After the game he was met with bustling students and parents congratulating him for getting the winning shot, he smiled and thanked them and was approaching his pick up truck but was stopped by a familiar face.

“H-Hey, [M/N]!” turning to see who it was, he couldn’t help but smile at the sight of one of the Byers siblings “Congrats on the win.” his smile grew at his words, he readjusted the shoulder strap of his duffel bag and approached him.

“Thanks, Will. Did you see my swing? I’ve been putting a lot of effort into my swings as of lately.” the Indiana boy nodded his head, his face lighting up as he waved his hands around.

“Yeah, I was watching from the crowd! It was pretty tense, but I knew you’d get it.” [M/N] chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck bashfully “Um, now that you’re here, I was wondering if you wanted to come to the after party with my lot.” Will tensed up when he saw [M/N] point over to the boys who were jumping into his truck while hooting and hollering.

“Come on dude! Lets get going!” he laughed and waved at them to wait.

“Gimme a sec, alright.” they groan but do, [M/N] then glanced at Will again and give him a hopeful look “So? Will you come?” he inhaled sharply, raising his hand to rub his arm.

“I-I’d love too, but I—”

“Will! We gotta go man, come on!” they both glance over and saw the eldest Byers, Johnathan, waving his brother over while his sister Jane and their friend Argyle sat in the van “Mum wants us home, like, right now.” Will closed his eyes in disappointment as he turned back to look at [M/N], who looked just as disappointed but he chuckled softly.

“Ah, that’s a bit of a shame, but it can’t be helped.” he murmured softly “I guess I’ll see you at school next week?” he asked, Will nodded his head.

“Y-Yeah, totally.” [M/N] smiled and sent the brunette a wink, causing him to fluster. [M/N] found the reaction adorable but latter groaned when he heard his friends shouting at him to hurry up, he waved Will goodbye then finally went back to his truck, chucking his shit at his passenger “See you later, [M/N]!” he exclaimed, this caused the [H/C] boy to grin and wave him goodbye before he turned on his radio and drove off with his friends and himself screaming to the top of their lungs to the music.

“Will.” he jumped at the call of his name, turning around, he saw Johnathan giving him a look “You good?” he nervously nodded his head.

“Y-Yeah, I’m spectacular.” Johnathan nods his head slowly.

“Yeah…”

Will couldn’t explain when his attraction towards [M/N] [L/N] first arose. Maybe it was because he was different in comparison to the other students of Lenora Hills High School. He was apart of the popular crowd, and how could he not be? He was gorgeous, athletic, smart and did I mention nice? It happened when Angela was bullying Eleven, there wasn’t much he could do to stop it because he didn’t have that kind of presence to do anything about it, but that was when [M/N] appeared. He didn’t hesitate to put Angela in her place, giving her a clean smack across the back of her head and sternly telling her not to bully poor little Eleven. Without a doubt, despite the both of them being sophomores, they were already declared to be the next King and Queen of the school.

Anyways, [M/N] just had Will swooning. He always stuck up for him and Eleven, he was always so nice to them and the way he would always send a smile his direction, how could he not fall deeper? But the moment he asked if they could be friends, gosh, he was over the moon. He wished things could’ve worked out with Mike, he wished he had to courage to tell Mike his feelings, but he knew they wouldn’t be reciprocated, Mike already had El and he knew he had to move on. Now his eyes were on the boy that every girl had a crush on, god, he was fucking doomed. He was cursed for crushing on the wrong people, Mike was taken and [M/N] was wanted by everyone. Maybe he was making a mistake for falling in love with the most popular guy in school, maybe he was better off digging himself a hole and burying himself—

“Will!” he jumped, slamming his locker door closed then turning to see [M/N] waving his friends off then jog over to where he was “Hey man, how was your weekend?” Will waved his hand.

“Oh, you know, same old, same old. I wouldn’t say anything exciting happened, but, you know?” he laughed nervously, this caused [M/N] to chuckle softly while running a hand through his hair.

“I get it, it’s still a shame you couldn’t come to the after party, would have loved it if you were there.” ah, there he goes again saying stuff that makes his heart flutter “We couldn’t do anything too chaotic, but we had fun nonetheless. Maybe I should win our next game, then maybe you’ll be able to attend the after party with me.” Will snorts softly, punching his arm.

“Don’t go getting arrogant, [M/N], that’ll cost you the win.”

“Haa, you’re right.” he then leaned back a little so that he was standing on the heels of his feet, a slight flush rising to his cheeks as he rubbed the back of his neck once more “Actually, I was wondering if you were busy this weekend? I was hoping we could, um, hangout?” how badly Will wanted to say yes, this was a chance for him to get closer to [M/N] that wasn’t simply over help with schoolwork and actually hanging out with his crush, but he couldn’t.

“I’m sorry, [M/N], but I can’t.” this caused him to deflate.

“Well, why not?” he gave him a sheepish grin, now rubbing the back of his own neck.

“My friend, from Indiana, he’s coming here to visit my sister and I.” [M/N]’s shoulders relaxed a little, looking up in thought to remember the friend Will was referring to.

“Oh… right, Mike Wheeler, right? I remember you mentioning him in w passing conversation.” he then lets out a huff, kicking his feet like child “Then I guess it’s alright, wouldn’t want your friend feeling lonely while in a completely different state.”

“Right.” [M/N] then let out a grunt when someone elbowing him, he gave them a soft glare when he saw that it was his friends coming to collect him.

“Come on, dude. We’ve got math first, and that’s on the other side of the building. I don’t want to be late because you were too business talking to Byers, let’s go.” he scoffs and kicks them in the back of their leg, this caused them to stumble forward but they managed to catch themself and laugh as they scurried away, he shook his head.

“Well, duty calls. I’ll see you later?” Will nods.

“Yeah, see you later.” [M/N] nods with a grin then runs off to catch up with his friends, when he was finally alone, he let out a deep sigh as he collapsed onto his locker and probably would have slid down it if there weren’t people around him. He silently cursed in the back of his head, if only Mike was coming a week later then maybe he could have the chance to be with [M/N] “Dammit.” [M/N] himself curses under his breath, walking beside his friends to their class.

“Do you think I’m being pushy? Every time I’ve tried to ask him to hang out, he’s always got an excuse.” his friend let out a groan, slapping a hand onto their face and dragging it down.

“Dude, you’re overthinking it. You said his friend is visiting from Hawkins, right? That run down little town out in the middle of the sticks? A friend that he hasn’t seen for about a year?” he nods his head “Then let the guy see him, man. You’re acting like a boyfriend who’s upset that his girlfriend is meeting a childhood friend, who is a boy, after a long time and worried that he’s going to steal your girlfriend.” he immediately grows flustered, the tips of his ears turning red as he smacked his arm.

“I am not.” he sneers, this earned an eye roll.

“Are too, mister drama queen.” [M/N] sighed and continued to walk to math class, rubbing his face when the blush on his face continued to color his cheeks.

The moment [M/N] saw Will Byers, gosh, to him it was like love at first sight. He knew that it was wrong for a boy himself to fall in love with another boy, but his heart would not beat for another. It was during the beginning of their sophomore year and he saw Angela picking on the quiet but sweet girl of Hawkins who had recently moved to Lenora Hills, he quickly disciplined Angela and comforted the new girl, but then his gaze went to the brunette that was her brother. Will Byers, a soul just as sweet and had him melting. He was always on the back of his mind that he couldn’t just ignore anymore, so he asked if they could be friends, he was internally screaming when he said yes. He took every chance he could to be with him, whether that be lying that he needed help with his schoolwork that he had to come over to his house so they could study, he was basically a regular in the Byers household. He was odd and it certainly was creepy, but he just wanted to be as close to Will as he could.

Before he knew it it was already lunch and he was being dragged out of class by his friends, he laughed as they threw him onto his feet and he bounced a little before finding his footing. Being apart of the popular crowd, [M/N] was greeted by many students and he politely greeted them back, not being a fan of being rude to people. Because of this [M/N] was generally liked by both students and teachers, and so here he was sitting at a table with various people fighting to sit with him, but of course his friends always got dibs to sit at his table. He was in the midst of eating his food but his eyes continuously scanned the cafeteria, one of his friends noticed so they let out a sigh and smacked him in the back of the head, this caused him to spit out some of his food and let out a yelp from the pain.

“Dude, what the fuck?” another friend that sat across from him gave him a incredulous expression.

“Yeah dude, what the fuck? He spat his food on me!” he groaned, face scrunching up in disgust at the bits of food on his jacket, causing a few of them to snicker, the one that smacked him rolled his eyes.

“You’re so obvious.” [M/N] cleared his throat, looking at him in confusion.

“What are you talking about?” he scoffed softly, [M/N] raised a brow when he passed him a note, he eyed it before sitting up straight and taking it from his hand. His friend side eyed him and sighed softly when he saw that scared reaction, [M/N] was trembling as a look of panic could be seen in his eyes.

’I know you’ve got a thing for that Byers guy.’

”W-What…?” he could tell that [M/N] was trying not to break down and make a scene so he reached over and grabbed the note, crumbling it up and tucking it into his pocket, this made him look up at him with the same scared expression.

“You’re so obvious.” he repeats “If you thought I, your best friend since we were toddlers, wouldn’t notice, I’d have to kick your ass.” [M/N] glanced around at the others, who surprisingly didn’t notice what was happening between the two of them, and gave him a cautious look.

“You’re not… grossed out?” this caused him to roll his eyes.

“No. I’m more upset over the fact that you thought I wouldn’t accept you, you’re my bro, and I care more about being your best friend than your goddamn preference.” [M/N] would probably start crying if he wasn’t in the middle of the cafeteria, he wipes his eyes with his forearm whilst his friend gently rubbed his back.

“You’re a true bro.” he chuckled.

“I know, and don’t you forget it.” his eyes then lingered up and his lips curved into a smirk at who he saw, so he grabbed [M/N] by the back of his neck and pulled him up “And look who just came walking in~” he cooed, snickering softly when he saw that lovesick gaze [M/N] always had on his face when Will Byers came into view.

“Do you think he’ll sit with us?” he questioned.

“Doubt it.” [M/N] slumps on disappointment “You know he always sits with his sister, doesn’t want her being alone. And if you try and invite her over in hopes of getting him to join us, she’ll be uncomfortable because I’m pretty sure half of the people here have taken part in tormenting her.” he slumps even more.

“You’re right.”

“I know I’m right, I’m always right.”

“You are.” he grumbles under his breath, he then briefly glanced at Will again and lights up when their eyes meet. He happily waved his hand to greet him with a big smile, his smile only growing brighter when Will mirrored his expression and returned the gesture before turning to sit with his sister, [M/N] then sat back down in his seat with a look of content but it dropped when he could feel his friends gaze on him “Stop looking at me like that.”

“You’re gay.” he whispered quietly, he laughed sarcastically before throwing macaroni in his face, causing the others to laugh.

“Thanks for pointing out the obvious, genius.” he winked.

[time skip: roller shaking rink]

If Will wasn’t already having a pretty awful day, it just got worse. He thought he’d be happy to see Mike when he got to California, he thought they’d get to talk like they used to when they were kids still living in Hawkins, but he’s been too busy oogling Eleven to even hold a conversation with him. What makes matters worse is that she’s been lying to him ever since they’ve got there, saying things about being friends with the same people who has been bullying her and going to that roller skating rink to the point she forgot an important detail. It sucked being the third wheel, watching as Mike and El held hands as they skated around while he lingered in the back and watched in dismay as they looked happy while he was forgotten.

’Maybe I was better off taking up [M/N]’s offer to hang out then being stuck being the third wheel.’ he thought to himself, just the thought of the [H/C] boy made him smile but he frowned when he knew that it was already too late and since he was already here he was just going to have to suck it up until six when Jonathan and Argyle came back to pick them up ’At this point I don’t even know why I’m here.’ he grumbled, pinching the bridge of his noise as Mike and El blubbered on about something, not that he was listening, but he was completely unaware of that fact he was being stared at.

“No fucking way…” a voice muttered, he hears a slurp but didn’t pay it any mind as the owner of the obnoxious slurping came to a rolling stop beside him.

“What’s the matter?” ‘twas [M/N] holding two large cups of soda in his hands, he sniffled as he took another huge gulp from his drink while his friend tore his gaze away from the bored Byers to stare up at his friend “Did you see someone, dude?” he rolled his eyes, grabbing [M/N] by the jaw and turning his head in the direction he was staring in.

“Yeah, the guy that rejected you.” he furrowed his brows at that and tried searching to see who he could be talking about before freezing up when he saw Will, he probably would have crushed the drinks in his hands if his friend let him go “His sister is here too, along with some guy with god awful taste in fashion.” at this, they both cringed at what the guy was wearing.

“It must be that Mike Wheeler kid he talks about.” his friend glanced up at him once more, noticing the way he was fidgeting as he stared at Will.

“You gonna go over there and say hello, or are you gonna stay here gawking like a fish?” [M/N] swallowed thickly, his grip on both drinks growing tighter before he let out a sigh and relaxed.

“Nah, he’s with his friend. I think I’d be intruding if I just suddenly went over there. Let’s go, the others are waiting for us.” his friend nodded and was going to leave it at that, they both turned away and planned on skating away but he stopped when he saw that familiar looking blonde making her way over to where the Byers siblings and their friend were.

“Wait.” [M/N] does and looks over at him in confusion “We’ve got trouble.” he hums then glanced back over to see what he was talking about before visibly getting angry at the sight of Angela approaching the three with her goonies following closely behind her.

“Get the boys, I’ll deal with her.” he snarled out and proceeded to skate over to the table.

“[M/N], what are you— you better not hit her!” this caused him to laugh.

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” [M/N] wouldn’t publicly punch Angela in the face, without any context he just looks like an asshole, but he’s got a plan to humiliate her without looking like a douchebag… well, he’ll look like a douchebag if it was an accidental regardless. He popped off the cup covers and sped up a little, this was going to hurt a bit, the moment he was close enough he purposefully tripped up, causing the drinks in his hands to spill all over the poor unexpecting soul.

“Oh my god!” she screamed out, feeling the soda drench her completely “What the hell is wrong with you?!” she exclaimed, everyone in attendance to witness what happened were in shock, [M/N] stifled a chuckle as he pulled himself onto his feet while Angela’s friends comforted her.

“Oh man, I am just so sorry, I’m still quite new when it comes to skating.” Jane felt a sense of comfort when she saw [M/N], smiling softly when she felt him place his hand on top of her head and ruffle it around while giving Angela a smug grin when she turned and glared at him “Accidents happen, you know?” his grin grew bigger when she grew agitated while a few of her friends took a step forward.

“Man, you’re such a clutz, [M/N]! Why can’t you be good at skating like you are with baseball!” he let out a soft grunt when his friend appeared behind him, slapping a hand on his back with a laugh, Angela and her friends backed down when [M/N]’s friend group appeared and gave him threatening smiles “Forgive him, he’s still learning.” Angela growled, hand closing into a tight fist before glaring at the both of them.

“This isn’t over.” with that she skated away, [M/N] let out a breath before smacking his friend in the arm.

“Still learning? Dude! Nice one, didn’t you face plant not too long ago?” this caused him to make a face.

“Now let’s not get arrogant here.” [M/N] rolled his eyes, he then looked at the residents of the table and grinned, waving his hand to greet them.

“Hey Jane, hi Will!” he said happily, the Byers siblings returned the greeting with a happy wave of their own, he then glanced over at the ravenette and gave him a confused expression “And hello… Mike, was it?” he gave an awkward wave of his own,  Jane stood to her feet and grabbed his hands while gesturing with her other to Mike.

“Yes, this is Mike! He is my boyfriend.” this caused a few of them to be surprised, a few of his friends whistled.

“Wow, little miss pretty has herself a boyfriend? Never would have guessed.” this earned him a smack behind the head.

“Stop it.” Jane giggled softly, always appreciating it when [M/N] reprimanded his friends from making offhanded comments “Will told me how he was coming down from Indiana, you two must be really happy that he’s here after not seeing him in a long time.” Jane nodded her head, [M/N] glanced at Will and noticed he didn’t look as enthusiastic as his sister.

“Yeah, totally.” [M/N] and his friends noticed Will’s less than thrilled response and glanced at each other, his friends spare each other a glance and nod in unison before one of them wrap an arm around [M/N]’s shoulder and pull him in, causing him to look at them in confusion.

“Well, why don’t we leave the lovebirds alone to catch up?” he suggested then glanced at Will, who flinched when all eyes were on him “Hey Byers, why don’t you join us? Don’t want you being stuck as the third wheel!” Will looked a little hesitant but he didn’t even get a choice when they grabbed him out of the booth and started pushing him away, he couldn’t even stop them even if he could because of the skates.

“Have fun you two!” they exclaimed, [M/N] was confused at to what they were doing and was going to question them but froze up when they pushed both him and Will together and into the skating ring. He glared back at them with a bright red face but it dropped when he saw all of them giving him encouraging looks followed with thumbs up, one of them grinned as they leaned against the barrier and continued to watch [M/N] panic as he held Will from evidently falling over.

“He’s gay, right?” one of them questioned, another nodded.

“Oh, totally! Without a doubt.” they each share a laugh and place bets to see if anything will happen before the day was over, now back to the two, [M/N] was apologising profusely for putting Will on the spot like they did while untangling himself off of the poor boy.

“I’m so sorry, Will! I don’t know what’s wrong with them.” a soft blush settled on his cheeks when Will looked up at him with that oh so cute smile on his face.

“Oh, don’t worry about it. I get where they were coming from, and it did suck a little being the third wheel back there.” [M/N] gasped softly, bringing a hand up to hover over his mouth.

“No.” Will chuckled at the reaction, nodding his head.

“Yeah, while those two were glued together, I just hung in the background.” [M/N] hummed softly before lightly shoving him with his shoulder and skating ahead of them, Will let out a whoa and quickly caught himself before he fell over then glanced over at [M/N] and saw he had a big grin on his face.

“Well, now you have me! Lets have some fucking fun, Byers!” he cheered, holding his hand out for Will to take. He looked hesitant once more but the way [M/N] had an eager look on his face, his eyes practically begging him to take his hand, how could he possibly refuse. He lets out a laugh and took [M/N]’s hand, laughing even louder when he was pulled towards him and together the two of them spun around before skating a few rounds around the ring then leaving and going over to the arcade. Will watched as [M/N] went over to the game where you had to knock clowns over to rack up points, he grabbed the baseball and tossed it up a few times “I may not be as good as our pitcher, but I’d like to think I’m second best.” he comments, this caused Will to jokingly roll his eyes.

“Your arrogance is showing.” he flushed up when [M/N] winked at him.

“Only for you.” at the end of the game he won a lot of tickets, throwing his fist up with a victorious grin. [M/N] continued to win the games, a few times playing some with Will until they were holding too many tickets that it was ridiculous. They both glance at each other before bursting out into laughter and going over to the ticket stand and trading the tickets for prizes, though in the end they couldn’t think of what to get and gave their winnings to the kid behind them and went over to get some food “You know? I didn’t think I was going to see you today, but I’m glad that I did.” he said, grabbing a few fries and throwing them into his mouth.

“I agree, you made my day a little bit better.” [M/N] grinned at that, as the two of them continued to talk he glanced behind Will and his face scrunched up when he saw his friends from afar making those same encouraging looks along with kissy faces, he wanted to kick their asses. He panicked when Will noticed that [M/N] was staring at something so he turned around to see what it was but his friends luckily ducked down before they could notice, when Will turned to look back at [M/N] he just got an innocent smile on his face “Well, um, I’m really glad I got to spend some time with you.”

“Same! At least you weren’t stuck in between your sister and your friend.” Will had a bittersweet expression on his face.

“I know he just got here and that El— I mean, Jane, is his girlfriend… but I’m his best friend. I wish he talked to me just a little bit longer instead of ignoring me, it really hurt.” [M/N] gave him a sympathetic smile.

“I’m sure things will get better, like you said, he’s your best friend! I’m sure things will get better before you know it.” he reassured, this caused Will to smile.

“Thanks, I really appreciate it.” he nods.

“Anytime.” they stare at each other for a little longer then jump when a hand suddenly slammed down on their table, they then glance up at the owner and [M/N] couldn’t help but grimace a little when he saw that it was none other than Mike Wheeler.

“There you are, Will! I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” he then gestured with his hand for him to stand up “I need to talk to you about something, so can we go?” Will pulled a face and looked at [M/N], he looked just as saddened but gestured for him to go.

“Don’t leave the guy waiting! I’ll be right here if you come back.” Will smiled before leaving, the moment Will was out of sight he let out a breath he was holding in and slumped into the seat, not even moments later his friends arrived and took over the booth.

“Well that was a disaster.” one of them said, a few of the other eating the food that was forgotten “You should have seen the way that Indiana guy was staring at you, dude. We were watching for a long time and that guy was giving you a dirty look.” another then dramatically held a hand to his forehead and fell back, one having to catch him before falling onto the ground.

“He must’ve been jealous that he was replaced and couldn’t stand the thought of his friend talking to a much better looking, well dressed, and friendly guy that isn’t him.” [M/N] rolled his eyes, grabbing his drink and taking a long slurp from it “We’re being serious, [M/N]. That guy definitely didn’t like the fact that you were with Byers, man.”

“You should shoot your shot.” this caused [M/N] to glare at the one friend he knew that knew about his sexuality, before he could say anything, he raised his hands and gestured to the lot of them.

“Dude, like I said, you’re so obvious.” he glanced at the others and saw they were all nodding their heads “Why do you think we were encouraging you that whole time, dumbass?” they all laugh when his head fell and thumped against the table.

“We’re your ultimate wingmen, trust us.” their heads shoot up when they all hear shouting, they look over and saw a crowd forming so they scramble to their feet and rush over, and there they saw Angela’s face bleeding due to the fact that Jane had hit her with a skate “Holy shit!” 

“You go Byers!” [M/N] shakes his head.

“Now’s not the time.”  “Sorry.” he shakes his head, he then glanced over at the siblings and saw they both had a panicked look on their faces before rushing away “Well that was anticlimactic, I didn’t expect her to do that.”

“Well what can you do? After all that torment that bitch has put her through, I was wondering how long it was going to take until she finally snapped.” he then claps his hands “Good for her, the wrong way of standing up for herself, but good for her.”

“Stop it.”  [time skip: later at night]

Today was just a fucking disaster. Will collapsed onto his bed and let out an exhausted sigh, if he thought the day couldn’t get any worse, he should probably shut the fuck up at that point. All was going swell when he was with [M/N], he had fun and it felt nice to be included, even more so being so close to the guy that made his stomach do flips. Mike had to ruin the moment but let it slide when he realised that Angela came back for revenge and evidently humiliated El before running off, Mike only coming to find him to help him find El. What made matters worse was when El slammed the roller skate into Angela’s face and it started bleeding profusely, god, he needed a break. He pressed the soles of his hands into his eyes and twisted slightly, dragging his hands down his face then throwing his arms open.

“What a disaster.” he closed his eyes and let his body relax into the bed, growing slightly irritated when he heard a subtle tapping, he lifts himself and glared over at the window. It stopped when he looked over at it so he let his body fall back onto the bed but not even a second passes when the tapping returns so he jumps off his bed and marches over to his window, ready to punch it but froze up when he saw that it was [M/N], who lit up upon sight.

“Will!” his voice was muffled through the glass but he definitely heard it as the boy waved his hand “Hi.” he shook his head with a laugh and opened the window.

“What are you doing here? It’s late.” he holds his hand up in a gesture for him to wait so he does with a slight giggle, watching as he ducked down to get something before shooting up with something in his hand. Will looked at in confusion then let out a sputter of words when [M/N] pushed it into his hands, he chuckled when he saw the excited look on his face “What is this?”

“It’s a gift. It’s for you.” Will furrowed his brows in confusion, a gift? He was going to question him again but [M/N] gestured for him to open it “Go on, open it!” [M/N] reminded him of a child on Christmas Day, so he just shrugged his shoulders and opened the nicely wrapped gift. He raised his brow in confusion at the sight of a box that was close shut by two latches, he looked at [M/N] and saw the eagerness in his eyes as he nodded at him for him to open it, so he did with a shrug. His eyes widened in shock at what he saw was inside, he couldn’t believe it as he lowered the lid to look at [M/N].

“I-Is this…?” he smiled and sheepishly shrugged.

“An oil color box set? Yeah, it took awhile to find this specific one, and it was really expensive as well, but what’s a few weeks allowance can’t do?” Will was at a loss for words, stuttering out a few that he managed to say as tears threatened to spill from his eyes “I remembered you saying that you were looking for one so you could paint while you were out, so I thought I would get you one and save you the trouble.” Will sniffled, raising a hand to rub at his eyes.

“But why? Why did you get this for me?” [M/N] looked at him in confusion, scoffing softly but realised that Will was serious,.

“Dude, Will… it’s your birthday.” Will couldn’t help but gasp softly at that, he completely forgot that it was his birthday, but that also meant that everyone else forgot about his birthday. He got a little bitter at that but what made it better was the fact that [M/N] remembered. A guy that he met in California, a guy that he told the date of his birth once and he remembered, a guy that was so popular that he was sure would forget, but he didn’t. He remembered and he even got him a gift. He then remembered to the start of that week that he tried inviting Will out to hangout, was he inviting him out for his birthday? “I don’t know what’s going on in your life right now, Will, but I hope you know I’m here for you. Happy birthday, Will.” he couldn’t remember what happened, what was going on in his mind for him to react the way he did, but he pushed the gift to the side and grabbed [M/N] by the collar of his shirt and yank him up. [M/N] let out a whoa, hands planting down on the windowsill to stabilise himself then let out a muffled gasp when Will pulled him into a kiss. He stared down at their connected lips in shock then his gaze fell upon Will’s eyes when he pulled away, a look of disbelief as they stared at each other.

…

… “Oh my god, what have I done?” Will muttered, still holding [M/N] by the collar of his shirt as he looked away, not noticing the lovesick smile that grace his lips as he let him go, letting the boy slump against the windowsill. All sorts of thoughts were circulating through his mind, thinking that he possibly ruined the best friendship he had in California forever and that he was going to lose a friend that meant the world to him and also the love of his life. He hadn’t even noticed [M/N] pull himself up until he was yanked forward, [M/N] having reach forward to grab Will by his cheeks and pull him into another kiss, this time, he was making sure Will felt that the kiss he gave him wasn’t one sided. When they finally pulled away, they stared into each other’s eyes before laughing.

“Will?” said boy let out a gasp and shoved [M/N] back and slammed his window shut, grimacing when he heard a loud thud followed by an oof and grunt but he ignored it as his mother opened the door to his room “Are you okay in here? I heard you pacing.” he gave his mother a reassuring smile, waving his hands to dismiss her.

“Yeah, I’m fine! Don’t worry about it, mum.” she gave Will a soft smile, blowing him a kiss before closing the door when she left. He waited until he couldn’t hear her footsteps anymore before turning around and throwing his window open and peeking out, he giggled to himself when he saw [M/N] wearing the biggest grin on his face as he covered his eyes with his hands “Are you okay?” [M/N] pushed himself up by his hands and gave Will a dopey grin.

“Am I okay? I’m fan-fucking-tastic!” he covered his mouth when Will shushed him for being loud, he quickly stood to his feet and returned to where Will was resting his folding arms on the windowsill and smiled “I can finally tell you that I’m in love with you. Your response?” Will laughs, pressing a hand to his cheek.

“I love you too.” they’re both smiling to the point it hurts, Will throws his arms around [M/N]’s neck and pulls him up into a hug, to which the latter reaches up and wraps an arm around his head as his other arm held the windowsill. When they pull away, [M/N] and Will stare into each other’s eyes once more and share a short and tender kiss, [M/N] winks and Will giggles.  “I’ll see you at school next week?” Will bites his lip, glancing back towards his door then back at [M/N].

“Do you want to stop by tomorrow? I’d love to spend some time with you.” he whispered the last part to himself but it didn’t fall to deaf ears because this earned him another peck on the lips, he looked at [M/N] and saw him grinning as he nodded his head.

“Yeah, I’ll totally stop by tomorrow!” he cheered “I’ll see you tomorrow!” he takes a step back but accidentally trips and falls back, Will leaned forward to see if he was okay but giggled instead when [M/N] shot back up but had a few leaves and twigs in his hair, but he didn’t mind it and waved his hand goodbye,

“Goodnight, [M/N].”

“Goodnight, Will.” he blows him a kiss followed by a wink, to which Will blushed but didn’t hesitate to catch the kiss. The moment Will pulled himself back into his room and close the window [M/N] let out a cheer as he threw his fists in the air, running back to his truck with an extra skip in his step “He said he loved me!” he shouts, he then heard cheering from his truck and saw his friends cheering for his accomplishment.

“Nice one, [M/N]!”

“Another win for you!”

Headcanons:

[m/n] is so in love with will that his friends have to tape his mouth shut if they don’t want to hear him talking about will this, or will that. it gets annoying.

the guys love will, don’t get me wrong, they just hate [m/n] for making the conversation all about his boyfriend. he’s in a relationship, they get it. no need to shove it down their throats with every chance he gets.

[m/n] told will that his friends know that they’re dating.

he was a little on edge to know that will wasn’t, well, straight.

[m/n] reassured him that they were cool, I mean, it was because of them they basically got to have a date back at the roller skating ring.

it made will feel happy to be accepted by a large number a guys.

it makes him even more happy that they’re happy [m/n]’s happy with someone that makes him feel the way he does. they tell will they’ve got his back if he ever needs it.

[m/n] more than once has will wearing his lettermen jacket, regardless of what people say.

will refused to wear it the first few times [m/n] asked him to wear it but was forced to wear it when [m/n] threw it at his face and ran away before will could give it back.

now [m/n] doesn’t get it back unless there’s a game.

totally worth it.

will totally shows up to [m/n] and his teams practices and their games. they all appreciate his attendance and whenever he’s there, they’re all at that a-game.

when [m/n] sees will in the crowd, especially if he’s wearing his jacket, it’s already over for the rivalling team.

he’s all the motivation they need.

will is totally their number one supporter.

jane noticed will has been happier as well, and without asking she already knew it had something to do with [m/n].

she saw the way will would look at [m/n]. he had that look in his eyes that sparkled whenever the boy was in the same room they were in or if he was brought up in a conversation. 

she might have accidentally caught the a few times together when will would sneak him in through the window so they could relax together or will would be sneaking out or back in from wherever [m/n] took him.

they had a sibling agreement to never bring this up.

joyce and jonathan had also noticed that will had being going out more and more.

they’d question him where he was going but fall short when they saw that oh so familiar lettermen jacket along with the sound of a honk.

peering out the window, there they saw their will rushing over to [m/n]’s pickup truck so the two of them can go out on a date. of course they don’t know that, but they’re happy will’s going out more.

will totally has [m/n] model for him when painting.

[m/n] blushed when will called him his muse, muttering the word under his breath more than once.

will always shows him what he’s working on and though [m/n] doesn’t have the best knowledge when it comes to art, he always shares his thoughts with will about what he likes about it.

will appreciated it.

together, the two of them are just so in love.

[m/n] doesn’t waste a second to show how committed he is to this relationship, always showering will in all the love his soul could pour out until he knew that will knew the extent he was willing to go to just to get a point across.

will also wanted to show [m/n] that what he felt for him couldn’t easily be replaced, that the only thing on his mind whenever they were together were the endless thoughts of how deeply in love he was with [m/n].

the two of them made it obvious that they were meant to be.

Monster

word count: 6395

Fandom: Stranger Things  Pairing: Chrissy Cunningham x Male!Monster!Reader  Pronouns: He/Him  Relationship: Familial Occupation: Protector Ability: Cursed Spirit

The character is a monster that has attached itself to its victim, posing as a sort of imaginary friend that only the victim can see. In the eyes of the victim, they have the appearance of an average man with a gentle expression and looks overall normal. To everyone else that they willingly let themself be visible to, they are nothing more than a ghost like wraith. They have the ability to let out a shriek like that of the wailing spirit banshee, and morph themself into a monstrous state.

Keys:

[M/N]: Male Name  [L/N]: Last Name  [N/N]: Nickname  [H/C]: Hair Color  [E/C]: Eye Color

Warnings: vulgar language, violence, mention of drugs

got this idea after reading this story by @skinnywalker​ of their chrissy cunningham x male!reader, go check their story out cause I liked it.

there is going to be a part two.

that is all.

“Chrissy, what did I say about watching what you eat?”

“T-That it messes with my performances.”

“No, if you’re not careful you’ll end up fat and ugly. Nobody likes a fat girl, Chrissy.” she felt her lip tremble, hands fisting her sweat shirt around her stomach as her eyes start to water “I hope you remember that next time before helping yourself to seconds.

“Yes, mother.” glancing up at her mother, she noticed a jagged hand on her mother’s shoulder as a monstrous figured loomed above her. Its eyes were pitch black with a sort of liquid bleeding out from it, pale purple skin with its jaw snapped open and ready to bite her mothers head off. Chrissy lets out a sigh with a shake of her head, this motion caused the monster to momentarily freeze then retreat back to wherever it came from “May I go to my room, mother?”

“You may.” she turns on her heel and quickly rushes to her room, closing her door behind her and throwing herself onto her bed. She cries into her pillow at the endless cruel words that continue to fly out of her mothers mouth, berating her for not being skinny enough for her cheerleading career, not being beautiful enough in her eyes. What was the point of beauty if she had to go through all this pain to meet those shitty beauty standards?! She sniffles to herself, pushing herself up, hugging her knees close to her chest as her blanket was draped around her. She felt the room get darker and that same jagged hand from before came out from under her bed, reaching for her and grabbing her by the ankle.

“Chrissy…” the voice moaned out, hoarse and deep that would make the average person tremble in fear, but she didn’t. The mere presence of this monster under her bed made her feel safe, she smiled softly as she reached down to caress the hand.

“Hello, [M/N].” said man pulled himself out from under her bed to reveal not a monster, but a kind looking man with short/long [H/C] hair and soft [E/C] eyes, he smiled up at her from where he was sitting then opened his arms up for her. She didn’t hesitate to move from where she was situated, throwing the blanket off of her to embrace the monster posed as a man. He hummed softly, gently rubbing circles into her back as she cried into his shoulder, though that insatiable rage for his Chrissy’s mother started to take over his mind.

’How could that foul woman talk to her own daughter like that? Why can’t she see the way she’s talking to her hurts her? Why can’t she see the damage she’s done to her daughter? Why can’t I just kill her? My Chrissy would be better off if that bitch would just die.’ sometimes he would find it difficult to control his thoughts, sometimes he would act impulsively and not realise what he’s done until it’s too late.

[M/N]. He was a monster that attached itself to Chrissy at an early age of her life, when she was nothing more than a mere child. At first, she was food that he would feed off of but was startled when she started looking forward to seeing him. She was a weird one. He had the appearance of a revolting monster that would make even adults cry, but this child laughed and cheered whenever she saw him. The first time he did see her cry was not because of him, but because of those despicable words her mother would fill her head with. Saying she wasn’t good enough, pretty enough, skinny enough. That moment he wanted to kill that woman, kill the bitch that caused his favourite human to develop an eating disorder and resort to liking him, a monster that wanted to eat her. But Chrissy pleaded with him, begged him not to hurt her mother because of her? That girl was too kind for his liking, she was kind enough to give him a name.

[M/N], her imaginary monster.

”Chrissy…” he moaned out again, she pulled away with a sniffle, laughing weakly when he reached forward to wipe away the tears she missed. He pulled back again and she watched as he dropped numerous snacks in front of him, he then pointed at her mouth and did biting motions with his own mouth ”Eat.” he didn’t like the smile she forced onto her lips, it looked bitter and sad, not the one he used to see.

“Thank you, [M/N], you’re always so sweet to me.” he watches her silently, eating the food that he stole for her to fill her empty stomach. He was fully capable of swiping things here and there, sometimes even pulling small tricks and pranks that would make her laugh. One time, when she and her family were getting ready to eat, he pulled her mothers chair out so she fell to the ground. Another time was when he swapped the sugar for salt so her mother was in for a salty surprise when she drank her morning coffee, he did all that just to see his Chrissy smile.

”Performance tomorrow…?” her head perked up at the question, lighting up in remembrance about the pep rally tomorrow for Hawkins basketball team, she nods enthusiastically.

“Yes, yes! My girls and I have been practicing vigorously, I believe you’ll enjoy it very much.” he smiles, reaching forward to pat her head.

”Anything you do… I like.” she smiled.

“I know.” she looks at the time and takes his hand from a top of her head, pulling it down while caressing his knuckles with her thumbs “It’s gotten late, [M/N]. I think I should go to sleep.” he slowly nods his head, reaching to pat her head once more then pulling away, allowing her to lay her head onto her pillow whilst he grabbed the end of her blanket and pulled it up to tuck her in.

”Sweet dreams…” he waves her goodbye and retreated back under her bed but she knew he was still there, he was always around until she fell asleep. When she did fall asleep, his monstrous figure loomed over her body once more, his jagged fingers reaching forward to gently caress her face while removing a few loose strands of her hair off of her face. He then peeks over towards her door, his figure drops into the shadows and shoots out to where Chrissy’s mother was sitting in the living room watching T.V.  It was so easy. He could kill this woman and make Chrissy’s life a little easier. What stood in his way was the love Chrissy had for her mother, she would hate him if he were to take her mother from her. But he just couldn’t understand the young girl. This woman was no mother to treat her daughter the way she does, and what about the rest of her family? Have they done anything to stop her from doing it? No, they didn’t. All Chrissy had was him, he was the only one by her side that would do anything for her. He would die for her. He would kill for her. He would destroy the goddamn world if he needed to. All he wanted was for Chrissy to be happy, her happiness was his everything, and he was going to be damned if he’d let anyone take that from her.

[time skip: the next day]

”Wonderful…” [M/N] murmured softly with a tired smile on his face, standing at the very back of the gym as he watched Chrissy’s performance, clapping his hands while swaying side to side. His smile brightened when he saw her look through the crowd in search for him, her own smile growing bigger when she finally did find him, he then gives her a thumbs up ”You’re doing… great.” [M/N] always reminded Chrissy of one of those parents that always came to their child’s performances, being that person that cheered the loudest, and though no one else can hear or see it, she really appreciated it.

“How was it, [M/N]?” she asked him, taking a seat on the floor after they finished the routine. She glanced to her side when she felt his fingers roll onto her shoulders then pulled himself out from behind her, his head hovering a few inches away from her face “Did you like the performance?” he nods his head, leaning his head onto hers.

”Very flashy…” she only giggled at that, soon Hawkins’ basketball team came running into the gym and the crowd went wild once more.

“Good morning, Hawkins high!” Jason Carver, the captain of the basketball team and unfortunately Chrissy’s boyfriend, greets into the microphone with a big grin in his face “First off, I’d like to thank each and every one of you. Without your support, we wouldn’t be here. Give yourselves a big hand.” [M/N] had to admit, this guy had quite the charisma to get the crowd in an uproar like he does “And of course, of course I have to give a special shout-out to the best and the prettiest fans of all time, the Tiger Cheer Squad. Chrissy… Chrissy, I love you babe.” this caused the crowd to aw at the confession while she in turn blushed, blowing a kiss to Jason. She then had to keep a straight face when [M/N] glanced at her then turned away, making gagging noises while pointing into his mouth.

“Stop it…” she whispered, though it was funny. [M/N] could give less of a shit about the rest of his speech, spouting out some bullshit from what happened the year prior and how they haven’t won a game in the past twenty two years or something along the lines of that, he wasn’t listening. Whenever Chrissy is at school, [M/N] makes sure not to interfere and lets her go on with her day unless she calls for him. Those times are rare but they’ve been becoming more frequent ever since she’s been seeing that woman, um, Ms Kelly or some shit, he can’t remember. As of recently, he had been noticing how Chrissy was suffering through nightmares, one’s terrible then from before, causing her to have trouble sleeping and her headaches how been getting worse. He was always there to help her through it, cooing soft words of encouragement into her ear or being that shoulder she needed to lean on. 

This was one of those times she needed him, she was getting spewing her breakfast and most likely lunch into the toilet. He was holding her beautiful hair back while rubbing circles into her back in a comforting manner, he made sure the door was locked so no one would disturb her but the door to the bathroom opened and a small red haired girl entered. He briefly left Chrissy’s side to see what that girl was doing, phasing through the bathroom stall door to take a peek at what that girl was doing. His presence was unknown to her as she took her bag off to grab a small container of pills, he furrowed his brows when he recognised them as pills that Chrissy takes to help lessen the pain of her headaches, they both then glance back when Chrissy starts coughing.

“Hey, you alright?” she called.

“Yeah—yes, I’m… I’m fine.” the girl glanced back towards the bathroom door then at the stall Chrissy was in before approaching.

“Okay, um… you’re sure?”  “Please just go away.” this was enough to get the girl to leave, Chrissy lets out a groan when she heard [M/N] let out a sigh from outside the stall. She chose to ignore him for the time being and reached over to flush her vomit down, she then groans when she heard pounding on the door “Are you deaf? I said go away.” [M/N] raised a brow in confusion, looking over at the stall where he heard Chrissy speak, but who on earth was she talking to?

”Chrissy…?” he called out, reaching forward to phase through the door but his hand flinched back. He looked around in confusion when he felt a presence but he just couldn’t see it, his head then immediately whipped back towards the door when he heard Chrissy scream. He didn’t hesitate to phase through the door and there he found Chrissy pressing her back to the wall in the very corner of the stall, eyes squeezed shut as she covered her ears.

“No! Go away! Go away! Go away!” she shakes her head, repeating the phrase over and over, pleading for whatever was causing her these hallucinations to just disappear. She let out a scream when something grabbed her, shouting her name while shaking her back and forward.

”Chrissy! Chrissy! Chrissy!” she gasped, eyes snapping open when she recognised the voice. In front of her now was [M/N] looking distressed and concerned, she looked around and saw that the lights above her were no longer flickering and the pounding on the stall door had ceased.

“[M-M/N]…?” she whimpered out, he lets out a relieved sigh.

”You’re back… I’m glad.” his mouth opened slightly to speak but stopped when she quickly threw herself onto him, she held onto him so tightly she preyed that he didn’t disappear under her hold. He looked down at her in concern then raised his arms to wrap around her, pulling her closer into him then rested the side of his head against hers, rocking back and forward as she sobbed into his shoulder ”I’m here… I'm here, Chrissy.” he glanced around him before tightening his hold around her, a dark aura radiating out of him. Whoever or whatever did this to his Chrissy, it wasn’t anything he’s ever seen. He knew Hawkins was a fucked up place ever since that kid went missing a couple years back, he knew because he was one of those fucked up things, but this was something different.  This isn’t good. [M/N] now made sure not to leave Chrissy side, instead of lurking in the shadows or the depths below, he was now directly over her shoulder watching for anything else that could potentially harm his Chrissy. She felt more at ease knowing that he was there, reaching for her shoulder. The people around could only see her patting her shoulder and squeezing it but she was actually patting his hand and giving it a light squeeze, in return he would soothingly rub her shoulder and continue to tell her that he was right behind her and that he wasn’t going anywhere. [M/N] now found himself and Chrissy on the outskirts of the school, in the middle of the woods where a lone lunch table sat in the opening.  “Hello…?” she called out uneasily, looking around for someone but saw no one. [M/N] glanced at her and saw her look off, he followed her gaze and saw she was staring at a tree, he looked at her once more and saw that her unease grew as she approached the tree.  ”Chrissy…? What are you… looking at?” he questioned but didn’t get an answer as she got closer to the tree, he looked between the two and concluded that she was seeing something entirely differently to him so he quickly floated over to her, grabbing her shoulder and snapping his fingers in front of her face “Chrissy, there’s nothing there…” she snapped out of her daze as she looked up at him in shock.

“B-But, there was a clock…! I swear I saw it.” she starts shaking her head as she backed away, he called out to her to stop but couldn’t when she backed up into the chest of the man she was meeting.

“Whoa, hey, hey, hey.” [M/N] quickly returned to her side, floating behind her as they both stare at the newcomer “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you. You okay?” she wordlessly stared up at him then back towards the tree, the man followed her gaze then glanced back at her, he then saw the way she raised her head to her shoulder and squeezed it. The two now sat on the abandoned bench, [M/N] had come to recognise this young man as the Hawkins freak, Eddie Munson. He never paid too much attention to this gentlemen, he never paid attention to anything that wasn’t Chrissy, but he knew that he wasn’t well liked “There’s, uh… there’s nothing to worry about, okay? No one ever comes out here, we’re safe. I promise.” Eddie reassures, taking off his jacket and vest then opening his lunchbox to reveal his stash of weed.

“So,” Chrissy starts, clearly nervous as she couldn’t meet Eddie’s gaze “how does this work exactly?”

“Oh, just like any other old sale, except, uh, cash only, and, uh, for obvious reasons,  or receipts.” she slowly nods her head “I’ll do you half an ounce, for uh, twenty. What do you say? Plenty of bang for your buck. Should last a while.” Chrissy lets out a gasp, whipping her head around when she heard a noise but only saw a squirrel run up a tree. Eddie watches her then soon lets out a sigh, putting the bag of weed back into his lunchbox then closed it “Hey, uh, we don’t need to do this. Just give me the word and I’ll walk away. Okay?” she quickly shakes her head.

“It’s not that. I don’t want you to go.” he raised a brow at that “Its just… do you ever feel like you’re losing your mind?”

“Um, you know, just… on a daily basis. I feel like I’m losing my mind right now doing a drug deal with Chrissy Cunningham, the Queen of Hawkins High.” [M/N]’s brow perked up slightly when he saw a subtle smile appear on Chrissy’s face but it went away just as quickly “You know, this isn’t the first time that we’ve, um… hung out. No? You don’t remember?” she shakes her head apologetically.

“I’m sorry, I—” she glanced at [M/N] to see if he remember but he shrugged his shoulders with a shake of his head, Eddie just chuckled.

“That’s okay.” Eddie had a blank look on his face, soon both himself and Chrissy let out a startled noise when Eddie fell back onto the ground while pretending to stand himself. Chrissy immediately stands to her feet to see if he was alright while [M/N] hovered above him, seeing that he was fine he let out a sigh.

”What an… oddball.” he murmured, hearing Eddie laugh as he pulled himself up and onto his feet, [M/N] was going to say another comment but was taken aback when he saw the bright smile on Chrissy’s face as she laughed herself. It was a genuine smile that he hadn’t seen in a long time as she watched Eddie he himself.

“I wouldn’t remember me neither, Chrissy. Honestly, do I have stuff in my hair?” she continued to laugh as he smiled at her, shaking his hair to pull the leaves from out of his hair “You don’t remember me?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Middle school, talent show. You were doing your cheer thing. You know, the… the thing you do.” he tried to explain, waving his hands around to mimic the way she does with her pom-poms “It was pretty cool, actually. And I— I was with my band.” her face then lights up in remembrance.

“Corroded Coffin!” she exclaims, his smile grows as he clapped his hands.

“Corro— you do remember.”

“Oh my god! Yes, of course. With a name like that, how could I forget?” 

“I dunno, you’re a freak.” she chuckled softly, giving [M/N] a sharp look when she heard him growl softly, how dare this frizzy haired bastard call his Chrissy a freak?

“No, you just… you look so—”

“Different? Yeah, well, uh, my hair was buzzed, and I didn’t have these sweet old tatties yet.” she nods softly.

“You played guitar, right?”

“Uh huh. Still do, still do. You should come see us. Uh, we play at the Hideout on Tuesdays. It’s pretty cool. We… we actually get a crowd of about five drunks.” she laughs again, shaking her head softly “It’s not exactly the Garden, but you gotta start somewhere, right? So…” he shuffles over to a tree and starts lightly punching it, [M/N] returns to Chrissy’s side and watched that big smile on her face grow.

“You know, you’re not what I thought you’d be like.” Eddie hums, grabbing a few of his locks and pulling them in front of his face.

“Mean and scary?” she nods.

“Yeah.” he smiles.

“Yeah, well, I actually kinda thought you’d be kinda mean and scary too.” she gasps softly.

“Me?”

“Terrifying. Um, so, in other good news, flattery works with me, so… twenty five percent discount for the half. Fifteen bucks. You’re robbing me blind here, you know.” [M/N] frowned when that beautiful smile that adorned her face dropped as she stared down at her lap, he reaches over to caress her cheek as she fidgeted with her fingers.

“Do you have anything, maybe… stronger?”

[time skip: late at night]

”What a dump…” 

”Stop it.” [M/N] and Chrissy soon found themselves at the trailer park with Eddie to find said something stronger for Chrissy to take, Chrissy steps out of his van and he was kind enough to hold the door open to his trailer for her to enter first before walking in after her. She stood nervously in the middle of his trailer, rubbing her arms with her hands as she looked around, [M/N] doing the same but soon floating around Eddie to watch his movements.

“Sorry for the mess. Uh, the maid took the week off.” he apologised, cleaning up some rubbish that was left lying around then shuffling over to the other side of the room.

“You, um… you live here alone?” he shakes his head.

“With my uncle. But, uh, he works nights at the plant. Bringing the big bucks.” she nods softly.

“How long does it take?”

“Sorry?”

“The Special K. How long to kick in?”

“Oh, uh, well, it depends if you snort it or not. Uh, if you do, then, uh, yeah. It’ll, uh, kick in pretty quick.” he explains with a jar in his hand, he opens it and takes a peek inside but then lets out a sigh “Oh, shit.”

“You’re sure you have it?”

“No, no, I got it. Um, somewhere.” he raises his finger, signalling for her to give him a minute before turning away and scurrying off to his room to find the drug she was needing to relieve herself of her hellish realities. She takes a deep breath, bringing her hands to hold her arms once more then smiled softly with closed eyes when she felt [M/N] behind her, she leaned her back into the warmth of his chest as his arms wrapped around her gently.

“I’m so glad I still have you by my side, [M/N].” she whispered softly “I probably would have lost my mind a long time ago if I didn’t have you.” she felt slightly uncomfortable when he didn’t say anything back, he always had something to say because he loved talking to her even though he couldn’t really say much. She tried to turn around to get a look at him but let out a choked noise when his grip around her tightened, she lets out a gasp as she looked down at his arms that were around her “[M/N], you’re h-hurting me…!”

”I always try so hard to please you. Chrissy.” [M/N] spoke, but it wasn’t in the way he usually spoke. [M/N] spoke with a slow and slurred speech, not being able to finish his sentence properly without pausing, she started to tremble when the presence behind her became more ominous than comforting ”I only want what’s best for you. Chrissy. You know I’ll do anything for you, so I just don’t understand why you don’t want me to get rid of that eyesore that is your mother. That fucking bitch that hurts you. Don’t you trust me? Don’t you love me? Why won’t you just let me do this for you, Chrissy?!” glancing down at the arms that were holding her, she lets out a scream when she saw that they were slimy looking.

“Ah! Le— Let go of me!” she quickly elbows whoever was holding her and they let go of her, this gave her the chance to see who it was and scream when she saw that it wasn’t her [M/N] but some disgusting monster. She shakes her head and runs towards Eddie’s room, she pushes the door opened to try and find him but was instead met with the sound of a sewing machine and her mothers back “Mum?”

“Just loosening this up for you, sweetheart. You’re going to look absolutely beautiful.” her face dropped when her mother turned around, her face was completely grey with only the whites of her eyes visible. She didn’t take any chances as she left the room, closing the door behind her but instead of being in Eddie’s trailer, she somehow found herself back in her house “Chrissy!” she gasped when the door behind her opened but she quickly grabbed the doorknob and pulled it shut.

“No!”

”Chrissy, open the door!” she screamed no as the door slipped from her grip and flew open, she immediately turned tail and ran as far as she could. She hurried downstairs and searched for a way out but then her attention went over to the figure watching T.V, a breath of relief leaving her lips at the familiar figure.

“Dad?” she mumbled out before rushing over “Dad! Dad!” turning around, she screamed at the sight of his mouth and eyes sealed shut with blood seeping out of the wounds. She shakes her head and backs away, she looks around as tears ran down her face, lips trembling in fear “[M/N], please! I need you! Please, [M/N]!”

[outside of chrissy’s mind]

[M/N] was staring at a discarded album of sorts abandoned on the floor when he realised Chrissy had gone a little too quiet for his liking, he pulls back from out of Eddie’s room and peeked over his shoulder to see if Chrissy was alright. He furrowed his brows when he realised that she hadn’t moved from the spot he left her in so he floated over to her, that was when he finally realised something was wrong with her. She was standing uncomfortably still and was twitching now and then, but what scared him was the fact that her eyes rolled into the back of her head and only the whites of her eyes were seen.

”Chrissy…?” he called softly, snapping his fingers in her face in an effort to get her attention but nothing happen so he clapped instead, and yet nothing happened ”Chrissy, what’s wrong…? Chrissy… Chrissy!” he now resorted to grabbing her by the shoulders and violently shaking her back and forward but even that didn’t work, his hands then hovered over her head and there he felt a trace of some sort of power coming from her. His lip trembled, he didn’t delve in mind type attacks on his victims, that took a lot of concentration and focus to pull off, but whoever the fuck was doing it was a powerful one. He needed to wake her up, and he needed to wake her up now. He heard Eddie shuffling around and his face briefly lit up in remembrance of that human man, maybe someone alive could wake her up. He quickly grabbed an empty glass bottle and threw it against the wall, it shattered upon impact but at least he got Eddie’s attention.

“Chrissy? Was that you?” Eddie lets out an awkward laugh, grabbing the drug that he was planning on selling to Chrissy and came walking out of his room “I know I took my time, but I found it. Beautiful bliss, just moments away.” [M/N] watched in anticipation to see if Eddie could do anything, to which the young man waved his hand in Chrissy’s face as he slowly approached the possessed girl “Chrissy…? Hello? Chrissy! Hey, Chrissy, wake up. Hey, hello! Chrissy, hello! Hey, Chrissy!” he then started waving his hand while snapping his fingers in her face to get her to wake up, soon the lights started flickering about, this caused [M/N] to exhale sharply.

”Oh, no…” he then looked back and saw Eddie clapping his hands in front of her before grabbing her shoulders, shaking her back and forward while tapping her shoulders.

“Time to wake up. Hello? Can you hear me? Wake up, Chrissy. Chrissy, wake up! I don’t like this, Chrissy! Wake up!” [M/N] takes a deep breath, slapping his hands against his cheeks and quickly goes back over to Chrissy. Eddie still couldn’t see [M/N] but he could definitely feel him, he felt a shiver run up his spine when something cold passed him but when he looked around to see what it was, there was nothing there, so he shook his head and returned his attention back to the girl in front of him, cupping her cheeks and gently slapping them “Chrissy! Chrissy! Chrissy! Chrissy, wake up now! Chrissy!” [M/N] grabbed her discarded bag and searched through it, finding a cassette tape inside. This was a song that she had been listening to for a bit, “Moi Je Joue” by Bridgette Bardot, an old French song from the 60s. He nods to himself and quickly rushes to Eddie’s room to throw it into his stereo, to which the young man was too preoccupied with Chrissy to notice but flinched when the disoriented music started playing. He glanced back at his room in confusion, hearing a song that he knew didn’t belong to him, but shook his head in favour of waking Chrissy up. [M/N] returned back to Chrissy and stood behind her, hands cupping her cheeks as he closed his eyes.

’I haven’t done this in the longest time, I had no need to when I had you. But now you need me, so I’ll come in there and rescue you from that nightmare whatever piece of shit pulled you in to.’ and so with a deep breath, he leaned down and pressed his forehead against the top of her head.

[within chrissy’s mind]

“Please…” she whimpered out, a tear running down her cheek as she pressed herself into the boards that sealed her way out of this hellish nightmare. This… thing in front of her, this fucking garbage was the thing that’s been giving her those hallucinations and pushed her beyond her limits. She knew [M/N] wasn’t the prettiest thing to look at it, even in his human form he still looked beyond human, but his presence was something she had long gotten used to. But whatever this monster was in front of her, god, she wanted to get as far away from it as possible.

”Don’t cry, Chrissy…” the voice spoke, she whimpered as she leaned away when it reached forward and wiped away her tears, god she really needed [M/N] right now ”It’s time for your suffering… to end.” she shook her head, pressing herself further into the boards when it raised its hand once more, it outstretched over her face.

“[M/N], please!” she cried out, tears rolling down her face “[M/N]!!” the monster jerked backwards when Chrissy was suddenly pulled backwards and instead he was met with a creature as monstrous as he was, it lets out a grunt when he roared at it as he held Chrissy close to his chest, his arms wrapped protectively around her.

”Don’t touch my Chrissy!!” he shouts at the top of his lungs, jaw splitting open as he roared at the bastard to get away from his human. She cried from within his chest, wailing into his chest as she wrapped her arms around the ghostly figure that’s been following her since she was a mere child.

“[M/N]!” she cried out, bringing her hands up to cup his cheeks to make sure he was real before burying her face into his shoulder “You came for me…! You actually came!” she sobbed out, he nodded his head but didn’t take his eyes off the thing in front of him but he did reach down to place his hand on her head, gently rubbing it to soothe her. She whimpered when he removed his hand from atop her head, instead, he glared at the monster in front of him and let out another roar.

”Get away from her!” he pushes Chrissy behind him then flies towards it, wrapping his arms around its torso and sent them both through the house. He had come to recognise this monster as the type of attacker than didn’t deal physical damage but had a strong control over the mind as he witnessed outside of Chrissy’s, so he knew he had to upper-hand. He was just throwing him around like he was some rag doll, holding him by the ankles and slamming his against the ground and walls before throwing him into the kitchen ”You thought you could target my Chrissy, my human that I’ve been haunting for nearly two decades?! I’ll make you fucking regret it!” he charged forward once more but was stuck in place when a force stopped him, he lets out a grunt as he tried to break free but was thrown back by said invisible force.

“[M/N]!” she cried out, she wanted to rush over but quickly backed up when that other monster started approaching her again.

”That guardian of yours won’t stop you from meeting your fate, Chrissy.” she shakes her head.

“No, I want to live.” it reached towards her once more but she kicked it back, just as [M/N] came flying over and tackling the monster in its side and into the wall “[M/N]!” he shakes his head, punching and clawing at the monster underneath him.

”Get out of here, Chrissy! Get out while I have him distracted!” she shakes her head.

“I-I… I don’t know how!”

”This is your mind, Chrissy! Think of your happiest memories to hide, and listen for the music! The music should help you find your way out of this nightmare!” he saw that she was still reluctant to go so he quickly threw the bastard away then rushed over to her, cupping her cheeks and giving her a reassuring smile ”Don’t worry about… a thing. I’ll take care… of this and be right back…” that slur in his speech calmed her down, she weakly nodded her head and that was enough for him to pat her head, kiss her forehead then gently push her along.

“You promise?” she whimpered, he nodded.

“I promise…” her lips trembled as she stared at him before finally turning on her heel and running away, with her finally gone, he took a deep breath and let his true emotions and form show. The monster before him let out an impressed hum, watching as his human disguise melted away and he was met with the abomination that was him ”I am going to enjoying tearing you apart, freak.”

“That’s quite rich coming from you.”

[outside of chrrisy’s mind]

Eddie had stumbled backwards when Chrissy started floating in the air, he didn’t know what the fuck he was watching as the Queen of Hawkins High was floating in the middle of his goddamn living room while some French song played in the background as the lights flickered about like he hadn’t been paying the power bill for months. If he thought talking to Chrissy that morning was crazy, this definitely took the fucking cake and he wished he was on something so this didn’t have to be fucking real. He didn’t know what to do, he wanted to turn tail and run but he just couldn’t leave Chrissy alone, before he could do anything, her eyes rolled back into place and she fell to the ground.

“Chrissy!” he shouts, quickly rushing over to see if she was alright but then jumped when she threw her arms around him, hugging him close and crying into his shoulder.

“Eddie! Oh god, I was so scared!” she cried out, burying herself deeper into his shoulder, fearing that he wasn’t real and that she was still trapped deep inside her mind. Eddie looked down at her before slowly reaching down and wrapping his arms around her, pulling her into his chest and letting her bawl her eyes out. It took her some time to find her way out but she followed [M/N]’s advice and listened out for the music, faintly hearing “Moi Je Joue” when she was running for her life, but now she was out and away from that thing that was trying to kill her.

“… Chrissy, what the fuck was that?” Eddie muttered out, she let out a shuddered breath.

“Me losing my bloody mind.” now she was worried about [M/N], she left him alone with that thing and she was concerned something happened to him while she was gone but she felt a sudden cold weight on her shoulder, this was enough for her to relax into Eddie’s embrace.

Tyrant

word count: 11,246

Fandom: Stranger Things Pairing: Eddie Munson x Male!Reader Pronouns: He/Him Relationship: Romantic Occupation: Student Ability: N/A

Keys:

[M/N]: Male Name  [L/N]: Last Name  [N/N]: Nickname  [H/C]: Hair Color  [E/C]: Eye Color

Warnings: vulgar language, violence, alcohol consumption

might make a part two, you never know, you never know.

that is all.

“Look, there he goes again.”

“You’d think the teachers would expel him by now.”

“Did you hear? Apparently he jumped Thompson on his way to school and robbed him of all his shit.”

“What an asshole.”

“Oh shit, here he comes.”

The once bustling cafeteria came to silence when Hawkins Highschool delinquent stepped foot inside, those intimidating [E/C] eyes glared at anyone within a five foot radius. Grabbing his own tray of food, he sat down at a random table that was still full of people, but the moment he looked at them they quickly departed from the table in hopes of not being his new punching bag. There wasn’t a single redeeming quality about [M/N] the people of Hawkins could think of, he was rude, dangerous and ruthless, regardless of gender. People remembered a time when some prissy girl tried getting in his business, the type of girl that had a the mindset of “I can change him” or what not, she ended up missing several weeks of school because he beat her black and blue, tearing out some of her hair and knocking some of her teeth out.

Unlike Steve Harrington and Billy Hargrove, both being dubbed as the King of Hawkins, he was called the Tyrant of Hawkins. Billy was scary and intimidating in his own way but he had charisma and a charm to him that made people like him. Steve was just a pretty face with just the charm and no intimidation, all [M/N] had was the intimidation and demanding aura around him that people couldn’t help but obey his every word in hopes on not getting on his bad side. Whether they were the losers, the jocks or the popular people, there wasn’t anyone within Hawkins High that didn’t know the full extend [M/N] will go to keep what he calls peace.

And then there’s Eddie Munson, the freak of Hawkins. Lover of metal and D&D, a man who failed his last year of high school and was repeating the year in hopes of graduating that year. Eddie Munson, the man who wasn’t afraid to express who he was, regardless of who was in attendance. Most people find him downright annoying, some find him surprisingly endearing, but most people just think he’s a lost cause. People just thought he was bound for failure, there was nothing good about interacting with Eddie. Dustin, who was busy eating his food, glanced up from his meal to spare Eddie a look and soon noticed he was staring across the cafeteria.

“Eddie?” at the call of his name, the others sitting at the table, stop what they were doing and look at Eddie “What are you looking at?” he asks and soon they’re all following his gaze, a few of them turning pale when they saw that he was staring at the back of [M/N]’s head.

“Dude, why are you staring at [L/N] for? If he catches you staring, you’re dead meat.” Gareth whispered to him “And I am not up to watching you get beaten to a bloody pulp.” Eddie just lets out a laugh, brushing some of his hair back while waving them off.

“You guys worry too much, I’m not gonna do anything.” they all sweat a little, it totally looked like he was gonna do something, but despite knowing how reckless he was, he wasn’t someone who would poke a sleeping lion. Eddie would describe [M/N] as a person with a button you shouldn’t push instead of having a short fuse, he had a short temper as is and chose to speak with his fists instead of his words, they seem to get the point across better than an explanation “… do you think he listens to Iron Maiden?” Jeff gave him a look.

“Eddie, don’t even think about it. You’ll be met with a fist before he even agrees that he likes listening to them.”

“So you’re saying there’s a possibility.” they all let out a groan, a few of them slapping a hand to their foreheads or squeezing the bridge of their nose. The sound of shouting and gasps caught their attention so they all look over and in horror saw one of the jocks from the basketball team dump their food on top of [M/N]’s head, he looked like a freshmen because he was laughing aloud while the rest of the basketball team watch in disbelief at what the new guy just did.

“AH HAHAHA!! Come on guys, that was funny!” he continued to laugh, missing the way everyone backed away as [M/N] slowly stood to his feet “I don’t see why you guys are so scared of just one gu—” he couldn’t finish his sentence when a fist connected with his jaw, causing him to tumble to the floor as blood sprayed out of his mouth. Each time the punk tried getting up his face was met with [M/N]’s fist, he laid no waste to him as he continued punching his face until he collapsed onto his back by Eddie’s table. The brunette watched as the [H/C] male grabbed him by the collar to lift him up and continue beating his face in with no remorse, by the time he was satisfied, he let out an exhausted sigh, sweat and chunks of food bleeding down his face as his fist was drenched in blood, regardless if it was his or not.

“Carver.” Jason flinched at the call of his name, [M/N] didn’t raise his voice to call him, his voice was scary enough that he could bend anyone to his will “What have I told you about controlling your dogs?” he swallowed thickly from where he stood, shrinking down when [M/N] stood up.

“T-That if they get out of line… you’ll put them down.”

“That’s right.” he starts, looking at the table beside him and grabbing Mike’s tray of food then proceeded to dump all its contents on top of the unconscious jock “I hope you remember this the next time you decide to act like a bitch.” He growled as he threw the tray down, his eyes then wandered over to Eddie, who was staring at him with wide eyes and jaw dropped “The fuck you looking at, freak?” he snarled at the brunette, who in turn swallowed thickly, raising his hands up defensively.

“N-Nothing! Nothing, I swear.” he got a scoff in response as [M/N] turned away, kicking the jock one last time then stormed out of the cafeteria, kicking the doors open and disappeared to probably clean the food off of him. The cafeteria sat in silence and watched as the basketball team hurriedly dragged the unconscious player to the sickbay, when they were out of sight, the students all bustled into chatter at the turn of events that just occurred.

“God, that no good [L/N] is so terrifying.”

“He’s even got the jocks listening to him.”

“I can’t believe that dumbass did that.”

“Nobody warned him?” Dustin and Lucas pat Mike on his shoulder, watching as he took deep breaths to calm his beating heart. He wasn’t going to lie, watching him beat his ass was so satisfying but once he turned those anger filled eyes in his direction, he couldn’t help but pray that he wasn’t next, that didn’t mean he wasn’t sad that his food was now on the floor.

“You good Mike? You look like you’re at the verge of fainting,” he raised a thumb whilst trembling slightly.

“And there he goes.” Dustin says, watching as he revved his engine and drove out of the schools parking lot “You’d think the teachers would have dealt with him at this point, but to think he’s even got them to listen to him.” Lucas lets out a sigh, shoving his hands into his pockets.

“I-I’m good.” now with Eddie, his heart was beating just as fast as Mike’s, but for a different reason. The way he watched [M/N]’s face scrunch up in rage, the way he watched his bicep bulge with each swing, the way he watched the sweat run down his neck as he beat his face in. He couldn’t deny the fact that he felt something when those [E/C] eyes glared in his direction as he sneered at him, called him a freak. It was just that tone in his voice and the way he presented himself that made his heart race. 

“That was so hot…” he whispered under his breath. At the end of the day, all Eddie could think of was [M/N] and no matter how hard he tried to think of anything else, his thoughts of the tyrant would just come rushing back. The moment he and his friends stepped out of school they heard the roar of an engine, and there was the man in all his glory starting up his motorcycle, a Kawasaki Vulcan 750. He treated that thing as if it were his child, people said that his bike was the only thing that ever made him smile, and the one time someone made the foolish mistake to mess with his baby, he paid them back by totally their car to the point of recognition.

“Yeah, unfortunately, he does not discriminate.” they each shake their head.

[family’s video store]

“Yes sir, yes I understand… have you ever tried checking to see if the VHS player is plugged in?” Robin Buckley, who was currently on the phone with a customer that recently purchased a movie from the store, had called up complaining that it wouldn’t play “So it wasn’t plugged in? Then that’s probably the reason why it wasn’t working, sir.” Steve walked behind the counter after putting the returned movies back on shelf and saw the look of mild frustration on her face.

“Old man again?” he mouthed to her, to which she nodded while making the finger gun gesture and pressing it against her temple, he snickers softly when she pulled the trigger but continued to speak in way that she’s sympathising with said man. Steve’s head perked up at the sound of a motorbike, leaning back on the counter to take a peak outside and there he saw the infamous [M/N] [L/N], the Tyrant of Hawkins, pulling up into their parking lot. He couldn’t help the bead of sweat that rolled down the side of his cheek as he reminisced the past when they attended high school together, he was the one person Steve knew not to mess with or look at the wrong way. He had a reputation that preceded him, they both did, so they had a neutral relationship between each other. He takes a deep breath when he saw [M/N] get off his bike and start approaching the store, jumping slightly when the doors opened and he came right up to the counter.

“Harrington.” he says, voice uncaring for the man in front of him as he stared at him with that same neutral and unbothered expression he always wore when he wasn’t angry.

“[L-L/N].” he cursed under his breath for stuttering, embarrassed that he was still afraid of the man in front of him “What brings you here? I don’t suppose you’re here to rent a movie?” he swallows his saliva when [M/N]’s gaze hardened on him before ignoring him and looking at Robin.

“Buckley, I need to talk to you.” finally looking at them, she acknowledge [M/N]’s presence but held up her finger, telling him to give her a second.

“I’m in the middle of something.”

“Can’t it wait?” she gives him a look then goes right back into what she was doing before she was interrupted, Steve took a glance at [M/N]’s face and saw he was slowly but surely losing his patience, the way his eyebrows scrunched up as he hand formed into a tight fist. Steve all but recognised this was what [M/N] would do before he completely lost all rationality and started throwing hands, he took a step forward when he saw [M/N] raised his hand but was surprised to see he only pressed the hook set to hang up the phone.

“Wha— hey! You can’t just hang up the phone when I’m talking to customers, [M/N]!” she shouts at him, he just shrugs.

“Yeah, well, that’s not as important as to what I have to tell you.” she raised a brow, they stare at each other in silence until she let out a groan, his face lighting up slightly when she caved.

“Alright, fine,” she gestured for him to follow her into the back room and he nods, jumping over the counter and going in before her “Steve, you can handle things alone up front, right?”

“Y-Yeah, but—” he was ignored, he lets out a sigh as his hands slapped against his hips when he dropped them “Alright, I’ll be here.” Robin Buckley, lover of women, would never call herself anything special. Still in high school, she was just like every other average joe that walked those halls, though she was in band, that was probably the only thing cool she’d say about herself. So, never in a millions years would she have found herself in a sort of friendship with the cold and ruthless [M/N], however, right now he was anything but what his reputation says about him.

“I actually managed to talk to him this time!” he squealed out, hands cupping his cheeks as a bright red blush flushed across his cheeks. There was no trace of the Tyrant of Hawkins, all she could find was your typical high school teenage boy thinking about the love of his life, and his so happened to be Eddie Munson, the freak of Hawkins. Ah, now she can remember why the two of them got along, they both had that sense that neither liked the opposite gender and they became friends from then on. Most of the time it was Robin ranting on and on about a girl that’s caught her eye, but never actually having the courage to speak about her feelings, all [M/N] ever had to talk about how his feelings for Eddie continued to grow since he first saw Eddie.

“Oh yeah, and what did you say to him?” he then slumps forward, a dejected look on his face.

“I asked what the fuck he was staring at, then called him a freak.” she let out a defeated sigh, slapping a hand onto her forehead “I couldn’t help it, I was still angry that that fucking prick dumped his food on me.” his face turned sour at the memory, hand clenching into a fist but softened when she placed her hand on top of his.

“You really need to work on your anger management issues, dude.”

“I’m trying, I swear I am.” he lets his head hang a little, hand clenching and unclenching, showing that he was trying to calm himself “But my therapist is a pain in my ass, telling me shit that I already know is the problem and ain’t really helping me. I’m ready to throw hands!” he shouts as he stands to his feet, to which she quickly grabbed him by his shoulders and pushed him back down.

“You can’t hit your therapist, you could get into serious trouble for something like that.” he grumbles at that, soon that lovesick expression found its way onto his face again, he was probably thinking about Eddie again.

“I really want to be about to talk to him, Buckley, but I’m scared that if I approach him, he’ll take it the wrong way. He might think that I’m trying to beat him up, but I don’t want him to be scared.” she rolled her eyes, planting her hand on her hip.

“Well then, I don’t know, give him love letters.” he looked up at her.

“Love letters?” she nods.

“Yeah, if you can’t find the right words to talk to him to his face, write that shit down and put it in his locker.” she then smacks his arm with the back of her hand “Isn’t English your best trait? I’ve read some of the stuff you’ve written, and let me tell you, that shit hits harder than you think.” he looks a little flustered at that, rubbing the back of his neck.

“You’re just saying that because you’re my friend.” she shrugs.

“Whatever floats your boat.” he seats there for a couple minutes before nodding his head.

“Okay, I’ll give your idea a try.” she nods when he stood up “I'll tell you how it goes.” she grins and gives him a thumbs up.

“Go get ‘em tiger.” they then fist bump and he walks out of the room, he glanced at Steve and mentally rolled his eyes when he saw him almost fall over. He was totally eavesdropping on their conversation, but he could give less of a shit, he was busy thinking of what to write down to give to Eddie. Robin walks in after he drives off on his motorbike, leaning down to rest on the counter as Steve gives her a look of disbelief.

“Since when were you friends with [L/N], Robin?” she shrugs.

“Since high school man, learn to keep up.”

“Wha— but he had no friends!”

[next day: hawkins high school]

In the early morning, [M/N] was at school with a letter in his hand. Taking Robin’s advice, he poured his heart and soul into what he wrote down that he wished he could say to Eddie. He had a faint blush on his face as he pressed the letter to his chest before finding Eddie’s locker and slipping it in, not before checking that there was no one there to catch him in the act. With his mission accomplished, he laid in waiting for Eddie to arrive, just to catch his reaction. He really hoped that he didn’t take it the wrong way, he didn’t think the letter was a joke and that someone was playing with his feelings.

“Hey, Eddie!” [M/N] quickly fell back behind the wall he was leaning on to hide, peeking out ever so slightly to see that it was Dustin calling Eddie’s name, who had just arrived with that cute little smile spread across his face.

“Hey Henderson! You ready for tonight’s campaign? It’s gonna be a real spectacle!” he cheered, to which Dustin’s face lit up immensely and nodded his head.

“Totally! Mike, Lucas and I can’t wait!” he chuckles softly.

“Well, it’ll be worth the wait, I promise.” Eddie soon opens his locker to get a few things but blinked when something fell and landed on his feet, kneeling down, he raised a brow in confusion to see a letter “Hmm? What’s this?” Dustin peeks over his shoulder then backs away as Eddie stands up straight, flipping the letter to get a look at the front and back.

“There’s no name.” [M/N] scoffed at that, of course he wasn’t going to write his name on it, it’d be even more unbelievable and he’d probably take it as a threat and not read the letter at all “Think it’s a love letter?” both himself and Dustin laugh at the possibility.

“Yeah, I highly doubt it. Don’t get my hopes high like that.” he jokes, he then tears the envelope open and pulls out the letter. Dustin tried to read it as well but couldn’t when Eddie would pull it closer to his face, [M/N] wished to see his face just to see if what he wrote was good or not. His wish was answered when Eddie lowered the letter and there he saw Eddie’s face turn bright red, all the way to the tips of his ears.

“Eddie…?” Dustin softly called out, reaching forward to grab his bicep and shake him “You good?” he stuttered out words, raising his hand to cover his mouth.

“I-It was a love letter…” 

“What?! Let me see.” he exclaimed and snatched the letter from his hands to read it himself, [M/N] wanted to punch the shit out of that little bastard for taking the letter that was meant for Eddie alone, but couldn’t help but feel a little grateful, because there he got to see his flustered and bashful reaction to reading the contents of his letter “Whoa! Whoever wrote this, they’re batshit in love with you.” Eddie bites his bottom lip, shaking his head in denial.

“No, whoever wrote it is probably fucking with me.” he replied, this answer was exactly what [M/N] feared.

“No, no Eddie, I don’t think so.” he then waves it around a bit and hands it back to him “If this was really a joke, I highly doubt it would be written with this much care. Whoever wrote it, they definitely had something they’ve been wanting to say to you for a long time. If this was a joke, I believe it wouldn’t have been written like it was a goddamn novel.” Eddie takes a breath, lifting the letter to read through it once more before pressing it against his lips.

“A-Alright.” he pulls it away and smiles softly at it, making sure to fold it up then tuck it nicely in his front pocket. [M/N] turned so his back was pressed against the wall and the look of joy quickly spread across his face. He internally squealed to himself, hands pressed into his face to hide the huge grin on his face that he couldn’t suppress. Robin’s advice worked and it wouldn’t have worked as greatly as it did if it weren’t for Dustin, he must thank him in some way for clearing up the misunderstanding. He nods to himself, taking one last glance at Eddie before leaving for his first class of the day.

“A mixtape?” he slowed his pace.

From that day on, [M/N] would continue to write letters and leave them in his locker, finding new things about Eddie that had him falling in love with him, it was his favourite thing to do, especially when he got to see the little reactions Eddie would have upon reading the letters. He would always turn a shade of read, sometimes he would twirl a few strands of his hair around his finger as he read through the letters, maybe fidget with a few of his rings, but just seeing him smile was all that made his day. At the end of his day he would always rush to Robin to tell her that it was working, telling her that her advice worked wonderfully and that it was slowly building his confidence to talk to Eddie face to face. Yeah, about that. There were a few times [M/N] managed to build up some of that confidence and was planning on talking to Eddie a few times but at the last minute chicken out a end of sulking about his failures. 

[M/N] was sitting in the cafeteria now, some bit of food hanging loosely on his lips as he stared at his notebook. He twirled his pencil around his fingers then tapped it against his forehead, rubbing the end of it into his temple as he tried to think of other things to put into his next love letter but his mind went blank. He groaned and fell forward with his head hitting the cafeteria table, he was running out of things to say, he needed to think of something quick. He sighs to himself and lifts himself up, closing the notebook and tucking it away then decided he was done in the cafeteria. He swings his legs out and starts walking out that he just so happens to overhear something from Eddie’s table.

“Yeah! I’d appreciate something like that, means they actually took the time of day to make something sentimental, you know?” Gareth scoffed.

“Just as long as they put in songs that actually mean something, if it’s just random songs, it won’t really matter.” Mike raises his hand.

“I second that.” Eddie rolled his eyes.

“Whatever. I’ll remember what you guys said when I get a mixtape.” [M/N]’s face lit up, now that’s something he could do. With a new goal set in mind, he was going to ditch his last class in favor of making this mixtape when somebody slammed into his chest.

“What the?!” he exclaims, growling when whoever bumped into him spilt their food onto him “Fucking— again?! Watch it punk!” he shouts, grabbing the next victim by the collar of their shirt and pulling them forward, raising his fist to punch them across the face but stopped when he saw that it was Dustin.

“W-Wait, man…! I’m sorry, I d-didn— didn’t see you.” his friend group immediately stood to their feet to defend him, but what could they do against the tyrant, he could easily beat them all after tearing Dustin a new one. [M/N] took a glance towards Eddie, something Dustin didn’t miss, and saw the way he glared at him if he were to even leave a mark on him “I’m sorry, I-I’m sorry…!” he apologises once more, [M/N] looks back at him then closed his eyes, letting out a sigh as he let Dustin go.

“Accidents happen.” he says, grimacing when he looked down at the spilt milk all over his jacket “Just watch where you’re going next time, Henderson.” the cafeteria was brought to silence, absolute silence when [M/N] walked out. Did the tyrant just spare someone? Everyone was sent into an uproar just as Dustin collapsed, Lucas and Mike were immediately by his side.

“Dustin!”

“Dustin! Are you alright?” he was shaking, trying to calm his breathing but he nodded nonetheless.

“Y-Yeah… god! I thought I saw my life flash before more eyes just now.” he runs a hand through his hair as his friends helped him to his feet, what he couldn’t get out of his mind was the way [M/N]’s face showed annoyance but the moment he took one glance over at Eddie his face softened. He seemed to have been the only one to notice because they were all asking if he was alright and how lucky he was to have survived against [M/N], his eyes narrowed at the possibility.

‘He couldn’t possibly be…’

[with [m/n]]

“Mum! Where’s the cassette recorder?!”

“In the garage!”

“Thank you!” he dumps an array of different cassettes onto his desk, sorting them out by genre and splitting them up then grabbed the cassette recorder and player, plugging them with headphones so the residents of the [L/N] household didn’t have to suffer through the array of different songs throughout the night. A cigarette hung loosely in between his fingers, flicking the ashes into an ashtray as he listened to each song, bobbing his head while swaying softly “I hope he likes these.” he muttered softly, by the time he was finished it was two in the morning, but it was totally worth it. He laid on his bed, headphones in and listened to his final product, smiling ever so lightly. The next day felt like any other day, arrive to school early with barely anyone around and slip in a letter for Eddie but this time a mixtape, everything was fi—

“So it is you!” he let out a gasp, throwing himself against the lockers at the unexpected voice. Looking behind him, his face paled when he saw that it was Dustin “I can’t believe you’re the secret admirer!” he quickly slapped his hand over Dustin’s mouth, bringing his other hand up to press a finger to his lips.

“Would you keep your voice down?!” he snarled at him, he takes a quick look around to see if anybody heard, when he saw nobody he dragged Dustin into a supply closet and slammed him against the wall “Henderson! Don’t you know when to mind your own business? I thought you’d think twice about bothering me after yesterday, but I see you’re just as stupid as the rest of this fucking scho—”

“You’re in love with Eddie, aren’t you?” [M/N] sputters over his words, his tough guy façade slowly beginning to crumble when his previous threats went to deaf ears as Dustin smirked up at him “I saw the way you looked at Eddie yesterday, and after all those love letters I thought of the possibility that it could be you. I was really taking a huge gamble on that small little detail, but I guess I was right. You, [M/N] “the Tyrant” [L/N], is in love with Eddie “the Freak” Munson. Just admit it, it’s written all over your face.” [M/N]’s face was twitching as he fought to keep that glare on his face, but in the end let out a defeated sigh as he crumbled to his knees, hands holding a fistful of Dustin’s vest.

“I-Is it that obvious…?” Dustin’s jaw dropped immediately as soon as [M/N]’s true feelings revealed itself, he pushed himself back and saw his bright red face as he pressed his hands to his face “Yeah, I’m really in love with him it’s crazy.” even his voice sounded soft and meek, not a trace of that psycho from the day prior.

“Since when?” he was taken aback when a lovesick grin spread across his face, a look of complete adoration in his eyes as he tried to recounter the first time he saw Eddie Munson.

“Where do I even begin? It was probably during my freshmen year! He’s a year older than me but the moment I set my eyes on him, watching him be himself… ah, I was over the moon.” he then cups his cheeks, leaning into the palm of his hand “I fell in love when I saw him performing one night at a shitty gig that were  willing to let him and his band, Corroded Coffins, play. It was so mesmerising watching him play, I loved every second of it.” Dustin pursed his lips, raising a brow when he heard [M/N] let out a sigh as he leaned his back against the wall.

“Well, if you like him so much, why don’t you just tell him? You’ve shown him just how much you like him, so I don’t see the harm in just saying it to his face,” this caused the older one to let out a groan, throwing his head back then hiding his face in his knees.

“That’s the thing. I’m afraid I might say the wrong thing, I’m scared that I might scare him off. Don’t you remember who I am, Henderson? I’m the tyrant, the school delinquent that isn’t afraid to throw hands with a fucking teacher.” he runs his hands through his hair “I’m afraid when he finds out that I’m his secret admirer… he’ll think I was playing with his feelings as a new way to torture people.” Dustin placed his hands on his hips.

“Eddie always looks forward to seeing those letters.” this caused [M/N]’s head to perk up and look up at him “It’s his favourite part of the day, seeing what new things you love about him.” this caused him to grin sheepishly, closing his hands together and kicking his legs a little.

“Really?” he giggles softly. If Dustin where to mention [M/N]’s true personality to his friends, they would probably laugh in his face and tell him he’s ridiculous. That there wasn’t a single person in this world that the tyrant had a soft spot for, but that was where they were wrong. He’s seen the way Eddie’s face lights up upon reading the letters and now that he knows that they are really truthful— he lets out a sigh, rubbing the back of his neck.

“I’d like to consider myself a good friend of Eddie’s, like, really close.” [M/N] lets out a hum at that, acknowledging that fact by the fact he’s always seeing the two of them together acting like idiots “So… how’s about I give you a hand?” he gave him a wary expression.

“… what do you mean by that?”

“I think Eddie’s starting to like you, erm, the secret admirer.” [M/N]’s face lit up immensely at that “Eddie also has an interest in you, the tyrant, but it slowly turned sour after yesterday. He probably would have hated your guts if you actually hit me.” he groans.

“I know, that’s why I didn’t.”

“And I still thank you for that, [L/N].” this earned him an eye roll “If I were to have Eddie see you in a better light, and potentially boost up your confidence in talking to him, maybe I can help you two hook up.”

“Really? You’d do that?” he stands up but then stops, looking down at Dustin cautiously “What’s the catch?” Dustin smirks a little.

“Just your protection.” this caused [M/N] to quirk a brow “My friends and I are still losers, meaning we’re still targets in the jocks eyes. We by no means can protect ourselves from those assholes, so, I was hoping you’d keep an eye out for us in return for my services.” he let out a groan at that, why did he have to play babysitter. He genuinely wanted to refuse, but having Dustin as his inside man to help him get with Eddie… dammit, it was an offer he just couldn’t refuse.

“Alright, Henderson, you’ve got yourself a deal.” this caused him to grin, reaching forward to grab [M/N]’s hand and shake it enthusiastically.

“Pleasure doing business with you.” he rolled his eyes. Now, outside the supply closet was Eddie. He arrived a little early to school in hopes that he could potentially catch his secret admirer but upon opening his locker and finding the letter and a mixtape, all was for naught and he woke up early for no— wait, a mixtape? He felt giddy, taking the tape into his hands and opening the case and there he saw a little note written in it.

’I happened to overhear that you’d love to receive a mixtape. Thought I’d give you one as a gift. I hope you enjoy it, Eddie.’

~ secret admirer.

“Oh, what a sap.” the sound of a door opening caught his attention, he leaned back from out of his locker and narrowed his eyes when he saw [M/N] and Dustin walk out of the supply closet. He thought maybe [M/N] was threatening the younger one but was surprised to see Dustin laughing when the other grabbed the end of his cap and shook it a bit before pushing his head back and walking away “What was all that about...?” Dustin raised his head upon feeling he was being stared at, he jumped upon seeing that it was Eddie.

“Hey, Eddie! W-When did you get here?” he asked while approaching him.

“A couple minutes ago.” he then eyed the back of [M/N]’s back before he disappeared “Why were you in the supply closet with [L/N]? Was he threatening you again?” Dustin’s eyes widened before he raised his hands while shaking his head.

“Oh, no, no, no! I just needed advice for... intimidation?” he mentally slapped his forehead, even Eddie looked at him as if he were an idiot.

“Seriously? I’m surprised he didn’t give you a black eye.” Dustin waved his hand to dismiss him.

“Oh, don’t worry about it. We just let bygones be bygones, alright? He’s actually a pretty chill dude.” Eddie rolled his eyes, tucking the mixtape and letter into his front pocket, intending to listen and read through them later.

“Sure, I’ll believe it when I see it.”

And see Dustin kept his end of the deal, Eddie would ramble about anything that came into mind and he would later report it to [M/N], because of this, it gave him more material for his letters. Sometimes he would think of new gifts to give to Eddie, a few times they got a little too big so [M/N] had to break into his locker just to get it in there. But also keeping his end of the deal, whenever [M/N] would catch Dustin and his group of losers getting ganged by anyone with ill intentions, he just stands behind them and give them that infamous death glare. Mike and Lucas have been starting to notice the lack of black eyes they’ve been receiving, and Dustin has been weirdly confident for some reason.

“Dustin, what did you do?” Lucas asked, eyeing him weirdly as he walked beside him.

“Lucas is right, you did something.” Mike agreed, Dustin just gave them a cheeky grin. 

“I’ve gained us, boys, immunity.” they both stare at him weirdly “At first I thought he wasn’t doing his job right, but in the end, it worked out just fine.” Mike and Lucas share a look with each other.

“Oh yeah, how?” they enter the cafeteria, Mike and Lucas intending to sit down with Eddie and the rest, but were confused when they saw that he was walking somewhere else “Dustin? Dustin! Where are you going?” their jaws literally dropped when he confidently walked over to where [M/N] was sitting, dropping his tray of food in front of him then taking a seat across from him, practically startling the poor soul who was reading.

“What the-- Henderson?” [M/N] questioned, looking over at him in confusion, he rolled his eyes when the brunette grinned at him “What the fuck are you doing over here?” he merely shrugged his shoulders, taking his bag off his shoulders and putting it under the table.

“Eating lunch with you.” he scoffed, making sure to bookmark his page before closing his book.

“Shouldn’t you be eating with your friends?” he asked while gesturing with his heads over to them, to which Dustin shrugged “I still have a reputation to up hold here, Henderson. I can’t just let these dorks see me going soft, all because of you--” he stuttered back his words when Dustin raised his finger, he was greatly offended that he was shushed.

“And they won’t, but I think it’ll help Eddie see that you’re not such a bad guy.” this caused him to calm slightly “Like I said before, Eddie was interested in you before and I think you’ll gain his interest again if he see’s you’re not that hard to talk to. And by doing that, you have me.” [M/N] rolled his fingers along the table as he eyed Dustin before letting out a sigh.

“Fucking, fine.” with that Dustin happily ate his food, [M/N] picked at his food “... does he like the mixtape?” the younger one let out a hum at that, he quickly swallows his food and nods.

“Mm hmm, he listens to it all the time.” this caused a rare smile to raise to his cheeks,

“I’m glad.” those who were staring that managed to see that smile were in complete shock, the only face he ever wore was a scowl or sneer, but this was the first time anyone has ever seen him smile like that at something that wasn’t his bike. Eddie, who was watching the entire interaction, felt his eyes widen at how charming that smile was. He couldn’t help but snort softly when he saw Dustin say something and in return [M/N] threw some of his food at him, but there was a smile nonetheless.

“Since when was Henderson friends with [L/N]?!” Gareth exclaimed, Eddie chuckled softly.

“Actually... I remember seeing the two of them together one morning, I thought it was nothing, but I guess not.” at the end of lunch he was hounded for answers by his friends, though they backed off a little when [M/N] walked by them but not without ruffling Dustin’s head.

“Later Henderson.” he happily waved his hand.

“Bye, [L/N]!” he then smirks at Lucas’ and Mike’s dumbfounded face.

“Since when did you gain [M/N]’s favor? I thought that was impossible to do!” Mike exclaimed, hands in his hair and ready to be torn off “Was this during the time you bumped into him?” Dustin just grinned cheekily at them, shrugging his shoulders.

“Maybe, maybe not. Hey, Eddie!” said man looked at him “He does like Iron Maiden.” Eddie’s face lit up.

“Well, if he likes Iron Maiden, then he can’t be all that bad.”

“No, Eddie, just no.”

[time skip: a few weeks later]

Dustin continued to sit at [M/N]’s table, must to the other’s displeasure, and just straight up harassed him because he had the power to do so. Dustin’s time with him actually got him a few ups rather than downs, mostly because he started to learn more and more about him. He learnt that [M/N] was actually really smart and the reason he never put in any of the effort to the schoolwork was because the teacher’s thought he’d end up as a lost cause, so he just gave up trying so hard. But the one thing he did put a lot of effort into was English, Dustin would often ask for his help for his English work and though he thought it was a hassle, the younger of the two could tell that [M/N] was having some fun with it. 

Sure Dustin promised [M/N] he would help him with telling him everything about Eddie, but Eddie wanted to know more about [M/N] as well. Eddie learnt that though the delinquent enjoyed listening to a variety of different heavy metal songs, he quite enjoyed listening to classical music as well via vinyl's. It was a shocker, but it did help calm him down when he was having trouble with his anger issues. The school also noticed the way [M/N] was starting to soften up and act less impulsive, they all had Dustin to thank for that, making the tyrant less tyrannical.

“Whatever you’re doing, Henderson, keep at it.” Eddie said, patting his shoulder and looking up in thought “You think he knows how to play D&D? I’d love to ask him to join Hellfire personally, but I’m afraid he’ll think it’s boring.” Dustin rolled his eyes, recalling the time [M/N] told him that he self taught himself how to play D&D so he could play alongside Eddie one day during one of his campaigns.

“I’ll ask him.” Eddie grinned.

“You’re the best.” he shrugs.

“So I’ve been told.” with [M/N], he was sitting just outside the parking lot reading the Lord of the Rings Book: The Return of the King. He was always a fan of J. R. R. Tolkien’s works, it was one of the many reasons he ended up loving English a lot, but he took up reading the books again when Dustin told him Eddie tended to make references from the books a lot. He closed the book and chuckled to himself at the amount of page tabs he had on them from the time he marked down the best parts of the book, he believed he believed he read enough and was planning on going home but stopped when he heard shouting.

“Hmm?” he glanced over and saw what he believed was Eddie’s Hellfire Club huddled around, he thought it was nothing until he saw a couple of jocks “Well shit, and here I thought I was going to have a quiet Friday evening.” he puts his book in his bag and leaves it by his bike before marching over to see what ruckus was all about, the students immediately parted upon seeing him and when he saw what was going on his blood ran cold. 

[a few minutes before [m/n] arrived]

“You think you and your lot of freaks are untouchable, huh, Munson?” Eddie laid on the ground, blood running down nose and black eye slowly forming on his left eye as he stared up at the bastard who punched him “You think just because Henderson is in good graces with the tyrant we can’t hurt you? Well guess again, bitch, there’s nothing he will do.” Dustin glared at them from where he stood.

“You’re wrong, you asshole!” he flinched back when another jock took a step forward.

“Oh, yeah? That asshole doesn’t care about anyone but himself! You’ve gotten arrogant because of the fact that you can talk to him, Henderson. But remember this, the moment he sees no more use in you, you’ll be the next punching bag on his list.” Eddie spits out the blood in his mouth and stands to his feet.

“What makes you think we need [L/N]’s protection, huh? I can handle myself pretty well!” he lets out a laugh when he was grabbed by his vest, yanked forward and standing eye to eye with the jock “You guys are just as scared of him as we are, you just hate that he’s close to him.” he winces when the jock reeled his arm back but paused when it didn’t come, he opened his eyes and noticed that the jock was looking down so he followed his gaze and his eyes widened when one of the newest love letters fell out of his pocket.

“What’s this?” Eddie sputtered out his words but let out a gasp when he was thrown back, Gareth and Jeff caught him before he could fall just as the jock bent down to pick up the letter.

“H-Hey man, give that back!” he shouts out desperately, heart dropping when the letter opened and the jock looked at the writing inside it, he soon laughed at what it said.

“Well would you look at that? The freak seems to have an admirer!” he shouts, reading through more of it then looked at Eddie with an amused expression “Do you really think anyone has any feelings for you, Munson? It’s probably nothing more than a joke. Nobody loves you, there’s nothing to love.” Eddie’s hands closed into a tight fist, those words really damaging his heart.

“Y-You’re wrong!” this response made him laugh.

“Wow! You really believe these feelings this person wrote for you are actually true!” he then drops the letter, raised his foot and stomped on it, making sure to twist his foot on top of it “You don’t deserve to be loved.” those tears that were threatening to fall finally fell, though Dustin couldn’t help but feel fear run through his veins. [M/N] always treated those letters with care, and seeing someone stomp on them means that they have a death wish. 

“You’re dead...” he whispered to himself, though the jocks seemed to have picked up on what he said and turned their attention on him.

“The fuck did you say, nerd...” they trailed off when someone stepped out from behind Dustin, he glanced up and there he saw that enraged look in [M/N]’s face that he hasn’t seen in a long time. Eddie also looked up when someone pushed passed him and saw that same expression that charmed him, [M/N] couldn’t see anything but red. He grabbed the piece of shit that had the balls to insult him; to insult his Eddie and stomp on his letter, and pulled them forward “H-Hey, now wait a minu-- minute!” [M/N] pulls his arm back, glaring at the poor unfortunate soul.

“Clench your teeth.” was all the the warning he got that was laced with venom, and for the next couple of minutes, [M/N] was laying waste into him. There was nothing that could stop him now, not the countless of students that were yelling at him to stop, not the people who were trying to pull him off as he beat his voice to the point he laid there unconscious and unable to defend himself. He ignored the way the jock clawed at his face and arms for him to stop but couldn’t, he made his Eddie cry... and he was going to make him pay with his blood.

“[M/N], stop!” Dustin shouted, grabbing at the arm that he was swinging with all he could and pulled it back “You’ve done enough... please, you’ve done enough.” [M/N] glanced back at Dustin and saw the sheer fear in his eyes, he then looked down at the poor unconscious sap and the blooded mess he was in. When Dustin saw his fist loosen up he finally let go of his arm, [M/N] took a deep breath then stood to his feet and looked over at Eddie. The two of them just stared at each other until [M/N] looked down at the dirty and crinkled letter, bending down to pick it up.

“H-Hey, wait--” Eddie was cut off when [M/N] slapped it against his chest as he walked past him.

“Next time, take good care of your valuables, Eddie.” nobody said a word as [M/N] walked away, hopped onto his bike and drove away. Eddie’s hands held onto that note like it was his lifeline as his friends surrounded him, asking him if he was okay, but he couldn’t help but shiver at the way his name rolled off of [M/N]’s tongue. 

’He said my name...’

[time skip: a few days later]

“... wanna talk about it?”

“Shut up, Buckley.” Robin snickered from beside [M/N], the two of them laying outside on the grass at school, though [M/N]  was drinking alcohol out of a flask. [M/N] told Dustin to stay away from him for a couple days because he was afraid he was going to have another outburst and take it out on him if he couldn’t control himself. He really went too far this time, that was on him, but he just couldn’t control himself when he saw Eddie crying; when he saw that motherfucker step on his fucking lett--

“You’re balling your fists again, [M/N].” he lets out a defeated sigh, hands relaxing.

“I think I’ve gone and done it this time, Robin. I think I officially scared him off.” Robin watched him sit up, face in his hands as he shook his head “I just couldn’t stop myself, Buckley. Just-- jesus, I lost all rationality and let out the anger I hadn’t realized I was bottling up all out on him.” Robin rolled her eyes and sat up.

“You’re overreacting, dude.”

“I don’t think I am.” he whispered to himself, she shakes her head and places a hand on his shoulder.

“If you’re so worried, just go talk to Dustin. He’s your inside man, remember?” he spares her a glance and saw she was giving him a look of reassurance “I can even talk to Dustin, that little twerp and I became friends sometime last year.” he makes a face.

“... nah, I think it’d be better if I talked to him.” she grins, punching his arm.

“There you go.” he scoffed with a laugh “Now hurry up, and sick and tired hearing that kid miss talking to you.” he scowls at her.

“Right, I was quite enjoying my peace and quiet.”

“No you weren’t.” he pouts. He was now at his locker, getting a few things out of it, ignoring the people moving around him and whispering bullshit about him again. He stopped caring about what others said about him, some rumors were true while others weren’t, they just put the blame on him because it was easier that wa--

“Hey.” he slammed his locker shut at the sudden voice, turning his head, he started screaming internally at who it was “You think we could talk for a bit?”

’Oh my god, Eddie! You’re talking to me! I can’t believe you’re talking to me! Is this a dream? If this is a dream, I hope I never wake up! What a dream come true! Eddie, the love of my life!’ he had a straight and neutral expression but his thoughts said otherwise.

“Sure.” he cried on the inside at his short answer, fuck sake.

“W-Well, um-- I’ve been meaning to say thank you.” this caused [M/N] to raise a brow.

“Huh, for what? I don’t remember doing anything for you.” this is where Eddie nervously twirled a strand of his hair then moving it so that it was hiding the lower half of his face, something that [M/N] found adorable whenever Eddie felt nervous.

“No. When those assholes took that letter from me...” he trailed off, a pained look on his face “I couldn’t do anything, and their words really stuck with me. But you, you stood up to them. You could have just looked the other way, but you didn’t, and for that I’m really grateful.” [M/N] swallowed thickly.

“Yeah, well-- don’t expect me...” [M/N] stopped himself before he could finish his sentence, shaking his head when he realized he was going to come off as an asshole “No, I-- fuck! I mean, it’s no big deal, Munson. You’re Dustin’s friend, so I couldn’t just turn a blind eye.” he internally fist bumped, nailed it.

“Well, thanks, tyrant.” [M/N] chuckled.

“No problem, freak.” they both laugh. Robin had confronted Dustin and told the young boy to talk to [M/N], he was already way ahead of her and was making his way to his locker but stopped in the middle of his tracks when he saw him talking to Eddie. Wow, what a turn of events. He froze up when [M/N] saw him and before he could say anything, Dustin backed away but gestured for him to keep talking.

“So, [L/N],” Eddie cleared his throat, his little DM persona surfacing up as he gave the taller male a confident grin “you know the Hellfire Club, right?” he nods his head.

“Yes?” Eddie then tugs on his battle vest, a smirk raising to his face.

“So then you know how we play D&D, right?” he was given another nod in response to that “Cool! I-I mean-- ahem. As the Dungeon Master, as a thank you for your services for protecting my friends and I, I would like to formally invite you to Hellfire. Now I hope you understand how valuable this invitation is, [L/N], because not just anyone can be invited into Hellfire. You should feel really grateful.” looking up at him, he was expecting to see an unimpressed expression and was going to be brushed off, but what he got was a look of excitement as [M/N]’s cold eyes sparkled while a red hue flushed to his cheeks.

“Really?” his voice reminded him of that of a child, he wished he could stare at that face a little longer but it quickly disappeared as it came when [M/N] shook his head to knock some sense into himself “I-I mean, uh, sure. I’ll take up your invitation, Munson. No take backs.” Eddie couldn’t help but laugh at that childish sentence.

“Haha, alright.” he then takes a step back, waving his hand goodbye “Tomorrow, at Hellfire after school. Be there early, okay? I need to show the ropes and recap on our last campaign.” [M/N] nods his head, giving Eddie a thumbs up as the metal head walked away.

“R-Right, totally!” Eddie flashes him a bright smile before finally disappearing, [M/N] stood in the hallway for what felt like hours at what just happened. Eddie came up to him. Eddie was the one that talked to him. Eddie thanked him. Eddie smiled at him. Eddie invited him to Hellfire. He couldn’t fight back that huge smile and when he saw there was no one around, he let out a biggest squeal, jumping in the air while pumping his fists then punching his locker “Fuck yeah! I did it! I did it!” he then crouches down, pressing his hands together as he continued to smile.

I did it.

[time skip: the next day]

Eddie wasn’t in the greatest of moods that day. Sure, he was happy when he woke up that morning. Why? Maybe it was because he was finally going to be able to interact with [M/N] [L/N] for the very first time instead of watching him from afar and hearing new things about him from Dustin, he could finally talk to him and look at him from up close. Maybe he was also excited to get a new letter from his secret admirer, things were looking great for his end of the week. He arrived at school with a big smile on his face, he approached his locker and opened it but... there was no letter. He looked through every nook and cranny for it but there was nothing, his heart dropped and he couldn’t help but feel heart broken. The words of those bullies coming back to haunt him. 

“Nobody loves you.”

“There’s nothing to love.” 

“You don’t deserve to be loved.” 

What made things worse was that he didn’t see [M/N] throughout that entire day, he tried asking Dustin but the kid didn’t give him any concrete answers to go off of. When everything was finally looking good for him, it all just went away as fast as it came. Was [M/N] even going to come to Hellfire? God, what was he even thinking? Of course he wasn’t. That guy probably has better things to do than come to some stupid roleplaying game with Eddie “the Freak” fucking Munson! He collapsed onto his chair within Hellfire, the end of the day came faster than he would he have wanted and now he was going to have to do this campaign in a shitty mood.

“Eddie?” a soft voice called out, his head shot up and there he saw the man he hadn’t realized he was aching to see. [M/N] looked nervous where he was standing, he stepped into the room and rubbed the back of his neck, there Eddie noticed [M/N] was holding something behind his back but didn’t question it and stood up in a slightly better mood.

“You actually came, [L/N]! I kind of thought you were going to pull a no show.” [M/N]’s eyes immediately widened, a look of shock evident.

“W-What? Why would I do that?” he then winced when he remember that he hadn’t shown his face to Eddie that entire day, going so far as to not tell Dustin what he was doing, what he was doing had to do with what he had behind his back “I-I was busy this entire day, there’s something I need to tell you.” Eddie fixed his posture at that.

“Yeah?” [M/N] could feel how fast his heart was beating, an eruption of butterflies bursting in his stomach as he thought of countless scenarios in his head. Eddie continued to look up at [M/N], seeing a new expression on his face, one of anxiousness. Before Eddie could say anything [M/N] finally pulled his arm out from behind his back and handed Eddie an envelope, an envelope with his name written on the front of it with a very familiar penmanship “W-Why do you... why do you have that?” he questioned as he snatched the letter out of his hand, did [M/N] steal this out from his locker? Was that the reason why this fucker didn’t show his face the entire da--

“I thought it would be better to give it to you now.” this caused Eddie to pause, what? “I know you might have been confused as to why you didn’t get one this morning, but I've been needing to tell you something face to face. I've always been better at writing down my feelings rather than verbally saying it, so...” he then gestured for him to read it, so Eddie did just that, tearing the envelope open and pulling the letter out.

‘to eddie,

this will probably be my last letter to you. I’ve constantly told you how much I’ve adored you, from the way your eyes sparkle whenever you’re happy, to the way you always have this passion in your voice every time you speak. there isn’t a thing about you that I don’t love. 

the moment you spoke to me, it felt like I was on cloud fucking nine. I nearly blew it and told you to fuck off, but I’m glad I was able to pull my head out of my ass. you have no idea what you do to me, you have no idea what I would do for you.

I love you, eddie munson, and there’s nothing in this god forsaken world that could ever change my mind about that. I just hope that you can feel the same about me now that you know who your secret admirer is. I was always so scared that you wouldn’t like me.

I promise you, I will give you all the love that you want and need. I will give you everything so long as I live, and I promise you that I will always be by your side loving you.

~ [m/n] [l/n].

Eddie looked up from the letter and there he saw [M/N] looking so small, averting his eyes from Eddie’s as he laced his fingers together, twiddling his thumbs while trembling. [M/N] thought Eddie wasn’t going to buy it, he thought Eddie was going to accuse him of stealing that letter from out of his locker and saying that it was from him. He was expecting Eddie to reject him, there wasn’t a single positive outcome to come out of this situation, and when he was going to accept that reality he suddenly felt a pair of arms around his shoulders and pulling him into a hug.

“Thank god it was you, [M/N].” his eyes widened slightly, taking in a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding in “I’m so glad that it’s you, [M/N].” he whispered, the latter swallowed thickly at that as he looked down at Eddie.

“W-What?” Eddie pulled away and [M/N] saw he had an expression that mirrored his “D-Do you mean you— you feel the same way?!” he exclaimed, Eddie laughed and nodded his head.

“I always felt a slight attraction towards you, [M/N], and I was quite torn whether or not I should fall in love with my secret admirer or the hot tyrant. I’m so glad you two are one in the same.” he then gently jabbed [M/N]’s side with his elbow “But who’d a thought you’re nothing more than a giant teddy bear. I’ve seen the way you act with Dustin when you think no one’s looking, you’re not very discrete.” this caused the taller of the two to let out a whine of sort, an embarrassed blush rising to his cheeks as he hid his face behind his hands.

“Stop it…” he mumbled.

“You’re really adorable.” Eddie sets the letter down on the table then reaches forward and grabs both of [M/N]’s hands, he rubs his thumbs along his knuckles. [M/N]’s was beating abnormally fast to the point he was surprised he hadn’t fainted from how happy he was, still not believing that Eddie felt the same way about him.

“C-Can I…” Eddie lets out a hum, smirking softly at the flustered man in front of him “… can I kiss you?”

“Hmm, can you, big boy?” he laughed when [M/N] pouted, wearing a face that resembled that of a kicked puppy “Alright, okay! I was kidding, you big dope.” Eddie watched [M/N] slip his hands free from his grip and raise his hands to his face, they gently cupped his cheeks and his thumbs caressed them. He probably would have purred at the affection but instead let out a hum when [M/N] finally pressed his lips against his own, it was a short and sweet kiss but it had Eddie craving for me. So when [M/N] was pulling away he let out a muffled gasp when Eddie wrapped his arms around his neck to pull him back into another kiss, next thing they knew [M/N] was laying on his back with Eddie on top of him pulling him into deeper kisses.

“Eddie… Eddie, please…!” each time [M/N] got a word out he would be silenced by another kiss, he later gave up and just pulled Eddie into a kiss that he poured his heart and soul into “I love you, Eddie…!” he smiled at that, briefly pulling away to rest his forehead on his.

“And I love you just as much.”

Headcanons:

the other members of hellfire came in to find [m/n] and eddie making out on the floor.

eddie sat on [m/n]’s lap with a triumphant smirk on his face while the other continued to lay on the ground, hands covering his face as he wallowed up in embarrassment.

dustin came up to them and held out his hand, [m/n] side eyed him but gave him a high five.

mission accomplished.

[m/n] immensely softened up after finally getting together with eddie, he didn’t mindlessly get into fights with people anymore and just eddie or even dustin’s mere presence is enough to get him to calm down.

robin was happy for [m/n], he literally came running up to her with the biggest smile on his face and hugged her; twirling her around and everything.

this scared the ever living shit out of steve.

[m/n] started sitting with eddie and his lot during lunch, this was enough to get the bullies to back off.

sometimes [m/n] would help eddie with any of his homework, that being eddie openly complaining how hard it was and that he needed help from his hunky and gorgeous boyfriend to assist him.

whenever eddie got an answer right he would be rewarded with a kiss.

most of the time they would get distracted and not even be able to finish the homework.

bike rides are a must.

eddie loved the feeling of the wind breezing through his curly brown locks, often cheering as [m/n] drove down the streets of hawkins.

the first time eddie tried getting on his bike without a helmet [m/n] would just give him a blank expression with his arms crossed and just gave him the most disapproving glare he could muster.

safety first.

when playing d&d, eddie would incorporate [m/n]’s tyrant persona into the campaign.

the others loved it. [m/n] was a barbarian goliah who was a tyrannical king in their latest campaign and they had to strategise how to overthrow him.

they lost epically before he swooned the dungeon master.

they called him a cheater.

he called them sore losers.

dustin believes he’s the greatest wingman because of the fact that eddie and [m/n] are together, the two of them definitely favor him a lot. this sometimes causes the others to get jealous, but all he does in return for their retaliation is hide behind [m/n].

they all though have access to [m/n]’s scary dog privilege.

however, they all know that [m/n] would absolutely do anything for his eddie.

they remember a time they absentmindedly told [m/n] when eddie was being harassed by a few of the jocks in the past. they didn’t see him for the rest of the day until they saw the same guy that harassed eddie run away blooded and crying.

[m/n] turned the corner with blood on his knuckles.

he didn’t see anything wrong with it.

eddie is always flattered, but his heart is always over the moon because [m/n] continued to write him love letters and make him more mixtapes.

they would end up in eddie’s van laying together, listening to the music through his stereo as [m/n] read a loud all the new things he loved about eddie.

he loved eddie.

eddie loved him.

the tyrant and the freak.

Ocean

word count: 4880

Fandom: MCYT Pairing: SBI Family x Brother!Orca!Reader Pronouns: He/Him Relationship: Familial Occupation: Pirate Captain Ability: Orca Hybrid

The character is that of a orca hybrid, allowing them to have traits of a orca. They have abnormal strength and speed with keen senses of hearing and sight, making their eyes and ears almost sensitive to anything. They are also granted with an abnormal height and the gift to shapeshift from a human/normal form to a more monstrous form. Both in and out of their full form, they are granted excellent swimming abilities.

Keys:

[M/N]: Male Name [S/C]: Skin Color [H/C]: Hair Color [E/C]: Eye Color  [U/N]: Username

Warnings: vulgar language, violence.

got this idea after reading this story by @sunflowerdaisybee​ of their SBI x sibling!reader, go check out their story because I liked it very much.

might make a part two, might not.

that is all.

“Full bore into the abyss!”

“Are you mad?!”

The captain of the ship that was sailing through a terrible storm let out a wild laugh as thunder boomed and lightning crashed from behind him, his crewmembers were hurrying themselves across the deck to prevent the ship from possibly capsizing from the terrible weather all because their captain was just too damn stubborn to go around the storm and instead went through it. This group of individuals was not your average group of ruffians, this was a group of pirates that was overrun with ocean type hybrids! Not a single one was a human, and the captain of this pirate crew was an orca.

The Killer Whale: [M/N]! This individual was wanted throughout the entire ocean for his countless crimes against the laws of the sea. Piracy, smuggling, arson, murder, impersonating an officer, sailing under false colors, kidnapping, looting, brigandage, pilfering, depravity, depredation, general lawlessness, and those are the few that he can remember. He was the reckless kind that would not hesitate to take matters into his own hands to get the results that he wants or needed, but he was also smart enough to know not to do anything too foolish. His crew was always his number one priority before anything else, he thought of them as another family; one that he had not left behind to live the life he wanted on the ocean.

This man was crazy and he just loved the ocean, it always made him feel free, he wondered if this is how his father felt whenever he would fly in the sky away from the ground. That’s why he loved the thrill of sailing through storms, that thrill of the waves crashing against his beloved ship, it always got his blood pumping whenever the rain poured down on him and that slightly fear of their ship not making it through made it all the more exciting. This man was an orca hybrid, a more than enough reason as to why people dubbed him the Killer Whale, but that’s beside the point. [M/N] was constantly in his full orca form. In his human form, he is about 7″2ft; his half human/half orca is about 8″0ft; his full form is 8″8ft, so this man is already gigantic from the beginning. 

“Hah!” turning towards the crewmate that shouted at him, he gave them a toothy grin as his hold on the wheel tightened so he wouldn’t lose the ship to the ocean waves “You afraid to get wet?” a few other crewmates groan, when he spoke like that, there was no talking sense into their captain. He laughed once more at the state of his crew as soon as they were out of the storm, they were all exhausted from their battle against mother nature and had practically passed out on the deck as soon as they hit clear waters and skies.

“Captain... can we please rest now?” he huffed, running a hand over the smooth skin of his head and nodded.

“Well, alright. We’ve done enough sailing, why don’t you drop the anchor so we can rest up tonight?” he rolled his eyes at the sound of loud cheering “You bunch of sea guppies, we’re all creatures of the sea! What’s there to be afraid of is we do capsize?”

“We lose all the treasure we accumulated over our countless adventures.” this caused [M/N] to pause, looking up in thought before nodding his head.

“Heh, now that’s a good reason, matey.” he laced his fingers together, cracking them over his head as he turned on his heels and started making his way to his quarters, passing by his vice-captain to give him some orders “You’re in charge while I go rest up myself, call me if anything happens.”

“Yes captain.” he clicked his tongue with winking before finally leaving, he let out a sigh while stretching his arms then collapsed onto his chair in front of his desk. He then kicks his feet onto the said desk while popping the cork of a bottle of wine and taking a couple swigs from the alcoholic beverage, he hums to himself as the liquid ran down his throat while some slipped between his lips and ran down his jaw. Licking his lips, he sniffles to himself as he looked around his personal room and smirked to himself, never in a million years would he have thought he would make a name as infamous as his own. 

“I really should pay the old man a visit.” he leans back once more, an arm hanging back as he takes another swig of the wine before pausing while letting out a hum at the sound of a bird.

*CAW*

*CAW*

“Hmm?” pulling his head up, he raised a brow at the sight of a crow landing on his foot “Now what’s a bird-like yourself doing out in the middle of the ocean with nowhere to land for miles?” he lifts his leg slightly and there he saw a letter of sorts strapped to its leg, his face lit up as he moved his leg so that it was closer to towards him so that the crow could perch itself on his hand. He set the bottle of wine down to caress the side of its head, humming softly when it leaned into the affectionate gesture. He soon removed the letter off of its leg and then proceeded to move it so that it was perched on his shoulder, with that, he opened the letter and read through the contents.

"Dear [M/N],

It’s been a long time, hasn't it? I won't take up too much of your time since you're probably very busy, being the captain of an infamous pirate crew, so I'll make this quick.

You left the house at a rather young age so you probably haven't met your brothers. That's right, you have three younger siblings! Adoptive, I know, though one of them actually is my biological son while the other two I picked up just like you.

I thought that if you're near the SMP, you could swing by and I could introduce you to them. I mentioned that they had an elder brother that was a pirate and they were more than excited to meet you. I hope you could meet them as well, but I won't pressure you to stop your adventures to meet them.

I'll see you when I see you.

Yours truly, Philza."

“Hmph, it’s almost as if he’s reading my mind.” he muttered to himself but ultimately felt excited after reading the letter, brothers? Philza picked up more kids and dubbed them his sons, now that was exciting to hear after a few months of no letters. He opens a drawer and drops the letter into the half-full drawer of letters from his father, he closes it then pulls out a blank paper, a quill and some ink to write his response. He reads it over before nodding his head and closing it, sealing it in an envelope then wax sealing it with a symbol of his pirate crew “Make sure this letter gets back to my dad, I’m counting on you.” he snickers softly when the crow salutes before flying off. 

‘Brothers, huh? I wonder what they’re like.’ he thinks back to his childhood with Philza and laughs to himself, he remembered how much of a handful he was for the already old man. He always loved being near the ocean, whether it be because he’s an oceanic hybrid or not, it was always so refreshing to be in the water than out of it. Philza wasn’t that big of a fan because of his wings so to compromise, he would pick him up and fly to a good enough height then drop him from a said height into the water for a big splash. Thinking back to his childhood brought a smile to his lips, he nods his head and stands to his feet and makes his way to the main deck where his crewmembers were casually talking while doing their assigned chores.

“Hear me, men!” he shouts, this caused them all to look over at him, raising a brow when they saw the bright smile on his face “Tomorrow, we set sail for the SMP! I have a certain someone waiting to see his son.” they all share glances at each other after the short announcement.

“We’re heading to land?”

“Then that means...”

“Party time!” he laughs at the conclusion, that was true. Whenever they did visit any island, that would always mean they head to the closest tavern to party for the rest of their stay there and relax until [M/N] decided they leave. He shook his head when they immediately raised the anchor while their navigator took to the wheel so they could head to the SMP ASAP, well, at least they weren’t wasting any time.

[with the sbi family]

“Dear old man,

It sure has been a long time, so imagine my surprise after you blessed me with the news of me having brothers. I’m very excited to meet the boys you have failed to mention in the previous letters, were you planning on surprising me or did you forget?

You must be getting really old if you did forget, and you wonder why I call you old man, old man. That’s beside the point, I’d be more than happy to drop everything just to see you and my new brothers. Don’t ever think that you’re giving me trouble just for a visit, I’ve been meaning to visit you anyways.

I don’t know exactly when I’ll arrive at the SMP, but knowing my crew, they’ll make it a top priority just to get to an island to relax after weeks of being on the ocean waters. We’ll be docked at the same place we always stay at whenever we come to visit.

See you soon.

Your favorite son, [M/N].”

“Pft, bold of him to assume he’s my favorite.” he muttered under his breath after reading the reply from his eldest son, his crow returned from [M/N] with a satisfied look on its face. Philza was excited to see the response and was thrilled when he read that [M/N] was quite literally dropping everything just to meet the brothers he had mentioned in the letter. Speaking of which, he hadn’t meant to mention [M/N] around his three sons, it was an accidental slip of the tongue and the three boys demanded to meet [M/N].

“Was that from the pirate?” Technoblade, the now second eldest who was a piglin hybrid, asked him as he rested his arms on the armrest while his head laid on top of his arms “Did he say he was coming?” Philza chuckled softly as he nodded his head, raising his hand to rest on top of his head.

“It was, and his name is [M/N].”

[M/N]: his eldest son that he accidentally picked up when he was sailing through a storm because god forbid he fly through it. The young orca was a stowaway in a crate of food that was likely abandoned or lost by his own family, so with nowhere to call home, he took the young calf as his own and raised him to the man he is today.

Wilbur: the second and biological son to Philza, a human child that bared more of a resemblance to his mother, the love of Philza’s life Kristin (Samsung Fridge) who’s love for music and theatre. Though he was quiet on certain occasions, the older man adored his son for bringing back the boisterous atmosphere after his eldest son left the home.

Technoblade: the third son, he found this young piglin hybrid alone in the nether with nothing more than the clothes on his back. He was probably the same age as Wilbur, he also thought Wilbur could use a brother since his eldest was gone and Wilbur looked lonely. Making sure that Technoblade wasn’t missing or anything, he brought the young boy home and raised him alongside his other son.

Tommy: his fourth and youngest son was randomly dropped off in front of his home with no letter or any sign left of the boy’s parents, but it was startling how similar this young child shared an appearance like himself. He probably wouldn’t have brought Tommy if it weren’t for the fact that both Wilbur and Technoblade were excited to get a younger sibling, so he thought, why the hell not and closed the door behind him with Tommy in his arms. 

“When is he going to get here, dad?” Wilbur asked, popping his head beside Technoblade.

“He isn’t coming directly to the house, so we’re going to him at the dock.” he let out an oof when Tommy threw himself onto Philza’s lap, a bright look on his face as he stared up at his father.

“So we’re going to see his ship? A real pirate ship?”

“That’s right, if you’re good enough, he might just let you aboard.” he chuckled when all three of them let out cheers of excitement, but himself was just as excited as his sons to see [M/N] again. How long has it been exactly since he last saw [M/N]? Several years, perhaps? He was seven when he first picked him up and he raised him to about seventeen years old before he left, Wilbur was born three years later and he’s currently eight... eleven years? That sounds about right.

“How old is he now, dad?” Wilbur asked.

“Hmm, if I do the math right, he should be about... twenty-eight?” Tommy makes a face.

“Old.” Technoblade and Wilbur snort, Philza just chuckled with a shake of his head and decided to tell them all the stories of the infamous pirate Killer Whale and all his adventures across the sea. When he finally got the letter that [M/N] arrived at the SMP and decided that he and his crew were staying for a couple days up to a week, he informed his youngest three and watching them scurry around to get ready was one of the funniest things to see. 

“Is he as scary as you made him out to be?” Tommy asked.

“Well, I say it’s like a character he has to play. He’s known as a ruthless killer of the sea, but he’s actually quite a big softy. Hah, he would often play with other sea life whenever we would go out swimming and sometimes he would cry at the sight of turtles being harassed by zombies. He gets very embarrassed whenever I bring it up.”

“Will he like us?” Technoblade asks “He’s twenty years older than us, don’t you think he’ll find it odd to have brothers that’s two decades younger than him?” Philza just shook his head.

“Not really. Family is family in his eyes. He told me that his ragtag crew of pirates are the family he couldn’t bring with him when he started his adventure. They range from a variety of different ages, different species, you name it! Whether you’re children or not, he’ll still consider you his brothers.” he was relieved when that was enough to reassure Technoblade, to which the young boy nodded his head as he reached forward to take Philza’s hand, Wilbur noticed this and took his other hand whilst Tommy sat a top the shoulders of their father. 

“Hurry up dad, I really want to meet him!” Tommy shouted, he laughs to himself when he was then being dragged to the docks by Wilbur and Technoblade, who were just as enthusiastic as their youngest brother. They now stood in front of tavern that was bustling with noises that ranged from shouting, screaming and singing...? Can that noise really be considered singing? Philza takes a deep breath and goes to enter but quickly stepped to the side, pulling his sons with him, when a barrel flew through the doors and crashed into the wall behind them. 

...

...

“I’m having second thoughts.” Technoblade says after hearing loud cheering come from inside the tavern after the barrel came flying through the doors.

“Oh, don’t worry about it. I promise, he’ll tone it down when he sees you guys.” he put Tommy down and made sure he was close to his brothers, he takes a deep breath as he approached the doors before finally pushing them open and entering the tavern. Technoblade, Wilbur and Tommy held onto the end of Philza’s haori and they were all blown away that the tavern was filled to the brim of oceanic hybrids that were partying like there was no tomorrow. They paid the family no mind as they continued to sing sea shanties while cheering on the two big hybrids that were drinking ale from barrels.

“Chug, chug, chug, chug!” the crew chanted wildly, one of the two collapsed to the ground, the barrel spilling ale everywhere for they weren’t able to finish it. The latter continued to drink and when he finished he let out a loud breath then slammed the now empty barrel to the ground before letting out a loud cheer, throwing his fist in the air with a wide grin.

“You’re a few years too early to challenge I to a drink off, mate.”

“That’s the captain for you!”

“Him and that bottomless stomach of his!” [M/N] gave a toothy grin, snickering to himself when his vice captain came up to him and wrapped their arm around his shoulder, he goes to continue to drink but was stopped at the call of his name.

“[M/N]!” he turned his head and his eyes widened slightly at the sight of the blonde man, Philza flinched slightly when all eyes were on him and was having second thoughts, he soon let out a grunt when [M/N] came rushing over to him with his arms wide open.

“Dad!” he exclaimed before kneeling down to wrap his arms around Philza and bringing him into a hug, his dorsal fin and fluke wagging as he embraced his father after so long “It’s so nice to finally see you after all these years!” he adds as he pulls away but still had a hold on him, snickering softly when Philza’s feet couldn’t touch the ground.

“It’s good to see you too, [M/N]. I missed you.” [M/N]’s fluke tail continued to wag, a few of [M/N]’s crewmates whistle at the sight.

“Wow, so that’s the man that raised captain [M/N]?”

“He really is a bird hybrid?”

“Is he a crow?”

“I’ve never seen a bird hybrid up close.” the blonde man started patting [M/N] on the shoulder to gain his attention and when he got it, he gave him a nervous smile.

“There’s still a few people I need you to meet.” at that, his face lit up once more and he moved Philza to the side and there he saw the three children that had to be his brothers. The tallest of the three had short pink hair that looked like it was growing with skin that was a lighter shade of pink than his hair, a paper crown sat a top his head as he wore a simple white button up, trousers and boots. The second was a boy with curly brown hair and matching brown eyes, he wore a bright yellow sweater with blue jeans and shoes. The smallest of the three had bright blonde hair that matched his-- their father along with the blue eyes, he wore a simple white shirt with red sleeves, shorts and sho-- wait a damn minute, where are his shoes? “[M/N], these are the brothers I mentioned in the letter. Meet Wilbur, Technoblade and Tommy. Boys, meet [M/N].” said man hurriedly put Philza down and gave the three young children and friendly smile.

“Hello, it’s great to finally meet you three. I hope we can get along.” [M/N] felt a bead of sweat roll down his cheek when the three only stared up at him in silence, then Tommy burst into tears “Wha-- what?” he paled, ignoring the way his crew were laughing as he tried to comfort the crying boy.

“Wow, you made them cry.”

“Some brother you are.”

“So scary.” his crew booked a private room so that Philza can usher the boys in to calm them down, to which the older two stood in the hallway, though, Philza was looking down at [M/N] as he was hunched over in a corner and drawing circles into the ground.

“Am I really that scary?” this question got him a smack across the head.

“You’re literally a killer whale, [M/N]. You’re huge with an intimidating aura surrounding you.” this caused him to continue sulking “If you don’t want to scare them, especially Tommy, why don’t you look like a human?” this caused [M/N] to flinch at the suggestion.

“Human?” he stood up and looked into his reflection through the mirror and pulled a face, placing a hand on his cheek “I don’t remember the last time I adorned the appearance of a human, my whole pirating life revolved around me being an orca.” Philza shrugged as he looked into the mirror with him.

“Well, it’s either that or you live with them fearing you.”

“Now that’s just mean.” he shrugs.

“But you and I both know that it’s true.” [M/N] exhaled through his noses and looked at his reflection once more, dangit. Wilbur and Technoblade were whispering sweet nothings into Tommy’s ear to soothe him, to which he had calmed down from his crying.

“I didn’t expect him to be that big.”

“I didn’t expect Tommy to cry.” Wilbur then looked down at him “Didn’t you say that you were a big man, Tommy?” the five year old only sniffled.

“I am a b-big man!” they all flinch, to which Tommy let out a yelp, when there was a knock at the door. They relaxed when they saw that it was only their father, however, he was briefly talking to someone from behind the door before shuffling inside.

“Come on, don’t be getting shy now.”

“I feel weird.” it was [M/N]’s voice, but it sounded different compared to earlier. Philza waved his hand and so [M/N]’s let out a sigh and finally entered the room, causing the three children to stare in slightly shock at his different appearance. Instead of the body of an orca with legs, [M/N] now looked completely human with pale skin and black markings where an orca’s skin was black. He still had an abnormal height but at least it wasn’t overwhelming like before, he had short messy [H/C] hair with deep [E/C] eyes. The clothes he wore looked a little looser and baggy compared to when he was an orca, I guess that was because his muscles were more apparent when he was an animal. As a human, he also had many tattoos of islands that he must have visited along with a few flowers, feathers and a compass, his ears were pierced as well and he had a black crow feather hanging along the side of his face from his hair “There, you happy?” he said as he looked at his father, placing his hands on his hips while leaning his weight onto his foot.

“Very, you look just as handsome as the day you left.” this comment raise heat to rush to his pale skin, Philza then clapped his hands as he looked at the other three children “Boys, this is [M/N]’s human form, I hope it’s less scary.”

“You’re making me look bad.” [M/N] nervously rubbed the back of his neck as his eyes averted from the three small children, he takes a deep breath before approaching them and kneeling down, making sure he didn’t get too close so they wouldn’t feel uncomfortable “I’m sorry if I’ve made you three nervous, I didn’t mean to. I haven’t exactly interacted with young children in a long time, but I really want to make this work because this is the first time I’ve had brothers this young before. I’ll stay like this to make sure you guys are comfortable around me, how does that sound?” he believed that Wilbur and Technoblade could handle it, but he was more worried about Tommy, the poor boy cried on sight. He waited nervously and eagerly for his response, swallow thickly as the blonde boy peered over the shoulders of his older brothers shielding him from the stranger.

“... did those hurt?” was the first thing Tommy said, [M/N] didn’t understand the question until he noticed where Tommy was looking, he glanced down while raising his hand and saw that he was staring at the few scars along his chest that were peeking from under his shirt.

“Huh? These? Psh, with the adrenaline pumping, it barely hurt. What hurt was getting the damned thing all stitched up.” he then raised his arm “Wanna see the scar I got after getting harpooned?” Philza stood in the background, a happy smile gracing his lips that [M/N] managed to get the boys to settle down and marvel at works of art all over his body along with the scars left behind the countless battles he’s had over the years. It made him happy that, despite the initial introduction, Tommy now sat snug in his lap while Wilbur and Technoblade sat beside him as he pointed at each of his tattoos and the meanings behind them.

‘I’m glad they’re getting along, I guess I was worried for nothing.’ 

Headcanon:

[m/n] spoke with his brother’s for hours, recalling another one of his tales, that he hadn’t realized that the noise from inside the bar had died down whilst his own father was leaning against his back as he fell asleep.

he probably would have moved them to the couch if it weren’t for the fact that even the three young boys had fallen asleep on him.

he was in a predicament.

fuck it-- he might as well just sleep on the floor with them.

the morning was great because he was cuddled up with his brothers along with his father.

it wasn’t so great for his crew because they were all groaning in pain from the hangovers from the excessive drinking.

he threw water of them to wake them up and told them to stop bitching. 

when the three boys were awake, he brought them aboard his ship and showed them around.

them and his crew were more than excited to show the children around, however, they too had to look like humans as to not overwhelm and startle children.

they were rewarded with booze.

when [m/n] had to set sail again, tommy burst into tears once more because he wanted [m/n] to stay.

why couldn’t he stay?

did he not like them?

quite the opposite really.

he was a wanted man, and the longer he stayed in a certain area, the faster the government authorities got to capturing his band of crazies.

wilbur and technoblade were just as upset because they wouldn’t get to see or hear all his epic tales and spend time with his crew.

[m/n], however, promised to visit more often and send letters to hear from them.

he even promised to send or bring them souvenirs from his adventures, giving them something to look forward too.

when asked why he couldn’t just stay longer, his answer was the fact that his story still hadn’t found its ending just yet and was still being told and written. 

the next time he did drop by he had a few new tattoos that signified his brotherhood to them and represented each brother.

a lute for wilbur, a cutlass sword for technoblade, and an infinity sign for tommy.

tommy thought the infinity sign looked dumb.

when told that it was his limitless brotherly love for him, he had second thoughts.

though he tried not to make it blatantly obvious, to which he failed at it, tommy was without a doubt his favorite brother.

he promised the three brothers, that if they were ever to call him in need of his aid, he would not hesitate to drop everything just to come and help them in dire need.

he was their elder brother, and he was going to make up for his absence for not being there for them when they were growing up.

Helper pt. 3

word count: 7262

Fandom: FNAF Security Breach Pairing: Sundrop/Moondrop x Female!Reader Pronouns: She/Her Relationship: Romantic  Occupation: Daycare Helper Ability: Animatronic Moon Jellyfish

The character was modelled after a moon jellyfish, so they are an oceanic type animatronic that mostly resided in the daycare to assist when needed within the pizza plex. The appearance they adorn is that of a tall woman and the animalistic part of her design would be, other than a human-like face, they would have a large bell (the blob of a jellyfish is called a bell or hood) on top of their head that would act as a large hat, and attached to the underside of the bell are the tentacles and stingers. They are not stingers, they help the character locate children and feel for their surroundings. The bell on top of their head also glows in the dark.

Keys:

[F/N]: Female Name  [B/C]: Base Color  [S/C]: Secondary Color  [F/C]: Favorite Color  [E/C]: Eye Color

Warnings: spoilers to those who haven’t seen fnaf sb.

“Helper” pt. 1, pt. 2

“[F/N]~” said woman chuckled softly at the sing song voice coming from the child that sat in her lap, hearing the child trail her name off while leaning backwards so they could look up at her. [F/N] hums in response, placing her hand on their back and pushing them up gently so they wouldn’t fall “You’re not exactly… alive, right?” this question caught her off guard, she wasn’t really expecting to hear those words come out of a six year olds mouth, but she nods her head.

“If you mean I’m not exactly a human, then yes.” the child nods their head, looking forward and letting [F/N] brush their hair “Why do you ask? Does me not being a human make you uncomfortable?” she halts in her brushing once more when the child turned around.

“Nah uh! I like you, I like you a whole lot!” they exclaim as they hug her, she pats their back just as they pull themselves off her “It’s just that my mama told me that machines are incapable of falling in love.” [F/N]’s mood dampens a little, her hand caressing the small child’s back.

“Well… I wouldn’t say she’s wrong.” the child now tilts their head to the side in confusion.

“But aren’t you and Mister Sunny in love?” this question caused her to flinch, her internal fans starting up when she started overheating “Mister Moon as well! Sometimes, when you put us to sleep, I see you two acting like how my mama and papa act. I think it’s very romantic~” [F/N] pressed her lips into a thin line, her hand now beginning to fan her face.

“Don’t you know when people are being intimate it’s only right to give them privacy and not peek?” this caused the child to giggle, she then presses her hand onto her forehead, shaking it lightly “Goodness child, I would appreciate it if you would look in the other direction in the future.”

“Hehe, no promises.” [F/N] playfully rolls her eyes under her eyelids before beginning to tickle their stomach, their laughter was enough to get Sundrop’s attention and he came skipping over.

“Hey, hey, hey! How’s my favourite lady? Are you guys having fun over here?” a few of the children that were following Sundrop came over and started playing with [F/N], a few draping themselves over her shoulders and others settling themselves in her lap, the remaining few were playing with her hair and hat.

“We’re just talking, sunbite, ain’t that right?” the child covers their mouth, trying to contain their laughter.  “Must be a good conversation if y’all are laughing this much!” [F/N] noticed that most of the children were distracted amongst themselves, except for the one child that started it all, so she covered their eyes with one of their hands before reaching forward to cup his cheek and turn his face towards her so she could press and kiss to his cheek “Uwah— what was that for?” he asks, pressing his hand to his cheek while flustered.

“Just showing you that I love you.” the moment she dropped her hand from the child’s eyes, they noticed how lovey dovey they were acting again. They were pretty sure that if none of them were there, they would act even more affectionate, telling by how [F/N] held Sundrop’s smaller hand in her own and was gently caressing his knuckles before the both of them lace their fingers together.

“Oh, stop it, starshine. The children are still here…” she just giggles, her head perked up when a notification went off in her head.

“Oh, it seems like it’s nap time.” she starts to laugh when Sundrop pouted “Don’t worry, you’ll be back before you know it. Nap time only lasts an hour or so. And besides, it’s Moony’s turn.” she kisses the backside of her hand, when she lets go, she couldn’t help but blush a little when he pressed his own lips to where she kissed him.

“Alright, let’s round up all the children.”

“They’re not cattle, Sunny.” this caused them both to laugh. Of course there were the few children who didn’t want to settle down for nap time, but after being promised a snack time right after nap time was enough to get them to comply. [F/N] gives Sundrop a kiss on the forehead and coos sweet nothings into his ear to calm himself down, it always did hurt sometimes when the two would switch, but it’s been getting better. She was in the middle of playing a lullaby when the lights turned off and Moon appeared, she didn’t hesitate to welcome him with a kiss, to which he leaned into the affection before the two of them went to work.

Moondrop watched [F/N], watching as she sung beautifully to the sleeping children, he now come to love nap time. Children were a nightmare, especially the rowdy ones and those that just downright refused to sleep because they still had so much energy, but [F/N] made his job so much easier, and he even go to spend time with the animatronic woman that stilled his usually cold mechanical heart. He flinched slightly when he felt a stare so he looked down and saw the same young child smirking slightly at him, wriggling their eyebrows at him when they noticed the way he was staring at her. That child had a pillow thrown at them for that, causing them to laugh but shushed immediately when he leaned down and glared lightly at them.

“Silence child, and go to sleep. I want some time with her, so if you know what’s good for you, you’ll go to sleep and not speak a word.” they nod their head and zip their lips before rolling onto their side and closing their eyes to sleep, he nods his head as he stands up straight “Good.” he keeps his eyes on them for a second longer before skipping over to her.

“Are you done over there, Moony?” she giggles softly when he draped himself over her shoulder, leaning his cheek into hers.

“Yeah, they’re all sleeping soundly. Now it’s our alone time.” she giggles again, face turning a slight shade of red as he takes her hands a pulls her away from the nap area.

“Hehe, what are you doing, moonlight?” he leads her to the centre of the daycare and tells her not to move, he then proceeds to move everything out of the way until everything is clear. He then hurriedly returns to her and when he he reached her, he took a bow, one hand behind his back while the other was outstretched to her.

“Would you do me this honour and sharing a dance with me?” he raised his head and watched as her eyes opened, emotions swirled in those gorgeous galaxy like eyes and it was making him fall in love all over again, she then laughs and takes his hand.

“It would be my pleasure.” her other hand lays in his other hand and soon they were standing close together, however, she tilts her head in confusion when Moondrop was staring up at her “What's the matter?” he frowns slightly.

“… sometimes I forget how tall you are.” she snorts.

“That’s your concern?” she looks down at him and watches as he tries to think of a solution, his face then lights up when he got an idea and he snapped his fingers. He slips from her grip once more, raising a finger to tell her to wait once more and watch, and so she does. She holds her arms together and watched in mild confusion when he called down his cable and clipped it to his back, she slowly raised her head and laughed quietly to herself, covering her mouth with her hand when she understood what he was doing “Really?” he now hovered in front of her, one arm to his back while the other was outstretched to hers once more.

“May I?” she shakes her head but takes his hand.

“You may.” his already permanent smile grew as he held her close, now looking down at her, despite the fact it was the cable that was giving him that advantage. A melody started playing out of him and together the two of them slow danced around the daycare, she was giggling every so often because it was her that was leading them around but he would often twirl her around, what she loved the most was when he dipped her, hand firmly on her back and hand to hold her up and her hair and the strings of her bell hat was hanging beneath her and touching the ground, one leg kicked up as well.

“Have I ever told you how much I love you?” she looks up at him, her galaxy like eyes staring in his void black ones, she then snorts as he pulls her back up and so she let her head rest on his chest, hearing the gears in his body turn as she hummed softly.

“There isn’t a single day that doesn’t go by and I’m not deeply in love with you— with you both.” she looks up at him “I can’t be more happy that I was made to be yours.” he stares down at her before he starts laughing wholeheartedly, dipping her once more but this time he was leaning down, laughing into her neck.

“You have no idea how much this means to Sundrop and I!” she starts laughing with him, arms wrapped around his neck. When he pulled her up, he made sure to hold her tight as he lifted her off the ground and twirled her around and together the two of them danced for the rest of nap time until it was over “I’ll see you again soon, my love.” she giggles, giving him a final smooth until the lights turned back on, and when she pulled away, she as met with Sundrop.

“Hello, sunbite.” he giggles, cupping his cheek and waving his hand.

“Hello~” she rolled her eyes with a chuckle then went back to gathering snacks for the children while Sundrop woke them up, for the rest of the time until closing, [F/N] was monitoring the energy drained children and keeping them entertained with bracelet making while Sundrop was playing around with the more energised children.

“Miss [F/N]! Look at my bracelet.” a young girl cheered, rushing up to the animatronic woman and holding out the bracelet “How does it look?” she carefully takes the bracelet into her larger hands and inspects, the girl looks up at her with a nervous look before a bright smile washed onto her face when [F/N] smiled at her.

“It’s wonderful. You have a natural gift for jewellery making.” she takes the young girls hand and ties the bracelet around her wrist then gently kissed the top of her hand “It would greatly please me if you could teach me.”

“Y-Yes, certainly!” [F/N] already had numerous programs on jewellery making and various other programs, but having children teaching her in exchange was always nice. [F/N] made two friendship bracelets by the time the young girl made her second, the ones she made were themed after Sundrop and Moondrop and she couldn’t help but smile at her accomplishments “Are you going to give those to Mister Sun and Mister Moon?” she nods.

“Indeed, do you think they’ll like it?”  “Of course! They were made by none other than you, Miss [F/N]!” she nods once more, that light flush rising to her cheeks. [F/N] watched her stand to her feet and rush off, she was going to question what she was doing but giggled to herself when the girl grabbed Sundrop by his hand and was dragging him over to where she was sitting “Mister Sun, Mister Sun! Miss [F/N] has something to give you!”

“Something for me? Daw, you shouldn’t have!” she holds her hand out to him and he places his in hers, she then proceeds to tie the sun themed friendship bracelet around his wrist, being careful around about the bells around his wrist as well, but when it was done, he pulled the bracelet close to his face to inspect it.

“What do you think? I made matching ones for you and Moon.” she says, revealing the second one so he could see one that looked similar to his but was themed after Moon “Do you like it?” Sundrop let’s out a squeal of sorts as he stares at it before clapping his hands.

“Absolutely, and I believe Moon will like the one you give him.” she hums at that, holding the one she made for Moondrop in her hand.

“I do hope so.” time flew by so quickly that it was already the end of the day and parents were coming to pick up their young ones, it was Sundrop’s turn to start cleaning while [F/N] was there to monitor the guardians that were there to pick up the children. There have been a few incidences where complete strangers would try and take one of the children, but they never got far with her and Sundrop there to stop them, but that is a story for another time.

“Thank you again for taking good care of our child, we appreciate it.” [F/N] nods her head.

“It is our duty to take care of the children, and besides, he was a dear to have around.” she cooed softly while caressing the young boys cheek with the back of her hand, the boy giggled and leaned into her affection before being pulled away by his mother.

“Yes, well, we must get going now. Come on now.” 

“Aw, but mum! I wanna say bye to Miss [F/N].”

“No buts! Off we go.” he pouts as he’s ushered away but he makes the effort to take a quick glance back towards her to wave her goodbye, she smiled at the gesture and waves goodbye. It was obvious that some parents hated the fact that their children adored both her and Sun/Moon over them at times, telling by how a young child would cling to the both of them begging not stay, but of course, they’re not allowed to keep the children there for long.

“I swear, my son’s birthday was ruined tonight.” she heard a mother complain from afar while handing over another child to their guardian.

“Yeah, I wasn’t there to see the performance, but I heard that Freddy had a malfunction and collapsed during his performance.” her eyes shot open and she turned towards the gossiping mothers.

‘Freddy collapsed?’ she thought, that sounded impossible. Freddy has the most daily maintenance out of all the animatronics because he is the face and star of the Mega Pizza Plex, so she couldn’t accept the fact that he had a simple malfunction during his performance.

“Miss [F/N]?” she lets out a soft gasp then glanced down to see the young boy she was holding in her arms looking up at her in concern “Are you alright?” she blinks owlishly at him before closing her eyes and smiling at him.

“Why I’m alright, thank you for worrying about me.” she says, leaning down to place him on the ground, she grimaced a little when the boy still looked worried but simply gave him a light push on the back to get him to go to his father that was waiting for him “You better get going, we’re closing soon and your father is waiting.” she stands up straight and waves him goodbye and though he was hesitant, he hurried over to his father, holding his hand and waving her goodbye.

“See you again, Miss [F/N]!” she nods and watched them disappear, unbeknownst to herself, the grip on her hands grew tight to the point she could feel herself dent.

“I hope to see your faces soon!” [F/N] exclaimed happily as she waved the last family goodbye, she looked side to side in search for anyone else before turning on her heel and speed walking over to where Sundrop was, who had his back to her as he was at the table that had the equipment for the bracelet making “Sunny, darling! I need a favor of you.” she says, not noticing the way he hid the things on the table when she approached.

“Oh, starshine! What can I do for you?”

“Do you mind holding down the fort for me? I just heard that Freddy isn’t feeling well, and I thought I could check up on him. I hope you don’t mind.” she thought that he would disagree, he never liked them being so apart, so guess how surprised she was with how easily Sundrop agreed with her.

“You're absolutely right, sunbite! You’re such a good friend to worry about your other friends, so go on right ahead and pay that big ole teddy bear a visit just to see if he’s doing alright!” he says, going to so far as to pushing her out.

“A—Are you sure?” she questions, glancing back at him and being mindful of her step as not to tumble over “I’m not being troublesome, am I?” she adds, now out the door and holding it open to look at him, to which he shakes his head.

“Not at all! We got this, so go say hi to Freddy for us!” she pulls her hands back when he quite literally slammed the door in her face, she stares blankly at it for a couple seconds before snapping out of it, leaning backwards in confusion.

“… well, I didn’t expect that.” she stands there a second longer until she turned on her heel and made her way towards Rockstar Row, leaving Sundrop and Moondrop in the daycare.

“I didn’t expect her wanting to leave, but we’ll take her absence as our opportunity to make her a gift.” he cheers as he returns to the table, Moondrop nodded his head within their shared mind.

“There’s not a moment to lose!”

[with [f/n]]

“Look, mummy! Look, it’s the Daycare Assistant!” [F/N] heard a couple of the children call out, to which she greeted a few of the leaving guests before picking up the pace so she could see Freddy without having to see Vanessa. It was strongly advised that they didn’t roam around while the Pizza Plex was in the middle of closing, but she was just a little bit too anxious. She waved at the last child she saw then hopped into the elevator in the Atrium and pressed the floor to take her to Rockstar Row, she crossed her arms and tapped her foot on the ground a little impatiently. Finally the doors opened to the floor she needed and she stepped out, she glanced around and saw a couple Security and Caution Bots, greeting them with a wave before something caught her eye. Glancing over, she briefly saw the door to Freddy’s room open then close.

“How odd.” she muttered but shrugged her shoulders, she’ll see soon enough, she approached his door and it automatically opened as she approached it “Freddy!”

“Aahh!” she rolled her eyes when he screamed, what caught her attention was when she saw him quickly close his chest cavity, he turned around and saw [F/N] and quickly that panicked look disappeared and he raised his hand “Oh! Why hello there, [F/N]! What brings you here? You’re usually helping Sundrop clean up the Daycare at this time.” he fidgeted under her watchful eyes, hands carefully caressing his chest, she then sighed as she shook her head.

“I’m here to see you.” his head perked up.

“Me? What for?” she scoffed, taking a step forward and grabbing him by his forearms.

“I heard you malfunctioned and collapsed during your performance.” his eyes widened.

“How did you know?” she huffs.

“World travels fast amongst complaining parents.” she then shrugs, she sighs and caresses his arm with her thumbs “What I don’t understand is why YOU of all animatronics malfunctioned. Monty I understand, even Roxanne and Chica dearest, but you? Management takes extra care of you, so I’m confused as to why you malfunctioned.” she raised a brow when he slowly slipped out of her grip, his hands now holding her forearms.

“All I can say is that it was a simple slip up on my end, I thank you for your concern, friend, but I must rest.”  he retracts his arms and holds them “I haven’t fully recharged yet, and I feel awfully tired.” her head perks up and soon nods.

“Oh, yes! Forgive me, I’ll leave you to charge! I need to head back to the Daycare, I feel awful for leaving Sunny on his own to clean. You know how children can be, such a pain to clean up after at times.” he nods his head, pumping his fist.

“That must be a hassle, so you better get to it.” she nods, patting his arm and turning to leave but stopped when Freddy called out to her “But before you go… was a child missing from the Daycare any time today?” this caused her to pause, he watched her look up as her AI looked through the data of each child that attended the daycare that day.

“No. I did a thorough headcount and there wasn’t a single head missing.” she approaches him once more “May I ask why?” he noticed her move her eyes from his face and down to his chest cavity, poking it, he immediately raised his hands to cover his chest and turned away.

“No, was just wondering, is all.” she knew he was lying to her, but he must have a reason as to why, so she just let out a deep sigh as she shook her head.

“Alright, I’ll leave you to it.” she gives him a hug, holding tight before letting go and leaving him alone. Unbeknownst to her, he let out a breath of relief as his chest cavity opened up to reveal the missing head he was talking about, the young boy named Gregory that was hiding in his chest cavity the moment she stepped in.

“She’s gone now, superstar.” Gregory lets out a exaggerated sigh.

“Dang, that was a close one!” he exclaims, he rushes over to the window and saw her walking into the elevator doors “Who is she? I think I’ve heard of her, but I’ve never seen her before.” Freddy approached Gregory from behind and glances through the window to see the elevator doors closing just as he approached.

“She is the Daycare Assistant, she helps the Daycare Attendant care for the daycare. She is a wonderful friend, and I believe you would like her a lot, she is very fond of children and cares for them as if they were her own.” Gregory scoffed, throwing his head back as he rolled his eyes.

“If she could even have children, that is.” he waves his hand “She’s still just a machine, so she can’t exactly conceive a child.”

“W-Well, it’s that thought that counts, is it not?” he just shakes his head.

[at the daycare]

“Sunbite, darling?” [F/N] pushes the door to the daycare open and peeked her head inside, she was a little impressed that Sundrop cleaned up the daycare thoroughly while she was gone, but now she was a little concerned because she couldn’t see him “I’m back, Sunny!” she called out once again, her shoulders slumped, however, when she didn’t get an answer. She entered the daycare, placing her hands on her hips and was ready to call out to him again but gasped when he hung from above her, upside down and a wide smile on his face.

“You’re back, starshine! Welcome!” she smiles softly, nodding her head.

“I’m back.” he rights himself but made sure he was still hanging in front of her, hands behind his back as his hands held something “Sunbite?” he giggles softly, legs kicking gently in front of him.

“I have a surprise for you.” he muses, waving his finger around then pointed at her face.

“Aw~ how sweet.”  “Close your eyes…” he trailed off when he realised her eyes were already closed, how she saw without her eyes being open, he’ll never know… but whatever! “Well, um… make sure you can’t see!” she chuckles and covers her eyes with her hands.

“Alright, okay.” she heard him muttering to himself, probably talking with Moondrop, something then jingled in front of her that made her tilt her head.

“You can open your eyes now!” she does so by removing her hands from her face then opening her eyes, and there she saw a necklace Sundrop and Moondrop had made that was themed after her but had sun and moon beads mixed into it as well with her name “Moony and I made this for you, we hope you like it!” she takes it into her hands and inspects it closely, she then laughs softly and holds it closely.

“I love it, you two, I love it very much!” she gives them both a big smile and holds it out to them “Put it on for me?” they didn’t hesitate to swipe it from her, she removes her hat and moves her hair so they wouldn’t have trouble putting it on, and when they did, she grabbed a miniature mirror to look at it. She was made and styled in the Victorian era, so it didn’t match her at all, but she loved it nonetheless “It’s perfect.” Sundrop claps his hands.

“Terrific! We’re glad that you love it.” she continues to admire it before putting the mirror down and offering her hand to them.

“Hows about we call it a night? My battery is finally catching up to me and I desperately need to charge.” Sundrop nods his head.

“Oh, absolutely! We get to cuddle!” she chuckles at that, she wraps her arms around Sundrop’s waist and he lifts them over to their now shared room. She enters first and takes her place by the charging port, when Sundrop enters, he turned into Moondrop because the lights were off and he approached her.

“Can I get my gift?” she giggles.

“Of course.” she takes out the one she made for him and puts it on his other wrist, he marvels at them both before pulling her into a hug and together the three of them look at their matching jewellery “Now we all match.” she nods her head, nuzzling her nose against his head.

“We do.” she sits on her knees and one of the stingers attached to her hat slithered over to the charging port, she pats her lap and Moondrop didn’t hesitate to rest his head on her lap so they could snooze together.

“I’ll see you in the morning?” he smiles, nodding his head.

“Yes, and we’ll see you.” and with that, the moment that stinger plugged into the charging port, her system shut down and she was in charging mode. He takes a deep breath, wrapping his arms around her waist and burying his face plate into her lap, but not without taking one final glance at his and Sundrop’s bracelets. He couldn’t contain his bashful smile as he fell asleep in her lap, neither of the two unaware of the events that were going to take place throughout the night.

[an hour later]

EMERGENCY WAKE UP CALL.

DAYCARE LIGHTS OFF.

BOUNCER MODE… ACTIVATED.

PHYSICAL RESTRAINTS… DEACTIVATED.

[F/N]’s eyes opened, her system booting up at an hour they weren’t supposed too. When she was on recharge mode, it would take several hours for her to reach fully charged mode where she can last a few days without having to enter a charging station. But she had woken up from her slumber way to early, and the only reason that were to happen was when the daycare lights turned off at a time they weren’t supposed to… or if Moondrop was running amok, something like that hasn’t happened in the longest time. Similar to DJMM, Parts and Service installed a Bouncer Mode into her system that would activate when unruly guests make a scene, but it was used to subdue Moondrop when the staff couldn’t handle him.

“Sunny…?” she murmured out first, the stinger that connected itself to the plug disconnecting and returning to her as she slowly stood up and scanned the area for the animatronic “Moony? Where are you?” she closed her hand into a fist and grimaced when she felt her initial strength to take down animatronics like Monty was activated… something must be wrong, that restraint was activated for a reason. She exits their tent and noticed the lights in the daycare were indeed off, she looks at the time and was confused to see that the hourly mark for the power to convert to the charging stations hadn’t hit yet. With that in mind, she stepped out onto the balcony and looked around, only to hear Moon’s sinister chuckle.

“Naughty, naughty~ bad children must be punished.” her eyes immediately flew open as she slammed her hands onto the railing of the balcony, leaning over to see that he was chasing around a little boy who was frantically going through the playground and making a mess to distract him.

“Please! Just leave me alone!” her eyes locked onto the child and scanned him quickly before he disappeared into the playground while Moondrop cleaned up the mess he made.

CHECKING GUEST LIST… UNKNOWN.

CHECKING DAYCARE REGISTER… UNKNOWN.

CHECKING LOST AND FOUND… UNKNOWN.

CALCULATED RESULTS… LOST CHILD.

“Lost child?” she questioned, soon the conversation with Freddy came back to mind when he asked her if she was missing a child. She rolls her fingers along the railing, hearing it tap against the metal, but that child was completely unknown. There was no data of him anywhere, she shakes her head, that doesn’t matter that very moment, Moondrop was acting far more aggressive than he usually is and she was afraid he was going to do something neither of them were going to like. She calls down the cable just as she jumped over the railing, grabbing it and allowing it to lower her to the ground, she was careful to quietly land on the ground, as not to alert Moondrop of her presence.

“Dang it, where are those stupid generators?” Gregory hisses to himself, getting lost in the playground yet again “Why the heck are generators even in a children’s playground? Talk about a hazard.” he freezes up when he heard the bells on Moondrop’s costume jingle, oh god, he was crawling around in the playground as well.

“Where are you? Children aren’t allowed to stay after hours.” he pressed his back against the wall, covering his mouth to quiet his breathing but the beating in his heart beat so loudly it was giving him away “Come out, come out, wherever you are~” oh god did he want to just curl up into a ball and disappear, a small whimper escaped his lips when he saw Moondrop’s fingers appear around the corner of the wall. There was nowhere for him to go, he was trapped and that freak was going to get him. He closed his eyes and was ready for his life to flash before his eyes but they suddenly shot open when Moondrop let out a yelp, he looked over and saw that Moondrop was gone.

“H-Huh?” wiping away the stray tears, he looked around the corner and his eyes widened to see the same animatronic jellyfish that came to Freddy’s room holding Moondrop as if he were a cat.

“Moony? What are you doing playing around in the playground? You know that’s only designed for children, and don’t you remember the last time you went in there?” she giggles fondly at the memory, remembering how his limbs got stuck and he was screeching at her not to look “You know I can’t fit in there, so color me surprised when I had to yank you out of there.” yup, that’s what happened. The moment she saw the opportunity to grab him through one of the openings, she leaned in and pulled him out before he could see the young boy.

“You don’t understand, starshine. There’s a child!” he exclaims, throwing his arms up, to which she rolls her eyes while nodding her head.

“Right…” he sighed when he knew she didn’t believe him “Remember the last time you said that? And when we checked to see what it was it, it was only Roxanne and Montgomery playing tricks on you. Perhaps they’re doing it again.” he pouts as she lowers him down, she giggles to herself when he crossed his arms and started to sulk.

“I’m telling you, there’s a boy running around.” she smiles fondly at him, placing her hands on his shoulders and giving them a light squeeze, her eyes then went over to where Moondrop was and there she saw the boy. He flinched backwards and was going to hide but paused when he saw her jerking her head to her left, her stingers raising up and pointing in the same direction. He was confused at first but looked in the direction and there he saw another generator, she gave him a look of reassurance but quickly looked away when Moondrop looked at her.

“It’s not that I don’t believe you, but the last time we jumped to conclusions… we were barely let off with a warning.” this caused his shoulders to slump, she then turned him towards their room and gestures to it “Why don’t we go back to sleep? Perhaps you’re just anxious to see the children again that your AI is playing tricks with you.” with his back to the boy, Gregory peeked his head out from the play structure and his face lit up when her stingers pointed out all the generators, saving him the trouble of actually finding them.

“Maybe you’re right. The children have only recently started liking me again.” she smacks his arm, moving from time to time to block his view of Gregory as they continued to talk.

“They’ve always liked you, my love, they’re only shy.” she caresses his cheek and kisses his forehead “Now let’s go back and cuddle.” he giggles at that.

“Hehe, I like that idea for mu—” he was cut off when they both heard something fall, turning their heads, there they saw Gregory had accidentally tripped over a chair after he was staring at the two of them acting lovey dovey “So I wasn’t making it up!” he exclaims as starts making his way over to him, Gregory did not hesitate to pick himself up and run over to the other playground to get the last two generators.

“Ah, please! I don’t even want to be here!”

“Moon, what are you doing?!” [F/N] shouts as she chases after Moon, ducking down to avoid hitting a few of the obstacles in her way while Moon easily manoeuvred around them and was getting closer to Gregory “Moon! Stop right this instant!”

“Sorry, sweetheart, but no can do.” Gregory crawled into the playground and Moon was right behind him, [F/N] tried to grab him but she failed when he just slipped out of her reach and she couldn’t crawl in after him. She cursed under his lips, taking a step back and using her enhanced eyes to see through the dark and locate where both Moon and Gregory were in the playground.

“Moondrop, I swear if you hurt that boy you’re never going to hear the end of it from me!” she shouts, she managed to find Gregory and saw that he was backed into a corner after getting one of the two generators and Moon was hot on his tail “I will NEVER forgive you if you do anything to that boy, Moondrop! I swear on it!” this caused Moon to stutter in his movements, momentarily freezing in place, she took that opportunity to rush over to where Gregory was and pull him out of the playground instead.

“Hey! What’s wrong with that guy?!” she shook her head.

“I should be the one asking you that.” she whispered “My Moony doesn’t act like that, much less threaten a child and refuse to listen to me.” Gregory noticed black tears swell in her eyes as she stared at where Moon was before turning away and finding the last generator, however, she was tackled to the ground and evidently dropped Gregory.

“[F/N], dearest, hand over the child while I’m being nice.” she looked back and Moon and saw he was holding her by her waist, she glared at him as she pushed herself on her back.

“When my moonlight is being nice, he doesn’t threaten me!” she shouts and proceeds to kick him off, this time, she was going to keep Moon distracted while Gregory climbed into the playground to get the last generator “Little boy, if you climb in through the slide at the back, you’ll find the last generator!”

“The last in the back? Got it!” he quickly did as she said and followed her directions, her ears perked up when she heard a wire so she looked back and saw Moon connected the cable to his back and was planning on flying over her and after Gregory.

“Oh no you don’t!” she exclaims, kneeling down then jumping up and grabbing him by his waist. The cable wasn’t able to handle the weight and snapped, causing them both to fall to the ground. Moon gets up immediately and tries to get to Gregory once more but couldn’t when [F/N] picking him up, arms wrapping around his arms and his torso, keeping him apprehended “Moon, don’t make me break you.” he lets out a grunt when he felt her tighten her grip, his metal body starting to dent a little.

“I know you can, but I know you won’t. You love me too much to do that.” he feels her loosen her grip so he was going to slip out of her grip but suddenly she tightened her grip once more, making it impossible for him to free himself.

“True, but unfortunately for you, my system is telling me to do everything in my power to stop you from doing something stupid.” he glances back at her and saw that her iris’ were red instead of white “My feelings for you will be suppressed until you are under control.” finally, Gregory managed to get the last generator and the lights were switched back on. You glanced around then took a look at Moon only to see that he switched back to Sundrop, she lets out a sigh of relief and loosen her grip but hugs him instead.

“[F/N]? What are you doing awake? You’re supposed to be asleep.” she shook her head and buried her face into his neck.

“You and Moony were gone so I got worried…” they heard a creek so they turn and see Gregory trying to leave, now this set Sundrop off and stomped over to Gregory, [F/N] following behind him to make sure he didn’t do anything.

“Rule breaker, rule breaker!” he shouts, picking Gregory up and carrying him out of the daycare “You are BANNED from the daycare!” he adds, dropping him on the ground, [F/N] peeks her head out from behind him and waves Gregory goodbye.

“Have a good night, little boy.” she says.

“Security alert, security alert! Woo, woo, woo!” she pulls a face, looking down at him as they both retreat back into the daycare, him slamming the door behind him for good measure.

“Was that necessary?” he stomps his foot, crossing his arms.

“Absolutely!”

Headcanon:

watching him angrily write down BANNED in all caps on a wide white piece of paper was very entertaining.

several BANNED signs.

she couldn’t help but laugh that he seriously banned the boy from the daycare.

he told her not to laugh.

he also asked her to draw “angry eyebrows” and a “frown” on his face to display his anger.

she told him he was being over dramatic.

he told her she needed to take this seriously.

he then proceeded to cry to her that he just wanted to look after the boy but he turned the lights off and brought out moon.

she asked him if there was something wrong with moon because he was acting off.

he went silent.

she decided not to pry.

now, when the lights would go out and moon was lurking about searching for gregory, she would not be too far behind to keep moon under control.

when freddy and gregory were in the elevator and frantically pushing the buttons to get the elevator to close, [f/n] appeared and tackled him to the ground.

this had happened on several occasions, but it was very effective.

when [f/n] found gregory and freddy on their own, gregory, no matter how many times he was saved by her, was still just a little wary of her.

could you blame him? his life is literally on the line and the only one he can trust that moment was freddy.

he calmed down when [f/n] broke down crying about how that wasn’t her moon.

her moon was calm and kind, sure he was stern, but he would never hurt children no matter WHAT they do.

she even showed them the necklace they both made.

freddy let her cry into his shoulder and pat her back to calm her down.

now-

when freddy needed to charge, [f/n] would take over monitoring gregory.

she was a walking nightlight and you could see her from far away, she was also big so he could easily hide behind her.

if he was tired, they would find a place to rest and she would hide him under his bell hat and he would be out like a light.

a thing gregory also noticed was that where she was, none of the security bots would come over to where she was.

she said that the security bots won’t monitor the area where she is because she was more then enough to handle the situation that was happening there.

the same cannot be said for the animatronics.

that didn’t mean she didn’t bodyslam monty when he chased after gregory.

he forever stuck to her side.

[f/n] and freddy: the overprotective parents that will fight you on site if you dare hurt their child.

Helper pt. 2

word count: 6629

Fandom: FNAF Security Breach  Pairing: Sundrop/Moondrop x Female!Reader  Pronouns: She/Her  Relationship: Romantic Occupation: Daycare Helper  Ability: Animatronic Moon Jellyfish

The character was modelled after a moon jellyfish, so they are an oceanic type animatronic that mostly resided in the daycare to assist when needed within the pizza plex. The appearance they adorn is that of a tall woman and the animalistic part of her design would be, other than a human-like face, they would have a large bell (the blob of a jellyfish is called a bell or hood) on top of their head that would act as a large hat, and attached to the underside of the bell are the tentacles and stingers. They are not stingers, they help the character locate children and feel for their surroundings. The bell on top of their head also glows in the dark.

Keys:

[F/N]: Female Name [B/C]: Base Color [S/C]: Secondary Color [F/C]: Favorite Color [E/C]: Eye Color

Warnings: spoilers to those who haven’t seen fnaf sb

“Helper” pt.1, pt. 3

“Sunbite, what on earth are you doing?” [F/N] questioned whilst she was in the middle of cleaning up the clutter of toys the children had left behind when their parents and other guardians had picked them up from the daycare, she turned to face him but soon noticed that he was hunched over a table where he was sitting with a group of children for arts and crafts. She raises a brow when she noticed that he didn’t respond so she put the toys away before sauntering over to where he was, looming over him, she saw that he was staring intently at a drawing “Pft, how adorable.” she giggled softly, her speaking from behind him finally snapped him out of his internal dialogue between himself and Moondrop.

“O-Oh, starshine!” she hums softly, raising a hand to cup her chin while her other held her elbow in place. He turned around to face her and quickly hid the drawing behind him, a flustered and embarrassed expression on his face as his sun rays were acting up. Why was he acting in such a disorderly fashion? That was because while he and the children were drawing, another child had drawn him and [F/N] holding hands together while hearts surrounded them both, oh! And the fact that he was about to kiss it but stopped when [F/N] was behind him, his body was now trembling as he leaned back when [F/N] loomed over his body, leaning closer and closer to his face.

“Whatchu’ got there?” she muses, now leaning to her side so she could get a look at the drawing once more, but Sundrop had it pressed against his back so she had no way of seeing it.

“N-No— Nothing! It’s nothing, starshine!” he was growing even more flustered with how close she was, and because of this, the drawing in his hands was getting crumpled up and he was surprised he hadn’t torn it by now. He jolts up from where he was standing when she placed her hand on top of his head, the rays from where her hand was pressed down.

“Well, if it’s nothing, it better be worth you overheating.” at the mention of that, his system alerted him that he was overheating and it was forcing him to shut down so that he could cool down. [F/N] giggles as she watches his body fall limp but before it could hit the ground, she caught him and now cradled him close to her chest. She always enjoyed teasing him, his reactions were so adorable and at the end of it, he would overheat and his system would shut him down and there she would be allowed to coddle and cuddle with him all she wanted. When his system would reboot and he wakes up, he would wake up and find himself laying in [F/N]’s lap as she sits in resting mode. She gently bonks her head against his, her hat rising so her forehead could press against his, and takes him to a quiet corner, not forgetting to take the drawing and add it to the collection of other drawings she loves.

And so here she was, a couple of hours into the night and now she was concerned as to why Sun hadn’t awoken yet. It did take a while for Sun and Moon’s system to reboot itself, but not THIS long. Perhaps his battery was running low, she glances up at where his room was and was contemplating whether or not she should bring him up there. She remembered in the past when she asked about his room, both himself and Moon started freaking out and pleaded with her to never go up there, whether it was with him or not. Though she was programmed to take care of Sundrop and Moondrop, she was also programmed to never disobey an order and break a promise, but she was worried for the Daycare Attendant. The way he charges was different to the other animatronics, she glances at him and his room before letting out a sigh and deciding to just simply go up there.

Unlike Sundrop and Moondrop, she did not have a hook on her back to connect the cable to, so instead, she called it down and wrapped it tightly around her arm. She tugged on it and when she figured it wasn’t going to come loose, she had it lift her off the ground and over to where Sundrop and Moondrop’s shared room was. She held Sundrop close to her as she landed gracefully on the balcony then allowed the cable to slip from her grasp, she approaches the curtain to his room and pushes it back and there she saw the reason as to why he never allowed her to enter his room. Unlike the Glamgang and even DJMM, his room was a complete mess, and not the type where it needed a simple clean. It’s like management hadn’t even thought of giving him a room that suited both him and Moondrop, she’d compare it to a broom closet, but at least a closet is a bit more organised.

She glances down at him before sighing softly and going over to where she believed was his charging station was. After plugging him and knowing that he was charging, she took a look around his room and frowns at how run down it was. The highlight of the room would be the small corner dedicated to drawings made by the children and other little gifts, she takes out the drawing the child drew of her and Sundrop, picking up a thumbtack and pinning it to the wall, adding to the collection of drawings. She didn’t have a room like the other animatronics, she resided in a small tent that was similar to a circus tent that was white and [F/C] and stationed in a corner within the daycare that is off-limits to the children, it was her quiet corner when she’s charging.

“Oh, my sunbite…” she murmurs, grabbing one of the Moondrop toys and squeezing it, giggling sadly when it let out a squeak. An idea soon sparked to her mind so she quickly glanced back at Sundrop, nodding to herself when she saw that he was still shut down, and then proceeded to scan the entire room to get a general estimate of the room then left. She threw the curtains back and jumped off the balcony, grabbing the cable and descending to the ground, landing with a small thud before bolting out of the daycare. She was allowed to leave the daycare but it was heavily implied that she stays within the daycare at all times just to simply monitor Sundrop and Moondrop at all times, but she could give two fucks at the moment.

“[F/N]!” she stops dead in her tracks and though it did not show, annoyance and dread bubbled in her chest at the sound of that obnoxious voice “What are you doing out of the daycare? You know you’re not supposed to leave.” she was modelled to have a permanent soft smile on her face, and so when she couldn’t properly express her true feelings, well, she usually shows it in her actions or the way she speaks.

“Oh, Officer Vanessa, what an unpleasant surprise.” Vanessa deadpans, she wasn’t sure when [F/N] started to dislike her but she wasn’t going to question it, as long as she didn’t do anything she didn’t like, then they were fine “Aren’t you supposed to be monitoring the atrium at this time?”

“That's beside the point, you still haven’t answered me.” the animatronic rolled her eyes beneath her eyelids before leaning down.

“It may be your job to monitor us animatronics and keep us in check from doing anything we’re not supposed to do, but I am not stationed to be in the daycare all night long. I have free roam around the Pizza Plex just like the other animatronics, so don’t come at me as if I’ve done something wrong.” Vanessa grits her teeth at her words, her grip on her flashlight tightened.

“It’s also my job to make sure you don’t wander off too far from where you’re supposed to be stationed.” [F/N] nods her head, already done with her nonsense as she stands up straight.

“Right, okay.” she leans down once more, making sure she was inches away from her face as she wipes her shoulders “Well then, I’ll make sure to get back to my designated area once I’m done with my business. So you pretend you never saw me and I pretend I never saw what you did.” this caused Vanessa to flinch, her body beginning to tremble as [F/N] leaned away.

“Wha— what do you mean by that?” she smirked softly as she reached forward, grabbing her cap and shaking it side to side before pulling it down then walking away from her, sparing her a glance and her gorgeous galaxy like eyes glared at her.

“You know exactly what I mean.” with that, she left the human employee shaking in anxiety, she shook her head and ignored what Vanessa had to say in favour of making her way to Monty Golf. She hums to herself as she listened to the music that played within Monty’s area, hearing alligators bellow and growl, she searched for the alligator but huffed when she couldn’t find “Now where on earth could that boy be.” she questioned, looking side to side but saw nothing.

“Who might you be looking for?” she lets out an oh at a voice, she glances down and saw it was another employee that was stationed to monitor Monty Golf.

“Oh, why hello there.” the security guard let out a nervous chuckle as they stare up at the animatronic woman.

“Hello there [F/N], what brings you here? You’re quite far from the daycare.” she places a hand on her chest.

“I was looking for Montgomery, I must speak with him this very moment.” the security guard nodded their head.

“Ah, I see.” they turn away and point in a direction “He’s over there. He was told to help us clean up the golf balls from the course, especially the ones that were shot off the course.” she nods her head and together with two of the saunter over to where Monty supposedly was, [F/N] pulls a face, hands on her hips as she pushes one out when she saw bubbles in the water, she can only guess where he is.

“Goodness.” the security guard noticed her staring at the water with unease and mild disgust.

“Oh! If you’re worried about the water, the lighting is set up so that the water looks murky and like a swamp. It’s actually very clean, trust me. I’ve fallen into it a few times.” at that, [F/N] raises a hand to her mouth.

“That must’ve been awful.” they nod.

“Yeah, wet socks really suck.” this caused the woman to giggle softly, the security guard let out another oh when [F/N] placed something on their head, when they moved it up they realized she took her bell off her head and placed it on top of theirs. They were going to question what she was doing but was taken aback when she dove into the water, a hidden feature about her design was that she was also water proof because she was a jellyfish, it’s just that she was always in the daycare so she it was never revealed. Anyways, she swam around for a bit until she finally found him at the bottom of the moat, brow raised when she saw him yelling about how there was a bunch of golf balls at the bottom on the first place.

“Damn this blasted kids! Don’t they know they’re not supposed to shoot the blasted golf balls into the water in the first place! Dammit! I hate this!” she rolls her eyes as she swims over to him, he continued to rage, unaware of her walking over to him after her feet touch the ground “I swear, one of these days, I’m just going to grab one of those brats and stra—”

“Montgomery.”

“Aahh!” he lets out a scream of terror at the unexpected voice and whipped his head around to see [F/N] standing behind him, arms crossed and a stern and unimpressed look on her face “What the? How the heck are you down here?!” she rolls her eyes, hands moving down to rest on her hips.

“Clearly I’m waterproof, just like you. I’m a jellyfish, remember?” he rolls his eyes “Anyways, that’s besides the point. I’m here to ask of you for something.” this gained his attention, [F/N] rarely ever asked him of favours, she mostly turned to Freddy or Chica.

“Alright, whatchu need, cher?” she pressed her hands together and points them at him.

“I need you to do me a favor.” he smirks softly, crossing his arms and leaning his weight onto one of his feet.

“You’ve already got my attention, whatchu need of me?” she huffs.

“How long do you think you can distract Sun and possibly Moon?” his brow rose even more.

“The Daycare Attendant?” he questions, she nods her head, he hums as he looks up in thought “Why? I thought it was your job to keep an eye on him? Why would you want me of all people to distract him?” she chuckles softly, moving her hair out of the way when it started falling on her face.

“I need him out of his room as long as possible, he doesn’t want me going in there but when I was in there, I saw the state of his room.” she then holds her waist while her other hand waves it around “I want to renovate it a bit, it’s quite sad management didn’t give him a proper room like the rest of us, so I want to surprise him.” Monty nods his head then points at himself.

“And that’s where I come in?” she grins, snapping her fingers and pointing at him.

“Now you’re catching on, well done.” he hums, feeling proud of himself.

“What do I get out of it?” she shrugs.

“What do you want?” he looks up in thought, she waits patiently then let’s out and oh when she saw his face light up, snapping his fingers then pointing at her.

“No matter what you’re doing, for three months straight, you gotta rough house with me or play golf with me.” what an odd request, she was going to question him but stopped when he added something else “Also, when I argue with the others for a VALID reason, you can’t scold me or lecture me for something I did WRONG.” she pulls a face when she added quotation marks on specific words, she rolls her closed eyes.

“Is that it?”  “For that, you also can’t tell me off whenever I destroy something that isn’t in my room and help me clean shit out of these ponds when I call for you.” she sighs as she looks down, pinching the bridge of her nose “Is that a deal, cher?” he asks, extending his hand out to her to shake, she looks back up at him before shaking her head and taking his extended hand and giving it a firm shake.

“Alright, you better distract him good then.” he retreats his hand and cheers.

“Great, now give me a hand help me clean out the pond.” she sighs once more, head hanging low.

“Got it.” he only grins and together the two of them clean out the pond that was littered with trash, golf balls, moldy golf balls and other junk. The same security guard stood at the new of the pond, playing with [F/N]’s hat and laughing softly at up big it looked on them, they then let out a yelp and jump back when two figures broke through the surface of the water and hauled themselves out of the water “We should enforce a rule that forbids children and others from throwing anything into the ponds.” [F/N] comments, turning on her heater to dry the water off her body while grabbing a few strands of her locks and squeezing the water out.

“I second that, saves us the trouble of fishing them out.” she chuckles at that, letting out a huff when she managed to squeeze out the last of the water in her hair before throwing her hair over her shoulder, evidently smacking Monty in the face “Do you mind?” he snarls, running his own hands through his wet red locks, a soft smirk raises to her lips as she crossed her arms.

“Not really.” before he could even start, she side steps and lets him run into a prop tree, she shakes her head before taking her hat back from the security guard, giving them a kind smile “Thank you for looking after it.” she says, placing her hat back on top of her head.

“It was no problem.” she nods then tips her hat to them.

“Then I’ll see you when I see you.” she waves them goodbye before leaving Monty Golf to return to the daycare, that was until the lights turned off. She sighs to herself, placing her hands on her hips when the power was converted to the charging stations, so now Moon was out and about, if he was fully charged, that is “Alright, sweetheart, where are you?” she was going to track him down until she heard his iconic sinister giggle.

“My starshine, why are you all the way over here?” she giggled to herself when he lowered himself from the ceiling, wrapping his body around her shoulders and leaning his head against hers.

“Hello to you too, moonlight.” she coos, cupping his cheek and returning the affection “It’s good to see you up and about.” he hums at that, letting her walk around for a bit instead of immediately returning to the daycare.

“While we’re on the topic, why weren’t you in the daycare? Both Sunny and I were a little upset when we woke up and didn’t see you.”

“I had business with Monty so I thought I would drop by while you two were resting, I didn’t think I would have been there as long as I was, but I guess that was because he needed my help cleaning out the ponds.” he raised a brow at that.

“Why would he need your help?” she places a finger on her cheek.

“I’m waterproof as well.”

“You’re what?!” she laughs when she could hear both Sun and Moon’s voices clash together “Why didn’t you tell us?” she hums, grabbing a few strands of her hair and twirling them around her finger.

“You never asked, and the opportunity never arose for me to get wet.” she pulls a face when she could tell that he was pouting as he hung off her shoulder, she shook her head as she lifted his head up to press a subtle kiss on his cheek, this was enough to get him to perk up “Stop being so pouty, though it does make you cute.” she giggles softly when she saw him turn red, his already permanent smile on his face stretching wider as he covered his face with his hands.

“Mm… you’re making me lose all my man cred.” she laughs wholeheartedly at that, placing a hand on her chest to settle herself.

“I can’t believe you just said that, the children have been influencing you in a bad way.”

“That I agree with.”

[a few days later]

“And that’s the last of them.” [F/N] hums, waving the last family goodbye before turning around to see Sundrop already cleaning up. She pumps her fists together and glances back at Sundrop, he noticed her gaze and happily waved his hand, she returned the gesture with a softer wave and kind smile. Operation renovation is now a go, she glances over at the door to the daycare and there she saw Monty ready to play his part “Now all that’s left is—”

“[F/N]!” she lets out a shout of surprise at the loud voice, she looks over and sees that it was Chica who threw open the door to the daycare, evidently throwing Monty to the ground since he was in her way “There you are sugar cube, I need your help.” Sundrop was confused as to why Chica needed help from HIS Daycare Assistant and was ready to question her but his mechanical heart dropped when he saw [F/N] smile and give her a thumbs up.

“Right, you needed help with your baking, right?” Chica nods her head, a happy smile on her face.

“That’s right, I hope I’m not being a bother.”

“Nonsense, you asked me in advance, so I must comply.” Sundrop was immediately by her side, wrapping his arms around her waist and sulking into her back.

“But you’re supposed to be helping me in the daycare.” he whined, she smiles softly, pressing a hand to his back and soothingly rubbed his back.

“I know, but I already promised Chica the night before.” she exhales softly when he wasn’t letting up, only tightening his grip on her “… when I come back, I’ll have a surprise ready for you and for the rest of the night I’ll spend it with you and Moon, how does that sound?” this caused a reaction out of him, he unravelled his arms from her so she turned around and knelt down, holding his hands in her own as he looked up at her.

“You promise?” she nods her head.

“I promise.” she boops his nose and he giggles at the action “I’ll be as fast as I can.” his hands reached out to hers when she slipped out of his grip, she pats his head before leaving with Chica in tow. She waves him goodbye and when she closed the door to the daycare, both herself and Chica press their backs to the wall.

“That was close.” Chica says, glancing up at [F/N] “He was reluctant in letting you go.” she shrugs her shoulders, a sheepish smile on her face.

“He loves me, what can you do?” Chica coos at that, cupping her cheeks when she noticed a soft blush rise to her cheeks “Alright, enough on that. You’re up, Monty.” he miraculously appears, saluting her with a grin.

“On it, cher.” she nods.

“Update me on what happens.” he nods once more before the two female animatronics dash away, he runs both hands through his hair then straightens his star sunglasses out.

“Show time.”

[with [f/n] and chica]

“How did you manage to find another way into the Daycare Attendant’s room? I thought that balcony was the only way.” [F/N] waves her hand as the two of them approach a poster.

“I was going through Parts and Service for a couple things when I found a blueprint of the entire facility, and there I found a secret entrance to his room.” Chica nods her head and quietly watches her approach the poster, Chica smiles sadly when she recognised that poster as the one that promoted the various plays Foxy would have… she really missed him “Dang it, it’s not opening.” she grumbles.

“How did you open it before?” she crosses her arms.

“I had to use the Faz Cam and use the flash on various posters of the four on the poster, quite frustrating because it messes with our eyes at the same time.” she pushes at the poster once more before throwing her hands down when it didn’t budge, Chica was going to make a suggestion but pulled her hands back when [F/N] kicked the door down “Hah, that was much easier and less time consuming.”

“… right.” they walk down the long hallway and when they reached the door at the end, [F/N] opened the door and Chica lets out a sad gasp, raising her hands to cover her beak “Oh, sweet pea…” the other animatronic nods her head sadly.

“Now do you understand why I’m doing this?” Chica nods her head.

“You’ve got a heart of gold.”

“If I had a heart.” Chica laughed with a scoff, shoving her forward.

“You know what I mean!” they both laugh until [F/N] ushered Chica out so she can clean, telling the girl to go to the kitchen in case Sun or possibly Moon go and check if they’re really there, she hopes not. She peeks her head out through the curtains and there she saw Monty talking with Sun who looked less enthusiastic then usual. Monty noticed [F/N] from the corner of his eye and signalled her a thumbs up, she gave him a grateful smile then returned the gesture before going back into Sun’s room to clean it up.

“So, Sundrop,” Monty pulls a face when Sundrop blatantly ignored him, his shoulders dropped “what’s up with you and [F/N]? You two are awfully handsy, aren’t cha?” Monty noticed Sundrop freeze up, the items he had in his arms were immediately disregarded and dropped to the floor with a clatter, his head turning around to stare Monty down and his body following suit.

“Oh, [F/N]? She’s a real doll, ain’t she? What’s there not to love about her?!” Monty was soon pulled into an extremely long conversation about [F/N], though he did like her himself in a friendly/motherly way, the way Sundrop talked about her nonstop was making his ears bled.

“Just bring me up in a conversation and I promise you, my sunbite will be talking nonstop.” Monty scoffed, crossing his arms.

“That’s a little narcissistic, don’t you think?” she huffs, shrugging her shoulders.

“I’m just saying, it’s an amazing conversation started with him.” he lets out a silent groan, taking a seat on the ground while slapping a hand onto his face and dragging it down.

‘Dammit, I hate it when she’s right.’ she giggles when she saw the face he was making from where she was, already knowing what he was thinking. She didn’t waste any of them time that was given to her and cleaned up the room to the best of her abilities, questioning why there was a dismantled staff bot in pieces in their room but decided to leave it at that and just throw it down the hallway. She kept all the drawings and stuffed toys in their area along with other items that seemed to have some significant meaning in to Sun. If she had a human nose and eyes, she would have be left in a coughing and sneezing fit from the amount of dust and dirt the room had, it was revolting.

“How could management do this to poor sunny? After everything he’s done as the Daycare Attendant.” she shakes her head and continues to clean his room, when she managed to get it in order, she pulled in the things that she swiped from around the Pizza Plex to decorate his room.

“How long do you think you’re gonna be, cher?” she perks up at the sound of Monty’s voice “Sure, he’s been talking about you for nearly two hours and a half, but I think he’s running out of things to say. Give me something else to talk about with him!” she sighs, she quietly puts down the box in her hand and takes a peek through his curtains once more and saw that Sundrop was running out of things to blabber about her.

“Hmm… talk about glitter glue or the children. He’s quite obsessed with that.” Monty pulls a face.

“The glue or the children?” he looks up at her and sees her wink, he grumbles, she ducks away and Monty looked back at Sundrop when he raised his head “A little birdy told me that you like glitter glue, hah, what color?” he was seriously regretting taking this favor, she just shook her head when she heard Sundrop cheer happily about how good glitter glue taste… wait, taste? She is going to need to sit him down for that. She stands proudly at her almost finished masterpiece, she just needed to add a few little things and she’ll be done. She picked up the box of glow in the dark items and trudges over to the makeshift tent she set up but cursed to herself when her legs got caught in a loose sheet.

“Oh shit!” she shouts before collapsing to the ground, both Monty and Sundrop jolt up at the loud noise.

“What was that?” Sundrop questioned, standing up and looking over at the balcony that led to his room “Is someone… in my room?” Monty noticed the panicked look on his face and the sudden urgency to go check what that was took over his system.

“Oh shit, whatever you did cher, it’s got his attention!”

“Then distract him, you lousy gator!” he growls, he looks for anything that could get his attention and talking to him wasn’t going to do anything anymore, soon enough the memory of [F/N] telling him that Sundrop will drop everything to clean up a mess came to mind. Sundrop was in the middle of calling down the cable when he heard something clatter, turning around, he let out gasp when he saw that it was Monty kicking down the pile of blocks.

“Whoops.”

“Ah! Oh, no! What a mess! Clean up, clean up!” Monty lets out a breath when he noticed that Sundrop rushed over to clean up the mess.

“You better almost be finished, because I don’t know how long I can keep him distract like this.”

“I know, I’m almost done!” she rushes to stand up and clean up the mess she made and put the items she dropped in the places they were supposed to go, meanwhile, Sundrop was growing more and more agitated with the constant mess Monty would make just as he cleaned the last one. A visible tick mark appeared on his forehead when Monty threw a table, the contents that were on said table fell to the ground with a clatter.

“What is your problem, Monty?!” he shouts, in return, he grumbles under his breath when Monty merely shrugged his shoulders.

“Butter fingers.” he pinches the bridge of his nose as he inhales deeply.

“You know what? Forget it, you’re wasting my time.” a panicked look immediately washed onto his face when Sundrop gave up cleaning up the messes and called down the cable once more.

‘Cher hasn’t told me if she was done yet, and I don’t think he’s going to respond to anything I do anymore!’ he tried to tackle him down but fell short when Sundrop was lifted off the ground and now flew over to the balcony that led to his room to investigate the noise “Oh no.” Sundrop grumbles under his breath as he pulls the curtains back to see what could possibly be in his room but his body completely froze up at the sight,

“I wonder how this looks…” he turned his head and there he saw [F/N] leaning side to side to get a good angle of the stuff toy of Moon that was sitting on a little box in a corner dedicated to all the drawings and gifts the both of them had gotten from the children. She then shook her head and grabbed the toy, however, she looked at it longer and even caressed it with the back to her hand “I really do hope you and Sun like what I’ve don—”

“Starshine?”

“Kyaah!!” she screamed in absolute fright, not expecting to hear his voice, and even threw the toy in the air, to which Sundrop caught before it hit the ground. She whipped her head around and she was surprised it didn’t snap off with how brutal it was, when she saw Sundrop her jaw dropped before she looked outside the opening to the balcony “Montgomery! You had one job! One!” from where he was laying, he pushed himself up and gave her a look.

“I did what I could, dammit! And I tried to warn you, but you didn’t listen!” she lets out a sigh, slapping a hand onto her face.

“Lousy gator…” she looked down at Sundrop and saw that he was looking around his newly improved room, she couldn’t really tell if he liked it or not, he was quiet and it was scaring her “Sur… surprise! Well, it’s not really a surprise because you came in before I could finish, but it’s the thought that counts, no? Um, I know you didn’t want me to ever come in here, but I had to when you were on low power and I needed to put you on charge, and when I saw the state of your room I thought I could give it a touch up. I hope you and Moon don’t mind…” she grew even more nervous when he still hadn’t spoken yet, curiously leaning side to side to try and see if a reaction out of hill

…

…

“Nnngh…” her eyes opened in shock when she heard a whimper come out of his voice box, she gasps when black tears of oil start leaking out of the cracks of his eyes “You did this… all for us?” she nods her head and that was enough for him to burst out into a crying fit.

“O-Oh, do you not like it? Was it wrong of me to change your room up?” she stumbles back a little when he jumped up and wrapped his arms around her neck, kicking his legs back and forth as he dug his face into her neck.

“How could I not like it? I absolutely love it!” he pulls away as he hands hold his waist to keep him from falling, he sniffles as he gives her a tearful smile “This is one of the loveliest things anyone has ever done for me— for us. We would be fools if we didn’t love what you’ve done.” Sundrop’s brows perk up when he saw her face turn a light shade of red as she started overheating, he giggles softly when he heard her fans whirl to cool her down.

“O-Oh, is that so? Then I’m glad.” he hums and leans into her body once more and she didn’t hesitate to return the affection, she then thrusts a thumbs up through the curtain, Monty notices and returns the gesture. She soon puts him down and shows him what she’s done to his room. Not only did she clean it to the point there wasn’t a speck of dust, she managed to set up some wallpaper that matched both his and Moon’s aesthetic. She set up a tent that was similar to her own in the daycare as his resting place that was filled with pillows, toys and blankets with stars and planets that hung from top of it. She even set up fairy lights around the room and tent, she even made a spot that was dedicated to all the gifts he and Moon got from the children, his face grew red when he noticed the one of him and her surrounded by hearts.

“This is so lovely, thank you, [F/N].” she smiles brightly before lighting up in remembrance.

“I almost forgot!” she exclaims, his face drops slightly when she raised her hand and reached over to the light switch, she noticed his change in mood so she raised her other hand to gently grab his hand “I know you didn’t get to marvel as long as you wanted, but this little feature I added needs the lights to be off, and wouldn’t it be fair for my moonlight to get to have his turn to see his new room, my sunbite?” he pouts but nods nonetheless.

“I guess.” she smiles and presses a kiss to his cheek, this was enough to get him to comply.

“Thank you.” she continued to hold his hand as she flicked the light off, when Moondrop came to be, he looked around in awe at the new room before letting out an oh when [F/N] pulled him forward while pointing upwards “Look up.” he does so and gasps softly when she managed to decorate the ceiling with stars that glowed in the dark.

“Starshine…” he whispers, she leaned down slightly, nuzzling her cheek against his.

“Do you like my surprise?” he chuckles, looking up at her with a bright smile.

“What’s there not to like?” she giggles sheepishly when he wrapped his arms around her neck and proceeds to kiss her, she hums into the kiss as she stumbles back into the tent, her back falling into the plush pillows. He laid on top of her as he pulled away, she hums softly as she brushes his cheek with the back of her knuckles, Moon purrs as he takes her hand into his “We love you, our gorgeous star.”

“And I love you two, my twin jesters.”

Headcanons:

they had to open the daycare a little later than usual because they overslept, but also because sun was looking at everything new in their new room.

sun had practically begged [f/n] to move her tent into their room so they could be roomies, plus he just wanted her to be closer to them.

as promised for his work, for three months, [f/n] complied with all his wishes and practically kicked his ass when it came down to rough housing and monty golf.

she won against him for sun and moon.

they cheered like the wonderful boyfriends they are.

sun and moon try to return the favor by adding trinkets to her side of their room.

she would return to her tent and find drawings of the three of them together, and it would make her day.

sometimes she would find a stuffed toy of an jellyfish.

there were no toys made for her so when she asked where they go it from, they admitted that they asked chica to teach them how to sew.

she cried and hugged the toy close.

the stuffed jellyfish was added to the collection of gifts, placed in between the sun and moon plush toys.

sometimes neither side would sleep in their respective tents.

meaning, moon would pull out the pillows and blankets and place them in between the tents so they could snuggle together.

it always did comfort sun waking up in [f/n]’s arms.

parts and service appreciated the fact that [f/n] was sun and moon’s anchor, especially moon, because now moon spent every night with her instead of wondering around the pizza plex and destroying bots.

the daycare has never been more brighter.

Support

word count: 6453

Fandom: FNAF Security Breach  Pairing: N/A x Female!Reader Pronouns: She/Her  Relationship: N/A Occupation: Mechanic Ability: N/A

Keys:

[F/N]: Female Name  [L/N]: Last Name [N/N]: Nickname [H/C]: Hair Color [E/C]: Eye Color

Warnings: spoilers to those who haven’t seen fnaf sb.

"You hired me, a person who majored in Mechanical Engineering, to repair damages around the Pizza Plex and the occasional animatronics when they’re damaged?” [F/N] questioned, hands tucked into the pockets of her overalls as she looked at the people who hired her “I better be getting paid good money for this, because this is not what I signed up for.” one of her few employers laughed, throwing their head back before placing a hand on her shoulder.

“Don’t worry about it. You’ll be getting paid your share, you’ll even get bonus’ for everything you fix around the Pizza Plex.” she raised a brow at that, they smirked when they piqued her interest “Everything involving the job should be in the contract that you signed, but we are also not responsible for any harm that comes your way as you work here, mmkay?” she gave them a look.

“What is that supposed to mean?” she questions, only to be ignored when they walked over to their desk to grab something, she lets out a sigh, head hanging low before looking up and crossing her arms “So all I need is to keep the machines in tip top condition and fix anything that needs a little fixing? That’s it?” they nod their head.

“Oh, and if we need you to do anything else, we’ll call for you.” they let out a small cheer when they managed to find what they were looking for and so they handed it to her “That’s a high leveled security badge, don’t lose it now, because that’s the only thing that gives you access to the entire property.” they explain, she nods her head before proceeding to put it into one of the many pockets within her utility belt.

“Am I mainly going to be stationed within Parts and Service?” they nod their head, grabbing a clipboard and reading through it.

“Uh huh. You’re free to roam around the Pizza Plex, but when you’re needed somewhere or you need to return to Parts and Service, we’ll send you a notification on your Faz Watch.” at the mention of that, [F/N] glanced down at the watch and looked at the many things it had to offer.

“Hmm, cool.” she muttered to herself as she clicked on a few things. 

“What you need to know about each bots and how to fix them should be in Parts and Service, give them a read when you have to the time, okay?” she nods her head “Alright, for now, go introduce yourself to a few of the animatronics and Officer Vanessa.” she looked back at them.

“Officer Vanessa?” they nod.

“Mm, one of the few human security guards.”

“Ah.” she was then promptly pushed out of the office, she rolled her shoulders before glancing down at her Faz Watch once more and walked off in the direction of where the elevators were, she pushes the button to stop at a floor before going on a small venture to find the Green Rooms of the Glamrock Band. She now looks around in confusion when she somehow found herself in the main lobby instead, she lets out a long sigh “Fucking dammit, this map is hard to read.”

“Need a hand?” raising her head, she was met with a woman who looked just as equally tired as she was, she wore a simple uniform of a white dress shirt with black buttons, shoulder pads and a badge on the left side of her shirt, a pair of black jeans and a cap that said SECURITY on it that sat upon her blonde hair that was tied in a ponytail, even her green eyes looked tired “You must be the new mechanic?” she jokingly salutes.

“And you’re Officer Vanessa.” she shrugs her shoulders.

“That’s me.” she offers her a hand and they shake hands “The name’s Vanessa A, you can call me Vanessa, or whatever you want. I work as a Security Guard for the Pizza Plex.” [F/N] does the OK gesture with her hand before placing a hand on her chest.

“[F/N] [L/N], and I work as a mechanic.” Vanessa nods her head before waving her hand to gesture for the other to follow her.

“I can only assume you’re looking for the animatronics, so I’ll help introduce you.” [F/N] grins as she follows her new workmate.

“Thanks a lot, Ness!” she cheers, Vanessa rolls her eyes but secretly smiled at the nickname. [F/N] followed closely behind Vanessa as she led her to where the Glamrock Gang were being held, asking questions here and there about each animatronic and what their functions were “Oh! I heard that bear and chicken were the original ones during the early stages of the franchise, right? Freddy and Chica, right? The other two were... Bonnie and Foxy?” she nods.

“Wow, you still remember that stuff?” she chuckles to herself, rubbing the back of her head.

“Heh, you could say I was a bit of a fan when I was younger, but it’s been so long since I’ve last been here that I’m surprise I still remember.” 

“Then you must be living in a dream that you’re finally working within your favorite franchise.” [F/N] hums at that, a soft smile appearing on her face.

“Right.” Vanessa nods her head and left it at that.

“Welp, here we are.” Vanessa starts, entering the lobby that led to each of the Glamrock’s Green Rooms “Welcome to Rockstar Row. It starts with Freddy Fazbear, Roxanne Wolf, Montgomery Gator then lastly Glamrock Chica.” [F/N] nods her head, looking around in awe at everything within Rockstar Row.

“Radical.” Vanessa narrows her eyes at the woman, did she just-- she shook her head before raising her wrist up so she could press a button on her own Faz Watch, calling the animatronics in the area to come to them.

“If you ever need to find the animatronics or need them to come to you, just push this button on the Faz Watch and they’ll come straight to you.” she was going to question that but paused when she heard loud thumping, things even started to shake, turning her towards the room, she let out a startled shriek when the four animatronics came barreling towards them.

“Holy shit!” she shouts, Vanessa waves her hands.

“You get used to it.” a bead of sweat bled down the side of her face at that.

“Huh?”

“Officer Vanessa.” raising her head, the person who spoke was the iconic Glamrock Freddy, the face of Freddy Fazbear’s Mega Pizza Plex, despite being a machine, he gave the two of them a warm smile “What seems to be the issue if you called us all here?” Vanessa waved her hand before gesturing to [F/N], who stood rather awkwardly beside Vanessa.

“I just need you to meet the new mechanic, introduce yourself newbie.” said woman pouted at that before giving the four animatronics a wave.

“Hey, [F/N] [L/N], at your service. Ready to fix you or upgrade you when the time comes, I’m there when you need me or I’m just hanging around in Parts and Service.” Freddy smiles once more before taking his hat off to her and nodding his head.

“Hello, [F/N]. I am Glamrock Freddy, but you probably already knew that, didn’t you?” Freddy says, voice sounding playful, he then lets out a whoa when he was pushed to the side by Chica, who beamed down at [F/N] with a bright smile.

“I’m Glamrock Chica, so lovely to meet you!” she straightens her posture as she continued to wave her hand towards the newest employee, Roxanne was next, crossing her arms while throwing her hair over her shoulder.

“Roxanne Wolf, and don’t you forget it.” she growls when Monty pulls her back, [F/N] leaning backwards when the alligator leaned in close, a big grin along his face while baring his teeth.

“The name’s Montgomery Gator, and you’ll probably be seeing me a lot.” [F/N] glances over at Vanessa as Freddy grabs Monty by his shoulders and pulls him away from her.

“What does he mean by that?” Roxy answers that question before Vanessa could even open her mouth.

“Because Monty is the most destructive out of us all, especially when he has his temper tantrums.” Monty growls at Roxy, who snickers to herself from behind Chica, who got in between the two of them before Monty could get his hands on her, Freddy was behind Monty and holding him back from doing anything brash, Vanessa just exhales loudly.

“I’d say he’s just overly emotional, but they all are, he’s just more physically violent.” she explains “But he’s actually a really chill guy, just try not to agitate him, okay?” [F/N] gives her a thumbs up.

“Got it.” she bids the four animatronics goodbye, following Vanessa out of Rockstar Row to Parts and Service “Aren’t there a few other animatronics?” the blonde nods her head.

“Mm hmm, the Daycare Attendant that resides in the Daycare, if you couldn’t already guess, and DJ Music Man, or DJMM for short, who’s booth is within the Fazcade. He’s the biggest animatronic within the Pizza Plex, but he’s actually a really nice guy, so don’t mind his size.” she nods her head.

“Mmkay, I’ll take your word for it.” the journey to Parts and Service was a short one, but it was calm as the two walked in silence “I guess this is my stop.” [F/N] murmured to herself as she stopped right in front of the door that was labeled PARTS AND Service, Vanessa looks at her and nods her head.

“I guess so.” she rubs the back of her head before pointing at her Faz Watch “If you ever need anything, you can contact me on the Faz Watch or your walkie talkie, either works.” she salutes her once more.

“Righto, Officer Ness.” Vanessa couldn’t help but chuckle at that, she salutes her back.

“Then I’ll see you around, Mechanic [N/N].” both women laugh before Vanessa finally left to do her duties, [F/N] lets out a deep sigh before entering her new “office” that she’ll probably be forced to confide in majority of her time working there. She pulls a face at the dark room that looked all gloomy and boring, she lets out a groan as he body slumped while she threw her head back.

“What a dumpster fire.”

[a few weeks later]

“The lights have been going off in the Daycare at random times then from their set times?” a few weeks into her new job and she’s already wishing she was in a coma because at least she would get some decent sleep, her sleep schedule had gone and fucked off within the first week of working as the Mega Pizza Plex’s new mechanic, having worked hours without a clear schedule and having to come in whenever they gave her a call. Parts and Service had practically become her second home at this rate, she cleaned the place up and added a few things here and there to make it more lively, at least it didn’t look like she was in an abandoned laboratory.

True to their words, Monty was the animatronic that came into Parts and Service more often compared to the others. Majority of the time his claws or arms would be busted from the time he would lose his temper, sometimes he would overheat and he would short circuit and she would need to cool him down while repairing his claws from the damages done by the constant beating they got whenever he lost his temper. It got to the point that she had to upgrade them herself and add a few extra details to stop Monty from damaging them to the point they wouldn’t be recognizable. But his constant visits meant they had plenty of time to get along and talk about whatever comes to either of their minds, sometimes the gator would bring his guitar just so he could play a couple songs to her and ask for her opinion. In return, [F/N] would bring her record player and old records and have different songs play as she worked on Monty and later ask which song he liked most from each album.

Freddy would come and visit [F/N] just to simply talk and keep her company, [F/N] would take that opportunity to do some weekly check ups and to see if his system was in order, having been told by her higher ups that since he was the face of the entire Pizzeria and one of the most popular animatronics, he needed to be handled with extra care and that she couldn’t fuck up no matter what. Freddy was always in great condition and the most she would do with him was update his system while also giving his shell a good clean, other than that, they two of them would often have nice chats.

Roxy was something, alright. The first time she came into Parts and Service was when an accident happened on her raceway and she had to come and get herself fixed; cleaned up, per say, because she was a total wreck. [F/N] sweat dropped when the wolf was crying oil from her eyes, wailing how she looked like a disaster and that if she didn’t look the best nobody was going to like. This leads to [F/N] giving her eyes an upgrade and practically giving the wolf a complete makeover, she wiped the oil off her forehead with a rag and watched the way Roxy marveled at her look within a mirror. From then on, Roxy wolf visit [F/N] for a preen up and talk about anything that annoyed her that day or just to watch her as [F/N] worked on other things.

Her and Chica was a little funny. Chica reminded [F/N] of one of those fitness instructors from those old T.V shows, and it showed by the way Chica spoke like one of the motivational speakers whenever [F/N] worked, The chicken was also a sweetheart because she would bring [F/N] food and water to keep her steady and hydrated, she scolded the woman when she saw her bring a bottle of alcohol and energy drinks into Parts and Service just to down the bottles, saying that it was to keep her from falling asleep. Chica’s maintenance would be just deep cleaning, she was told that Chica would sometimes glitch out and each from the trash or food in general, cleaning her stomach cavity was a nightmare because it was absolute filthy. She never told the girl, because she thought that it would make her cry, so she keeps that to herself as she works.

Now her relationship with Vanessa, it was a good one. Vanessa leaned towards a quiet and stern personality, while [F/N] was a bit more relaxed and carefree, but they got along quite nicely. [F/N] was already friendly with the woman and knowing how she preferred being in her own personal space, she respected that and would visit her after informing the security guard through their Faz Watch’s. The two of them would have simple and subtle conversations whenever they were together and only when Vanessa has had her wake up call would be when she’s more expressive and less dead inside, it’s quite funny, honestly. Other than that, the rare moments Vanessa would visit [F/N] in Parts and Service would be the blonde woman reveling in the workshop as [F/N] worked on repairs and whatnots in absolute silence just to simple calm herself and leave herself to her thoughts.

Anyways-

“Yeah, apparently the lights have been going off then when they’re scheduled to go off.” Vanessa informed her “Moon has also been leaving the Daycare whenever it happens and has been causing a bit of a ruckus.” this causes [F/N] to raise her head from what she was doing and look over at her.

“Is that the reason why so many of the S.T.A.F.F Bots have been coming to Parts and Service in pieces? I guess it wasn’t Monty after all.” 

“See, I told you it wasn’t me!” she presses her lips to a thin line, glancing down at Monty, who was on the chair within the Protective Cylinder with his chest open and her hands fixing up his wires after they came loose after a performance “Damn, I’d really appreciate it if you’d stop thinking of me as the type to just destroy things on a whim.” he lets out a yelp when [F/N] yanked on his wires.

“Well, maybe if you did stop destroying things and giving me more pointless things to fix, than maybe I would stop thinking that.” he whimpers at that and went back to laying on the chair, she huffs “I got it, I’ll see what’d going on with the power in the Daycare.” Vanessa nods her head to that.

“Good, I’ll inform the higher ups and leave you to it.”

“Thanks, have a good one, Ness.” she nods her head once more before leaving Parts and Service, [F/N] waves her goodbye before glancing down at Monty, who pushed himself up and was resting his weight on his elbows “Thanks to that, you’re off the hook.” he silently cheers.

“Wonderful.” he winces when a dark look shadows over her face, he immediately turned away, shivering on the spot as she leans in close.

“But if I ever find out that one of the Map Bots, Security Bots or S.T.A.F.F Bots were mangled up and it was your fault, I’ll throw your dismembered head into one of the ponds in your golf course.” he whimpers, giving her a shaky thumbs up.

“Got it boss.” she rolls her eyes before chuckling softly, she finished her work and Monty leaves Parts and Service to return to his Green Room within Rockstar Row, she slaps her hands onto her face before grabbing her clipboard and adding something else at the bottom of the already long list.

“Lights within Superstar Daycare.” she adds a full stop at the end of it with a sharp jab before tucking it under her arm and leaving for the Daycare, it was also a perfect time to meet the Daycare Attendant; Sundrop, though maybe she might not be able to meet him because she was needing to be above the ceiling panels of the daycare to check out the wiring and whatnot for the lightning. When she arrived, she attached herself to a harness for safety before crawling into the space and checking out the lights above the daycare, she learned there were other lights within the daycare that were powered by five generators “I guess I’ll check that out after I’m done up here.”

This brings us to Sundrop, it was after hours and he was in the middle of cleaning up the daycare after all the children left the daycare, he was stacking the blocks on top of each other when his sensors managed to catch a sound and slight movement. He raised his head and looked side to side in confusion, trying to detect what his sensors did but he saw nothing, he blinked when something trickled from above him and landed on his nose. With that in mind, he raised his head and noticed that ceiling panels were moving, was someone up there? Unlike Roxy, he didn’t have eyes that allowed him to detect what was through the ceilings panels, but he could tell that it wasn’t simply a rat nor Mini Music Man, maybe he should report this to securi—

“WAH!!” his eyes widened at the sight of the panels giving way and someone falling through the ceiling, his immediate response was opening his arms out to catch them but the harness they strapped themselves to caught them before they could hit the ground so now they were dangling in front of Sundrop.

…

…

“Hey there, and sorry, I’m just hanging around.” he pulls a face before bursting out into laughter.

“Oh, I see what you did there! Be— Because you’re hanging from the ceiling.” she giggled softly at the laughter she earned from the animatronic sun, he pats his chest and looked at her once more to notice her open her arms out.

“Think you can give me a hand?” she hums softly when she noticed the sun rays around his head perk up at that, his body did the same thing as he raised his arms up.

“Oh, of course!” she lets out a soft exhale as she dusts herself off, she looks up at the ceiling before letting out a groan. “Fuck.” Sundrop lets out a gasp as he points at her.

“Language!” she rolls her eyes then glanced down at the floor, perking up when she noticed that her clipboard fell with her so she picked it up and clicked her pin, jotting down other stuff onto the list.

“Fix the ceiling in the daycare.” she underlines it then unclicks her pin and put it behind her ear, she then turned her attention to the animatronic and gave him a polite yet tired smile “Hello there, quite the first impression, but my name is [F/N], a mechanic hired by the Pizza Plex.” he stared down at her before the already permanent smile on his face grew.

“Why, hello there new friend! I am Sundrop, the Daycare Attendant!” she nods her head, he bounces around as he watched her look around “May I ask as to what you were doing?”

“Oh, I was informed that the lights in the daycare have been going out then when they’re usually scheduled too. I’ve been tasked to figure out why and possibly fix the problem.” she raised a brow when Sundrop grew nervous, she shrugged her shoulders as she started wandering around the daycare in search for the five generators.

“A-Are we going to get in trouble?” she raised her hand and waved it to dismiss his concern, eyes not leaving her clipboard.

“Unless you’re the one that’s causing it, then I highly doubt it. Don’t worry your pretty little head about it, I’ll fix what’s wrong and be out of your way.” she answered truthfully, this didn’t ease his concern as he started following closely behind her, she pressed her lips together at the feeling that if he could breathe she could feel his breath against her neck. She glanced back at him and watched him lurch backwards, hands raised up before he pressed his fingers together, nervously pressing them together “Look, you’re not in trouble. Nothing bad is going to happen to you if that’s what you’re thinking.”  “Mm, it’s not just that…” he muttered, she raised a brow.

“Then what is it?” he takes a breath then presses his finger to his temple.

“I’m worried about Moon… and what he’ll do to you.” she stared up at him before letting out a laugh, she brought her hand to her mouth as she reached forward and grabbed his wrist, she pulled it down and rubbed her thumb into his metal wrist.

“You don’t need to worry about little ‘ol me, I’m fully aware of what Moon is capable of and I know I’m capable of handling him and looking after myself, but thank you for your concern nonetheless.” she nods her head to him then glanced behind him when she noticed the security desk, so she pats his hand before walking past him and towards the desk. Her back was towards him so she didn’t notice the way Sundrop stared at his hand as she reached for one of the flashlights in the flashlight recharge station, she then looks at the messy desk and pushes away anything unnecessary so she can grab the schedule for when the lights at supposed to turn off.

She turns around once more so she could lean against the desk as she reads through the documents, she sniffles and yawns to herself as she reads through the contents of the documents, mentally noting down when the lights were supposed to turn off and when they’ve been going off when they’re not supposed too. She glances down at the time before looking up with her eyes when the lights turned off, dang, it was at the hourly mark when all the power converts to the charging stations so all the animatronics are supposed to recharge at the recharge stations. She flicks the flashlight on and luminaries her path in search for Sundrop, but there wasn’t any sign of the animatron—

“What’s this? An unexpected guest?” a shiver ran down her spine when she felt something loom over her from behind “The daycare is closed for the day, you are intruding. It is my job to dispose of unwanted intruders.” before he could even get his hands on her, she wiped her body around and slammed the end of the flashlight into his faceplate hard enough that he stumbled to the ground and screwed with his AI, causing it to glitch.

“I know about you, Moon. You’re practically another security guard but more violent.” she knelt down, grabbing him by his long neck and pulling him forward “I am not to be underestimated, alright? Fuck around and find out.” she throws him back and stood to her feet, dusting her shoulder off before looking for the generators scattered across the daycare, meanwhile with Moon, he was still trying to register what just happened.

“She really kicked your butt.” Sun retorted in their shared mind, Moon scowls as he rubs his face.

“Silence, Sun.” he just giggles in the back of their shared head, she was going to reprimand Moondrop once more when she felt him behind her but let him be when he quietly watched her work around the daycare. Moondrop raised a brow when he noticed her sway a little, her body tittering back and forth while her eyes were drooping, only then did he notice the bags under her eyes and how exhausted she looked “When was the last time you had a proper night’s rest?” at that question, she sniffles a little and looked up in thought.

“… mm, when did I start working here?” he gives her a shocked look.

“That’s not healthy.” she shrugs.

“I don’t get paid to sleep, I get paid to work and that’s that.” before she could continue her work, she was turned around by Moon, him kneeling down and raising his finger while tutting it side to side.

“I understand you’re doing your job, but while you’re here in the Daycare and I am here instead of Sun, you will sleep until the lights are turned on. It’s not that long, but getting some sleep is better than getting none.” she stared up at him, glancing to the side as she thought about the offer, then shrugged her shoulders.

“You better wake me up if something bad happens then.” before he could say anything, she drops everything that was in her hands before proceeding to face plant into the ground. Both himself and Sundrop panic and quickly kneel down to pick her up off the ground, he then settles himself into a quiet corner, cradling her in his arms as she fell into a deep sleep that she most definitely needed.

[a week later]

Maintenance in the Daycare was something [F/N] looked forward to now because not only did she get to hang with Sundrop and Moondrop, but because she got to sleep and wake up not wanting to fucking die. Moondrop was a fucking riot to hang with when he didn’t have homicidal thoughts, mostly because the two of them would do shit that would drive Sundrop through the roof. Speaking of which, the sun animatronic scares her in ways that doesn’t frighten her, but the fact that she caught him chugging down a bottle of glitter glue… she had to sprint out of there when the machine chased after her and shouted that it wasn't what it looked like.  “Why are these vents so fucking big?” she muttered to herself, crawling through the space in search for the thing that was making so much rattling whenever the Pizzeria closed. She was told to find it, it was just that the rattling happened around the vents around Parts and Service and it greatly annoyed her so she wanted to investigate it so that the noise would cease, and yet she had no luck in finding it so far.

“Hey, [F/N].” she glances down at her Faz Watch and saw that she was getting a message from Vanessa, so she turns so she was laying on her back and raised the watch closer to her “Where are you right now?”

“Vibing in a vent.”

“Why are you— never mind, DJ Music Man is in need of a check up. Some teens threw food in his mouth and we can’t seem to get it out.” [F/N] closes her eyes, inhaling deeply through her nose as her head drops and hits the vent.

“Is he in his booth?”  “Uh huh.”

“I’ll be there in a couple minutes.”

“Got it.” Vanessa disconnects from the line and so [F/N] lets out a long groan this time, she exhales and pushes herself onto her elbows, and then did she see what was making all that racket in the vents. There she saw a miniature version of DJMM and this version of him was holding a pair of cymbals in his hands,

“Now that’s fucking cute.” she muttered, his teeth made a chittering sound as he patted on his feet, he then waddles over to her and she sets up a bit so he could situate himself in her lap “Hey there, little guy. Mind showing me the way to the bigger version of you through the vents? You seem to know your way around these vents better than I.” he claps his cymbals happily before leaping out of her lap and leading the way, she follows behind closely and when she reaches the end of the vent, he moves to the side to let her remove the screws to the vent. Unfortunately for her, she hadn’t realized where the vent was placed so when she crawled out, she fell and landed awkwardly on her face.

…

…

“Not a word.” even though he did not have a voice box like the other animatronics, she could tell that he was laughing. When she collected herself, she extends her arms out towards the vent and this allows him to lean from the opening and into her arms, and with him secure, she makes her way out of the room and towards the area where DJMM resides in “Hey, big man, you awake?!” she shouts, cupping her mouth with her hand to amplify her voice, she hums to herself when the large spider like animatronic peeked his head out of his booth.

“You called?” the sound of various radio channels was heard and DJMM rose up from where he was, she grinned as Mini DJMM sat on her shoulder “What can I do for you?” she playfully rolls her eyes, hands on her hips as she continued to look up at him.

“I believe we both know why I’m here.” he lets out a sigh, leaning down and resting his big body onto the back of his hands.

“Children these days just don’t know discipline, especially the teens.” she nods her head.

“Uh huh, some of them are very vicious.”

“You don’t say.” she huffs, shaking her head.

“Well, let’s not delay this any longer, aight?” he lets out a reluctant sigh but nodded his head, he extends a hand out to her and she didn’t hesitate to hop into the palm of his hand and with that he made his way to a bigger part of the Pizza Plex that was reserved specifically for him when he needed to be cleaned “Oh, while we’re in the topic, I’ve been informed that you have a new upgrade.” he glances down at her.

“Upgrade? Of what sorts?” she hums, removing the clipboard from her hip and so she and Mini Music Man look at the documents, she narrows her eyes at it as she pulls it closer to her face.

“Apparently it’s called… Bouncer Mode?” she hums at that, pursing her lips as Mini Music Man claps his cymbals gently in curiosity “You’re just another form of security basically, escorting guests that aren’t found in the Pizza Plex’s files out or guests that are threatening.” he nods his head.

“So I’m basically extra muscle?” she snaps her fingers.

“Yeah, that sounds about right.” she gently knocks on the palm of his hand and gave him a grin “I can only imagine how frightening seeing you chase after them can be, talk about nightmare fuel.” they each share a laugh, upon reaching the warehouse, music was playing in the background as [F/N] spent the next couple of hours cleaning DJMM up to the point he was squeaky clean, by the end of it, she was laying on the ground, soaking wet and exhausted while DJMM was bouncing up and down that he finally got a wash up after weeks of negligence from management.

“Many thanks, [F/N].” he chuckled softly when she raised a thumbs up towards him, she then peeled herself off the ground, taking her cap off and shaky her head to rid the water infested in her hair.

“Now that that’s over, let’s get you that new upgrade. It shouldn’t take too long, so you should be back in your booth in no time!” he nods his head to her words so here she was, sitting on his shoulder with a laptop on her lap and Mini Music Man in her head, watching her tap away at the keyboard while the information for DJMM flew across the screen.

“It won’t do anything to hinder my current software, right?” she nods her head, eyes not leaving the screen.

“Yeah, don’t worry about that. It won’t activate unless a threat is detected, and since we haven’t been really getting threats in the Pizza Plex lately, it’ll probably be sitting in the back of your head.” he nods his head, upon finishing the final touch up of the upgrade, she pushed the enter button and it was uploaded into DJMM’s software. Both she and Mini Music Man leaned forward and watched as the data was processed and when he came to be, he stood up straight “How do you feel?”

“… the same.” she deadpans, she sighs.

“Well, we’ll never know until someone trespasses onto the property.” she says offhandedly, thanking him as he lowered her towards the ground “I mean, who’s foolish enough to break into a pizzeria?” he shrugged.

“Desperate fans.” she snorts.

“True.” she walks with him back to his booth, dropping Mini Music Man off in the process then left the two with a goodbye, the two doing the same and waving her goodbye. She was now back in Parts and Service, collapsing onto her wheelie chair with a groan, she leans back while running a hand through her hair after removing her cap and starts fanning herself.

‘Management have been stepping up the security around the Pizza Plex lately, going so far as to giving DJMM, who’s usually so gentle and laid back, such a bizarre upgrade. I noticed it immediately and had to tone it down in fear that he might actually hurt someone.’ she exhaled deeply, glancing over at her desk and noticed the few photos of her and the animatronics, Vanessa and even a few children scattered across it and even on the computer ‘I’m getting worried as for what’s to come.’

Headcanon:

it’s an unspoken rule amongst the animatronics that no harm must come to [f/n].

why?

simple.

because she is one of the nicest mechanics, technicians, helper, whatever, that’s worked at the pizza plex in the longest time.

the other employees that has worked in parts and service were so mean in the past and never considered the animatronics feelings and opinions, always brushing it off their shoulders just to finish their work.

not [f/n], oh no.

despite always being tired and a little standoffish, she was always rather welcoming and very friendly, even for the short tempered monty and lethal moon.

moon learned not to mess with her when he realized just how strong she was.

he and sun were coming in for their check up when they witnessed her lifting monty up with pure strength and the alligator was struggling to remove himself from her grip.

what freaked him out was the way monty screamed for help.

anyways-

whenever the animatronics had to come in for their monthly maintenance and other upgrades, [f/n] would always just and make the process as comfortable and atmosphere as welcome as she could.

she knew they were always frightened being in that dark gloomy room, so she always tried to brighten it up and make it as quick as she could.

and for that they were grateful.

her and vanessa get along quite swimmingly as well.

vanessa liked her company because she wasn’t so chatty, but when they did decide to converse, they spoke of topics vanessa knew and was fond of and the blonde enjoyed it.

conversations with the mechanic made her feel sane and whole.

the oddest thing about [f/n] after she started working at the pizza plex and her sleep schedule got pretty shit, she would fall asleep in the oddest of places.

the daycare’s ball pit? yup.

monty golf? uh huh.

roxy’s raceway? totally.

the worst spot? somewhere in the ceiling.

mini music man was the one to discover her, strapped in her harness and practically at the verge of falling of the beam she was laying on.

she was firmly scolded by freddy, chica, djmm, sundrop and vanessa.

moon, monty and roxy were laughing while mini music man was shaky his head.

the map bots startled her when she was still new and didn’t know her way around.

she decked one across the face when it suddenly appeared in front of her, promptly had to fix it before anyone discovered what she did.

she likes the caution bots. they remind her of puppies/dogs.

other than that, she’s the friendly and overworked mechanic that wishes she could get at least a raise for the amount of work management is throwing at her.

… motherfu— 

Masterlist

Hello and welcome to this Tumblr blog I created just to read on before I decided on posting shit. At first I wasn’t going to post something like this but thought “why the fuck not”. The way I do things is that I write what I want, whenever I want, however I want. You don’t decide when I do it or when I post it, you get what you get, there’s no in between, and if you don’t like that, then you can fuck right off. If you wanna read anything else that ain’t one shots or whatnot, which is the main reason I’m here, I have a Wattpad account where I post more stories. Check it out if you want, if not, that’s fine, you do you.

Relationship:

Romantic Platonic Familial Friend N/A

Published:

“Loyalty” pt. 1, pt.2 - MCYT (JSchlatt x Male!WolfReader) Familial “Phoenix” - MCYT (Emerald Duo x Female!Phoenix!Reader) Platonic “Visit” - MCYT (TommyInnit x Elder!BrotherReader) Familial “Soulmates” pt.1, pt.2 - IRL!MCYT (Dream Team x Male!Reader) Romantic “Savory” - IRL!MCYT (Quackity x Male!Reader) Romantic “Immortal” - MCYT (Emerald Duo x GN!Reader) Familial “Casino” - MCYT (Characters x OC’s) Romantic “Ocean” - MCYT (SBI x Brother!Orca!Reader) Familial

“Helper” pt. 1, pt. 2, pt. 3 - FNAF SB (Sun/Moondrop x Female!Reader) Romantic “Mechanical” - FNAF SB (N/A x Male!Reader) N/A “Support” - pt. 1, pt. 2 - FNAF SB (N/A x Female!Reader) N/A

“Tyrant” - Stranger Things (Eddie Munson x Male!Reader) Romantic ”Monster” - Stranger Things (Chrissy Cunningham x Male!Monster!Reader) Familial ”Obvious” - Stranger Things (Will Byers x Male!Reader) Romantic ”Siblings” pt. 1, pt. 2, pt. 3 - Stranger Things (Robin Buckley x Female!Harrington!Reader) Romantic “Rose” - Stranger Things (Robin Buckley x Female!Harrington!Reader) Romantic

“Contract” pt. 1, pt. 2, pt. 3 - Gravity Falls (Stanley Pines x Gender Fluid!OC) Platonic - Romantic

“Lullaby” pt. 1, pt. 2, pt.3- Poppy Playtime (Female!Reader/OC x N/A) Familial “Bells” - Poppy Playtime (Male!OC/ x N/A) N/A

I mainly write male readers if you haven’t already noticed, there’s a lack of male readers so I happened to write for them. Don’t like that, then you can keep on scrolling. This hurts my brain.

Helper

word count: 2147

Fandom: FNAF Security Breach Pairing: Sundrop/Moondrop x Female!Reader Pronouns: She/Her Relationship: Romantic Occupation: Daycare Helper Ability: Animatronic Moon Jellyfish

The character was modeled after a moon jellyfish, so they are an oceanic type animatronic that mostly resided in the daycare to provide assistance when needed within the pizza plex. The appearance they adorn is that of a tall woman and the animalistic part of her design would be, other than a human like face, they would have a large bell (the blob of a jellyfish is called a bell or hood) on top of their head that would act as a large hat, and attached to the underside of the bell are the tentacles and stingers. They are not actually stingers, they help the character locate children and feel for their surroundings. The bell on top of their head also glow in the dark.

Keys:

[F/N]: Female Name [B/C]: Base Color [S/C]: Secondary Color [F/C]: Favorite Color [E/C]: Eye Color

Warnings: spoilers to those who haven’t seen fnaf sb

I have absolutely no clue how tall the animatronics are, so bear with me.

that is all.

“Helper” pt. 2, pt. 3

“Sundrop, allow me to introduce you to the new helper to the daycare.” Sundrop, the Daycare Attendant, stops in his movements and his beaming face turns to look over at where Officer Vanessa was when she entered the daycare. He happily skips over to her at the entrance and there he finally noticed the tall animatronic woman standing behind her, this woman loomed over Vanessa and had a soft smile present on her face “If you haven’t already noticed, this is [F/N] the Jellyfish. She’s going to be your aid here in the daycare, mostly because we’ve been getting complaints from the parents. Introduce yourself.” Vanessa said, stepping to the side to allow [F/N] to step forward, the animatronic woman does so and she directed her soft and kind smile towards Sundrop.

“Hello there, I am the animatronic [F/N] the Jellyfish. I hope I can be of some help for you, Daycare Attendant.” he had to raise his head because whoever built her made her quite tall, Freddy and Monty were taller than her since they stood at nine feet tall, but she was at least 8″3ft tall and much taller than he was. She wore a gorgeous [F/C] pencil skirt that was decorated with stars of all sizes that ended at her ankles with ruffles at the end and around her waist, a simple [S/C] blouse that had ruffles at the collar and wrists. She had a cravat around their neck with a [F/C] ringed speaker in the middle of it and simple white gloves, their skin was [B/C] and he couldn’t see her eyes since they were closed. What stood out about her appearance was the transparent bell that was a lighter shade of [B/C] that sat atop her head with the stingers and tentacles that hung by her side from the underside of the bell and a lighter shade of [S/C] hair that dropped down to below her waist “I wish for us to get along, Sundrop.” 

“...” she raised a brow when she didn’t get an immediate answer, that was because Sundrop could not stop staring at [F/N] for the life of him, he was able to snap out of his day dreaming when Vanessa cleared her throat and gave him a warning glare “O-Oh, jeepers! My name is Sundrop, and I wish for us to get along too!” [F/N]’s smile widened and she lowered her head into a bow.

“Oh, how wonderful.” she lets out a whoa when he grabbed her hand and started shaking it up and down, she giggled softly at the gesture while Vanessa rolled her eyes.

“Good, now that you’ve introduce yourselves, get ready because the pizza plex opens in less than an hour.” [F/N] stood behind Sundrop, who gave Vanessa a droopy grin as he saluted.

“Yes, ma’am! Right away, ma’am!” she rolled her eyes once more before looking up at [F/N] this time.

“You know what you were programmed to do.” she nods her head.

“Of course.” Vanessa nods her head to her before walking out of the daycare, when they could no longer hear her footsteps, the two animatronics look at each other, each with their own smile on their face, one softer while the other was more energetic.

“Oh, we’re going to have so much fun together, new friend!” Sundrop cheers happily, grabbing her hand and bouncing on his feet “We can finger paint! Tell stories! Do macaroni art! Make balloon animals! This is going to be a blast! But, I do have one rule: keep the lights on.” she hums at the way his tone progressively grew darker as he finished his sentence, though she already knew the reason.

“But of course, Sundrop. Rules are simply put out to keep others safe, no?” he beams up at her, now holding her hands with both of his, vigorously nodding his head.

“Yes, yes! I am so glad you agree with me.” introducing her to the children and parents wasn’t so hard either, the parents seemed to like her because she was more level headed and calm in comparison to Sundrop’s upbeat and cheerful personality, and she was quite adored by the children. Sundrop took care of the more boisterous children while [F/N] was left to handle the children who leaned over to the shyer and introverted side and children that overall needed to rest more than to play around. 

“We cannot thank you enough, [F/N]. Our child has been a little overexerted after the performance that Glamgang put on and all the junk food they splurged on.” [F/N] offered the mother of the child she was currently caring for her kind smile.

“Of course, but I do advise that you monitor what your child consumes next time. Overeating food provided by Freddy Fazebear’s Mega Pizza Plex is not healthy for a young child.” the mother nodded her head.

“I’ll take your advice.” [F/N] bids the young child and her parents goodbye with a simple wave before she turns on her heels and makes her way over to the Security Desk, though she was not a security bot nor a security officer like the few human employees, she was programmed to keep on eye on the schedule and the few cameras within the daycare when needed. She picks up the clipboard and her eyes, that were closed, briefly open to see what was next “Naptime, hmm? Then I guess it’s time to meet Moondrop.” she places the clipboard down and proceeds to turn around but was stopped when a young boy grabbed her hand.

“Miss [F/N], Sundrop’s reading us a story and we all want you to participate!” he cheered, she nods softly and lets the young child lead her. 

“How wonderful.” she sat amongst the few children attending the story telling, sitting in a side sit position with a few children laying against her. Sundrop returned after grabbing a book when he saw [F/N] waiting with the children, he was now even more excited to tell the story with [F/N] in attendance. Most of the children and the new animatronic would laugh at the silly voices Sundrop would use for the characters in the story, [F/N] would sometimes joy in by words of encouragement from the children when a female character was introduced. By the time the story had come to the end, the timer for the lights to turn off came and it was now naptime, and evidently, the time for Moondrop to make his appearance. 

Sundrop’s AI shut down and Moondrop’s powered on, he blinked his eyes continuously until his vision came to him. He glanced around and noticed that the majority of the children were already dozing off, he tilted his head to the side in confusion because it usually took some time for the energetic children to fall asleep, and yet here he is and seeing that most of them were already asleep. The sound of humming soon came to his ears and he turned to see the newest animatronic, a child laying peacefully in her lap as a tune played out from the speaker in her cravat while she hummed along to the song, helping the children around her sleep.

“Naughty, naughty~” Moondrop mused, hoping from side to side as he approached the woman, who raised her head slightly at the sound of the voice “It is my job to care for the sleeping children. Who are you to replace me?” he reaches towards her, intent to harm this individual, but let out a choked noise when one of the hands that rest on her lap beside the child’s head shot over and grabbed him by the neck.

“Oh, and here I thought we could get along.” he let out a grunt when the bell on top of her head started to glow, she turned to look at him and her eyes that were closed opened and he got to see her beautiful eyes. Her scelra was like the galaxy while her iris’ were shaped like a diamond star that shun a bright shade of white, she then offers him her smile but hidden behind it was a smirk “I am [F/N] the Moon Jellyfish, let us hope we can work together.”

“You little--” she brought her free hand to her lips and shushed him softly, she points to the child sleeping on her lap as she tightened her grip on his neck.

“Shush now, we wouldn’t want to wake the children, now would we?” her eyes narrowed softly “Now, let us do our job together, why don’t we?” her grip tightened once more and he was forced to agree with her.

“... alright.” her kind smile returned to her lips as she gently put Moondrop down, who immediately raised his hands to his neck and caressed it, frowning slightly when he felt slight dents in the metal “You’re lucky Sun likes you.” she giggles softly.

“The feelings are mutual.” he huffs and turns around on his heel and starts caring for the other children that weren’t around [F/N], she merely shook her head and continued to play with the hair of the child sleeping in her lap, missing the way Moondrop started growing red in the face.

Headcanons:

[f/n] was essentially programmed to babysit sundrop lights on and manage moondrop lights off. 

meaning; her model was designed to be strong enough to take care of moondrop if he ever got a little too aggressive, so when it came down to strength, she would be the third strongest out of all the animatronics.

first being monty, second being freddy, and third being herself. 

vanessa would sometimes come to her whenever monty would get out of hand and have her calm the alligator down when he would have on of his temper tantrums and they got out of hand.

sometimes he would like to have arms wrestles with her.

he would never admit the fact that he struggles pushing her arm down. 

anyways-

sundrop absolutely adores being by her side whenever they have to look after children together, whenever he has the chance to be around her, he does not hesitate to cling to her back and she would let him hang there as she monitors other children.

moondrop doesn’t like to admit that seeing her more snarky side is hot, cool. it’s a complete personality flip.

the first few lights out together was rocky. sometimes he would want to fight her to prove who was better, she’d have him in a lock under her arm in under a couple seconds.

he gave up pretty quickly. 

she acts as a nightlight for the children that sings.

so he joins her when it’s naptime and leans against her big body and falls asleep to her songs, she didn’t let him live it down the first time he did it and would follow him around just to ask how it felt. 

she gets along with glamrock freddy the best out of the glamrock gang, mostly because they both embody that parental figure. him being fatherly and her being motherly, they both enjoy each other’s company a lot and speak whenever she’s free from the daycare.

her and chica get along because [f/n] was also programmed to know how to cook, so she likes making certain dishes and have chica try them out. when she see’s chica eating garbage she scolds her.

her and roxy are a little complicated. more like neutral. roxy sometimes tries to one up [f/n] on multiple occasions, but most of the time [f/n] lets her wins during these competitions. though when [f/n] knows when roxy is having a tough time with her self esteem she helps the poor girl and together they style each other’s hair.

her and monty is funny. she acts quite motherly to him and often takes him to parts and services when he has one of his days just to check if he damaged himself in any way. monty doesn’t want to admit that he likes the doting attention he gets form her.

now for the game plot, when the lights turn off when gregory was in the daycare, [f/n] would awaken from where she was and protect gregory from moondrop.

she would act as a distraction to turn moondrop’s attention towards her while gregory turned on the generators, her eyes also allow her to see in the dark so she directs him to where some of the generators are.

and when sundrop bans gregory from the daycare she would bid the boy goodbye from behind sundrop.

and when the lights turn off at each hour mark, she would leave the daycare in order to protect gregory from moondrop and the occasional other animatronics.

other than that, she is the kind moon jellyfish animatronic that teaches children how to be humble and polite within the daycare.

basically, she’s a nanny for children and sundrop.

Loyalty pt. 2

word count: 18,116

Fandom: MCYT Pairing: Emerald Duo x Male!Wolf!Reader Pronouns: He/Him Relationship: Familial/Platonic Occupation: N/A Ability: Wolf Hybrid

The character is that of a wolf hybrid, allowing them to have traits of a wolf. They have abnormal strength and speed with keen senses of smell, hearing and sight, making their nose and ears almost sensitive to anything. They are also granted with an abnormal height and the gift to shapeshift from a human/normal form to a more monstrous form.

Keys: [M/N]: Male Name  [S/C]: Skin Color [H/C]: Hair Color [E/C]: Eye Color [U/N]: Username

Warnings: character death, vulgar language, violence

the reader has three forms so far. full human form, they stand at 6″10ft tall with only wolf ears, tail and eyes. half/half form: 7″6ft with fur beginning to appear on his forearms and neck, his legs become hind legs but also his entire forearms become claws. full form: 8″2ft is a full werewolf. his body is covered entirely of fur, his face taking the form of a wolf and his body is bulking with more muscles. that would be the final form he has full control over, however, he has one final form. the complete wolf form where he’s on all fours and his animalistic instincts overwhelm his human instincts, meaning he has no control over himself when in this form. in this form, he stands at 9″0ft tall.

will make a pt. 3 after this one, maybe a pt. 4 if I don’t fit what I want into the pt. 3, but whatever. 

this was lagging all over the place because there are too many words.

that is all.

“Loyalty” pt.1

[M/N] hadn’t even known how much time had past since the war; since he lost Schlatt, his mind couldn’t function properly and he was slowly losing that remaining piece of sanity that he managed to salvage. He fled Manberg the moment he saw explosions coming from the country, taking himself and Schlatt’s corpse far away from it and finding a peaceful little area where he could bury him. Sure it was cliché, but [M/N] found a nice little spot on a hilltop where he would have a nice view of the sun rising and falling with each passing day; it was perfect. It was so hard for him to dig up a hole and put his body in it, he couldn’t stop the tears from falling down his face as he lowered his body into the grave, even more so when he had to bury him.

Sure, he was a good couple hundred blocks away from the new L’Manberg now run by Tubbo, but the anguished cries he wailed at the top of his lungs could be heard from miles away. His claws dug deep into his skin to the point he started to bleed, he could care less, he really didn’t care about himself at that moment and allowed himself to wallow up in his anger and sadness. Now the only thing he had left of Schlatt was the ring, he always kept on him as a necklace, never to admit that he left it there so it would always be close to his heart. He raised his hand and held onto it tightly before turning and facing the direction where the sun was slowly beginning to descend as the night took over the day, he took a shallow breath as he leaned his head back to rest against the tombstone.

The next couple of days, or weeks, it followed with [M/N] animalistic instincts beginning to overwhelm his human consciousness. Another reason as to why he stayed in his human form more is because he had more control over his thoughts and instincts than when he’s constantly in his original wolf form, he was slowly becoming more and more like a wolf that he stopped looking after himself. If he were to see his reflection, he would most likely see his younger self staring right back at him. His hair had grown pass his shoulders and was matted from the lack of brushing and washing it, his bangs even grew to the point they shadowed his eyes. His nails grew out and were cracked, he was filthy to the point he could pollute a river or stream if he dared step into one and his hands to his forearms were constantly covered in blood.

Most of the time he spent staying at Schlatt’s grave because he really didn’t know what to do, the only time he ever left was because he was hungry, now this is where the blood comes into play. He was merciless with the way he hunted down animals, he didn’t spare them a chance as he lunged at them, digging his claws into their bodies to keep them from fleeing before eating them raw, tearing them apart before ripping into their skin to devour them. By the time his hunger was satisfied, he would have blood dripping down his mouth and some of it staining his fur, but he didn’t really care. Right now he was asleep huddled by his grave when he heard the sound of flapping wings, his ears flickered a bit as he raised his head and saw a crow was bouncing up and down in front of him.

...

...

*WHACK*

The crow let out a squawk when [M/N]’s tail smacked it when it got too close for comfort, he growled at it as a warning for it to back off but only when he started pushing himself up did it get the message and leave him be. He thought that would be the last time he saw that crow and let himself fall into slumber, but little did he know, the next day he would be swarmed by countless crows. They followed him everywhere he went and were constantly squawking in his ear, some even going so far as to grabbing him by certain parts of his body and fur to pull at him, one even nipped at his ear and pulled at it. [M/N] would try any means necessary to get rid of them but soon he grew to accept that these crows were not going to stop bothering him no matter how many times he threatened to eat them.

That was until--

“Who are you?” [M/N] had one of the crows perched on his forearm as he raised his head, and there he saw was seemed like a middle aged man with blonde hair that just rested above his shoulders while a single braid was seen on the side of his head. He wore a green jinbei, black haori, sandals, and green-and-white striped bucket hat that shadowed his blue eyes “I haven’t seen you around, so you must be new.” he muttered softly before growling at him not to get close, beginning to feel territorial.

“So you’re the one the crows have been hanging around?” [M/N] gave him a confused look but soon noticed that the crows that were always around him started surrounding the unknown man, squawking and cawing at him, the difference was that he noticed the blonde could actually understand what they were saying.

“HE’S THE LONELY PUP.”

“HE SMELLS.”

“OF COURSE HE DOES, HAVE YOU SEEN HIM SHOWER?”

“SOMETIMES HE CRIES.”

“BABY.”

“HE’S ALWAYS AROUND THIS GRAVE.”

”They’ve been keeping an eye on you, saying that you needed a friend.” he snickered when he noticed the wolfman grimace at the thought but couldn’t help but feel a tiny bit grateful that that was the reason as to why they were hanging around, he thought they stuck around because they thought he was corpse merely walking around.

“They’re lucky I haven’t eaten them yet.” he then sneers, standing up and towering over the man, who couldn’t help but swallow thickly at just how tall he was “Now what do you want? You have your birds, now get lost.” his eyes soon moved down to see the grave [M/N] was protecting, briefly seeing the name [JSchlatt] pop up in his view before looking up at him.

“You’re [M/N], aren’t you? The Devil’s Hound.” he sneered at him.

“Only one person called me that, and if you’re here to claim my head, I’ll make sure you regret it old man.” he warned, letting out a snarl as he bared his teeth and claws, showing him that he wasn’t playing around, to which the older man raised his hands to show him that he meant no harm as he took a step back.

“I promise, I’m not here to do anything.” [M/N] didn’t ease up at all, still on edge at the stranger.

“Then leave, I won’t ask you again.” the blonde hums softly, crossing his arms.

“That sounds more like a threat.” [M/N] chuckles rather menacingly, shaking his head before glaring at him.

“It’s a promise.” they continued to stare at each other, [M/N] growing even more agitated before the stranger raised his hands once more, letting out a defeated sigh as he took a step back.

“Alright, have it your way.” with that he turned around and started walking away, only stopping briefly to spare him one more glance “The name’s Philza, by the way, but everybody calls me Phil.” [M/N] only growled, narrowing his eyes on him before letting out a huff and walking away.

“Like I need to know.” he’ll forget his name anyways, knowing that he easily forgets the names of those who have the least impact on his life or if they have no value to him. That was until Philza kept visiting him at odd times of the day, whether it be sometime in the early morning or late nights, [M/N] didn’t understand why he kept coming back. Most of the time he would try and strike up a conversation with the feral wolf, which would end with him having a one sided conversation, but Philza didn’t miss the way [M/N]’s ears perked up in his direction, indicating that he was listening.

Philza wasn’t entirely sure why he was so interested in this lost puppy, maybe it was because of how he already managed to win the hearts of his crows who were usually very picky, or maybe it was because he reminded him of the days he met Technoblade. A lost and scared piglin hybrid who hated the world, who fought against the world until a new light was opened up to him when Philza came into the picture. He just wanted to help [M/N] because he already knew that his parental/fatherly instincts would come to bite him in the ass if he didn’t offer him a hand. Technoblade already told him enough that his father figure, Schlatt, died and that was his anchor from slipping over the edge, so he knew it was going to be a challenge to wriggle his way into the heart of this closed off wolfman.

“Why do you keep coming to visit me, Philza? Don’t you find me slightly disturbing?” [M/N] murmured to himself, gesturing to the fact that he quite literally hasn’t bathed himself in god knows how long now, he was surprised his crows still hung around despite the foul smell coming from him.

“You look lonely.” was all he answered, noticing how he flinched at that before burying his face deeper into his arms. He was in his wolf form and he was curled up on top of Schlatt’s grave, he was in this form because it made laying down more comfortable and it made him more bearable to be around. Philza managed to ease some of the tension off his shoulders by the constant visits, each time bringing a sort of gift (which was mostly food) to reassure him that he meant no harm “I know what constantly loneliness feels like.” he huffs.

“Right.” he raises his head and looks up at where Philza was sitting, watching as he stared up at the passing clouds with some sort of longing look. He remembered the first time he saw Philza’s damaged wing, managing to get a sneak peak from under his cloak and saw that it was beyond any repair and that he was incapable of flying ever again, how tragic “You’ve mentioned you’ve been staying in new L’Manberg, right?”

“Yes.” 

“... can I ask why? I’ve already mentioned that you’re new, mostly because I’ve seen most of the residents of this server during the war between Manberg and Pogtopia, but I never saw you.” he then noticed the way Philza became silent, it usually be the other way around, but he must have stepped onto some boundaries... dammit.

“Wilbur,” [M/N] snarled at the mention of that bastard, he wonders what he was up to nowadays “he was my son.” at the announcement, [M/N]’s eyes widened in shock and a growl erupted out of his throat, he was going to shout but paused at what he said.

“Was?” he nods, he takes a breath as he let his head hang back, [M/N] now noticed the single stray tear that ran down his face.

“By the time I arrived, I tried to stop Wilbur from blowing up his country but ultimately, I was too late.” so that explained the explosions he saw and heard on that day, but that still didn’t expla-- “Wilbur was so far gone into his madness that he... pleaded for me to kill him.”

“Ah... I see.” they both sat in silence until [M/N] let out a bitter laugh, Philza looked at him and saw he had a similar expression on his face “I lost a father figure while you lost your son, a poor way for the two of us to relate to something, huh?” Philza stared at him before bursting out into laughter, sure it was a poor way for [M/N] to make light of the situation, but at least he tried instead of remaining silent.

“I guess so.” the two sat together now but this time, [M/N] had actually gotten up and sauntered over to him, Philza was going to question what he was doing but stopped when [M/N] curled up behind him, letting the older man rest his body against his own. Sure he hated Wilbur’s guts with a passion, but he genuinely liked Philza, so the least he can do is swallow his pride and comfort him “Who knew you could be such a softy.” he laughed when his comment earned him a smack by his tail.

“Watch it, old man. You’re just bearable.” 

The next few days was more light hearted, it took a couple weeks but Philza finally managed to get the wolfman to open up where he was able to touch him without the other snarling at him. [M/N] was a very large man and he packed a lot of muscle and weight, so imagine his surprise when Philza had little to no effort in picking him up and dropping him into a lake. The birdman was quite thankful that the other didn’t fight him as he helped bathe him, discarding his hat and cloak while rolling his sleeves and pants up so he could wash his matted fur/hair. By the time he was finished, he used his wings to help him dry faster because letting out a laugh when the other poofed up, [M/N] deadpanned at him but snickered softly, because it was quite hilarious.

It was when Philza pulled out a pair of scissors did [M/N] start to panic, his hair was unkempt and hard to brush through but when he managed to untangle the knots he whipped out the scissors and cut his hair to a manageable length. His ears would flicker back and worth when they got a little too close but he was able to bear with it, he left cutting his nails to himself because he still wanted them to be pretty long. Philza gave him some clothes and that completed his look, he let out a tired sigh as he pulled out a mirror and there [M/N] gave him a sheepish look at his makeover.

“You really didn’t have to do this, Phil.” the blonde gave him a smile, quite happy that he was calling him Phil instead of Philza.

“Oh no, mate, you needed it badly.” [M/N] pulled a face as he pushed the mirror away, twirling a standing of his hair around his finger and gave him an apologetic look.

“Right, apologies about that.” the other only waved his hand, dismissing it.

“You know... I have no idea what you’re going through, knowing that you’ve been with Schlatt since you were a mere child, along with the fact that he was the one that brought you out of the life of poverty, but,” Philza reached forward and placed a hand on his shoulder, giving it a light squeeze “would he want you to continue living like this? Disregarding your own health and life, just to stay by his side?” [M/N] let out a tired sigh.

“Easy for you to say. Move on, get a life... but I never thought that far ahead. I never had my own mindset, maybe it’s the animal genetics pumping through my DNA that the only thing that was going through my head was to obey him. I never questioned him and I was loyal to him to the very end, and now that he’s gone... I don’t know what to do. He told me to live my own life, but I don’t know the first thing I can do. I don’t know how to live a life beside someone else’s.” the way [M/N] looked up at Philza was genuine confusion, he gave him a sad look before standing up, he goes to question him but froze when he offered his hand to him.

“How’s about I give you that little extra push?” as he stared up at him, a flash of the time when he was a sickly child in that alleyway came to his mind, seeing the reminiscence of Schlatt in Philza’s place as he spoke “Come with me, and I promise you, I’ll show you a path to your future.” though they spoke the same lines, Philza said something different, instead of saying that he’ll be of use to him, he said he could show him a path to his own future.

“W-Will...” he stuttered out, rarely he ever felt nervous, but right now, he couldn’t help but feel like that scared little pup that shivered at the at the sound of loud noises again. Philza noticed [M/N]’s hesitance, the way one of his hands held onto the ring around his neck with a death grip while his other was holding his wrist with the same level of strength “Will I be betraying his loyalty by going with someone else?” he whimpered out, Philza let out a soft chuckle as he shook his head.

“Not at all, I think he would appreciate it if someone else were to help guide you down a path that doesn’t destroy you.” Philza grits his teeth, his own chest tightening up a bit “I wasn’t able to save my son from his insanity, but the least I can do is help someone else from plummeting down that same void.” [M/N] glanced up at him then down at the hand that was still gesturing for him to take it, the hand that was holding his wrist loosened and slowly reached for it, inching back and forward as he still hesitated.

’I have to admire him for his unwavering loyalty towards Schlatt, it’s downright ridiculous to the point he would rather stay by his grave till the day he dies than live a life of his own.’ he felt a glimmer of hope when his hand was almost within reach ’Sure, he and Wilbur didn’t see eye to eye, but I want to help save this boy before it’s too late.’

“I-I--” he swallowed thickly, screwing his eyes closed before taking a deep breath and grabbing his hand “Okay... I trust you, Phil.” Philza let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding in once [M/N] finally took his hand, he lifts him to his feet and pats his arm while looking up at him.

“Good, good! I’m glad you do, [M/N]. I know that this is a big step for you, so I appreciate that you trust me this much despite everything you’ve been through.” he chuckled softly when he noticed the younger boy was fidgeting a little, he then tugs him forward gently “Now, let’s go home and--”

“No! Not L’Manberg!” Philza was taken aback when he shouted, he then let out a soft sigh.

“I apologize, returning back to L’Manberg would probably give you bad memories, right?” he pulled a face before shaking his head.

“Not really, it’s just that I’m pretty sure Tubbo will kill me on sight.” he then raises his hand and gently caresses the now healed burn scars “I was the one to kill him during the Festival under Schlatt’s orders, then during the war, he was the to get his revenge on me and gave me these. Pretty gnarly, huh?” the blonde stared at them before shaking his head.

“Sure.” he then pinches his chin “But where do I...” he looked up in thought before a destination came to mind, he glanced at [M/N] and his ears perked up in curiosity at the look Philza was giving him, he lets out a soft whine as he tilts his head to the side.

“What?”

[snow biome]

“No. No, no, no. Absolutely not. Not happening. No.” [M/N] awkwardly stood behind Philza as they rocked up to a snow biome, out in the middle of nowhere, where Technoblade has set up his retirement home and gone into hiding. The blonde had explained to him that there was a place he knew that was far away from L’Manberg where barely anyone knew of its location, but he never mentioned who the only resident was until they arrived at his front doorstep and the piglin hybrid opened to door, at first happy to see his old time friend but grimaced when he noticed who was behind “Why the hell is he here? Why the hell did you bring him here?”

“To make things brief, he needs a place to stay.” this caused both taller men to look down at him in disbelief, Technoblade was the first to react by grabbing his shoulders before thrashing him back and forward.

“No way! There’s no chance I want this guy living under the same roof as me! For all we know, he could kill me in my sleep.” [M/N] narrowed his eyes on the pink haired male.

“Truthfully, I have nothing against you. It’s Wilbur, Tommy and Quackity I loathe. Killing you won’t bring me satisfaction, but I can’t help but agree with him, but for a completely different reason. This house looks rather small and if you hadn’t noticed, we’re both burly men, I highly doubt it’ll be able to fit us both.” Technoblade nods his head, throwing his arm out towards him.

“Exactly. I want my own personal space, and I’m not really up for dog fur getting everywhere.” [M/N] lets out a grunt, clicking his tongue as he gave the piglin an irritated look.

“What about you? You say you’re worried about me killing you in your sleep, but I hear you have hundreds of voices in your head that demand blood. I feel like my life is the one at stake by being in close proximity to you.” Philza sweat dropped when he was in between the two muscular men who were glaring deeply at each other, a spark of lightning erupting between them.

“Please, you two, calm yourselves.” he sighs as he turns towards [M/N], he places a hand on his chest and this caused the wolfman to break eye contact with Technoblade to look down at him, his gaze softening a little “Could you please give me a couple minutes alone to talk with Techno, mate. Just stay in the area, please.” [M/N] had a look of hesitance before nodding his head.

“Alright.” with that he turned around and stood out in the snow, the cold didn’t bother him in any way, he was in his half human/half wolf form and most of his fur covered any exposed areas and kept him quite warm. Philza nodded his head as he watched [M/N] watch the snow fall from the sky before turning his attention back at Technoblade, who made a look of disgust as he watched [M/N].

“I’m telling you Techno, he’s quite harmless right now.”

“Around you, that is. Who knows how long he’ll last around me before he snaps and pummels me into the ground.” the other gave him a smug look.

“So you’re saying he can pummel you?” Technoblade glares at him.

“You know what I mean.” he lets out a frustrated growl when Philza chuckled, he looked back at [M/N] and saw that he raised his head as he closed his eyes, taking a deep breath as his arms were raised slightly to let the fallen snowflakes land in the palm of his hand.

“The reason I brought him here is because he has nowhere to go. He can’t come with me to L’Manberg because the others would surely kill him if he dared take a step on their lands, and Schlatt was his only family.” he inhales through his nose, eyes looking up at him “He reminded me of you when I first found you all those years ago.” now this caused Technoblade to freeze, he looked down at Philza and saw that he was being honest, this caused him to let out a groan as he crossed his arms.

“You’re guilt tripping me, Phil.” 

“That may be so, but I couldn’t just leave him where he was. He looked horrible and was in need of desperate help.” Technoblade felt his tense shoulders slump at what he said, slowly beginning to fall for his words, he took one final glance at [M/N] and saw he had a soft grin on his face, eyes beginning to open as a snowflake landed on his nose.

“... dammit.” Philza smirked, knowing that he managed to win him over “Fine, alright, I’ll let him stay! But, he has to make his own house somewhere on the property! He’s not staying in my house, that’s my own safe haven.”

“Got it.” Philza grins as he brings his middle finger and thumb to his lips before blowing on them, letting out a sharp whistle that caused [M/N]’s ears to flick up, he turned to face them and saw Philza waving him over. [M/N] tripped over when his feet had got buried pretty deep in the snow, he face planted into the snow but let out a soft laugh as he pushed himself up and jogged over to them, when he stood behind Philza once more he flicked the snow off his body “Technoblade has agreed to let you stay.”

“Eh, really?” even he couldn’t help but be surprised that the Blood God agreed, Technoblade was probably just as equally as surprised as him, probably even more so “Then... I appreciate it.” the piglin merely huffed, waving his hand to dismiss his gratitude.

“Don’t mention it.” Philza clapped his hands his hands with a smile.

“Wonderful. I hope you two can get along without you needing to rip each other’s throats out.” this caused the both of them to flinch “I believe it’s getting late, so before you kick him out, at least let him spend one night in your house before letting him build his own house.” Technoblade goes to protest but held his tongue when he saw the look Philza was giving him.

“Okay.” [M/N] now stood in the middle of Technoblade’s living space rather awkwardly, he was holding his arms as his tail was tucked between his legs, ears pressed to his head as Technoblade and Philza busied themselves. His gaze fell upon the polar bear sitting in front of the fire place, it tiredly raised its head when it felt a gaze upon it and saw that it was merely [M/N] staring at him. The bear let out a soft growl before letting his head fall back onto the ground and falling asleep once more, his ears flickered a bit at that before his own attention drew towards the trap door window “You’re practically leaving me on babysitting duty, aren’t you Phil?” said man let out a laugh. 

“That is slightly true. What I really want is for you to keep a close eye on him.”

“You just said exactly what I said but with different words.” Philza rolls his eyes.

“You’re being overdramatic, Techno.” he shakes his head.

“No. If you were there to see what exactly this guy is capable of, you’d be as reluctant as I am. You only saw the aftermath.” they enter the room they left [M/N] was and saw that he was leaning against the windowsill, his arms resting on the edge while his head laid comfortable on his arms. His ears were flickering every so often as his tail thumped against the floorboards, and yet his gaze was so fixated on the snowflakes falling from the sky he hadn’t even picked up on the fact that he and the polar bear weren’t the only ones in the room anymore.

“You seem to like snow quite a bit, mate.” Philza hummed softly, pulling out a stool so he could sit beside him, who never tore his gaze out from the window.

“This is the first time I’ve seen it.” this caught them both by surprise “Schlatt wasn’t too keen on cold weather so we stirred away from snow biomes and stayed within relatively humid biomes. This is genuinely the first time I’ve seen snow, so I find it quite enjoyable to be honest.” they watch in silence as he pushed the trap door open and extend his hand out, letting out a cheerful yip when a snowflake landed onto the palm of his hand and melted into water. The way [M/N] was behaving right now reminded Philza of a child, because [M/N] was experiencing things without a leash on for the very first time.

[the next day]

Technoblade was kind enough to lend [M/N] some materials and tools, which was actually Philza telling Techoblade to lend him the needed equipment, and the entire day was spent with [M/N] making his home. The piglin hybrid half expected him to make a house near his but was completely mistaken when he saw [M/N] start mining away at the side of the mountain to make himself a house in a cave. True to Schlatt’s words during the preparations for the Manberg Festival, [M/N] was god awful at designing. He had wonderful ideas, but he didn’t have the abilities to apply them to his builds and so he had to have the aid of the other two to make his home look somewhat decent. The finished build was the opening of a cave that had enough illumination to keep wandering mobs from entering his cave, the main room was filled with various chests, barrels and anything else useful, there were various other tunnels that connected to that room that served different purposes. Some were for blacksmithing and enchanting, others were for brewing or just his sleeping chambers.

“I think we did a job well done.” Philza said, hands on his hips as he looked at the entrance to the cave, Technoblade let out a huff as he dusted his shoulder to rid of the pebbles that landed on him whilst they were mining.

“I’m just glad he’s finally out of my hair.” [M/N] scoffed.

“What hair? All I see is fur.” before Technoblade could fire anything back, Philza got in between them both and flared his wings open to create some distance between them both.

“Don’t start.” the piglin gave the immortal being an offended look as he accusingly gestured to the wolfman, who only rolled his eyes while crossing his arms and looking away.

“He started it!” 

“Technically, you did.” this caused him to let out a gasp that Philza didn’t side with him, before he could say anything else, the blonde then turned to look up at [M/N], who flinched at the stern look on his face “And you, don’t antagonize people.” [M/N] lets out a soft whine.

“But what if they start it?”

“Are you not going to let this go?”

“I like to mock people. If they mock me, I should have every right to mock them back.” he grins softly “That’s what Schlatt taught me, and if they go too far, I hit them where it hurts.”

“Physically, or metaphorically?”

“Depends on the person, really.” Technoblade snaps his fingers at that.

“I agree with that.” Philza rolls his eyes, after that day of work, they decided upon the three of them to gather some food to finish that day off. Technoblade and Philza adorn winter outfits to survive out in the winter cold, staring rather enviously that [M/N] only wore a thin layer of clothing for his layers of fur protected him from the snow and he trudged through without any hesitation in his movements. The two led mostly because the wolfman was still unfamiliar with his surroundings and the environment he was in, though they did pay attention to the way he reacted to small sounds and whatnot “So what are we looking to eat tonight?” Technoblade asked, bouncing his axe on his shoulder as they continued to venture deeper and deeper into the woods.

“Whatever we lay eyes upon fir—“ Philza was cut off when he heard a growl, they both turn to face [M/N], only to be pushed aside when he lunged forward and past them. They turn to see what he pounced on, only to freeze when they saw he tackled and sunk his teeth into the neck of a wandering pig. They were even more disturbed, maybe disgusted, when they saw him rip its throat out before devouring it without a second thought. The latter noticed the silence so he raised his head, chin dripping with blood as he continued to chew on the raw flesh of the pig that was whining, practically begging to be put out of its misery, it was a miracle that it was still alive.

“What?” he questioned rather absentmindedly, Technoblade grimaced when he noticed the way he licked his lips.

“Do you mind?” he muttered as he gestured to the poor pig, [M/N] glanced down at it before looking up at him once more.

“What? This your cousin or something?” an irk mark appeared on his forehead, he goes to say something but was pushed to the side when Philza shoved his arm, he goes quiet and so [M/N] watches as Philza approached him, crouching down and gently wiping away the blood that he could with his sleeve.

“Don’t tease him, [M/N].” the blonde snorted when he noticed that the other wore an expression that said he was serious “I understand that the hybrid in you makes you do things like this, and you’ve been living like this for who knows how long, but we can’t help but question you and be mildly disgusted.” he sniffed, wiping away the rest of the blood on his own with his arm.

“You could just look way. I like eating it this way.” he sighs.

“Sure, but it’s not good for your stomach.” the dog in him caused his ears to press against his head, his tail thumping against the snowy ground as a whine rips through his throat, he then slowly nods his head.

“Alright.” he flinched softly when Philza placed his hand on top of his head.

“Good boy.” he ruffles his head before standing up and turning away, he missed his reaction but Technoblade saw and scoffed, [M/N] was blushing softly as he pressed a hand to the spot where Philza ruffled, pressing his lips into a thin line before standing to his feet and following after the older man, not before putting the pig out of its misery… and perhaps finishing his short snack before catching up to them. True to Schlatt’s word, [M/N] was an excellent hunter and managed to find a months worth of food for them, much to their pleasure so now they won’t have to worry about food for that time period. 

“We should probably head back now, it’s starting to get dark.” Philza nodded his head, he let out an oh when [M/N] leaned down so he was hovering off his shoulder.

“Will you return to L’Manburg, or will you remain here one more night? It’s rather dangerous for you to venture back now that the sun is setting, mobs will be out and the distance between that country and here is quite far.” Technoblade nodded his head.

“He’s right, and neither of us can get particularly close before becoming target practice.” they both grimace at that, hearing the concern coming from them both had the older man chuckling before nodding his head.

“Well, alright. I’ll stay one more night then leave in the morning, how does that sound?” he laughs when he saw the looks of satisfaction on their faces, it didn’t take long for them to return to Technoblade’s home, [M/N] was going to return to his own little cave but was stopped by the older man to have him join them for dinner. The blonde snorted when he noticed him freeze up in confusion, so with a sigh, he grabbed his wrist and pulled him into the warmth of the house and together the three of them had a nice meal. 

[a few weeks later]

“[M/N], stop trying to eat the goddamn livestock, please.” said man was mid bite away from chomping a sheep’s head off before pausing in his actions at the sound of Technoblade’s voice, he jaw slowly snapped shot away from the sheep’s head and he looked down at it. Its wool was dyed blue and those beady little eyes were staring up at him, he let out a sigh as he rolled his eyes before flinching when it licked his nose. He sneezed at the action before looking down at it once more and heard it let out a bleep, he pursed his lips before setting it down on the ground and turning away, unaware that it was following him “Now that you’re here, I have a favor to ask of you.” the latter huffed.

“That’s a first.” he comments, he glances away when Technoblade turned and gave him a sharp glare.

“Right.” Technoblade threads his hooves through his fur before looking at him “I need you to go to the Nether for me?” [M/N] raises a brow at the request.

“The Nether? Why me? You’re more suited for the Nether than I am.” he waves his hand to dismiss him.

“Just listen to me, okay? You’re much faster when it comes to getting the job done, so I need you to get a couple Blaze Rods and Wether Skulls for me. If you do that for me, we can spar again.” this certainly got his attention, sparring together was their entertainment and their way to pass the time. As he said, [M/N] was more confident when it came down to hand to hand combat while Technoblade was more versed with weapons, but to make sure that neither side would hurt each other too bad, Technoblade would fight with wooden weapons while [M/N] wore gloves to soften his punches.

“Hmm... I don’t think that’s enough to get me to go to the hot blistering Nether.” he snickers when it got the other to growl, [M/N] was becoming more and more snarkier as time went by as well and it was annoying.

“I’ll be on chore duty for a month.” [M/N] snapped his fingers.

“Pleasure doing business with you.” sure this was Technoblade’s property, but [M/N] did his fair share of work since he was a resident upon his land. He had no problem doing any work to be allowed to stay there, but sometimes he found it downright ridiculous that he had to help Technoblade clean his own house and feed his animals... they were his! Why did he have to help? 

“You’re insufferable.”

“You can just go get it yourself, you fuck.” [M/N] didn’t even let out him finish when he sauntered off to go gather his things from his cave then left to the Nether to get what Technoblade wants, maybe get a few extra things as well because he could. The piglin lets out a sigh as he returns to his home, not even a couple minutes past and he heard a knock on the door... that was rather quick. He was fast, but that was a little too fast, he approaches the door with caution and opened it, only to see someone he wasn’t expecting.

“Ghostbur, what are you doing here?” Technoblade asked, opening his door and expecting to see [M/N] returning from his hunt in the Nether with the needed items he asked for, only to get the ghost of the former President in his place. Technoblade never mentioned to [M/N] about Ghostbur, he didn’t know how the guy was going to react upon seeing Wilbur’s dead counterpart, he still had a grudge upon him, Tommy, Quackity and Dream. Through Philza, his anger was slowly settling down and he was working on his temper that he developed, but he wasn’t taking any chances.

“O-Oh, I was in the neighbourhood and thought I could drop by.” he answered cheerfully, stepping into Technoblade’s house with a bright smile on his face. The piglin let out a sigh before closing the door and following close behind him, the ghost settled by the fire, trying to warm his deathly cold body as he turned to look up at Technoblade “What have you been up to lately, Techno?” he huffs, taking a seat on one of the couches.

“I’ve been left of babysitting duty.” seeing the way Ghostbur lit up almost brought a smile to his face, almost.

“Baby? There’s a baby? Where?” he shook his head.

“Metaphorically, Ghostbur. There’s not an actual baby.” Ghostbur deflates.

“Oh, pity. Then, what have you been babysitting?”

“A puppy.” Ghostbur lights up again and goes to ask where the puppy was “I am being metaphoric again. Don’t take everything I say serious.” this caused him to pout, raising a hand to rub the back of his head.

“I wanna see a puppy.” talking with Ghostbur was a nice change of pace, the forgetful ghost would bring up random topics in hope that it would pique the latters interest, and though most of the time he was speaking and Technoblade would answer with halfhearted or single word answers, he was most definitely listening. Conversations between [M/N] and himself were set upon who can make the first one angry with no ill intent, conversations between Philza and himself were light hearted or spoken about upcoming events and whatnot “Ah, I nearly forgot something important!” he cheers, raising a finger.

“You forgot nearly everything.” he giggles softly.

“Did you hear about what happened to Tommy?” this caught his attention as he raised a brow.

“Tommy?” the sudden voice startled him, he turned around and saw [M/N] standing right behind him smell like the Nether, his gaze immediately snapped over to where Ghostbur was sitting and a panicked expression made its way to his face.

’Shit! How long were we talking for? I didn’t even realize [M/N] was back.’ he looked up and saw [M/N] turned his attention to where Ghostbur was sitting ’No, is he going to kill him? Oh, fuck!’ he held his breath as he watched [M/N] approach the ghost but was surprised to see the happy look of Ghostbur’s face as [M/N] knelt down slightly to place a hand on his head. 

“Hello Ghostbur, it’s been awhile.” the other let out a giggle, nuzzling into his clawed hand “How have you been?” Ghostbur takes his hand and lowers it down, rubbing his thumbs onto the top of his hand.

“I’ve been good, Phil has been taking care me.” he nods his head.

“That’s good.” Technoblade was a little speechless to see that [M/N] was having a calm conversation with the ghost, he wasn’t snarling or glaring at him or making and snide remarks, he was having a peaceful conversation.

“[M/N],” he starts, making the wolfman look over at him “you know Ghostbur?” he lets out a scoff.

“I’ve been hanging around Phil, I was bound to run into this ghost sooner or later since he’s by his side nearly 24/7.” he slowly nods his head at the information.

“And... you don’t hate him.” now this caused [M/N] to pause briefly, Ghostbur looked between the two.

“Ghostbur... doesn’t remember who I am from when Wilbur was around, and sure I can’t stand the sight of him... but it’s Wilbur that I hate, not Ghostbur. Ghostbur is a completely different person to his counterpart.” he wasn’t going to tell Technoblade that the first thing he did when he saw Ghostbur was that he wanted to rip his throat out; that he wanted to watch the way his head was crushed within his claws. That was the thought that goes on in his head every time Ghostbur grabbed his hands, for some reason, he was so fixated on his hands.

“[M/N] and I are friends, Techno!” the latter nods his head.

“Right.” [M/N] gently takes his hand back from Ghostbur, much to his dismay, and hands Technoblade and Ender Chest full of the items he wanted “I went a little overboard so there are a lot more in there than what you needed, Techno.”

“Better more than less.” he nods before turning back to Ghostbur.

“Now, what’s this about Tommy?” Ghostbur claps his hands.

“Right.” he raises a finger “Did you know that he was exiled from L’Manburg?” this caused them both to fall silent.

...

...

“Pft, hahaha!” Ghostbur was taken aback when [M/N] burst out into laughter, it was so bad that he hunched forward while holding stomach. It was rare for [M/N] to laugh like this, but he couldn’t help but laugh “Oh my god, he’s what? Exiled? Again! Wow, what a riot! This is one of the best sets of news I’ve heard in a long time!” even Technoblade was amused.

“What did he do this time?”

“U-Um, I think he burnt down George’s house.” he snorts.

“Wow, who’s idea was it to exile Tommy?”

“Tubbo.” at that, Technoblade and [M/N] look at each other in confusion, the latter looks down before chuckling to himself. 

“Tubbo did, huh? How amusing.”

Later that day.

“Another errand?” [M/N] muttered, he laid comfortably in his den when Technoblade rudely came in, bringing snow in while he was at it.

“I need you to deliver something to Phil.” this caused [M/N] to push himself up from where he was laying, staring up at Technoblade in shock before standing to his feet.

“What are you-- are you serious right now? I can’t just waltz into L’Manburg! Why can’t you give it to Ghostbur?” he exclaims, to which the ghost makes his appearance by poking his head out from behind Technoblade before rushing forward and burying his face into the warmth of [M/N]’s fur, causing him to deadpan.

“Not that I don’t trust Ghostbur, to which I don’t,” this made him let out a whine “I want you to do it because I know you can do it right.”

...

...

“You just don’t want to do it.” he threw his head back with a groan “Goddammit, just give it to Ghostbur, for fuck sakes.”

“I’m afraid he’ll lose it.”

“I won’t.” they both glance at him, he let out another whine as he deflates “I probably will.” [M/N] slaps a hand onto his forehead and looks at Technoblade, noticing that he still wasn’t really up to the task of going to L’Manburg himself just to deliver something.

“How about we draw straws?” he suggests, he scoops Ghostbur up by his armpits to pull him off his body and sets him away so he could find a couple straws of hay, when he returns he opens Ghostbur’s hand and has him hold them “Whoever draws the short straw goes without question, okay?” he nods.

“Okay.” they both grab a straw before yanking it out of Ghostbur’s hand.

And that brings us too;

“I complained, and yet I still lost.” he grumbles to himself, hands in his pocket as he followed Ghostbur. In the end, [M/N] drew the short straw and cried when he lost, to which Technoblade pumped his fist in triumph and mocked [M/N] for his loss, to which the latter mocked him for that fact that he was on chore duty for the next month. That shut him up.

“Oh, we’re going to have so much fun, [M/N]! You haven’t been to L’Manburg in a long time, right? So you haven’t seen the renovations done to the place. I’ll show you around after we deliver the thing Techno wants us to deliver to Phil, okay?” [M/N] so badly wanted to deny the offer but the puppy dog eyes Ghostbur was giving him was so goddamn convincing.

“Sure...” he lets out a sigh as he turned away, ignoring the way Ghostbur cheers as he jogged ahead of them. L’Manburg was just ahead of them so the smaller one of the two charged forward and when he turned around he noticed that the other was still hesitating to step foot onto L’Manburg soil, he noticed him hug himself as he looked around in caution, his eyes scanning the area while his ears darted in every direction.

“Hey,” he whipped his head over to Ghostbur and slowly started to calm down when he reached forward and took his hand into his much smaller ones “you’ll be alright. I’ll make sure nothing bad happens to you. I promise!” [M/N] stared down at him, not even easing up for a second, he took a deep breath as his hand slowly closed around his as he nodded his head.

“Alright, I trust you.” Ghostbur beams up at him before tugging him forward, Ghostbur made sure to lead [M/N] in the none public areas so no one would catch sight of him. I mean, he was in his half human/half wolf form so it made him an easy target, but it was the thought that counts. [M/N] still hadn’t dropped his guard, looking around in alarm as his hold on Ghostbur’s hand tightened, not noticing the slight flush rising to his grey cheeks at the action.

“Ghostbur?” an unknown voice rose to [M/N]’s ears, this meant they were a threat, he didn’t react yet but his eyes moved and there he saw an 8″5ft Enderman hybrid. He wore a black suit with a red tie around his neck and a golden crown on top his head, his most distinguished features were the fact that his body and hair was black and white, the right side being black and the left side being white, even his eyes were dual colored, one being green and the other red “What are you doing here? And who’s that?” 

“Ranboo! Hello.” the happy ghost greeted, slipping his hand free from [M/N] as he approached the young man. Sure, Ranboo was taller than the other male, but he had more muscle to his body and could easily body him if need be, and the way he was lowering his body as he stared him up and down, he couldn’t help but feel intimidated “I’m here to show my friend around.” Ghostbur added, rocking back and forth on his feet.

“Friend?” he questioned, to which the other nodded his head as he gestured to [M/N], who had an indifferent expression on his face, not dropping his defensive stance, not even for a second “I don’t think your friend likes me.” at the mention of that, Ghostbur turns towards him and noticed that he never broke eye contact with Ranboo, he huffs with a pout before marching over and smacking his arm, causing him to break his concentration and looked down in shock.

“[M/N], I don’t appreciate you glaring at my other friends.” he then looks back at Ranboo, an apologetic look on his face “Forgive him, he doesn’t particularly like strangers... or meeting new people, to be exact.” Ranboo gave a nervous laugh in response to that.

“N-No, it’s fine.” he answers, rubbing the back of his neck. With a stern glare from Ghostbur, [M/N] lets out a sigh as he dropped his defensive stance and stood up straight but not once did he drop his guard, crossing his arms and making sure that Ranboo kept his distance from them “Where are you heading to?”

“We’re off to see Phil! We have something to give him.” Ranboo nods.

“Is it blue?” he shook his head.

“No, actually, Tec--” before he could finish his sentence, [M/N] silenced him by reaching forward and pressing his hand to his mouth, his other wrapped around his body as he pulled him back against his chest.

“Shush, Ghostbur. He doesn’t want anyone else to know, just the four of us, mmkay? Our little secret.” [M/N] felt him purse his lips before nodding his head, looking up at him as he slowly loosened his grip on his body.

“Okay!” he nods his head before letting him go completely, he gave Ranboo a stern look before taking Ghostbur’s hand and together the two of them left the young man alone, he watched them disappear before he turned and fled to report what he saw to his superiors “And here we are!” they made it to the residential areas and [M/N] was honestly impressed with what he’s seen so far.

“I like what he’s done with the place; feels homey.” he comments, Ghostbur nods, a slight blue flush to his cheeks.

“Mm hmm!” [M/N] gave him one of those rare smiles, allowing him to lead him to which house belonged to, only to stop when they hear another voice, but this voice made all sorts of alarms ring in his head.

“Stop!” they both turned to see and there they saw Tubbo, Fundy, Quackity with Ranboo standing behind them with a nervous look on his face. [M/N] grits his teeth but kept his temper under control, it helped when Ghostbur got in front of him when he noticed the tension rising between them and put on a happy smile.

“Tubbo! Hello, what brings you here?” 

“Ranboo told us that a suspicious person was wandering around L’Manburg with Ghostbur, but to think that it was you, [M/N].” the man didn’t answer the child, he simply narrowed his eyes on him as he growled lowly “You aren’t welcome here.” he scoffed.

“I don’t want to be here, but I’m here on an errand. I’ll be out of your hair once I’m done.”

“And what business is it that you have to be here?” [M/N] scoffs.

“It’s none of yours, for your information.” Fundy takes a step forward.

“He is the President of L’Manburg.” [M/N] scoffs again, narrowing his eyes down at the fox.

“And what does that have to do with anything, fox? Is it his business to butt into confidential and personal affairs? I believe not, so don’t bother me while I’m being nice.” he threatens, now it was Quackity that took a step forward.

“How is that being nice?”

“If I wasn’t being nice, little duckling, your face would be in the ground right now, but now I’m restraining myself from committing murder.” hearing that, Ghostbur turned around and grabbed him by his arm.

“Calm yourself, [M/N], here! Have some blue.” he says, reaching down to take some blue dye out of his pocket and handing it to the wolfman, he couldn’t help but hum softly at his attempt to calm his anger, but he did appreciate it as he took the dye from him “Is it working? Are you happy?”

“Yes, Ghostbur, it’s working.” [M/N] watched the dye slip through his fingers and dye the fur on his hands blue, that was going to be a hassle to get out, Ghostbur soon turns back to look at the four who approached them.

“We haven’t done anything wrong, I don’t see the problem here.” Quackity scoffed.

“So you don’t even remember what he has done to you back when you were alive, Wilbur.” [M/N]’s ears perked up at what Quackity called him, he looked down at Ghostbur and noticed he flinched, his hand twitching a little as he muttered “it’s Ghostbur” under his breath “He’s the whole reason why you and Tommy were kicked out of your own country! We went to war against him and that tyrant he called a father, and yet here you are being buddy buddy with him! If you were alive, you’d be disgusted by your actions.”

“B-But that was in the past-- and with Wilbur, not me. I’m not Wilbur, I’m Ghostbur.” [M/N] nods as he leans down, reaching for his hand and placing the blue dye back in his hand.

“That you are, Ghosty.” he whispered softly, raising his hand to wipe away the tears threatening to spill “There’s no need to shed any tears, everything’s fine.” he slowly nods his head, his hand squeezing around the blue.

“Mmkay.” the other three couldn’t help but stare in disbelief, maybe envy. Not once have they ever seen [M/N] behave like that to anyone beside Schlatt, there was the rare time when he was kind towards Tubbo and Quackity, but those were one off things and he didn’t really care about them. He had those eyes that were devoid of emotions towards them, but here, they saw color swirling in his eyes as he stared down at the weeping ghost with concern.

It wasn’t fair.

“I don’t want you here, [M/N].” Tubbo states, this caused the two to glance over at the young boy “You’re... you’re a threat to L’Manburg and I’m afraid you’ve overstayed your visit.” what little confidence he had in him slowly drained out of his body the longer [M/N] stared at him, he snickered to himself as he took a step forward and pushed Ghostbur behind him.

“How amusing, boy.” he flicked his hand to rid of the blue dripping down his finger tips and the three across from them couldn’t help but imagine the blue dye be replaced with blood, the images of the war flashing in the back of their minds about how ruthless [M/N] was during that time “I haven’t even done anything, and you’re firing shots.” at the mention of that, Tubbo flinched and subconsciously gripped his arm, the same arm that was burnt and scarred badly when [M/N] shot him with the firework.

“Y-You--”

“While we’re on the topic, I have to mention Tubbo, your previous actions are reminding me an awful lot of Schlatt. It’s almost as if he never left.” he flinches again, he hangs his head low as [M/N] now stood over him, a wide smirk on his face as a shadow looms over him “Now don’t take that as an insult, coming from me of all people, it’s more like a compliment!” he closes his hands into a tight fist, his knuckles turning white with how hard he was holding them to the point his nails dug into the palms of his hands and they were bleeding. He chuckled darkly at the reaction he was receiving from the boy so he leaned down, his face now hovering a couple inches away from his before raising his blue stained hands and jabbing his finger into his chest “You chose a country over your best friend, how selfish.”

“N-No, I... I did it f-for the betterment of this country.” [M/N] only narrows his eyes on him.

“I don’t like Tommy, and I most certainly don’t like you, so I don’t particularly care about his fate. But if you truly were his friend, then you would at least visit him once. Ghostbur has told me that you hadn’t even seen him once.”

“I-I--”

“[M/N]!” he let out a yelp when he smacked in the back of the head, they look over and saw Philza had left his home to see what the fuss was about, only to see [M/N] and Ghostbur surrounded by Tubbo, Fundy, Quackity and Ranboo “What have I told you about antagonizing people?” he only pouts, taking a step back as he rubbed the back of his head.

“That I shouldn’t...”

“And what did you do?”

“Antagonized them. But they came onto us first, they even made Ghostbur cry, so I had to step in.” at the mention of that, Philza glanced back at his deceased son and noticed the tear tracks as he sniffled, he glanced up [M/N] before letting out a sigh and patting his head.

“I’ll let it slide this one time, okay? Good job.” [M/N] immediately perked up at the praise, his tail wagging side to side “Now get inside, Techno told me you were coming. I’ll handle this.”

“Okay.” Ghostbur takes his hand and rushes to where Philza’s house was, apologizing when he dragged [M/N] through the door and his face slammed face first above the door frame because he was too tall for it. He cradles his face in his hand before hunching down to fit through the door, Philza shook his head before turning and giving the group a stern glare.

“You dare cause trouble with those two?” Fundy couldn’t help but glare up at his grandfather.

“You weren’t there, Phil, you don’t understand what he put us through all because of his damn loyalty towards Schlatt! He’s a problem that needs to be dealt with!” Philza’s glare doesn’t waver as he stares them down.

“He hasn’t done anything wrong, you have no right to call him out on anything when he has done absolutely nothing to be called out for. Tell me, what has he done that you unrightfully stopped him?” this caught them off guard and they glance at each other, he was right, he hasn’t done anything so they can’t exactly do anything regarding him “I understand you’re all angry with him for what he’s done in the past, but he has the same level of anger for you but maybe even higher, and yet he’s being the bigger man and controlling himself. If you saw him during the aftermath of the war, none of you would be standing where you are now.”

“...” Tubbo bit his lip as he looked up at Philza, who wore nothing more but a cold expression, he clicks his tongue as he turned on his heel and marched away “Fine, do what you want.” the other three watch in disbelief that Philza drove him away before chasing after him, the old man let out a breath before turning around himself and making his way back to his home, and there he saw [M/N] leaning against the arm chair that was placed in front of a fireplace with Ghostbur laying next to him rather contently, chattering about anything that came to mind.

’I heard from them and through Wilbur’s letters that the relationship between those two was like oil and water, it’s almost hard to believe now.’ he thinks to himself, remembering the first time when Ghostbur and [M/N] met, he could feel the wolfman’s bloodlust from where he was and was ready to completely obliterate him, but was stopped when he saw those eyes of innocence in Ghostbur’s eyes. Ever since then, Ghostbur clung to [M/N]’s side, much to his dismay but Philza knew that he secretly had a soft spot for the ghost ’To think those two would be so close now.’

”Ah, Phil! Welcome back.” Ghostbur greeted, hearing that, [M/N] turned his head and offered Philza a nod before resting his head on the arm chair once more.

“Dealing with them is always tiring, even more so with how cocky they’ve gotten.” Philza let out a huff, approaching them before taking a seat.

“Tell me about it, they’re pretty relentless nowadays.” [M/N] didn’t intend to stay as long as he did, he was planning on handing the thing Technoblade wanted to give him and would be off, but the company of the old man and ghost was rather comforting to the point he stayed there for a couple hours until the day turned into night. When he decided to leave, Philza offered for him to stay the night, but the former politely declined the offer because he was afraid that Tubbo and his lot would raid his house just to kick him out.

“That was rather refreshing.” [M/N] muttered softly, lacing his fingers while stretching them above his head and hearing them crack, he let out an oh when he felt arms wrap around his exposed torso so he glanced down and saw Ghostbur embrace him from behind “Hello, Ghosty.”

“You aren’t leaving yet, are you?” he hums softly, placing his hand on his head.

“That I am, Ghostbur. I’m not particularly welcome here.” Ghostbur pouts before removing himself, moving so he was in front of [M/N] to grab his arm and tug him forward.

“Don’t forgot that I was supposed to show you around.” [M/N] murmurs softly.

“Now? It’s late, and we might run into those four again.” he dismisses the thought.

“Tubbo knows not to miss with someone twice when Phil gets involved, and I know you won’t be coming back unless Techno needs you to do something for him again, and that’s something we won’t see unless it’s one of those rare days.” he tugs on his arm “I promise it won’t be boring.” [M/N] gives him a look before letting out a sigh and reluctantly nodding his head.

“Well... alright, but when I say I’m leaving, I’m leaving, got it?” Ghostbur lit up.

“Wonderful!” he cheered before dragging [M/N] behind him, who let out a grunt by the fact that he was being dragged around once more. [M/N] wasn’t interested in anything that L’Manburg had to offer, he could care less about the country that gave him nothing but bad memories, but the way Ghostbur’s eyes lit up as he explained certain monuments and who lived where, he couldn’t help but listen. There was bad blood between himself and Wilbur, if he ever go the chance to kill Wilbur, he would take it... but Ghostbur wasn’t Wilbur, and though that was a pity, he was quite grateful. Despite having the face of that deranged man, his heart was kind and soft. Ghostbur was in the middle of explaining something when he glanced up at [M/N], he flinched slightly when he noticed that [M/N] was staring at him “U-Um-- is there something on my face?” he asked, raising a hand to press against his cold cheek.

“No.” [M/N] answered rather bluntly, this caused Ghostbur to deadpan, a bead of sweat appearing on the side of his head.

“Then why are you staring...?”

“Your face is nice to stare at, is all.” his face flushes blue again, he presses his lips together as he turned away, [M/N] erupted into laughter at the way Ghostbur raised his hands to his cheeks to cup them, squishing them together. Yeah, despite the fact he has the face of the person he hates most, this version of his face was quite nice to look at. From afar, Quackity was watching the way [M/N] was laughing wholeheartedly while Ghostbur was waving his hands in a desperate attempt to stop him, he couldn’t help but grit his teeth as his gaze hardened on them.

It wasn’t fair that he was able to be happy and they weren’t.

[a few weeks later]

“Techno, this fucking sheep won’t stop following me.” [M/N] complained, raising his leg when the blue wool sheep nipped at the ends of his pants before letting out a happy bleep “Just let me eat the damn thing!” he shouts, hoping that it would scare the sheep away and convince Technoblade to actually let him eat it, much to his dismay, neither happened.

“No! How many times have I told you?!” [M/N] merely rolls his eyes with a groan before pulling some hay out of his inventory, this managed to catch the attention of the sheep so he hurled his arm back before throwing the hay in a random direction, letting out a sigh of relief when the sheep chased after it. [M/N] kicked the snow off his feet before entering Technoblade’s house, his body shuddering as the warmth within his home enveloped his body, he sniffed as he walked down the hallway and there he saw Technoblade sitting at his dining room table. 

“So, when’s Phil supposed to come around?” the piglin pursed his lips, taking out one of the letter’s Philza had sent him via crow, pushing down his reading glasses as he read through it.

“Hmm, around midday.” the both of them glance at the time and saw it was nearly that time “I wonder what’s taking him so long, he’s not usually one for being late.”

“Maybe his age is finally catching up to him.” they both stare at each other before laughing, as they continued to wait for the blonde man, the two of them worked around the property. [M/N] was helping Technoblade feed the animals and fix anything that needed to be fixed or taken down, Technoblade was tasked with collecting firewood and so he was working by cutting up the wood from the trees [M/N] cut down-- excuse me, punched down. 

“You could help, you?” [M/N] smiled smugly, leaning against Steve that laid behind him as he continued to watch Technoblade chop wood.

“But you look like you’re having fun.” he raises his hand, catching the axe that was thrown at him, and gives him a look “Hey, I did my job, now you do yours.” Technoblade growls as he pulls out another axe and continues chopping wood.

“You just chopped down too many trees!”

“Think of it as training.” [M/N] clapped his hands, leaning more into Steve as he decided that he was going to catch a couple of zzz’s, only to be interrupted when something landed on his head. Opening his eyes in slight irritation, he raised a brow with a hum when he noticed that it was one of Philza’s crows. He sat up straight as he looked around in search for the immortal man, inhaling deeply to try and catch whiff of the man’s scent, only to conclude that it was just Technoblade and himself in the area. The crow bounced up and down on his head and then did he realize that there was a small note attached to its leg so he raised his arm and it perched itself on his forearm, he removes the note from its leg and reads through it. Technoblade lets out a tired huff, wiping away at his sweating forehead as allowing the winds of the winter biome cool down his overheating body, he turned to scold [M/N] for not helping him, only now noticing that his body was trembling as the letter in his grasp was covering his face, his hands tightening and crumbling the letter under his grip.

“[M/N], what’s the matter?” he lowers the letter and there Technoblade saw [M/N]’s face expressing the emotions of anger and anxiousness, he glances down at the letter with his eyes before giving it to him.

“They’ve got Phil.” he whispers out through gritted teeth, Technoblade snatches the letter from out of his hands and quickly reads through it and his face soon matches [M/N], only, his anger was overwhelming his fear “What do we do?” Technoblade crumbles the letter up and throws it away, throwing the axe into the stump he was cutting wood on and starts making his way to his house.

“We prepare for a fight.” [M/N] was on his feet, allowing Steve to follow his master, and his hand closed into a fist. Reading that letter made his still heart thump against his chest and reminiscence the feeling of when he was serving Schlatt. His loyalty as a wolf was resurfacing from the grave and the thought of something horrible having happened to Philza all because of him was beginning to overwhelm his thoughts, he takes in a breath before turning away and rushing over to his home to prepare for the battle with him and Technoblade vs L’Manburg’s Butcher Army “[M/N]! Do you have any strength potions?!” he hears Technoblade shout from his house.

“No! I don’t make potions like that, that’s your thing!” he shouts back, tightening the guard on his forearm as he adjusted the rest of the armor on his body. It was true, he rarely used any potions that boosted up physical strength and speed, mostly using potions to insta heal himself and whatnot, his own strength and speed was superb enough that the potions used on others meant nothing.

“Useless!” he hears the other shout, this caused him to let out an offended gasp.

“Coming from the fool who has to use potions to make himself stronger!” they cease in their verbal argument when [M/N] heard footsteps, peeking his head out of his den, he let out a gasp when he saw who it was “Ghostbur? What on earth-- what are you doing here?” [M/N] has a hold on his forearms as he pulls him into his den, Ghostbur looks up at him and noticed the look of worry gracing his face.

“What’s the matter, [M/N]? Did something happen?” said man let out a frustrated growl, running his clawed hand through his hair as he searched through his chests for potions that would be helpful for himself and other potions that would debuff the Butcher Army.

“Tubbo locked Phil under house arrest and is coming for Techno and I.” his back was to the ghost, his head hanging low as his grip on the chest tightened, his claws digging into the wood “I fear that they’re going to kill us both if we don’t do anything...” Ghostbur noticed the way his body was trembling slightly, whether it be fearing for his life or maybe irritation that Tubbo had the gull to try and execute him out of a grudge. [M/N] flinched when he felt Ghostbur take his hand, glancing down, he saw tears running down his face as the blue dye on Ghostbur’s hands smudge onto his hand and fur.

“I don’t understand why Tubbo is doing this... maybe if you try and talk it through, he might listen.” [M/N] shook his head, slipping his hand free from the ghost and placing them both on his shoulders.

“I don’t believe he wants to talk it out. I feel like he’ll feel the most at ease with both Techno and I out of the picture.” he wipes away his tears before walking past him so he could make his way to Technoblade’s house, he sighs to himself as he shook his head when he heard the ghost following behind him closely. Ghostbur stayed outside, kicking at the snow as Technoblade and [M/N] thought of battle plans for when the Butcher Army showed up at their doorstep, but [M/N] couldn’t help but continue to worry.

“Hey, [M/N]! Hey!” said man lets out a sigh as he turned to look over at the ghost, Ghostbur grabbed a hold of his hand and pointed with his other at the sheep with blue wool “Look, look! It’s a sign, blue!” despite the dire situation they were in, he chuckles softly as he nods his head.

“Right, blue.”

“[M/N].” he lets out a hum, turning to look at Technoblade and saw him cock his head in the direction of the house, the wolfman lets out a sigh as he takes his hand back from Ghostbur.

“As cute as it is, Techno and I need to prepare for the onslaught that Tubbo is going to bring to us. I’d really appreciate it if you could take that sheep and get as far away as possible. Hide over a hill or something! Just get as far away from here as possible, okay? Can you do that for me, Ghosty?” Ghostbur nods, blushing at the nickname.

“O-Okay!” they watch as he goes outside and towards the sheep, attaching the lead to the sheep and leading it away “Come here blue boy. Okay, bye, bye Techno and [M/N]! H-Have fun preparing for the-- for the event.” [M/N] nods, waving goodbye as he watched Ghostbur walk away with the blue sheep following close behind.

“We shouldn’t have to worry about Ghostbur, right?”

“... we probably should.” was Technoblade’s answer before he turned around and watched away to continue preparing, this response caused [M/N] tp purse his lips and deadpan at Technoblade’s retreating form.

“That doesn’t help reassure me at all, Techno.” he was promptly ignored, once they were fully equipped in armor and fully stocked on potions, food and weapons, they took turns scooping outside the safety of Technoblade’s home for any signs of a threat. It was Technoblade’s turn to look outside the trap door window while [M/N] was distracted in sharpening his claws when he heard a groan, he raised his head and saw an annoyed look on his face.

“You’ve got to be kidding me?” [M/N] glances at him.

“What?” he points out the trapdoor and so [M/N] peeks his head over his shoulder to see what it was, his jaw dropped at he sight “Oh god, that plan to have Ghostbur hide over the hills did not work!” he shouts, Technoblade grits his teeth as he shakes his head.

“Not at all!” [M/N] soon slaps his hands over his face. 

“Urgh, Ghostbur!” he groans out, [M/N] was over Technoblade’s shoulder as they look through the trapdoor and watch Ghostbur’s interaction with the Butcher Army, they both gasp when Ghostbur looks at them.

“No, no! Don’t make eye contact with me—no, don’t wave at me Ghostbur! No, no! Do not wave at me!” [M/N] slaps his hands over his face again as he shook his head.

“Oh no, they’re punching him. No, oh no... Ghostbur you’re on your own.”

“We can’t save you, Ghostbur.” Ghostbur then starts walking over to them “Oh this is not good—no, no! Don’t walk over to us! Don’t lead them over to us! Oh—I’m starting to hate this guy so bad. I hate this guy so bad.” [M/N] just groans as he presses his hand to his forehead once again when Ghostbur starts waving his hand, Tubbo, Fundy and Ranboo behind him while Quackity was beside him with an axe in hand.

“Hey, hey Technoblade! [M/N]! The—They say they’re going to kill you, Technoblade.” he presses a finger to his cheek as he looks back at them, Technoblade shook his head as he opened the door and looked at Ghostbur.

“Ghostbur-- Ghostbur, why are you—why are you leading them over to my house? Why are you doing this?” Ghostbur looks back at the Butcher Army then back at them.

“What do you want me to say back to them?” [M/N] was over Technoblade’s shoulder again as he points at them.

“Tell them that we’re not here and to fuck off!” Technoblade nods his head.

“Yeah, tell them that they’re at the wrong place.” Ghostbur tilts his head to the side.

“But that would be lying.”

“I-I—I need you to—they're going to kill me! Why are you not okay with lying?!” they both look over and sigh “And they’re all here, they’re all here. They’re all right outside my house.” [M/N] was internally screaming in his head as he pressed his palms together while pressing them to his face, he then glances over at Ghostbur and grabs him by his forearms and pulls him towards his chest.

“Ghosty, the plan to hide isn’t an option anymore, and I don’t want you getting hurt than you already are.” he shakes his head as he pulls Ghostbur back so he could look down at him “It would really put me at ease if you stay inside the house, alright? Out of sight, out of the way, but safe. Do you think you can do that for me? Can you do that for me?” Ghostbur stares up at him, noticing the way [M/N]’s brows scrunched up in concern as he continued to hold Ghostbur’s arms, the ghost soon nodded his head as he gave him a reassuring smile.

“If it’s what you want.” he lets out a sigh of relief, his shoulder briefly settling before they tensed up again when he heard Technoblade talking to the Butcher Army, he inhales deeply before pushing the door open from behind him and gently pushing Ghostbur inside.

“Stay in the house no matter what, and don’t come out no matter what. If you hear someone’s voice that’s neither Techno’s nor mine, don’t come out or answer. This is for your own safety, okay?” he nods.

“Okay.” he goes to shut the door but paused when he felt something nibbling at his pants, he looked down and grimaced at the sight of the blue sheep eating his pants, he lifts his leg and Ghostbur laughs “He seems to like you very much.” he cooed as he took the sheep, [M/N] only rolled his eyes.

“A weird thing for the sheep to like, especially when I tried to eat it.” he ignored Ghostbur when he made a face, cutting him off by closing the door and soon approaching Technoblade from behind, placing a hand on his shoulder as he leaned down “Have you managed to convince them, Techno?” he scoffs, rolling his eyes as he steadied the sword in his hand.

“Of course not, do you really think they would listen to reason?” he laughs.

“No, I’m just glad that we’re able to fight them and I won’t get reprimanded by Phil. But before we start this rumble, let me ask you one thing.” he says, standing up straight and glaring at the Butcher Army “What have we done in these past few months that we deserve to be treated with such unjust? I bet there’s no political reason and you’re simply doing this because we’re too dangerous to have around, because we threaten you just by simply being alive.” 

“What ever happened to serve and protect? Hah, this is giving me more than enough reasons to destroy the government. You use unfair methods to try and get the upper hand, but you still fall short to the point that it’s laughable.” at that, both Technoblade and [M/N] throw their heads back as they burst out into laughter, but this laughter was not the kind you could laugh along to, they were both laughing rather manically and mockingly. Soon, the laughter died down until their was nothing but silence, the bigger two take a deep breath before they glare at the Butcher Army “You’ve made the wrong choice in making us your enemy, L’manburg. We’ll make you regret your choice.”

“We’re only protecting the people from you.” [M/N] scoffed.

“What you should be protecting the people from is yourselves. You’re nothing but uncoordinated fools.” he takes a step back so that he was standing behind Technoblade, the two of them smirk darkly as Technoblade pulls out two potions.

“I choose blood!” he shouts before throwing them to the ground, the contents within the potions splashing on them and granting them extra strength and swiftness but also acting as a smoke screen to block the view of the Butcher Army ahead of them. 

“No!”

“Oh no!” the four brace for impact and wait for the outcome to happen, [M/N] was the first to make his presence known by pushing the smoke back and letting out a loud howl, revealing to them that he was now in his full form and was not planning on letting them get out of there unscathed. Ranboo staggered backwards when he saw that [M/N] locked eyes with him, he grits his teeth and raises his axe in a poor attempt to block his attack but was denied when the wolfman easily punched through the shaft of the axe, snapping it in half and his fist connecting with the Enderman hybrid’s torso. Ranboo was winded immediately as he was sent flying backwards, he collapsed to his knees and wrapped his arm around his stomach, tears leaking from his eyes and burning his skin as some saliva dribbled out of his mouth.

’Messing with these two was a mistake from the very beginning.’ Ranboo thought, gasping for air as he tried to compose himself despite taking such an intense blow from the very beginning, he soon lets out a whine as he closed his eyes ’God, I am in so much pain...!’ he really was, the axe was able to kill most of the blow but he still took a punch to the chest from [M/N] of all people. Still cradling his stomach, he weakly raised his head and shivered in fear when he saw [M/N]’s [E/C] eyes staring down at him intensely before he turned around and charged towards Fundy, who let out a yip before running away. This sort of reaction confused Ranboo, he was told by Tubbo, Fundy and Quackity that [M/N] was relentless and merciless when it came down to killing, so he couldn’t understand why [M/N] left him be.

The answer? It’s quite simple really, though he was already wary of the Enderman hybrid as well as the fact that he was threatening his life that very moment, he could tell that the kid was just roped in because he was new to the server as well as the fact that he knew nobody so he was only trusting the other three because there was nobody else there to teach him right from wrong. There was also the fact that Ranboo hadn’t directly done anything wrong to [M/N] where he needed to beat some sense into him, that one little love tap was more than enough to get him to think twice before raising his weapon against someone who was leagues above him. That being said, he didn’t feel an ounce of guilt when he punched Fundy in the face and watched him collapse to the ground, to which he proceeded to grab him by the ankle as start swinging him around.

“Hey, Techno! Let’s play baseball!” Fundy’s face paled when he saw both men smirk, beginning to break out into a cold sweat when he saw Technoblade kick Tubbo into Quackity as he raised his axe and pulled it back while holding the shaft of the axe like it was a baseball bat “Shoot for a homerun!” 

“Hey! I’m not a damn ball! This isn’t going to work!” Fundy shouts in hopes he could stop the two from doing something insane, [M/N] merely rolled his eyes as he tossed him up slightly so his hand would grab onto the collar of his shirt instead. Now with a better hold on the fox man, he pulls his arm back before slamming his foot onto the snowy ground before throwing him at Technoblade full force, he soon bursts out into laughter when Technoblade swung his axe and the flat side of the blade hit Fundy square in the face and sent him flying into a tree.

“Nice one!” [M/N] cheered as he approached the pigman, raising his paw and the two of them high five.

“Nice serve.” he jokingly bows his head.

“Thank you, thank you.” they soon fist pump before going back to absolutely demolishing the two who were still able to move, Quackity and Tubbo take a step backwards as the two bigger hybrids start closing in on them with little to no remorse in each step, the two of them were ready to dye the white snow red with their blood “You take Tubbo?” [M/N] says, the boy flinches when Technoblade moved his gaze to him before nodding his head.

“Sure, and Quackity’s yours?” he salutes.

“Rightyo.” they switch places before [M/N] starts charging towards Quackity, keeping true to his word, he completely ignored Tubbo in favor for the damned bastard who took one of Schlatt’s lives, that was enough to fuel that anger that he managed to bury deep inside him. [M/N] didn’t even chase after Quackity, the duck fled out of fear while [M/N] simply walked after him, a sickening smirk on his face as he watched Quackity stumble over his footing as he tried getting away from [M/N] “Aw, what happened to all that confidence, Quackity? Weren’t you here to kill us, but right now, it seems the opposite is happening right now.”

“Shut up! We’re still going to kill you both!” he rolls his eyes.

“For what?” he asks once more “Techno and I have done nothing to you guys and L’Manburg for months, and yet now you guys are here because we’re too dangerous? I call bullshit, I just know that there is another reason as to why you guys are doing this. Or perhaps, maybe this was your idea. You do seem to be the one running the show here while Tubbo is in the passenger seat, what’s your motive?” Quackity was now backed into a tree, back pressed flush against the stump as [M/N] loomed over him with a dark expression, a nervous smirk worked its way onto Quackity’s face as he managed to swallow down all his fear as he took a step forward, leaning up to glare straight into [M/N]’s eyes.

“You’re right, [M/N], you’re right. You’re on the hit list, both you and Technoblade, even Dream.” he shoves [M/N] back enough to poke at his chest, a twisted expression now crossing onto his face “I don’t care how long it takes me nor what I have to do to get there, but I’m going to make sure that I’m the one that kills you, the three of you.” 

“Hah, I’d love to see you try, little duckling.” pulling his arm back, he bares his claws and goes to strike Quackity down but the latter was just lucky enough to duck down, sweating a little when [M/N]’s clawed paws took down the tree in one strike. He tries to crawl away but lets out a grunt when [M/N] kicked him down before grabbing his ankle, this time, he didn’t swing Quackity around like a ragdoll like he did to Fundy, nah, he turned around and slammed his body into the ground before throwing him towards the house. That wicked grin appeared on his face as he noticed the way Quackity’s body was trembling in pain, he then looks to the side and saw the fallen tree so he knelt down and managed to get a good hold on it before lifting it up.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.” Quackity weakly croaked out when he noticed a shadow looming over him and he turned around to see what it was, only to pale when he saw that it was the tree [M/N] was previously holding before he threw it at him. He quickly rolled out of the way and shivered when it landed just where he was, Technoblade noticed and he quickly looked over at the wolfman and glared at him.

“Hey! Watch the house! You’re paying for damages!” the other scoffed.

“Through labour, dickhead!” Technoblade only rolled his eyes, Quackity pushed himself onto his back before rolling away when [M/N] jumped from where he was and was intending to land on top of Quackity, or rather, slam his claws into his body as he descended from the sky. He swallowed thickly as he stared at the damage [M/N] caused and was frantically looking for a way to subdue both men, his eyes soon landed on a horse and an idea crossed his mind, he scrambles to his feet and [M/N] doesn’t hesitate to chase after him.

“Big Q, do something!” Tubbo shouts from where he was, raising his axe one more time to block Technoblade’s sword from slicing his face “Big Q!” he growls and pulls his sword back one more time and goes to deliver the final blow but was stopped when he heard Quackity shout his name.

“Technoblade!” he turned his head to the call and his eyes widened at the sight, Quackity was holding the lead to Technoblade’s most prized horse Carl with the blade of his sword at his neck, he lifted his blade and pointed it in the direction of where Quackity was Tubbo took this distraction as an opportunity to get away.

“You get away from that horse right now!” Technoblade shouts.

“This is how this is going to go, Technoblade. Drop everything you have and come with us, if you don’t, I am going to kill this fucking horse.” [M/N] was just a couple inches away from Quackity and he glared at the little bastard.

“Technoblade, come on.” [M/N] starts, noticing the way the pigman was hesitating “It’s a horse! You can always get another one!” he adds, throwing his arms open to exaggerate his point. 

“We wouldn’t have been in this mess if you hadn’t played with your food!” this caused the other to narrow his eyes at him.

“Don’t play with me, Techno. You do the same!” Quackity and Tubbo sweat drop when they notice the two of them start arguing, Quackity lets out a growl before moving the blade so that it was closer to Carl’s neck.

“Enough fucking around! I promise you, if you don’t drop everyone you have right now, I’ll make sure to kill this horse!” he threatens once more, [M/N]’s shoulders dropped when he saw Technoblade inhale deeply as he looked away, he soon closed his eyes when he witnessed Technoblade drop his sword before removing all his armor and taking all his items out of his inventory, hell, he even took his crown and cape off “That’s right, and you too, [M/N]!” the wolfman glared at the new tyrant when he saw that confidence rise to his face once more, he only shook his head before doing the same thing. Ranboo and Fundy had now regained their composure and were chaining Technoblade and [M/N] up, Ranboo flinched when he placed a collar that was Enchanted with Curse of Binding around his neck with a chain that connected with the handcuffs around his neck. 

“I’m sorry...” Ranboo apologize, this apology surprised [M/N] slightly, his ears and head perking up in confusion when he could tell that Ranboo was sincere about his apology.

“... you’ve done nothing wrong.” was all [M/N] said to the young boy before looking away, flexing his hands and missing the way a conflicted expression worked its way onto Ranboo’s face. Ranboo would sometimes converse with Philza and Ghostbur and both men would say such positive things about [M/N] and the one thing he was working on was his anger management. He could see how calm [M/N] was despite the fact that he was now going to be executed along with Technoblade, who was just as calm as the other as they were being led away. Ranboo soon noticed the way [M/N] kept glancing back towards Technoblade’s house with a worried expression before stumbling forward when Fundy yanked on the chain connected to the collar, he then remembered the fact that Ghostbur was still in the house and was going to go check on him but stopped when he heard Quackity’s voice.

“Let’s go, Ranboo.” he said, no, it was more like an order that he had to obey, so with a nod of his head he followed them.

“Right.” 

[in l’manburg]

“I can’t believe it, you actually got them.“ being led into L’Manburg once more was almost humilating, but that humiliation disappeared when the two men turn their heads at the sound of Philza’s voice and there they saw the older man detained in his own home with a ankle band that was Enchated with Curse of Binding, keeping him from leaving his house but he was able to stand out on his veranda and there he bared witness to seeing his old friend and newest friend being dragged along in chains.

“Phil!” Technoblade shouts, finally acting up and  taking a step forward, yanking at his chains as he looked up at him “What did they do to you?!” he exclaims, gritting his teeth when Fundy pulled at his chains and Quackity grabbed his shoulder. [M/N] was just as shocked but he was shaking in anger, he was ready to burst but the look Philza was giving him made him calm down slightly, however that did not stop the continuous beating in his heart and it only continued to beat. He let out a grunt when he was kicked down onto his knees by Quackity, who was now holding the chains to his cuffs and collar while Tubbo led Technoblade to the cage he was going to be executed in. 

“You’re going to watch Technoblade die in front of you and know that what we do to him will happen to you.” [M/N] only growled in response before letting out a groan when Quackity yanked on the chians once more to shut him up, he growled to himself before his eyes wander up to where Technoblade was approaching his death. 

Walking up the steps to the cage that was to hold him in his cell for his execution was slowly dawning on him, each step he took felt heavy, almost as if he was trudging through ocean waters. It was unsettling that this was where he was going to die, what was upsetting was that Philza and [M/N] were there and they were going to see him take his last breath. He was going to die with his friend and associate, along with his enemies, watching him, Fundy was the one to lock him in the cage and he turned around to face them as Tubbo took his spot on the podium to make his speech.

“Technoblade has robbed this country of what made it special; everything that defined what it was. He stepped in when he shouldn’t have. He caused chaos, he ruined the government! He— Punz is throwing fucking—“ Technoblade wasn’t bothered listening to the blubbering bullshit Tubbo was goin on about because it just meant nothing to him, but at the mention if Punz, he raised his head and saw the mercenary throwing an Ender Pearl down from where he was and made his appearance in the middle of it all. The Butcher Army was confused as to why he suddenly showed up but were taken aback when he threw down multiple potions to boost his own stats while causing a smoke screen, what really threw them in a loop was when he placed down TNT.

“Punz! What are you doing?!”

“Punz, stop!”

“Fucking get his ass!”

“I’ll— I’ll just sit here.” Technoblade muttered to himself, watching the chaos unfold as they all chased after Punz to stop him from doing what he was doing, Technoblade sighed to himself as he leaned against the steel bars of the cage “This is nice.” he then glanced over at [M/N] and saw he made no attempt in trying to get free as he watched the chaos unfold with an equally confused look on his face. 

“Technoblade.” he flinched slightly at the sound of a echoing voice, turning his head, he hummed softly at the sight of Ghostbur and that goddamn blue sheep right behind him, obediently following after him while nibbling on the hem of his yellow sweater “Technoblade!” he cheered once more, to which the latter pursed his lips as he slowly nodded his head.

“Hello Ghostbur.” he greets, rather calmly despite the fact he was about to die.

“I’ve named him— I’ve named him Friend.” he nods.

“That’s fantastic Ghostbur, that’s fantastic. I’m about to die Ghostbur.”

“Okay, fuck it. Fuck it!” Technoblade turned his attention away from Ghostbur when he heard Quackity shouting while rushing back over to where the lever was while the others dealt with Punz.

“Big Q, pull the lever!”

“Heh?!”

“Pull the lever!” Technoblade takes a step back, looking up at the wooden blank that kept him and the anvil intending to kill him away. The thumping in his heart was beating so fast that it was all he could hear, slowly, everything started going slow motion in his point of view. He opened up his inventory and pulled out the one item that he kept hidden from the Butcher Army that would surely save his life, but he also knew that it was going to hurt like a motherfucker. So, holding onto it with a grip that made his knuckles turn white, he closed his eyes shut and waited for the impact of the anvil to kill him. [M/N] winced as he turned away, his ears pressing against his head when he heard the anvil slam onto Technoblade’s head and kill him, however, the sound of confetti reached his ears and he couldn’t help but turn his head back towards the pigman.

[Technoblade has reached the goal Postmortal]

“Heh, Technoblade never dies, huh?” was all [M/N] could say as he watched in amazement and disgust when he saw the Totem of Undying regenerate his skull, how from his bones, to his muscle to his skin was put back together but his face held the scar of a crack that shimmered like gold. 

“What?!”

“Huh?!”

“How did he not die?!”

“What is going on?!” amongst all the confusion [M/N] tugs on the chains as he looked at Technoblade.

“Techno, run!” he noticed him hesitate.

“What about you?!”

“I’ll be fine! Just get outta here!” he took a breath before nodding his head and sprinting away, following after where Dream had taken Carl away. Quackity was the only one to leave the scene while Punz was left to fight the remaining members of the Butcher Army, [M/N] then took a deep breath as he looked down at the collar that was keeping him from going ape shit. Tubbo was in the middle of defending himself from an arrow shot by Punz when he heard the low growling, he turned to look at where [M/N] was and his eyes widened in fear when he noticed that he his grip on the collar was so tight as he was slowly breaking it off.

“No... no! Stop him! We can’t let him loose!” Fundy and Ranboo turned to face [M/N] and were frightened that the collar was at the verge of breaking with how  how tight [M/N] was gripping it while pulling it apart. They immediately rush towards him and attempt to stop him but were stopped dead in their tracks by Punz, giving [M/N] enough time to break the collar with his bare claws then letting out a loud howl as he glared at the lot of them from behind Punz. 

“You lot have got some nerve.” he snarled lowly at them, however, he ignored them and raised his head to look up at Philza. Said man took a step back when he noticed how the wolfman pulled his wrists apart to break the handcuffs before he knelt down and launched himself over to his veranda, pushing himself off the walls until he was standing on top of the railing “Let’s get outta here, Phil.” the blonde chuckled softly when he saw [M/N] extend his hand out to him, he took his hand with a shake of his head.

“Yeah, let’s go.” he let out a whoa when [M/N] tugged him forward, he wrapped his arm beneath him and was going to jump away until he heard the sound of Ghostbur’s voice, he looked down and his eyes widened when he saw the ghost.

“Ghosty? Seriously?! Didn’t I tell you to stay at the house?” he exclaims, the other just laughed.

“I was wondering where everyone went and came here to find you guys at the event.” [M/N] only shook his head.

“Goodness gracious.” he knelt down so he could put Philza on his back before launching himself towards Ghostbur, hooking his arm under the ghost then grabbing the sheep before charging over towards Punz, who stumbled backwards then let out a whoa when [M/N] opened his mouth and locked his jaws onto the hood of his jumper before tossing them all up and onto his back as he ran away on all fours at full speed. 

“What about Techno?!” Phil shouts, letting out a whoa when he felt [M/N] pick up the pace, placing his hand on his head to keep his hat from flying off.

“Techno will be fine! That piece of shit Quackity doesn’t stand a chance against Techno despite the odds being in Techno’s favor.” [M/N] noticed Philza was still worried about ihs friend so he looked back up towards him with a look of reassurance “Come on now, Phil. Techno was able to walk off an anvil to the head, he’ll surely be able to walk away from Quackity with Carl in toe.” Philza bit his lip before letting out a sigh as he nodded his head.

“Well... alright.” 

[Quackity was slain by Technoblade]

“Heh, see?” [M/N] started, the message of Quackity’s death appearing before their eyes, relieving them of their stress and worry “Techno will be fine.” with that [M/N] took off without a moments rest, Punz whistled to himself as he held onto [M/N]’s fur with a death grip when the man leapt through the air to cover more ground then landed on the ground with a loud thud before sprinting off as if it were nothing. [M/N] was now collapsed onto his stomach, taking deep breaths and wheezing after running nonstop until he reached the shoreline and was now taking a much needed rest, Ghostbur was by his side petting his head while Philza was watching the forest in search for his friend, Punz doing the same but looking for Dream. 

“You did such a good job, [M/N]. Well done.” Ghostbur praised, Philza snorted when he noticed the way [M/N]’s tail started thumping on the ground, then both he and Punz raised their guards at the sound of shuffling coming from the forest,[M/N] doing the same but instead pulling Ghostbur and Friend close to him to protect.

“Whoa there, it’s just us.” they all let out a collective sigh of relief when they saw that it was only Technoblade and Dream emerging from the forest.

“Took you long enough.” [M/N] pursed his lips as he shrugged his shoulders, looking away from Technoblade growled at him but Philza grabbed his arm to calm the piglin, Ghostbur doing the same with the wolfman but was scolding him softly.

“I’m so glad that you’re alright, Techno.” Philza said before wrapping his arms around the man, who let out a soft sigh as he gently pats him on the back, he then raised his head and his ears perked up when he noticed that [M/N] gave him a thumbs up. 

“Good to see you still kicking, Techno.” he only chuckles.

“You think that was enough to kil me?”

“Of course not.” they both smile softly at each other and fist bump each other, [M/N]’s soon moved towards Dream, a shallow growl emitting from his throat. He still never forgot his promise to Dream about his betrayal towards him and Schlatt, but because of Dream that very night, he probably would have died.

“I can tell what you’re thinking, [M/N].” Dream said rather mockingly, the growl resurfaced at his tone and Dream made sure to change tactics because he knew not to antagonize this man “Since Punz and I saved you two, I hope you guys can return the favor in the future.” Technoblade was the first to answer, a soft smile on his face.

“Of course! Whenever you need it, I’ll be there to setlle the debt.” Dream’s eyes then returned to [M/N], he noticed him narrow his eyes at the green man before throwing his head back.

“Fine, I might be there if you need a favor from me as well.” that was more than enough for Dream, to which he bowed his head towards them, arm to his chest and a soft smirk on his face.

“Then it was pleasure doing business with you lot.” 

Visit

word count: 5003

Fandom: IRL!MCYT Pairing: TommyInnit x Elder!Brother!Reader Pronouns: He/Him Relationship: Familial/Platonic Occupation: Automotive Engineer Ability: N/A

Keys:

[M/N]: Male Name [H/C]: Hair Color [E/C]: Eye Color [S/C]: Skin Color

Warnings: n/a

"[M/N]!” said man let out a laugh when his younger brother let out a loud cheer, rushing down the stairs before proceeding to tackle his elder brother into a hug, wrapping his arms around his waist while his arms were around his neck and his face buried into the crook of his neck “Why the fuck didn’t you tell me you were coming down to visit?” [M/N] Simons, the elder brother to TommyInnit, and not just an elder brother figure, but his genuine and blood related brother. If people were to describe what the elder Innit looked like, they would probably say that he looked like a more mature and elder version of Tommy with longer/short [H/C] locks and a more broader form while being a couple inches taller than Tommy.

“I thought I could surprise you, Tommy.” he replies with a laugh, managing to keep himself up right from being knocked over “Did I surprise you? Huh? Did I? Did I?” he let out a laugh when Tommy peeled himself off him to give his older brother a hard smack to the arm, causing him to let out a cry but he still laughed anyways.

“Fuck off! I didn’t like this surprise at all! Should have brought a souvenir with you while you were gone.” Tommy grumbled under his breath, what he meant by that was the fact that [M/N] was studying abroad in Singapore, majoring in Engineering as he studied at the National University of Singapore. The acceptance rate to get into the National University of Singapore was 5-7% and [M/N] was lucky enough to get accepted, he was happy nonetheless but the fact that he had to study abroad for about four years, it was heart breaking. Tommy was about thirteen years old when he received the news, at first he didn’t take it too well and locked himself in his room for hours on end. He had a really close relationship with his brother and hearing that he was leaving to another country, he resented his brother because he wasn’t going to see him as often as he wanted.

It took a lot of convincing and long talks from outside his room to get Tommy to unlock the door, when he opened it and peeked his head inside, he let out a soft sigh when he saw Tommy sitting on his bed with his blankets draped over him. His body was trembling as he let out hiccups and whimpers, [M/N] took a seat beside him on his bed and gently placed his head where he believed his head was and stroked it gently and whispered sweet nothings and words of comfort to ease his brother out of his cocoon. He spent the rest of his time in England hanging out with his brother and sleeping in his room before he eventually had to leave for Singapore, he also had to try his damned hardest not to laugh when Tommy continued to sob his heart out while they were at the airport to watch him board his plane. He will never let the younger one live it down.

During his four years studying in Singapore, he would keep in touch with Tommy via texts or face time. Tommy would often talk all day through the night before eventually talking himself to sleep, most times on calls it would be Tommy saying how much he missed his elder brother and wished for him to come home so they could hang like they used to. To ease his brother, he would often seen souvenirs or send postcards from places he visited while staying in Singapore, he spoke about the friends he made while staying there and how he was being taught Malay and a bit of Mandarin Chinese, to which he would try to teach Tommy over face time. Now when it was 2020-2021 and Tommy started getting more and more popular on Twitch and YouTube, [M/N] would catch wind of his popularity and start watching his videos and VODs.

It was very entertaining and [M/N] couldn’t help but be very proud of his younger brother of making a name for himself, he was happy just seeing how happy Tommy was, and that was more than enough to satisfy him. Now when they were on call together, he could hear the genuine happiness in his voice as he spoke about his new friends, especially his friend Tubbo and Ranboo, mostly Tubbo because he would often call Ranboo a bitch. Anyways, [M/N] had been planning on coming back to England by the end of 2020 because he managed to finish his course early but COVID was a pain in the ass and slapped him in the face and said no, so he waited months to be allowed to travel internationally again and was completely over the moon when he was allowed to leave and return to England. He was planning on telling his parents and Tommy but thought against it, a surprise family reunion would be much better.

And that brought us too:

“Souvenirs? Of course I brought souvenirs, stupid.” [M/N] was reaching towards his suitcase but stopped when Tommy wrapped his arms around his torso, [M/N] looked down at him before huffing softly when he saw his body trembling, he shook his head before embracing his brother and resting his cheek on top of his curly locks “I’m home, bro. I hope you missed me.” he heard him sniffle.

“I didn’t miss you one bit, bitch.”

“Right, right.” seeing their parents too earned him a slap to the back because he came back unannounced, but at the end of the day they celebrated the return of the eldest son of the Simons Family. [M/N]’s old room was turned into a guest room and he was crashing their for the night but it changed when Tommy dragged him into his room and practically refused to let him out because he wanted to make sure he didn’t leave in the morning. Though, it was late at night Tommy was currently streaming while [M/N] was sleeping on his bed, as usual, Tommy was being obnoxiously loud and it was enough to get a groan out for [M/N].

”Hey Tommy, what was that?” Wilbur questioned, it was just loud enough that his mic managed to pick it up. Tommy pushed his headset back to let one of his ears out as he spun his chair in the direction of his bed, because of the movement, his viewers managed to see the curve of a body laying on his bed.

“Oh shit, I’m sorry, am I being too loud?” Tommy said a hushed tone when he noticed [M/N] turn his head back to glance at the blonde, [M/N] let out a yawn as he waved his hand to dismiss him.

“You’re fine, just keep it down a little, mmkay?” his voice was just quiet enough that nobody heard him, his answer caused Tommy to nod his head.

“Alright, sorry again.” [M/N]’s response to that was a yawn before he turned away from him and nodded back to sleep, Tommy let out a sigh before turning back to face his PC, a panicked looked crossed his face when he took a glance at his chat.

”hey hey hey! who was that?”

“who was that?”

“someone is in his room!”

“who is it?”

“tell us!”

”Hey Tommy, who is that behind you?” he heard Tubbo ask ”Is it you know who?” he added, the only person Tommy ever told anyone about his brother was Tubbo so he was probably the only person in that call that had at least a bit of an idea who it could be.

”Huh? Tubbo knows? Tubbo! Tell us!” Wilbur shouted, this earned a lot of agreement from the chats of everyone who was live, Philza was the first to come to his defence and calm them down.

”Come on now, whoever it is is trying to sleep. Quiet down.” 

“Crow father has spoken.” this earned multiple groans while Tubbo smirked in victory “Tubbo is the only one who knows who it is, and I’m not entirely sure if they’re comfortable with being known about who they are to me, so I’ll keep quiet about it until I ask them.” Tubbo snickers.

”Don’t even try to bribe me into telling you, I take real pleasure in knowing while watching you guys suffer.” this earned some laughter from the others, Tommy shook his head as he glanced behind him once more to see his brother sleeping peacefully. Yeah, having his brother back was a nice change of pace.