warnings: swearing; use of cigarettes, for de plot; percy is a dork and extremely down bad from the millisecond y'all make eye contact
word count: 2,1k
the aforementioned remix. I'm gonna start getting serious ab writing guys, I swær, bc I lowkey thrived off the pressure bc I gave myself a time limit, and we all know pressure make diamonds.
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Percy hadn’t been performing for long but the shitty bars he somehow got gigs in around New York were always filled themselves with fans when he was around (there wasn’t much space to begin with but I digress.) The faces in the crowd shifted from bar to bar like a moving tide but there was one face he’d seen that kept coming back, yours.
You’d been to almost all of his shows. You reasoned it was because the music was good, but all your friends said you were obsessed and definitely crushing on him. You couldn’t really deny it, you did find him physically attractive but there was something that wasn’t so superficial intriguing you.
Maybe he felt it too, because every show, without fail, his eyes met yours, almost like he was actively looking for you, that or he’s wondering “who is this girl who keeps showing up to my shows? even in places that aren’t remotely close to each other.” You hoped you gave mysterious, cool energy instead of obsessed groupie.
You were outside a bar after one of said shows when you got your answer.
You’d slipped outside, before girls started to bat their eyelashes and twirl their hair at Percy and his bandmates, for some air that wasn’t potent with the sickly sweet smell of cocktails and musky sweat and, paradoxically, a smoke. You were mid light up when the sound you heard when you pushed through the backdoor sounded again.
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Ever since Percy had first seen you, he’d thought you were gorgeous and like any sane person, he was going get your number, so after the show, he pulled off his guitar and put it away before starting his search for you but apparently the gods still loved playing with him even though he was, apparently, passed the age where they enjoy meddling the most because he lost sight of you in the chaos of his bandmates pulling him into conversations and tipsy girls flirting with him.
He mourned you the whole night. His bandmates caught onto his bad mood. Leo was the one to ask.
“What’s up with you?” He mused as he wrapped an arm around Percy’s shoulders. “You’re literally surrounded by women who want you and think you make good music, how are you upset?”
“I think I saw the love of my life.”
“And they call me dramatic.” He says as he takes a sip of his drink.
Percy huffs and pushes him off.
“What do you mean “saw”?” Leo asks before taking another sip.
“I mean I saw her but I didn’t get the chance to talk to her because of you bitch ass.” Leo had been the one to pull Leo into the conversation that made him lose sight of you.
“My bad?” He apologises, not really knowing what he’s apologising for.
“Fuck, she was so gorgeous, and we made eye contact and there was this spark. I swear to the gods, I watched our whole future flash before my eyes. Maybe I was hallucinating but she was just that bad, bro.” He says with his head in his hand.
“How are you this down bad? You haven’t even spoken to her.”
“If you saw her, you’d get it.”
Leo shrugs and goes back to flirting with girls (and boys) at the bar.
So you can imagine his reaction when he sees you, with your friends. different from the ones you were with last gig, he noticed (he replayed the moment you first made eye contact in his memory a million times over trying to find a clue to find you, so yes he knew who you were with), in the crowd at another gig way across town. He’s sure he froze the a second he spotted you. He was also sure he was seeing things.
“Dude, she’s haunting me.” Percy says as he stares at you like you’ll disappear if he looked away (you probably will.)
“What are you talking about?” Leo asks as he tucks his drumsticks into his pocket.
“The baddie from our last gig, I saw her in the crowd.” He elaborates.
“Oh, shit. Maybe the gods don’t hate you.” He says as he follows Percy’s line of vision as he notices he’s staring at something (someone). “Damn, she is bad.”
“I told you.” He says as he watches you laugh with one of your friends. Gods, you’re even more hypnotising when you smile, he thought to himself. “So you see her too? I’m not crazy, right?”
“I do, in fact, see her, homie.”
“I’m gonna go talk to her.”
“You do that, or I will.”
Percy shoots him a glare before stepping off stage to get to you.
He doesn’t know how it happened but one second he was looking at you, practically pinning you down with his gaze so you wouldn’t move, then somebody’s bumping into him, spilling a drink on his shoes and apologising with slightly slurred speech and the next he’s looking up and you’re gone.
“Jesus, she’s like fucking Houdini.” He mutters to himself before returning to his bandmates in defeat, already sulking enough for everyone to notice.
“What’s wrong with Percy?” Jason asks as he pushes up his glasses.
“He’s mourning” Leo replies.
“Mourning who?” Frank questions.
“A bad bitch.” Leo shakes his head in sadness.
“Did someone die?” Frank asks
“Shh, Franklin,’ Leo shushes him dramatically with a finger on his lips “a moment of silence for the fallen angel.” He puts a hand over his heart just as dramatically.
“Did someone actually die?” Jason whispers after what he deems is a respectable amount of time for a moment of silence.
“Nah, Percy just saw a really pretty girl and didn’t get her number.” Leo shrugs.
“So why’s he acting like he lost his wife?” Frank asks.
“He might’ve, he told me something about seeing their future flash before his eyes. I don’t know, she was really bad, bro. I’d be like that, too.” He says before walking off.
Jason and Frank look at each other, not knowing what to do.
By the end of the night, all the band members, Jason; frank; and Leo, had taken their turn at comforting him about the ‘baddie who got away’ as Leo dubbed it.
The third show, you didn’t attend and he convinced himself that you weren’t real and that he’d had some kind of shared hallucination with Leo. He spent the night sitting in the corner on his phone, checking through every view on the Instagram story that announced that where they’d be performing tonight in case he could find your account by your profile picture that’d ideally be a picture of you. He had no luck.
The forth show is when he saw you again and he made it personal mission to talk to you, no matter what; he was not leaving this bar without at least knowing your name. He dodged every drunk fangirl and bandmate trying to talk to him and he didn’t take his eyes off of you. He watched you as you slipped out the back door and he followed after you.
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It could’ve been literally anyone coming through the door but you guessed (hoped) it was him. You took a drag of your cigarette, letting him sit in the silence or as close as you can to it in New York City; you know, let him bask in your badness for a second, before turning around. You guessed right, you smirked in satisfaction and at the fact that this might actually start going somewhere, to him it’d come across as a knowing smile.
He stared like he couldn’t believe he’d finally caught you. The gods were finally having some mercy on him and he was not about to fumble what could very well be his last shot.
He opened his mouth and promptly shut it as he realised the words would not be coming out. You smiled like you thought it was cute; Percy came to the conclusion that your smile was (somehow) prettier when it was directed towards him specifically.
“Uh- could I bum a cigarette?” he asked, smooth.
Gods, what was he thinking? “Could I bum a cigarette?” —he’s a rockstar for the gods’ sake, he shouldn’t be bumming cigarettes from fans and who even uses the word “bum”? He mentally facepalmed.
“Help yourself.” you shrug and open the pack, holding it in his direction.
He takes one, grateful that you didn’t question. “Do you have a lighter.”
“Mhm.” you hum as you spark your light and hold it up to his lips, your eyes, though, were on his, all pretty and green. You’d always been had a thing for green eyes. His were crown with long black lashes and you were pretty sure the colour was shifting as if you were watching a moving tide.
When Percy looked up from making sure the end of his cigarette lined up with the flame, he was met with your eyes locked on his. It was like he got hypnotised for a second, giving into the warmth swirling in your irises, and when he snapped out of it, he did the dorkiest thing he could’ve done: he choked, full on. The kind where you start coughing and struggle to breathe between your muscles spasming and expelling air from your lungs.
A panicked look was quick to grace your face, you patted his back because you didn’t know what else to do, “Oh my gosh, are you okay?!”
He replied with a gasp as he was finally able to get some air back in his lungs, “I’m good, this is just, uh, not my regular brand.”
“Right.” You nod.
“It’s like when you switch milk brands and you have to get used to the taste.” He didn’t know why he was driving this home this hard.
“Yeah.” you smiled, amused by the weird analogy before taking a drag of your cigarette.
He thanks the gods that you smiled instead of looking put off. He spends the next few seconds of silence berating and telling himself he needed to lock in and the next admiring your profile.
“Staring problem much?” You tease as you turn your head to look at him.
“Says the person who keeps showing up to my shows, groupie much?” He teases back.
“I’m not a groupie, you just make good music.” You roll your eyes.
“You could stream it on platforms instead of coming to multiple shows.” He adds
“Music sounds better live.”
“So you’re not an obsessed fangirl? Just a music connoisseur.”
“Exactly.” You nod.
“So you’d be opposed to giving me your number?”
“I never said that.”
“Just checking.” Percy smiles a little to himself.
A comfortable silence falls between you two. Percy tucks his phone that had just been graced with your number back into his pocket. You can hear the music from the bar bleeding out onto the street; cars zipping by and other nightlife of the city that never sleeps.
“So… does my number one groupie have a name?”
“I’m not a groupie.” You frown
“Does it help if I say you’re my favourite and prettiest groupie?”
“Oh so there are other groupies you’ve been comparing me to?”
“Uh- That’s not what I meant. You don’t compare to anyone else I’ve ever met.” He say, flustered.
You tilt your head at him, not expecting a genuine compliment “I was kidding, but thanks.” You smile. “Oh and it’s Y/n, my name.”
“Y/n,” he tested it on his tongue ‘Pretty name. I’m Percy.”
“Nice to meet you, Percy.”
Your cigarette is almost finished even though you’ve barely smoked it, too occupied with the man standing next to you. You snub it out and throw it into the big dumpster in the alley.
“Well, Percy, this has been great but I think I’m gonna get going.”
“Wait,” he says before he can think it through; he just really doesn’t want this to end. “the night doesn’t have to end here.”
“Are you asking me out?” You cock your head teasingly with a smirk.
“Yeah, we could, uh, get pizza. The best slice in the city isn’t too far from here and it closes pretty late. You like pizza right?”
“Who doesn’t but don’t you have to, y’know, get back to your band?”
“They’ll be fine; they’re all adults. I’ll shoot them a text and everything’ll be right as rain. Just say yes. please?” Percy wasn’t even embarrassed by how desperate he sounded at this point.
“Well, since you’re begging. I guess, I’ll go out with you.”
“You guess?”
“Sarcasm, Percy. I’d love to go out with you.”
Percy smiled giddily at your response before putting his arm out for you to take.
“Lead the way.” You smile as you take his arm.
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There will be an extended version where the date actually happens and maybe other parts bc they're too cute together and I have hella ideas. Comment if you want to be on percy taglist!!
a/n i did only want three parts but i’m thinking i’ll make the finale after this. there’s just so much to fit in there
i tried my best guys. we’re FINALLY getting to a bit of the romance aspect now
now i feel really bad that THIS is the last thing i’m posting 😭 umm hope you like it ?? will try to post finale before official quitting.
mike’s started to get used to you. he’s started falling into your routine. you wake up earlier than him. or sometimes when you wake up, he’s already up. you always know that he hasn’t slept.
“go to sleep,” you’d say to him, like it’s an option. but you’d make him lay down (in the tree, because that’s where you both sleep. weird, he knows) and place a hand on his forehead. something about the weight was so solid, so grounding. he never really remembers falling asleep, but he knows he wakes up refreshed (aside from his back hurting from those fuckass branches). he doesn’t know how long it’s been. he’s sure the others think he’s dead.
despite how he’s feeling about you, you won’t tell him anything more than your name, not even who you’re looking for. he doesn’t know your steve harringon’s strange little sister that he loves so much. that he’s crying about at this exact moment, probably. and you’re not telling him. why should you?
“do you want one?”
your voice snaps him out of his daydream. it’s blooming daylight now, slowly. the sun is taking its time today. your smile is the only light mike needs anyway.
“micheal.”
his eyes go to yours. habit. or instinct, maybe. there’s no easy way to say you’re house training him all over again. the only reason it’s okay with him is because it shows you care. nobody else ever bothered to correct him, so he did whatever he wanted to. nobody spoke to him enough to be bothered by it. but you are.
“look. there you go again. do you want one?”
he glances down to your hands.
you do this thing when you notice his drifting. sometimes you’ll lightly smack his cheek to bring him back. you tell him he’s daydreaming. he won’t admit it.
you’re holding a lightning bug, he realizes now.
“what the hell? how did you even get that?”
you blink at him, a smile deep on your cheeks.
“i caught it! do you want it? it will help us see in the dark.”
you’re so excited, and mike has a habit of ruining everything with his big fucking mouth.
“you’re so weird. where did you find that?”
it’s nothing serious, or mike doesn’t think so. he calls you weird all the time. or maybe he just does in his head. you are weird, it’s just a fact.
your eyebrows furrow.
“no i’m not. you’re weird. i’m not weird.”
you defend, suddenly breaking that awfully strong eye contact you always keep. the confidence leaves your tone. he’s never heard you so…unsure.
“you are. not in a bad way! you’re just…strange. but that’s okay—“
you turn away from him, blinking fast. why would he say that? why does everyone say that? is that why no one sticks around? there has to be some truth to it. maybe that’s why you haven’t found steve. maybe he doesn’t want to find you. maybe he’s happy to finally get rid of such a weird thing.
“wait, no. c’mon, you know i didn’t mean that. it’s not—it’s not a bad thing.”
fuck. mike’s heart drops to his ass. he fucked up again.
you won’t look at him. he takes a deep breath. he’s had to get used to how you react to things. shutting down and moving on, like you’re used to being ignored or something. mike knows that feeling all too well. taking it in stride and pretending to forget how bad it feels.
he doesn’t know why he cares so much.
he finds his way in front of you and takes your face in his hands. you move around so much, it’s the only way he’s found centers you. and you’re so warm, and your face is so soft.
“hey. there you are. i’m sorry, angel. i didn’t mean it that way. you’re…you’re perfect, okay? i’m just projecting. you’re not weird.”
he reassures. he can see the tears collecting near your lash line. he hates it. he hates that it was him that caused it.
he can’t stop feeling your face in his hands. and now you’re looking directly at him. God, your eyes just seem to sparkle. the way you don’t just look at him, but through him. you see him and it makes his heart race.
“what’d you say?”
your head is tilted slightly now.
mike furrows his brows.
“what? that you’re perfect? you’re not weird, angel, i didn’t mean that—“
“angel?”
oh. he hadn’t meant to let that slip. but it fits. it’s the only thing that does fit. it sounds intimate, he knows that. but he’ll be damned if he calls you anything other than your true form.
still, he finds himself slightly embarrassed. God, he probably sounds so corny saying that. but mike never admits defeat. he doubles down.
“uh…yeah. you hate it? i can quit—“
you shake your head.
“no it’s just…that’s what my brother calls me.”
it all hits mike at once. angel fucking harrington.
steve hasn’t slept in three days. you’re gone. he doesn’t know why the sun still rises, why the stars still twinkle like there’s any light left in the world at all. his pride and joy is gone. you’re dead.
nancy isn’t doing much better. her little brother, gone. honestly, nobody is happy. one of the cons of being such a tightly knit group is that when you lose one, everyone loses one.
“i have to go look for him.” dustin says for the fifth time that hour. the guilt is eating him alive.
“you’ll only find skeletons.”
steve can’t help saying things like that. part of him wants to believe it’s his way of coping, instead of admitting maybe he’s just being an ass.
everyone gives him a pass.
but it makes nancy cry again.
steve leans further into his knees. fuck, he’s a wreck. how can he ever get back on his feet without you? there’s no reason to stand without you. what else does he have? he’s losing people left and right. how can they blame him for losing himself too?
“why doesn’t he ever talk about you?”
you’re not sure what to say to that. so you say the same thing you’ve said for the past hour.
“i don’t know.”
but you do know. it’s just hard to explain. steve loves you so much. and he knows how you are. he knows how many people call you weird, how many people talk behind your back.
and he knows something more that you don’t. something about the group of kids he’s always hanging out with. more than anything, steve knows about the upside down.
“he just won’t let me around you.” it feels strangely intimate, the use of ‘you’. because it’s not just mike. it’s that whole godforsaken party. but something tells you that even if steve finally decided to let you around them, mike wouldn’t be an exception. and steve would be more than a little unhappy about your current position.
in your defense, it’s cold. too cold to be so high up. so you’re on the forest floor. but you won’t stop squirming with all the bugs crawling on you.
so you compromise.
mike lays on his back, you lay on top of his chest, head tucked beneath his chin. it started as warmth, but the jumping in your stomach and his thumb running up and down your spine is making it start to feel like something else. something that it’s sort of always been.
“maybe he knew id like it a little too much.”
you don’t know what that means. or maybe you do, and you don’t want to say it.
you hum in response.
“he just wants me to be safe. and sometimes he goes overboard.”
you try to explain, feeling the rumble of your own voice through his ribcage. feeling the ripple of his heart.
you lift your head and shift slightly, so that you can see him. he looks you in the eyes.
“there’s nothing dangerous about me.”
maybe it’s a half lie. mike knows why steve doesn’t want you around the party. but there’s nothing wrong with mike on his own.
his heart races every time you look into his eyes, but now it’s going into overdrive. you’re gazing at him, for lack of better words. your eyes dart around his face, from his freckles to his eyes to his nose. to his lips. fuck.
he doesn’t know how you’re doing this to him. how the way your cheeks are soft in his hand, the way your eyebrows quirk when you are confused, the way your eyes crinkle when you smile, how that can make him crazy like it is.
“i could name a few things.”
rhe silence is loud. mike doesn’t even want to blink. he doesn’t want to miss a single frame.
“yeah?”
you smile again, but it’s softer. you don’t look away from him.
“yeah. your eyes, for one. i could get lost in them,”
you mumble. it would be cheesy if it was anyone else, but mike’s heart skips an entire few beats.
“oh and these freckles. id lose a whole week trying to count them over and over again.”
mike doesn’t know what magnetic force is pulling your noses to touch, but it’s unauthorized. he can feel your breath fanning against his cheeks now.
“and your big. fucking. mouth.”
it’s not said with the slightest bit of animosity. that’s what’s making his heart ache the most. the pure and utmost affection you’re expressing.
“angel…”
his eyes flicker between your lips and your eyes.
“oh, please mike, won’t you kiss me already?”
your bluntness doesn’t surprise him anymore.
one of his hands find it’s way up to your cheek. it doesn’t take much for your lips to meet.
the kiss is soft and sweet, despite you both having been out in the woods for quite a while. you always manage to naturally smell like some sort of fruit, and now he can taste it on your lips. maybe that’s why he goes in for another once the first is finished. again, he kisses you, longer this time. your hand falls flat on his chest and you adjust, like getting any closer is possible at all.he chases your mouth with his again and again. your hand goes to his hair now, thick and soft. again and again and again until you’re pulling back for air and it’s just your foreheads touching.
“still think my big fucking mouth is dangerous?”
he teases. you barely even look at him, still trying to catch your breath.
“more than anything.”
dustin’s been gone for five hours now. he’s not actually sure of the time, but he knows he gets closer and closer to his death every second he stays out. trekking through the forest. following what’s left of the wind swept trail mike insisted on leaving. for good reason, which is clear to him now. he thought mike was just being stupid and paranoid and stupid, like he always is.
but alas, he was right. and this time it might actually cost them.
he’s not entirely sure where he lost mike. in fact, he’s not even sure how he lost mike. he’s tall and lanky and never shuts the hell up.
dustin had turned away for one second. he’s sure of it. maybe he’d made a turn that mike didn’t follow. maybe he was too caught up in daysreaming. but he tripped. he came to a fall and expecting to have mike laugh at him, realized he was nowhere to be found. and dustin’s dumbass hadn’t been leaving a trail. he’d stumbled around aimlessly for a while. time seemed to pass slower in the forest. when he finally managed to find his way out, it was afternoon, probably going on evening.
dustin has felt guilty for days, or weeks now, he guesses.
this isn’t a game anymore. it isn’t anything predictable. they don’t know their enemies this time. at least with eleven, they knew dr brenner was the bad guy. they knew who the bad men were. but out here, they have no idea. anyone can be anything. that includes a bloodthirsty monster.
all he knows is that he needs to find mike. if not just for everyone’s peace of mind.
mike thinks he’s going crazy. he doesn’t know how long it’s been, but he knows he’s hearing his name somewhere within the forest. indefinitely. you are sleeping peacefully on his chest, your hair tickling his nose.
“angel,”
he whispers, shaking you lightly. you don’t rouse.
the voice doesn’t really sound like a voice at all. it’s more of an echo or a reverberation.
he hears it again. shakes you harder. he calls your real name, this time.
you open your eyes, already wide with the abrupt awakening.
he tries to coax you awake without scaring you any further.
his hands go to your face. he looks you directly in the eyes.
“hey. angel. do you hear that?”
you’re both silent as you listen. and there it is again.
he can see the recognition in your face. in your eyes and how they flicker towards it.
“your friend?”
he blinks. shit. dustin. he’d completely forgotten that maybe, just maybe, he was still looking. he’d forgotten he wasn’t alone out here after all.
he opens his mouth to call out but your hands quickly cover it.
“don’t. just wait.”
you whisper.
you help him climb into the tree again, cus it’s better to have the high ground or something. he’s not going to question you on this one. he’s not exactly sure how long you’ve been out here, but he does know you almost took his head off the first day you met.
dustin comes into view pretty soon. stumbling around aimlessly but following the bits and pieces left on the trail. he’s calling for mike and he has to fight everything in him telling him to scream his name.
“is that him?”
he nods quickly.
“are you sure?”
he knows why you’re being so careful, obviously, but this is undeniably dustin. he can’t be mad. he knows you don’t know.
but you give him the green light.
“hey. dustin. up here.”
dustin looks around first, then up, like a dumbass.
his eyes almost pop out of his head.
“mike? oh my God! what the fuck? you’re alive!”
he jumps for joy like the little nerd he is.
you giggle and mike feels his heart jump from more than just adrenaline.
when you both get down to the ground, dustin hugs mike for a solid minute. it doesn’t take him very long after that to notice you.
“who’s—“
he stops himself. looks you over.
“no way. holy shit. angel harrington?”
you blink. mike blinks.
“how’d you know that?” you ask, head tilted slightly.
“you’re just like steve described you.”
mike can almost visibly see you perk up at your brother’s name.
“steve? is he here?”
dustin shakes his head.
“no, he’s back at base. i came looking for mike. i didn’t know he’d found you.”
dustin’s eyes dart between the two of you. standing close, like you know each other. like you like each other.
“she found me. she held a knife to my throat and made me dump out all my rocks.”
hey guys gone baby, gone might be my last fic LMFAO at least for a while. i have more lined up so i’ll try to come on and post but i’m not doing so hot mentally and i’m honestly just trying to graduate. i’ll probably be here just less active by a lot and honestly i’m not sure you’ll ever see me again
i was asleep for literally thirty minutes and then had double sleep paralysis and woke up screaming before the monster could sit on me. bro. my dad rushed in cus he heard me screaming “get off me” at the top of my lungs wtf guys when does it STP
what position do you sleep in bc my dad says he gets nightmares every time he sleeps on his back, idk if that's scientifically sound, but maybe sleep in a different position ??
i was asleep for literally thirty minutes and then had double sleep paralysis and woke up screaming before the monster could sit on me. bro. my dad rushed in cus he heard me screaming “get off me” at the top of my lungs wtf guys when does it STP
