Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, One Shot, Childhood Friends to Lovers, Photographer Jonathan Byers, Rockstar Eddie Munson, Eddie Munson Calls Jonathan Byers "Bambi", Fluff, Kissing, Soft, Light Angst, Happy Ending
Hawkins Elementary
“Want to be best friends?” Asked a young boy with dark curly hair.
Another young boy with straight brown hair looked up from his coloring book. “Mommy says I’m not supposed to talk to strangers.”
“If we’re friends, we’re not strangers,” the dark-haired boy replied, holding out his hand. “I’m Eddie!”
The other boy stared at Eddie for a moment before shyly shaking his hand. “I’m Jonathan…”
“So, do you want to be best friends now?” Eddie asked with a big grin on his face.
Jonathan nodded. “Okay!”
Eddie sat down next to Jonathan, watching as he continued to color. “Can I call you Bambi?”
“Why Bambi?”
“You look like a deer.”
Jonathan nodded again. “You can be Thumper.”
Outside the Byers house
“Come on, Bambi, we’re goin’ to be late!” Eddie yelled from his van, watching as Jonathan hurried out of his house.
“Quit yelling; it’s too early in the morning for you to be so…chipper.”
“I finally got my driver’s license; you should be chipper,” Eddie argued. “We don’t have to take the bus anymore.”
Jonathan climbed into the front seat of the van and sighed. “We’re still going to a school where basically everyone hates us; a driver’s license doesn’t fix that.”
“True, but now I can run them over if they mess with you.” Eddie grinned, kissing Jonathan’s cheek. “That’s what best friends are for.”
“Yeah…” Jonathan cleared his throat. “Can you stop calling me Bambi? It was cute when we were kids but—”
“I can’t make any promises; you’re always goin’ to be my Bambi.”
Eddie’s trailer
Eddie titled his head, looking as though he and Jonathan no longer spoke the same language. “What do you mean you’re not goin’ to come to our gig? It’s an after-graduation party; you have to be there.”
“I just don’t feel like spending my night around a bunch of people,” Jonathan replied. “Especially ones getting drunk; if I wanted to be around drunk assholes, I’d visit my dad.”
“So I’ll get rid of the beer,” Eddie exclaimed. “Come on, it’s our first serious gig. An agent is goin’ to be there, I… I need you to be there; you’re my b—”
“Stop calling me Bambi and stop calling me your best friend every time you want me to do something!” Jonathan yelled. “I’m sick of it.”
“Jon, I—”
“Eddie, I can’t, okay?”
Eddie watched as Jonathan stormed out of the trailer.
Grand reopening of the Hawkins Theater
Jonathan groaned. “Nancy, as cool as the theater reopening is… why are we here?”
“Because I’m writing an article about the reopening and I need your photography skills,” Nancy replied. “But I also promised we’d come by early to help get stuff set up for the party.”
“There’s a party? You know I don’t like parties.”
“Don’t worry.” Nancy patted his shoulder. “I’m not going to make you stay; you can leave after taking pictures.”
About an hour went by; Jonathan had taken plenty of pictures and was ready to make his escape before people started showing up.
He loved the theater, but a party with basically the whole town in attendance? Not so much.
As he turned around to leave, he immediately bumped into someone. “Sorry, I—” His eyes widened as he saw the person turn to face him.
“Oh… Hi Ba—Jonathan.” Eddie smiled. “I wasn’t expectin’ to see you here.”
“I wasn’t expecting to see you either.” Jonathan cleared his throat. “I thought you’d be too busy on tour to show up to a little event like this.”
“And miss the reopenin’ of one of my favorite places? Absolutely not.”
“Well…” Jonathan didn’t know what to say. “It was nice seeing you; I’m gonna go.”
“Jonathan, stay for just a minute, please?”
“Why?”
“Because I missed you,” Eddie whispered. “So much.”
“You could’ve called,” Jonathan replied."
“Would you have answered?”
Jonathan didn’t reply.
“Jon, I know the last time we saw each other didn’t end well… I’m sorry.”
Jonathan raised a brow. “Why are you sorry? I’m the one that got mad and stormed out.”
“I’m sorry because I didn’t follow you,” Eddie admitted. “I’m sorry for not bein’ honest about how I felt—how I feel.”
“And how do you feel?”
“Jon, that night, I wasn’t goin’ to call you Bambi or my best friend,” Eddie explained. “I was goin’ to say boyfriend… I guess I should’ve said it sooner, huh?”
“Boyfriend?” Jonathan asked. “You thought we were boyfriends?”
“Well yeah, at least until you stormed out of my trailer and never spoke to me again.”
“I only did that because you kept calling me your best friend even though we kissed plenty of times,” Jonathan argued. “I was sick of it.”
“So it wasn’t because you were straight?”
“You thought I was straight?” Jonathan asked. “Why?”
“You started datin’ Nancy,” Eddie replied.
“I didn’t date Nancy. Who told you I dated Nancy?”
Eddie didn’t reply.
“Oh my god, you seriously saw me hanging out with someone else and immediately thought we were dating, didn’t you?”
“Okay, so I was a bit stupid eight years ago.” Eddie sighed. “We’re way off topic now.”
“I missed you too, Eddie, and I’m sorry for storming out that night.” Jonathan held Eddie’s hand. “I’d like to start over, if that’s okay with you.”
Eddie shook his head, pulling Jonathan closer and kissing him softly. “I don’t want to start over; how about we continue right where we left off?”
Jonathan smiled. “I believe that was somewhere along the lines of you asking me on a date.”
“Oh, was it? I don’t remember it like that at all.”
“I can’t be your boyfriend if we’ve never been on a date.”
Eddie laughed. “Okay, how about a movie?”
“A movie?” Jonathan nodded. “I know just the place.”
“I really missed you, Jon,” Eddie whispered.
“Can you call me Bambi again? I actually really liked it.”
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Jonathan follows his dream of becoming a rock photojournalist, while Eddie makes it big with his heavy metal band, and even though they both come from Hawkins, it isn't until they're far from their small hometown that they finally get the chance to really get to know each other.
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