Nancy, Steve, Jonathan and Robin all meet up to reminisce on all that has happened in the past few years. Steve is in his brown ill-fitting suit and clinking his bottle against Jonathan’s.
“AAAAAAAAAAAA!”
Steve sits upright in bed, his chest heaving as he struggles to catch his breath. His eyes dart around the bedroom he finds himself in, panicked and disoriented.
“Steve?! Steve,” Nancy’s concerned face appears from over his shoulder, her other arm hooking around his back, still damp with cool sweat. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
He can’t help but reach out and cup her face in his palm, grounding him, as his nerves slowly settle. “I had-” His throat clicks miserably. “The worst goddamn dream…”
“Do you want to talk about it?” She asks, brows ticked up with that familiar worry as she leans into his touch.
“Just…You were living in Boston. We weren’t, like, together – w-we never got back together in the first place. And I was still stuck in Hawkins all by myself, just me. I was a teacher? And a baseball coach? I don’t even like baseball, I like basketball, and El never made it-”
“A teacher?”
He looks back at her. “Huh?”
“*You* were a teacher?” The corner of her mouth quirks up and he does his best to feign offence.
“C’mon, shut up,” he huffs, lying back down beside her. “Jesus Christ. It felt so real though. That was awful…”
She looms over him for a moment before leaning down to press a soft kiss against his lips. “Well. It was just a dream. I’m not going anywhere. Never Okay?”
“Mmmyeah,” Jonathan’s drowsy voice appears from behind her as he holds them both close. “We’ll always be togethe-“
“AAAAAAAAAAAA!”
Nancy gasps as she jerks awake from her nightmare, flailing in her sheets and tumbling out of the bed and onto the floor.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Nance! Are you okay?!” She hears Steve’s voice call out from a few feet away.
She raises her head, her blurry vision adjusting as she squints through the orange sunlight peeking in through the blinds. Beneath her, she can feel the low steady rumbling of the RV as it makes its way down another road.
Nancy sees Steve in the driver’s seat, periodically casting glances back at her as he tries to keep his eyes on the road. “Nancy? Do you need me to pull over? I’ll just pull over-“
“No! No,” She shakily laughs it off, throwing the blanket around her shoulders as she stands to her feet and approaches the front. “Sorry. It was nothing, really. Just some stupid dream.”
“Must have been a doozy,” he murmurs, the unspoken question clear in his eyes as he peers at her in the rearview. “The driving didn’t spook you, did it? I just thought I’d get a head start since you were still asleep.”
“Of course not,” she smiles and looks away, shaking her head and feeling silly. “Just – I dreamt that you, me and Jonathan-”
“Davies? From your office?”
“Byers,” she clarifies, pouring herself some coffee into her thermos.
“Oh,” he blinks. There’s a small wrinkle creasing his brow, but it seems to be one of confusion. Nancy is once again relieved that they are so far removed from the situation know that they can openly talk about it sometimes – that it no longer hangs over them. “What, like we were all fighting again? That *is* weird, we’ve all been cool for a while now…”
“No, I dreamt that the three of us…You know…” she tilts her head meaningfully when he glances back at her again.
It takes a moment for it to register before Steve shakes his head in disgust and smacks the heel of his palm against the steering wheel, groaning under his breath. “Ohh. No. Why – would you even put that imagine in my head?”
“You asked,” she chirps, hiding her smile behind the rim of her cup as she sips at it.
“I,” he holds up a finger, no longer looking at her, “Regret asking, alright? I was about to get breakfast ready too but I think I’ve lost my appetite…”
“Suit yourself,” she shrugs a shoulder, reaching into the pantry to retrieve a cereal box. “…But you do know it was just a dream, right? I mean, the three of us? Like that…?”
They share one more glance before speaking in unison. “Not in a million years.”
“Tell me about it!” Henry leans out from behind the passenger seat, the sunlight forming a halo through his wavy golden-blond hair. “I never could understand what you saw in him…Besides,” his voice deepens teasingly as he leans over the center console to nibble at Steve’s earlobe. “I want you two all to myself. Isn’t that right, sugardick?”
“AAAAAAAAAAAA!”
“What is it?!”
“Sorry, I was just thinking of that time I killed Barb,” Henry’s lips quirk apologetically. “It was very funny and it made me laugh. I haven’t figured out how to laugh yet so I just scream very loudly instead. This isn’t a dream by the way. The three of us are very much in love and have lots of weird sex together.”
“Who the fuck is Barb?” Nancy asks.
fin
anyway, i’m available if netflix needs screenwriters. it seems like you literally can’t do worse than you already have so you may as well pay me minimum wage and scraps of moldy bread to do it
