Dustin, knowing how much El got lonely, used cerebro to call El every night she was in California to talk to her since he couldn’t call. Every single time he greeted her “toothless to supergirl” just because it made her laugh. She wasn’t much of a talker, mainly liked to listen to him ramble about projects. On the days where the bullying got to her, all she would do is sit in silence while he talked to get comfort in the sound of his voice.
When Hawkins fell Dustin would still make a point to reach out in the walkies each night just as a way to form a routine and provide consistency for her while she trained and searched for Vecna relentlessly.
Then imagine after she died he still pulled out his radio every night. He would start as he always did “toothless to supergirl” even though his heart broke every time he couldn’t hear her laugh in response. Then he would go on to talk for a while, ramble about his day into the empty universe. Because he knew wherever Jane Hopper was in the universe, dead or alive, he would never let her feel lonely ever again.
henderhop makes sense not just because they match each other’s freak, they’re the 90% of their friend groups, or how dustin would clap at el breaking angela’s nose
but whatever scientist gig that dustin ends up doing leading to him being stationed in iceland is a far more likely scenario than mike visiting iceland because of a book tour or whatever
ok hear me out. dustin becomes a prominent microbiologist and heads out on field research to a remote icelandic (?) village near three waterfalls to study endangered pollywogs. but instead, he finds el… this is how henderhop can still win
She settles in a small village and when the people living there see a teenage girl alone with an air of melancholy? Immediately she is taken in as the village child to look after
someone sees her using her powers by accident and the whole village silently agrees “we tell no one. She is ours to protect now” and they go about their daily lives
years pass, el grows into an adult and takes over the village bakery after the elderly owner passes away
sometimes she checks in on The Party, using her powers, she watches mike and will fall in love, lucas and max blossom, and she is so very happy for them
and then she sees dustin. Dustin does not fall in love, she doesnt understand why because dustin always talked about suzie when they were dating, el figured dustin really valued romance
after a long while of living—when shes about 25-27—she is taking her daily walk through the forests and waterfalls (the one time a day she lets herself truly think about what she left behind) and she comes across a small child. No older than five or six, and so *so* small, shivering, terrified. El looks at her and sees herself that night in the woods when hopper found her
she remembers what hopper said the last time they saw eachother “give her the life you never had”
so she does
a year later dustin—a fully fledged nasa engineer—moves to work in iceland to study the geothermal vents and renewable energy possibilities. Hes posted in a small village.
the day after he arrives he walks into the village bakery to see el—jane—laughing with a customer behind the counter, flour on her cheek, her hair long, so long (she never cuts it, not after the lab) and smiling. Really truly smiling.
he’s about to call out to her, sweep her into a crushing hug, cry, shout, *something*, a young girl comes running behind the counter waving a sheet of scribbled on paper shouting “mama look what i made!”
and dustin comes to the conclusion that Jane has well and truly moved on from everything. From hawkins. From everyone.
he leaves the bakery without buying anything
and now has to try and get through his year long post without running into Jane, or her daughter
(obviously they meet again and fall in love and its wonderful yay)
genuinely henderhop would have been so incredible. a deadpan girl who says the most insane things out of context then provides no explanation with an animated boy who talks an insane amount. a girl who does crazy things and a boy who backs her up no matter what. an abused girl and disabled boy getting to be the main romance of a mainstream show. like we genuinely could have had it all.
El loudly and proudly talking about her boyfriend Dustin Henderson the rocket scientist and him turning redder and redder each time because he’s so flustered at somebody thinking he’s cool.
Imagine season 5 where everything is the same but Henderhop are together. They were keeping it a secret until everything was over with because they didn’t want Vecna to use him against El. So for now their relationship was long talks late at night, secret dates under the stars, and hands held under the table during plans. It was stolen giggling kisses as they ducked into rooms for privacy, and soft spoken “I love you’s” every time they said goodbye just in case it was the last words they ever said to each other.
They had plans for how to tell everyone too. They were going to all be hanging out as a party and Dustin was going to stand up holding whatever he was drinking, clinking it with a fork. He was going to take a deep breath and then dramatically announce his love for El. Then he was going to dip her, right then and there in front of them and kiss her so matter how hard she was laughing at his antics. Afterwards he was going to lord over their heads at how good he was keeping a secret and ‘honestly I can’t believe you didn’t notice’ while he smirked.
But instead they found out when Dustin was fighting like hell against the soldiers to run to stop her. The party realized what they were to each other as he was screaming, begging El ‘please don’t do this I love you’ after she kissed him goodbye for the last time with tears in her eyes.
henderhop but its Dustin 'i won't kiss her first because i want to make sure its what she definitely wants and not just her trying to make me happy' Henderson and Jane 'if he doesnt kiss me right now in this moment im going to start flickering in and out of existence' Hopper
Jane spinoff where she's just living her best life far away from Hawkins and one day she sees a familiar face. It's NASA scientist Dustin Henderson being newly stationed where she currently resides.
so the party are all juniors/seniors in high school, none of them are terribly popular but they get by okay being their nerdy selves.
obvs no upside down au, el is still hopper’s adopted daughter though. she got adopted and started hanging around the party around 7th grade.
el is dating mike in the beginning, has been since they were twelve, and the relationship has become something neither of them really enjoy anymore, but it’s just hard to let go yknow
dustin and max are el’s best friends within the group, they’re like a ride or die trio. so when el starts getting picked on more than usual, the both of them are absolutely tweaked.
does el know both her friends have massive crushes on her and would move heaven and earth to make her life a little more pleasant? no shes a bit oblivious, but she’ll get there
max and dustin as a ghostface duo, hellbent on getting rid of anyone picking on their girl. angela? gone. andy? found in the lake.
the sudden murder spree has everyone worried of course, which means hopper sets el’s curfew way earlier until everything is safe again. but that’s alright! her best friends can always come over, hop would never deny her that. (nevermind that their visits to the sheriff’s house give them an amazing alibi for the murders)
one day in study hall, el is bemoaning how dull her and mike’s relationship feels to max, and lets slip he’d said something mean to her in an argument that was still really affecting her.
well fuck, now they have to kill mike wheeler.
both of their obsessions with el have started to overshadow any other relationships they may have. mike’s brief meanness to el feels like a betrayal of all their years of friendship.
the plan unfolds at a party billy is having at max’s house. she invites the party over under the guise of wanting company while her idiot brother throws a rager. in reality the amount of people there is the perfect cover.
by the time the party is over, mike wheeler is dead.
after he’s found, el practically falls right into max and dustin’s arms, and they of course comfort her oh so sweetly.
she doesn’t leave their sides for weeks, barely sleeping if she isn’t nestled into one of their sides. hopper even lifts his rule about boys sleeping over because it seems like she needs dustin around to breathe.
as time goes by, more people go missing, and el starts to pick up on a pattern. someone is mean to her, they’re always gone within a couple days.
a girl laughs at her dress? her face is on the news two days later. one of the basketball players knocks her books out of her hands? found dead in the woods.
el of course tries to convinces herself it’s just a coincidence that she told max mike was mean to her, and just days later he was dead. there was no way her beloved friends would have anything to do with something like this!
lucas confronts her one day, worry in his eyes. he thinks someone must be stalking her, he’s seen the pattern too. he doesn’t tell her how max and dustin have pulled away from everyone but her and each other lately, how they study his and will’s every move towards el like they’re waiting to strike. he doesn’t want to believe it either.
el watches her back everywhere she goes, looking for the shadow of a person who must know everything that happens to her, but she only sees her best friends, determined to support her and keep her safe.
little does she know the atrocities those friends have committed in the name of protecting her.
it’s max who makes the first move romantically. the two of them had exchanged plenty of kisses and “i love you”s over the years, so el doesn’t bat an eye when max pulls her in for a deeper kiss. it becomes clear quick enough that it isn’t just a friendly peck, and el discovers that’s fine by her.
it’s a little more difficult for dustin, especially now that max beat him to the punch. el’s curled up in his arms watching a movie, he’s playing with her soft brown curls, and he takes the chance to be a tiny bit bold. ever so gently, he presses a kiss to the crown of her head. she starts, this type of attention from dustin is new, but not unwanted. they go back to the movie and don’t mention it, but neither can keep a smile off their faces.’
el agonizes over her choice for days, making pro-con lists on sparkly stationery and acting out a million possible situations. it isn’t until both objects of her affection appear under her window, concealing blood spattered hands, that she realizes she doesn’t have to choose.
whatever you do don’t think about dustin making radio broadcasts every night in the hopes el will hear it
anyway thinking about cerebro again, the radio tower dustin built HIMSELF just to talk to his girlfriend. he and suzie might be broken up, but cerebro still works fine, and he convinces himself mike is right. maybe el finally found somewhere safe to live out her life in peace.
every day, in the evening, dustin sends out a short message across the airwaves, wishing her well, updating her on life in hawkins, and subsequently college. he rarely (if ever) misses a day, even though everyone else says he has to let it go. the messages slowly start to become something of a journal, they get longer and longer every night.
little does dustin know, el tunes in every night, letting his stories guide her to sleep in her lonely little cottage.
years later, the broadcasts are fewer in number, but he talks for hours sometimes. he’s graduated now, working at NASA. one day he mentions a research opportunity that would take him to iceland, el practically falls out of her chair.
the nest broadcast comes with more details, he mentions the remote area they’d be traveling to, and by some miracle, it isn’t far at all from the village el settled herself in. she’s buzzing with excitement for days.
finally, on the day he’s meant to arrive, she takes off work and takes a train to the neighboring town, wandering the streets around the research facility until she catches sight of familiar brown curls in a group of men just a few paces ahead.
it feels like dustin takes centuries to turn around, but as soon as he does, his eyes lock onto her, the conversation of the men around him completely blocked out.
el steps toward him, hands shaking, eyes teary, before sprinting forward to wrap him in a hug.
he’s frozen, only for a moment, before squeezing her so tightly it feels like they’re just going to merge together.
“el, how….how are you here?” dustin chokes out through sobs, face buried in her shoulder. the other researchers cleared the area, letting them have a moment.
“i listened to you…every night…” el threaded her fingers through his curls the way she had before leaving for california, holding tight to him like he’s poof into smoke if she let go, “i listened for years.”
