#drabbles 2019

[stevemossington]

mileven: mine (for the one word prompt)

“Okay El, I’m all yours.”

Mike’s voice crackles over the supercomm and immediately grabs El’s attention away from her magazine. It’s a Sunday night, and the entire Party has been chatting via Cerebro. Will and El hear from their friends often during the week, but Sundays are always reserved for the whole group. Sometimes it can be difficult to make out what they’re saying since they’re always talking over each other, but it makes Will and El feel like they are back in Hawkins with them. That they are back home. 

After almost an hour, after learning about their mean history teacher and discussing plans for the campaign at Christmas and sharing updates on the new house, Lucas, Max and Dustin say their goodbyes. Everyone knows Mike will stay behind to talk to El. 

A few minutes pass, likely so that the others are out of hearing range, and Will retreats to his own room. El idly flips through the nearest magazine.

But now Mike’s back and saying he’s hers. She stretches out across her bed and holds the walkie close. 

“You’re mine?”

“Well, I meant that they’re gone so I can give you my full attention. It’s um, it’s a phrase. But uh, yeah. I’m yours.” She can practically hear his blush over the airwaves. She wishes she could see it. A small pain appears deep in her heart. 

Because as much as she relishes the sound of his voice, his awkward ramblings and silly teasing, it’s not enough. It’s not the perfect curl of his smile or his freckles splayed across his cheeks. It’s not the crinkle of his eyes when he laughs or the feel of his lips on hers. It’s not his scent, so utterly him, and it’s not his warmth and it’s not the sensation of being cocooned in his arms, of being enveloped in Mike. 

(But at least he’s there, and not gone. Gone like…)

“El?” Mike brings her back to Earth. 

“I’m here. Will went to his room so I’m yours too.” She hopes he knows what she’s really saying. 

There’s a pause before Mike lets out a breathy “Okay,” and then the conversation moves on.

Thanks anon! Hopefully something like this is what you had in mind :)

[stevemossington]

For the prompt, Joyce & El night

When Bob dies, the nights are the hardest.  

During the days Joyce can distract herself. Her boys need attention and her house is destroyed once again and some days there just isn’t enough time to dwell on things. She prefers it that way.

But once night falls, her boys retreat to their rooms and their dreams, and Joyce is left alone. Everything is too quiet, even the sound of her own breath, and soon all she can hear is the memory of his cry and the screeching of those things and her own screams that seem to forever echo in her head. Most nights sleep evades her and the circles under her eyes grow darker. 

When Hop dies, the nights are the easiest. 

The days are filled with constant reminders of his absence. Everything is changing and she sees him everywhere. A new sign sits in her yard. Her boys wear matching looks of quiet grief. There’s an extra mouth to feed and an extra heart that is even more broken than hers. She can’t escape him. 

But once night falls, Joyce tucks El into bed with her. The plan had been for the girl to sleep on the couch until they figured something out, but on the first night the silence had been too much and she ended up sleeping in Joyce’s arms. Joyce finds comfort in her warmth and gentle snores. The memory of her screams and the blaring alarms and the heartbreaking determination in his eyes don’t reach her here. She can finally sleep. 

In their dreams, everything is normal. He’s alive and well, a teasing lilt to his voice and a cigarette hanging from his mouth. He’s looking over his menu at Joyce and telling her he already ordered a bottle of red. He’s cheating at Scrabble and acting innocent when El catches him. They could dream forever. 

At night, nothing hurts. 

Thanks anon! Hope you like it :)

[stevemossington]

In response to your one word prompts, could you do Mileven and the word expectation? I love your writing, I can’t wait to see what you do with this!

Thank you so much for the prompt and kind words! Hope you like it :)

It was Christmas Eve and the snow had just started to lightly fall. 

Mike had made sure to get his mom an extra-special gift this year, because she had invited the entire Byers family to stay over for three days during Christmas. (An extra-special gift simply meant that instead of a homemade coupon book for five household chores, it was a homemade coupon book for twenty.) Mrs. Byers got the small guest room, Will and Jonathan were bunking in Mike’s room, and El was sharing with Nancy. They’d arrived the day before, but it was only now that Mike and El had been able to carve out a moment for themselves. Somehow the house was empty, save for his dad snoring away in the recliner upstairs. And Mike was not about to let this moment pass by. He had no time to waste these days. 

And that’s how he and El found themselves under a new blanket fort in the basement, one that Mike had painstakingly put up over the past week. He had made sure it was large enough to fit two, but it didn’t really matter. They were so entangled right now they could be one. 

They didn’t talk much, because talking was all they did nowadays. A quick chat before school every day and then a longer one in the afternoon before supper and usually a third one before bed if Mike could get to Cerebro. And don’t get him wrong, Mike loved the talking. And the writing of letters and the reading of her letters. This new reality was far better than it was in ‘84. 

But this new reality? It wasn’t what he expected. For six months he got to see her every day, got to hold her hand and breathe the same air as her and giggle with her and just be together. He expected it to always be that way. (Even when that tiny voice, the one in the deepest corner of his mind, would remind him that she could disappear at any moment, and 353 days would become 354 and 355 and infinite. He ignored that voice, until the Mindflayer was back and suddenly the danger of losing her was real again.) Had he thought life would have been anything like it was now, maybe he would have done things a little differently. Maybe he would have been a little nicer to Hopper. 

El shifted in his arms as if she could read his mind and Mike quickly focused his attention back on her. Back on her fist curled up in his shirt and her breath warming his collarbone and her nose cold against his neck and her hair tangled around his fingers and the soft rise and fall of her body as it breathed in tandem with his. Back on this fleeting, beautiful, wonderful moment. He would tuck it away for later, when the distance hurt too much. 

Soon their families would return and they would have to get up and help with dinner. Soon, but not yet, so Mike pulled her even closer and closed his eyes. 

[stevemossington]

brotp: steve & robin. one word: nightmare.

Thanks anon! I’m sure this isn’t what you were looking for but I couldn’t help it. Feel free to send another prompt if you want something darker :)

“You’re never gonna get it.”

“I swear, I can do it. Where’s the trust here?”

“Um, you’re a dingus. That’s where the trust is.”

“Okay, okay, just do it.”

The Mike-and-Ike (if it’s just one is it simply a Mike? Or an Ike? Oh god, he was starting to sound like them) sailed through the air and missed Steve’s mouth by several inches, landing in his hair. Robin snorted and added a tally to her whiteboard under the “Misses” section. The “Hits” section was bare. 

“Okay, one more time.”

Keith looked at them from the other side of the store in disgust. It was Day 76 since Steve Harrington and Robin Buckley had started working at Family Video. Yes, Keith had been counting the days. Because this? This was his nightmare. It would have been fine if it was just Robin or just Steve or even if they were acting like they did last year. But ever since the summer they’d been attached at the hip and the bane of Keith’s existence. 

They were always laughing and teasing each other. He would have sworn it was flirting, but something always seemed a little off about it. Or they had endless debates about the most mundane things. Sometimes they would seem more serious, like when their heads would be close together and they’d be whispering. They always stopped the whispering when he walked by them. 

And the pranks! Some (shaving cream in his locker, saran wrap on the toilet seat) were so cliched and lazy he knew they had to come from Harrington. But a few (like the fact that every single day’s total at closing ended in .69 and was always backed up by the receipts) were clever, too clever, and Keith knew they must have come from Robin. 

He was distracted from his bitter thoughts by the chime of the bell as the door opened. In walked Dustin Henderson and Lucas Sinclair, loudly greeting Steve and Robin. Scratch all of the above, this was Keith’s nightmare. 

[stevemossington]

Billy and the back of my hand

With a sickening squeal, the monster drops dead and the mall is eerily silent. Billy lies on the ground, breath heavy and mullet extra greasy. The monster had been going for his chest but died before it could reach him. He can’t believe his luck. 

Everyone on the second floor rushes downstairs. Mike and Max check on El, and everyone is crying happy tears, as if they can’t believe it’s over. No one looks at Billy. 

“Hey guys, did you see me save El?”

Max looks over with boredom. “Yes, Billy, we saw you decide to not be a murderer for once. I’ll make you an award later.”

Billy is mad. Why is no one fawning over him?

Suddenly, he’s distracted, as is everyone else, by a mysterious figure walking up from the shattered Scoops Ahoy storefront. It’s a short, dark-haired girl holding an ice cream cone. Her jumpsuit is covered with a delicate floral pattern, masking the drips of ice cream that have landed on it. Her beauty is astonishing. Billy knows she will love him because he is also beautiful. 

As she nears him, Billy puts on his best flirty face, the one that worked on Karen Wheeler. “What’s a girl like you doing-”

He’s interrupted by the crack of her hand as she smacks him across the face. He falls down dead. Everyone looks at her in awe. 

Steve steps forward. “I’m Steve Harrington, want to go out?”

Robin steps forward. “I’m Robin, want to be my best friend?”

Max and Lucas step forward. “Want to be our surrogate big sister?”

Dustin’s voice crackles over the supercomm. “That slap sounded almost as hot as my very real girlfriend!”

Nancy asks, “What is your name?”

The girl takes a casual lick of her earl grey ice cream before answering. “Val.”

The End.