This is the Stranger Things Secret Santa gift for @ratinacape from @salamandergoo. 🎁
Title: Of All the Trees Most Lovely
Relationships: Joyce Byers & Jim "Chief" Hopper, Jonathan Byers & Will Byers, Jonathan Byers & Joyce Byers, Jonathan Byers & Jim "Chief" Hopper, Will Byers & Jim "Chief" Hopper, Joyce Byers & Will Byers, Jonathan Byers & Joyce Byers & Will Byers, Eleven | Jane Hopper & Jim "Chief" Hopper
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Word count: 4.5k
Additional Tags: Christmas Tree, Christmas Fluff, Good Sibling Jonathan Byers, Protective Jim "Chief" Hopper, Post-Season/Series 01, Sick Will Byers, Joyce Byers Needs a Hug, Family Fluff, Stranger Things Secret Santa 2025
Summary:
Joyce asks Hopper to take her boys out to get a Christmas tree, and what can he do but comply?
This is the Stranger Things Secret Santa gift for prompt_fills from @do-what-the-knight-tells-you. 🎁
Title: Dawn Breaks (not believing)
Relationships: Robin Buckley & Steve Harrington & Eddie Munson, Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Word count: 14.4k
Additional Tags: this is more pre-steddie than full-on, I meant it to get further, but it was too much a monster to not let it rest here, canon typical violence I think, but it's definitely a little gore and horror for a moment, Hurt/Comfort, Angst, were-demo-creatures, this isn't werewolves but also yes, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Stranger Things Secret Santa 2025, Songfic, not quiet but it'sdamn borderline, warning for description/implication of having to eat monster meat to livfe, mentions of deaths of other characters, mention of overdose death, hunger
Summary:
Eddie works at the mall, that summer.
Eddie, Robin, and Steve pay the price.
(Stuck in the upsidedown AU from Season 3)
Written for @strangerthingsfests Stranger Things Secret Santa! My giftee was @salamandergoo. I hope you like it!
wc: 2.1k | rated: G | cw: weed | tags: POV Argyle, fluff, slight angst, Argyle stays in Hawkins, first kiss | AO3
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A shadow drapes itself over where Argyle is lounging out by Nancy Wheeler’s pool, feet in the water and head in the grass. He strokes one hand through the neatly trimmed greenery. It feels nice. Soft. With the pool lapping at his shins, if he lets himself drift, it kind of feels like back home. Less salty, though, more chlorine. More grass, less grass. He takes another drag and holds it for a bit, letting it trickle out from between his lips like snowmelt.
He should figure out where to get some green around here sometime. Jon probably knows. He should ask him.
The shadow shifts, grabbing the joint out of his hands. “Hey!” Argyle protests. So not a bro move.
Argyle cracks open one eye at the mountain blocking out the sun. It’s Hopper, the guy who was in Russia or something. Or maybe he was in Alaska, that’s where Mrs. Byers went, and she came back with him, so. “You do know I’m a cop, right? Used to be chief of police?” the mountain says dryly.
He squints against the halo of the sun around him. “Hey, yeah, good for you, man. That’s growth right there,” Argyle says easily. “Still, coulda just asked if you wanted a puff, there’s enough to go around.”
Hopper rolls his eyes and crushes what little was left of the roach. “Hey,” Argyle protests, “I was being nice man, no need to rain on my parade. It’s already kinda rained out, y’know?” There’s a pause while Hopper stares down, incredulous, but Argyle knows how to fill a silence. He’s an expert silence-filler.
“I don’t even know why I said that, there’s only like, half an ounce left. Hey,” he squints up a Hopper, “you know where to get more in Hawkins? I heard the, like, main guy was that Eddie dude that died. Bummer all around.”
Two fingers come up to pinch at the bridge of Hopper’s nose. “No, I don’t know where to get more marijuana, kid, and I wouldn’t tell you if I did. Just—it’s getting dark. Time to come inside.”
“Oh, yeah, sure, man, can do.” The recliner resists, but Argyle manages to right himself, rolling onto the concrete outlining the covered, in-ground pool. Fancy digs, though Nancy seems kind of stressed. Another reason to find a plug in the area, she looks like she could use a little R&R. Or maybe Argyle and Jon will head back soon and it’ll be a moot point. Hey, maybe Nance could use a little Lenora Springs air?
No. No, that doesn’t feel right.
Though, the way that Jon’s been—and Joyce is super nice, but like—
“D’you think the Byers are ever gonna come back to Lenora Springs?”Argyle doesn’t mean to say it. He hears the words come out of his mouth, so he must have anyway.
Hopper stares down at him warily as Argyle frees himself from the recliner, gets his feet under him and leans back to look up at Hopper. Hopper is so tall, it’s kind of wild.
“Well,” Hopper says slowly, his eyes drifting back to look at Joyce through the kitchen window, “can’t say I know for sure. You’ll have to ask the Byers that.”
And he totally could, Argyle knows that, but it’s like—
The ground stills beneath him as an epiphany smacks Argyle over the head. “Oh man, I’m being so Jon right now.”
“What?”
“It’s like—like—oh, man, spring break did not go as planned but Nancy was ditching him anyway, right? She was even—Emerson. And Jon, he—I’m being Jon. And Jon is being Nancy? But I don’t have an Argyle to tell me I’m being ditched. Damn. I have to be Argyle and Jon now. That’s a lot.”
Hopper blinks. Tries to follow Argyle’s train of thought. Fails. “Kid, what the hell are you talking about?”
“Like, before all this? Jon was like, so sure Nancy was going to come, but she ditched him. It was for a college tour or something, but he ignored it, which, that’s whatever, but then later he showed me he was planning on going to Lenora Community like me. But now, I was so sure Jon was—but he’s kind of ditching me now, even though we’re in the same house. And he’s my only friend ever, dude, he’s my number one, y’know? Kind of trashed my life, coming here, Surfer Boy was mega mad when I called to ask for a transfer, ‘cause of the whole van thing, plus the freezer thing, and like sure it wasn’t for him, it was for that guy that died and I couldn’t even make a headstone for and then ‘cause, I mean, I can’t just leave them there in the middle of the desert with the military after them, like, what, was I gonna say no? To Jon?”
“Uh—”
“But now Nancy’s here, and Jon is here, and we kinda live together but he’s all hung up on Nancy who ditched him and I miss him, man.” Finally, he takes a breath. A cool breath that tastes nothing like sweet smoke or salt or pizza and everything like chlorine.
Hopper stands stiffly, glancing at the door longingly. “…You okay, kid?”
“Yeah, totally.” The space behind Argyle’s eyes starts to ache, and he chokes out, “I just really wish you hadn’t crushed that roach, man.”
“…Sorry?”
He sniffs. “All good, brochacho,” and offers a fist that goes un-bumped. Thumbs up it is.
“Right.” A pause. “Can we get the hell inside now?”
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If he were a more thoughtful person, Argyle would sit on this revelation for a while. Talk to Nancy, talk to Steve, talk to Robin and Supergirl.
That is a big if. Argyle came here to smoke weed and save the world, and now the world is (kinda) saved and he’s almost entirely out of weed and the enormity of it all, plus Jon expressing, like, zero indication of heading home is sort of crushing him.
He could drive home himself. He could drive that Surfer Boy van, drive away from Jon and El and Will and Joyce and zombie-Hop and back towards Lenora Springs Community College, unemployment, and friendlessness. Hey, maybe he could stop by Eden on the way back!
But that sounds kind of shitty, and Argyle can kind of feel a panic attack coming on so he grinds and rolls and lights up with shakey hands on the staircase of the Wheelers’ house and now there’s no weed left, so. Jon might at least know where to get some more, here in Hawkins.
Definitely no other reason to want to go talk to Jon. Nope. Yep. He’s caught in his orbit, he’s, like, everything Argyle has left, man. Even if he doesn’t always laugh when Argyle’s trying to cheer him up, and refuses to admit when his girl isn’t anymore, but maybe—maybe she is, now that they’ve saved the world together again. Maybe Argyle really should—
Stop spinning in circles on the stair landing like a pizza crust. He sits and spirals, like sauce, spreading out thinner and thinner with nowhere to go but in the oven.
Argyle takes another hit and pinches the tip carefully, tucking the last of it away for a weed emergency. That’s where Jon finds him less than a minute later.
“Jon!” Argyle beams up at them. “How’s it going, brochacho?”
Jon stares down at him a bit vacantly, swaying back and forth. “M’good.”
“Good, good. Swell.” A pause. The ceiling is so high, here. “I think I need to go home.”
Jon’s brow furrows like he’s concentrating, “Home got sucked up into the rift, dude.”
“Not like… I mean Lenora Springs. I mean—I’m being too Jon, friendo, and not enough Argyle. I love you, but this place isn’t me. You’re me. Or… I’m you. I’m pining,” he grins, pointing at the light wood of the baseboard behind him. “And look, I know sometimes… Pizza.”
“Pizza,” Jon agrees amiably. “There’s a really good place like ten minutes from here if you want. It’s no Surfer Boy, but…”
“No, I mean… You and Nancy are pizza. Or maybe not, she did totally ditch you,” Argyle nods sagely. “I think we’re pizza, but I think you think you two are pizza. Separate fine but not a whole meal, but put together and into the oven, and bam! Delicious combo, never to be parted, even if you didn’t even try Emerson and we both got into Lenora Springs Community College, and I totally thought we were pizza, man, but it turns out I’m…” Argyle sniffs, “I’m just canned pineapple.”
Suddenly, there Jon is beside him on the landing, arm around Argyle’s shoulders. “Hey, no, man, you’re not canned pineapple—”
“You’re the only one who orders it, man, even when I tell people it’s worth trying—”
“Hey, they just—they just don’t know what tangy, sweet deliciousness they’re missing, dude. Pineapple is—isn’t for everyone, is all.”
They sit there on the stairwell landing, Jon’s arm around Argyle, Argyle leaning into the embrace. “You like pineapple on pizza, though, right?”
Silence.
Argyle turns to Jon, aghast. “Wait—”
“It’s fine!” Jon answers after way too long. “It’s just—I’m usually more of a pepperoni guy.”
“But you always—”
“Yeah, ‘cause you get so happy when someone orders it, man. Like, it’s not bad, it’s kinda nice, definitely nothing you can get around here, but—”
“I thought you liked the pineapple,” Argyle whines, turning to face Jon more directly and squishing his face between his palms. “Did you fake liking the pineapple this whole time? Why?” Argyle leans in, narrowing his eyes, looking deep into Jon’s pupils. The eyes are the windows to the soul, but even as they get bigger, it is pitch black in there. “You’re the only person who’s ever ordered pineapple, Jon. The pineapple needs you. I need you.”
“No, I just—Why’s it gotta be pepperoni or pineapple, man?” Jon asks a bit desperately from where Argyle is holding him, still slightly squished. “Why can’t I like both?”
“‘Cause pepperoni is moving to Boston.” Jon squints a bit, trying to understand as Argyle continues. “Even after our big cross-country road trip to save the world, which, other than all the death and destruction was kind of fun, big romantic gesture on our part, she is ditching you.”
That seems to ring a bell. “…Wait, is pepperoni—”
“I’m right here, man. I’m not Jon or Nancy, I’m Argyle, and you’re Jon. Are you gonna ditch me?”
At that, Jon pulls Argyle even closer, full on hugging him, tucking his face into Argyle’s neck, mumbling, “…No. You gonna ditch me?”
Argyle shakes his head and melts like mozzarella. “Not if you’re not ditching me,” he assures.
“Hey,” Jon says, pulling back to look Argyle in the eyes again. “You’re my person, dude. I’m not gonna—”
“Y’can. If you want. Not a lot of people like pineapple, but that doesn’t mean you should eat it if you don’t even like it.”
“I—I’m so… what?” Jon mutters. “Pineapple’s fine, but you’re great. I like you.”
“…You do?”
“Yeah, man. Yeah, I like you, and I want you here.”
Argyle could stare into Jon’s eyes forever, but Jon looks up at the ceiling again, so he does too. “…You want me here?”
“Yeah, dude, obviously,” Jon huffs. “Jesus, Argyle. Yeah I want you around.”
Argyle’s relief floods through him, and he leans over, pressing his lips against Jon’s with fervor and a wet smack. “Okay.”
Jon blinks up at him, confused but not confused. “Okay?”
“Yeah. Okay. I’ll stay, then.”
A blink. “…That’s… it?”
Argyle takes a deep breath, tilting his head to look at Jon again. “Yeah, man. You want me here, I’m here.”
“…Huh,” Jon replies, mystified, and leans up to kiss his friend again, answering a question he’d never thought to ask before.
“Oh hey, wait, there is one thing,” Argyle says, sitting up abruptly before they make contact, and Jon mirrors him with sudden urgency. This is so, so important, maybe the most important thing he needs to know, if he’s going to uproot his life for real–for real.
“Yeah, what’s up? Whatever you need.”
Argyle pulls out his last half-smoked joint. “Y’know where I can score some more? This is all I got left.”
Jon snorts. “Well, it’s no Purple Palm Tree Delight, but…” The ceiling is still too high, but he pulls Argyle against him again, a stable warmth around his shoulders, and presses a warm kiss against his hair.
Stranger Things Secret Santa 2025 - Of Soulmates and Coffees - For Dan - 20.12.2025
It was a pleasure to work on this gift for @yesdangerpls for the @strangerthingsfests's Secret Santa !
I hope I did alright with combining things to make it a cute Coffee Shop with Soulmates AU doubling as a meet-cute 😊💕
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays !
Done using ink pens, colored pencils, alcohol markers, graphite pencils, gel pens, acrylic paint pens and Photoshop for the light and shadows effects, the background and foreground elements, the pattern on Steve's polo shirt, the patches and pins, the jewelry, Steve's glasses, the drink in Eddie's and Steve's hands, and the glow on the red string of fate
AO3 post / Bluesky post / DeviantArt post / Instagram post / Pillowfort post / Twitter post
