Welcome to Stranger Things Rarepair Week! From January 2nd to the 8th, we’ll be celebrating all the awesome rarepair ships in Stranger Things! Fics, edits, playlists, art, moodboards and whatever you come up with will be shared out for this event!
We hope you will join us!
Rules:
- For the sake of this event, we're defining a rarepair as a ship that has under 500 works on ao3. Ships that fall under this include, but are not limited to: jargyle, edancy, joneddie, byclair, henclair, cheermelody (chrissy/vickie), bandqueen (chrissy/robin), buckleway etc
- Your rarepair must be the main/focus ship in any content, but other ships can be in the background
- The prompts are meant to be for inspiration. If you can't think of anything to for them at all, feel free to go with a theme you like more! Just specify for which day of this event your entry is for in your post
- Fanfiction, edits, gifsets, playlists, art and moodboards are all accepted for the event! Just show us your creativity!
- Darkfics etc are allowed, but always make sure to tag accordingly
- We'll check the tags and keep the ao3 collection open for a week after the event ends, so late fic submissions in that window are allowed
- When posting on tumblr or twitter, be sure to tag #strarepairweek23 and tag our accounts. When posting to ao3, just adding your fic to our ao3 collection is enough (but feel free to also tag is ST Rarepair Week 2023 or similarly)
- Please reblog and boost this event blog and the event twitter so that we can get more engagement and make this an awesome event for all!
Stretch It Out || Stranger Things Rarepair Week: Day 1
Pairing: Steve Harrington x Chrissy Cunningham (Cheerscoops)
Genre: Fluff
Word count: 2.2k
A/N: it's a little late, but here's day 1 for @st-rarepair-week!! you know i had to give some love to my beloved crackship <33
Shit. Shit, shit, shit. Steve pulls out the now-tiny shirt from the washing machine that is most certainly not his. The ribbed, brown, short-sleeved top has far too small a neckline as it is, but now that it’s shrunk amongst his clothes, it looks even smaller.
He searches desperately for some kind of clue as to who it might belong to. Nothing’s written on the labels - though why would it be, this is college, not kindergarten - and there’s nothing else to suggest any different. Steve groans, holding his head in his hands as he sinks into a squat, sitting on his heels as he tries to think of what to do with it.
Someone comes in - an upperclassman, taller than Steve, and more slender. He cocks his head when he sees Steve, “You good?”
“Huh?” Steve looks up at him. “Uh, yeah. Yeah. All the other machines are free,” he explains, but the other man shakes his head.
“Nah, dude, I’m just looking for something, I might have left it here,” he explains, and Steve snorts out a laugh.
“I don’t suppose this is it, is it?” He holds up the shrunken shirt and the other guy hisses through his teeth.
“No, but you know whose I think that is? God, what’s her name, she’s in theatre with me… Ah, fuck, red hair, Indiana girl… Chrissy! I don’t know her last name, but yeah. I’ve seen Chrissy wear a shirt just like that,” he nods.
Steve throws the shirt over his shoulder and takes his own basket into his arms. “Alright, I can probably go off that. Thanks, man, appreciate you. Hope you find your thing!” Steve calls from over his shoulder as he leaves.
Only opening the door to his dorm to throw the laundry basket through it, Steve takes the shirt belonging to the girl named Chrissy in his hand and runs back down the stairs to the front desk. “Hi! Wondering if you can help me. Do you happen to know if there are any freshmen here by the name of Chrissy that take theatre?” The woman behind the desk looks at Steve over her glasses, judging. Steve tries his best to ignore it. “I, uh, have something of hers that I’m trying to return.”
After a few minutes of flicking through the new-fangled “computer” she’s working on, the woman eventually says, “Chrissy Cunningham? That’s all I have for you. She’s in Ryder’s English class right now. Ends in about twenty minutes.”
“Are there any others with the same first name? I don’t wanna mess up,” Steve frowns.
Another judgemental look over her frames. “What part of “that’s all I have for you” didn’t make it through your ears?”
“Alright, damn,” Steve frowns, offended, as he steps away. “Well, thank you anyway, lady.”
Steve asks around to find out where Ryder’s class is and finally finds it just as class ends. He scans the crowd, desperate to find a redhead that looks like she’d wear a shirt like this, when the sight of a familiar face feels like a slap across his cheeks.
He didn’t think anyone else from Hawkins would be here, but then again, he wasn’t sure where any of them were graduating, since they were all a year his junior. He vaguely remembers Chrissy as being one of the cheerleaders, but with them all wearing the same uniform all of the time, it was easy for Steve to never pay attention to them. Cheerleaders always wanted Steve, but he only wanted girls that were different. What an ass.
He holds his hand out to land on Chrissy’s shoulder, “Hey!”
Chrissy, focused on getting out with the rest of them, jumps a little as she’s called out. She looks up and can’t believe her eyes. “Steve Harrington?! What are you doing here?!”
“Managed to crawl my way into getting into classes a year after everyone else in my grade did,” he shrugs. “But if you mean, why am I here at your class, I, uh… I think this might be yours?” He asks with gritted teeth, holding up the shrunken shirt.
Chrissy pouts, “Oh, no! That was one of my favourite shirts, too.”
“I’m so, so sorry, I think it got left behind in the washing machine, and then I had my clothes on a hot wash, and - How much was it, I can go back to whatever store and buy you a new one, money’s not an object, I swear, just tell me where -” Steve starts frantically searching his jeans pocket for a pen, protruding one and poising to write on the back of his hand, but Chrissy shakes her head with a small, defeated smile.
“No, that’s sweet of you, but it’s out of season by now. You wouldn’t be able to buy it again,” she sighs sadly. “Guess that’s the end of that.”
Steve racks his brain as he comes up with half a solution. He mutters under his breath, “Right, so what if… But then how do I… Shit,” he pulls a frustrated face as his Casio watch beeps. “Um… Ah!” Chrissy’s amusement at watching Steve’s thoughts happen in real time becomes shock when he pulls his shirt off. He holds it out to her, but it takes her a second to process the sight of his bare torso in front of her. He manages to recuperate himself enough to smirk, “Eyes are up here, Cunningham.” Blushing, she looks up at him and he shakes his shirt at her. “Take this!”
She does so, cautiously, and Steve pulls the still-damp, shrunken shirt over his head, wrestling his head and arms in each hole. Chrissy laughs, confused, as she watches him, until he pulls the shirt down as far as it will go. It reaches just past his pecs, hugging his biceps a little too well. “What are you doing?!” she giggles, hiding her face in his shirt. It smells like sandalwood, and something else that she can’t place.
“I have to get to class, now. I’m in dorm 701, over in block D, um…” He takes Chrissy’s free hand and writes “701, block D” on the back of it with his pen. “If I’m not there, I’m probably around… Somewhere,” he shrugs as he backs away. “Think of that shirt as collateral, so you know I’ll be back for it once I’ve stretched this one back out again!” He turns on his heel and runs to his next class.
He’s met with all kinds of reactions. Mostly wolf-whistles, jokey catcalls from other guys and laughter from the girls he passes. He doesn’t care, though. He’s doing this for a good cause. Chrissy looked so upset when she thought she’d never get the shirt back. He’s going to cheer her up again. Her laughter sounded so pure, so sweet in Steve’s ear. Her smile lit up her whole face, including the twinkle in her eyes. Who wouldn't want to see that all of the time?
He’s distracted throughout his whole class, thinking about her. Who was she in Hawkins? Obviously, Steve knew she was on the cheer team, but that was all. He couldn’t remember whether she was on the main squad or on reserve, whether she was dating anyone on the basketball team, or the swim team, or the football team. What kind of person she was like in school, whether she’s the same now. Steve kicks himself internally for not being able to see past the uniforms for all those years.
But, that’s probably a blessing. King Steve wouldn’t have appreciated her the way Steve would now. And the older, more mature Steve already hates his former self for how he treated the girls he dated.
The more that Steve wears the shirt, the less people’s comments affect him. At one point, in the courtyard, someone calls out to Steve, “Hey, Harrington, my sister called, she wants her crop top back!” as they throw him a basketball.
Steve catches it easily, smirking, “Yeah, yeah, laugh all you want. You’re just jealous of how good I look in this,” before shooting it back to them. Turning his head to carry on, he spots Chrissy walking past. He grins, pulling the shirt down further to show her, “It’s coming on great! Still some work to do, though!”
Chrissy watches him walk past in awe. The sheer confidence he has while wearing her shirt… Taking his out of her bag, she slides it on over her own outfit, lifting the neckline past her lips to smile into the fabric. Of course, she’d heard tales of King Steve, but they all seemed to stop once he hit his senior year. Especially so after he’d graduated. Chrissy always thought there must have been something in him that had changed for the better. She’d been hoping the same would happen to Jason Carver, that he’d care more for their relationship beyond basketball captain meets head cheerleader, but…
Chrissy shakes her head and looks at the back of her hand again. She’s not sure when Steve will be finished with class for the day, but she knows that she is. And she could go to the library to study, or maybe she could just study in her dorm instead. And maybe she could take a little detour.
When she gets to Steve’s dorm, she fishes out a notepad and a pen from her bag. She writes, Your shirt now lives at dorm 143, come get it! - Chrissy in her favourite purple gel pen, that glitters and smells of grapes, rips out the page from the book and slides it under his door before returning to her own dorm room for the foreseeable future.
A little under two hours later, there’s a knock at Chrissy’s door. She tears herself away from the notes she’s studying to answer and beams when she sees Steve again. “Hi! You got my note!”
“Sure did,” he smiles, looking her up and down. “Nice shirt.”
“Could say the same for you!” she giggles as she moves to let Steve in. “Have you really been wearing that all day?” Steve nods. “Well, you might have started a new trend here! All the guys’ll be sporting crop tops soon.”
“Yeah, well, hopefully theirs will actually fit them a little better,” Steve smirks, amused at his own joke. “Alright, now, heads up, I’m gonna give you this shirt back. That means I’m gonna take it off again. Sure you can handle that?” He raises his eyebrows at her.
She blushes, holding her hair over her face coyly. “Shut up and strip, already.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he nods, peeling the shirt off of his torso. He flaps it out in front of him a couple of times before handing it over to her. “I hope that’s done it some good, at least.”
“Only one way to find out!” She waves the shirt up before heading to the bathroom. Steve is suddenly very aware that he is sitting in the dorm of someone he only barely knows, completely shirtless. He looks around the room, trying to see anything that’ll spark a memory of his own time in Hawkins to attach Chrissy to, but there’s very little to go from.
She emerges moments later, the shirt hugging her figure beautifully. She looks down at it, tugging it down. “Well, it’s not the length it used to be, but I think I could still make it work as a cute little crop top, I mean, you sure did!” she giggles, before looking back up at Steve, who’s looking at her with glassy eyes and parted lips. Feeling a swooping sensation wash over her insides, she grins, “Eyes are up here, Harrington.”
He snaps out of his trance to smile sarcastically at her. “Hilarious. You gonna give me my shirt back or are you just trying to keep me shirtless?” Rolling her eyes jokingly, Chrissy tosses Steve his shirt back, which he pulls back on to discover that his usual musk has been replaced with a far sweeter, more floral scent. Steve licks his lips and pauses for a moment before asking, “So, uh, you got anything planned for the rest of the day?”
Chrissy shakes her head. “Not that I’m aware of. You?”
“Well, first on the agenda, ask a cute girl to get coffee with me,” Steve taps one finger with another. “Second depends on what your answer is,” he taps his middle finger that time, gesturing his whole hand to her.
Chrissy giggles, “Wow, maybe you’re not Steve Harrington of Hawkins High, after all. From all I heard of him, he’s nowhere near that dorky!”
Steve rasps, cocking his head confidently. “Don’t pretend like it didn’t work.”
With a grin, Chrissy walks up to him and kisses his cheek before grabbing her purse and heading to the door, swivelling around in the doorway to hold her hand out towards Steve. “So? Are we going?”
Steve springs into action, jogging over to her with a, “Yes, ma’am,” as he takes her hand and leads her out of the dorm.
Stranger Things Rarepair Week - prompt: rivalries @st-rarepair-week
“So many years to waste with you”
Words: 1155
Summary:
It's their last year in high school. Dustin and El had three years of rivalry behind them. But, as they have to spend some time together after school, El comes to realize that because of her rivalism she missed so many good things about Dustin.
That's a good time for apologizing and maybe a new beginning?
ships: Dustin/El
tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Collage, Future Fic, Fluff, Reconnecting, Tutoring
summary: At 19, Jane 'El' Hopper has been separated from her friends for what feels like an eternity now that they're all in college. But thanks to her need for some tutoring, she's about to be reunited.
wordcount: 2927
written for: @st-rarepair-week day 4
tags: Alternate Universe, Bi Steve Harrington, Bi Chrissy Cunningham, bi4bi, Secret Crush, Developing Relationship, Coming Out, Late Night Conversations
summary: Growing up is hard, especially when you're a popular closeted teen in Hawkins, Indiana.
Turns out Steve and Chrissy have more things in common than they could ever imagine.
I wrote seven fics for the Stranger Things Rarepair Fest! Yay!
Day Four prompt: you and me against the world
Title: it's a moonlit january night, and you’re kissing a boy who hates himself
Dustin/Mike, 8k, Rated pg13
It’s November, and a boy in a studded jacket is asking if you might be that way. There’s only one answer you can give him.
It’s December, and you’re writing a festive letter to a man with sarcoma who likely won’t see next Christmas. You mail some cookies too, just in case he can eat them without throwing up.
It’s January, and how is this the thing you have nightmares about, when you’ve killed a man who planned on torturing your brother to death?
last day of @st-rarepair-week has rolled around so i am collecting all the fics i have done for it here :)
day one: alternate universe/canon divergence
Reunions & Pizza
Rating: Gen. kargyle plus el & kali reunion.
“Dude, does that mean you’re also Jonathan’s sister?” he turns to his friend. “Am I dating your sister?”
day two: monster hunting
what doesn’t kill me makes me want you more
Rating: M. gothbasket s1 au where jason basically is nancy and eden is jon.
(No one has ever needed him before.)
day three: secrets
are there still beautiful things?
Rating: M. cheermelody | chrissyvickie middle school besties.
They become close through their mothers.
(or: the rise and the fall of Chrissy Cunningham and her best friend.)
day three: early mornings
Daylight
Rating: Teen. heatherbarb.
Early in the morning in the summer, when the pool isn’t officially open yet, Heather teaches Barb how to swim.
day three: dark of the night
i’ll pull the trigger with my eyes closed
Rating: Teen. shotgun | nancy/jason | nancejace? idk, obsession.
(It’s a strange feeling, to be obsessed with someone. Especially someone you despise so much.)
day four: you and me against the world
you and me against the world
Rating: M. jonchrissy, unhealthy coping mechanisms.
They’re in his bathroom. His mother is at work. Will is at Mike’s. They are all alone.
day five: high school cliches
oops
Rating: Gen. fem!jonheather, falling in love from afar.
Honestly, Heather is just in the library to escape Mrs O’Donnell and her death glare.
day six: party
You, Me, Loud, Quiet
Rating: M. joneddie, halloween party canon divergence.
It’s not really comforting. But it’s there — like something small, warm at the pit of his stomach.
day seven: meet-cute
Glitter Pink Reunion
Rating: Teen. cheermelody | chrissyvickie, sequel to the first one.
It’s just that Vickie doesn’t want to be alone.
day seven: rivalries
something twisted, something —
Rating: Teen. angeleven, school party, seven minutes in heaven.
All she wants is to belong. It’s always, always been all she wanted.
