☆ ⁞ steve

^{@byersbcy  ♡’d}

^{He decides waiting until after the holidays is the most APPROPRIATE time to swing by Jonathan’s house, giving him enough time to enjoy Christmas with his mom and little brother, now that they’re all together again ( and Steve’s happy for him, for ALL of them, he really is; he wishes his family was more like Jonathan’s, despite all the shit he said when everything was so sharp and heated ). Nancy is still with her folks in Ohio, visiting her aunt for New Years, and Steve figures he better get this whole thing properly squared away before she’s home and school starts back up again. Nancy giving Jonathan the camera might replace what Steve BROKE, but it’s not a band-aid that slaps over everything.} 

^{There’s a car in the driveway, so someone is OBVIOUSLY home, and when his polite knock doesn’t receive an answer he proceeds to bang on the door, open handed. He almost smacks Jonathan in the face when the door finally swings open and he is suddenly standing at the threshold.}

^{❝ UH — hey, man. Bad time? Thought we should, you know, talk. ❞}

         ^{And then, because he’s beginning to doubt himself:}

                   ^{❝ I can drop by later if you’re busy. ❞}

^{Jonathan hated that the holidays were over. They’d been the best couple of weeks the Byers family had had in a long time. It had been nothing but family time, smiles, and lots of candy. They were all so happy to have Will back, they’d barely even left the house, all too desperate to be around each other to even think about seeing anyone else.} 

^{Christmas had been even better. Jonathan had been saving up his money for months so that he could surprise Will with his very own, brand new cassette player. Joyce had been quick to give him glare saying, ‘ he’ll keep us both up all hours of the night and it’ll be your fault. ‘ but both he and Will knew she was only teasing. At this point, they’d both let Will have his very own pony and a carriage to match if he asked.}

^{After those days passed, the Byers spent the last days of the school break on the couch with boxes of old VHS tapes, all movies they’d collected over the years, and they planned on watching them all as a family. They’d gone undisturbed for a total of five days before they had another interruption.} 

^{At first, Jonathan wasn’t planning on answering the door, figuring it was someone trying to sell them something, but then the knocking grew louder and he had no choice but to let out a long sigh and remove himself from the happy family bubble to be slapped by reality ( and almost Steve ) when he yanked the door open.}

^{His mouth fell open in surprise, eyes raking over the other boy as if he stared for too long the boy would simply disappear.} 

^{They should talk, there was only one way Jonathan saw that going and he really didn’t want to fight Steve anymore, but he wanted to know what Steve had to say even more.}

                                      ^{❝ bad time ?? — OH, no, no, you’re… fine. ❞}

^{There was no way Jonathan was letting Steve get out of this one. He came there, so he clearly had something on his mind. Jonathan needed to hear it, even if that meant interrupting family time. so, he took a step back into his house and pulled the door open wider, giving Steve room to steop inside.}

                                       ^{❝ come in — we can talk in, uh, my room. ❞}