talk too much | max mayfield

bonus chapter 4

THE HARRINGTONS

Everyone always seems kind of shocked when they find out Nora and Steve are siblings.

The cool, popular guy who threw house parties every weekend and the nerdy little girl who played DND every weekend.

They weren't even in high school at the same time, as Steve graduated when Nora went into her freshman year, so only really dedicated teachers could recognize Nora as Steve's little sister.

They don't look identical either (obviously, considering the five year age gap and difference in genders), but anyone who knows the two of them would realize immediately how similar they really are.

For starters, they could both watch Grease any day of the week, they both hate coffee with a passion, they're avid ramen eaters and cookies n cream ice cream enthusiasts, and they both hate old people.

Steve remembers a time when his parents actually acted like his parents, and he used to miss that feeling a lot when they started getting so caught up with work and he was left to parent his younger sister alone, but as Nora got older and Steve started to see how it looked like she was always walking on eggshells around them, he realized the people who were once always there for him as a kid, were basically aliens now.

He took it upon himself to make sure Nora knew that there wasn't only evil in the world. That she could find love in other people even if it didn't come from their parents.

That's where the difference between what Steve and Nora have and what their friends have with their siblings shows the most.

They're not quite like Nancy and Mike where they practically hate each other and are constantly getting on each other's nerves, but know "deep down" or whatever that they love each other.

But they're not like Will and Jonathan either where they're constantly assuring each they're there for each other and having those sweet, mushy moments ending with hugs and soft tears.

They're just Steve and Nora. Nora and Steve. They love each other, but it goes without saying. Sure, Steve gets annoyed, more often than not, when Nora steals his jackets and tells cute girls his hair routine, but he gets back at her by talking to Max about how Nora still plays dress up with their mom's clothes when she's out of town.

Steve was terrified when he got through the gate back to the real world and discovered Nora was lying in a hospital bed, the doctors unsure whether or not she was going to make it.

He knew she was strong, - stronger than him even - she's been in this weird, magical, evil monster ridden world longer than he has, but there was no describing how he felt as he sat beside her hospital bed as she lay unconscious, begging her to wake up. He didn't really understand the 5 stages of grief until then.

He didn't believe what Max and Lucas were trying to tell him as he all but sped over to the hospital in desperation to see her.

It wasn't his finest moment when he shut everyone out, both emotionally and in the sense that he wouldn't let anyone see Nora, so he could pace stressfully in her room in peace.

Neither siblings have ever been especially religious, spare for the occasional Easter Sunday spent in church, but that didn't stop Steve from praying his way into making Nora healthier.

When Nora finally woke up, she saw her brother's eyes were sunken in, piles of unopened Jell-o containers sat on the table beside him, and had Dustin not alerted everyone of the movement from Nora's bed, he probably would've stayed staring blankly in the distance.

"I'm glad you're okay," Steve says suddenly, looking up from the magazine article he was reading out loud to Nora about the best eye shadows color combos to try.

Nora looks over at her sappy big brother, upset he paused right before the top three combinations, but can't stay mad for long as he looks at her with genuineness in his eyes.

"You get my girl problems better than Robin does."

"It always has to be about you, doesn't i-"

"Yeah, it does."

a/n:
hi I'm gonna post pt 2 of the previous chapter but I have to ask whether or not we want Nora to be annoying esp in s5 bc rn I have a plan to make Annie super annoying and worthy of being like irrelevant but the more I think ab it the more I'm thinking how I could just as easily make nora super annoying too yk? like add some depth/negative character development (Nora's "mike wheeler arc" if u will)
Im kinda just thinking like nora starts subconsciously realizing that everything works out in her favor most of the time, like ya she got shot, but she still lived, and she still got max back eventually, and she hasn't lost anyone close to her, and she didn't like her parents anyway so it was nbd when she got kicked out (obvi it was traumatizing and stuff and what Vecna used against her but) my point is she always has like her friends and Steve and at the end of the day she gets a happy ending and I don't necessarily mean to take that away from her I just wanna make her a bit of a bitch yk? idk lmk bc bonus chapter 3 pt. 2 and the future of this story is in ur guys' hands now 😊😊🫶