The closet

The strange thing in the closet

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to stranger things or its characters but the OCs are infact mine lmao. The photo at the beginning is what Riley looks like as an adult. I also know the person in the photo so thanks for letting me use it as a reference. Also thank you to my homie who has literally been the best at helping me plot this bitch. Thank you Alex

Chapter. 1

The first time Steve met Riley, he was nine years old. Sadly he had just woken up all alone to an empty house. With a simple note about how his mom and dad would be back after the weekend was over, due to his father’s job stuck to the fridge with a magnet. 

Alarm bells went off in his head as tears began to well up in his eyes. He had never been left all by himself before. Usually he had a babysitter at least. His heartbeat quickened as did his breathing, his mind becoming fuzzy as panic set into his young mind. 

Steve can't remember how he ended up in the closet in his room but he did. In the back corner of his closet in the darkness, which was comforting to his nine year old panicked mind, Steve sat curled up with his knees to his chin. 

He tried to stem the flow of the tears but more just kept replacing the ones he wiped away. His heart felt like it was going to beat out of his chest. He knew what his dad would say. That Steve needed to man up, men don't cry. 

Wrapping his arms around his shins, he buried his face against his knees and began to rock. His blue pajama pants soaked up the tears and sobs that left him. The fuzziness refused to go away; it was getting worse as he hiccupped and sobbed. 

Steve had been so out of it, lost in his head he hadn't noticed the other person in his closet, not even when the other person sat down beside him. In fact Steve didn't notice the other child until he felt a hand on his back rubbing small, soothing circles. The soft voice of the stranger and the back rubs helped clear the fuzziness some. 

"It's okay to cry… at least that's what my dad says when I cry. So it must be true," the voice ended softly before continuing with a matter of fact tone, like she knew it was the absolute truth, "Rainbows only show up after it rains after all." 

Blinking away some tears Steve raised his head and looked to his left. There beside him was a girl about his age in a green pyjama set. She had curly light brown hair and wide brown eyes that held so much concern for him he felt the tears come back. Why was she being so nice? 

Noticing he was looking at her now, she gave him a bright smile before she stood in front of him and held out one of her hands. 

"My name is Riley, what's your name?" She asked but Steve simply stared at her. This strange girl who just randomly appeared in his closet and had comforted him so easily. Something he can't remember ever really getting from his parents. "It’s okay if you don't wanna talk, my cousin Rose sometimes doesn't talk cus she says it takes too much energy and after crying and stuff she doesn't have enough. Dad said that that's normal." 

Her brown eyes gazed at him, hand still held out in front of herself. Finally making a decision he reached out his hand to take hers as he stood. A few stray tears fell as she helped him up. To his surprise she pulled him into a hug before letting go and taking his hand again. 

"C'mon, let's go eat breakfast!" Her words made him pause as he felt the panic start up again. He was only 9 years old! He couldn't cook! Maybe the girl- Riley knew how. After all Breakfast was her idea. It was a good thing that his mom had gone grocery shopping a few days before his parents left. What would they even have? 

They walked towards the other corner of his closet and much to Steve's confusion the corner rippled as Riley touched it. Wait.. she had gone through the wall followed by the rest of her body before Steve himself followed her through. It felt like when he would swim under the water in the pool behind his house. Blinking as he exited the other side of the... the weird portal in his closet. Into a room that wasn't his. 

The room was painted a dark blue, the furniture mismatched, clothes and toys were laying all over the floor; making the floor a tripping hazard. Sheets of paper with drawings on them filled the walls. Some of them were really good while others looked like a child had drawn them. The bed against the wall was unmade and messy. A pile of stuffies sat in the corner by the pillows. Steve frowned, his parents would be so upset if his room even remotely looked like this. 

He had only a moment to take in the room before the girl was once again leading him. She lead him through the door and down a hallway littered with pictures on the wall. From very old black and white photos to pictures of Riley. Some of them had adults in them, others had other kids with her. Most often the adults were a large man with bright ginger red hair and bright blue eyes that held so much love for the even smaller Riley in his arms or a woman with very curly dark brown, a wide smile and the warmest brown eyes Steve had ever seen. 

Now if Steve had been paying attention, he would have noticed when Riley began leading him down a set of stairs but he was too preoccupied looking at what he supposed was a loving close knit family. He couldn't stop the slight feeling of jealousy that stirred in his tummy. 

_____________ 

It wasn't every day that the sound of panicked crying in her room woke Riley. About an hour before she knew her dad would be waking her up for breakfast, she was pulled from her sleep by the sound of sobs and hiccups but her room had been empty. Then somehow she had managed to walk through the wall of her closet to find a brown haired boy with his arms wrapped around his legs with his head pressed against his knees rocking. He reminded her of the thing her cousin Rose had. Dad said those were panic attacks. 

Riley walked over beside him and rubbed his back trying to soothe him like Aunty Robin soothed Rose. As soon as he calmed down Riley stood up, held out her hand and introduced herself. 

"My name's Riley, what's yours?" She smiled down at him. He silently stared up at her, the tears finally fading from his eyes "It’s okay if you don't wanna talk, my cousin Rose sometimes doesn't talk cus she says it takes too much energy and after crying and stuff she doesn't have enough. Dad said that that's normal." She needed to know how to fix this so she suggested something she knew would always make her feel better. She gave him a few more moments to voice his name before she made her decision as it seemed like he wasn't going to say anything. But he surprised her by taking her hand and slowly standing up. Overjoyed, Riley gave him a big hug before pulling back and taking his hand again.

"C'mon, let's go eat breakfast!" She pulled him over the the seemingly solid wall of his closet and closed her eyes and just walked right through just like the first time. Delighted that she was right and had been brought back to her room she didn't give her new friend a chance to check out his surroundings before she was dragging him out of her room and down to the kitchen. She had decided that she was going to make waffles like her dad did for her. 

They didn't take much effort and were one of the things she was allowed to make for herself. Letting go of the boy's hand she made her way away from the table and to the fridge. Grabbing the waffle from the freezer she turned and grabbed the step stool giving her access to the toaster. Slipping 4 frozen waffles into the toaster she started it and turned to the cupboard above the sink and grabbed 2 plastic plates. One her favorite barbie plate, the other was a Hercules movie plate. 

The waffles didn't take too long to cook, and by that time Riley had grabbed the syrup and whipped cream, placing them on the counter. When they popped, she plated the waffles and drizzled some syrup, and added some whipped cream on top. 

Carefully carrying both plates to the table, she realized she didn't grab any forks so she put the plates down and ran back to the kitchen to grab them both the necessary utensils. 

She had handed the boy a fork before starting to dig into her own food. She was almost done with her breakfast when her silent new friend spoke up for the first time. 

"I'm Steve..." his voice was soft and he kept his head lowered a bit and glanced at her. 

She grinned wide.

"It's nice to meet you Steve!" At her positive response Steve raised his head and actually looked at her. She noticed he had brown eyes just like her. He still looked so sad and she wanted to fix that. Friends don't deserve to be sad. 

So she vowed to herself, as much as a 9 year old could really, that she'd be there for her new friend.