Destiny | A Stranger Things Fanfic

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Eddie stood up quickly at the sound of distant rustling, grabbing Joan subconsciously by the arm and leading her out from under the skull to a boulder nearby.

"It's probably just the kids and their babysitters." Joan hissed out as she stumbled alongside the metalhead as he knelt down with interlocked fingers in a familiar cheer form to help her on top of the rock. When he didn't answer, Joan rolled her eyes and took the help up to hide, holding out her own hand to help yank him up as much as she could. "Well, now we have the high ground." She joked but sighed sadly when she realized that he wouldn't understand. "Tragic..."

"Do you or your brother - dad - whatever the hell know when to shut up!?" He hissed out dramatically with a hand over her mouth. Joan took no offense only snorting at the way Eddie tripped over his reference of the Dustin. She understood the confusion, she stumbled over it frequently. "You Henderson's will be the death of me I swear."

Way to ruin my mood, Eds...

"In your face, man. In your stupid, cocky little face." Joan went to jump down to the familiar faces and squash them into a hug, but Eddie's eyes drifted down to the rope marks on her wrists and held her back.

"Doesn't make sense." He brought up one of her hands in emphasis to her face and held up a finger to tell her to wait. With a wince she took the reminder and nodded, understand the need for her to hide until they sorted the dirty laundry.

They thought she was crazy. 

Which, to their credit, was fair.

"Yeah, yeah. Even with it staring you in the face, you can't admit it. Can't admit you're wrong, you butthead."

"I concur."

Joan snickered to herself as Eddie jumped down and shocked the ground occupants with his own power pose, hands on his hips and a deep breath in.

"You, Dustin Henderson, are a total butthead." 

There was something heart wrenching watching Eddie swallow his tongue and hug the freshman version of her dad back tightly, not any different than when she hugged her own little buttheads back at home.

Steve rolled his eyes as he walked away, feet stumbling on a wooden mess with a frown. "The hell is this?" He picked up the board without any grace, flipping it around as he eyed it suspiciously and Joan was a half step away from running over to prevent the destruction of her contraption.

Dustin took a few steps forward and snatched it from Steve's hands without any niceties, sending Steve into a small meltdown about manners that was ignored by everyone. "This... this is a radio. Did you make this Eddie?"

"Errr, no?" Eddie said sheepishly, scratching the back of his head and making the mistake of glancing up at Joan's hiding position. Everyone else followed his gaze up to see a wide eyed Joan standing awkwardly on the boulder. "Shit."

"Jo?!" Dustin responded incredulously, looking back and forth between his sister and the contraption and the tools on the ground beside it. "Since.. since when can you use a soldering gun?!"

With a nervous chuckle, Joan followed Eddie's lead and scratched the back of her head, hating the greasy feeling of her hair on her hands. She stayed on the rock though, not fully trusting the kids or Steve below her to not try and attack her.

Which, again, fair.

"Even more of a reason it's not Joan." Steve replied firmly, eyes narrowing at the girl as he took towards her. She was a threat to the small family he had and if he had to be the one to make the call, so be it. He would do anything to prevent harm on his kids. "...Munson?"