Stonathan ❤️

64

NOT MINE!!

all credits go to SnowButterfly on ao3

Harrington and Byers. Steve and Jonathan. Two people that have always seemed to be in each other's peripheral, for better or for worse. If you watch one, the other will inevitably show up.

At first, it was for any reason but a good one. Steve would stalk the halls during middle school and into high school, looking for his prey. It would be a regular occurrence for him to occasionally command his goons to torment the smaller boy or do it himself. It got to a point where the most recent conflict between Harrington and Byers wouldn't be noteworthy, being the status quo instead.

The moment they stopped fighting caused more ripples than their entire last year of hostile interactions. For the first time since elementary school, when the boy's gazes landed on each other, they were void of the old, smoldering anger and hatred. Their muscles weren't tense, ready to strike or retaliate. Sure, they were only ever interacting if Nancy was there, but that's still something.

In the span of a couple of months, the high school witnessed a metamorphosis where the boys became comfortable with each other, rarely being seen without the other, with or without Nancy.

Whispered threats and snarls at each other shifted to laughter and light conversation. They used to only touch when fists connected with faces, but they now lean on each other and bump shoulders casually.

It's like there was never any conflict between the two of them, and if you didn't see it happen, you wouldn't think they could ever hate each other. This was all strange enough for the students at Hawkins High, but then it got weirder.

Whispers started, pointing out the odd moments between the two. Gazes that lingered a little too long and sitting a little too close when they had no reason to. Soft smiles were stuck on their faces whenever they were together, rain or shine.

It became something of a casual debate on whether or not they were just friends. Some thought they were just close friends, while others started to throw around the word 'boyfriends.' It was just a bit too friendly to be normal, but there was never proof of anything.

However, that talk started to die down as the pair got even closer, seeming to leave less room for debate.

Jonathan began to wait out by the locker rooms with the girlfriends of the other basketball players for practice to end. Steve was always touching Jonathan in some way, even resting his head on his shoulder while eating. Moments apart became even rarer, and it was jarring to just see one of them.

Of course, there was talk about this and a fair amount of scorn towards the pair. However, this talk stayed only in whispers. Most of it was from girls that wanted to be with Steve themselves and those that weren't cool with two guys being together. To be frank, most people had better things to worry about, and it's not like they were fighting or doing anything crazy.

This is where things are sitting now. Most people already acknowledged the strong, not very platonic bond between the boys.

Interestingly, this all happened before the closest people to Jonathan and Steve began to suspect something was up.

They had a unique understanding of the shared bonds and experience between all of them, so it took longer to realize that Jonathan and Steve may be overstepping the bounds of friendly comfort in each other.

~~~

The kids and families started to think during the winter season.

They have a general Christmas celebration at the Harrington house, donated by Steve because his parents were out. It isn't actually Christmas, being a few days later, each of them having celebrated the actual holiday with their own families. However, with what happened, basically, everyone that took part in the incident had the urge to be together during the holiday season.