Stonathan ❤️

103

NOT MINE!!

all credits go to Menelya on ao3

"Fuck!" Jonathan yells when the car comes to a halt and smoke seeps out of the hood.

"Don't tell me your fucking car just broke down, Byers," Steve says, groaning. "We're in the middle of fucking nowhere!" Jonathan manages to steer the car onto the sideway, and while he does so Steve has the time to wonder if he should regret he said yes to come along on his day off. What were they doing out here, anyway?

"It must have overheated," Jonathan says, "I think the coolant system might be a little faulty, a hose might have cracked or something." He looks genuinely sorry, though that's kind of a default for Jonathan, at least Steve thinks so, even when he has nothing to be sorry for. It's just how he looks, and Steve thinks it's kind of cute. Jonathan really is the epitome of the phrase don't judge a book by its cover, if you can say that, because he's everything Steve didn't believe he was only a couple of years ago. Except a freak. He definitely still thinks he's a freak.

If anyone had asked him back in '83, he'd say Jonathan was a creep, and a loser. But then the whole deal with The Upside Down and shit happened, and Steve had learned he was quirky, funny, considerate, intelligent. Definitely a quality over quantity kind of guy. Nancy had loved him, and he is really beginning to see why. Steve tries not to miss a chance to hang out with him.

"It's fine, Byers, don't sweat it," Steve says, unable to stay mad and pats him on the shoulder. "At least there was a gas station a few miles back. And you're not the worst person to be stranded with, it could have been, I dunno, the kids." Though Steve has to admit that Dustin would have been good to have around about now, he's fucking always prepared.

It earns him a lopsided smile from Jonathan. "We're closer to Murray than the gas station, we can go there and I can call and have mom pick us up."

"Murray?" Steve asks, not recognizing the name.

"You know," Jonathan smiles, "bald eagle?"

"Oh," Steve says, "no shit?" He remembers him from the battle at Starcourt, though his memory of that is still a little foggy after being drugged by the Russians.

"So, you doing okay?" Steve asks as they start walking away from the car.

"Yeah, why?" Jonathan replies, looking surprised.

Maybe it's kind of weird, since Nancy was his girlfriend too once, but Jonathan is his friend so Steve figures it's the right to do, to make sure he's okay. "I mean, with the breakup and all."

Jonathan stuffs his hands down his pockets and looks up at the sky, Steve frowns and wonders if he maybe crossed a line with bringing her up, and the fact that they are no longer together. Jonathan hasn't mentioned anything about it to him, it was Dustin who told him. "It was a mutual breakup. We wanted different things."

"Oh," Steve says.

"Yeah," Jonathan shrugs. "It's no big deal, we're still good friends. She wants to go to college, pursue journalism and stuff, and I kind of want it to, with photography, but I got Will, El, and mom to think about, you know? I can't just leave them so I can go to a fancy college across the country. And Nance is the kind of girl who would drop it to be with me, but she would grow to resent me for it." He sighs, and Steve realizes just how much of a sacrifice Jonathan is willing to make for his family. Steve would never, but then his family never made any sacrifices for him. His mom or dad would never go the lengths Joyce has gone for Will and Jonathan, and now El. He understands why Jonathan feels the obligation to continue to support them, and if anything, Steve admires him for it. "It's better this way."