Stonathan ❤️

108

NOT MINE!!

all credits go to mournfulpursuit on ao3

A/N: I'm not 100% sure this is a stonathan but more like Jonathan and Will taking

Jonathan watches as Will watches Mike and El.

He hasn't been watching Will as much since they moved—out of the two of them, El was the one they were mainly worried about. Considering how she hadn't had any schooling, and how she could barely talk just three years ago, no one knew if she could even keep up with the coursework. It didn't even matter how much they'd watched though, if what happened at the roller rink was normal for her. Both of them are good at keeping secrets, he guesses.

It'd be a disservice to discount the weed from the equation as well. But those are his own issues.

Their makeshift road trip has pushed Will back to the forefront of his mind, like he had been 2 years ago. It'd taken him embarrassingly long, almost 15 years, to put it together, but it had really started getting to him in the airport when Mike had landed. It's only gotten progressively worse, and he honestly finds himself wanting to beat up a 9th grader for not noticing what's one of his best friends crying next to him. It's a little morbid, but he did manage to beat up Steve, he can take Wheeler.

He's spent so much of his life ignoring his own issues, and now finally when he's given that chance to deal with them, free of Hawkins, he decides to just ignore most of them. And then he spends too much time ignoring his stuff, that he forgets Will's issues for the first time in his life.

The silence before was comfortable, but now it's just stifling. He gives Will a final second to stare at Mike before randomly saying, "Do you remember that time you told me you had a Lego stuck up your nose?"

It confuses Will enough to jolt him out of whatever thought he'd been entertaining, and he gets a, "What?" in response.

"Yeah. Like, it was like a... It was like a construction guy. You'd call him Larry." Will keeps staring at him like he's grown a second head. "Come on! You don't remember? He had the high viz jacket and removable hat?" He starts gesturing with his hands, tipping an invisible hard helmet.

Will waits a beat before half-heartedly saying, "Yeah. Vaguely."

"Well, I remember it like it was yesterday. Man, I was... I was freaked. 'Cause... 'Cause this Larry... I mean, Larry was way, way up there." That gets a snort out of Will, so he counts himself lucky. "I don't even know how you got him that far up. I had to do surgery. I... I had to get tweezers to pull him out."

He mimes out a tweezer, and Will finally laughs. "Bull."

"No. No, no, I swear on my life." He sighs, because finally he's circled back to the point he's trying to make and he feels just a little crazy about it. He feels so far removed from the Jonathan he could be back in Hawkins, the one with pep talks prepared for everyone in his life except himself. "I don't know, I just...I feel like you used to come to me more for help. Or to just...talk, you know? 'Cause, like, you don't do that anymore. Not like before."

Who would you rather be friends with? David Bowie or Kenny Rogers?

He shakes his head. "A lot of that is probably my fault. This last year..." He sighs again. "I know I've been distant."

Will finds his voice to suddenly add, "Or stoned."

He laughs despite himself. "Or stoned. Yeah. But that has nothing to do with you. And that's me dealing with my own shit. Hiding from my own problems." Jonathan smacks his hands down with every sentence. He doesn't need Will beating himself up over his brother on top of everything else that's going on. He doesn't deserve that after the shit hand he's been dealt.