✒ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ʙʏ ᴅᴀʏʟɪɢʜᴛ ᴄᴏᴍɪꜱꜱɪᴏɴꜱ ᴀɴᴅ ᴏɴᴇꜱʜᴏᴛꜱ

the man of my dreams ┊ quentin x steve

Quentin groaned as he slung his schoolbag over his shoulder and walked out of the classroom. The brown-haired man was dead tired as usual, so the bright lights and colorful Christmas decorations hurt his bloodshot eyes. He hadn't expected Freddy to follow him through all of America.

It had been a month since Quentin moved to Indiana with his father. Or more specifically, to the small town of Hawkins. After Nancy mysteriously disappeared, as did her mother, Quentin immediately knew who was responsible for it. He became even more determined to stop Freddy once and for all. And then he made a huge mistake...

"Hey Quentin, didn't sleep well?"

He only gave a bitter chuckle. Since going to Hawkins High School, he hadn't really managed to make many social contacts. While at his old school, he seemed just a little nerdy but mostly invisible, here he was the new kid. Others thought he was weird because of his permanently tired appearance. The only one who talked to him from time to time was Robin Buckley.

He had met her in the school's band because his father had insisted that he'd sign up for an extracurricular activity. Even though Robin sometimes talked a bit too much, she was the closest thing he had to a friend here, which he was quite grateful for. Now at least he was just an outsider and not a loner as well.

"Oh yeah, I forgot, sorry. That whole insomnia thing! I really hope you feel better soon," the blonde girl said as she walked down the hall next to Quentin. She told him that she was really looking forward to Christmas and she really needed to bake cookies together with her friend Vickie... But that was the moment Quentin shut down. Not because he wasn't interested in what Robin had to say, but simply because he didn't feel a bit in the Christmas mood yet. Even if Freddy's sweater had the same colors as the Christmas sweater Robin wore, there were clearly more Christmasy things than being haunted by a dream demon. He couldn't tell her this, of course, so he forced himself to smile while nodding and throwing in truthless "Sounds good" and "Cool."

A few minutes passed until Robin suddenly stopped in front of a room, "My next class is here. Will I see you at band practice later?"

"Yeah sure, have fun in class," Quentin replied almost teasingly before moving on. However, he only managed to take a few steps forward before Robin yelled a loud "Wait!" after him, drawing a few stares. So, somewhat embarrassed, the brown-haired man turned around and looked at the girl with questioning eyes.

"Some friends and I are having some kind of Christmas sleepover party tonight... With snacks, cool movies, and stuff... Would you maybe like to come too?"

Quentin himself didn't know why he had agreed in the first place.

With his typical drained look, he sat in a stranger's house, at a table with people he knew only vaguely from Robin's stories. Funny to him, most of them were at least three grades below him and Robin. Why was she hanging out with these kids anyway?

The only people who were anywhere near Quentin's age were Robin and Vicky, who were just talking animatedly about something Quentin had no idea about. And then there was Steve, who was just fooling around with one of the kids, Dustin. At the sight, Quentin couldn't help but grin. Robin had told him about Steve before, joking that they would make a good couple: Bullshit, Quentin thought, just because he had told Robin after she had confided in him that she was a lesbian, he could also imagine trying something with a boy doesn't mean that he would get involved in something like that.

Lost in thought, Quentin looked at the tabletop where Mike seemed to be setting up something. Were they going to play a board game?

"Have you ever played Dungeons and Dragons before?" the boy asked, to which Quentin shook his head. He had heard of it before, but it had never really interested him. He had better things to do than fight made-up monsters.