brutal ━ mike wheeler

nine. news and graveyards

NINE━━━━
NEWS AND GRAVEYARDS

stranger things;
season 4 ep 4
tw! vomit

ADRIAN WOKE UP ABOUT 30 minutes after he had fallen asleep. Unfortunately, him and sleep don't have a really good relationship.

He was upstairs with Holly, deciding he wanted to step away from the basement for a little while, while she played with one of her new toys. The TV was running in the background and Ted was sitting in his beloved Lay-Z-Boy watching whatever was playing.

He was idly listening to the TV but he was mainly focused on the little girl that was pressed up against him while she showed him a new picture she made with her Litebrite. "See it?"

Adrian smiled faintly, leaning in to look. The design that she had made was a little lopsided but it was easy to tell what exactly it was that she was going for. Definitely some sort of flower, a daisy if he had to guess. "Yeah," he said softly. "Looks good, Hol." He placed a gentle hand on the top of her head as she leaned into him a bit more, moving to grab another handful of pegs to put on the toy.

Adrian leaned back against the couch, eyes flicking briefly toward the TV. There was yet another reporter talking about everything that had been going on. All the unexplained deaths, updates on Eddie, the news of Fred. It was everything that he had expected to be on the news by now.

The others told him briefly after he had woken up that Nancy and Robin had left a little while ago to go to Pennhurst, hoping to score an interview with Victor Creel. He didn't particularly like the idea, but he knew there was no talking those two out of it.

Now, the house felt weirdly empty. Karen was somewhere in the kitchen, and Adrian could just barely heard her voice as she talked to someone on the phone. It was soothing in a way. Ted had barely moved from his spot since Adrian had settled in the living room, only looking over at him once in the whole duration. The only thing he really heard was the sound of Holly occasionally singing along to the jingles that played on the TV, and the faint sound of the others talking in the basement below them.

Adrian turned to look outside, looking at the grass and the way the sun shone brightly through the curtains, making the back of his neck feel warm. It was kind of nice.

"Hey, Hol," he murmured. "I gotta go back down now." He watched as the girl frowned a little but moved so he could get up. "Okay. . . can we play later?" Adrian smiled with a nod.

"Yeah, I'll even do your hair again if you want." Her eyes lit up at the mention of that, and she quickly nodded her head. "Can you do those pretty braids like last time? All my friends were soooo jealous."

"Well, of course." He ruffled her hair as he pushed himself off of the ground, dusting off his jeans. "I'll see you tonight, squirt."

She smiled at him once more before she got hooked back onto her toy, and Adrian took that as his chance to walk back down into the basement. When he did, he saw the others sitting around Max as she handed each of them an envelope. Adrian had a feeling he knew what they were. Precautionary.

"What are you doing?" She quickly turned to look at Dustin. "No, don't. That's not for now. Don't open it now." He looked at her for a moment but then set the letter down in his lap. "Don't. . . Okay." Adrian moved to sit in front of Mike, sinking back when the boy's hand instinctively moved to his shoulders, rubbing gently.

"I'm sorry. What is this?"

"It's, um. . . For after. You know, if things don't work out." Adrian found himself staring at the floor, suddenly more interested in that than anything else in this room. He wondered if something did happen if he would even be able to read it himself.