Time After Time (a Stranger Things fanfiction)

Happy Together

"Happy Together"

Imagine me and you, I do

I think about you day and night, it's only right

To think about the girl you love and hold her tight

So happy together

- The Turtles

The Halloween costume had come together well, if Joyce did say so herself. Will and his friends were obsessed with these Ghostbusters, and Joyce wanted Will's homemade costume to look just as good as the ones his friends' parents had bought. She was almost done with the finishing touch, the patch, when the bell above the door jingled as someone came into the store.

She smiled at the approaching customer, who plucked a jack-o-lantern for trick-or-treating off the stack and carried it toward her. "Hey there."

"Hey."

"Would you happen to have these in any other colors?" he asked. "I'm not a big fan of orange."

Joyce pretended to think about that one, keeping a straight face with some difficulty. "Hm. I'll have to check in the back." She put the costume down, coming around the counter. She gave a backward glance at her customer. "You want to come with me, see for yourself?"

"I don't mind if I do."

Bob started kissing her as soon as she got the door closed, pushing her back against the shelves. Joyce put her arms around his neck, kissing him back. He wasn't as masculine as Hopper had been; he didn't have the moves Lonnie had been known for ... but he was sweet, and he was passionate, and, where the others had always had something else on their minds, Bob was completely there. Completely hers. Joyce found that incredibly sexy.

He kissed her some more, moving her into a corner between two shelves so he could get as close to her as possible. Her knees weakening, Joyce flung a hand out to steady herself, knocking a couple of boxes off a shelf in the process.

She laughed, disentangling herself enough to reach for them. "You're gonna get me fired!"

"Well, that's my master plan: get you fired so I can hire you and we don't have to hide back here."

For that, she kissed him again. He started kissing her neck, which she liked, but not necessarily in the storage room in the middle of her shift.

"Bob."

"Mm."

"Bob. I have to get back to work."

He kissed her again, tightening his arms around her waist and holding her there. "I know, I'm sorry, I just—I can't stop thinking about you. It's crazy. I feel like a teenager."

"Me, too." She did. Not like the teenager she'd been, hiding how insecure she was and hanging out with Hopper and kids like him for protection, but like a real teenager, a happy one.

"You know, in high school, you didn't know who I was."

She hated when he reminded her of that. To think of all the time she'd wasted, when she could have been with someone as sweet and loving as he was all along. "Come on." Joyce pulled him closer and kissed him again. Bob got carried away again, and she repeated his name some more to remind him where they were, while he kept kissing her and saying "mm-hm" like he was about to stop. "I have to get back to work," she said again, louder this time, so he'd know she was really trying to mean it this time, much as she would have liked to just stay here in this closet kissing and laughing with him for the rest of her shift. Or the rest of the day.

Reluctantly, he let her go. "Okay."

"Go sell your—electronic thing-a-ma-jiggys, and I'll see you tonight for movie night."

"Jonathan's night to pick."

"Yes."

"Okay." He kissed her once more, but in good-bye this time, turning to walk away. Just as he reached the door, though, he turned back, lunging for her, stealing one last kiss to make it through the rest of the day. Or giving her one last kiss to make it through the rest of the day. Or both, Joyce thought happily. This relationship was about both of them, for the first time in her life. Maybe that was what made it feel so easy and good.

With a last few quick kisses, he turned to go for real this time, stopping at the door one last time as he noticed what he had pretended to come in here for perched cheekily on a shelf. "Hey, look," he said, pointing. "A green one."

The one and only green jack-o-lantern in the place. Joyce smiled.

Bob half-closed the door, then stuck his head back in. "Tell Jonathan not to pick anything scary. I hate scary movies."

Joyce nodded, although she had no intention of telling Jonathan any such thing, and kept smiling as Bob closed the door the rest of the way and left her alone there in the closet. How was it possible that she had lived this long and never known what fun it could be to be with someone, how much you could laugh and be happy and silly together? She knew the boys didn't really understand what she saw in Bob—Jonathan in particular—and she got that. From their perspective, he was just a kind of dumpy, dorky guy who worked in a Radio Shack. But they didn't see what she saw—the generous, kind heart, the open smiles, the constant concern for her thoughts and her needs and her welfare. She hoped someday they would.

In the meantime, she would look forward to movie night, one of the few things they all had in common ... at least, when Jonathan wasn't showing his displeasure with her and Bob and the world in general by picking movies he knew they'd hate. She hoped tonight wouldn't be one of those nights.