love's hidden garden [stonathan] - eng

Stranger Things AU
Post-Canon - S5

What would happen if the boy you always believed to be your enemy became the one person you can no longer imagine a future without?

Everything settles back into place in Hawkins. The kids have gone their separate ways. Robin packed her bags without looking back. Nancy chose her direction, as she has always done.

Everyone has moved on. But Jonathan Byers has stayed in Hawkins longer than expected, caught between dreams that are too big and a town that is too small. Steve Harrington never left - he coaches baseball for the kids at Hawkins High.

What would happen if they ran into each other by chance in the empty gym of their old school? Jonathan there for a photoshoot, Steve just turning off the lights.

Two people who have always looked at each other sideways. Who have shared Nancy, Demogorgons, and one scar too many.

But what if that night, in that empty gym, one conversation turned into another, until it filled years of silence and old grudges neither of them had ever truly found the courage to face?

And if, at some point, Jonathan were to throw out that absurd proposal - "come with me to New York, the rent's cheaper if we split it" - would Steve really know how to say no?

Enemies to Friends to Lovers