Archive of Our Own ^beta

For the first few years of her life, Nancy was nothing short of perfect.

When she was born, her mother was overjoyed by having a daughter, a little girl to dress up in the prettiest dresses and loveliest ribbons, a little girl to take shopping, to show off to her girl friends (all of them squealing like teenagers the second they saw her), to love and cherish like a child cherishes their favourite plush toy.

Her father was indifferent to having a daughter. He was probably disappointed by not having a son, but again, Ted Wheeler was indifferent to pretty much everything.

Karen always showered her with attention when she was little. Nancy had been a particularly cute kid, with her brown curls, her rosy cheeks and her big blue eyes, and Karen had filled album after album with pictures of her.

On top of being adorable, Nancy was a very easy kid to parent. She rarely threw tantrums, always ate whatever her parents put on her plate without a fuss, rarely complained about brushing her hair or putting on her shoes, went to sleep at the designated bed time and slept the whole night. She was the perfect daughter to raise.

To her parents’ surprise — and delight, in Karen’s case —, the girl started reading at a very early age. She always loved fairytales, and would beg her mom to read ‘just one more’ story before falling asleep. She loved hearing about the princesses and the fairies, the knights who slayed the dragons and the smart girls who tricked the villains.

Eventually, with how much she heard those stories, she started being able to retell them from memory, and that slowly evolved into reading the stories by herself.

She started loving books, carrying her favourite ones around everywhere she went, and that love of reading would eventually become a love of learning, a love of investigating, understanding.

Nancy was also a very compassionate girl from a very young age. She tried helping a bird that fell off its nest one time, taking care of it until it was better, and she insisted on carrying band-aids around to give to her playground friends if they got a scraped knee or a bruised arm.

Her family showered her with attention, gifts, love and everything a little girl could wish for. Her aunts and uncles pinched her cheeks and lifted her up in the air, her grandparents spoiled her with sweets and homemade treats, her parents treated her like she was their personal gift from the universe.

For the first three years of her life, Nancy was an only child. The child with perfect curls and blue eyes, kind, caring and smart, the Wheelers’ little girl, little Nancy Wheeler.

That was, until April of 1971.

❃

Nancy’s little brother was born on a particularly stormy night.

When she found out she was going to have a sibling, Nancy didn’t know how to feel. Feeling emotions that were probably too confusing even for a toddler as clever as she was, at first little Nancy felt scared that her mommy wouldn’t care about her anymore, that she would have to take care of the baby and forget about her.

Then, when her mom laughed and reassured her that ‘nothing will ever make me stop caring about you, Nancy, not even the baby’, she started to feel excited. Being a big sister would be a very new thing for her, and she would get another person to play with in the future. She wasn’t that happy with the idea of sharing her books and her toys, though.

Ted and Karen chose to keep the baby’s gender a surprise, to not know until it was born. When asked whether she wanted a brother or a sister, Nancy would answer that she didn’t mind, and that all that she cared about was keeping her room to herself.

In the following months, the Wheelers’ house slowly started to change. The guest room down the hall from Nancy’s room became a nursery, with stars and planets painted on the walls; the kitchen pantry was filled with feeding bottles and baby formula; her parents’ room became crowded with pillows and blankets and tiny baby clothes.

Her mom started to change too; she started getting tired more easily, she was eating more, and her belly was also growing.

“Your sibling is in here, Nance,” she told Nancy once, when she noticed the girl staring at her with curious eyes, “do you want to talk to them?”

“Can I?” Little Nancy asked, amazed at the idea of the baby being able to hear her from out here. Her mom nodded once, and placed Nancy’s hands on her stomach.

“Hello,” She whispered, eyes glowing in amazement. Her mom chuckled, but Nancy didn’t pay it any mind. “I’m Nancy, your big sister.”

Of course, there was no response. But Nancy had always been a clever child, so she had an idea.

She placed her ear to her mom’s stomach and closed her eyes. Faintly, she thought she could hear a heartbeat.

“I hope I can meet you soon.” She whispered again, making a wish to a star like she saw in Pinocchio. At that moment, Nancy wished that she would be the best sister the world has ever seen, that she would be able to love this baby for the rest of eternity.

The months passed, 1970 became 1971, and she held onto that wish, and as winter bled into spring her belief that it would come true only got bigger.

When April seventh came around, all hell broke loose.

It was raining pretty hard outside, and one minute she was sitting on the couch with her dad, looking at her favourite picture book while Ted watched the news, the next her mother was screaming her dad’s name, sounding more scared than Nancy had ever heard her.

After that, her dad was running around the house, calling someone on the phone to come look after Nancy, then her Nana showed up, then mom and dad were rushing out of the house, into the car and away from their driveway, too desperate to get to the hospital to be careful with the wet road ahead of them. When she asked Nana what was going on, she told her that ‘mommy’s about to have her baby, sweetie!’

Those words rocked little Nancy’s world.

She knew she was going to be a sister any day now, but that didn’t make the moment any less scary. Scary in a good way, but scary nonetheless. Today was the day she would meet her new sibling. She couldn’t be more excited, and she immediately started making preparations.

A few hours after her mom went to the hospital, Nancy’s Nana took her there to visit. She sat in the waiting room, hands gripping the soft fabric of her nice dress, legs swinging below her, one of the purple ballet flats she picked to wear almost slipping off her foot and falling to the ground.

Nancy picked the dress she was wearing with extra care, wanting to look pretty to see her mom, but some part of her actually wanted her little sibling to see her for the first time looking nice and put together. She knew that the baby wouldn’t be able to tell, but she wanted to do it anyway.

She would become a big sister today, so she had to dress properly. It was a big day.

After waiting for what felt like a long time, her dad appeared in the doorway. He looked tired, but oddly happy. Nancy jumped to her feet, running up to her dad, who picked her up and carried her to her mother’s room.

“Nancy, your mother is very tired, so you need to be quiet, okay?” Her father told her, and she nodded. Her heart was beating fast, and she couldn’t wait to go into the room. She felt scared, but happy.

Dad opened the door, and the first thing Nancy saw was her mom laying down on a big hospital bed, her hair sweat-drenched and flat and with a very tired expression. Then, she saw that her mom was holding something in her arms.

Nancy wriggled out of her dad’s arms, running up to her mother. Her mom smiled when she saw her, and she managed to climb onto the bed, sitting next to Karen. The bundle in her mom’s arms made a noise, instantly piquing Nancy’s interest. Her mom noticed, and moved Nancy to sit properly.

“Nancy, this is your brother, Michael.” She smiled, and Nancy’s eyes widened.

Michael.

She had a little brother now.

Karen moved the blanket covering the baby so Nancy could see her brother’s face. He looked angry, his little face scrunched up, but he wasn’t crying. He had black hair, softly curling over his forehead. Nancy was amazed.

“Do you want to hold him, baby?” Her mom asked, and Nancy nodded frantically.

After telling her to be careful, Karen slowly placed the baby on Nancy’s lap, telling her how to hold him properly.

Nancy slowly, slowly brought her hand to her brother’s head, petting it with as much care as a soon to be four-year-old can muster. Michael made a little noise, and Nancy quickly retracted her hand. Karen laughed, looking at her two children fondly.

Nancy carefully brought her hand back to the baby, this time touching his chest. She felt his tiny heartbeat below her palm, and a warm feeling spread through her chest.

“Hi, Mike.” She whispered, eyes sparkling. “I’m your big sister Nancy!”

The baby, of course, didn’t answer her, but he lifted his tiny hand and grabbed Nancy’s finger. She giggled, leaning down to kiss her brother’s forehead.

“I love you, Mike. Forever and ever.” At that moment, Nancy felt that her wish to the star, many months ago, would come true.

❃

Nancy was slowly regretting ever becoming an older sister.

She thought it would be fun, that it would be easy and calm. No one ever told her how difficult babies can be.

Mike was a very restless baby, and he cried a lot, especially during the night. He never stayed still for more than five minutes, he always made a mess when it was time to eat, and he was very, very, very clingy.

Most of the time his clinginess was directed at their mom — he would start crying if she even tried to put him down to do something — but sometimes he decided that, actually, Nancy was the one he wanted to stay glued to for the rest of the day.

And it wasn’t easy, being the target of Mike’s clinginess, because he was also very curious on top of being restless. If she was trying to read a book, Mike was trying to grab the pages with his sticky baby hands. If she was eating something, Mike would try to steal it to put it in his mouth. If her hair was anywhere near his hands, he would grab it and tug on it. It was really annoying.

Karen thought it was adorable, and couldn’t help but take a dozen pictures every time she caught Mike clinging to Nancy, much to the girl’s dismay.

After a while, she gets used to it. Mike is now a permanent member of their family. Her routine has changed, her house has changed, her life has changed. She has to deal with it now.

Mike coos at her from where he sits next to her on the floor, headbutting her arm and falling into a fit of giggles. It’s a very difficult change, but Nancy has always liked a challenge.

❃

Mike, unlike Nancy, was a very loud kid.

He was always running around the house, filled with enough energy to leave their poor mother with a headache after having to run around him all day. He also talked a lot,

Just like how Nancy learned to read very early, Mike learned how to talk earlier than most kids. Before he even turned one he was already babbling and forming words. That tendency to talk only worsened with age, and meals at the dinner table that used to be peaceful turned into a time where Nancy, Ted and Karen would eat and Mike would talk, almost forgetting to eat with his enthusiasm.

Karen loved how talkative Mike was, always answering any of his questions and encouraging his chattiness by indulging in his rambling with an ‘oh, really?’ or a ‘that’s great, honey! and what happened next?’. Ted, on the other hand, was as apathetic as ever. He mostly just let Mike talk, rarely giving him an actual answer. Mike seemed disappointed when their dad ignored him or straight up fell asleep while he was talking, but he kept trying anyway.

Nancy, for the first time in her life, saw her patient be truly tested. As a kid she had to deal with the occasional annoying classmate or cousin, sure, and as patient as she learned to be, the people around her could get her worked up to the point of getting really angry on occasion.

But that was completely different from having a little brother. Especially when that little brother did everything to get her attention.

Nancy loved Mike a lot, don’t get her wrong, but sometimes the constant string of ‘Nancy, look! Nancy, what are you doing? Nancy, play with me! Nancy Nancy Nancy Nancy’ would get on her last nerve.

Mike, for as sweet of a kid as he was, was very bad at understanding the concept of personal space. He still is, actually. He’d always cling to her when they were out — be it while shopping with their mom or at a get-together with parents’ friends, Mike would always be clinging to Nancy’s sleeve or the hem of her skirt. It could get annoying pretty easily.

Mike also had a very strong sense of justice. If he thought someone was in the wrong, he’d argue with them for it. If he thought a teacher was being mean to him, he’d throw a fit. If he thought he was in the right, he’d argue for it to the very end.

They were opposites in so many ways. Mike, loud and energetic with his unruly black hair and his big brown eyes; Nancy, neat and gracious with her perfect brown curls and her soft blue eyes. Nancy was organised, Mike was messy. Nancy was polite, Mike was rude. Nancy was friendly, Mike struggled to make friends.

One day, when Nancy was eight years old, she met Will Byers for the first time.

When she stepped into the kitchen after she got home from school, there was a little boy she had never seen before standing by the sink, holding a glass of water. He had chestnut hair, cut into a choppy bowlcut, he was wearing a worn-looking blue jacket with a huge red patch sewn onto it, and he was tiny. Smaller than her brother, for sure. Scrawnier, too.

When he looked up and saw her standing in the doorway, he froze. His big eyes gave him this deer-in-the-headlights look, and he looked ready to bolt at any second.

“Hi…?” Nancy spoke, a bit confused. The boy blinked once, twice, and for a second she thought he wouldn’t say anything. As she was about to speak up again, ask him if he needed something, the boy returned her greeting.

“...Hi.” He spoke in a tiny voice. The boy was very soft spoken for someone his age — she assumed he was Mike’s age —, the complete opposite of her brother. She offered him a smile, not wanting to scare him further.

“I’m Nancy,” the boy’s eyes lit up in recognition, “what’s your name?”

“I’m Will.” He answered, voice still soft but not as unsure as it was before. Nancy paused, brows furrowed. Where had she heard that name before? It was definitely fresh in her memory.

Before she could ask Will what he was doing in her kitchen, a shrill she was very familiar with cut through the silence of the kitchen.

“Will!” Her brother yelled before running into the kitchen, pushing past her and almost sending her toppling onto the floor with it.

As he spotted Mike, Will visibly relaxed, a small smile forming on his face. Mike immediately grabbed the boy’s hand,

“What’s taking you so long?! I’m dying of boredom alone down there!” Mike whined, but without the usual fire he brings out when something actually annoys him. Will snickers, holding up the glass for Mike to see.

“I was just getting some water, Mike, not running away!” He giggled, and Mike turned towards the door to head back to the basement. He stopped when he saw his sister, who was still standing in the doorway.

“Hi, Nancy.” Mike deadpanned, annoyed at Nancy for blocking his path. She rolled her eyes and pointed at Will

“Are you not going to introduce me to your friend?” She left out the part where Will already had introduced himself, but Mike rolled his eyes anyway. He raised the hand that was still intertwined with Will’s.

“Will, this is my sister Nancy,” he said, pointing at Nancy, then continued, pointing back at Will: “And Nancy, this is my best friend, Will Byers.”

So that’s why his name sounded familiar. Mike had not shut up about his new best friend for the past week or so, and now Nancy finally got to meet him. Will looked like a very sweet and calm kid, and she was a bit surprised that he befriended Mike of all people.

Will leaned to whisper something in Mike’s ear, and said boy’s face twisted in betrayal.

“He already told you his name!” Mike yelled at Nancy, pointing an accusatory finger up at his sister. Will giggled at his side, shooting Nancy a look that she thought looked apologetic, but still very much mischievous. Nancy shrugged, which only annoyed Mike further, and he pushed past her, Will in toe, and ran back downstairs to the basement.

She rolled her eyes, fondly. No matter how annoying her brother can be sometimes, she’s secretly glad he found a friend. Nancy heard his mother talking on the phone about how Mike had trouble making friends, so she’s happy that Mike found Will. The two boys seemed to get along pretty well, from what she saw, and she herself actually kind of liked Will too, even if she barely talked to him.

This would not be the last time she saw Will Byers in her home. In fact, with time it became rarer and rarer to not bump into him in the Wheelers’ house.

At first, it was just Mike and Will, the two boys always laughing and talking loudly down in the basement, but with time it became Mike, Will and Lucas, and then finally Mike, Will, Lucas and Dustin.

The four boys were always together, and made a pretty good team. They all had similar interests, and bounced off of each other so naturally it almost seemed like they’d had known each other their whole lives.

(Well, they pretty much had, especially in Mike and Will’s case, considering how young they still were.)

The four of them were also pretty loud, especially once they all got into D&D. Mike was always arguing with Lucas or Dustin about something, and Nancy saw his childlike bickering evolve, going from bubbly and squeaky to something slightly more annoyed, but still high-pitched in tone and very loud.

But, unlike with Lucas and Dustin, Mike was never like that with Will. In fact, Nancy was surprised at how soft he was when it came to Will.

Now, Nancy was no idiot. She could see how small Will made himself around adults — especially around older men such as her father —, she saw how he flinched at loud sounds, how sad and scared he would look sometimes when Karen called him up, telling him his mother would be coming to pick him up soon.

She saw how Mike’s grip on Will would turn protective at times, how his eyes would narrow at the mention of Will’s dad, Lonnie, while the opposite tends to be the case for Will’s mother, Joyce.

One time, Mike had come into her room teary eyed, asking Nancy in a whisper if she knew how to treat a black eye. She could see Will’s small figure in the hallway, pointedly avoiding being in her field of vision, his head bowed down.

Her heart broke at the sight, and she took her brother downstairs to get some ice for the bruise.

Nancy could tell Will didn’t have the best home life, so it made sense to her that Mike would be more gentle towards Will compared to his other friends. It still surprised her though, seeing Mike this caring and attentive, but it was clear to her that Will meant a lot to her brother.

Some part of her had always known that Lonnie was not a good father. She vaguely remembered being in a few classes with Will’s brother — Jonathan — in middle school, and she always noticed how withdrawn he was, how weary he was of the other kids in their year, how tired he always looked. Nancy remembers seeing him with bruises on his arms, and one time he came to school with a pretty nasty black eye. She had seen him at her house before, as well: on Mike’s birthday, walking in with Will — who ran to give Mike a big hug the second he entered the house —, staying by the corner and watching his little brother after making small talk with Karen. He had looked tired then, but happier. It was as if having Will in his line of sight lifted a weight from his shoulders.

She had been drawn to him, in a way. Something about Jonathan had piqued her interest. Nancy would be embarrassed to admit it then (she’d be embarrassed to admit it now, too), but she liked how mysterious Jonathan was. Mike and the other boys always talked about him as ‘Will’s cool older brother’, her mother raved on about how polite he was, her classmates saw him as a weirdo, but Nancy saw something else in him.

Nancy knew he liked music, too. One time she overheard Mike and Will talking about all of the ‘cool new songs’ Jonathan introduced Will to, and Nancy herself saw him wearing headphones around all the time, carrying a well-loved walkman with him.

The girl was so curious about the mystery that was Jonathan Byers. She itched to crack him open, dissect him and write down her findings, investigate and understand as much as she could.

She never approached him, in the end. She thought about it, but ultimately she didn’t do anything. Now, she regrets not having met him before, but she’s made peace with the fact that she can’t go back in time and change things.

(Heaven knows she’d kill to be able to go back and do things differently.)

❃

One thing Mike and Nancy shared in common was their interest in writing. Nancy wrote essays on her favourite topics, on things happening around her. She loved journaling, and kept a well-loved diary on her bedside table that was privy to all of her deepest secrets. She wrote about what she saw, what she felt, what she knew and could know more about. Mike, on the other hand, was a storyteller.

Even before getting into D&D, Mike had a passion for creating his own fantastical adventures, where he and his friends were powerful heroes that defeated bad guys and saved the day. Oftentimes those stories were accompanied by one of Will’s drawings. Mike had filled countless notebooks with stories, but he never let anyone but his friends read them.

Some stories were reserved just for him and Will, too, but that’s beside the point.

As they grew up, their writing evolved. Nancy was slowly becoming interested in journalism, writing her own articles in secret, and even considering joining the school paper in the future. Mike’s stories became focused on The Party and their D&D campaigns, going from superheroes and magic powers to mythical creatures and brave knights.

They were both creatives, with similar passions but different executions, but neither would let the other read what they wrote. They had their own worlds now, universes apart from each other.

❃

When Nancy was twelve, her mother got pregnant again.

Mike did not take it as well as she did, back when she was three.

He would be turning nine soon, and the bullying was getting worse. Nancy knew that the kids at school picked on him (and his friends, in turn), but it used to be more name-calling and laughing at him than anything.

Now, though?

Mike had started coming back from school with bruises. Scraped knees, purpling bruises, even a black eye.

Because of that, he had started becoming clingier again. He wouldn’t leave their mother’s side when they were home, even if their dad told him to stop bothering her and ‘act more like a man’. He was embarrassed by it, but Mom let him. Nancy knew that she was probably cheering on the inside by having Mike want to be around her again, but was also super worried about her son experiencing a level of bullying this severe.

That all changed when Karen announced Nancy and Mike would be having another sibling.

Nancy was happy — a bit scared, but happy, just how she had been when Karen got pregnant with Mike —, and she told her mother so. She became more active around the house, making sure her mother was alright and making things easier for her, when she could.

Mike, on the other hand, was angry.

His face fell when their mom told them the news, and immediately after he ran to his room and locked the door, not letting anyone in for the rest of the night.

He also started avoiding their mother, going over to his friends’ houses more often, and eating as quickly as he could in order to leave the dinner table and hole himself up in the basement. Karen was heartbroken by Mike’s behaviour, and the whole pregnancy-hormones-making-their-mother-even-more-emotional thing definitely wasn’t helping her brother’s case.

Karen asked Ted to try and talk to him, but their father’s half-baked attempts at actually talking to his son fell through very quickly. And considering Mike was ignoring Karen, Nancy was the only other option left.

So, she was given the arduous task of trying to get through to Mike.

She huffed, annoyed at having to put down her book, and made the path to Mike’s room.

Once she got there, she didn’t even knock. She opened the door and found Mike sitting on his bed, glaring at the floor like it had personally offended him. He looked up when he heard the door opening, and his face fell even further when he saw that it was Nancy. He turned away, flopping down on the bed.

“Go away, Nancy.”

“Why are you ignoring Mom?” She questioned, annoyed.

“Go away, Nancy!”

Nancy’s patience was already running thin, so she wanted to just give up and leave instead of arguing with him. But again, her mom asked her to talk to him, so she would do just that, even if he didn’t hear.

“Fine, I’ll leave. But just so you know, I didn’t come talk to you because I wanted to, I’m doing it because Mom asked me to. She’s really sad that you’re ignoring her, so try not to be a brat for once and be nice to her.”

And without bothering to see how he reacted, Nancy closed the door and left Mike’s room.

Maybe she should’ve been nicer, but he had been getting on her nerves for a while now, so she didn’t care much.

Eventually, Mike stopped ignoring their mother, although he still glared at Nancy every time he saw her, and eventually Holly was born. Nancy was happy that she had a sister now, but Mike only frowned when he saw her. When their dad asked him why he was making that face, he told him that it was because Lucas also had a little sister, and that he said having a little sister was really annoying.

He was still extra careful when little Holly was placed on his lap.

They both forgot about that altercation, moving on like nothing had ever happened. Nancy didn’t know at the time, but that would be far from the last time she failed to notice her brother was hurting.

❃

Right before high school, Nancy met Barbara Holland.

They clicked together really well, and in no time became best friends. Barb was funny, smart, and always knew how to get Nancy back on track when she started being dumb — something that was becoming more and more common now that they were teenagers —. When Nancy started crushing on Steve Harrington of all people, Barb actually laughed at her face when she told her.

“Steve? Really?!” She laughed, almost falling off of Nancy’s bed in the process. “Steve— Steve Harrington?!”

“Ugh— shut up!” Nancy groaned, shoving Barb’s shoulder, then hiding her quickly reddening face in her hands.

“Oh my God, Nance! That’s the funniest thing you’ve told me all month! How did—” Barb was struggling to breathe with how hard she was laughing, and Nancy’s face kept getting redder and redder, “when did this even happen?”

“We both had to stay and help one of the teachers put up halloween decorations a few weeks ago…” She groaned, embarrassed. Steve had only been there because it was part of his detention, while Nancy had offered to help. Barb gives her a knowing look.

“And he managed to win your heart by… putting up pumpkin cutouts and letting you do all the work?”

“I’ll let you know that he was actually very helpful.” Barb raises an eyebrow, clearly not believing her, but Nancy’s telling the truth. Steve was a lot nicer to her than she expected, especially for an older guy who she mostly heard bad things about.

“And by helpful you mean trying to flirt with Ms. Mckinnon again?”

“No— Barb, I’m serious! He helped.” “Sure, whatever you say.”

Nancy knows Barb is joking, but that ugly angry feeling bubbles up. Barb is supposed to be her best friend, she’s supposed to get it! So why isn’t she?

“I’m not joking, Barb! I know what I’m talking about, okay? I’m not stupid!” Barb looks taken aback by how angry she sounded, and Nancy realises she might’ve gone a bit too far. She looks down, guilty, and . “I’m sorry, Barb, that was really shitty of me.”

“It was a bit shitty, yeah, but you know I’m not actually judging you, right?”

“Yeah, I do, but— but It feels like you are, like you think I’m just some— I don’t know, some poor helpless damsel falling right into a trap, when it’s not that at all.” Nancy shakes her head, pushing her hair out of her face. “I don’t know, I'm just being dumb, anyways.”

Barb’s eyes softened, and she looked fondly at her best friend.

“You’re not being dumb, Nance, It’s just— I want the best for you, and I don’t know if Steve will be that best, you know?”

Nancy closed her eyes, breathing deeply then flopping back onto the bed. She looked up at Barb, who was still looking at her. There was genuine concern in her friend’s eyes, but she smiled at Nancy.

“I know, Barb.” She said, smiling. Nancy’s hand found Barb’s, and she gave it a reassuring squeeze. “I know he’s not the nicest guy, or whatever—” Barb scoffed playfully at that, and Nancy smiled, “but I just know he has a good heart.”

“Wow, what spell did he cast on you?”

“I’m serious, Barb! He’s nothing like— like Tommy H. or Carol,” she fakes a shudder at the names, and Barb laughs, “he’s actually really nice to be around! We were stuck together for a while and he actually took the time to talk to me— like talk to me, you know? Get to know me, and know what I like, what I read and what I listen to!”

“I didn’t know he could read in the first place.” Barb joked, and it got a genuine laugh out of Nancy.

“Yeah, I was surprised too!” Barb rolled her eyes, and Nancy’s eyes softened. She squeezed her best friend’s hand again. “You don’t have to worry about it, Barb. I know what I’m doing, and if I feel like things are headed the wrong way I’ll definitely let him know, okay? I promise.” She pauses, then gives Barb a playful smile. “And if it does go wrong, at least I know I have my knight in shining armour here to save me from the evil man’s claws.”

Barb was silent, her face painted with something that Nancy couldn’t quite read, but her expression quickly softened, and she gave Nancy a reassuring smile.

“Okay. I trust you, Nance.”

And Nancy’s blinding smile made Barb forget any worries she could have possibly had.

❃

With high school, things suddenly got flipped on their heads, and so did Nancy, in a way.

In her teenage years, all of the bottled anger she kept to herself throughout her life was starting to spill out.

She started getting annoyed at Mike more easily, getting into arguments with him more frequently; started rolling her eyes at her mom; storming off to her room the second she got home; not letting Holly into her room; ignoring Mike’s friends more whenever they came over.

Everything was suddenly so different — the school hierarchy becoming more brutal, friendships more strained, feelings more enlarged. Boys started looking at her differently, the girls in turn becoming meaner, and the new attention was overwhelming in many ways.

It was suffocating, all of the change and attention and nastiness and everything — so Nancy did what she always did best.

Buried herself in her studies.

She quickly became one of the top students in their year, making her teachers delighted with how attentious she was, and people slowly started leaving her alone.

Barb always stayed by her side, though.

Sitting next to her in every class, saving her a seat during lunch, taking notes for her in the rare instance where she got sick and had to stay home — with Nancy doing the same for her —, sharing Nancy’s bed during sleepovers, holding her hand, laughing with her and just being there for her, Barb stayed by Nancy’s side.

Even when Nancy started dating Steve, Barb stuck by her. She agreed to go shopping for new clothes that Steve might have liked with her, listened to her endless flustered rants about how sweet and kind he was, even covered for her when she wanted to sneak out to meet him.

Barb’s eyes seemed sadder after Nancy started dating Steve, something akin to longing swirling in them, but Nancy never noticed.

They were best friends. Nothing could change that. Barb always stuck by her side, and Nancy, in turn, always stuck by Barb’s.

Barb’s presence slowly became as much of a constant at the Wheelers’ household as Will’s.

For some reason unknown to Nancy, Barb thought Mike was the most adorable kid ever. She was always asking about him, always greeting him warmly when she came over, and Mike seemed embarrassed by the attention, grumbling about ‘not being a baby’, but she could tell he secretly loved it. He would always try to get Barb to defend him when he and Nancy started having their usual sibling arguments, saying that ‘Barb thinks I’m nice!’ with an impish grin, and Barb would laugh and agree with him, just to get a reaction out of Nancy.

Barb was an only child, and once she told Nancy, under the faint moonlight streaming through Nancy’s window during a late night study session, that she almost saw him as the little brother she never had.

Nancy smiled, linked her pinky with Barb’s and whispered that she could share Mike with her if she wanted. Holly, too.

Barbara smiled back, her eyes soft and somewhat sad, not hidden behind her large glasses for once, and whispered a soft ‘thank you, Nance’, moving to properly hold her hand and squeezing it once.

Nancy Wheeler and Barbara Holland were best friends. Nothing could change that.

Or so she thought.

When Will went missing, Mike was a mess. He was loud, angry, confused and as stubborn as ever. He insisted on looking for Will every day, angry at his family for not being as desperate to find the youngest Byers as he was.

Nancy was annoyed at first, too caught up with everything that was going on in her life to notice her brother’s pain, so she lashed out at him. She made a mean comment at the dinner table about not being able to do anything anymore ‘just because Mike’s friend got lost on the way home’, a comment that made Mike angry enough to spill out the truth about her relationship with Steve, something she did not want her mom knowing about just yet. She called him names, she stormed away, she snuck out to Steve’s house with the lie that she and Barb would be studying, sleeping over, having girl fun.

At Steve’s house, she tried to be someone she’s not. She made friendly conversation with Tommy and Carol, she shotgunned her beer, she fell into the pool, she went upstairs with Steve.

She dismissed Barbara’s concerns, brushed her off, told her to go home.

She slept with Steve, while her best friend got dragged to another dimension.

When Barb went missing, she finally understood how Mike was feeling.

She blamed herself, of course she did. Nancy tried everything she could to find her friend, the girl who understood better than anyone else. She yelled at Steve, she lashed out at her mom, she was a mess.

But something she didn’t do was give up on Barb.

Eventually, she met Jonathan. Truly met him, not as Will’s older brother who she saw around sometimes, not as a guy she shared a few classes with at school, but as Jonathan Byers, a clever boy that didn’t hesitate to help her when she needed it. He was also desperate to find his brother, and he didn’t brush her off or treat her as some defenseless girl — the opposite, in fact. Jonathan saw perfect little Nancy Wheeler shoot down rusty cans without missing a single target and smiled.

And to think it all started because he took pictures of her without her knowing (something he profusely apologised for, no matter how many times Nancy told him she forgave him).

He stayed with her in her room after she unknowingly stepped into the very place that her best friend, that his brother, got whisked away to. He comforted her, believed her.

She, in return, stayed by his side after they pulled Will from the quarry.

They would later find out the body was a fake, that Will was still alive, that there were ways to get him out, but at that time, those days where Will Byers had drowned in the Settler’s Quarry, Nancy stayed by Jonathan’s side. She held his hand at the funeral.

Jonathan wasn’t the only person greatly affected by the dead boy in the quarry whose side Nancy stood by.

The night the body was found, Mike was destroyed.

He had come home and instantly broken down on their mother’s arms. He sobbed and sobbed, more than Nancy had ever seen him cry, probably.

She left the living room and went up to them — Mr. and Ms. Holland were at their house too, and she knew it wasn’t nice to leave them by themselves, but at that moment she was more worried about her little brother. She asked him what happened.

“Will—” he croaked, his voice breaking, still clutching at Karen in a death grip. “Will—” and he couldn’t say anything else, sobbing so hard he ended up falling to the floor, dragging their mother down with him.

Nancy immediately knew what happened. Mike never gave up on Will, he went looking for him every time he could, he fought anyone who even implied Will could no longer be alive.

For him to be reacting like this, saying Will’s name with such pain, such anguish — she knew something happened. Her heart sank.

She ran to her brother’s side, hugging him as well. She carded her hands through Mike’s hair, something she used to do when they were younger, when they were closer. Mike let out a broken whimper, his face blotchy and red, tears spilling down with no sign of stopping.

Nancy’s heart broke in tiny little pieces by seeing her little brother look so distraught.

She had been dealing with her own shit, her own worries about Barb, her own fears of her best friend being kidnapped or dead or something worse. But at that moment, she held her brother and let him cling to her like he used to, many years ago, when he had nightmares and still thought his big sister could make any monster go away.

At that moment, it was almost like Mike was back to being small, hiding under Nancy’s arm and holding her hand. Only this time, there was no monster out to get him. This time, the nightmare was the image of a dead boy with water in his lungs, ingrained in her little brother’s memory forever.

❃

Later, Nancy learned about how much Mike actually knew. She learned about Eleven.

It explained why he was being so secretive lately, why he seemed to have moved on from Will’s death so quickly — he had proof his best friend wasn’t dead.

He, Dustin and Lucas had found her in the woods, and apparently she knew where Will actually was — because the girl had superpowers.

And now the military was after her twelve-year-old brother and his friends. Because of said girl.

Seeing all of the cars parked around her house, realising they were after Mike, knowing he could very well be in danger — Nancy’s heart was racing at the thought of her brother being in a life-threatening situation like this. The chief assured her that he’d go after them once they got the kids’ location, but she still couldn’t help but worry. Ms. Byers tried to assure her that the kids would be okay, but her eyes told her otherwise. Those boys were always very close to Will, and Jonathan once told her that Joyce almost saw them as her own kids sometimes — especially Mike, with how much he cared about Will. Jonathan himself also cared about the kids a lot, so all three of them were very on edge.

But when Hopper’s car appeared in the Byers’ driveway, the girl felt like she could breathe again.

She ran to Mike the second he stepped out of the car, and wrapped in the tightest hug she could possibly give him. Mike looked confused by it, but he seemed to reciprocate her worry, in his own way.

And then, she finally saw Eleven. After that, the plan-making began.

Nancy couldn’t even process the fact that this little girl with a shaved head and a tattoo on her arm — and who was wearing her clothes, which Mike would get yelled at for after all this shit was over — had psychic powers, because at that time they were all too preoccupied with finding Will — and Barb, in turn.

They invaded their school, made a DIY sensory deprivation tank in the gym, put the little girl in the water, and after some time the lights began to flicker.

Eleven looked for Barb, just like how she said she would.

At first, Nancy didn’t really believe El actually had powers. She was skeptical, not sure if the girl would actually be able to find her friend, but she was proven wrong when El said Barb’s name in the tiniest voice Nancy had ever heard.

For the first time in days, Nancy was hopeful. This girl had found her friend. If Will was still alive, then maybe, maybe, Barb would be okay too. Nancy would be able to apologise for how shitty she was at the party, to be a better friend, to hug her best friend and cherish her how she deserved to be and have her heart be full again.

That hope was stomped to death with just a single word.

“Gone,” El said, terrified. “Gone!” she repeated, and Nancy’s world crumbled all over again.

They were too late. Barbara was already long dead.

All of Nancy’s efforts had been for nothing, she searched and searched and searched for her missing friend only for her to be dead all along, rotting away in some dark and twisted version of their hometown while Nancy was too busy worrying about her relationship with Steve and —

El found Castle Byers, she talked to Will. The boy’s tiny, exhausted voice sounded on the walkie-talkie, telling them to hurry, but Nancy couldn’t react.

Barb was dead. Will was alive. Barb was dead. They were going to the lab to find Will, Hopper and Joyce, but it didn’t even matter to Nancy at that moment. Because Barb was dead.

She blinked, and next thing she knew she and Jonathan were sitting in the corridor, just outside of the gym.

It wasn’t fair. Barb had died, all alone at the hands of a monster she had no chance against.

Nancy wanted revenge. It didn’t matter how hard it would be, how hurt she ended up in the process, the girl wanted to kill the monster. Kill the monster who took her best friend, make the thing suffer just as much as Barb suffered. She was going to put a bullet through that creature’s head, and no one was going to stop her.

With one shared look, understanding and fire shared between the two, they took off to the Byers’ house.

Nancy and Jonathan made a plan to kill the demogorgon. They set everything up, like they had intended to do before, then set everything into motion. Steve showed up, almost fucked everything up but then stayed in order to help. Their plan worked, the beast went up in flames.

The demogorgon was killed, Will got found, El disappeared, the lab covered it up, the town moved on.

Nancy was forced to move on.

She stayed friends with Jonathan, she got back together with Steve.

Mike had Will back, Barb ended up being dead all along.

Months passed, and the sense of normalcy everyone around her seemed to have felt like a weight on her shoulders.

Steve tried everything he could to cheer her up. He agreed to go with her to have dinner with the Hollands, he tried to calm her down when the paranoia and guilt creeped in, he even became friends with Jonathan — well, not really friends, but they seemed to be cool with each other now. Steve apologised for breaking his camera, for everything he said to both her and Jonathan, and Jonathan reluctantly apologised for beating Steve up.

“Nah, it’s— it’s alright, man. I definitely deserved that.” Steve said, after the demogorgon was gone, and Jonathan couldn’t help but laugh.

“Yeah, well— thanks for helping us with the monster.” He smiled, and gave Steve a pat on his shoulder. Nancy smiled.

Steve was everything a girl could wish for — caring, understanding, loving, charming, but Nancy still felt wrong, being with him.

Steve was head over heels for Nancy, had been since last year.

Nancy, on the other hand, didn’t feel the same anymore.

She felt terrible when she first realised that her love for Steve was gone. Well, it wasn’t entirely gone, she still loved him as a friend, but she was no longer in love with Steve Harrington. Maybe she never was.

But even if she knew that she wasn’t in love with him anymore, she still stayed. Kept playing the part of the smart and beautiful girlfriend, and Steve seemed none the wiser of her feelings.

Barbara’s words rang in her ear.

“Nancy, this isn’t you…”

Maybe she was just like her mom. She had known for a long time that her parents never loved each other. She saw the way Karen looked at other families when they went out, she saw how her eyes turned sad when she spotted a man kissing his wife as their kids ran around, playing together. She saw the looks she sent Ted’s way, her resentment, it bled out of her skin in invisible waves that only Nancy could see. She empathised with her mom so much it hurt.

Was this where she and Steve were headed? An empty relationship, leading to an empty life as a housewife, having to hold herself together for a bunch of kids, longing for a life she would never have?

That thought terrified her.

But still, she pretended. Played the part of perfect little Nancy Wheeler, with her picture perfect family and her popular boyfriend, with her high grades and classroom friendships.

Doesn’t matter that she still had scars from fighting the Demogorgon. Doesn’t matter that she was never the same after that week in November of ‘83. Doesn’t matter that her little brother is pulling away from her again, even after they promised to not keep secrets anymore. Doesn’t matter that she can see the hurt and guilt he carries on his shoulders, a dark cloud following him around that no thirteen-year-old should ever have to deal with.

Doesn’t matter that Nancy’s best friend is dead, and that she has to carry that knowledge with her, see Barb’s parents hope that their daughter will come back home one day, all while knowing she is long gone without being able to tell them.

Eventually, she couldn’t take it anymore.

Steve broke up with her, after a disastrous party where Nancy got way too drunk, said some stupid shit to him and smashed his heart into tiny little pieces in the process.

November was here and everything was falling apart once again, and something in her broke.

So she found Jonathan, and they started making a plan to uncover Hawkins Lab’s wrong doings, expose them as the corrupt and evil corporation they truly are.

For Barbara. For Eleven. For Will.

Will, who she always had a soft spot for, even with how much Mike hogged his attention. Will, who remained kind even after everything that happened last November. Will, who had been through so much in the short thirteen years he was alive, at the hands of his peers, at the hands of his father, at the hands of a monster.

Jonathan wanted payback for what those people caused to his brother. Nancy couldn’t agree more.

Their plan was set into motion, and everything fell into place exactly how she predicted it would.

They went after a confession, and they found it. Dr. Owens was a very cheerful man for someone working in a place that was actively trying to reopen a gate to another dimension. You know, normal scientist stuff.

They got Owens admitting to Barb’s death on tape, but it still wasn’t enough.

So, they went after Murray Bauman.

The man was a piece of work, to say the least, but he was helpful. He found a way to make the story believable, helped them piece everything together, offered Jonathan and Nancy drinks and a place to stay.

But God was he annoying when he wanted to be.

Murray read the two teens to filth, making them question a lot of what they thought was true, a lot of what they were hiding away, dancing around their feelings with no intention of stopping it.

Nancy was confused. She thought a part of her still loved Steve, even after everything she said, because that’s how things were supposed to be going. Steve was nice, thoughtful, he stuck with her even after everything that happened, even went with her to the Hollands’ house when she asked.

But, deep down, she knew she didn’t love him. Not like she loved Jonathan.

It almost came out of nowhere, this infatuation for the boy, but part of Nancy knew that this magnetic energy that pulled her towards him wasn’t something new. Jonathan had always catched her eye when they were younger, but now?

Now that she knew how determined he was? How caring and understanding he was, towards every person he cared about? Now that she had seen him in his zone, bathed in red in the confined space of their school’s darkroom? Now that Nancy had met Jonathan Byers, spent more time with him, enjoyed his company?

She knew it was only a matter of time before her desire for him swallowed her whole.

It seemed, though, that the boy in question felt the same way.

When they met in the hallway, Nancy couldn’t breathe. Jonathan had looked so beautiful, looking down at her with his messy hair and sleep clothes. He looked at her with so much longing and hunger — something the girl felt mirrored in her own heart.

It wasn’t long before they were kissing.

The kiss was desperate, it was a culmination of a whole year of slowly building-up affection and the shared happiness and satisfaction of their incoming takedown of Hawkins Lab, it was meteor showers and fireworks and molten metal pooling down in her gut, it was a moment stretched out in time, it was everything Nancy could’ve ever wanted and nothing like she ever experienced before.

They stumbled back into the spare room, and that night Nancy met an entirely new Jonathan, and in return, Jonathan met an entirely new Nancy.

Who knew shy and reserved Jonathan Byers, who liked weird, sad music and photography, could unravel Nancy into something entirely new, take her places she had never discovered before with such ease?

Nancy herself also drove Jonathan up the walls, and every sound that came out of his mouth told her everything she needed to know.

She was utterly in love with Jonathan, and he felt the same. It was a feeling so intense, so right, and Nancy knew she finally found her person.

❃

Coming back to Hawkins, something seemed wrong.

They couldn’t contact Joyce, the kids were nowhere to be found, and Nancy had a bad feeling about it.

Dustin’s words at the entrance of Hawkins Lab just proved her gut right once again.

“They’re not in there, are they?”

“We’re not sure,” she replied, her worry only growing, “why?”

And then she heard the sound. A screech she hadn’t heard since that night last November, when she cut her palm open and waited for the creature to show up.

The monster was back.

And the sound was coming from the lab.

Dustin and Lucas hurriedly explained everything; how Dustin found Dart, how it escaped, Mike and Will being unreachable for the past day — same thing for Joyce and Hopper —, how Steve and Max, this new girl they befriended, became involved, and how the Demogorgons — because as it turns out, Dustin accidentally adopted a baby Demogorgon, and that it turns out there were actually multiple of them around Hawkins now — were headed to the lab.

They told her and Jonathan about Will coughing up a slug last year. They told her and Jonathan about Will having a vision in the field, just like the one he had on Halloween night.

Jonathan, of course, freaked out about it. Nancy gets it, honestly — the poor boy had already gone through so much last year, and now whatever killed Barbara was after him again. And on top of that, not being told his brother was going through something like this again only made Jonathan feel worse.

Nancy, on the other hand, started to think.

Something was missing here.

Why would Joyce willingly take Will to the place that caused his disappearance? She vaguely knew about Will having to go to the lab on occasion, since Mike always worried about him on those days, but going there now?

And the drawings at the Byers’ house, those tunnel-looking things covering the walls, the polaroid cartridges that weren’t Jonathan’s, those drawings of a monster-looking thing they found—

Could it all be connected?

Dustin was explaining to them that there were more than one of those creatures, and that they all ran away right before one of them bit Steve’s face off, and the gears started turning in Nancy’s mind.

The Demogorgons were all connected. Like a hivemind.

Will was being plagued by weird visions, and apparently coughed up one of those slugs last year — the slugs that turned out to be baby Demogorgons.

Then, the field. Lucas said that it looked like he was in a trance, and that nothing they did managed to snap him out of it, until he suddenly gasped and was back to normal. The boys and Max all said he looked really shaken up afterwards, and the next day Will didn’t go to class.

They told her and Jonathan that Mike went to his house after school to check up on him, that he’d been saying Will was acting off lately, and that they hadn’t seen him since.

Will coughing up baby Demogorgons. Will acting weird, according to Mike. Will having visions more frequently. Will getting stuck in some sort of trance and disappearing from their radar right after that. Mike going to the Byers’ and also being MIA ever since.

Nancy remembered something that Jonathan told her, many months ago during one of the many sleepless nights they spent talking together, about how Joyce and Hopper had found Will in the Upside Down. How he had some sort of tendril stuck to his mouth, almost like a parasite trying to attach itself to him.

A parasite. Trying to attach itself to Will. Coming from the Upside Down.

The puzzle was forming itself, the clues were all lining up, but Nancy really didn’t like the picture it was revealing.

Something from the Upside Down probably attached itself to Will during that week last November. It was probably laying dormant all year, waiting for the right moment to strike. And now, when Will was finally vulnerable enough, it fully took control.

The power was back, but the gate still wasn’t opening.

Dustin and Jonathan were bickering about something, but Nancy couldn’t pay attention to them. Her mind was still racing.

The Upside Down acted like a hivemind, like a virus, as Dr. Owens so kindly told them. The Upside Down attached itself to Will last year.

Will was probably part of that hivemind now.

Will was very likely being controlled — possessed, by something from the Upside Down, or maybe by the Upside Down itself. Mike, of course, stuck by his side.

By getting possessed, Will was probably turned into a spy for this unknown Upside Down entity. He was taken to Hawkins Lab, because no normal hospital would be able to help him. Because of this spy, there were Demogorgon-like creatures all over the lab.

Joyce, Hopper and Will were in the lab. Mike was with them.

Mike was in the lab. The lab that was currently swarming with blood-thirsty creatures that could kill an armed grown man in seconds.

Mike could be hurt. Mike could be killed. Mike could die.

Nancy felt like throwing up.

They had to find a way in. Her brother could be bleeding out on the floor for all she knew, and she couldn’t stand the thought of leaving her brother in danger like that.

Like magic, like something heard her desperation, the gate opened.

Jonathan ran to the car, Nancy right behind him, and they rushed to the lab’s entrance.

They found Mike, they found Hopper, who was carrying an unconscious Will with him, and they found Joyce, who wouldn’t stop crying, having to be held up by Mike with how hard she was crying.

After they all got in the car, after they were far away from the beast-infested Hawkins Lab, Nancy turned to check on Mike, Will and Joyce, who were all sitting in the backseat.

Joyce looked shell-shocked. Nancy didn’t exactly know what happened to make her look this upset, but something clearly happened while they were all stuck in there.

Will was unconscious, laying across the seat, his legs on top of Joyce’s lap and his head laying on Mike’s lap. He looked pale, and his breathing was faint. He was wearing a hospital gown, and his hair looked greasy.

Nancy’s heart hurt for Will. The poor boy was always getting targeted by that awful other dimension, by the monsters that came from it. What did the monster even do to him this time, for him to be this tired? For him to be knocked out?

Finally, finally, the girl looked up from where Will was laying, and took one look at her little brother.

Mike. Oh, Mike. The boy looked haunted, staring down at his sleeping best friend like he could disappear at any moment. He was shaking, and his hand was tangled in Will’s hair. It looked like he wasn’t hurt, but the look in his eyes told a different story. Me might not have had any physical wounds, but whatever he went through inside the lab would probably stay with him forever.

“Mike,” Nancy whispered, trying to get her brother’s attention. Mike’s eyes snapped up, meeting her gaze. He looked like he was going to throw up. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m— I’m fine.” He looked down, back at Will. His lip trembled, and he wiped his nose with his sleeve.

“Hey, listen, Will’s going to be okay, alright? Whatever this thing that got him is, we’re getting it out of him.”

“I know. I know we will.” He whispered, eyes still glued to his best friend’s unconscious form. His words sounded hollow, almost like he didn’t entirely believe them.

“Hey, look at me,” Nancy whispers as softly as she can. Being friends with Jonathan for the past year made her realise how different her and Mike are from him and Will, and some prideful part of her feels like she has to make up for how mean she’s been towards her brother in the past — well, maybe not for all of it, since he’s still a snarky little shit who stole money from her just a few days ago, and he deserves to be knocked down a peg every now and then — but still, she’s trying to be nicer towards Mike and Holly recently. Mike does look up after some time, like it pained him to look away from Will, his eyes shiny. “I know we haven’t talked much lately, but you don’t have to pretend like you’re fine when you’re with me, okay? I’m in this as much as you are, and I know how fucked up all of the—” she waves her hand around, “—stuff that’s been happening since last year can be, so if you want to talk, you can come talk to me. I mean it.”

Mike was silent. He stared at her like the girl suddenly grew a second head. Nancy internally cringed, thinking that maybe she went too overboard with the speech, and that maybe it felt too out of character considering their normal dynamic — that being them rarely speaking to each other unless necessary —. She worries that maybe it could’ve made her brother want to open up to her even less, considering how snappish he’s been lately, but to her surprise he speaks up again.

“He was in so much pain.”

The way his voice sounded so broken made Nancy’s brain go on high alert again, frowning at her brother.

“What?” She asked, even though she had a pretty good guess on who he was talking about.

“Will, in the field, and then in the lab, he— he was screaming, one second he was fine and the next he was on the ground and I didn’t know what to do, but he said it burned, and the doctors didn’t— nothing they did was helping him so they had to knock him out but he was crying and he was hurting, Nancy, and just—” Mike took a shuddered breath and closed his eyes, grimacing. “I couldn’t do anything to help him.”

Jonathan was quiet, taking everything in. He looked guilty, definitely beating himself over for not being able to be there for his brother when he needed it, but he stayed quiet, not wanting to intrude in the moment. This was about Nancy and Mike, and they both needed it. He just kept driving.

Nancy twisted herself on her seat, leaning into the backseat to grab Mike’s hand. It was awkward and uncomfortable, and her shoulder already hurt from the strain, but she did it anyway, because Mike was hurting, and Nancy promised that they would be there for each other, that she would be there for him. She laced their fingers together.

“But you did help him, Mike.” She said, and Mike immediately looked like he was about to argue. “And I know you think you didn’t, but I know for a fact that just being there with Will already helped him a lot.” She added. Her brother paused, processing her words. He looked back down at Will’s sleeping face.

“...You really think so?”

Nancy scoffed, exasperated. “Mike. Your friends told us that you were glued to his side the second he started feeling weird. They couldn’t contact you for days because you were with Will! You could’ve left, could’ve called Dustin or Lucas to be there with you two, but you didn’t. You were in a lab infested with Demogorgons and you still tried to help Will until the end,” he still didn’t look entirely convinced, and Nancy resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “I’m serious, Mike. You’re Will’s best friend. You being there for him through everything that happened was more than enough.”

Mike was silent, but his shoulders loosened. He gave Nancy’s hand a squeeze.

“You sounded like Mom just now.” Mike commented. His voice was still shaky, but he was smiling now. Nancy gasped, letting go of his hand to turn back on her seat to hide her smile.

“I’m never being nice to you ever again.” The boy laughed at that, and Nancy’s smile widened. She turned to Jonathan, who was also smiling fondly at her. She blushed, remembering that both him and Joyce were in the car too, but one look at Mike’s relaxed face in the rearview mirror washed away any embarrassment.

Suddenly, Mike’s eyes widened, like he realised something. He looked between Jonathan and Nancy, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“Wait, where were you guys?” He questioned, and Nancy realised they hadn’t really told anyone about going to find Murray. “Jonathan was gone for, like, a while! He wasn’t at the house when I got there!”

“Well, uh—” Jonathan began, checking the mirror to see if Joyce had reacted in any way — she didn’t, still looking out the window with a dead-looking stare and faintly petting Will’s leg —, and Nancy took over for him.

“Jonathan was helping me with some detective work.” Nancy teased, nudging Jonathan on the shoulder. Mike raised an eyebrow, suspicious.

“...Detective work?”

“Yeah, actually!” She gave him a pointed look, one that said ‘shut up before I kill you’, but he still looked unconvinced. “We were gone because we went after this guy named Murray Bauman. He’s a private detective and he was looking into Barb’s case.” Mike’s eyes widened at the mention of Nancy’s friend.

“Why, though?”

“Well—” Nancy looked through her purse, pulling out the original tape recording they got at the lab, labeled ‘Owens’, and held it up for him to see with a smile, “because we got a confession.”

Mike’s jaw dropped, and he started sputtering questions of ‘what?’ and ‘when did you get that?!’ and ‘how?!’’, and Nancy’s smile widened.

“We managed to get into the lab by tricking them into thinking we were going to tell the truth to Barb’s parents, and after the lab people took us there, Dr Owens just— showed us around and straight up told us that they were responsible for Barb’s death and Will’s disappearance— well, not with that wording, but still, and then they let us go after telling us to keep our mouths shut.”

“But you recorded everything he said.” Mike filled in the blanks, his eyes shining in awe, and Nancy nodded, feeling proud that her little brother thought her plan was cool, embarrassingly enough.

“We recorded everything he said. Then we took it to Murray, who helped us put the story together to send it to the big papers. And after the secret is out, those assholes are going to pay for what they did to Barb,” she looked back at Will’s exhausted form, at Joyce’s dead expression, then back at Mike, “for what they did to Will, and for what they did to El.”

At the mention of El’s name, Mike’s eyes darkened again. He rarely talked about it with Nancy, but she heard him talking on the walkie down in the basement sometimes, and she knew how much he missed the girl. He looked back at Will, carding his fingers through the unconscious boy’s hair again.

“...Yeah. Yeah, they’re gonna pay for everything.”

Nancy smiled again, turning to face the road again. As she did, Jonathan grabbed her hand, and she gave it a squeeze back.

She doesn’t know if Mike noticed them holding hands or not, but if he did, he didn’t say anything.

❃

Many things had happened in the last three or so hours.

Their entire group had met up at the Byers’ residence, and they all got filled in on everything that was happening. Dart, the other Demogorgons, Will’s possession and his current spy status, what happened at Hawkins Lab, Bob Newby’s death (Nancy now knows that’s the reason why Joyce looked so distraught, and her heart hurts for the woman) and Jonathan and Nancy’s escapade to Murray Bauman’s, and after discussing their plans moving on — and getting Will to communicate with them through his possession — have split up again.

Also, Eleven turned out to be alive all along, apparently? And Hopper had been raising her in secret in some cabin in the woods. There was no time to process that information, though, seeing as they had to act quick.

Which is how Nancy found herself in said cabin with Jonathan, Joyce and Will, the latter being currently tied to a bed and being burnt alive.

Well, it wasn’t Will who was being burnt, it was the shadow creature possessing him, but with how much the boy was screaming it might as well have been him.

The room was boiling hot, and Nancy had never sweated as much in her life. Jonathan looked really distraught, hugging her in order not to look at his wailing brother. Joyce, on the other hand, was not backing down.

The woman kept insisting that this was the only way to save Will, and Nancy believed her, but she couldn’t help but worry that it would end up killing him in the end. Jonathan seemed to share her opinion, as he begged Joyce to stop, telling her ‘you’re killing him, Mom!’ over and over again.

Eventually, Will’s neck was covered in black veins, coming from his chest and spreading over his sweat-drenched skin. He managed to break one of his restraints, and next thing they know, the boy has his hand around Joyce’s neck.

Jonathan rushes to his mother’s side, trying to get him to let go, but Will’s arm wouldn’t budge. Nancy had to act quick.

Joyce could die at any second now, and Jonathan, even with all of his strength, couldn’t make Will’s arm move an inch. Nancy turned towards the fireplace, seeing the iron poker, how its tip was glowing orange from how hot it was.

Nancy had a choice to make, and it wouldn’t be a nice one.

Her chest felt tight at the idea of hurting Will, her boyfriend’s little brother, her little brother’s best friend, it felt wrong to hurt him in such a painful way. But right now, Will wasn’t Will anymore, he was the Mind Flayer.

The Mind Flayer had Will Byers’ hands wrapped around Joyce Byers’ neck, and the woman was running out of air.

Nancy knew what she had to do.

Later, years after the night in the cabin, her brother would be furious at her, hurt and betrayed that his own sister had the nerve to injure his best friend in such a horrible way. He would lash out at her, crying and yelling and letting out so much of the pain he felt in the last few days since the battle — the pain he felt in the last few years. He would avoid her, he would lock himself in his room, he would blame her for doing what they both know she had to do, and she would know that this is his way of processing things, and she wouldn’t be mad.

She braced herself, grabbed the poker from the fire, and drove it straight into Will’s side.

❃

Now that El was back, Nancy rarely ever saw Mike anymore.

He spent more time at Hopper’s cabin than at their own house. Every day after school, he went straight there and stayed for at least an hour before coming back home, and when he did get home he just ran straight to his room.

His friends were getting pretty annoyed at how clingy Mike had become when it came to El, something Nancy knew from the countless times Dustin or Will or Lucas called their house asking for Mike, only to groan when they heard he was over at El’s again.

Jonathan told her that Will in particular was getting really annoyed by Mike’s new El-related habit.

It made sense, in Nancy’s head, for Mike to be this excited about having a girlfriend. It was his first ever girlfriend, and Mike had already lost El before, so it made sense for him to want to be around her, plus the fact that El was pretty much under house arrest for the foreseeable future, considering the US government is still after her.

But at the same time, something in her brain tells her that it’s becoming a bit too much.

Maybe it's just some sort of older sister instinct, or maybe she’s just in denial that her brother is grown up enough to have a girlfriend — sometimes she still sees the tiny five-year-old that ran around the house blabbering about anything and everything when she looks at him —, but sometimes Mike gets really anxious when El gets brought up.

It’s like the flip of a switch. One moment they’re all eating dinner and Mike is relaxed, poking at his food like it personally offended him, the next their mom brings up El (or Jane, as she knows her as) and asks how she’s doing, and suddenly Mike is all panicky and wide-eyed, giving her a stuttered ‘she’s, uh, she’s good!’ and trying to change the subject as quickly as possible.

Other times, on the rare occasion when something comes up and he has to stay home, be it because family is visiting or because no one else can stay home to look after Holly, he looks relieved. He may complain about it and throw a fuss in front of their mother, but Nancy noticed the way his shoulders relax at the excuse to stay home.

Maybe it’s just fear of slipping up in some way and putting El in danger by saying too much — and God knows Mike is the king of saying too much —, maybe he’s just intimidated by Hopper and what he’ll do to Mike if he hurts El in any way (“He hates me, Will, I’m telling you— no, no, I’ve never even done anything to him! He just hates my guts for like, no reason!” Nancy overheard him tell Will on the phone one time, and she swears she heard the boy laugh on the other side of the line), but something is making Mike feel anxious. And Mike might think otherwise, but he’s really bad at hiding it — at least from her, that is.

Another thing that she’s noticed recently is that the other boys — Lucas, Dustin and Will — are barely at their house anymore.

Lucas has Max now, and as much as Mike complains about her, from the few interactions she’s had with the girl, Nancy can tell Max is a very sweet girl, and that she and Lucas like each other very much. He still comes around sometimes, and he’s always super nice to Nancy, but it’s becoming rarer and rarer.

Dustin’s in some science camp thing, according to Mike, so he’s also been absent from the Wheeler residence this summer. Dustin has always been Nancy’s favourite out of Mike’s friends, and she misses seeing him around.

Will, on the other hand, Nancy has seen a lot. Not in her house though.

She’s been spending more and more nights over at the Byers’, and sometimes she has those awkward bumping-into-my-boyfriend’s-little-brother-in-their-house moments with him. Nancy still feels guilty for what happened last year, during Will’s possession, and she can tell that he also feels awkward around her. That awkward feeling is probably due to her being his brother’s girlfriend, in a way, but Nancy can’t help but overthink it, even though he forgave her for the incident ages ago.

Her and Will have learned to coexist in that way, tied together by their respective relations to Jonathan — and to Mike, in a way —. She always sees him at the Byers’, but rarely ever sees him at the Wheelers’ anymore.

Rarely sees him with Mike anymore, in fact.

It’s weird to think about, that Mike and Will are no longer Mike-and-Will. The year prior, Mike was glued to Will’s side at all times, and now he barely invites him over anymore.

Will looks sad, too, but he’s looked like this since he first came back from the Upside Down, all the way back in ‘83, and Nancy has never been close enough to any of Mike’s friends to be able to go up to them and ask if they’re doing okay, so she hasn’t asked him. Jonathan says he’s been doing better, and she has no reason to doubt him when it comes to Will.

Mike looks sadder too, in the rare instances where Nancy actually sees him around. He’s always fidgeting with his wristwatch — the black one him and Will got matching pairs of, years ago —, always huffing and moping around the house, always annoyed, as if the universe itself was wronging him in some way — what way, Nancy has no idea, because he’s gotten to do whatever he wants all summer, unlike Nancy, who actually has a job now, and a really demanding job at that, so it annoys her to see him act all pissy, even though he has nothing to complain about in her eyes.

Maybe that annoyance is what made her ignore the signs of him not doing well, but now it might be a bit too late to go back.

So she snaps at him whenever he walks into the kitchen, on those days where it took slightly too long for her to get ready and she has to race to get her breakfast ready in time to not be late to work. She ignores him when he’s home by the time she gets back. She stays silent when their mother asks about El, even if she sees how uncomfortable she gets. She doesn’t ask him how he’s doing.

In turn, he does the same to her.

They don’t even notice this deterioration on their already fragile bond, and it seems no one else does either. They’ve always been like this, so no one comments on the fact that they’ve become snappier towards each other, that they’ve been ignoring each other’s presence more often.

Nancy is stuck up, Mike is annoying. Nancy needs to be right all the time, Mike doesn’t listen to anyone.

That’s what they tell people when they’re asked why they don’t talk.

So they stay away from each other as much as they can. They don’t talk, they barely even look at each other.

Their promise of ‘no more secrets’ has fallen through a long time ago, anyways.

Of course, that rift growing larger between them comes to bite them in the ass once everything begins to go wrong again. Once the things they believed got sealed away come back.

And it all starts with a power outage making Nancy late to work.

❃

After the summer of ‘85, after everything horrible that happened to her, from being belittled and humiliated by a bunch of old men who couldn’t do anything right to almost dying at the hospital with Jonathan, chased by those same men — who then dissolved into much right in front of her only to turn into a fucking flesh monster — and almost killed in the process to watching the flesh creature nearly kill El, Nancy didn’t have time to be a sister. She hadn’t had time to be a sister for a long while now, but she still used that horrible summer as an excuse for it.

So much stuff happened, and before she even knew it the Byers — and El, newly taken in by Joyce after Hopper died, which is still hard to wrap her head around — had packed their things and moved away to California, away from all of the tragedy that had followed their family as of late (or for as long as they’ve been living in Hawkins, in a way).

Nancy was heartbroken, terrified that her relationship with Jonathan wouldn’t be able to handle the thousands of miles that would now be between them, but Jonathan had smiled at her, cradled her face and reassured that nothing would break them apart, so she felt a bit better in that regard.

They’ve been gone for a few months now, and things have been getting better — for Nancy, that is.

Her and Jonathan talk on the phone very often, and he sent her an envelope full of photographs he took around Lenora about a month ago — pictures of himself, Joyce, Will and El, the scenery and the beach, even one with a long haired boy that he recently befriended, and each picture had an explanation written on the back. Nancy is also a part of the school paper this year, which is very exciting for her. Jonathan was thrilled to hear it, and Nancy sent him a few articles she recently wrote in return, each one annotated and highlighted with care. She cherishes those pictures more than Jonathan probably realises. She has one picture — a very bright close up of Jonathan’s face, smiling at the camera in that dorky way of his, with his hair all messed up and part of the lens covered by his finger, a picture he took by accident while setting up the camera but decided to send anyways because he thought she’s find it funny, according to the writing on the back of it — pinned on her board, right beside a picture of her and Barb on halloween, and she smiles every time she sees it.

Nancy has been handling the distance quite well, in her opinion.

Mike, on the other hand, really hasn’t.

He’s been getting letter after letter from El, considering they can’t really talk on the phone, with her being wanted by the U.S. government and all. He writes her back every time, but Nancy sees how he grimaces when he receives her letters.

But even though he and El can’t chat on the phone, Mike is always trying to call the Byers. Every time, she sees how he waits with the phone held by his ear, something close to hope in his eyes, only for it to crumble away and for him to hang the phone back up.

She’s never seen him send any letters to Will, either.

At least he seems to be having a slightly better time at school, though.

Him, Dustin and Lucas have joined the school’s D&D club, Hellfire Club, as written on the t-shirt Mike wears almost every day. Nancy doesn’t know much about the club. All she knows is that it’s run by Eddie Munson, one of their school’s most… interesting personalities, to put it lightly.

Mike seems to be having fun, though, and he leaves her alone during the day, so that’s fine with her.

He could at least try to wake up on time every once in a while. She’s been late to school one too many times because of him.

Overall, Mike and Nancy seem to be handling their new Byers-less lives pretty well — less well with Mike, but he’s always been a lot clingier than Nancy, so it’s understandable —. They’re both having a better time with school. Doesn’t mean every day is easy, though.

Today, Mike came home from school and ran to his bedroom, not even giving Nancy and Karen a glance when he passed by the kitchen. He looked bothered.

He was holding something in his hand. It looked like some sort of paper.

Maybe he flunked a test and was sad because of it? It didn’t really make that much sense, considering Mike didn’t care all that much about school as of late, but Nancy still wanted to check up on him and know what was going on.

It could’ve just been her nosiness speaking, but who cares, really?

Karen also looked worried, and she called out for Mike.

“I’ll go check up on him, mom.” Nancy said, smiling at her mom. “He probably just had a bad day at school.”

“You’ll do that? I can go, if you want—”

“It’s fine, mom, really. I wanted to talk to him about something, anyways. You finish up the food.”

“Thank you, Nance.” Her mom smiled, and Nancy put down the knife she was using, washed her hands, and went upstairs to find her brother.

Going up to Mike’s room, she saw that his backpack had been thrown on the floor in the middle of the corridor. Nancy picked it up, and saw that it was soaking wet. All of the loose papers inside of it were pretty much ruined, and Mike’s books were also somewhat damaged by the water.

Weird. It hadn’t rained today. In fact, there hadn’t been any clouds in the sky for days. So why was Mike’s backpack wet?

A thought crossed her mind, and her jaw clenched.

Was Mike being bullied, still?

High school was brutal, and Mike had been bullied pretty much since he was in kindergarten, so it wouldn’t be out of the blue for him to be a target, especially considering he’s in their school’s D&D club, plus he’s friends with Eddie Munson now. The people in their school hate Eddie, and they seem to dislike anyone who even associates with the guy.

Nancy’s blood boiled.

She had enough of her brother being tormented by those assholes from their school. If she was right about her theory, then she’s going to find every single one of the idiots who are hurting Mike and make them pay for it.

But first, she needs to make sure she’s right.

Taking a deep breath, she knocks on Mike’s door.

“Mike? Can I come in?”

No response. She knocks again.

“...Mike? I want to talk to you, can I please come in?”

Still no response. Nancy starts to get worried. Pressing her ear to the door, she thinks she hears a faint sniffling.

Against her better judgement, knowing Mike’s probably going to be mad at her, she opens the door and steps in.

Just like she expected, Mike is sitting on his bed, and gives her a death glare when she enters his room.

“What do you want?” He spits. Nancy holds back a grimace at the sight of her brother.

His hair looks wet, and so do his clothes. He’s gripping his knees so tightly that his knuckles are white, and his eyes look red. He’s trembling, and the anger in his voice is palpable. Something definitely happened at school today.

“...You left your backpack in the hallway.” She holds up Mike’s backpack, dripping water on the floor. Mike quickly gets up and snatches it from her hands without even thanking her. He throws it on the floor next to his closet quite forcefully and turns back to her, still looking angry.

“Done. If that’s all you wanted to say, you can leave.”

Nancy’s eyes narrow. “No, Mike, that’s not all, I want to talk to you.”

“Well I don’t, so you can leave now.” He sits back down on the bed, facing away from the door.

“I’m not gonna leave, Mike, something’s going on with you, and I want to help—”

Nancy walks further into the room, trying to get closer to Mike. He sneers at her, turning back to her in one swift move.

“And why do you care?” He bites, glaring daggers at Nancy. The girl tilts her head, eyes narrowed.

“Oh, I don’t know, because I’m your sister, maybe?”

“Yeah, and what a great job you’ve been doing at that.” He mutters bitterly, looking down at the floor.

Nancy opens her mouth to reply, but doesn’t. As much as it hurts to admit, Mike is right.

As much as she likes to tell herself she is, she’s rarely ever there for Mike — or Holly, for that matter, even though she’s only six —. They only ever talk when their lives are at stake, and even then it’s just bits and pieces.

Nancy always tries to do her best at everything she does. It seems she neglected this specific part.

Normally, this accusation would be an excuse to leave, to give Mike space, to leave him alone with his own anger. That’s what she usually does when he’s angry — which seems to be more and more often lately.

This time, she puts her pride aside and does something she’d never do six months ago. She walks up to Mike and sits next to him.

The boy in question glares at her, and she can tell he’s about to shout at her to leave, so she beats him to it.

“...Do you remember when Mom got pregnant with Holly?”

Mike looks at her weirdly, like he’s trying to figure out what their little sister has to do with any of this, but he slowly nods.

“You were really mad at Mom for it, and you started ignoring her like crazy. You kept acting like she didn’t exist, or like— she was offending you for even existing near you. It made her really sad, and since Dad has the emotional awareness of a rock she asked me to talk to you.”

Mike finally seems to get what she’s talking about, and his face sours a bit. Nancy doesn’t let that deter her, though.

“...I went to talk to you, but you told me to leave. I was really annoyed at you, so I did. I left. I didn’t try to understand why you were feeling angry, and it only hurt you more.”

“...What does that have to do with anything?”

“Mike.” She says, in a serious but ever so slightly warm tone. “I’m not leaving you alone this time. I can tell something’s going on. You can talk to me.”

Mike scowls at her, that defensive fire coming back up again. “Nothing’s going on!”

“You came home soaking wet, and it was sunny out the whole day!—”

“Well I— I tripped and fell on a puddle at school! Nothing fucking happened!”

“That’s bullshit and you know it, tell me what’s going on—”

“The guys from the basketball team dumped water on me! There, I told you what happened! Can you leave me the fuck alone now?”

Nancy was taken aback. She didn’t think Mike would actually say what happened, even with her prying.

“I— what? When did that happen?”

“When I was leaving. I was walking and they just pulled up in Jason’s car, called me some stuff and threw a bucket of water over my head. Is your detective head satisfied or do I need to give you a step-by-step of the incident?”

Nancy doesn’t react to his comment, too busy trying to kill those boys with her mind. She wishes she had Eleven’s powers at this moment.

“Oh, that’s just— Why would they even do that, I mean, that’s just stupid! How old are they, twelve?”

“Doesn’t matter, I know I’m a freak anyways, so it was bound to happen. I deserved it anyways” He mutters to himself, bitter. Nancy’s gaze snaps back at him, alarmed.

“Don’t say that! Those guys are assholes, they—” She places a hand on Mike’s shoulder, but he shoves it away. He’s avoiding her gaze, looking down at the floor. His hair has fallen over his face. It’s gotten quite long lately.

“Nancy, I’m—” he croaks, eyes misty, “I’m not normal, I’m not— I’m not like everyone else, I’m—” He buries his face in his hands, his frame starting to shake. “Everything I do is wrong! I move wrong, I’m too thin, I speak weird, I feel the wrong things, I—”

Mike finally turns to her, and the expression on her brother’s face makes the girl’s chest hurt.

He looks angry, he looks confused, he looks ashamed, but most of all he looks heartbroken. Nancy doesn’t think she saw him like this since the day the Byers moved away.

He looks at Nancy as if he’s pleading for an answer, a reason why he’s so different, so other in the eyes of the people of Hawkins. Nancy wants to find every single person who ever made Mike feel this way and drive a dagger through their chests.

“I’m wrong, Nancy. I was born wrong.”

Nancy grabs his hand, holding it tight.

“You’re not wrong, Mike. You weren’t born wrong, and you aren’t wrong.”

“But I am! I am, Nancy, I—” He sobs, face contorting in pain. Nancy squeezes his hand again. “I do everything wrong, I— people have gotten hurt because of me, I can’t do anything right, and I just— I hurt people, and I push them away!”

“Mike— Mike, listen.” Nancy’s free hand moves to hold Mike’s face, making him look her in the eyes. His eyes are red, and his brows are pinched together. He looks just as confused and angry as before. She lets go of his face, now holding Mike’s other hand. “Why do you think you hurt people?”

She has a vague idea of what might be plaguing her brother so badly.

He looks down, ashamed. He’s silent for a bit, gathering his thoughts, and Nancy lets him. Nancy will give Mike all the time he needs, and she wants him to know that she’ll listen, no matter how long it takes.

“...I think I might be hurting El.”

Nancy is surprised to hear that, but she doesn’t let it show.

“Why? I thought you two were going strong.”

“No, we are, it’s just—” He sighs. “When she moved away I felt sad, of course, but— I also felt relieved that she wouldn’t be here anymore.”

Mike’s admission feels heavy, hanging in the air around them. Mike’s still looking down, avoiding her gaze.

Nancy doesn’t say anything — she doesn’t think she can say anything, really — but she nods, signaling Mike to continue.

“And now that she’s in California, it’s like this weight is off of my chest, you know? Like— Now that she’s not here, it’s easier to forget about all of those ‘boyfriend duties’ I’m supposed to do and— Shit, Nancy—”

The girl looks down at Mike’s hands, and she understands. She knows exactly what Mike is going through.

“...I think I get what you mean.” She says with a sad smile.

Mike looks at her, his eyes wide.

“...You do?”

“Yeah, I do.” She pauses, thinking of a way to explain how she felt in a way that Mike could relate to. She picks her words deliberately. “It’s like… Now that you don’t have to see her in person, you don’t have…” Nancy examines his expression, careful, “...you don’t have to pretend anymore, right?”

Mike looks caught, a deer in the headlights. He looks scared. Nancy continues, as careful as ever.

“After— after everything that happened, with Will and with Barb—” her voice breaks at her best friend’s name, “I was still dating Steve, and for a while we were happy, but— I felt so suffocated being with him. It’s not that I didn’t care for him, I did! I still do, in fact, but— The love I felt for him just— it just wasn’t like that. It wasn’t what it was supposed to be. So we had to break up, or else that lie would eat us up from the inside out, and we would end up just like mom and dad.”

Nancy intended for the jab towards their parents to be lighthearted, but Mike’s face fell. She was about to backtrack, assuming her words only worsened the situation, but Mike spoke up again.

“...I think I don’t love El anymore.”

His voice sounds small as he says it, but his frame relaxes, almost as if he’s relieved by finally saying it out loud. Nancy smiles and places her hand on his shoulder.

“And that’s completely okay, Mike. People fall out of love all of the time—”

“No, Nance, you don’t—” He sighs, and falls quiet again. There’s something else bothering him. Mike starts picking on his arm, and Nancy bats his hand away.

“Mike, whatever it is, you can tell me. No more secrets between us, remember?” The siblings smile at the memory. They were both so young at the time, so unaware that all of the pain they were going through wouldn’t magically end once their friends were back. They didn’t know that only one of their friends would return that night.

Mike sighs again, and turns back towards Nancy with a guarded expression.

“...It’s just—” He groans in frustration, not being able to get his words right. Nancy remains patient, though. He looks down. “...I don’t think I ever loved her like that. Like— like as a girlfriend. I think I always loved her as a friend, or as a sister, I think I was just scared, and confused, and maybe I was just trying to hide and I just— I just couldn’t tell the difference at the time, and now it’s too late to back out.”

It makes sense, actually. It makes a lot of sense.

Why Mike wasn’t too bothered when El broke up with him, how he avoided kissing her, even when she came back after a whole year, why he seemed relieved at times when he got too busy to see her but anxious at others, how he started avoiding—

The pieces click together in place.

Nancy suspects there might be something else to this.

“...And how do you know you don’t love her like that?” Nancy tries. It might be pushing a bit too far, but Nancy is nothing if not stubborn. She can’t help but be a detective at heart. She makes her body language relaxed, showing her brother that she’s here for him, that he can tell her about whatever’s plaguing him, whatever’s hurting him.

Mike frowns, then looks back at Nancy. He studies her expression, and she remains calm. His frown deepens when he finds something, and Nancy has a feeling he knows she figured something out.

“...Do you promise you won’t hate me?”

“Mike, I could never hate you— What?” she laughs, baffled. He scoffs, crossing his arms and looking away, and Nancy can see the angry defensive mask coming on. Oh no.

“You would. You would, you’d think I’m a— a freak and that I’m disgusting and hate me forever because I am a freak and—”

“Mike,” she cuts him off, voice turning serious. She grabs his hands again, bringing them together and holding them close, “Whatever people have been telling you, whatever nasty names they’ve been calling you, they’re wrong. You’re not a freak, you’re not disgusting and I’ll never hate you, no matter what. No matter what, Mike. You’re one of the bravest and most caring people I’ve ever met, and nothing will ever change that for me. You’re a great person, you’re smart and you’re loyal but most of all you’re my brother.”

Mike’s eyes widen, but he doesn’t say anything. He looks shocked at what Nancy is saying, but his shoulders seem less tense. Nancy continues.

“You may fuck up sometimes, and you may be really annoying at times— and trust me, Mike, you can be really, really annoying and you know that,” Mike snickers at this, feigning offence, and Nancy smiles, “but no matter what you do, no matter what horrible sin you think you’ve committed, I’ll always be here for you. You’ll always be my brother, and I’ll always love you, no matter what.”

Mike tears up again, but he’s smiling now, realer than she’s seen him smile in a long time.

“Yeah?” He asks, and Nancy nods.

“Yeah.”

“Even if I—” he closes his eyes, bracing himself, “Even if I don’t— if I don’t like girls the way I’m supposed to?”

Time seems to stop. Mike still has his eyes closed, but Nancy already knows her answer. She always knew the answer.

“Yeah, Mike. Even if you don’t.” And she pulls Mike into a hug.

Mike all but crumbles into her arms.

They stay like that for a long time, with Mike’s face buried into Nancy’s shoulder and Nancy’s head laying over his. He grips onto his sister tightly, and she strokes his back lightly, soothing him. She feels his tears soaking through her shirt, but she doesn’t care.

After some time, Mike speaks up again.

“...I know I don’t like El like that because I—” He swallows, and Nancy squeezes his arm, telling him to go on, “I like someone else like that.”

“Do you?”

“Yeah— yeah. Have for a long time.”

Nancy smiles, and pulls out of the hug. She smiles at Mike, who looks slightly less worried now.

She has a feeling she knows who he’s talking about.

“Is it who I think it is?”

Mike pauses, examining Nancy’s expression again. It takes quite some time, but finally he nods, almost ashamed. Nancy smiles, almost mischievously, and pats Mike on the shoulder.

“Well— looks like those Byers boys really do have a spell on us, right?”

Mike’s eyes widen, and Nancy can’t help but burst out laughing at how red his face becomes.

“Shut up, Nance!” he groans, and shoves her on the shoulder. “That was— that was so corny, what the hell!” Suddenly, Nancy remembers being in the exact same spot as Mike, saying the exact same thing, but with Barbara laughing at her instead. Her heart squeezes at the memory, and her smile drops slightly.

Suddenly, she’s filled with the overwhelming need to hug her brother again, so she does.

Mike seems surprised by it, but after a moment he hugs her back.

“I’m really proud of you, Mike.” She whispers, smiling. “Thank you for telling me.”

He makes a choked up noise, and tightens his grip on Nancy.

“Thanks, Nance.” His voice sounds wet again, and he’s probably crying all over again. “I love you.”

“I love you too, Mike.”

❃

Mike’s in California for two weeks, visiting the Byers.

The night before he left, Chrissy Cunningham died at Wayne and Eddie Munson’s trailer.

It was a horrible, tragic death, and her death was only the beginning of the end.

More teenagers have died since then. Her friend Fred, who disappeared from her sight when they were at the trailer park looking for clues and was found dead the next morning, and a boy named Patrick, who was on the basketball team with Lucas.

The murders were related to the Upside Down — because of course they were — and were likely related to this man named Victor Creel. The entity that was targeting said teenagers — Vecna, as nicknamed by Dustin — was still out there, and they had to find a way to stop him before anyone else died.

Max had also been a target, but had barely managed to escape alive. She was probably still a target, so they were keeping a close eye on her.

Their current group was made of herself, Steve, Robin, Max, Dustin, Lucas and Eddie — who was currently the town’s number one suspect for the murders, seeing as he was already hated by most people in town for ‘being a satanist’ or whatever, and seeing as Chrissy’s body was found in his trailer after being last seen with him —. They were all holed up in the Wheelers’ basement, trying to make a plan to defeat Vecna.

As the teens talked, Nancy’s mind wandered to her brother. As worrying as it was that none of them were able to contact the Byers in any way, Nancy was kind of glad that Mike was away from all this mess.

He had been struggling lately, and had even confided in Nancy about it once — even if they’re not talking much (they never really have) —, and she feared that had Mike been in Hawkins when the murders started happening, he would be a perfect target for Vecna.

Bad things were happening in Hawkins, but at least Mike was away from everything. He was with Jonathan, and with Joyce and Will and El, enjoying his spring break in California with his girlfriend and best friend, away from all of the danger and death.

The thought calmed her, but there was still a part of her that worried.

Mike is probably fine.

But no one can get a hold of the Byers. You have no way of knowing.

He’s with El. He’ll be fine.

El, who lost her powers? Can she protect them still?

Jonathan is there, plus, it’s California, nothing’s gonna happen.

And if it does? What if something already did?

She tries her best to push these thoughts aside, focus on the main mission — defeating Vecna, that is —, but that little voice keeps whispering in her ear.

It only gets worse after Vecna gives her that horrible vision.

Dark clouds. The town on fire. Dead soldiers. Monsters. The end of the world.

But that wasn’t the worst thing he made Nancy see.

Her mother, laying lifeless in a pool of her own blood, her chest torn open by a Demogorgon.

Holly, face down on the floor with blood turning her blonde hair dark and stringy.

Mike, floating and falling to the ground, his legs and arms bent and broken, his jaw unhinged, his eyes gone from their sockets, blood streaming down his face.

Vecna promised her that everything she was shown would become real.

They can’t let that happen.

So they prepare themselves, and make a plan.

They battle, they injure him, they think that maybe, maybe, they finally won.

Max’s heart stops, a clock chimes, the town gets split in four.

They failed.

She, Robin and Steve find Dustin, clutching Eddie’s bloody, lifeless body and wailing.

Max’s heart starts beating again. She falls into a coma.

Unlike hers, Nancy’s heart feels like it permanently stopped beating.

Vecna got what he wanted — the town was torn apart by gates, the Upside Down might be infiltrating. Her vision could become real at any moment.

Her mom. Holly. Mike. They could all die.

Mike’s in California. He doesn’t know.

It isn’t until a beat up, yellow pizza delivery van stops in front of her house and Mike steps out of it, looking exhausted but unharmed, that her heart starts beating again.

Jonathan, Will, El — who has a buzzcut again — and a boy she has never seen before but who looks vaguely familiar step out of it as well. Jonathan finds her gaze and smiles at her like she hung the stars. She finds herself smiling too.

Mike is okay, Jonathan is okay, Will and El are both fine. Her brother is here, alive.

She engulfs Jonathan in a tight hug, and he lifts her up with how strong he hugs her back. He kisses her hair, whispering a soft ‘I’m so glad you’re okay’ into her curls. They embrace for a long time, and she can’t stop smiling. Jonathan only lets her go when he sees someone else standing there, wanting to talk to Nancy.

Mike walks up to her, and gives her a smile. It’s the same dumb, mischievous smile he’s had since he was a baby, giggling at her after he dropped one of her toys or put his sticky baby hand on her face. Nancy hugs Mike tighter than she has in a long time.

She hopes her gut was wrong, just this once. She hopes Vecna spares her family, even if she knows deep down that their chances are slim.

Hawkins has been split in four. The end of the world is here, but her family is okay, so it doesn’t matter for now.

❃

Seeing Mike’s eyes rolled back, finding him completely unresponsive, was the scariest thing Nancy experienced in her entire life.

Will was the one who noticed it first — of course he was, the two boys had been attached at the hip after the Byers got back to Hawkins —, and he immediately started calling for help, shaking Mike by the shoulders and trying everything he could to snap the boy out of it. The rest of the party came running, already carrying dozens of tapes in order to find Mike’s favourite song, but Nancy was frozen.

She had never actually seen it happen before. She knew what it looked like from the kids’ descriptions of it — her and Robin were too busy trying to get the story from Victor Creel to be there for Max’s first attack, although that story was what got them a ‘cure’ for the curse, and she hadn’t been there for Patrick or Max’s second attack either —, and Nancy had been targeted by Vecna herself, even if it wasn’t meant to kill.

But actually seeing it happen in front of her?

And seeing it happen to her own brother?

Nancy was petrified.

Now, Mike was sitting on the same couch he had been the whole evening, only now completely still and cold to the touch. His eyes fully white, rolled all the way back to his skull. And he wasn’t reacting to anything they did.

Will was holding his face, begging Mike to wake up, trying to get him to open his eyes, to snap out of it, but nothing he said or did was helping.

Dustin and Lucas were digging through their music box — a shoe box full of cassette tapes in case of any Vecna-related emergencies, such as this —, cursing loudly and arguing about something.

Jonathan was trying to untangle the wire of the headphones and plug it into Mike’s walkman, all while worriedly looking back and forth between Will and Mike on the couch and Nancy.

Robin was pacing around the room, rambling about how fucked up the situation was, and Steve was right beside her, trying to keep everyone calm.

Nancy was still standing there, frozen, her heart threatening to burst out of her chest.

The vision. It’s coming true.

Nancy already knew it was bound to happen. Vecna showed her the image of her family dying, and one by one it’s slowly becoming reality.

Holly is still missing. Karen is in the hospital, with horrible wounds and with no sign of getting better. Ted is long dead, killed in the same attack that hospitalized her mother.

And now, Vecna went after Mike.

And Nancy knew it would happen.

She wants to tell herself that there was no way to stop it, but she also didn’t do anything to make sure Mike was safe.

She never checked up on him, never asked if he was having any of the symptoms, never made sure he had his walkman with him at all times. Never asked how he was doing.

She should’ve noticed the signs. She thought he was doing better since El broke up with him, thought that he looked happier now that her and Will were back in Hawkins, but it seems she was wrong, dead wrong. She should’ve noticed, and since she didn’t, her brother was about to die. Mike could die.

Mike could die any moment now. Nancy is still standing there.

Mike could die at any moment now.

That’s the thought that spurs her into action.

She rushes over to where Dustin and Lucas are still arguing and digs through the many tapes until she finds one she recognises — The Age of Consent by Bronski Beat. She remembers seeing Mike listening to it a lot in the months after the Byers left Hawkins, and remembers seeing him add the album to the music box. She holds it up for the boys to see.

“It’s this one.” She says, and the certainty in her tone tells them that she knows what she’s talking about. Lucas nods, and Nancy tosses the tape to him, who then gives it to Jonathan. He inserts the tape into the walkman, puts the headphones over Mike’s ears and presses play.

The entire room quietens, all of the teens waiting to see if it’ll work. The first synth beats of Smalltown Boy fill the room, audible from Mike’s headphones from how silent everyone is.

A beat passes. Then another.

Mike’s eyes remain rolled back.

“It’s not working. He’s not waking up, it’s not working—”

“Will, calm down, it didn’t work out immediately for Max either, he’s gonna wake up—”

“What if we got the song wrong? Are we sure it was the right one?”

“Yes. It was the right one, I’m a hundred percent sure.” Nancy cuts Robin off, and Dustin looks anxiously back at Mike. He was right, it didn’t instantly wake Max up back at the graveyard according to both Lucas and Steve, but Nancy’s getting worried.

She’s sure she got the song right. It has to be that one. Right?

Mike mentioned liking that song a lot, the first time Nancy caught him listening to the album. He looked embarrassed, probably because it’s not the type of song you’d assume he’d listen to, but he looked calmer when the song was on.

Her gut tells her she made the right pick. Her brain tells her to wait, that the effect of the song isn't instant. Her heart tells her to worry anyways.

She walks over to the couch, kneeling in front of Mike, right next to where Will is still trying to talk to him. She grasps Mike’s hand, holding it tightly. She looks into his eyes, white and cold, and starts talking.

“Mike. Listen to me, you need to snap out of it. You need to fight him, Mike. Whatever he’s telling you, whatever he’s showing you, it’s not true. You're so strong, Mike, stronger than you think, and we’re all here for you.” A pause. “I— I know I haven’t shown it lately— or ever, for that matter, but I love you so much, so, so much, Mike. You’re my brother, and I love you, and I need you to fight him. Please, I can’t lose you, Mike— we can’t lose you, please—”

She pours her heart out to her brother, her words bleeding together with Will’s broken pleas, both mirroring each other in their care for the boy in front of them. Mike stays unmoving.

Everyone around them stays anxiously waiting for the spell to be broken, all becoming increasingly worried the longer Mike stays frozen.

Slowly, Nancy’s grasp on Mike’s hand starts to slip. It takes a second for her to realise he’s begun to float.

The room turns into chaos once again.

Everyone starts scrambling to try and hold Mike down, drag him back into his previous sitting position, but nothing seems to work.

Lucas, Jonathan and Steve grab at Mike’s legs, trying to pull him back down. Dustin is pacing around the room, cursing repeatedly with his hands atop of his head. Robin has gone back to the music box, scrambling to find a different tape that might snap Mike out of the trance.

Will and Nancy have both climbed on top of the couch, and now both stand at Mike’s sides, yelling and begging for him to come back.

For once, Nancy is fighting a battle where guns can’t help her.

She’s gotten so used to knowing how to protect people, how to identify the threat and aim her gun at it, to be able to shoot the monster that’s attacking her family and kill it.

This time, the monster attacked from a place she’d rather die than point a weapon to.

This time, the only one who can fight the monster is Mike, the one member of their party who never got properly trained on how to fight.

In this battle, Nancy is forced to stay on the sidelines, to offer her support only with words and with prayer. This time, her weapons are her words.

And for a woman of writing, Nancy never truly learned how to communicate. She knows how to put words on a page, how to analyse and dissect. She never properly learned to open up — especially when it comes to Mike.

But it’s all she can do, so she speaks. She yells and she begs and she cries, pleading at her brother for him to wake up.

Will has tears streaming down his face, and Nancy thinks she’s never seen him look this devastated in the eleven years she’s known him.

She has a feeling her face mirrors his.

One of Mike’s legs snaps, the sound of breaking bones echoing through the room.

Nancy screams.

Everyone is yelling again, but Nancy tunes it out. She already lost.

She knows exactly how things will go from now on.

The rest of his limbs are going to break, one by one, then his eyes will pop back, blood will stream down his face, then finally, his jaw will snap. And he’ll drop dead right in front of her.

Once again, Nancy failed to protect her family.

Holly’s missing. Mom’s in the hospital. Mike’s about to drop dead.

The vision is coming true. Nancy failed.

She lets out a sob, looking up at her little brother once again. His face remains neutral, even with a broken leg, like he’s not feeling any pain. He looks peaceful, even if she knows he’s going through hell at the hands of Vecna.

Even knowing it won’t help, Nancy keeps begging Mike to wake up. She looks at him and regrets not talking to him more often, not hugging him more often. She looks at him and regrets every single mean thing she’s ever said to him. She looks at him and begs him to fight, to stay here. She begs and pleads and hopes he’ll listen.

And as if her prayers were heard, a miracle happens.

Mike gasps, opens his eyes and falls back to the floor.

He lands on the couch, right where he was before, right next to Nancy. She immediately takes him in her arms, hugging him tightly from behind.

Will rushes to him, sobbing, and also dives to hug the boy.

Mike is hyperventilating, looking around as if he doesn’t remember where he is. When he looks at Will, his face crumbles.

“Will, Will—”

The boy in question laughs, tears streaming down his face.

“Mike, oh God, Mike—” He hugs Mike tightly, who hugs him back with just as much force. He’s trembling, still leaning on Nancy.

The two boys whisper at each other, crying, and they stay like that until Will accidentally brushes his arm on Mike’s broken leg, making him whimper in pain. That is what finally makes him notice his broken leg, and his face crumbles again.

Will and Nancy both spring into action at the same time, Will apologizing over and over again and asking Mike if he needs something, and Nancy telling the boys to be careful with Mike’s leg.

At the sound of his sister’s voice, Mike looks up at her, seeming to realise that she’s the one holding him up. His eyes look glassy, still a bit dazed from getting out of the trance, and he looks so young.

“...Nancy?” He asks, his voice small, and Nancy all but crumbles all over again. “Mike. Oh, Mike, you scared the shit out of me!” She hugs him tightly, and he lets out a small sob. He tries to turn towards her, but hisses when it ends up moving his broken leg. Will — who is still there, and who she thinks won’t leave Mike’s side any time soon — goes to help him, and with a bit of a struggle they manage to get Mike into a comfortable position, where he can hug Nancy back.

Her heart is beating like crazy, and she feels a bit lightheaded from the stress they all went through, but none of it matters now, because Mike didn’t die. Mike is okay, and Nancy has him.

Mike is crying too hard to be able to talk, but it’s okay, because he’s still alive. They’re both safe, for now, and that’s all that matters.

Holding Mike in her arms, feeling his heartbeat — matching hers, so fast it almost feels like his chest is about to burst, feeling his tears soak through her blouse, she feels transported back to the night he was born. It’s stormy outside, only this time with a red sky instead of a dark grey, and Mike feels small in her arms.

Once again, just like she did at the age of three, holding her baby brother in her arms, she wishes to any star that will hear her that Mike stays safe, that Nancy’s love will be strong enough to keep him safe, to ward away any monsters that might want to harm him.

Nancy cards a hand through Mike’s greasy curls, unkempt from their current apocalyptic living situation, and he leans into her hand.

Sixteen years ago, Nancy promised to love her brother until her dying breath.

Childishly, almost, she hopes that the star from sixteen years ago also kept its promise.