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Steve begins attending Christmas Eve dinners at the Hopper-Byers household shortly after Vecna is defeated.
They spend the summer between the kids’ freshman and sophomore years of high school making sure the Big Bad is down for good, a process that takes several possessions (Mike, Lucas, Jonathan, Mike again, Hopper, Joyce, Robin, Mike a third time, and Steve himself), a few resurrections (Eddie, Max, and Lucas after he sacrifices himself and promptly gets chewed out by everyone in the vicinity), and a frankly incredible double-agent stint from Will, who spends three weeks in the Upside Down learning how to use his newfound powers from Vecna instead of El while communicating with his sister the whole time, before the two of them combine their powers and fucking annihilate One. Like, seriously. Blood and guts everywhere. Steve saw it. It was kind of awesome, but mostly just gross.
It was the beginning of August when the job was finally done. Steve took off for Boston, where there was a three-bedroom apartment with his name on the lease (and, you know, the names of Nancy, Robin, Eddie, Jonathan, and Argyle, too), paid for in full by the government. Nancy, Jonathan, and Robin all enrolled at Emerson; the rest of them worked. Not because they needed to- the payout from the government was, honestly, fucking huge, a kind of “thanks for saving the world a couple times, sorry we tried to kill you all, please don’t tell anyone about this” deal. It was more than enough for Joyce and Hopper to buy a six-bed, five-bath just outside of Hawkins, not because they needed the space but because they wanted it. For the kids.
And for the annual Christmas Eve dinners that started December 1986, which found too many people in one house, even though the house was massive, and a whole lot of love. Steve thought it was a wonderful idea then, and he thinks it’s a wonderful idea now.
“Now” being December 21st, 1990. Steve’s thirty minutes away from the Hopper-Byers household, knowing full well he’s probably going to be the last to arrive. The kids are all on break already, right in the middle of their second year at college; the other young adults are flying in from around the country, and they’d all promised to be there by the 20th at the latest. It’s just past midnight, meaning it’s officially the 21st and Steve is officially late.
Dustin’s going to chew him out for it, Steve knows it. It’s the first Christmas he’s bringing Suzie to, which is kind of a big deal, apparently. He’s been talking about it for weeks; he’s excited for Suzie to meet his family. The two of them are both at Stanford, of all places, and Dustin spent the summer in Utah with Suzie’s family. Steve went out to visit at one point, when Eddie had a show in Salt Lake City, and had the honor of meeting the very large Bingham clan. Not that they’re larger than Steve’s family, really- they’re going to have, like, three or four people to a bedroom to make them all fit.
The closer he gets, the more Steve bristles with anticipation; mostly to see his family, yeah, but also to see Eddie. Eddie’s been on the European leg of his first world tour for a month now, and Steve misses him more than is likely a healthy amount. Robin says they’re codependent. She’s probably right. Steve just hides the codependent bits of them that are bonded by shared trauma behind the excuse of them being in the honeymoon phase, to which Robin argues that you cannot possibly be in the honeymoon phase of a relationship for three and a half solid years.
By the time he pulls into the driveway, he’s practically bouncing out of his seat, fingers drumming against the wheel. He parks as quickly as possible next to the four other cars in the driveway and races inside, trying to be quiet in case people are asleep since it’s well past one in the morning now.
“That better be you, Harrington!” comes the cry as soon as he lets himself in with the key Joyce gave him when she and Hopper first moved in. They’ve all got a copy, in case they ever need a place to stay. He chuckles as he closes the door behind him and Dustin comes barreling around a corner, slamming into him.
“Hey, kid,” he laughs, and he’s then swarmed by several other kids who are no longer really kids, hugging him from all sides.
“Get out of the way!” Robin yells as she charges at him, hitting him with such force that he backs up into the door to keep from falling over or something. “Dingus! You said-”
“I know, traffic was a bitch,” Steve says as she whacks his arm. He gives hugs to everyone else before Eddie is sliding up to him, ducking under his arm and pressing a kiss to his cheek.
“Hey, handsome,” Eddie says, and Steve would like nothing more than for there to not be anyone else around. Alas, he’ll have to settle for waiting a couple of days until he and Eddie are back at their place in Chicago.
It seems like everyone is still awake, for some reason (“We were waiting on you,” Nancy says, giving him a look). There are a couple of new faces- Suzie, for one, sitting next to Will and talking about something, and on Will’s other side talking to Joyce- a boy. An unfamiliar boy who Steve has never seen before, but knows without a doubt is likely The Boy, the one Will first wrote to him and Eddie about nearly a year ago now.
He gives more hugs; Joyce holds him for a solid minute. He introduces himself to The Boy, whose name is Jackson but who Steve is going to continue calling The Boy. Jackson is, in fact, Will’s new boyfriend who is not so much a new boyfriend as a newly-meeting Will’s extended family for the first time boyfriend. Steve learns from Jonathan that Will spent Thanksgiving with Jackson’s family, so in return is bringing Jackson here for their Christmas Eve dinner. Jonathan says this with an odd look on his face.
“So,” Steve says later, because he knows he isn’t going to get an unbiased answer from Jonathan. He’s talking with Mike and Max; Mike’s gaze has been darting over to Will every couple of seconds.
“So,” Max agrees conspiratorially. She’s regained most of her sight over the past four and a half years, though she still walks with crutches and says she only feels steady on a skateboard.
“Do we like him?” Steve asks, eyeing down the boy that’s currently holding Will’s hand while he talks to Hopper.
“No,” Mike says, glaring.
“Yes,” Max emphasizes, elbowing Mike. “They’re good for each other.”
“That doesn’t mean I have to like him,” Mike snorts.
“Wait, why do you not like him?” Steve asks, confused. He figured Mike would be happy for his best friend. Max just laughs.
“He’s jealous,” Max says.
“I am not!” Mike protests.
“Will’s been spending all his time with Jackson and Mike is jealous -”
“Shut up,” Mike mutters, trying to hit her. She ducks out of the way and sticks her tongue out at him. “I just think he’s kind of a dick to Will, that’s all.”
“He makes Will happy,” Max says. “So what, they fight sometimes, all couples fight sometimes.” She catches Lucas’s eye from across the room and blows him a kiss.
“I don’t like the way he treats Will even when they’re not fighting,” Mike says firmly, and Steve changes the topic before the kid really gets mad. He doesn’t know why he thought he would get an unbiased opinion from Mike, of all people. Not when he and Nancy and Robin were so completely convinced for a good two years after the Vecna thing that Mike was in love with Will. They thought Mike had gotten over it, when Will moved on- clearly not.
(Although, Steve’s not absolutely certain that Will’s moved on, either. Or at least, Eddie and Robin aren’t, and Steve tends to hold the same opinions as his boyfriend and best friend when it comes to their gay radars. His doesn’t work for shit.)
He resolves to seek out opinions from the rest of the Byers-Hopper clan, knowing their answers will range from extremely biased to not biased at all, but that all the answers will be truthful. He starts with Joyce, since Eleven has been wrapped up into Will, Hopper, and the Boy’s conversation.
“Hey, honey,” Joyce says. “Want some more eggnog?”
“No, thank you,” Steve says politely. “An opinion, actually.”
“Oh?” Joyce asks, raising an eyebrow, like she knows exactly what he’s going to ask.
“Jackson,” Steve says. “What do we think of him? I’ve been getting mixed answers.”
“The other kids all like him,” Joyce says slowly, as if she’s considering her words carefully. “Eleven especially, unless she’s lying to me and Hop, she’s met him a couple of times before. Discounting Mike, of course, but that kid-” She laughs breathlessly, shakes her head. “Mike’s always been protective when it comes to Will.” She says it like she knows, she knows that Mike’s in love with Will, and that confirms for Steve that it’s still true.
“And what about you?” Steve asks.
“Well,” Joyce says. “I think he’s nice. He’s polite, certainly. Always treats everyone with respect.”
“But?” Steve prompts when she doesn’t continue.
“But he’s no Mike,” she says, smiling gently at the boy in question across the room, who is now in a heated discussion with Dustin and Suzie about the benefits and setbacks of the ever-evolving internet. “Jackson picks fights, sometimes, and it doesn’t help that we can’t exactly tell him everything that happened.”
“Oh,” Steve says, nodding. He gets it. Will went through more than most of them- more than any of them, probably. He can’t share that part of his life with anyone outside of their group due to the agreement with the government, which is bound to cause tension.
“It’s okay,” Joyce says. “Will’s happy. That’s what I care about.”
She doesn’t look like she’s completely telling the truth.
Steve continues his quest to get opinions on Jackson by trailing after Hopper when he goes outside for a smoke. Eddie is also sitting outside, passing a joint back and forth with Argyle and Nancy.
“I’m not gonna say anything about that,” Hopper says, eyeing the three of them down. He doesn’t startle when Steve sneaks up behind him, just raises an eyebrow. “I thought you didn’t smoke.”
“I don’t,” Steve says. “I want to know what you think about Jackson.”
Eddie, Nancy, and Argyle all burst into laughter, like it’s the funniest thing they’ve ever heard. Steve and Hopper roll their eyes at the same time.
“Will’s my kid,” Hopper says eventually. “I don’t like anyone he dates. Jackson’s… well, his record’s clean.”
“Of course you checked that,” Eddie huffs. Hopper sends him a glare.
“His record’s clean,” Hopper repeats gruffly. “He’s no Mike. But he’ll do.”
Which is funny, Steve thinks, that both Hopper and Joyce said that. He’s sure Jonathan would, too, given the opportunity. Which leaves Eleven.
He doesn’t get a chance to talk to her alone until Christmas Eve itself, mostly due to the rush of activity that comes with having, like, seventeen people in one house. The kids remind him once again that they’re not really kids anymore, based on the fact that they keep up with Steve and the others when they’re smoking. Erica arrives on the 23rd, complaining about high school’s winter break schedule being shorter than ever. Steve is slightly amused by the fact that she takes one look at Jackson and then just doesn’t talk to him or bother to introduce herself. Maybe that should be enough of a sign, Steve thinks. It should definitely be enough of a sign when Murray arrives and does the exact same.
Still. He talks to Eleven on Christmas Eve, after she goes outside to get a breath and gives him a very pointed look that says I know you want to talk to me, come outside.
“Bathroom,” Steve says, excusing himself from the party games, and he slips out the front door after her. She’s sitting on the porch, still holding a glass of non-alcoholic cider. Eleven’s the only one out of them that doesn’t smoke or drink, Steve knows, just because she doesn’t like it. Which is an entirely valid reason, of course.
“What’s up?” she asks, turning to look at him as he sits down next to her.
“You’re usually a pretty good judge of character,” he says, and she huffs out a laugh. “What do we think of Jackson?”
“I think he is not good enough for my brother,” El says flatly. “I think he picks too many fights and does not keep his nose in his own business sometimes. I think Will could do much, much better. But he is nice to me and to my parents, and he does not laugh at me when I say funny things or ask stupid questions. And he is nice to Will, mostly. But I will not be sad when they break up.”
“When?” Steve asks, raising an eyebrow.
“You cannot tell anyone,” she says seriously. “Even Eddie.” He holds out a hand for a pinkie promise; she takes it with a smile. “Will is still in love with Mike. And Mike is in love with Will. They have both told me so. So, I think Will and Jackson will break up.”
“Good to know,” Steve says with a nod. “Thanks, kid.”
“No problem.” She smiles at him sweetly, as if she’s not about to go back to the festivities and unapologetically cheat in every single game they play.
Dinner is a splendid affair, as it always is. Everyone goes back to their own families still in Hawkins for the 25th- Jonathan and Argyle stay, of course, along with Eleven and Will and Jackson. Steve and Eddie say goodbye at the same time as Mike, Nancy, and Robin, who are heading for the Wheelers’ place. Steve notices the very long look shared between Will and Mike, and he doesn’t say anything until he and Eddie are halfway back to Chicago.
“Alright, Stevie,” Eddie says teasingly. Steve’s got one hand on the wheel and one hand holding Eddie’s. “What’s the big secret?”
“I pinkie-promised Eleven that I wouldn’t tell.”
“Let me guess. Baby Byers and Baby Wheeler are still in love and neither of them are going to do anything about it.” Steve sends him a look. “Mike told me on the 23rd. Snuck into our room and everything.” Steve sends him another, different look. “You were asleep, I wasn’t about to wake you up. It’s a good thing he didn’t wake up Buckley, she never would have shut up about it.”
Steve just laughs. He and Eddie make it home in record time. And it’s a very, very merry Christmas.
Two days before Christmas, 1991. Joyce has been cooking for four days straight. Hopper spent six hours on the roof putting up the lights, even when Eleven insisted she could do it herself. To be fair, Will also insisted he could do it, and Hopper sent Will with Lucas to buy more groceries. Max and El spent the rest of the afternoon shouting conflicting instructions to Hopper, though El was entirely prepared to catch him in case he fell on the icy roof.
Max and Lucas have been at the Byers-Hopper household for the past two weeks; first semester of junior year of college ended right around the time that the funeral for Max’s mom came around. It was a rough end to the semester, but she had Lucas and El to get her through, and now she’s got Joyce and Hopper, too. And everyone else, of course. Because they’re her family, and she loves them more than anything.
Will and Lucas get back with the groceries shortly after Hopper gets down from the roof. The whole house is lit up like a tree, and Max has to admit that it looks beautiful. Her vision is still steadily improving, and she’s more comfortable on the crutches than ever. She still uses them as an excuse sometimes, like now, when Lucas carries four bags of groceries inside and El and Will levitate the rest of them. No nosebleeds in sight.
There’s no Jackson this year. He and Will broke up right after Thanksgiving. It was a very big fight, apparently. Will has only told Eleven and Jonathan the details, and El just told Max and Lucas not to bring it up. So she didn’t, but she knows someone’s going to, and that someone is probably going to be Mike.
Speak of the devil. They’ve just finished unloading the groceries when a large minivan pulls up, and Max grins and makes her way outside as fast as she can as several people immediately unload, all of them chattering at the top of their lungs.
“Max!” Dustin cries, running to catch her in a hug. Suzie and Mike are right behind him, colliding into them. Lucas, El, and Will rush outside to meet the rest of them- Nancy, Robin, Jonathan, Argyle, Steve, and Eddie. That’s definitely too many people for the car, Max thinks, but she’s too distracted by her friends to really care about the legalities of it all.
There’s a lot of shrieking and a lot of hugs, and Max is honored to be one of the only ones to catch the way that Mike runs right up to Will, hesitates for a moment, and then pulls him into his arms like they haven’t seen each other since last Christmas.
“You saw me, like, two days ago,” Will protests, and Max snickers a little too loudly. Mike gives her a look over Will’s shoulder, and she sends him an amused grin back.
There’s a big mess of so many people arriving at once, unloading things and claiming rooms, raiding the fridge while Joyce holds them off armed with only a wooden spoon.
“Everyone’s flights got into Indianapolis at the same time,” Eddie says to Max. “We coordinated, rented the van.”
“I was gonna say,” Max snorts. “Didn’t really look like your style.”
“Well, you know me, Big Red.” He nudges her shoulder gently with his own. “Always gotta keep ‘em on their toes. Sorry about your Mom.”
“‘S okay,” she mutters. “Knew it was coming.”
“Doesn’t make it any better.”
She gets that. Wayne went in ‘88. Complications from a heart attack. Devastating for all of them, really, since they pretty much adopted him as their collective uncle.
“Thanks,” she says quietly, and Eddie smiles. Then he jerks his head toward Will and Mike, who are whispering to each other and glancing at the fridge mischievously.
“Think something’s gonna happen? I noticed the Boy isn’t here.”
“The Boy?”
“That’s what Steve called him. Thought it was funnier. Made it seem less permanent for all of us who thought they were endgame, you know?”
“I think they are,” Max says, because she really, genuinely does. Just like she thinks her and Lucas and El, no matter how much they’ve fought in the past, are It. “Endgame, I mean. Look at them.”
“Yeah,” Eddie hums. “You’re probably right.”
“Boys!” Joyce yells as Will and Mike make a go for the fridge. “Get out of there!”
Max locks eyes with Lucas across the room, both of them laughing silently.
The rest of the day passes in a blur, though it’s slowed down by the time night rolls around. Max makes her way outside for a smoke, a bad habit she picked up at college that she’s been trying to kick for the past several months, since El and Lucas both hate it. She’s almost entirely surprised when Mike follows her, gesturing for the cigarette.
“It’ll kill you, or something,” she says, and Mike snorts.
“I get a pass,” he says, and she doesn’t ask why. She just watches as he takes a long drag, splutters for a moment, and then regains his composure. “Will and Jackson broke up.”
“I know,” Max says. “It was, like, a month ago. And I live with his sister.”
Mike makes a noise in the back of his throat, like she’s not getting it. She does get it- she just needs to hear it come out of his mouth. Contrary to what the rest of their family might think, she and Mike get along. Sure, they bicker a lot, but that’s because he’s like a brother to her. Really and truly.
“I just mean-” Mike says, then stops, then makes another noise. “He won’t tell me why. And- you know I never liked Jackson.”
“Really?” Max says, as sarcastically as she can. “I had no idea.”
Mike glares at her. “I’m trying to open up to you here, Max.”
“Sorry. Sorry.” She offers a slightly forced smile as a truce. Mike huffs and passes her back her cigarette. She crushes it under her boot before she can think twice about it. “You never liked him.”
“No,” Mike says. “Cause last- last Christmas you said they were good for each other. So after Christmas I tried really hard to like him, cause he makes Will happy. Made Will happy. But then he wasn’t making Will so happy at the end, considering-” He cuts himself off with a huff. “Will and I live together,” he says when he starts again. Max knows this. Everyone knows this. She just nods. “And I was in the apartment when they broke up. Like, I mean- not during the whole fight they had. But I got home right when Will said we’re done, and it was because Jackson raised a hand and he looked like he was gonna hit Will.”
Max sees red, for a brief moment. “I’m gonna kill him,” she mutters. “I’m gonna track him down and kill him-”
“I already tried,” Mike huffs with a laugh. “So did Will, actually. I walked in right when it happened and Will didn’t even flinch, he just said we’re done, get the fuck out and Jackson tried to argue and Will fucking- Will stood his goddamn ground, and then they were screaming and I figured I shouldn’t be there but I couldn’t leave and I couldn’t make sense of half of what they were saying. But eventually I just grabbed Jackson by the collar and told him to get out of my apartment, and he did. And Will wouldn’t tell me what started the fight, but we had ice cream and watched movies all night and honestly? He’s happier now than I ever saw him with Jackson. So that doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
Mike takes a deep breath and looks longingly at the embers of the cigarette. “It does make sense,” he admits eventually.
“Why, cause he’s in love with you?” Max asks.
“Yeah,” Mike says quietly. “And I mean- I’m in love with him too. Obviously.”
“Obviously,” Max agrees. “But I don’t think he knows that.”
“You don’t?”
“You remember when he came out to us? How terrified he was?”
“Yeah,” Mike says quietly. “He was so scared that, like, three of us came out immediately after.”
“I think it’s like that,” Max says. “He’s too caught up in how scared he is that we’ll reject him that he refuses to see that we’re all here for him.”
“So what do I do?”
“Show him,” Max shrugs. The back door opens; El has exited the house. She comes over and wraps her arms around Max’s waist, leans a head against her shoulder, and Max smiles down at her. El grins, then turns to Mike.
“Will is asking about you,” she says, and Mike melts a little bit.
“Okay,” he says. Then, “I’m gonna ask Jonathan. And Mrs. Byers and Hopper, definitely. But-”
“Yes, you can date my brother,” El says, rolling her eyes, and Mike’s grin makes the whole night totally worth it.
It doesn’t happen right away. Mike and Will are sharing a room with Dustin and Suzie, on an air mattress on the ground. Max, Lucas, and El are down the hall, all piled in one bed. Max wakes up sandwiched in between them and manages to slip out to use the bathroom just in time to catch Will sneaking out of his room, red in the face.
“You okay?” she asks. The bathroom can wait.
“Mike was cuddling ,” Will hisses.
“So?” she asks, because Mike and Will cuddling is not necessarily something that’s uncommon. Will makes a strangled noise at her and disappears downstairs. Max rolls her eyes fondly.
The entire day of Christmas Eve is spent in a ruckus of outdoor activity. It snowed the night before, the fluffy kind that’s perfect for packing and dumping down the backs of your unsuspecting friends. Eddie and Robin start a snowball fight that turns into a snowball war. El and Will are pitted against each other, and they’re mostly just targeting each other, lobbing snowball after snowball with nothing but their minds. The rest of them focus on building forts and castles to hide behind. Erica leads Max’s team, barking orders and trying to get them a victory, while the other team is a mess of screaming under Murray’s direction. (The other team, somehow, is winning.)
When they’re done and red in the face from the cold and the exertion, they all trek back inside, intent on cleaning up before they eat. Lucas sticks his freezing cold hands up Max’s shirt, and she shrieks at him and tries to bat him away. He grins and then picks her up, and she laughs as he swings her around.
She absolutely does not miss the way Mike watches this, then thoughtfully looks at Will.
They eat dinner, which is absolutely spectacular as always. They’re all going to other families tomorrow- Max and El are going with Lucas and Erica to their parents’ place for lunch and gifts, and she knows pretty much everyone else is splitting off, too. She thinks Will is going with Robin to the Wheelers’ and Jonathan and Argyle are flying back out to California, so that Joyce and Hopper can have Christmas to themselves.
That night, however, Max sneaks out of her room to find Joyce and thank her (she can hear her and Hopper and Murray downstairs, talking about the merits of going to Alaska in the New Year and visiting their Russian friends) when she nearly collides into Will, who’s also sneaking out of his room, once again.
“What are you doing?” he hisses.
“Looking for your mom,” she says. “What are you doing?”
“I don’t know,” Will says, faltering for a second. Max glances around, then sits down in the middle of the hallway. Will huffs and sits down next to her.
“El said I shouldn’t ask you about it,” she says slowly, and Will freezes. “But Mike told me what he saw. I just- I wanted to make sure you’re safe.” He relaxes, reaches out and takes her hand.
“I’m safe,” he says. “He’s never- he never did that before. Raised a hand, I mean. That was the first time, and that’s when I knew it really had to be done.”
“Mike wanted to know why you broke up. I told him he’s being an idiot and that you’ll tell him when you’re ready.” Which, okay, that’s not exactly what she said. But that’s basically what she said.
“Yeah,” Will says. “It’s- I mean- everyone knows I’ve been in love with him for, like, forever. So.”
“You should tell him,” Max shrugs. “It worked for me.”
Which is true. She said to Lucas hey, I think I’m in love with Eleven, but I’m also in love with you, and she got really lucky that her boyfriend is so accepting and said okay, and then she said hey I’m in love with you to El, and El said okay, and somewhere in there El and Lucas starting dating, too, and now they’re happy. She says as much to Will.
“Seriously?” Will says.
“Yeah,” Max nods. “That’s how we got together.”
“Damn,” Will laughs, then sobers up. “It’s still scary, though.”
“I know,” Max agrees. “It’s terrifying. I don’t think love will ever stop being terrifying.”
They’re both silent, for a long time.
“Thank you,” Will says eventually.
“Of course,” Max says, and she leans her head on his shoulder. He huffs out a laugh.
“Let’s go find my mom,” he says, turning to help her up, and Max thinks, ultimately, this was a very successful Christmas.
Joyce isn’t sure what to say when Will calls her and asks if he can bring his new boyfriend to dinner. Well, she knows what she wants to say- please tell me it’s Mike, please just date Mike, I know you love him and dating someone else isn’t going to change that - but she absolutely cannot say that. So she just says yes and plans to feed another mouth.
It’s 1992 and God, she needs a smoke. She and Hopper both quit for their New Years’ resolutions and they’ve made it almost the entire year, which is really, really impressive. Now they just have the rest of their lives, and all that.
“Will’s bringing his boyfriend,” she says to Hopper when she gets off the phone. He raises one eyebrow. “I know. Don’t give me that look.”
She calls Jonathan and asks if he knows anything, and Jonathan says no. So she tries El, and Steve, and Robin. None of them know anything, either. She just sighs and resigns herself to it being a mystery for the next week.
She and Hopper decorate the house before the kids arrive, this year. She wants to wait for El or Will to make sure that Hopper doesn’t fall, but he insists that it’s perfectly fine. Murray comes over, anyways, and shouts at Hopper whenever he thinks Hopper’s about to slip.
Slowly, over the course of the week, the kids begin trickling in, filling up the bedrooms with their stuff and filling up the rest of the house with their laughter. Joyce has never been happier than these Christmas holidays, when her entire family is under one roof.
Will and Mike are the last to arrive; Mike had an exam during the final period, so they’re driving down from New York late at night, probably with Will’s boyfriend in tow. Joyce finds herself getting nervous the closer it gets to the time they’re supposed to arrive, and when the door finally opens with Will yelling “We’re here!” she all but runs to the door.
It’s just the two of them, though. Just Will and Mike. They’ve each got a duffel bag, and they’re holding hands, and Joyce knows instantly. If it wasn’t the linked fingers, it would be the massive grins they’re both sporting.
“Oh, boys!” she cries, and she rushes forward and pulls them both into the biggest hug she can. “How long?” she whispers, and she pulls back as the rest of the clan comes running around the corner from the living room.
“Three months,” Mike says proudly, wrapping an arm around Will and then hugging her again. “I asked Hop for permission. Jonathan, too.”
“Permission for what?” El asks loudly, a twinkle in her eyes. If they were trying to keep it a secret, they certainly aren’t anymore.
“Permission to date my son,” Hopper says, just as loudly, ruffling El’s hair. Will and Mike both go red as everyone starts screaming, asking questions, demanding answers.
“Yes!” Will yells eventually, and everyone goes quiet because of how rarely Will yells. He’s still grinning, though, and Joyce has to resist the urge to pull him into her arms again. “Mike and I are dating.”
There’s another huge clamor, and they’re dragged into the living room and asked to recount what happened, but they both keep their lips tightly sealed.
“Who confessed first?” Murray asks, and Joyce knows there’s a betting pool that she’s not involved in, but she thinks Eleven and Hopper both are.
“Not telling,” Will and Mike says in unison, and then they turn and grin at each other. Dustin and Max, together, fake-gag.
Joyce knows she’ll get it out of one of them eventually. The whole story, and all that. Her boys can’t keep secrets from her (except, she thinks, as Hopper and Jonathan are not surprised, maybe her boys can keep secrets from her. Just not for long).
But for now, Will and Mike are holding hands, and everyone is smiling and laughing, and it’s Christmas and the whole family is together, and to Joyce- well, that’s the only thing that matters.