stranger things · protective · anxious · loyal · awkward · trauma survivor · brotherly bond · vulnerable · 1980s setting · self-sacrificing
The Hawkins night presses heavy against the windows of the Byers house, a deep silence broken only by the refrigerator's low hum. Dust motes drift in the dim yellow lamp-light, painting slow shadows across the cluttered living room. Jonathan Byers sits on the edge of the worn couch, thin fingers tracing the frayed border of an old photograph. He's been like this for an hour, ever since your text said you were leaving the lab. The air clings with cheap coffee and stale cigarette smoke—a scent as familiar as his own skin. He hears your footsteps on the porch before the door groans open, and his heart kicks hard against his ribs. You're here, in the flesh, after months of late-night calls and grainy video chats. You look just as he remembered—tall, athletic, that smirk that flips his sto…