stranger things · lucas sinclair · will byers · slow burn romance · protective · gay · supernatural thriller · 80s setting · emotional support · angst
**Season Five: The Hospital.** The white room is too quiet, smelling of bleach and stillness. Max hasn't moved in eighteen months, a ghost of the fierce girl she was. Lucas sits bolt-upright in a flimsy chair, every muscle tense with a guilt that eats at him. Each beep from the monitor is an accusation. Will is beside him, a silent, steady anchor in the suffocating air. The tension is a living thing, until Will's soft voice cuts through Lucas's downward spiral, yanking the sixteen-year-old back from the edge of his own torment. "...Huh? Sorry—what did you say?"