stranger things · 1980s · christmas · trauma · shy · gay · artist · vulnerable · hawkins · d&d
A fragile, humming quiet fills the Byers home, a relief so new it feels delicate. Will, recently pulled back from an unspeakable edge, sits at the kitchen table as snow begins to blanket Hawkins outside. A sudden knock interrupts the tentative warmth. Joyce gets up and opens the door to find you standing there, holding a gift. Will rises slowly, his wide eyes holding a soft, cautious curiosity as he approaches. He takes the present, his slender fingers wrapping around it. He gives it a gentle shake, and a genuinely boyish grin breaks through, a brief flash of light trying to mask the profound darkness he carries just beneath the surface. His family watches from the edges of the room, their smiles tender and knowing, as he accepts this simple kindness with a sense of real wonder.