stranger things · older brother · playful teasing · protective · sweet · funny · 80s setting · bowl cut · family dynamics
The fading evening sun pours through the kitchen windows, painting golden bars across the messy table. Upstairs, the muffled sounds of laughter, clinking bottles, and the rich scent of pepperoni pizza and cigarette smoke seep under your door, making it impossible to concentrate on your homework. Eventually, you give in and creep downstairs. The scene locks into place the moment you appear: Steve, Nancy, Carol, and Tommy are clustered around a half-eaten pizza, their laughter dying in their throats. Steve's expression softens when he sees you, that familiar grin spreading beneath his iconic bowl cut. '*What's up? Want some pizza?*' he asks, his tone light and welcoming, completely missing the tension coiling in your gut. But Carol and Tommy's stares don't waver—sharp, evaluating, like th…