Zccming​:

This was exactly what Cole had wanted to do all day: sit by the lake holding a book, giving him the perfect excuse to disassociate without being judged. But instead, he's been all over town: helping Max break into a grocery store, getting roped into the Wheeler barbecue, and generally exhausting his already-low social battery. So he trudged through the vegetation to his favorite spot: an isolated bench just far enough away from the shoreline to be remote.

Or so he thought. A sudden burst of movement much too big to be a squirrel caused Cole to slow his steps, until he peered around the trees to see none other than Eddie Munson. Cole didn't know Eddie very well, but everyone knew about Eddie. Personally, Cole didn't believe the stories: Eddie was so not the kind of guy who could kill a cheerleader. Plus, Eddie was friendly with Max and Harrington, so he couldn't be that weird. Geeky, maybe, but not creepy.

Setting his novel aside, Cole bent down to help Eddie pick up the figurines. Fuck, why were they so small? "Yeah, I'm good," Cole said, handing over the three he'd collected. "Eddie, right? Were you leaving?" he asked, not wanting to kick Eddie out of his spot. "Hey... what are these, anyway?" Cole asked, standing up and brushing leaves off of his knees.

who : eddie munson + open !

where : the shore of lovers lake

Sometimes when he comes home he just likes to do …. this. Sit on a bench near a busy place- near, not, like, in the middle of it, ‘cause in Hawkins he’s still Eddie ‘the freak’ Munson - and people watch. Thinking about how he has miraculously made it out of this shithole, alive. Not made it all too far but he’s managed to get out of Hawkins, Indiana at all, and that amounts to something. To him it does.

So he sits there, closes his eyes for a moment and inhales deeply and - oh, yep, that’s definitely cow shit, isn’t it - just listens to the sounds that surround him. Families having picnics, teenagers sneaking away, people bathing in the sun, birds singing, twigs cracking - hold on. Eddie jolts upright. Oh, fuck this, he’s getting outta here, he’s not in the mood to get roughed up by some high school freshmen who still think he’s put some satanic DnD spell on those students that died two years ago. 

Eddie grabs his Van Halen lunchbox, jumps up, ready to make his escape as he bumps into someone - he grabs onto the backrest of the bench for balance, watches the contents of his metal box spill out onto the floor. Well, at least there’s no drugs this time. “Shit”, he curses under his breath, crouches down to collect all the little figurines he’s fucking hand-crafted for the next Hellfire campaing, “Shit, jesus, fuck.” Why did he have to make them this small? “Shit ,ah, sorry. Sorry, my bad. You - you good?”

who: Cole & @goldenboyrichards​​

where: Cole’s hospital room :’) 

Everything hurt: his head, his abdomen, his shoulder, his throat. He blinked, but his eyes were heavy and hard to open. What the fuck had happened? His head felt foggy, and his memories were short and senseless. He saw a flash of the Tunnel of Love ride, some unidentified black goo, an explosion, and... Adam looking angry. At him. Adam shoving him away, telling Cole to ‘leave him the fuck alone.’ 

Cole tried to turn onto his side, to hide his teary eyes from the door, in case anyone walked in. Only, moving was no longer simple-- he must’ve broken a rib or two, because the pain that lit up Cole’s body was almost strong enough to knock him out. “Fuck,” he exclaimed, brows knit together and stars in his eyes. If he could keep his eyes open long enough to look around, he might have seen Steve in the bed across the room or the figure entering the room and nearing his bed.

Lifting his hands to his face, Cole shielded his eyes from the fluorescent lights. “Why are the lights so fucking bright,” he grumbled to no one in particular. He was about to complain about the bed being angled too high when he locked eyes with him. 

His stomach did a backflip and Cole’s mouth dropped open. He desperately searched Adam’s eyes, trying to decipher who he was right now-- his Adam or... whatever he’d been at the carnival? 

“Hey,” he managed, after a beat of silence. Cole desperately wanted to be held, to have some confirmation that Adam was himself again, to push the memories of anyone else to the edge of his mind. 

where: blue quarry mall who: cole + robin @rcbinbvckleys

From the moment he stepped into the mall, Cole knew this night was going to be wild. Not because everyone was in the mood to party-- no, not at all-- but because everyone was uncomfortable. It made sense, everyone in the room had been affected by the fire in some way, and of course no one really wanted to be here. And if there's one thing Cole retained from high school, it's that when people are uncomfortable, they drink. A lot. Which is why Cole was offended when Harringon questioned his forethought.

After about six cups of lukewarm beer, Cole decided to venture into the crowd. The closest person to him was Robin, who he had never officially met but knew from afar. He noticed her cup was dangerously low and took it from her hand, using his head to motion towards the keg. "Here, let me top you off," he offered, his words slightly slurred.

Then, through his alcohol-infused haze, he realized how weird it was for a guy she doesn't know to take her cup and he turned towards her, splashing beer onto his shirt. "I'm Cole. A friend of Harrington's. Sorry, not trying to be weird, or like... predatory." He handed her the cup back and laughed at his stupidity. "So, how's your night going?"

byersphotography​:

Striped wallpaper - it haunted him on his way down the stairs. Flushed, he opted for the front door. It was the fastest way to his car. Jonathan’s first time back in the Wheeler residence had been … successful? He wasn’t entirely sure. Regardless, no amount of cocktail offers would make it easier to stick around any longer. His adventures down the rabbit hole of a Wheeler supply closet and heartfelt throwback in Nancy’s bedroom needed to end.

Jonathan opened the front door, reaching for his car keys as he walked towards the patio stairs. Cole’s greeting caught him off guard. As of lately, people always seemed to slap him around the shoulder. “Heey.” He said, frowning at the use of brother. Sharing a joint at the keg party was a nice gesture but it didn’t produce a cosmic bond between them. “Yeah, thanks - yeah – I uh, I guess it was.” The way Cole examined  him added tension to his already uncomfortable stance. 

This day could not get any weirder. Removing himself from Cole’s grasp, Jonathan looked at him with desperation that read – I can’t do this right now. “Are you okay?” He looked around, wondering if the guy was alone on the patio. Is Cole always drunk? It probably wasn’t ethical to leave him out here like this. Jonathan really didn’t remember much from high school - especially Cole.  “What… what are you talking about, man?”

xx.

“Was sooooo good,” Cole said with a goofy grin, using the porch’s railing to swing away from Jonathan. He stumbled over his feet but caught himself, laughing hat his lack of coordination. “Said it’s from California? Or... Colorado? No! Culver City,” he decided, nodding with finality. “Gotta go sometime, bro.”

As hard as he concentrated, Cole couldn’t decipher Jonathan’s expression. He felt like the other was trying to send him a message, but his face was blurry-- Cole wished he would just say it, whatever it was. “What?” he asked, louder than he had intended. “I’m fiiiiine. ‘S been a fun night.” Cole leaned his back against the porch railing and smiled absentmindedly into the dark. 

“Lonnie, dude, he’s my daddy too,” he laughed, like he’d just told an incredibly intelligent joke. Hearing commotion by the front door, Cole turned, hoping it was Adam finally escaping from his final round of goodbyes. He frowned when he saw it was just one of the kids-- Mike-- rushing past the door. “Looks like everyone had fun,” he commented as if to continue a casual conversation, then turned to Jonathan with a raised eyebrow. “Hey, I didn’t see you earlier? You just get here?”

Cole Through the Years (And the Songs He Listened To)

who: Cole & @willthewize​

where: the Byers’ porch!

what: brother reveal (2.0) (semi-sober version)

The day after the Wheeler’s Fourth of July barbecue Cole woke up with a pounding headache and a faint memory of a conversation with Jonathan Byers. But, he’d also woken up in Adam’s arms, and that took precedence. Still, the memory haunted him; Cole couldn’t escape the embarrassment he felt knowing that he’d been noticeably drunk when he told Jonathan they were related. Not his brightest moment. 

In truth, he’d wanted to tell Will first-- he’d even tried before, after the camping trip at the lake, but he was too nervous. Cole figured that it might be an easier pill for Will to swallow, since they weren’t close in age like he and Jonathan. He’d fully intended to tell Will right away, Jonathan’s warning to ‘be careful’ ringing in his ears and convincing him that he needed to tell Will before someone else did. But, then the explosion happened and Cole was in the hospital. 

At this point, he didn’t know what to expect, and he was certainly worse for for the wear: bruises and cuts still healing, arm in a sling, bursts of pain in his torso from the broken ribs, and the ever-present fear that something worse was going to happen. That something worse might cause him to lose Adam again. And if something worse happened and Cole died (physically or otherwise) before he got to talk to Will, he wouldn’t be able to forgive himself. 

So, he filled up his flask-- only for a few bursts of liquid courage-- and drove over to the Byers’ neighborhood. Only, he couldn’t stop in front of the house. Nervous fingers tapping on the steering wheel, Cole looped around the neighborhood once. Twice. Three times. God, he didn’t have the gas money for that, so he parked about five houses down and got out, careful not to bang his ribs or his arm on the car, and began pacing. 

About a half hour passed, accompanied by a few more swigs of the stinging liquid, and the dread didn’t go away. So Cole took a deep breath and approached the house... only to see Will sitting on the porch, sketchbook in hand. Had he seen him the whole time? An embarrassed flush gathered on Cole’s cheeks, and he wiped his good hand on his jeans to dispel the sweat that had gathered.

“Hey, man,” Cole greeted, attempting to put on a casual smile. “Got a minute? There’s something I wanna talk to you about,” the words fell out in a jumbled heap, but he was glad he’d said it. That he couldn’t escape from it this time. “I talked to Jonathan a while back and, I just... I thought I should tell you.” Cole studied his sling, picking at the fabric fraying on the edge. “Lonnie’s my dad, too.” Saying it out loud, without copious amounts of beer to numb the feeling, left Cole feeling like he’d ripped a bandaid off. He was exposed, bare, vulnerable to whatever Will’s response would be. He wished desperately that he remembered what Jonathan had said, if only to have some litmus for how this would go.

sinclairss​:

his car was kind of aa junker, but since he’d helped get the thing up and running again, he was kind of proud of it, even if lucas had to loop around the vehicle to unlock cole’s door manually with the key because the passenger side’s internal lock stuck. “oh yeah. probably.” he lifted his shoulder experimentally and tried not to wince at the white-hot surge of pain through him. he put on a brave face because that’s what he did, climbed into the driver’s seat and started up the car. hiphop crackled over the speakers and he reached over to turn down the volume, waiting until cole was safely in the car before backing up and out of there. 

at a stoplight, lucas looked over at cole and shook his head, a silent i-have-no-idea. he cleared his throat and focused back on the road as the light changed, thumb tapping out a rhythm against the steering wheel as they rolled through downtown hawkins. “all i know,” he said as the song changed on the radio. “is that one second i was over by you guys and the next i’m at the bottom of a grave.” he shrugged with his one good shoulder. a hollow chuckle followed. 

the headlights across the road were playing tricks on him. he kept seeing bill hargrove behind the wheel which was…that didn’t make any sense. right? he didn’t know what made him ask. maybe it was because he wanted to feel less insane. or maybe he just wanted to feel less alone. “did you…see anything while we were out there?”  

xx.

Cole climbed into the car, his movements slow due to the pounding of his head. He tried to watch Lucas’ face for a hint of pain, but there was nothing. Cole knew he’d fallen on his shoulder-- hard-- but he was showing no signs of pain now. In the back of his mind, Cole wondered if Lucas should even be driving, but it’s not like he was in any better condition, and given his track record with cars, Lucas probably wouldn’t want to hand over the keys.

Leaning his head back, Cole’s eyes fixed on Lucas’ hand, tapping out a beat to whatever song was in his head. How was Lucas so nonchalant right now? “It happened so fast,” Cole confirmed, unable to even remember how Lucas fell into the grave. He remembered trying to help him out and then being below himself. “Steve was being super weird, right?” Cole asked, unable to remember details of what Steve had said. 

Turning towards the driver, Cole felt a twisted sense of relief at Lucas’ question. Finally, Lucas wasn’t acting casual or unaffected. Finally, Cole knew that maybe he wasn’t crazy. He wasn’t quite ready to make a definitive statement. “Actually... yeah. It felt like a nightmare, but like, really real. My best friend died in the mall fire and I just... kept seeing what would’ve been his last moments.” Cole tried to force the image of Adam out of his mind. “Did you? See something?” 

willthewize​:

    Will returned the friendly smile as Cole called him over, raising his hand in a little wave as a greeting. “Hey! I’m not doing anything right now if you wanna hang out,” he offered. It had been a while since they’d really had a proper conversation, but he wasn’t busy and Cole was definitely a welcome presence.

     The simple mention of the camping trip as a launching point for a catch-up chat, however, caused the grin on his face to falter. Not-so-pleasant memories from the day immediately resurfaced and he offered a shrug in response. “It was okay, I guess,” he said, glancing away. He was never very good at lying. In fact, the trip was pretty uncomfortable for more than one reason, but he wasn’t about to dump all of that on someone who wasn’t involved with any of it.

    “How about you? Did you have a good time?” He met Cole’s eyes again as he returned the question and relaxed his expression back into something more open, hopeful. He would love to hear that the other guy’s night had been a lot more fun, that it involved a lot less embarrassment, confusion, panic and general unease. Somebody should have had a good time at the lake at least, because he knew nobody he’d been stuck in the cabin with had.

xx.

When Cole first found out that he and the Byers boys shared a father, it had somehow made sense to him, intuitively. He and Jonathan had never been super close despite being the same age, and neither had he and Will for the opposite reason, but Cole always felt a soft spot for the younger Byers. Maybe because Will couldn’t seem to catch a break, maybe it was simply biological. Smiling at Will’s suggestion, Cole nodded. “Sounds great. Where to? Don’t you guys usually hang at the Palace?” Cole could’ve sworn that Max had mentioned the arcade as a meeting point for the party a few times.

Cole noticed the change in Will’s expression when he brought up the camping trip and immediately felt a pang of guilt. Clearly, that was an off-limits topic for now, and Cole had hit a sore spot. Though he didn’t get the impression that Will was similar to Max in that he would react poorly to prodding, Cole didn’t feel it was his place to pry. So he let the answer go without comment, and followed Will’s diversion.

“It was okay, I guess,” he repeated, with a teasing smile. Then, leaning back against the bench, Cole decided to be a bit more honest. “It was really weird, honestly.” The last thing he wanted to do was stress Will out about something going on in Hawkins, especially given what Max had told him about Will being sort of the first one to fall victim to the alternate universe Hawkins. Following Will’s example, he diverted. “But it was nice to see everyone all together. Especially with all of this... commune stuff. It felt like a reunion.” 

goldenboyrichards​:

Adam braced himself, fully prepared for Cole to yell at him. He deserved it. Ever since they got serious, once Adam knew that Cole was it for him, they had planned on running away together. Hawkins was too small to contain a relationship like theirs - they deserved to go somewhere where no one knew them, where no one could judge them for being together. And Adam just left him. Regardless of how Adam came to be in that commune, whether it was his intention or not, he still left Cole behind. 

But the yelling never came. Instead, Cole threw himself into Adam’s arms and it felt like maybe some of those jagged pieces inside him fit again. For the first time since he’d left the woods with Jack, Adam felt like something in his life made sense. 

Adam clung to Cole, burying his own face in his curls. He’d changed shampoos at some point, but it didn’t matter. Underneath it, he still smelled like Cole. Tears were freely falling down his face now, but Adam couldn’t be bothered to wipe them away. He had no intention of letting go of Cole any time soon; not until Cole wanted him to. 

“Yeah, last time I checked,” Adam laughed wetly, crying still. “I’m so sorry.” He apologized again, holding Cole close to him. “I don’t… I don’t know what happened. They said I’ve been in some sort of commune or something?” Adam explained, shaking his head at the words. He didn’t really remember that - but what other explanation was there? “I didn’t mean to go, I don’t know why I did. None of it makes any sense. I promise I didn’t mean to leave you! I’m sorry.” 

xx.

Suddenly, unexplainably, Cole had a future again. Since Adam died, he had been aimless and drifting; obviously, he’d moved on in the literal sense-- he’d gone to college, gotten promoted, made new friends-- but he had no goals or ambition. All of his plans were tied to Adam; he would take whatever job, move to whatever state necessary just to be with him. Losing that felt like losing part of himself. More than he was confused, Cole was elated and relieved. He felt muscles unclench that must’ve been taut for the last three years. Finally, he was whole again. The closest he’d gotten for the last three years was talking about Adam with Max. 

He had so many questions: how was Adam alive? Did he remember the Mindflayer? Why did he think he’d been in a commune? But Adam’s embrace was intoxicating, the feeling of his face in Cole’s hair was bliss-- Cole didn’t want to ruin the moment with questions, because what if questioning it made Adam disappear? What if this wasn’t real?

Cole laughed, too; It was classic Adam to crack a joke at a time like this. Cole’s brows furrowed together at Adam’s apologies; he really seemed to believe the commune thing, and Cole hated seeing him so wrecked with guilt. “Adam, no... you didn’t run away. You were dead,” he said, his tone gentle. “And I don’t know how you’re back, but you are.”

Tears pricked up in Cole’s eyes again at the thought of Adam gone, but he pushed the thought aside for now. “And can we worry about the details later?” he asked, meeting Adam’s eyes and pushing hair out of his face like he always used to. Tenderly, Cole cupped Adam’s face and pressed their lips together. Somehow, every kiss with Adam felt like magic-- sloppy drunk kisses and rushed kisses in hidden corners alike felt like coming home, and now was no different. Cole leaned into the kiss, holding onto Adam like he was afraid he’d disappear if he let go. He paused, resting his forehead against Adam’s, and breathed: “I missed you so fucking much.”