WARNING: DO NOT ENGAGE [stranger things] [1/2]

XXIX - Soldier

"Head in the dust, feet in the fire

Labour on that midnight wire

Listening for that angel choir

You got nowhere to run"

•  

"I'm totally not high enough for this." Rosemary said, hitting trees with the discarded branch she had picked up.

"You're not high at all." Nancy pointed out from a few paces ahead.

"My point exactly, Princess." Rosemary hummed, hitting the next tree a little too hard. The branch snapped, one half nearly whacking Jonathan. Unfortunately, he dodged it. "Oops." Rosemary said, smiling innocently at him (and we all know her innocent smiles are very much sinister). He rolled his eyes and continued walking, picking up his pace slightly to go a few paces behind Nancy. Rosemarys smile fell and she scowled, beginning to walk again.

"You never said what I was saying, Jonathan." Nancy spoke up, oblivious to her brooding friend.

"What?" He asked nervously.

"You said I was saying something and that's why you took my picture." Nancy elaborated. Jonathan fell into step beside Nancy now, Rosemary eavesdropping as she kicked leaves behind them. "Oh, uh..." He shifted his shoulders uncomfortably. "I don't know." Fascinating. "I guess.... I saw this girl, you know, trying to be someone else." Rosemary scoffed, rolling her eyes. Nancy would not fall for his attempt at sweet-talking himself out of it, she was sure. "But for that moment.... it was like you were alone.... or you thought you were. And, you know, you could just be yourself."

"This is you, Nine, the real you -"

"Dangerous?"

"Powerful."

"That is..." Nancy began, and Rosemary tilted her head to the side at the girls tone. "Such bullshit." Jonathan stopped walking, stammering out a "what?" which made Rosemary snigger as she continued to Nancys side. Nancy stopped walking as well, turning to Jonathan and speaking very matter-of-factly.  "I am not trying to be someone else. Just because I'm dating Steve and you don't like him-"

"You know what, forget it." Jonathan said, walking past them both. "I just thought it was a good picture."

"He's actually a good guy." Nancy defended, following after him with Rosemary matching her speed.

"He's an okay guy." Rosemary corrected, earning a slightly dirty look from her friend. "Oh, you're so cute when you're mad." She cooed. "But yeah, sure. Steve, good guy."

"Okay!" Jonathan snapped at them.

"Yesterday, with he camera-" Nancy continued. "He's not like that at all."

"Yes he is." Rosemary interrupted again. "It wasn't him being a bad person, though. It was him being protective."

"Yeah, that's one word for it." Jonathan scoffed, which nearly immediately made Rosemary turn even more defensive. She rolled her eyes as she followed a step behind him. "Oh, so you being a pervert was okay?" She asked. Nancy, for once, did not step in to stop her friend.

"No, I-I never said that!" Jonathan shook his head. 

"He had every right to be pissed-" Nancy cut in again.

"Okay, all right." Jonathan snapped. "Does that mean I have to like him?"

"No-"

"Listen, don't take it personally, okay?" Jonathan leaned a little too close to Nancy for comfort, nibbling at Rosemarys protective instincts slightly as she put her foot between them. He stepped back slightly. "I don't like most people. He's in the vast majority." Rosemary huffed a laugh, about to make a snide comment as he turned away before Nancy interrupted her.

"You know, I was actually starting to think you might be okay." She said, shaking her head.

"I wasn't." Rosemary shrugged. "Perv with an attitude isn't high on my list of people to befriend."

"Yeah, well, I was thinking - "Jonathan Byers, maybe he's not the pretentious creep everyone says he is"." Nancy elaborated.

"Yeah, well I was just starting to think you were okay." Jonathan shot back to Nancy. "I was thinking, "Nancy Wheeler, she's not just another suburban girl who thinks she's rebelling by doing exactly what every other suburban girl does. Until that time passes, and they end up marrying some boring one-time jock, who now works sales, and they live out a perfectly boring life at the end of a cul-de-sac. Exactly like their parents, who they thought were so depressing, but now, hey, they get it"." He scoffed after his rant, and looked from Nancy to Rosemary, whos nails were digging into her palms. She ignored the slight ringing in her ears, forcing away the pricking on her skin. "And you've always been the runaway with anger issues. That's never changed. Probably never will."

"You wanna see anger issues, Byers? Because we've hardly scratched the surf-" She let herself trail off when Nancy hooked a hand around her elbow, Rosemary unaware she had taken a step towards Jonathan. She took a step back back towards Nancy, and started to speak again. "You don't know jack shit about me, and you never will. But I swear to god, if you ever talk to Nancy like that again, you will be in a world of hurt." Jonathan looked at her steadily a moment before scoffing and walking away from the girls. Nancy sighed, staying still a moment before muttering a 'come on' to Rosemary and following him. Rosemary sighed, looking to her cut-up palms as her fingers burned, the nails changing back.

She was terrified of how ready she was to tear him apart.

"Powerful?"

"Yes. Powerful, and strong. People will listen to us, and they will be too scared to go against your word."

"I don't want them to be scared-"

"Fear is the only way for control. Do you trust me with that?"

"...yes."

"Then we have work to do."