𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬¹ | steve h.

002.

"don't forget to rinse," he reminds her while walking back out. when he steps back into the hallway, his mom had just walked out will's room and is making her way back to the kitchen.

"will came home last night, right?"

"h–he's not in his room?" jonathan busies himself with the eggs cooking on the stove.

"did he come home or not?" joyce asks with a more stern and stressed tone. jonathan looks down sheepishly at the eggs.

"i don't know."

"you don't know?"

jonathan hesitates, but he answers with shaking his head.

"no. i got home late. i was working," he mumbles.

"you were working?" joyce scoffs.

"eric asked if i could cover his shift. i said yeah. i thought we could use the extra cash," jonathan admitted. somewhat truthfully. he did also spend his night making the stranger he let in his house feel at home in the shed and tried to pry information out of her as to where she came from.

when jonathan said he'd grab more pillows from his room for the noirette to rest on, he returned to her already passed out on the hard ground.

"jonathan, we talked about this..." joyce groans. he softly rolled his eyes.

"i know.."

"you can't take shifts while i'm working," she reminds him.

"mom, it's not a big deal. look, he was at the wheelers' all day. maybe he just stayed over," jonathan suggests with a shrug as he continues cooking.

joyce glares at her son and clicks her tongue. "i can't believe you." joyce paces to the phone. "i can't believe you sometimes."

˚⁎⁺˳✧༚

the girl spent the rest of her morning toying with gadgets and objects she found in the shed. yes, there was this crawling fear in the back of her mind that tugged her memory of will byers disappearing without leaving. but there was this lingering feeling that he wasn't...gone. she felt his presence in the room she lays in.

it's daytime and no one is inside jonathan's home. perhaps she can go in the house and find something to eat, but the noirette feels that would be more of an intrusion she has already done enough of.

sighing, she shifts positions to lay on the other side of her body. her eyes land on a blue book perched on the top of a box. it was a children's book, and it was very old. as she sits up, grabs it, and opens it, some edges of the pages are found to be torn and worn out. still, nine was curious with the content inside.

the girl barely knew how to read and write. this was a children's book, however, and it did its purpose on nine. her first full day out of the labs, and she's already learning.

in this book, the main character was asking people to tell them their name.

nine didn't know her own name.

the main character asked every person they knew in. their mom. their dad. their brother. their neighbor. their friend... nine didn't have any of those to ask.