Steve Harrington stared at the little girl in front of him, a small frown etched onto his face as he did so. It was only him and the little girl in the room, both of their parents out in the hallway conversing while Steve got left to watch the young girl and 'bond with her' as his parents had put it.

He didn't know what to think as he stared at the girl who was currently sleeping in the crib wrapped up in a small blanket. He didn't particularly like her at the moment even though she was only a baby, still unable to talk or annoy him like a regular person his age could.

No, she was five years younger than him and had only been born the week before. His parents were just really close parents with hers, so the moment his parents got the call about Y/N L/N being born, they were pulling him towards the car so that they could go visit.

Steve wouldn't admit it, but he was kind of jealous. He just didn't get how Y/N was so special and why his parents were gushing over her when they hardly paid attention to him half of the time.

"What makes you so special?" Steve softly asked as he leaned against the edge of the crib, his fist pushing against his cheek and causing his skin to scrunch up as he stared at her. He brushed his hair back with his hand and scrunched his nose up as Y/N started to move.

The baby then let out a small yawn and Steve froze. Okay, so that was kind of cute.

Steve quickly shook his head, his mop of hair moving with him as he did so. He wouldn't allow himself to have those thoughts. He wouldn't let himself break when he was trying everything in his power not to like the girl that had stolen the attention of his parents away from him.

A small coo had him looking back down at the girl and his breath hitched slightly at the sight of big e/c eyes staring up at him. A huge grin appeared on her face as she looked up at him, her arm moving in a jerking motion as she squirmed.

"I won't lie. You are kind of adorable," Steve muttered as he looked down at the girl. She let out a small coo and the corners of Steve's lips turned up ever so slightly.

He noticed that her blanket was staring to fall off and reached in to fix it, the small action causing Y/N to reach out and grab onto his thumb with her tiny hand. Steve instantly froze, his eyes flickering over to lock on the baby who was staring at him with wide eyes and a toothless grin.

Steve's heart melted in that moment and he gently moved her arm up and down by moving his thumb that she was still latched onto. "I guess you're not that bad," Steve whispered.

As if understanding what he had said, Y/N let out a small laugh that made him smile as a giddy feeling filled the five year old's body. And it was in that moment, with the little girl staring up at him, that he realized the responsibility that he had now bestowed upon himself.

Steve lovingly rubbed the soft skin of Y/N's tiny hand before whispering, "I'm Steve. You don't have a brother right now, but. . .but I can be that for you if you want? I'll love you with all my heart and take care of you. And don't worry, I'll protect you, okay?"

"I'll always protect you."

- - -

Lucas let out a small sigh as he looked around his first grade classroom, watching as the kids all went to sit by their friends, making sure to avoid his table entirely. He didn't know what he did that was so wrong, but no one ever seemed to want to talk to him or even sit at the same table as him.

Staring at his empty table, Lucas let out a sigh before reaching for the crayons and beginning to work on his drawing. He didn't even realize someone had walked up to his table before a small voice asked, "Can I sit here?"

Lucas almost fell out of his seat from the sudden noise and looked up with wide eyes to see a young girl standing there. She gave him a small smile and it was only then that he remembered she had asked him a question.

"Uh. . .sure. Yeah," Lucas smiled, happy that someone actually wanted to sit with him. He watched as she sat down, but his eyebrows furrowed in confusion once he saw her pull back the other chair as if someone were going to sit down.

The girl noticed his stare and slapped her forehead. "Silly me. I'm Y/N and this is my friend Frank," she said with a giggle. She then glanced at the empty seat before leaning closer to Lucas and whispering, "He's a bit shy."

Lucas snickered and Y/N winked at him before pulling away and grabbing a green crayon. She began coloring and started to tell Lucas her whole life story it seemed like.

Lucas didn't mind. He actually enjoyed the girl's company, finding her quite funny and entertaining with the way she moved her hands around as she spoke.

It was only when she was in the middle of telling Lucas a story about the time she broke her arm because Frank told her to try and stick a landing by jumping off a tree that her crayon broke and she fell silent.

"Shit."

The two froze at that and Lucas looked up at the girl who seemed a bit surprised that she had uttered that word. Her eyes locked with Lucas' and the two sat there for a moment before they burst into laughter, huge grins on their faces.

"I like you!" Lucas exclaimed as he pointed his crayon in her direction. He gave her a big grin before tilting his head and asking, "Want to be best friends?"

Y/N returned the smile before saying, "Sure! I was getting kind of bored of Frank anyways. He likes to eat too much candy and I don't need that or the cavities in my life." She then picked up a red crayon before glancing over at the empty seat and shrugging her shoulders.

"Sorry, Frank."

- - -

Dustin skipped out of school with a grin on his face as he headed towards his bike. It was the second week of second grade and Dustin loved it so far. He didn't have many friends except for a boy named Lucas, but he had slowly started becoming friends with two other boys named Mike and Will.

He didn't care about not having many friends. He was just happy with life and that was all that mattered.

In that moment, Dustin was most excited about getting home to show his mother the small painting he had made for her today. It was two stick figures, one being him and one being his mother, with a small blob that he had determined was his cat Mews. He was no Picasso, but his mother wouldn't care. The fact that it was coming from him was all that mattered.

Dustin could see his bike by now and his grin widened just a little as he stopped skipping and went to run towards it. However, just when he went to step forward, the force of two hands shoving him in the back had him tumbling to the ground.

His hands scrapped against the ground as he tried to catch himself and he let out a small hiss of pain as he stilled on the ground. "Ouch," Dustin muttered, pulling himself up slightly so that he could turn and see who had just pushed him.

He let out a mental groan at the sight of Troy Walsh and his friend James Dante, the two school bullies in his grade. "Better watch where you're going, Toothless. You don't want to lose more teeth, do ya?" Troy cackled, James snickering from his side.

Dustin tried to get up, but James just shoved the boy down. Dustin let out a defeated sigh and looked up at the boys from under his hat. "I've told you before. I have cleidocranial dysplasia," he muttered, his shoulders slumping slightly as he was being bullied for a condition he couldn't control.

"Those are some big words. You sure you know what they mean?" James laughed.

"You sure you do?" Dustin retorted earning glares from the boys before Troy sent a kick to his side. Dustin groaned and held onto his side while the two bullies glared at him.

"A little birdie told me you have a pretty gross trick you can do with your arm. We want you to show us, freak," Troy demanded.

Dustin went to shake his head, but James kicked him hard enough to have him falling back again. "Show us!" James exclaimed.

Dustin looked up at the boys shyly before moving his arms in a weird way so that they popped. Troy and James both winced before Troy muttered, "That was disgusting. Do it again."

"I don't want to," Dustin told them as he fixed the way his arms looked. Not that it hurt doing it, but the movement could feel uncomfortable at times.

"You really are a freak, aren't you?" Troy laughed before sending another kick at the boy's side.

Dustin groaned and hugged his body close to himself as the boys continued to taunt and kick him. All he wanted was to go home, but the fact that he had no friends meant that he had no one who would stand up for him. So all he could do was wait until the boys were done having their fun.

"Hey, assholes!" a voice exclaimed making the kicking stop for a second as all three boys turned to see a girl in a yellow dress with her hair tied back with a yellow bow standing there with a glare on her face.

Dustin recognized her almost immediately. He had seen her hanging around Lucas quite often. The girl was Y/N L/N and her and Lucas had been best friends since the previous year. He had always wanted to try and talk to her, but she was never around Lucas when he was there and the idea of talking to a girl scared him from talking to her when she was around Lucas.

By now the kids that were outside waiting on their parents to pick them up had turned their attention over to the group and the girl who had just openly cussed in front of everyone. Some children were snickering while others were wide eyed, but no one made a move to stop them.

"I'm sorry. Were you talking to us?" Troy asked, turning his attention away from Dustin to look at Y/N in disbelief.

"Well you're the only assholes here, so who else would I be talking to?" Y/N questioned. Troy and James both went to say something, but Y/N didn't even give them the time of day as she said, "Leave the boy alone."

"Who? Toothless over here?" James asked as he kicked Dustin for good measure.

"No, I don't think we will," Troy told her.

"Why? Because your life sucks so badly and you're so insecure that you have to make up for it by bullying others?" Y/N retorted, earning small snickers from the kids while Troy and James glared at her with red faces.

"Insecure? What makes you think we're insecure? If anything, you should be. I mean, with a rat face like yours who wouldn't be?" Troy laughed, James joining in, but Y/N only stared at them blankly, not fazed by them at all.

The fact that she didn't react made the boys' laughter die down and a silence fell among the front schoolyard.

"Your words don't bother me, Walsh. Yours either, Dante. Want to know why? Cause why the hell would I listen to the two of you when you can't even take any of the quizzes in class without cheating off of others. And guess what? You still manage to fail! So why would the words of two dumbasses such as yourselves bother me?" Y/N asked, her eyebrows raised as she awaited an answer.

The laughter was getting louder by now and and Troy and James were both red faced. "I don't need to explain why you're insecure because I know you both know exactly what I'm talking about. Or do you want me to tell everyone right now just how much a pussy you two really are?" Y/N asked as she took a few steps closer to the boys.

To Dustin's surprise, they stepped back.

"You bitch," James muttered.

"No, you are the bitch," Y/N whispered in a dark tone. "So why don't you two stop being bitches and head home. Your mothers will be waiting for you."

Troy and James glared at the girl, but began to walk away. "You're going to pay for this, L/N!" Troy yelled after her.

Y/N just rolled her eyes and flicked the boys off before turning away and looking to Dustin who was still on the ground. "You okay?" she asked as she walked over to the boy.

"Y-Yeah, I'm okay," Dustin said as he stared up at the girl in shock. Y/N smiled and held a hand out for the boy to take. He quickly grabbed on and she helped him into his feet before the two smiled at each other.

"That was amazing," Dustin told her. "Thank you."

"Don't let them bother you. Troy and James are idiots," Y/N said. She stared at the boy for a moment before saying, "I think I've seen you with Lucas before. Lucas is like my best friend."

"Yeah, we've hung out a couple of times," Dustin told her before he held a hand out. "I'm Dustin by the way. Dustin Henderson."

Y/N smiled and took his hand before shaking it. "Y/N," she said, "Y/N L/N."

And that was the beginning of their friendship.

- - -

"Y/N can do it!" Wheeler exclaimed causing Y/N to blink out of her thoughts she had been having to see Wheeler, Dustin, and Lucas all staring at her.

"What?" Y/N asked confused seeing as she hadn't listened to a word the boys were saying. She was too busy thinking about Will who had been missing for a couple of days now. She was really worried about him, so she had found herself drifting off into space more and more often because of how much she missed him.

"You're a girl," Dustin said causing Y/N to blink.

"Wow. Nice going, Sherlock. How long did it take for you to figure that out?" Y/N asked sarcastically earning a snort from Lucas who high fived her while Dustin looked unamused.

"What we are getting at is that because you are a girl, you can help get El ready and like do her makeup and stuff," Wheeler explained. Y/N hesitated and let her eyes flicker over to the girl who had literally appeared out of no where.

Eleven was the girl the group had met in the woods the other night. She had been wearing ratty clothes, had all of her hair shaved off, and didn't seem to know many words since all of her responses were only a couple words long.

Y/N still didn't entirely know the girl, but Eleven seemed nice enough and Y/N actually liked her. The fact that Eleven seemed to know how to help Will also made her more accepting of her as well.

"Okay, I'm going to pretend like you didn't just assume I know how to use makeup because I'm a girl. But I probably do know more than you three, so you guys figure out an outfit while I go do El's makeup," Y/N sighed.

The boys nodded and Y/N was quick to turn and take Eleven's hand before gently pulling her towards Nancy Wheeler's bedroom where she knew she would be able to find makeup of some kind.

It took a few minutes, but the two girls were eventually sitting on Nancy's bed while Y/N did Eleven's makeup. Eleven was a shy girl and didn't like to say much, so Y/N just softly hummed as she worked, pretending not to notice the way Eleven looked at her and smiling softly when Eleven tried humming the song back.

"And done!" Y/N exclaimed once she had finished up, closing the lipstick as she leaned back to look at the girl. Y/N grinned before putting the makeup down and pulling Eleven off the bed, a small laugh escaping her lips as she brought the girl over to the mirror.

Eleven froze at the sight of herself before she hesitantly reached up and poked at her face. She was silent for a minute before whispering, "Pretty?"

Y/N smiled and whispered, "You're pretty with or without the makeup, El."

Eleven smiled at that and Y/N returned it as she wrapped an arm around the girl's neck and hugged her, the two looking at their reflections. Eleven was silent again as her eyes flickered between her own reflection and Y/N's. Y/N could tell she wanted to ask something, so she didn't move as she waited for Eleven to speak.

"Friends?" Eleven finally asked, her eyes flickering to look at Y/N's through the mirror as if she were afraid to ask the question in fear of Y/N saying no.

Y/N smiled and whispered, "Even better. We're best friends." Eleven smiled, obviously liking the sound of that. She found herself wrapping an arm around Y/N and hugging her just like Y/N was doing before whispering back in confirmation.

"Best friends."

- - -

Playing D&D with only two people was quite hard and Y/N and Will didn't realize that until one afternoon when everyone else was busy. It didn't seem to bother either of them though since it only made the game that much more fun to figure out and Will really needed that at the moment.

It had been a couple of weeks since he had returned from the Upside Down and things hadn't been the same since before he had disappeared. Wheeler was depressed because of losing Eleven, so he had been kind of off the radar, wanting nothing more than to be alone. As for Lucas and Dustin, they talked to Will like they were walking on egg shells, so Will didn't hang out with them as much at the moment.

But Y/N was different. She knew how hard it was for Will to adjust after an experience like that, especially seeing as he couldn't even sleep without waking up screaming due to nightmares. Y/N knew Will would talk to her eventually, so she just decided to treat him like normal, joking and laughing around with him like the events that had taken place never happened. It helped both of them seeing as Y/N was also affected by the loss of Eleven.

Y/N treated Will like a normal human being and it was so comforting that he had been spending most of his days by her side, the two hanging out outside of school whenever the others couldn't and just enjoying being kids.

That's how they ended up where they were right now— in Will's living room playing D&D while Jonathan listened to music in his room. Lucas had had a doctor's appointment that day, Dustin had been grounded for accidentally setting his cat's tail on fire, and Wheeler had gone home, so Y/N had brought it upon herself to entertain Will by playing D&D.