Without their kids for a night, Joyce and Jim found they could enjoy themselves without worrying about the next monstrous creature fucking shit up for once. It had been a quiet year and a half, although they were all still on edge about it. So tonight, they weren't even going to think about it. "Hop, you're my best friend, you know that?" she asked him.
"And you're mine," he replied back, flashing her a grin.
"Which is nice," Joyce acknowledged, nervously. Was she going to have to be the one who made the first move? She wouldn't mind but she had been hoping all this time that he'd do it so she could stop freaking out about the future and what it held.
Jim narrowed his eyes at her. "What's going on with you?" he asked, hoping the next apocalypse wasn't around the corner - always a possibility in Hawkins.
Nervous, she opened her mouth only to stutter a few times before giving up. Joyce took a deep breath and started pulling herself together. "Fuck it," she muttered underneath her breath.
Frowning in confusion, he was definitely caught off guard when Joyce wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. He moaned into the kiss, very happy (but surprised) that this was finally happening. "Wow," he murmured in a daze when she finally pulled away.
"Wow," Joyce echoed.
"You want to do that again?" he asked her less than five seconds later.
"Fuck yes," she answered and laughed when Jim picked her up and started kissing her again.
"I love you, Joyce Byers. Always have, always will," Jim admitted once he set her down on the ground.
She giggled. "I love you too, Hop." God, could something actually be going right in their lives for once? That didn't happen very often.
They had many more firsts ahead of them and neither could wait to share their lives together.