Day Five: Game Night

Honestly this was a cute one to write. I wish it could have been a little longer, but I ran out of game inspo (and got down a rabbit hole about the game Twister and how it used to be called Pretzel before the company STOLE the idea from the guy who created it but I digress).

Grab a board game, make some pizza, and hang out with your family/friends (virtually, if you don't live with them!)

Set after Season 3, roughly around Christmas time. Jonathon and Nancy aren't there but that's bc there was already a lot of characters and I didn't want to have to keep them all straight (insert gay joke here). Hope you enjoy!

As always, tomorrow's prompt and fandom are at the bottom.

"I swear to god if you put down that Draw 4 that I know for a fucking FACT you have, Henderson, I will murder you in your sleep," Steve seethed, struggling already to hold up his already thick stack of Uno cards in his hands.

Dustin's grin was cheeky and evil, and with a flourish, he whipped out what was indeed a Draw 4 and held it aloft like it was the Holy Grail. "And! With this I declare! Uno," he said triumphantly, slapping the card down on the pile. "The new color is blue."

Steve threw his cards in the air and screeched his chair back from the table. "I'm out," he declared, already heading for the kitchen. "I'm getting a damn snack."

Lucas, who had been sitting on the other side of Steve, slid the top four cards of the draw pile and tossed them into Steve's mess before studying his cards. He eyed Eleven, to his right, and carefully settled a blue seven down on the top of Dustin's Draw 4. "Your move, El."

She scowled at the pile for a long moment, then back at her hands. They'd learned relatively quickly that, despite all odds betting against it, she had a shitty poker face. So it came as no shock when she huffed a sigh and grabbed another card from the draw pile, adding to her hand. It was almost as big as Steve's had been at that point even with Lucas taking it a little easier on her, since it was her first time playing.

Mike was next, set a red seven down, and then Max, with a red four. Will had to hesitate a little longer, his fingers hovering over his cards. Between him and Dustin sat only Robin, who had probably the best poker face of the whole group. She was eyeing Will with a raised eyebrow, and he looked up at her with a mirrored expression.

She nodded slowly, glancing up at Steve as he came back into the living room with a bowl of pretzels and MnM's, the tiniest hint of a smirk on her face. She nodded at Will, and he set down an easy card, a color change. "Yellow."

With a flourish, Robin smacked down a Draw 4. "Take THAT, SUCKER!"

"FUCK!" Dustin shouted, slamming his card down on the table. "No fair, I call bullshit! You and Will were TOTALLY working together!"

"Yeah, to take you the fuck out," Robin snickered. She high fived Will, who was grinning.

Mike, meanwhile, threw his cards down onto the table and cracked his neck. "Guys, this game has been going on for like an hour. Can we do something else?"

"I need JUSTICE, Mike!" Dustin protested.

"Shove your justice," Max said, setting her own cards down as well and standing up to stretch. "I'm with Mike. We need something else."

"DnD?" Will offered, looking hopeful.

"That'd take literal hours," Lucas said, standing up and reaching into Steve's snack bowl, snatching a handful of pretzels before he could smack his hand away. "Besides, Mike doesn't have a campaign ready yet. We were planning it for this weekend."

Will hummed in acknowledgment, dutifully gathering up all the scattered Uno cards. El helped, still looking mildly peeved over her hand, and Steve nodded to his hall cabinet. "Go nuts with a new game guys, I have literally everything known to mankind."

"Except Monopoly," Max reminded him.

"My parents are a monopoly," Steve said with a roll of his eyes. "Don't need anymore."

Thirty minutes later found Robin and Max stubbornly balanced on their hands and feet, right foot yellow, left foot red, right hand blue, left hand green. Max's left arm was draped over Robin's right leg, and they were both wobbling. Steve, the self-declared spinner of the group, flicked his pointer finger against the arrow. Dustin and Lucas, who had both lost in the beginning of round two after smacking heads and hitting the floor, leaned over his elbows. "Left hand red!" they shrieked in unison as the spinner stopped.

Mike, El, and Will, who had gone to grab pizza from the kitchen, stepped back in just in time to watch Robin groan and sink to the floor. "I'm not that flexible anymore," she grunted into the cheap plastic. "You win again, Max."

"Hell YEAH I do!" she whooped, bouncing up off the ground and high fiving everyone who would offer her one, Robin on the floor included. "Who's up for round three?"

"Don't really want to be kicked in the shins again," Mike said. "So pass."

Will rubbed his shoulder with a grimace. "Ditto."

Dustin had vanished as soon as Max had been declared winner, and now he came flying from the hallway, his face lit up like a Christmas tree. "Steve!"

"Henderson!" Steve mocked, handing Max the spinner to put away. "What!"

"You have indoor MINI GOLF?"

"Yeah, wh- no. No. Guys, guys, no no no."

Too late – every kid was down the hall with Dustin. Robin stepped up next to him and clapped a hand on his back. "Want me to help you move the breakables?"

"Everything in this house is fucking breakable," Steve groaned into his hands. "But yes please."

They shared a look, something that read, "When the fuck did we become the parents of this group?" and then split up to hunt down Steve's parent's valuables and lock them in the upstairs bathroom.

It took an hour, but eventually there was a full mini golf course across Steve's house. The kit only came with six putters, so he and Robin elected to stand around, eat pizza, and make sure no one broke any windows. Or mirrors. Or breakables they might have missed in their hunt. Or – yeah, they were just making sure nothing got broken. Bones included.

"Dustin steps up to the green," Dustin muttered under his breath as he walked up to the first "hole." They'd set it up in the living room, with the hole in front of the fireplace and the pillows the kids had used as buffers leading in a squiggly line around the room, under the coffee table, and widening at the end. "Dustin lines up the shot."

"Henderson. It's putt putt, not professional golf. And I swear to the Demogorgon if you hit it like it's professional golf, I will kick you out into the snow."

"Dustin flips off his asshole mom friend," Dustin said louder, flipping Steve off without looking. "He takes the shot, and-!"

He smacked the ball, watching it bounce off pillows, roll triumphantly under the coffee table, and then straight into the fireplace, completely missing the hole. "FUCK."

"Suck it, dingus, my turn," Max said with glee, shoving him aside.

Steve figured he should order another pizza. And maybe some wings. This could take all night.

"I spy…something orange," Lucas mumbled sleepily.

"Max's hair," El said immediately.

"Nope."

Dustin hummed. "Is it…the pizza sauce stain Mike got on Steve's couch?"

"I'm sorry," Mike said for probably the hundredth time.

"Dude it's fine," Steve yawned, trying not to shift too much at risk of making Max wake up from where she was curled up on his lap. "Told you, I'll just flip the cushion. Mom'll never know. Did it all the time as a teenager."

"It's not the stain."

"The streetlight outside?" Robin asked, from where she was stretched out on the floor. Her arms were tucked under her head, and there was a blanket tossed haphazardly over her lap.

"Not that either."

"Is it…is it that orange in the painting on the mantel?" Will asked between yawns.

Dead silence, as the whole (awake) group twisted to look at the mantel painting, which did indeed have a very blatant orange painted on it. "I've literally never even noticed that painting," Steve muttered.

"That's it," Lucas confirmed. "You win, dude. That's five."

"Want…you want another round?" Will asked, yawning again.

"I think you guys are gonna pass out before we get through another round," Steve said with a chuckle. He leaned back against the couch and Max grumbled into the blanket on his lap, her fingers curling in it. Dustin was pressed against his other side, warm and sleepy. "What do you say we call it lights out?"

"I got it," El mumbled.

Robin lifted her head a little, both to steal a couch pillow and to look at El where she was tucked under Mike's arm. "Your powers coming back?"

"A little bit."

She nodded at the light switch, and the lights flickered off, leaving no light save for the streetlight outside and the remaining embers of the fire they'd had going while they played Scrabble and ate ice cream.

Lucas, leaning against the couch under Max and pressed against Steve's leg, hummed. "That's awesome, dude. Hope they come back all the way."

"It's not too bad," El admitted, her voice a little thick with a pushed back yawn. "Don't mind. But it's nice…not having to get up. I'm warm."

Mike's laugh was gentle, and he tugged the blanket covering them up a little higher. "Good. Sorry again about the pizza, Steve."

"Dude, shut up."

"Thank you for game night," El whispered. "It was nice."

A soft chorus of thank you's followed her, from everyone save for Max, and Steve's cheeks warmed. "It's no big deal, guys. As long as you help me clean up before you leave tomorrow. Your parents know you're all here?"

Confirmation around the room, and Steve settled down even further. Dustin's head was growing heavy on his shoulder. "Goodnight then, dinguses."

Robin's voice, soft, permeated the room. "Goodnight, Steve."

Another choir of quiet voices bidding each other goodnight, and Steve couldn't bring himself to be annoyed by the stains and the broken things and the 75 dollars for pizza anymore. Not with kids like this.

Tomorrow's fic: Afraid of Flights, Avatar (AU)