"Alright, that's enough," Nancy said, coming up behind her brother and snatching the phone from him. She shoved him out of the way and lifted it to her ear. "Hi, El," she said. "Can you get Jonathan for me?"

"Yes," the girl replied. She laid the phone on the kitchen counter and walked down the hallway towards Jonathan and Will's room. Cracking the door open, she said, "Nancy is on the phone."

Immediately, the older boy was on his feet and out of his room. "Thanks, El," he said, with a quick smile.

He picked up the phone and held it close to his ear. "Nance?" he said, almost desperately. "Are you there?"

"Jonathan," replied Nancy, her chest suddenly overflowing with warmth. "Hi."

"Hi," he responded.

Nancy bit down on her lip. "Well? Tell me everything. How was the trip? How's unpacking going? Have you started school?"

"Woah there," Jonathan said, his lips twitching into a grin. The sound of her voice rang like music in his head. "I almost forgot how much you talked," he teased. Then he shrugged, looking around the bare little house. "Let's see. The trip was fine. Will was crying for about an hour. But then I put on a mixtape I made for the ride and he perked up a bit."

"And tell me about your house," she urged.

"Well, it's definitely a lot smaller than our old one, which is kind of impressive," Jonathan admitted, looking around the kitchen. "Mom's got the master bedroom, El has her own room, and Will and I are sharing for now."

"Is it nice?"

"It doesn't have a patched up hole in the wall where Mom hacked through it with an axe, or cracks in the ceiling where a demogorgon broke through, or scorch marks on the wall where we blew it into another dimension, which is all nice," he admitted. "But it also doesn't have air conditioning yet."

"Good thing it's October," Nancy said.

"Good thing," Jonathan agreed.

Nancy blew a strand of hair out of her face. "So how's school? Have you made a bunch of friends yet?"

He let out a short laugh. "Yeah, you know me. I make so many friends I don't even know what to do with them."

"Come on. You have me. You have Steve."

"Steve," Jonathan corrected. "Is not my friend. We just happen to have some...shared trauma. And besides, even if we were ever friends, do you really think he liked me at all once we got together?"

Nancy pursed her lips. "Well at least you have me."

"It took my brother going missing and a demogorgon to bring us together," said Jonathan dryly. "Look, it's fine. It's just a year here and then I'm going off to college. I don't need to get close to anybody. Everybody I really care about is either here in this house with me or back on a cul-de-sac in Hawkins, Indiana."

Wiping a tear away from her cheek, Nancy leaned her head against the wall. "Do you know when we're going to see each other again?" she asked, trying to keep her voice from breaking.

"It's Thanksgiving now, officially," Jonathan said. "My Mom said it would be fine if you and Mike came up for a few days."

"That's too far away."

"It's a month and a half," Jonathan replied with a half smile. "And then we're coming back to stay for all of Christmas break. And I'll call you every Wednesday and Sunday. Like we agreed, remember?"

Nancy nodded, then quickly remembered that he couldn't see her. "Yeah," she said. "Yeah, that's good." All of a sudden, though, a thought struck her. "Hey, Jonathan," she said, "how long did you say the drive was?"

"About six and a half hours," he estimated, "depending on how bad traffic is. Why, what were you thinking?"

A sly grin slid onto her face. "On a Friday," she said, "after school. We could drive to a central location and spend the weekend together. Just you and me. We could drive back Sunday afternoon and be home by dinner."

For a moment, Jonathan didn't answer. There was a stunned silence as he seemed to try and take it all in. Nancy herself was a little shocked by the suggestion.

"Nance, that's…" Jonathan stammered, "I mean, it's insane. What would we tell our parents? Where would we stay?"

Nancy's face fell. "That's OK," she said, dejected. "We don't have to do it. It was just an idea I had. I guess I'll just wait until Thanksgiving."

"Hey," Jonathan said, a hint of humor in his voice. "Did I ever say I didn't want to do it?" He let out a short, choppy laugh. "I mean, it'll be hard. I don't know if my mom will approve."

"I know my parents won't approve," Nancy interjected. "I'll just tell them I'm at a friend's house. Or something."

"Yeah, it'll be 'or something' for me," Jonathan muttered. "But it's fine, I'll figure it out. We've done crazier, stupider things than this before."

"A lot crazier," Nancy agreed.

There was comfortable stretch of silence. Nancy listened to the familiar ins and outs of Jonathan's breathing. She wanted nothing more than to somehow be at his side at that exact moment and run her hands through his hair. If she closed her eyes and concentrated hard, she could almost feel his arms around her.

"I'll talk to you on Sunday, then," she said finally.

Jonathan let a long breath out of his nose. "I love you, Nancy."

"I love you, too," she replied wistfully.

There was a click, and the line went silent. She stared at the phone in her hands, wishing it could somehow transport her to Michigan.

"So you're going to sneak out of the house?" came a voice from behind her. She turned quickly, letting out a sigh of relief when she realized it wasn't either of her parents.

"Mike, you little shit," she growled, storming up to him and grabbing his shirt collar. "I didn't listen in when you were pouring your heart out to El, okay? Why the hell were you eavesdropping on us?"

He wrenched out of his sister's grip. "I heard you talking about Thanksgiving and Christmas," he said, "and I wanted to know the details. It wasn't my fault you have no survival instincts and couldn't hear me."

"I swear, if you breathe one word of this to Mom or Dad," she hissed, "I'll kill you. I will cold blooded murder you. Got it?"

Mike nodded silently, though appeared pensive. "Can you take me with you?" he asked. "And can you tell Jonathan to bring El?"

"What? No. Absolutely not," Nancy said incredulously. "Mom and Dad would find out. It's risky enough that we're going on our own. Who knows what would happen if we added you and El to the mix?"

Mike glared at her. "Well who knows what would happen if I accidentally let it slip that you were planning to sneak away and spend two nights with your boyfriend. Do they even know you guys have slept together?"

Immediately, Nancy's face was bright red. "How do you even know about that?" she asked sharply.

"Please, Nance," Mike said dryly. "I know you're good friends with Stacey, but spending three nights a week at her place? Unrealistic. And also Will told me he heard you in Jonathan's bedroom one morning."

Crossing her arms, Nancy spat, "So you're just going to blackmail me? Into letting you see your girlfriend?"

Mike shrugged. "That's the way it seems like to me," he said with a smirk.

"You are such a douchebag," Nancy groaned. "Fine. I'll talk to Jonathan about it on Sunday. If we even go through with this whole thing. You can tell her you're at Dustin's or Lucas's or something."

"Yes," Mike exclaimed, pumping his fist in the air. "Thanks, Nance. I take back what I said about you being the worst sister in the world."

"Thanks so much," Nancy replied, sarcasm dripping from her voice. "That means the world to me."

0

0

0

AHHH I LOVE NANCY AND JONATHAN. They were my favorites. I was so mad when i went online and found out that they were snubbed of their recognition by the fandom. they both deserve the entire world. BUT I also LOVE LOVE Nancy and Mike's relationship! They're very similar to me and my own little brother. I'm excited to do more of that sibling dynamic! AND I'm pumped to see how Jonathan and El interact with each other, since we didn't see any of it in the show.