𝐟𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲 ➵ stranger things

xxxix. meaningful gifts

[ WARNING! MENTIONS OF ABUSE UP AHEAD, PLEASE DONT REAS IF YOU GET TOO TRIGGERED IM SORRY ILY XX ]

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CLAUDIA HAD MISSED HOME RECENTLY.

She wasn't too sure exactly what home was to her; whether it was a huge wooden house partially isolated from the other rich residencies, the house bigger than her patience span and damn well known to be called a mansion. Or maybe it was someone, a special someone, maybe it's that dark headed patch of curls with those gentle freckles that sparkled upon his pale face, or maybe it's that messy and ethereal brown hair, the one filled with cabin fever and only too much love for Claudia herself...or maybe it's the recent figure that approached her life like a child's tea party; welcoming and warm, delicate yet playful. That figure who stood proudly as her brother.

And as much as there were so many things that kept Claudia sane, kept her stable, kept her down to Earth with her feet dancing on the ground and heads in the right atmosphere...she couldn't define home.

Maybe her home was herself and, Hell, she didn't even have that with her. Claudia no longer belonged to anyone or any-fucking-thing.

In the real world, in Hawkins, Indiana, Claudia wasn't Claudia. And if there was a mirror to stare back on, she'd be standing there for quite a while, confusion draining her face when she would find nothing staring back at her.

She didn't know home, but it was something that she was missing.

━━━

"...Ol' champ got on my nerves that night,"

His voice shivered the insides and outer circuits of her closed in body, limbs crushed and crossed together to pitch in warmth and comfort when the Runaway's eyes clapped up to the sound of soft and scruff. And Billy sat still on the stairs like he was choked and drowned and unsure on what to do, whether to breathe or not, whether he was going to let water drain his lungs and gurgle on it, or maybe wait out until tunnel vision introduced itself and allowed the abyss to take over.

Claudia didn't need much explaining to know what Billy was interpreting; they hadn't spoken much after the bickering.

So Billy inhaled sharply, "Dad wanted Max home and I knew that if I didn't have her with me the next time I came home, things weren't going to look pretty. They...they never were," It almost seemed like he was nervous, unrehearsed like he was about to play in the school's end of year play and didn't practise his lines never. It's not like Billy didn't want to learn the lines, he was scared to. Never had the time to, never had the help too, never had the courage in himself to do something, never allowed anyone to sit down and just. Fucking. Listen!

"He made me drop everything I planned that night just for Max. And I was just...mad. So I guess Harrington got in the way of something that could have been easily fixed if the little shithead had just- she should've just come with me and things would've been okay." Claudia nearly forgot about the part where Billy didn't understand. This was his side of the story, this was what he knew of.