Will And Cole Weren't Exactly Close, Despite Being Half-brothers. Not That Will Was Aware Of That...

elevcnhops​:

xx

A dark and secluded area, Eleven hiding within the darkness. This whole night had been nothing short than a disaster. Mike’s rejection stinging more than she cared to admit, it was the first time things felt.. aggressive between the childhood sweethearts. Now, she was alone and rethinking this stupid decision to come along. Maybe it was the normalcy of it all. Her first time camping and pitching a tent all on her own was somehow refreshing in a way. Sure, she inquired for help with the poles of the tent, but otherwise, she felt confident that Hop would be nothing short of proud.

After cleaning herself off in the lake, trying to scrub off the experience of having to kiss another. Another that was not Mike Wheeler. Shaking that thought with another sigh, desperate and planning an escape back into the woods. But she was so very welcome for Cole’s sudden appearance.  Gently lifting her hand to return his wave and greeting, “ Hello, Cole. “ the whisper light on her lips, masking the scowl that was recently a fixture for the night. The mention of ‘ s’mores ‘ causing her head to tilt to the side, a question now replacing her indifference. “ S’mores? “ echoing back to him, “ What is s’mores? “ without waiting for his answer, Eleven perked up. Forcefully shoving herself up into a standing position, nearing the fire and taking his offering with a hesitant grasp. Sitting next to him lightly, “ Now what? “ looking from him to the marshmallow that had been penetrated by the silver rod. Flipping it around in her grasp, prodding at the soft sugar treat with her fingers. 

“ Everything has changed. “ the whisper was so sudden upon her lips that she wasn’t sure Cole actually heard it. 

xx.

Grateful for something other than the ‘lake incident’ to focus on, Cole’s eyes lit up at El’s question. “Oh, you’re going to love S’more’s.” He enthusiastically stood up and took his own skewered marshmallow in one hand. “First, we have to melt the marshmallow. Some people like it extra burnt-- like me-- but it’s up to you.” Cole stuck his marshmallow into the middle of the fire, welcoming the warmth of the flames licking so close to his outstretched arm. 

He pulled the iron back suddenly when his marshmallow caught on fire. “I always do this,” he groaned as he blew it out. The half that wasn’t charcoal was the exact type of gooey he liked. “Then, once you’re satisfied, we take the graham cracker and chocolate like so,” he demonstrated, taking the graham cracker chocolate combination he’d prepped and using them to pull the marshmallow off of the iron’s end. “Et voila! C’est magnifique,” he exclaimed, taking a bite of the sticky dessert. 

At the least opportune time, she spoke up. Cole attempted to gulp down the comically large bite he’d taken to answer her. “What do you mean?” his words were slightly muffled, and he attempted to swipe the stickiness off of his face.

jackforeman​:

Jack matched Cole’s laugh, and it was almost a relief to be able to just laugh about the whole thing, about going missing for years. It wasn’t funny, no, but there wasn’t much more he could do than laugh about it when there weren’t answers lying around waiting for him to find.·“Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t think I would really know how to react if one of my sisters went missing for that long, either.”

He nodded at Cole’s question.·“I walked out of the woods with Adam, we woke up together, and it was so weird. I figured if we had just woken up after a party or something that someone’s car would be there, or that it would be more than just the two of us, but it wasn’t. So, we walked here, actually,” he said with a chuckle, gesturing around the store,·“and used the phone, because we didn’t want to go to the police, in case it was because we were partying in the woods or something. I need to catch up with him again, though, you know, just make sure he’s adjusting okay. I’m glad you’ve been keeping an eye on him.”

xx.

Cole was taken aback at Jack’s statement. They had walked out of the woods together? Cole wasn’t sure how it worked-- dying and coming back to life-- but how was Jack there? Adam had died, that he was sure of... but everything else made no sense. Less than no sense. “Oh....” he started, brows coming together in confusion. “I didn’t realize you were together. That’s strange.” 

Realizing he was probably acting super weird, Cole pasted on a smile at Jack’s story. It was nice, actually, to know that Adam had a friend in his first few moments back in town. A pang in his chest said that he was sad Adam hadn’t called him from the store phone, but he understood why. “I’m glad he had you,” Cole said, with a genuine smile. He nodded, “Yeah. It would be nice if you did, just because you, like, get it more than I do. Plus, his parents are starting to get sick of me, I’m sure.” 

Cole didn’t know why Joyce had called him and invited him over for dinner. Instantly, he was afraid he would be reproached for telling Jonathan and Will his news... though, Joyce had told him he could. Maybe she’d changed her mind, or maybe it had gotten back to her that he’d been in varying states of intoxication when he delivered the news. Still, he felt he owed it to her-- for her kindness-- to show up on time, in a clean shirt, with a small bouquet he’d picked up at Melvald’s. He’d had a drink or two earlier in the day, to soothe his nerves, but by the time he was walking up the all-too-familiar porch, its effects were wearing thin.

Pasting a smile on his face, Cole knocked twice. She opened the door in record speed, and held out her arms for him. Cole obliged, giving her a loose hug, and then held out the arrangement of baby’s breath and peonies he’d picked up, like a peace offering. “Hi, thanks for having me--” he hesitated, unsure what to call her. Mrs. Byers felt too formal, Joyce felt too casual. “I’m doing a lot better,” Cole said, shaking his now cast-free arm. “Jonathan’s out. How is he?” Cole had seen him-- spoken to him, at The Hideaway the other day-- but they hadn’t exactly broached the topic of Jonathan’s physical health. 

who:  joyce  &&  @loverboymontgomery​ what: momma  joyce  checking  up  on  those  she  loves  -  her  next  victim  being  cole. where: the  byers  house

  things  might  have  been  a  little  rough  for  joyce  lately      —    between  bob  returning,  all  of  the  stuff  that  happened  on  the  4th  of  july  and  the  chaos  that  was  work  and  the  simple  stress  that  came  along  with  having  a  job,  the  one  little  constant  in  her  life  was  her  kids.  biological  and  not.  of  course  she  had  made  it  a  point  to  invite  cole  over,  food  prepared  and  everything  -  he  was  just  as  much  her  kid  as  the  rest  of  jonathan,  will  and  eleven’s  friends  were.  and  his  existence  itself  hit  too  close  to  home  for  her  for  obvious  reasons.  she  meant  what  she  said  that  moment  she  found  out  about  cole  and  his  relation  to  her  children  -  he  always  had  her.  they  were  family.

      door  opens  with  a  smile  on  her  face,  arms  extending  out  for  the  boy  with  a  warm  smile.  “how  you  doing,  honey?”

zccming​:

“yeah, and you were only able to fracture it because i saved your ass first.” max huffed. now she understood how dustin felt all the time, no credit paid where credit was due. it wasn’t like she was expecting to be met with high praises or anything, but she had been anticipating a few more thank yous and a few less lectures. cole, at least, wasn’t going to lecture her. he was only going to be whiny, like always. “i’m surprised it isn’t already healed.” max snickered, then condescendingly sympathized, “must be real bad.” then as he made fun of her request for him quiet down, she smiled mockingly at him, “it’ll be quiet enough when you shut the fuck up.” 

despite the hostile words tossed around, max shuffled over to her dresser, grabbed her baggie, and got to rolling. following the mall, she was relieved to find that things seemed to remain normal between them. there wouldn’t be anything weird from her end, but it made her quietly pleased to see cole stand by his choice to share his truth with her. in time, she’d produced a joint for them. moving mostly in silence, max laid staring at her ceiling as they passed the j back and forth until she was lost in her thoughts, the sounds of the radio, and the bugs chittering outside of her thin walls.

cole had shared with her about adam, and all max could think about was how she couldn’t stop relating it to her feelings about eleven. of course, they had skimmed the surface over the billy of it all, but this was a new, equally difficult, perspective. it was horrible of her, but that didn’t mean anything weird, did it? maybe cole would know… thoroughly baked, max distantly asked, “do you ever think about how el has like, the perfect face?” did he even know what she looked like? “or how she’s like, the perfect girl. or perfect person even. it’s… crazy.” it wasn’t exactly explicitly emotional, but in her altered state, max was holding out hope that cole might just read her mind about what she was trying to convey. “i really missed her.” with even less tact than usual thanks to the weed, max somehow brutal and awkward, prodded at cole, “how does it feel when you think about adam? like …what does missing someone…like that…feel like…to you?” then she rasped, “it’s different from…my experiences.”

xx.

“It is real bad, thanks for your sympathy,” Cole retorted sarcastically, cradling his finger in his other hand. “I can’t play the piano with this shit. What else am I supposed to do at work?” he sighed, though his eyes twinkling with laughter. Cole blew Max a kiss with his good hand, playing along. “What, did you invite me over here to sit quietly in the corner? You got a dunce cap I can wear while I’m at it?” he teased, though he wouldn’t put it past her to actually sit him in the corner with a dunce cap, for the bit.

Cole gratefully took the joint and lifted it to his lips. “Cheers,” he breathed out, releasing a cloud of smoke. He still couldn’t believe he’d come out to Max. He hadn’t regretted it-- the opposite, he felt an ongoing sense of relief-- but he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t a tad on edge, waiting for any sign that Max treated him differently. He passed the joint to her and turned onto his side, studying her face. She acted like something was on her mind.

The mystery only lasted a few seconds more, until she started going on about El. Chuckling, Cole took the joint back from her, “I hadn’t really thought about her face. She’s nice enough, but not really my type.” The two grew quiet and Cole dared not vocalize his thoughts, his suspicion that Max maybe liked El as more than a friend. Maybe he was projecting, hoping that she could relate to him in that way. Then, to his surprise, her questions all but confirmed it. He took a drag of the joint, and then another, turning his response over in his head. “Not to be dramatic, but I think it felt like... I was missing part of myself. The part that only he knew, you know?” he looked down at his hands. “It still feels like that. Like I’m a fraud, like everything I do without him is just pretending.” Cole looked back up at Max, wondering, but not wanting to pressure her. “Maybe I need a shrink.”

𝚆𝙰𝙻𝙺𝙸𝙴 𝙲𝙷𝙰𝙽𝙽𝙴𝙻 #𝟶𝟶𝟼: cole & max

MAX: yeah, your timing was shit i won't lie.

MAX: why would that be a dick move? he's still your boyfriend isn't he?

MAX: [simultaneously] don't think too much about it.

MAX: exactly.

MAX: i'll see you in an hour, loser?

COLE: not thinking about it

COLE: trying not to think about it

COLE: ... see you in an hour

COLE: am I supposed to say over?

END.

mmuscles​:

so, yes, thad was late, but he had to scour town for decent enough tools to get this repair on the road. he doubted that cole had anything that would suffice and he wasn’t gonna half ass this job, but truthfully, he didn’t think cole would notice. he pulled up to the montgomery residence, motley crue’s girls, girls girls, blaring as he put the car in park. the sound stopped when he took the key out of the ignition, grabbed the tools from his backseat, and made for the garage. of course cole commented on the fact he was late, which caused thad to place a hand on the side of his head, dragging it gently after him in a bro rough housing kind of way as he head for the garage. 

he called back as he moved to assess the damage, “are you drunk already, pretty boy?” thad wondered if cole really found him that insufferable, but quickly concluded that couldn’t be the case. he was…thad. and people loved him. he shook off the thought and began buffing feeling around the dents of the car, not entirely focused on conversation with cole, but still responding, “grab me one!” 

thad was pushing around on the crumped metal, seeing if any of the repairs could be done by hand when cole returned with the drink. gladly, he took the bottle, took a sip, but nearly spit it out as cole called adam his boyfriend. fortunately for his own pride, he swallowed the beer, then stood to meet cole at eye level, “yeah, i met him. no big deal.” he shrugged, and thad hadn’t thought it was, until now. adam wasn’t anything spectacular in thad’s eyes, but he could feel this conversation going downhill fast, so he diverted to another question, “is he really like, your boyfriend?” the idea of a guy so openly, so gently calling another guy that, well, it formed a lump in thad’s throat that he had no idea how to explain. it definitely wasn’t a bad thing, just different, in fact, thad felt kind of jealous that cole was so comfortable with the word. so, he set his beer down, and turned back to the car. 

xx.

A hint of an amused smile flashed over Cole’s face when he heard what Thad had been listening to on the way here. Motley Crue: Girls, Girls, Girls. A bit obvious, in Cole’s opinion, but for once he didn’t feel like picking a fight over something so small. That is, until Thad grabbed Cole by the side of the head. Wiggling out of his grip, Cole shot Thad a look. “Don’t mess up my hair,” he grumbled, fully knowing it was still wet and unstyled. It was the principle. 

“I’m not drunk,” he corrected, and watched as Thad inspected the car. Honestly, he was still surprised Thad even came. That was... decent of him. Since they’d met, and since Thad had kissed him, Cole’s sneaking suspicion that Thad wasn’t that bad had been on shaky ground. There were glimpses of decency, even kindness-- but Thad hid that behind whatever show he thought he was putting on. 

Cole hid his smirk behind the beer bottle, taking another swig. He didn’t tell Thad about Adam solely for his reaction, though he assumed it would be amusing. Resisting the urge to argue with him-- actually, Adam is a big deal-- Cole crossed his arms over his chest. Not helpful right now, probably. At Thad’s question, Cole was glad he’d held off. “Yeah, he is,” Cole said simply, words accompanied by the smile that always lifted Cole’s lips when he mentioned Adam. The stupid smile that he couldn’t banish even though things were so tense right now. “Since high school. He was... gone for a while, but obviously, he’s here now.” 

Pretending to inspect the passenger side door, Cole hazarded a glance at Thad’s face. As usual, his expression was unreadable-- guarded. “It goes without saying, but... not everyone knows.” 

who: cole & @dvstybuns

where: the music center

Thursdays at The Music Center were predictably slow, and today was no different. Cole had already finished the new Stephen King novel, reorganized the vinyl and cassette tapes, and done inventory. Usually, he would pass the time by using the shop’s instruments, honing his piano skills or struggling on guitar-- but because of his broken finger, he’d not been able to.

Today, though, the boredom hit so hard that he abandoned his finger splint and carefully played a few scales on the electric keyboard. It didn’t hurt too bad, so he began playing through the song that had been stuck in his head for weeks now: Steely Dan’s “Third World Man.” 

He got carried away until he heard the door open. Cole glanced over his shoulder and a grin overtook his face. “Hey, kid,” he said, motioning for Dustin to come in. “What’s up?”

stevehharringtcns​:

.

steve couldn’t blame cole for what he was saying. he would have probably done the same if he hadn’t been a swimmer during high school, knowing that he just couldn’t stop swimming. but even then, he preferred using the public pool rather than his own pool. “right… that makes sense. you know, i haven’t really been able to use my pool after…” he said, narrowing his eyes as he tried to remember. he didn’t remember, but he knew that he had associated a bad memory to his pool, even if he couldn’t remember exactly what it was. “you know what, i don’t even know… it’s just that my pool kind of gives me the creeps and i don’t like being near that much. but it’s kind of hard to ignore it.” he said with a small shrug of his shoulders, pursing his lips as he looked at cole.

steve couldn’t remember the last time he had liked someone this much. obviously, he had liked nancy a lot, but those feelings eventually had faded away. and there was always his crush he had on robin, but that had been cut short, obviously. he looked over at cole, nodding his head slowly, but frowning slightly when cole said that eddie didn’t like girls. “right, right… but, even if he doesn’t like nancy.” he said, letting out a sigh. “what if he liked… you know, chrissy? the two were seen together a lot before she… disappeared or whatever. you can’t tell me that they weren’t like… into each other, right?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at his own question. steve wondered if eddie would be dating chrissy if she hadn’t disappeared, but he decided to not think about it that much.

listening to cole talk made steve a little more relaxed. it didn’t fix how he was feeling, but it definitely gave him some more comfort, knowing that he wasn’t alone in this situation. he would never have thought that when they made out in the back of his car, that this is how they would end up - with steve asking cole for advice. “thank you, cole… that’s really cool of you.” he said, nodding his head with a smile. “i should talk to him about this, but i don’t want him to get scared or anything. plus, i’m not sure if the whole talk about… wanting a family and six kids will work on eddie.” he said, sighing.

xx.

Cole studied Steve’s face as he spoke, trying to determine whether or not Harrington was pulling his leg. But his confusion seemed genuine, which maybe... was worse. Cole finished off the beer Steve had originally handed him and slipped into the kitchen, grabbing two more from the fridge and presenting one to Steve. “Cheers to never swimming again,” he said with a smirk. Maybe this was his gift, making light of really terrifying shit.

He couldn’t hold back his laugh when Steve mentioned Chrissy. Quickly, he explained so Steve wouldn’t think he was laughing at him. “Sorry. I just... Chrissy covered for me and Adam a lot back in high school.” It was funny to think of her, perfect Christian Chrissy Cunningham, being part of yet another scheme to cover for two guys. “To be honest, Harrington? I’m sure Eddie likes you. You don’t just look at a guy like that unless you want to jump his bones.” Cole didn’t elaborate on how he knew that look from Eddie; it wasn’t relevant, especially with the state Steve was in. 

Cole took a sip of his beer to hide his smile. It was surreal; at first, Cole was sure what happened between him and Steve was a one-off, just a jock experimenting. And honestly, Cole hadn’t expected it to ever come up again, but he was sort of glad it did. At least so that they could be friends... or something. “No problem, seriously. I get it.” He chuckled at Steve’s thought process. “Don’t you both like... kind of already have six kids? With the DnD club and all?” he teased. Cole swirled the beer around in the bottle, giving Steve a one-shoulder shrug. “It’s a scary conversation, but maybe what’s scarier is not having it at all.” Jesus, he needed a blunt. If only he could take his own advice. 

eddiemcnson​:

+++

final confirmation, eddie swallowed, blinked nervously as the words fell from cole’s lips. he nodded, a nod that said ‘me too’. as if eithr of them needed to state the face that they were both interested in men again. getting old at this point, eddie finsighed his own cigarette, felt his lips twitch, hands shaking a little.

you got this, munson, you got this. he wasn’t like this, usually, when flirting with guys. antsy and nervous and downright freaking out. he just needed to pull himself together, pretend like this was just any old other encounter in a bar or somewhere back in chicago. 

his lips twisted into a smile as he thought about the fact that the last time he’d been this nervous about flirting with someone, he’d gone and called steve harrington ‘big boy’ as they’d hijacked a goddamn rv. 

suddenly cole was much, much closer than before and eddie gulped, his eyes flicked down to meet cole’s, momentarily lingering on his lips. for maybe just a tad too long. he swiped his tongue across hi bottom lip, feeling it had suddenly gone extremely dry. eddie discarded his own cigarette, burshing up against cole, bringing them even closer. 

“well…”, he breathed, raised a brow. “we’re in the middle of a mall, in the middle of, like, vandalising said mall…what do you have in mind that won’t get our asses kicked?”

xx.

Cole usually didn’t get nervous; he had an unearned air of confidence supported by the belief that he could get with any guy. The flirting was no problem, but after that? When the feeling was returned? It had been so long since he’d felt this. Finally, Eddie was reciprocating and moving closer to him, confirming that Eddie felt it too.

Cole breathed in deeply, catching a whiff of Eddie’s cologne mingling with cigarette smoke. A smell that made Cole want to bury his face into Eddie’s chest, so he could smell it on himself the rest of the night. Cole couldn’t drag his eyes away from Eddie’s lips, watching the other run his tongue along his bottom lip.

“We’re in a mall,” Cole repeated, his voice breathy. “There are plenty of places to hide. And I doubt the vandals will notice we’re gone,” he grinned, tugging on Eddie’s shirt as if to say let’s go now. 

[Timothée Chalamet, cismale, he/him] who’s that? oh it’s [walden cole montgomery]. i hear they’re [21] and are known as [the loverboy] around [the skate park]. they’re also a [junior] at [indiana state] and a [manager] at the [music center]. they’re known to be [artistic + intellectual] and [self-involved + elusive]. some people say they remind them of [poetry whispered during a rainstorm, snide remarks from the back of the classroom, the outline of a flask in his jean pocket].

STATISTICS

FULL  NAME: walden cole montgomery GENDER/PRONOUNS: cis male; he/him AGE: twenty-one FACECLAIM: timothée chalamet BIRTHDAY: april 23 STAR  SIGN: taurus HOMETOWN: albany, new york HEIGHT:  5′10″ OCCUPATION: manager at the music center; junior at Indiana state ORIENTATION: homosexual (but not officially out)

HEADCANONS

* Cole is the half-brother of Jonathan and Will Byers (Lonnie sure got around in high school); he only found out a few years ago, right around when Will went missing and, frankly, Cole didn’t say anything because he didn’t particularly want to be tied to “Zombie Boy.” Since then, he hasn’t known how or even if he should say something. * Cole has been in love once: with Adam, the star quarterback two years his senior. For two years, they shared clandestine meetings and quiet declarations of love and whispered promises that they’d move somewhere where things could be different, where everyone could know. But then Adam changed, seemingly overnight. He avoided Cole and acted cruel and empty; Cole still doesn’t know what happened, and never will, because Adam died in the mall fire. *note: Adam was one of The Flayed, and while Cole knows something was very off, he has no idea how to find answers * Cole hasn’t been the same since Adam died. He went away to college to study Literature, which should have made him happy, but he just felt like a ghost. He’s not sure if it’s worse to be away at college pretending like nothing happened, or back in Hawkins constantly reminded of him.

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