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BOMBSHELL!

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→  "why do you have a brain if you never intend on using it?"

"i see where dustin gets his attitude from." 

                   IF ONE ASKED HIM IF HE COULD DEFINE A PAIN IN THE ASS, Lenny Henderson would point in the direction of his brother. The boy he still gave piggybacks rides to when he got lazy, the younger brother who roamed through his room for coins on games he never won. But if you asked him who he loved most in the world, he'd continue to point toward Dustin Henderson. 

Their Father had been anything but, and that had left a weight of responsibility upon the first-born's shoulders to pick up the pieces of a fragile woman with two young sons and a younger brother that looked up to all that Lenny did. A new town, a new school, all to rid their home of the man that had wronged them, and he'd never felt as if he truly fit into the comfort of Hawkins. Small, a place one knew everyone, but Dustin had found is place with a group of boys similar to him, enjoying their imaginations and games. 

Not to say Lenny Henderson hadn't done the same even if he felt miles away. He was a tempting drag of a drug that students of Hawkins' High craved, the want of both danger and excitement. A boy from out of town.

         — STRANGER THINGS. 2022.

( edited version. 2024. )

'YOU TRYING TO KILL ME, STEVE HARRINGTON?'

— lenny henderson / zac efron.

And if you asked Lenny, he couldn't tell you why Steve Harrington had decided to turn his back and ghost him that day. But to be a man and love another man was a strange thing in their time, in their judgemental little town with nosy neighbours, and Lenny let it go. He kept in his annoyance and shoved his hands into his leather pockets everytime he saw Steve step out his car with his girlfriend, keeping up the parade of pretending Lenny had never existed to him. 

What else could he do? 

Air out their business to those who would never understand it? Throw a rock through the front car window that Steve loved so much? He'd thought about that option, only pulled back by the more timid and quiet friend of his — Jonathan Byers. It won't make you feel better, Jon had quietly told him. And he was right. 

So Lenny tucked Steve into the back of his mind. Kept him there like a dirty little secret, no better than the secret closet of his. 

Though that secret wasn't bigger than the reality of Hawkins — what truly happened in their little town. What had happened to Will Byers, a lie covered up, and a whole new ball game of evils and monsters that they lived amongst. 

The last thing Lenny should of cared about was Steve Harrington. 

( He'd never been any good at following rules and expectations though. )

( lenny just wanted to take care of his mama,

and raise his shit head of a little brother. but a 

hostile alternate dimension by the name of 'the upside 

down' decided to throw a wrench in his life. )

NOTES, edited version 

— i don't own stranger things nor it's characters etc. all the rights belong to the rightful creators respectively. i do own my character lenny henderson, his plot and any/everything else i add in separately from that. please, do not steal my work, nor copy it to the extreme. 

for all new readers, this was a 40+ chapter fic and i am so, so grateful to all the lenny henderson readers who have been with this fic since before i decided to edit it through after a break of writing (i lost motivation — my writing has changed, and i just hated the amount of mistakes and plot-holes i had created early on). 

however, i have planned new drafts for lenny and his plot! the basics about him have not changed. his love interest remains steve (and billy is still involved — the aspect to the connection of abuse between them is something i think is important to lenny's character and his grief. and i do personally believe billy wasn't straight, but i won't be changing his character for the sake of a oc). but i have added more to him and his development as well as his friendships. i hated how i just fell off with lenny and jonathan in the first write — please yall call me out if you think i do that again. 

i really hope that you guys enjoy this version as much as you did the first! i got a lot of disappointed messages when i unpublished this before easter, and i am really sorry as a lot of you said you liked to re-read it whilst waiting for me to update (it had been over a year. like, that was criminal of me to do). 

please, leave comments and let me know what you think! don't be silent! it helps with motivating writers to update our fics!