Lucas Sinclair

Getting one in her favorite color would've already been thoughtful and pretty cool, but a stone that was supposedly especially good for healing seemed to fit Max's situation even better right now. If Lucas sold it to her the right way, maybe she'd actually believe in it, and the stone could give her strength and help her feel better. Or she wouldn't believe in it at all and would just laugh at him and make fun of him instead...

But when he worried about the breaks getting too long, she rolled her eyes in a playful, exaggerated way. “Sinclair, I’m not gonna let you wander off for twenty minutes every time we stop,” she teased. “I’ll keep you in line.” Then he reached for the chips, loudly, and she snorted, shaking her head. “Wow. Real academic energy right there,” she said, but there was a smile tugging at her lips. “At least you’re fueling your brain.”

“Okay, okay,” Lucas laughed then, raising his hands defensively. He briefly studied Tiana’s face as if he were very skeptical. “So you’re gonna be really strict with me?” he asked, even wiggling his eyebrows jokingly for a second. “I’d like to see that... whether I really wouldn’t manage to distract you completely whenever we take those breaks! If I really put some effort into it, you won’t even notice when twenty minutes are over. Bet?” he challenged her, lifting one eyebrow slightly provocatively. For now, though, Lucas focused on loudly and shamelessly crunching his chips instead of actually starting to study. Unfortunately, he was still constantly busy keeping both himself and Tiana from being productive.

"Oh, I know what a nerd you still are." She chuckled. "Your dad still brags about you and your sister's grades. Two little geniuses," she mused with a bright smile. She was glad to hear they were fairing a lot better in school than she ever had.

In any case, Max's welcome-back-to-life celebration would most certainly be the biggest party Hawkins had ever seen from the Byers, Wheeler, Henderson, Hopper, and Sinclair families. And probably the most tearful.

When he questioned her twenty‑minute plan, she raised an eyebrow, amused. “Wow. Suspicious much?” she teased. “You think I’m gonna trick you into doing the whole project while I nap on my couch?” She leaned forward, elbows on the table, chin propped in her hand. “Here’s the actual plan, Sinclair: twenty minutes of focus, then a break. Then another twenty. Then another break. We’ll keep going until it doesn’t feel like your brain is melting.”

Still, Lucas was skeptical about whether he’d actually manage to get much done today. That was also why he doubted Tiana’s twenty-minute plan. But when she explained it again, he gave a crooked grin. “Alright, that actually sounds pretty reasonable...” he admitted, the corners of his mouth tugging upward slightly. “But it’s gonna take us forever that way, isn’t it?” he worried anyway. “We’ll have to make sure the breaks don’t end up getting too long...” Like so often, a million thoughts were running through Lucas’ head, and his rational side was struggling a little against his desire to just not work too hard right now.

El was at Lover Lake to see if the echoes would be out here, since Lover Lake was a watergate into the Upside Down at one point. She wondered if the echoes would linger in places where the Upside Down was, or where there had been openings. It had been a while since she had been there, and a while since she had seen her friends all together in one place.

Since Eddie and Billy came back, she’d been wondering about something. As she was sitting on a rock, looking out into the water, she skipped some rocks across the surface with each flick. She flicked the last rock in her hand as it skimmed across the water, her eyes watching it for a second.

That was when she heard someone say “hey” and her name. She turned around, stood up, and saw Lucas. She started to smile—finally, someone to talk to about the echoes. She would ask Ollie, but Ollie hadn’t been around lately for some reason, so she had decided to do this herself. But now, since Lucas was there, she wasn’t alone.

At the same time, she knew he was still recovering from when Max was taken—when Max was in her coma for that long while.

So with this, she wanted to be respectful and not overcrowd him with all these things. Sure, Max was alright, but she probably had enough trauma as it was. Ever since the echoes, she had been seeing her friends—not all together, but hardly at all. It made her feel lonely at times, but she knew that they all needed time, and that was what she was going to give them.

Things were weird when Mike and she broke up, but it never changed the friendship, not at all.

Lucas took a closer look at her and couldn’t help noticing that she seemed lost in thought. Almost automatically, one of his eyebrows lifted and his expression grew more concerned. His friend didn’t respond to his questions and didn’t give anything back beyond that smile. To Lucas, it really felt like her mind was somewhere else entirely. “You okay?” he repeated, looking at her a bit more intently.

Obviously, Lucas was gonna act extra tough and unfazed to impress Steve, even though he’d probably be a little scared... “Have you seen it before?” he asked, since he hadn’t.

And then, for a moment, all Jonathan could do was stare at Lucas. Max... had woken up? Since when? Who had been there? Was it just Lucas? What had she said? But none of that really mattered... what really mattered was that she was alive and safe.

"Did she talk at all? Oh my god, she's awake? Really?" Jonathan gushed, feeling more animated and talkative with Lucas than he'd been with anyone since he moved back to Hawkins. "I'm really happy for you, Lucas. That's amazing news. Seriously." He shook his head, disbelieving. "Wait—now you really need to find Will, Mike, Dustin—everyone, seriously! I mean," he paused, thinking, "she's going to need her friends."

The smile rested comfortably on his face, watching the excitement in Lucas. He couldn't help but feel the same, Lucas' energy filling the space around them. "This calls for more of a celebration than ice cream, don't you think?"

Saying it out loud hit Lucas all over again. He bit his lower lip, getting quite emotional. “Crazy, right?” he asked Jonathan, taking a deep breath. For a moment, he’d even completely forgotten about the ice cream with sprinkles in front of him. It was honestly really sweet how happy Jonathan was for Max and for Lucas. That just made Lucas beam even more, practically buzzing with energy.

"Clothes mostly, but for you?" She pondered a moment before pushing herself up from the counter. She moved over to a shelf that had a few jewelry stands on it. Her fingers brushed over the stand holding wire wrapped crystal necklaces until she found a yellow and brown, layered stone. Tiger's Eye.

"Here," she carefully pulled it off the rack before holding it out to her nephew. "Wear this during your basketball games or anytime you need a confidence boost. Just don't let your dad see it. He'll think it's silly," she joked, but she really did hope that she wouldn't be hearing about it later.

"I usually think guys in jerseys give off a bit of a douchey vibe," she teased. "But you look totally rad. It fits you well," she assured with a soft smile.

“Oh, I know you don’t feel like doing this,” she said, sliding into the seat across from him. “You’ve been whining about school since third period.” She nudged his foot under the table, gentle, teasing, but enough to get his attention.

When Tiana nudged his foot under the table, he immediately nudged back, obviously not hard enough to hurt her. “School’s annoying anyway,” he said. Even though, honestly, Lucas didn’t think school was that bad. A lot of the time he actually enjoyed learning stuff, especially in certain subjects. But right now he just had too many things and worries on his mind.

She leaned her chin on her hand, eyes sparkling. "Pancakes are the universal language of friendship anyway. If she loves those, we’re golden. I can already picture it: us three terrorizing the kitchen, you playing referee while we argue about syrup versus chocolate spread." His enthusiasm was infectious, as always, and Mona grinned wider. "Uh‑huh. Co‑designer doesn’t mean invincible. One wrong move and boom, trap city." She made fake explosion noises, complete with hand gestures. "But hey, if you do rescue the princess on the first try? I’ll personally crown you Knight Lucas with a syrup scepter." She bumped his shoulder affectionately. "Eleven pancakes, a victory lap, and Max cheering you on sounds like a perfect day to me."

Despite herself, Mona felt her cheeks heat at his sincere intensity, ducking her head with a soft laugh that didn’t quite hide how much his words affected her. He admired her? The words made something fragile twist in her chest. Something unfamiliar and dangerously hopeful. "Hey, easy with the hype train," she said, but her voice came out softer than she meant, affection bleeding through. "I’ll start believing you one of these days, and then what? My ego won’t fit through the door." With a bright smile, Mona bypassed her typical hesitation toward physical touch and gently took Lucas' hand in hers, her thumb brushing over the back of his knuckles in a gesture of quiet solidarity. "But… thank you. Seriously. It’s nice hearing it. Means more coming from you than you know."

Immediately, Lucas’ protective streak cracked her up too much. Enough that she snorted mid‑sip. "You? Punching Eddie Munson?" She grinned wickedly. "I’d pay to see that. Hell, I’d film it. But yeah… he’s a good guy. Messy, loud, but still such a huge sweetheart underneath all that." Her expression softened, thumb tracing the edge of her plate. "And honestly, I think you’re right. He makes me nervous too. In a way nobody has in… a long time." She paused, gaze drifting to her half‑eaten pancake as the truth bubbled up. "Relationships have always been kinda fucked for me, you know? Messy exits, people bailing when it got real, or me hitting eject before they could. I never really believed the healthy kind was in the cards." A small, meek shrug. "Eddie’s different. And that scares the shit out of me, because… what if I fuck it up? What if it’s too good to be true?" Her eyes flicked back to him, vulnerable for a split second before the usual grin quickly returned. "But I really like him... a stupid amount. So we’ll see."

Lucas’ pancake bravado pulled her right back to the moment, and she laughed outright, pointing her fork at him. "Eleven? Easy mode? Famous last words, knight boy.” She scooped another massive amount of chocolate onto her own plate, smearing it with zero regrets. "And thank you. Finally, someone gets it. Too little chocolate is a crime against breakfast." She bumped his foot under the table, eyes full of warmth. "You know, for a little brother figure, you’re dangerously good at this pep‑talk thing. Don’t let it go to your head."

With bright eyes, Lucas imagined the whole scenario; Mona, Max, and him together in pancake heaven. He definitely had to make that happen somehow, because that was honestly a pretty great goal. Max would be okay again, and Mona and Max would totally get along. “A syrup scepter sounds awesome,” he joked. “But then we all need syrup crowns too! We could go full-on syrup battle!” It’d probably get insanely sticky in their hair, but still. Lucas could barely stop himself from hyping Mona up again and showing his admiration. “My Mona hype train has no brakes,” he laughed, shrugging like he couldn’t help it. “You should just believe me and take the compliment,” he added, a bit more serious now. “You deserve to have your ego boosted!” She was doing the same thing to his ego all the time. Hyping each other up like crazy was only fair.

“You think I couldn’t take Eddie?” Lucas asked next, acting a little offended. “I don’t think he’d win in a fight against me…” Even though neither of them were really into fighting. And hopefully, it would never come to that anyway. “Yeah, I really like him too,” Lucas added, because honestly, he was kind of the biggest Mona-and-Eddie supporter alive, as long as Eddie treated her right. Otherwise, Lucas might have to switch from little-bro vibes to full-on protective big-bro mode. Lucas took another bite of his pancake, tilting his head slightly as he listened to Mona more closely again. Everything she said about Eddie sounded really sweet and genuine. “Honestly, it really sounds like something special between you two,” he said thoughtfully, feeling kind of honored that she was opening up like this. “Especially if you’ve had such bad experiences before, I think it’s really strong of you to give him a chance and let him get close to you anyway. And I really think he means it. He doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who messes girls around or just wants something casual. Just take your time, don’t rush anything, and see where it goes.” Lucas surprised himself a little with all of that. Somehow, Mona just brought out “Love Expert Sinclair” in him. Maybe because she took him seriously, which made him feel less inexperienced than he actually was. It was pretty cool that someone like Mona actually listened to his advice.

He grinned wide and satisfied when she praised him for it, immediately feeling even better as he kept shoveling pancakes into his mouth. He still had a goal of at least eleven, after all. By now, he had chocolate and sprinkles smeared all over his face, but Lucas didn’t even notice. Everything felt so nice and wholesome. And then, of course, something had to go wrong. Because this was Hawkins and in Hawkins, something always went wrong…

The house is too quiet. Tiana realizes it the second she sets the last stack of notes on the kitchen table. Her parents are working late, the clock is ticking loud enough to feel rude, and she’s straightened the same pencil cup three times now.

Lucas is supposed to be here any minute.

She smooths her palms down her jeans, pretending she’s not listening for footsteps on the porch. It’s just a project. Just Lucas Sinclair, who she’s known forever and who still somehow manages to make her stomach flip like she’s fourteen again.

She checks the table one more time. Textbooks open, graph paper ready, snacks placed like she didn’t spend ten minutes debating which ones he’d actually eat. Everything looks normal. Casual. Totally not like she’s been overthinking this since lunch.

Lucas rode his bike over to Tiana’s place, where they’d agreed to meet up and work. He rang the doorbell and waited for a second until she opened the door. “Hey,” he said casually, giving her a slightly awkward smile. “You good?” Lucas asked, as he stepped inside.