PAS DE DEUX: French for "step of two."

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Emerson Anne Buckley is 18 years old, and she's not going to stay in Hawkins, Indiana for the rest of her miserable life. She has much bigger aspirations: ballet school in Chicago, being invited to dance for the New York City Ballet, and moving her way up to principal dancer. She'll become a success story—someone her younger sister, Robin, and their parents can be proud of.

However, the best laid plans too often fall apart. When Em's dreams are shattered and it's looking like she'll be forced to stay in a life she doesn't feel she fits into, she becomes listless. To make matters worse, she stumbles into something really, really dangerous the summer after her senior year of high school. Something deadly. Something monstrous.

Emerson Anne Buckley is 18 years old, and she may die in Hawkins, Indiana.

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THE STAGES OF A GRAND PAS DE DEUX:

Entrée: "Entrance," the start of a duet.

Adagio: "Slowly," the partners begin to dance together.

Variation #1, partner 1's solo.

Variation #2, partner 2's solo.

Coda: "Tail," or the grand finale, with callbacks to all previous stages.

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THE STAGES OF EMERSON BUCKLEY'S GRAND PAS DE DEUX:

Entrée:

October 1984–February 1985

Meet Emerson Buckley. She's got her whole entire future mapped out, and absolutely nothing is going to go wrong.

Adagio:

March 1985–June 1985

Emerson has the lead role in Swan Lake, but she can hardly enjoy it. She and her sister Robin are fighting a lot more than usual. They both say things they'll soon regret.

Variation #1:

July 1985–December 1985

Recovery is a bitch. So is Emerson, quite frankly, as she tries to navigate her new normal. Which is a lot harder to do when her entire worldview is shaken to the ground in the lead up to Independence Day, 1985.

In the aftermath, the distance between herself and Robin grows larger, as Robin starts spending more and more time with Steve Harrington.

Variation #2:

January 1986–December 1986

[Description to come...]

Coda:

January 1987–?????

[Description to come...]

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A/N This is going to be a very, very, very, very, did I say very? Steve Harrington x OC slowburn.

I wasn't planning on posting this so soon but I had an idea that I got too excited about, and I may have accidentally plotted this entire book in my head over the weekend. Whoops!

This, of course, doesn't take place in the same universe as my other Steve Harrington fic, "Alice the Amazing." But I'll likely drop an Easter Egg or two, because I can't help myself.

I don't have a faceclaim for Emerson yet. At some point, I'll choose one. But I don't take faceclaims super seriously, so just imagine whoever you want for any characters, canon or OC.

I'll be including various trigger warnings on a chapter-by-chapter basis. I'm hoping this fic will have a similar tone to "Alice"—a nice mix of humor, heart, dread, and mortal peril—but I may touch on some heavier themes. [Not that anything can really get heavier than "Alice the Amazing" Chapter 73, now that I think about it...]

"Pas De Deux" Stage One: Entrée, coming soon...