#max mayfield gets adopted | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

notebooknonbinary · 2 years

Text

Byler Week, Day 2: Seasons

This is Extremely not on November 1, but I started writing on the 31 and just couldn’t finish it until today. I’m not completely happy with it but, here ya go❤️

Day 2: Body Swap/ Fake Dating (a tiny bit fake dating but more like someone thinks someone is dating but isn’t it)/ Season

Brief Trigger warning for mention of SH. Only like two sentences but they’re there.

Finally on Ao3!!

Will used to love the snow.

Snow days meant staying home from school; they meant going outside to build snow-people with Jonathan. It meant pretty scenes to try and draw. Sometimes Mike came over, or Will went over to his house. One year, after a particularly heavy snowfall when Will was eight, he, Jonathan, Mike, and Lucas had built a sprawling fort in front of Will’s house. It had four rooms, built in snow-shelves (Mom had come out to help with that part), and had been guarded by three very ugly snowmen.

Later, when they got too cold, they came inside for potato soup and hot chocolate. They were excited at the prospect of maybe adding a few more rooms—and trying to figure out how to trap heat without melting the building, so that maybe they could sleep outside that night (Mom shot that down immediately). Still, they had plans to at least start to decorate it so it wouldn’t blend in with the rest of the snow.

Then Lonnie got home. And crushed the front of the fort (as well as its three snow-guards) with the car.

All of the boys had been devastated, naturally. All their hard work had gone to waste. And they couldn’t even tell off the culprit, because none of them had a death wish to try and berate Will’s dad.

The four had gone back to Lucas’s house—for safety’s sake, because Lonnie hadn’t been exactly pleased about the nonexistent damage to his car. The three younger had whispered about acts of revenge they’d never go through with, while Jonathan had entertained the suddenly appearing Erica (barely five and wanting her brother’s attention). Mike and Will had slept over at Lucas’s that night, grumbling over the loss of the fort they had definitely (not) been planning to sleep in.

Still, the incident hadn’t dampened Will’s love for the snow. During summers (in the years before the Upside Down), Will daydreamed about snow suddenly appearing and cooling him off. He preferred cooler weather over blazing heat, even if the compromise meant school would start. Mike who ran hot, but always felt a little cold, couldn’t comprehend wanting snow over summer. Karen was forever tutting over Mike coming home, sunburnt down his back and on his legs because he’d spent the whole day swimming without any sunscreen (he always ended summer practically plastered in new freckles). Even though Halloween was Mike’s favorite holiday, Summer was his favorite season.

After the Upside Down, after the Mindflayer’s possession of Will, things had changed. Halloween was no longer Mike’s favorite holiday, and Will hated winter.

The first snow, only a few weeks after he was released from the Mindflayer, Will had opened the door and had a panic attack at the blast of cold air. His nightmares worsened, to happening daily, and made him question what was real. Mom kept him home for the week, trying to keep Will from burning himself as he took three hot baths a day, drank only hot drinks, and ran their heater bill up. She had to hide all the lighters in the house as well, after she found him holding a lit one to his thigh:

“I need to make sure,” he’d sobbed. And Mom had cried along with him. “I have to make sure He’s gone.”

That evening, Mom had invited Mike over to spend the night, even though the Party had mostly been told to stay away. Mike’s presence was enough to stop the worst of it. And, though they never mentioned it or told anyone else, Mike had slept in his bed that night to keep Will warm. Will had been too out of it to get flustered at getting cuddled by the boy he had a crush on.

It helped. And by the next Monday, Will was back at school, a little worse for wear, and a new prescription for anxiety medication in his backpack.

A little less than a month after that incident was the Snowball, which hadn’t exactly given him any reason to try and like winter at all anymore.

It had started out okay, to be fair.

Will had arrived early, so Jonathan could set up the photo booth he’d be running for the night. Lucas had been next, followed by Max. Will could tell they were sending each other soppy eyes—the kind Jonathan and Nancy had been sporting as of late.

And then Mike had shown up.

Will always thought Mike looked handsome, but there was something about that night. Will thought he might swallow his tongue. He hoped he wasn’t blushing all that much.

But, maybe if he was, and Mike saw, would that be so terrible? These past few weeks, ever since the possession, Mike had been sticking close-by.

Maybe…

Mike gave him a grin when he stopped by them. “You clean up pretty good, Byers!”

Yeah, if Will had been blushing before, it was doubly so now. “You too,” he managed to blurt.

Mike ran a self conscious hand over his hair. “Really?” Will nodded a little too vigorously. Mike's smile softened. “Thanks Will.”

Not long after that, Dustin appeared, completing the Party (but for one missing, a mean little voice whispered in the back of his head, the most important). Dustin, in Will’s opinion, looked like a million bucks. His hair looked fancy, sort of like Steve Harrington’s. And his suit was the nicest out of all of them. Will appeared to be the only one thinking that though. He watched Dustin’s face fall as their other friends didn’t appreciate his new hairdo.

Just as Will was about to pipe up in Dustin’s defense, the song overhead changed. Slowed. Time After Time. He’d heard over the radio a couple times and he liked it (though he wouldn’t say so to Jonathan). It was a good song to slow dance to, maybe.

Lucas clearly thought so too, because he began to stumble over an invitation to Max, who smirked, teased him, and tugged his hand towards the dance floor.

Will smiled, then chanced a glance at Mike, who was watching them go, looking slightly confused.

Then, before Will had a chance to say anything, a girl he’d never talked to (but might have seen in a few of his classes) came up to them. She was looking at him, for some reason. “Hey Zombie Boy,” she asked, smiling shyly. Will tried not to flinch at the nickname. “Do you want to dance?”

Will automatically turned to Mike, hoping that he might have an excuse for Will to turn her down, without hurting her feelings. “Um…I don’t…” He pleaded with his eyes for Mike to save him.

Mike was not a mind reader. With his head, he gestured for Will to accept her invitation.

Well, now Will had to accept or he’d feel bad. “I mean…sure, yeah, cool.”

She beamed. With one last look at Mike and Dustin, he followed her out on the dance floor.

Mentally he was firm with himself, he would dance for one song and then politely excuse himself, so he could get back to Mike his friends. He wasn’t sure he’d want to make friends with someone who called him Zombie Boy.

“So, um, I know you’re in a couple of my classes,” he said, still trying to be polite. “But, I’m sorry, I don’t know your name.”

She beamed, cheeks turning rosy. “That’s okay! My name’s Rose, or Rosie to my friends!”

That was an invitation, he suspected. At least she wasn’t trying to ask him out—the thought was more than a little terrifying. “Why did you want to dance with me, Rosie?”

After all, he and his friends weren’t exactly considered popular.

“I’ve seen your drawings in art class,” she says immediately. “You’re really good. And you’re not mean to girls, like so many other boys.”

He was a little bit flattered (though self-conscious) that she liked his art. He was about to thank her, when there was the scattered sound of mean giggles. They both looked over to see three girls walking away from a crushed Dustin.

Rosie made a frustrated noise. “She’s such a snob.”

As they were watching, Dustin was ignored by two more girls. Just as Will was about to excuse himself to go comfort his friend (who’d gone to sit at the bleachers), he saw Nancy go over to him first.

“Who’s that?” Rosie asked, as Nancy began to lead Dustin over to dance.

“That’s our friend’s older sister. She’s chaperoning.”

“That’s nice of her to dance with him.”

Will was tempted to see what Mike thought of Nancy dancing with Dustin, but when he looked over to where they’d left him, he was gone.

“Anyway,” Rosie said. “Thank you for agreeing to dance with me. I know you didn’t really want to.”

Will bit his lip, ashamed and caught out. “I’m sorry. I am having fun!”

Indeed, Will was almost glad she’d asked him. Although he dreaded her potentially asking him to be anything other than friends. But the smallest, pettiest part of him was glad to be making a friend that none of the rest of his friends had interacted with. He’d felt a little left out that the other three boys had a friend that he had never really interacted with before this last month. And Max was more Dustin and Lucas’s friend than his.

So the idea of a friend that was just his, was a little bit cool.

He was about to ask, officially, if she’d like to be his friend, when he caught sight of the back of Mike’s head. He’d found a girl to dance with.

It took him a long moment to recognize her. It was El.

He’d only met her a few times since she’d closed the Gate. She wasn’t as standoffish with him as she was with Max, but they still hadn’t talked much. When the Party got the occasional permission to hang out with her at Hopper’s cabin, he and Max usually hung out—silently commiserating about feeling left out.

There was a funny feeling in the pit of his stomach, watching her dance with Mike. In the back of his mind, he knew what it was (jealousy), but he refused to acknowledge it.

Then the funny feeling took a downturn into devastation, because Mike leaned in and kissed El.

Will swallowed down the urge to throw up. He gave Rosie a pained smile. “I had fun dancing with you. And I’d like to talk with you more, but I need to go talk to my brother by the photo booth.”

He saw her glance in the direction of Mike and El (still kissing). She gave him a sweet, understanding smile and let her hands fall to her sides. “Thank you for dancing with me, Will. I’ll see you in Art on Monday.”

As quickly and quietly as he could manage, Will navigated his way outside. He immediately started to shiver, but, for the first time since the snow started, Will didn’t focus on it. He simply wrapped his arms around himself. He was too focused on what he’d just seen.

Stupid, he thought to himself. He already told me he liked Eleven. Why am I so shocked? Why does it hurt so badly?

There was a pain in his chest. Not a physical pain. His heart hurt.

He already knew why it hurt.

The warm wet of tears began slipping down his face, turning cold as they went down his face. Within a few moments the tears turned into silent sobbing.

He wasn’t sure how long he sat there—perhaps only a few minutes, or maybe a million years. He sat and cried, and felt his skin burn and bones ache from the cold. Eventually, though…

“Hey Will, what’s wrong?”

Dustin sat down beside him, leaning to put a comforting arm over his shoulder. Will was far too into his tears at this point to swallow them down and answer. So he simply continued to cry, putting his face into Dustin’s shoulder. Dustin hugged him closer, not seeming to care that his suit jacket was getting wet.

Finally, as Will’s tears began to slow, he spoke. “I thought you were dancing with Nancy?” His voice came out rough and croaky, and he cleared his throat.

Dustin gave him a small grin. “She danced with me for two songs, but she’s here tonight to chaperone. Even my charms can’t compete with extra credit!”

Will giggled a little. “I didn’t get to tell you earlier,” he said quietly. “But I think you look very cool tonight. Like Steve.”

Dustin blushed. He half reached up self consciously to his hair. “The rest of the Party—”

“—are brain-addled by crushes tonight. They wouldn’t actually notice anyone else if it bit them on the nose.” Will tried to keep the bitter sadness from his tone, but from the startled look he got, he didn’t quite succeed. When Dustin opened his mouth, Will shook his head. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

They sat in silence for a moment. “Well, the dance stinks this year anyway, do you want to skip the rest and have a sleepover?”

Will swallowed down grateful tears. Dustin was a good friend. “I’d like that.”

They went back inside to use the phone, made quick goodbyes to Lucas and Max, who had found a table for the moment, then Will’s mom drove them home.

(Mike was still dancing with Eleven when they’d left. Later, part of Will waited for Mike to call on the walkie to ask where he they’d gone, but the call never came. Will resolved to bury his hurt. At least he’d always have the Party and DnD.)

After that night, he was quieter about the cold scaring him. Mike was caught up in his new relationship, and he’d never told the rest of the Party. He simply bundled up more. He’d managed to make his nightmares silent, somehow, tricking his Mom into thinking they’d abated some.

And he snitched a lighter from his Mom's secret stash—for emergencies.

Things changed after the Snowball for Mike, both good and bad.

The good thing was that El was his girlfriend now! The thought alone was enough to have his stomach break out into anxious butterflies. He hoped he’d get used to the change soon so the feeling would stop—it made him a little bit queasy. Even though he couldn’t take her to dates at the diner, or to the new mall that was opening soon, it still felt special. It was El, of course it felt special.

The bad thing was, something was going on with Will and he couldn’t figure out what. He and Dustin had left early (Lucas said one of them hadn’t felt well, though he hadn’t said which one). Mike had thought about walkie-ing him after he got home from the dance, but thought Will might be asleep. And if Will was sleeping without nightmares, Mike was loath to wake him.

But, when he went over to the Byers house the next day, Joyce turned him away. She said that Will had come down with a bad cold and couldn’t see anyone. Joyce had never turned Mike away before, even when Will was sick.

Will was at school the next day, looking a little worse for wear. He was quiet too, and spent more time talking to Dustin during lunch than to Mike—Which was fine! Dustin was Will’s best friend too! But…

But when the girl from the Snowball that had asked Will to dance came up to Will in the hallway to talk about the class that only they had, Dustin grinned and elbowed Will and Will rolled his eyes and shoved back. Something in Mike’s stomach twisted.

“She's just a friend,” Will murmured after she was gone. Mike glared at her back.

“And Lucas said that about Max, and where are we now?” Dustin countered.

Will scoffed. “You danced with Nancy, but she’s dating my brother. Not everything has to have hidden feelings involved.” He seemed to notice Mike staring at that point and turned pink.

Suddenly Mike felt sick. Did Will have a crush on that girl? Why hadn’t he told Mike?

Why did that idea make him feel so badly?

“Mike, are you okay?” Will asked. Mike tried to grin at him.

“Just ready for the weekend!”

“Mike…it’s Monday.”

“I know but I won’t get to see El until Friday.”

Will’s face shuttered closed. “That’s true.” He shut his locker. “I’m going to meet up with Rosie before art class, I’ll see you guys later.”

He sped away down the hall.

Dustin’s brow was furrowed as he looked between Will’s retreating back and Mike. That was his thinking face. What had he figured out?

“What?”

Dustin blinked and the look disappeared. “Nothing, just…” He shook his head. “Nothing. We gotta go or we’ll be late for Spanish.”

Later that day, unbeknownst to Mike, a conversation was had:

“No, Dustin, I don’t have a crush on Eleven. I don’t even know her!”

“But you were upset at the Snowball, and your face gets all funny whenever Mike mentions his dates with El.”

“I just…” A sigh. “Everyone else is growing up and dating, and it feels a little bit like being left behind.”

“I mean, I may be getting taller, but I’m not dating anyone, at least.”

“That’s true. If we’re behind the others, at least we’re behind together.”

Will will never like the cold and snow. But after they defeat Vecna and close the Upside Down—after he and Mike get together—if either of them has a bad day, they can go to the other’s house for cuddling and hot chocolate. These days they’re both having nightmares a couple times a week, but, if they’re sharing a bed, they feel safer and sleep better.

13 notes · View notes

kittythelitter · 1 year

Text

Thinking about Steve getting disowned by his parents.

And he's talking to Eddie and Eddie calls him "Steve fucking Harrington." And Steve's like. "I'm not a Harrington anymore :( They took everything from me including my name." And he was like. Understandably sad about his name and his identity and the fact that his parents don't love him and all that.

And Eddie. In an attempt to cheer him is all flirty and offers his own name up for Steve to use. Steve sad laughs and says that if Eddie wants to propose he needs to do better than that.

While they're having this conversation Dustin is lurking and hears this and is outraged that Eddie thinks he can just. Give Steve his name without earning it. Steve should be a Henderson. He's basically Dustin's brother already.

Dustin complains about this to Will in front of Joyce and Joyce is like. Not if i can adopt him first.

Will mentions it to Lucas and Erica is like. Bitch he should be honored to be a Sinclair! And she tells her friends about it in front of Robin who's like. Excuse me. We are twins. He needs to be a Buckley.

Meanwhile Lucas mentioned it to Max and she's always down to compete with Dustin and also. Steve is her brother too asshat.

She complains to El about it. Hopper overhears and is like. Steve is disowned? Where's he living? I already adopted one kid in the past few years what's another.

Over the course of the next week everyone has decided that Steve is their family and he should live with them and/or take their last name.

They're all getting together just because they're all a bit codependent and need to get all together every few weeks or else they all start worrying.

Steve and Eddie are running late for whatever reason. (overslept. Steve's trying to do his hair. Steve found Eddie's 5-in-1 doesn't really matter except Steve and Eddie are together and Steve's been staying at Eddie and Wayne's new government issued house.)

By the time they arrive everyone is bickering, varying from Hopper quietly saying that Joyce already has two kids wouldn't it be better for Steve to have a parent who can give him more attention, to Max and Robin having a silent standoff to Erica and Dustin fully wrestling on the ground biting and scratching.

And Steve's like. "HEY! What the fuck is going on?"

And no one wants to admit how wild they've all gone in fighting to adopt Steve. So there's this awkward beat of silence before Dustin and Robin both break down and yell at Steve that he's their family and he should take their respective last name.

Steve is so overwhelmed he starts crying. And almost none of them have seen him cry. Like. Nancy and Robin. Maybe. And only when he's been pushed to his limit.

So everyone's like. Did we break him? Did we offend him? Did we accidentally remind him of his pain?

And he's just. Never felt this loved before.

Maybe he chooses one. Maybe he chooses all of them into a really long string of names. Maybe they develop some kind of elaborate competition to decide who earns Steve as family. Maybe there's some kind of rotation in place. Tbh I'd love to hear other people's ideas.

But I do know that the day it becomes legal, Steve's last name and Eddie's last name become the same. Maybe it's a hyphen. Maybe Eddie charges his name to Buckley-Byers-Henderson-Hopper-Mayfield-Sinclair-Wheeler (alphabetical was decided to be the most fair).

And no matter what Steve is so so loved and everyone makes sure he knows it.

#stranger things #steve harrington #steve and robin are platonic soulmates #Steddie #dustin henderson #eddie munson

5K notes · View notes

sarcasticassian · 1 year

Text

after they get Eddie to the hospital just in time to save him from the bat bites he actually ends up in a coma for a little bit (him and Max bond over that once they’re both fully recovered because of course they’ll be fine what you talking about) and OBVIOUSLY king Uncle Wayne rushes over to the hospital once this random Wheeler girl tells him that’s where Eddie is and he sits with him and that’s how Wayne meets the most random collection of people ever

Steve Harrington (who Wayne almost refuses to believe is related to Richard because this kid is nothing like his parents) and Dustin Henderson stay practically glued to Eddie’s side, random kids that are apparently in Hellfire and some that aren’t drift in between Eddie’s room and the Mayfield girl’s across the hall, some kids from Eddie’s year (this current one) also come in to join Steve and even the undead Police Chief (??!) and his band of merry men occasionally pop in even though Wayne is pretty sure Hopper is the only one who has ever met Eddie and the less said about that the better

but goddammit Wayne likes them all, firstly because they saved his boy but once he’d started to chat to them it was impossible to dislike them, he’s especially partial to Steve, who he can chat to about sports which he’s never been able to really do with Eddie and maybe it’s because he’s spent the most time with him one on one, Robin because he recognises something in her (and maybe Steve but he isn’t sure) that he sees and knows is in Eddie, Dustin for obvious reason and little Erica Sinclair has wedged her way into a soft spot after she verbally tore into a nurse who seemed to believe the allegations even after they were cleared

Eddie wakes up to Wayne and Steve quietly chatting and he’s beyond confused to see them sat together but he’s grateful to not be alone, he clings to each of their hands, anchoring himself before he slips back into sleep and happy that the man who may as well be his dad hasn’t abandoned him

once he wakes up on one of those first few days and his Uncle had been there when he fell asleep but now he’s not but he is surrounded by pretty much the entire Hawkins gang, he slurs out a ‘wher’s Ucl Wyn’ and Erica looks him directly in the eye and says ‘OUR Uncle Wayne has gone to get some coffee with Steve’ and the others just nod and it seems that alongside Eddie they’ve also adopted his Uncle Wayne into their weird little cult, Eddie falls back asleep with a content little smile on his face as Erica grips his hand in her small one

#Eddie talks about 'my uncle wayne'#and someone immediately interjects with 'OUR Uncle'#wayne munson #uncle wayne #eddie munson #steve harrington #dustin henderson #erica sinclair #Wayne loves the scoops troop #steddie #because Wayne matchmakes them once he knows Steve is safe #because why else is this boy spending day and night at eddie's bedside #stranger things #stranger things 4

5K notes · View notes

fastcardotmp3 · 1 year

Text

thinking about Max and the Munson's living across the way from each other post s3 again, but maybe specifically Max living across the way from Wayne post s3.

Wayne Munson knows what a kid looks like when they hide behind well practiced and carefully crafted defense mechanisms, after all, and he recognizes a kid with too much responsibility on their shoulders.

He sees this teenage girl with the pigtails and the hard eyes who doesn't answer the door when her friends come to call even though Wayne saw her sitting on the porch twenty minutes ago; who is always the one bringing groceries home on foot even when her mom's car is there; whose bedroom light is too frequently on when Wayne gets home before the sun even has the chance to think about rising.

And he's not gonna overstep about it, he has no intention of making this girl uncomfortable because he is a stranger to her and he knows how both he and Eddie look on a first glance, wouldn't blame her for not being entirely trusting, but he keeps an eye out for her anyway.

Tells Eddie too-- "She's home alone a lot, you make sure no one tries takin' advantage, hear?"-- even if Eddie is mostly preoccupied with his own shit most of the time, because if Wayne can recognize a kid hiding, a kid carrying too much around on that skateboard of hers, then Eddie certainly can too.

"You adopting another stray, old man?" is Eddie's response, but he glances out through the blinds at the trailer across the way with a heaviness to his shoulders in understanding at the sight of that girl sitting on the porch with her headphones on and a school book in her lap that she's decidedly not paying any attention.

"Something like that," Wayne claps him on the shoulder, squeezes as he passes by, but he doesn't think anything will really come of it.

There's not much they can do except keep an eye out, carry the Mayfields' paper up to the porch on rainy days so it won't get soggy and unreadable, offer a wave and a kind word and a reminder that "if your Mama ain't home and you need something, you just give us a knock," despite the brush off he gets every time.

And then one night-- one morning really, before the sun is about to rise-- Wayne pulls up at home after his shift to find Eddie standing out in the snow, odd enough in and of itself made odder by the fact he isn't alone.

"--don't know what you think you're gonna accomplish here at four in the goddamned morning, Harrington, but--"

"I mean, that doesn't feel like any of your business."

"You're parked outside my home, yeah it's my business," Eddie gestures broadly at the unfamiliar BMW the two of them are standing next to as Wayne clambers out of his own truck on tired legs and overworked shoulders.

He needs a hot shower, a good, long sleep.

But Eddie is getting in this other kid's face and it's--

"I'm parked outside that home," Harrington, big coat and gloves but thin pajama pants poking out underneath it all, points at the Mayfield trailer with exhausted exasperation and something tinged with a bit more urgency too, "and I don't know you, man, nothing I do is any of your business--"

"Steve come in-- do you have visual yet, over?"

"Jesus Christ," Harrington reaches into the front seat of his car, yanks out a radio that has Wayne's eyebrows shooting up even as he approaches them, the impatient and anxious shift of Eddie's untied sneakers in the December slush. "Gimme a minute," he says into the walkie-talkie, "I told you I'd call when I did."

"Yeah, but it only takes you ten minutes to drive to her place and--"

Harrington shoves the antenna down and shuts the thing off, just as Wayne finally stops beside his nephew with a hand at his elbow.

"Everything alright here, boys?"

Wayne knows his kid, is the thing, so he knows the protective tension in the cross of those arms, the furrow of his brow, knows that Eddie is maybe seeing himself in Max Mayfield a little too fully on this night, dragged out of his bed by god only knows what to argue with a Harrington in the brisk wind of winter.

And Wayne knows his kid, so he recognizes the work of his jaw when he's about to burst out into a spiel to make himself the target instead of whoever he's put behind him this time around, but he doesn't get the chance to start before he's being interrupted.

"Steve, why are you harassing my neighbors."

Flat and unimpressed but shaky around the edges like she's not quite getting enough air, the orange glow of the light inside her trailer spilling out past her into the blue of night as Steve Harrington's legs all but give out with a breath of--

"Oh, thank god," he shuts the door to his car behind him as he takes a few steps closer to him, Eddie trailing like he's ready to literally put his body between them instead of just figuratively, "are you okay?"

"I'm not the one driving around town in the middle of the night, what are you doing here?" she crosses her arms, doesn't leave the cracked doorway at the top of the steps and Harrington doesn't try to climb them either.

And then it's a quick, well-punctuated punch of a conversation in which Wayne feels like he's missing about half the facts, standing by nonetheless.

"Lucas walkied."

"I told him I was fine."

"You called him at three A.M. and hung up on him without explanation," Steve points out surprisingly levelly.

"Yeah. After I told him I was fine."

"Max."

"I thought I wanted to talk about it and changed my mind."

"You know he'd listen."

"I can't-- you know I can't--"

"Yes you can."

"Not about him. Not to Lucas."

"To me, then," Steve throws his hands up in exasperation, and Wayne can feel something crackling in the air.

It's the same thing that had been there the first handful of times Eddie had picked a fight with Wayne after he first moved to Hawkins, looking for the line, looking for how far he could go before it all went to shit again.

Wayne knows this girl, even if he doesn't know her, because years ago he'd brought a boy with a buzzcut for a visit and he'd never left.

Which is maybe why he speaks up even though he knows how that boy would've reacted.

"If you need something, kiddo..."

"I need everyone to leave me alone," she snaps, striding out all the way onto the porch, only the bravado of it falters when the door slams shut behind her and she all but jumps out of her skin. "Fuck. God, shit, that door--"

She opens it again, yanks it nearly off its hinges just to slam it once more like she's trying to break the thing.

And now she's definitely not getting enough air. Now she's--

"Max, hey, alright--"

"Buddy, I dunno--"

"Back off, Munson, this is really not your business," Harrington shoves past Eddie and strides up the steps as Max slumps down onto the top one, arms wrapped around herself and Eddie looks ready to fight but Wayne just.

He doesn't know Steve Harrington, doesn't even really know his family beyond the way of small towns and knowing names and the neighborhoods in which they reside, but he knows a kid in distress leaning towards safety even if they don't believe they deserve it and Max Mayfield is leaning towards him.

Not Wayne, not Eddie, but this kid with the walkie-talkie and-- is he wearing two different shoes?

Wayne waits the compulsory moment to see Max really fall apart, right there into the fabric of Steve's coat as she keeps her hands tucked under her arms but catches her breath with that one point of contact-- forehead to shoulder-- as Steve speaks gently, words getting caught in the wind. As she stutters out rattling feelings right back.

"The door slammed when she left for work and I-- thought he was-- back again-- I thought-- and I shouldn't've-- not Lucas-- not for, for this--"

Wayne crosses the distance between him and Eddie, hand on his shoulder dragging him out of his own head, wherever it is he goes when his gaze goes glassy and tired like it does now in the gray glow of this place as the snow starts up again.

"You did good," Wayne murmurs, tugging Eddie back towards their own home, just across the way. "Good job, Ed, she's gonna be okay."

"She's..." Eddie clears his throat, looks so much younger than he is for a moment.

"Being looked after," Wayne says with a certainty he wouldn't have felt about the matter a day ago, Eddie following him listlessly back up the steps to the unlocked front door. "You did good."

"I didn't do anything," Eddie frowns, the pink of his cheeks and his nose practically glowing once they're inside.

"You showed her you've got her back," Wayne tells him without room for argument, pulling off his winter coat and moving to heat up water on the stove even as Eddie peeks through the curtains again, seemingly unable to accept that nothing bad is going to happen tonight.

Wayne can't be sure what put him in this state of mind, how he even got alerted to Harrington's arrival in the first place, but he knows he'll find his way back to solid ground soon enough.

Hot tea and warm clothes, when Wayne pulls Eddie away from the window, he catches sight of Steve speaking into the walkie with one hand and holding Max to rest against his shoulder with the other.

He'll make sure they get out of the cold before he goes to bed, but for now he has his own kid to sit with in the ghosts of past hauntings brought back to life for the night.

"We gotta keep an eye out for her," Eddie mutters as he accepts the mug Wayne hands him, feet tucked up under a blanket on the couch.

Wayne sits down next to him and props his tired feet up on the coffee table with a heavy breath.

"We will," he says, because he knows there's no discouraging Eddie now.

The kid learned his habit for picking up strays from somewhere, after all.

#dot post #dot fic #this was a three sentence thought that turned into 'oh wait I have feelings to share' so whoops #eddie munson #wayne munson #max mayfield #steve harrington #tw implied child abuse #I entered this fandom having feelings about max and eddie bonding and here I remain

1K notes · View notes

lighteyed · 4 months

Text

driving miss mayfield

steve harrington x fem mayfield!reader

[5.8k] steve gives you driving lessons, max gives you heat, you give yourself no time to daydream.

disclaimer- no mention of blood relation to max, no physical descriptors of reader, they are sisters in any way you want them to be.

“What do you mean you don’t know how to drive?” The disbelief in his words is almost as emphatic as the annoyance in yours, but he seems to be more disbelieving than you are annoyed at him, who could ever really be annoyed at him, so you let Steve gape at you and blink rapidly instead of telling him to mind his business.

You slurp down the rest of your soda from the general store in his passenger seat, shrugging, fighting to push down that urge to snap. Mayfield girls, you, Max, your mother when she wasn’t bogged down by a soul-sucking man-leech draining her lifeforce from her right before your eyes, had a less than lovely temper most of the time, and you tried very hard to keep it contained, especially around people who didn’t deserve it. It just felt like a ridiculous question. “I mean, why do you think I’m stuck drivin’ with Billy half the time? You think I get in that car willingly? You think Max gets in that car willingly?” You shake your head. “No way. If I had a license I would’ve been, like, halfway back to California the second you people started dragging me and Max into your science fiction monster crap.”

“As if she woulda let you,” Steve scoffs with a similar head shake, a lock of his hair falling nicely into place in the middle of his forehead. He swipes at it quickly. He has this ridiculous urge to never be anything less than perfect in front of you, you, who is perfect without effort, leading him to put even more effort into holding up this front for himself. “Besides, you’d miss this pretty face, right?” He points to himself, smiles, and waits for you to laugh. You do. It makes his heart constrict.

“Think you’d miss my pretty face, actually,” you snort, shoving your now empty shake in the cupholder.

“Yeah, I would,” he teases, just a little, just enough to make further attempts at breaking all that ice you’ve got protecting you, and he swears, he sees it crack the slightest amount, even though you don’t answer. You smile and stare down at your hands in your lap, twisting a mood ring around your finger and making sure you don’t look at him. He’ll take what he can get. “Well, anyhow,” he says, dramatically blowing air out of his mouth, the subject change swift and, in his opinion, a flawless execution, “I can’t in good conscience let you keep driving with him.”

“You already drive me and Max and all her friends everywhere, you don’t have to do anything else.” You don’t like being indebted to anyone. Even if it’s Steve, who insists on picking you up for school in the mornings and dropping you off in the afternoons and, if he’s free, taking you anywhere else you need to go. And he usually is free, because you, and the group of middle schoolers (almost high schoolers, to be fair) he’s adopted since he protected them from Billy and the Demodogs and the whole Mind Flayer debacle (you’re still fuzzy on the details, honestly) a few months ago, are his only friends nowadays, so it’s not like his schedule is packed and there’s no room to fit you in there. There’s more than enough room. If there wasn’t, he’d make it so. You both knew that.

“I love driving you,” he insists. “But the thing is, my dad’s cutting me off.”

“He’s what?”

“Like, you know, he’s gonna stop paying for my shit. I’m not goin’ to college and he thinks I’m a useless sack of nothing-“

“You are not a useless sack of nothing-“

“You tell that to him-“

“Take me there right now and I will-“

“Alright, alright, easy.” As much as he’d love to see you go toe to toe with his dad, and you’d be able to, he’s sure, he doesn’t want to talk about it any further than the basic facts of the situation. He’s not going to college therefore his dad has no reason to pay for anything he does anymore. His car insurance is his responsibility now, anything else he needs is up to him to to get, food, clothes, gas, if he has to go to the hospital he’s sure his dad would shove the medical bills onto him, too. He was like that, unfortunately for Steve. But it was one thing he could relate to you on. You had him slightly beat, though. You had two dads to complain about, both terrible in their own ways. Sam Mayfield: emotionally distant, didn’t bother to call, didn’t ask you to visit, too busy when you lived with him to spend any time with you anyway. And then, of course, there was Neil Hargrove: controlling, abusive, cold Neil Hargrove. How he’d charmed your mother into marrying him was a mystery to you and to Max, but you supposed, for as much as you loved her on principle because she was your mother and you pitied her and looked up to her all the same, she was easily charmed by men. It killed you a little more every time it happened, but this was the first time she’d actually brought him into your family, integrating them together in a way she thought would be seamless, but you and Max despised your stepbrother and he despised you both right back. “Point is, I’m gonna have to get a job, probably at that new mall they’re opening up-“

“Oh the horror-“ you feign a hand over your forehead and slump back in your seat- “Rich pretty boy Steve Harrington doing labor, at the fancy new mall, with those soft delicate hands of yours, whatever will you do-“

“Shut it,” he warns, but there’s a grin on his face anyway. “You just admitted I’m pretty, by the way.” He continues before you can dispute his claims. “I’m not gonna be around as much. So you need your license. Unless you wanna be stuck with Billy yelling in your ear all day long.” He pauses, thinking. “Which might make me kill him. So, actually, unless you want me to murder him in cold blood-”

“Please? I’m begging at this point,” you joke back.

“Let me get a word in would you?” He laughs and it sounds like music to you. You keep it to yourself. “I want you to be okay on your own. I don’t want him, y’know, hurting you guys, okay? So you need your license.” His words and his eyes go lovely and soft, all rounded ages, nothing jagged about them, just pure, undulated care and affection.

It makes you soften, too. You spend a lot of time looking after Max, it hits you hard when someone takes the time to look after you, too. “I don’t know, Steve, I wouldn’t be getting a car right after or anything, my job doesn’t pay enough, and we can just take the bus or something. I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

‘I’m teaching you to drive, and you can take my car wherever you need to go. I’ll come pick you up, we’ll go on over to wherever I’m working, drop me off, and then you go wherever you need to go and come back in time to pick me up.” He says it so easily, as if it’s the most obvious answer to your problems in the world. He doesn’t even fathom how much it means to you.

“You’d let me drive this?” You brace both your hands on the dashboard, your turn to stare at him in incredulity. His car is nice. It’s beautiful, really, and you don’t know much about cars. It’s classic and shiny and new. And expensive. Expensive being the operative word. Billy’s car is nice, too, and it’s about the only thing he takes care of other than his physique, which he thinks about obsessively, but you don’t think it’s anywhere as nice as Steve’s. Not in your opinion, anyway. The fact that Steve is nicer in personality (and looks, quite frankly) might make you biased, though. “I can’t afford to replace anything if I scratch it or crash it or if it explodes.”

“You won’t scratch, crash, or explode it, you’re gonna be learning from the best.”

“And who would that be?”

“Me, obviously. Welcome to your first driving lesson, I’ll be your instructor, Mr. Harrington, thank you for joining us Miss Mayfield.” He tips an imaginary hat toward you. You’re not sure what driving instructors wear hats but you let him have his fantasy anyway.

“Right now?” You can barely process what’s happening before he’s popping open his door, lanky legs sliding right out. He raps the hood of the car with his knuckles, ducking his head inside to look at you.

“Yes, right now, Mayfield, no time like the present.” He comes around to the side you’re on and opens door for you, ushering you out. He holds your hand to help you out of the car, entirely unnecessary but a smooth move nonetheless, and your hands fit together in a way that makes him want to keep them clasped like that forever. He ushers you into the driver’s seat with a quickness that almost gives you whiplash.

Your hands prop up on the wheel, uneasy. Your palms start to sweat. “I don’t like this,” you tell him. You take your hands off and wipe them on your jeans. They immediately dampen again. You’re afraid of leaving sweat prints all over his wheel and leaving a car-shaped hole in the side of the now abandoned Benny’s Burgers, the parking lot almost empty, save for the car that you are now responsible for. It’s eight o’clock on a school and work night, so naturally no one else was around and Hawkins may as well have been asleep.

“You haven’t even attempted to drive yet.”

“My hands keep slipping off the wheel,” you grasp for his hand and press yours against it, raising your eyebrows. “Do you feel the sweat?”

“Jesus, yeah.” He squeezes your hand with encouragement anyway. “You don’t have to be scared. I’m a much nicer driving teacher than anyone you could hire at the school. You’re in good hands. Great hands. The best ones. Perfect, amazing hands.”

Your eyes flick down to Steve’s hands. You have to agree. “I don’t even have a permit. You could get in trouble.”

“By who? Chief Hopper? Officer Callahan?” He nearly cackles at the notion. “You’ll be fine, don’t sweat it.”

“Bad choice of words.”

“Enough stalling, let’s get to the lesson.” He claps his hands together. His face retains a serious, focused quality to it. It’s very handsome (he’s always handsome and it kills you a little because you don’t have time to daydream). “Alright, hands here, and here,” he taps the wheel to show you the correct position. He thinks he might die if you connect your hands again. “That’s called the 10 and 2 position.”

“Why’s it called that?”

“I don’t know, it just is, doesn’t matter, that’s where they go so you have the best control for making turns and steering.” You do as he says. “Okay, so now, you have to relax.”

“Girls love hearing that, Steve,” you grind your teeth.

But your rigidity and discomfort is obvious, especially to you, and you know it can’t be natural to drive all scrunched up and tense like this. “You’ll be fine. You can’t be all stiff if you ever want to get comfortable doing this.”

“But I’m not comfortable.”

“Hence why we’re doing this, yeah?’

“I thought we were doing this so me and Billy don’t strangle each other.”

“That too. Can’t have my only friend dead. Then I’ll be stuck with all the kids by myself.”

“Can’t leave Max alone, either,” you say, more to yourself than to him. You think about her most of all. While you spend all this time with Steve, you worry over her all the time. You constantly check in to make sure she doesn’t feel left out. You fret about her being left alone with Billy. She occupies almost all of your thoughts.

“Never,” he agrees, even if you weren’t talking to him. You give him a thankful smile. His heart almost stops but he clears his throat to snap himself out of it. “Okay, now, let’s turn the key, turn the car back on.”

“Turning the key,” you nod, licking your lips. You turn the key in the ignition until the engine rumbles to life. The car vibrates in response. You hate it.

“Clutch pedal down with your left foot,” he says, pointing. You do as he says. “Move this,” he pats the gear stick, “into first gear, right here, left then up.” He watches you carefully, nodding back. “Good, okay, press down on the acceleration with your right foot now, gently,” he adds. He can tell by the furrow in your brow that you hate it. “You’re doing good,” he praises.

“Yeah, yeah, continue.”

“Now you gotta lift the clutch until you feel it vibrating, okay, then release the handbrake, keep slowly moving off the clutch until you’re moving with just the acceleration, okay?” He finds the deeply serious expression you’re wearing kind of endearing. “If it stalls we’re gonna start again, but don’t worry about it.”

But you don’t stall. The car moves as it should, with you controlling it, in the empty parking lot by the neighborhood park. “Great, great, almost perfect” he tells you, “we can probably go faster if you wanna try that-“

“No, we cannot,” you say tightly, your shoulders hunched.

The laugh he lets out makes your spine tingle. “You have to relax your face, I promise you’ll drive better if you’re not all… scrunched up,” he motions to your shoulder area.

You try. You roll them back as you keep focusing on the road, trying not to furrow your brows so much. You’ll get a permanent forehead wrinkle at this rate.

“See, there we go,” Steve reassures. Your let out a little huff, but your face goes placid, still. “Beautiful.” He’s not sure if he means to say it. If he should. He says it anyway.

You look sideways at him as you drive through the parking lot. You’re driving slow. Slower than slow. You’re practically inching along. “You can’t possibly be flirting with me right now.” It’s not that you don’t like it. You do. It hurts how much you do. If he wasn’t freshly single and you didn’t feel so obligated to focus most of your time on taking care of Max, you’d flirt back. You weren’t new to it or anything. You knew your way around a guy. Even a gorgeous one like Steve. But he was only a few months over Nancy and you saw the grimaces he did when she and Jonathan crossed his path. You weren’t sure if he was over her. Or if Max was comfortable and secure enough here to be a little more independent.

“I am not,” he scoffs. The blush creeping up his neck onto his cheeks betrays him. You shift your eyes to look at him again but he points, “eyes on the road, by the way.”

“You were flirting, you just can’t help yourself, can you? King Steve, right?” You snicker, recalling the nickname from when you’d first met him, the one that had been rescinded just as fast. It’s easy to hide the fact that you liked the way he said beautiful, like a caress, like a kiss, behind your banter and snark. Maybe it’s one thing you and Billy could have in common. Everything’s easier when you hide it behind an attitude.

“I wouldn’t say that stating a fact is… flirting,” he shrugs, flippant. At least, he hopes it appears flippant. You don’t give yourself much time to ponder this.

“It is when you say it in that voice,” you retort.

“Huh? What voice?” He balks at that. He does not put on a voice.

“Like, low and sultry,” you flick some hair away from your eyes. It had been the way he said it, after all.

“You think my voice is low and sultry?” His ears practically perk up like a puppy’s. You don’t answer. It’s actually all the answer he needs. “I think you’re the one flirting with me now, Mayfield, not the other way around.”

You scoff. You are scoffing and he is laughing away. “In your dreams, Harrington.”

“Every night.” The joke registers with that one but it still makes your stomach clench. Every butterfly in the western hemisphere makes its way into your gut and builds a home there, an uncontrollable influx of new neighbors, fluttering madly, demanding to be seen and known and understood. You understood them, you just didn’t want to. “See, now that, that was flirting,” he says, satisfied at your quiet. “And you sound like your stepbrother when you say my last name like that, by the way. Excellent Billy impression.”

You’re doing slow, lazy laps around the parking lot at this point, your nerves still present but for entirely different reasons now. “I do not sound like Billy.” You grimace. “And you probably shouldn’t be flirting with anyone when you just got out of a relationship, like, not even four months ago. I don’t think you’re ready to be flirting again.” You, again, are saying it more to yourself than to him. A subtle reminder of the predicament you’re in.

“Hence why I’m not flirting,” he informs you.

“Uh huh,” you say, unconvinced.

“But if I was-“

“Which you’re not-“

“Which I am not,” he agrees, “how would you feel? Just for, y’know, future reference.” He juts his lip out, wondering.

“Let’s circle back to that when you’re not still reeling from the Nancy incident.”

“Well,” he shifts around in his seat. He wouldn’t say he’s still reeling. Still hurt, sure. But hurt sticks around longer than heartbreak does. You can be hurt by something someone did and not still be heartbroken over them. He wouldn’t say he’s still heart broken. Looking at you, his heart feels very much intact. Nothing broken here, no, definitely not. “That’s why it’s for a hypothetical future reference.”

“Right, of course,” you slow the car to a stop. “Then I wouldn’t be opposed. Hypothetically.”

“You wouldn’t?”

“I wouldn’t.” But, you remember, suddenly, that it’s not just you that you look out for. “Once Max is all settled, of course.”

“Settled?”

“Like, y’know, feeling better about being here.”

“She’s got a massive group of friends she sees all the time.”

“I know, but-“

“You worry about her, I get it,” he places a hand on your knee, very light, not asking for anything. “Who worries about you? You should- you should be happy, too, is that crazy to say?”

You place your hand over his. “I’m happy. I’m happy, I promise. I don’t need you to worry about me, I’m okay.”

“You should do more things for yourself.”

“Like getting my license,” you gesture to the car.

“Like getting your license, yeah.” Like going on a date with me. Like letting me show you how serious I am about you.

“I’m okay how I am.”

“I’m making it my job to look out for you, y’know.”

You smile again. Very soft, almost embarrassed. You hated the attention being on you but you had to get used to it, being around him. “Yeah, Steve, I know.”

He’s diligent in his effort to give you driving lessons. He takes you driving almost every day after school, Max in the backseat if she’s not with her friends, both of them encouraging and kind even when you hit the curb more often than not. You were a good driver, for all intents and purposes, even though your palms still sweat every time you got behind the wheel. It was a gradual comfort process. They were less sweaty than the first time, and that had to count for something. You even get comfortable enough to drive through Main Street, which nearly sends you into a panic and leads to a shouting match between the two of you while you furiously honk your horn at the other people of Hawkins on the road, Steve slumped in his seat to avoid eye contact with everyone, but after that, you’re a pro.

A few weeks of this pass when he says to you, out of the blue as you drive aimlessly, “So, I set up your road test for you.”

You’re still not used to this whole looking out for you thing he’s got going on. You almost stop the car short. “Did you really?”

“I think you’re ready. You’re great, you’ll pass easily.”

“You think?” You’re typically confident, strong-willed, but sometimes he sees those flickers of insecurity crop up and he attempts to smother that right then and there.

“For sure,” he nods. “They’ll be begging you to be on the road.”

“You flatter me.”

“You deserve it.” His eyes, his smile, trained on you, always, is devastating. Maybe you do. Maybe you do.

At your dinner table that night, you, Max, your mom, Neil, and Billy, Max does what she should never do in front of Neil or Billy, and that’s open her mouth.

Billy had been going on about how he was sick of being the chauffeur, even though he really wasn’t anymore, and that if he was going to get a job this summer before college like Neil wanted you two would have to learn to get around on your own, because he can’t be responsible for two people if he also had to be responsible for a job.

“She’s getting her driver’s license tomorrow,” she jerks her head toward you, a proud, beautiful smile on her face, and you want to drag her by the hair into your shared bedroom to ask why in the world she’d ever tell that to everyone and also give her the biggest hug for the evident pride she takes in the fact that you’re independent and doing things on your own and she looks up to you so, so much. You bite your lip as Neil’s fork scrapes noisily across his plate. “And Steve’s been driving us around anyway, so I don’t know what you’re going on about-“

You interrupt her with a hard, socked foot coming down on her own. Your eyes go wide and your head tilts in her direction, a please oh please stop talking expression.

“Who has been driving you, exactly?” Neil asks, eyebrows raised.

“My friend from school, it’s no big deal,” you answer, staring down at your plate and then back up at him. His cold gaze is fixated on you.

“What happened to the agreement we had?” Neil turned his sneer to Billy, rendered speechless by Max’s unexpectedly bold statement. Billy then glares at you, and you really don’t want an argument, so you cut in.

“It’s only sometimes, like once a week, and he doesn’t drive us to school, he drives us home. Rarely. Rare occasions. I promise.” A lie, flowing easily from your lips, and because Neil thinks you’re a smart, good girl, and his son is always up to no good and lying, he relaxes, and so does Billy, though you’ll get no thanks from him, not now, not ever.

“Well, who’s been teaching you to drive where you feel ready to take your test?” Neil stretches across the table to get another helping of the meal your mother prepared from the middle of the table.

“Steve, when we’re both free.” Every day.

And because Billy can’t let you have anything, because he needs to instantly make you regret ever doing anything nice for him, he says, “I’m not a big fan of this Steve guy.”

“Hm, and why’s that?” Neil continues eating.

“It’s a petty high school rivalry,” you interrupt, narrowing your eyes at him.

“He’s got a reputation with girls, you know. I wouldn’t want to see something bad happen to you.” Billy’s stupid grin eats shit. The feigned care makes your skin crawl.

“What sort of reputation is that? You shouldn’t be hanging out with that sort of person,” Neil frowns. Again, with that feigned care. It’s not about genuine worry for you. It’s about control. Dominance. You won’t fall for it.

“It’s all rumors. He had a serious girlfriend for a year. And we’re not together, anyway. He’s my friend.”

“Guys all want the same thing,” Billy says back.

“How would you know?” You push, nearly slamming your hands on the table.

“I’m friends with the basketball team, there’s locker room talk, you get the picture.” He continues smiling in that mocking way of his that makes you want to jump across the dining room and put your fork through his eye.

“You don’t actually know anything, though, do you, considering you’re not friends with him?”

“I think I know enough to know that this isn’t the type of person my sister should be associating with-“

That gets you going most of all, which is giving him exactly what he wants, and you can’t help it. “We are not siblings-“ your chair drags across the floor with a loud screech as you remove yourself from the table, just as Neil is telling you both to settle down.

“C’mon, honey, sit back down, you can hang out with whoever you want, I’m sure this boy is very nice,” Susan coaxes you gently but you don’t even look at her, too caught up with the fact that it’s all her fault you’re here in this place with these people, these strangers, that you hate so deeply it makes your bones ache.

“’M done eating, going to my room,” and you don’t care how annoyed it makes Neil that you’ve gotten up before he’s finished eating, which has become practice in this house now, you can’t even celebrate the fact that you’re achieving a milestone, getting your license, God damn it, without it turning into the Billy Hargrove one man show. He makes everything, everything, hurt.

Max comes in a little while later, her footsteps light and hesitant on the floor. She crawls into your bed even though hers is across the room and she hasn’t slept beside you since your first night here.

“Are you mad at me?” She asks. Her eyes are big and blue, worried.

“’Course not.” You smooth her hair back. You’re not mad at her, truly. It’s not her fault Billy ruins everything. “I know you were just trying to get back at him for his complaining. S’not your fault, lovie.”

“I should’ve known it would turn into that,” she frowns, uneasy. “It always turns into that.”

“You don’t have to know anything. You should be allowed to say whatever you want to our parents, that’s what they’re there for. Don’t worry your pretty head about it.” You boop her nose with the tip of your finger. You’ve been sulking in your room because of him, not her.

“Can I ask you something?” You’re face to face with each other, both your heads lying on your pile of pillows, hair fanned out behind you. Her expression is earnest and endearing.

“Always.”

“I thought you and Steve were dating already.”

You hesitate. “That’s not a question.”

“Okay,” she rolls her eyes. There’s no malice behind it. “Why aren’t you dating?”

You crinkle your nose, dismissive. “Because, I’m- I’m, like, busy, with stuff, and he’s not over Mike’s sister and I just, I don’t wanna get mixed up with some silly boy.”

She admires your dismissive attitude toward boys, and it might be why she breaks up with Lucas every other week in exasperation with his boyish faults. She just thinks it’s crazy that you have this attitude when a guy like Steve is the one following you around with shiny looks and dreamy smiles. She’s sure that you’d never deny Steve, who, when she observed you both from the backseat, did everything in his power to make you feel comfortable, safe, secure, was kind to her while also maintaining a brotherly banter, something she thought she was getting when Billy had been introduced to her, was funny, and generous. He was always letting you drive his car and buying you both food and making sure you had a ride somewhere if you needed it. And she drove her and her friends around everywhere even if you weren’t there, too. Steve seemed perfect.

He was easy on the eyes, too, but it brought a hot flush to Max’s cheeks to admit that, so she never would.

“He’s not a silly boy, he’s Steve.”

“A boy is just a boy no matter who he is, you know that.”

“Yeah, but,” she huffs, indignant, “he really likes you. I bet he’d go out with you if you asked.”

“I’m not asking him out, and he doesn’t like me like that. He’s a good friend. And I told you, I’m too busy for him.”

“Busy with what?” She cries, exasperated. “Busy driving with Steve, busy doing homework with Steve, busy getting dinner with Steve, busy-“

She’s running out of fingers to write her list on. You grab her hand to stop the count. “I get your point.”

“You can’t be too busy for someone if you already spend so much time with them, is all I’m saying.” She has a point. You scratch your arm absentmindedly. “What’s the real reason?”

“What real reason? You’re saying that’s not the real reason?”

“Definitely not the real reason.”

“Says who?”

“Says your best friend.”

You sigh at her, a loving sound. “Oh, yeah, her.” You run a hand through her hair again. The softness of it soothes you. “I don’t wanna leave you alone.”

She pokes your cheek. “I’m not alone. I have my friends.”

“Didn’t you hear that we’re best friends? I can’t leave you in the dust.” It’s more playful than you really feel. You don’t want to burden her by unburdening yourself, relaying all your fears about what would happen if you spent more time with Steve, things like her resenting you, something awful happening between her and Billy, her getting hurt, injured, killed, your brain delved into all sorts of dark, terrible places, and these spiraling thoughts led to one conclusion: you would never, ever, let your focus waver from her. “I take care of you, okay? I don’t have the time to think about anything else. Besides, he might not even be over Nance, remember?”

“He is. He is over her. I promise,” she insists, placing her hands on your arms. “He looks at you like he’s in love, I’ve seen it!”

“You don’t know what you’re seeing, babe-“

“I do.” She shoves herself off your bed, your hand, where it was twined in her hair, falling back onto the covers. You sit up, confused, as she stomps off to her own bed.

“Are you mad at me right now?” You ask.

“I’d be happy if you were happy.”

“Max, stop, I am happy-“

“Not happy enough. He’s nice. You should just go out with him. Stupid to worry about me all the time.” She flicks off her lamp light and turns away from you toward her wall. You sigh. You think. Your stomach twists itself in a knot you don’t want to think about. Eventually, when her stubbornness about it overrides yours, you turn back toward your own wall and turn out your own light. Your eyes strain from trying not to cry, so eventually, you cave in to that, too.

Your hands shake at your road test the next day. For a multitude of reasons. You look at Steve differently, with your head tilted toward him like the head of a flower tilts toward the sun, waiting and wanting. You’re running over all the ways it could go wrong. You resign yourself to never doing a thing about it.

He notices your quiet, so unlike yourself, and attributes it to your nerves about the test. He rubs your shoulders, an attempt to hype you up. “You got this, okay? You’re gonna kill it. You’re gonna be the second best driver in Hawkins.”

“Lemme guess, you’re the first?” It’s the first smile you’ve cracked all day and he takes it as the victory it is.

“Well it’s certainly not Billy,” he rolls his eyes. “Seriously, how you feelin’?” He spins you around and the gaze he bores into you is too intense to bear. You look away fervently.

“Fine, ‘m fine, nervous, but fine, should be good, my driving instructor was excellent.” He beams with pride at that, a blinding flash.

“World renowned, I heard,” he brags.

“Let’s see if I pass first.”

“You will,” he says. Confident, assured. It makes you feel assured in turn.

And you do. You pass. By a hair, truth be told, but you pass. It thrills you, clutching the paper declaring your triumph in your fist, walking outside to greet Steve who leans against the hood of his car in his devastating way of his, hands shoved deep in his pockets as he taps his foot in wait. When he sees you come out, he brightens, straightening himself out.

“What’s the verdict?” He asks.

You wave the paper around. “I passed!” You can’t fake it for a second, your joy at this little bit of freedom absolutely inescapable. He lets out a loud, thrilled whoop for you, and his joy brings you even more of it. He picks you up off the ground and spins you in a circle, and when you’re back on the sidewalk, steady, he envelopes you in a deep, encompassing hug.

When he hugs, his whole body goes into it, if that makes any sense. He throws his all into it. There’s no hesitancy, no timidity, he’s not ashamed of it in the slightest. He hugs you, hard. He’s that proud. And he likes holding you. You pull away first and he’s not surprised.

“Proud of you,” he squeezes you arm again.

“Couldn’t have done it without, Steve, really. You- you’re the best, y’know that?”

He decides to push his luck. “Good enough to go on a date with?” He can see already that you’ll say no. That you want to say yes but you’re going to say no. He doesn’t care. He’ll wait until you’re sick of him.

“You don’t wanna go out with me,” you squeeze his arm back.

“You’re real silly, you know that?” His voice is warm and awfully fond.

You can’t bring yourself to let him all the way in just yet. You walk with him back to the car and agree with him. Yes, you’re real silly, indeed.

#if u have requests for more mayfield reader content. pls hit me up. i am in fact begging.#steve harrington x reader #steve harrington x mayfield!reader #steve harrington #steve harrington x you #steve harrington x y/n #steve harrington fic #steve harrington imagine #steve harrington fluff #STEVE CROWD WAKE THE FUCK UP #mayfieldreaderverse

248 notes · View notes

dwobbitfromtheshire · 10 months

Text

After getting adopted by the Sinclairs:

Steve to Max: What are your intentions with my brother?

Max: I intend to teach him how to skateboard and laugh when he falls.

Steve: Okay, I was just making sure. I expected nothing less.

Lucas: Seriously?

Max: And what are your intentions as a big brother?

Steve: I intend to play basketball with Lucas and gossip with Erica about Tina.

Max: I expected nothing less.

Erica: I expect a little bit more. You're also going to let me do your hair and makeup without whining about it.

Steve: . . . Fine.

#stranger things #steve harrington #joe keery #lucas sinclair #caleb mclaughlin #erica sinclair #priah ferguson #sue and charles sinclair #steve gets adopted by the sinclairs #max mayfield #sadie sink #lumax

120 notes · View notes

fantasticallyfruity4 · 1 year

Text

Okay idk abt where y’all are from but my local HS had a paramedic on site for football games at all times.

And considering we’re all down bad for paramedic Steve rn, this feels like a great au (Also, has to be punk Steve bc like, it’s me come on, I want to give Eddie a heart attack.)

Lucas decides he wants to try out for football fall of sophomore year and the part is, begrudgingly supportive.

And max and Dustin are on marching band, so they’re at the games to. And Mike and el and will and Jonathan are just there on the basis of comradely and good friendly support. And of corse Eddie and his van have to be the kids chief mode of transport.

And Eddie doesn’t meet paramedic Steve (cute paramedic Steve with the lip ring and the nose ring and the eyebrow stud) because poor sweet little Lucas got squished by some freak out on the field, or bc his good friend chrissy took a hell of a tumble coming down from a cheer and he’s such a worried friend fussing over her like a mother hen, or bc somehow someway Dustin got whacked in the nose by a flute.

No, he does this all by himself. All his own brilliance. He went to check on the Byers + co contingency before going back to hovering over his little band babies + his two accidentally adopted jocks, and takes a fucking header off the bleachers. Clears a good 3 feet if he doesn’t say so himself.

So sweet pretty paramedic Steve of corse rushes over to him in an instant, sitting him up against the side bleachers, shining a light in his eyes, asking where he is, when it is, his name, and they’ve got a little crowd of the byers + wheeler + the little Mayfield and Henderson but Steve’s paying them no attention and Eddie doesn’t even see them.

The paramedic introduces himself as Steve, he says “I’m Steve and I’m gonna make sure that you’re feeling okay tonight, okay sir?” And eddie nods dumbly.

And Eddie is answering sure, but he’s really making Steve worried bc he’s so wide eyed and taking a second to answer and it’s just worry some (he’s having a very in love mental breakdown, okay, let him be. He’s speed running visions of a life together. He’s understanding what “love at first sight” means for the first time in his life.). He’s got a the man he didn’t even know was in his dreams fussing over him. He’s going to explode.

“If I knew I’d have such a cute paramedic I’d have fallen off that wayyyy earlier tonight” Eddie says then slams his mouth shut and goes wide eyed in horror. Steve just laughs, a beautiful sound. Not at Eddie, no it doesn’t feel taunting, it’s a beautiful sweet sound.

“We’ll, if you’re thinking clearly enough to hit on me I think you’re heads definitely okay. Do you have a headache at all? Any dizzyness? You took a hell of a header, Eddie.”

Eddie shakes his head. “No just like my actual nose hurts from smacking into the dirt”.

Steve nods. “May I?” “Corse man it’s your job”.

Steve chuckles. “Stop making me laugh man, I’m on the clock. Does this hurt?” “No” Eddie answers in the most nasally voice with Steve’s fingers still squeezing his nose and he wants to die because what was that sound? But Steve just smiles softly. “Good, awesome. No pain? Breathing okay?”. Eddie nods dumbly. “So I’m gonna bet it’s just sore from smacking into the dirt, not broken.”.

Eddie nods dumbly. Again. For the 20th time that night. He can’t function. “So why don’t we just get these cuts here cleaned up?” Steve decides, reaching into his bag for a million supplies. “Think I’m gonna get any cool scars?” “Nah sorry man, not with these little guys. But it’s for the best, why mess with perfection anyway, right?” Steve winks dabbing some shit that BURNS on Eddie’s cheek before putting on a bandaid and Eddie might be going into cardiac arrest.

“I like your uh, piercings” Eddie spurts out like an idiot.

Steve grins. “Thanks. Got a peak of those bats when I first came over, got any more?”. Eddie snorts a laugh. “Yeah a shit ton. Nothing easy to see though my uncle would hang me if I made myself any less hirable”. Steve chuckles at that. “Hey man the whole f-d is all old military dudes covered in their shitty navy tats, i wouldn’t be too worried.” “Oh so there’s more where this came from? Maybe I should fall more” Eddie taxes, just a little. “Watch it” Steve chuckles.

“Okay I think you’re pretty patched up, handsome. But considering everything don’t drive tonight, especially if you have passengers. You have a ride home? Someone to call?” “Yeah I’ll just make it one of my friend Jonathan’s problem, that’s fine”.

“Okay, good” Steve nodded, taking out a small pen and pad from his pocket and writing something. “And this friend Jonathan… he’s not a boyfriend, right?”.

Eddies jaw fucking drops. Literally drops. He’s going to spontaneously combust. “Nah, no, nope man” he stutters out. “Okay, gotcha. If anything starts hurting tonight, if you get dizzy, any nose bleeds, give me a call. Or… you know, when you’re feeling better give me a call too”. He hands eddie the piece of paper with a smiley face and the name ‘Steve (the paramedic)’ with 10 scrawled numbers on it, as he stands up, offering eddie a hand up himself.

Eddie doesn’t want to think about the strength steve has that this that easy to lug his 160 pounds of trailer trash ass up. Or how he feels about what looks like the singular inch steve has on him, even in his boots.

#steddie #paramedic steve harrington #paramedic steve #punk steve harrington #punk steve

587 notes · View notes

lesbianjackies · 2 years

Text

Dungeons & Dragons

Eddie Munson x Fem!Mayfield!Reader

Word Count: 1,220

Warnings: Language

Summary: Eddie invites you to play Dungeons & Dragons with him.

A/N: I have no self-control apparently. Also, it's not explicitly said but in my mind the reader is adopted; I don't want anyone to feel uncomfortable because they don't look like the character who is the reader's sibling :)

General Taglist: @gg-is-a-loser @yesshewrites1

Moots: @spidervee @iheardarumorthings @thewritingbabe @scandalous-chaos @ddejavvu @winterwisteria @abibliophobiaa @roxetteblack

The hellish beeping of your alarm clock awoke you. You groaned, scrambling for the snooze button with your eyes still closed. You heard a crash and sat up in annoyance, glaring at your still-beeping alarm clock, which was now on the floor. You slid out of bed and turned it off, slamming it back on your dresser.

“I was having such a good dream, and you ruined it!” you scolded the clock.

“(Y/N), stop talking to your alarm clock and get up!” your sister yelled, banging on your door.

You groaned, taking off the shirt you’d slept in and pulling on a white button-up and overalls. You stumbled out of your room, still in the middle of pulling on your sneakers. You ran into the bathroom and quickly brushed your teeth and splashed some water over your face. You hastily brushed your hair, grabbed a granola bar and your backpack, and ran out the door. Max was already in the car.

“I’m going, I’m going!” you said, noticing her annoyance. You started the car and headed to school, going as fast as you could without going over the speed limit. You pulled into the Hawkins High parking lot just in time. Max opened the door, slammed it shut, and ran as fast as she could inside. “A thank you would be nice!” you called, running after her.

She flipped you off.

You rolled your eyes and walked into pre-calc.

“Miss Mayfield,” Mrs. Brown addressed you coolly. “Late. Again.”

You grinned at her. “At least I’m here.”

Mrs. Brown scowled and turned to the chalkboard, carrying on with her lesson. You tuned her out and focused on reading your book underneath your desk.

Something hit your head. “Psst. Mayfield.”

You turned around to see Eddie Munson grinning at you. You tilted your head in question.

“So y’know my D&D club?” he whispered.

You nodded.

“Cool, so, we’re short a member, and you seem pretty cool, so I was wondering if - “

“Oh my gods, yes!” you squealed.

Mrs. Brown glared at you.

“Sorry,” you called, wincing.

She shook her head, grumbling, and went back to teaching.

“Oh my gods, yes!” you whispered to Eddie, who laughed.

“Great. I’m assuming you know where to meet me, considering I live right across the street from you.”

You giggled and nodded. “Yeah, see you then. Thanks for inviting me.”

He waved you off, smiling. “See you then, Mayfield.”

💗👛💗👛💗👛💗👛💗👛💗👛💗👛💗👛💗👛💗👛💗👛💗

“You invited who!?” Mike stared at Eddie, mouth open.

“(Y/N) Mayfield,” Eddie repeated.

Mike and Dustin stared at him.

“What? She’s cool.”

“I mean… kind of, I guess. But she’s Max’s sister. That’s weird.”

“How?”

Mike struggled for a response. “It’s just… I don’t know!”

“Whatever.” Eddie took a bite of his food. “I like her.”

Dustin’s eyes widened. “Oh my gosh, you like her. You have a crush on her, don’t you!”

Eddie shrugged. “Maybe. I dunno. I just think she’s cool.”

Dustin grinned. “Oh, I am gonna be the best wingman ever.”

Eddie made a face. “Please no.”

Dustin patted his shoulder. “Too late, man. Too late.”

💗👛💗👛💗👛💗👛💗👛💗👛💗👛💗👛💗👛💗👛💗👛💗

“You’re doing what!?” Max stared at you, mouth open.

“I’m going to a D&D thing with Eddie Munson and his friends,” you repeated.

“With Lucas? And Mike and Dustin?”

You shrugged. “Yeah.”

“Ugh, why are you so lame?” Max groaned.

“Hey!” You put your hands on your hips. “I am your cool big sister!”

Max gave you a look.

“I am your big sister!”

Max rolled her eyes. “Why do you even want to do this?”

“Because I wanna play D&D! And because Eddie’s cool.” You fidgeted nervously.

“Oh my fucking - “ Max put her face in her hands. “This is about your crush on Eddie Munson.”

“What!? I don’t have a crush on Eddie Munson!” You lied.

She gave you another look.

“Okay, so I have a crush on Eddie Munson, but that’s only part of it,” you insisted.

She waved her hand, walking away. “I’m gonna watch TV.”

“Love you too!” You yelled after her. She didn’t respond.

💗👛💗👛💗👛💗👛💗👛💗👛💗👛💗👛💗👛💗👛💗👛💗

You made your way over to Eddie’s at 5:00. He opened the door with a grin and dramatically welcomed you inside.

“Am I early?” you asked, noticing you were the only one there.

“Nah.” He shook his head. “Just gives us time to work on your character.”

“Okay!” You smiled.

Fuck, she’s cute. Eddie shook off the thought and led you into the basement. You sat down and he handed you a piece of paper. “Okay, so this is a character sheet. It has stuff like your character’s name, their stats, their skills… well, you can just look at it.”

He watched as you looked over the sheet, biting your lip the way you always did when you were focused. Why did he notice that? He shook his head and leaned over your shoulder, clearing his throat. “Okay, so the first thing you wanna figure out is your character’s race. There are like, a lot of them, but - “

“Can I be a fairy?” You covered your mouth. “Sorry, I just totally interrupted you.”

He laughed. “No, no, you’re fine. Yeah, you can be a fairy. Fairies tend to be chaotic good or chaotic neutral, and class wise they tend to lead toward being rogues and bards.”

You nodded slowly. “Okay, so what are those things? Gods, I’m so sorry, I probably shouldn’t have agreed to do this without knowing anything about D&D.”

“No, don’t worry about it. Rogues are scoundrels who use stealth and trickery to overcome their obstacles and enemies, and bards are musical magicians who are basically just really annoying and like to sing and seduce people.”

“Okay, I wanna be a chaotic good bard fairy,” you giggled.

“Nice, nice.” Eddie jotted it down. “Um, so now we can figure out your name and appearance and stuff.”

“Okay.”

Eddie walked you through the rest of creating your character; you were a fast learner and a fun person to be around and Eddie honestly didn’t want the rest of the party to get there. “Hey, can I ask you something?” he said suddenly.

“Yeah, sure.”

He bit his lip. “Do you wanna… do something with me?”

You cocked your head. “Do something?”

“Like… like get food or hang out or something. Like… a date.”

A grin bloomed across your features. “Absolutely.”

You leaned forward and pecked him on the lips. Eddie blinked, then pulled you close and kissed you again. “I really like you, (Y/N),” he whispered against your lips.

You smiled. “I really like you too.”

“OH MY GOSH, EDDIE AND (Y/N) ARE MAKING OUT!”

The two of you jerked away from each other, red-faced. Mike, Lucas, and Dustin were staring at you, open-mouthed.

“Go away,” Eddie groaned.

“I thought we were gonna play D&D!”

You smiled, biting your lip. “We are. Right, Eddie?”

“Y- Yeah. Yeah.” Eddie cleared his throat and took his spot at the head of the table. “You ready?” he asked you softly.

“Definitely.” You clasped his hand under the table and Eddie smiled.

“This is gonna be torture,” Lucas whispered under his breath.

“Shut up, Sinclair.” Eddie cleared his throat and began the game, eyes on you as his voice lowered dramatically.

Never before have you been glad that you went to pre-calculus.

#eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x you #eddie munson x y/n #eddie munson x fem!reader #eddie munson x f!reader #eddie munson x mayfield!reader #eddie munson imagine #eddie munson fluff #eddie munson oneshot #eddie munson blurb #eddie munson drabble #eddie munson fanfiction #eddie munson fanfic #eddie munson fic #eddie munson

2K notes · View notes

queenie-ofthe-void · 23 days

Text

A Desperate Fool pt 2

written for @steddiemicrofic

Prompt: 'top' | wc: 510 | rated: T | cw: hurt/no comfort (comfort is coming I promise!), mentions of child abandonment, breakup fic, AU-Modern Rockstar!Eddie

This is a direct follow-up to my April submission A Desperate Fool

~~~

“Hey, Teddy Bear!”

Eddie quickly scans for the voice piercing the buzzing swarm of paparazzi outside his home. It’s a cold winter night, yet after his public outburst with Robin a week ago and the ensuing onslaught of viral videos, they never seem to leave. Attention that used to have him feeling on top of the world now only leaves him feeling like the scum of the earth.

The overtly personal nickname rings through his memories, filling him with hope and dread in equal measure.

If I’m your baby, Eds, then you’re my Teddy Bear.

A swath of red hair and a high fade catch his gaze against the light snowfall. The boy’s usual charming smile’s been replaced with a cold stare, while she’s actively scowling. Eddie rushes through the crowd, excited to see them after so long despite the circumstances. He pulls them into the safety of his home, slamming the door behind them.

“Did you honestly think Steve was the only person you abandoned?” Max asks, before Eddie can even say hello.

Abandoned. A low blow, throwing Eddie’s childhood in his face, at least before he was adopted in all but name by the Wheeler’s. But coming from Max, he thinks maybe it’s fair play. She’s always been more Harrington than Mayfield, Lucas too. Out of the bunch, they’ve always been Steve’s kids.

“Mike had to go back to therapy! Nancy actually cried,” she spits, pacing the foyer while Lucas stands stoic by the door.

“I didn’t think they’d-” Eddie starts before he’s interrupted.

“What? That your family wouldn’t be upset, feel as betrayed as Steve?” Lucas finally speaks up. “So when you bragged about outgrowing your roots, that wasn’t supposed to mean us too?”

Eddie shrinks in on himself. He’s being admonished in his own home, and he knows he deserves it. He knows, truly. He just can’t handle the overwhelming aches of guilt and regret, which pang louder with each disappointed loved one. Another reminder he’d surrounded himself with people who only care about Metal Munson.

He’s foolishly desperate to win back his family, people who loved him for himself. He wants to be Eddie again. His baby’s Teddy Bear.

“What-” he tries again, forcing words around the growing knot in his throat and watery eyes. He’s cried so much lately. “Why are you here?”

Max eyes him skeptically, glancing at Lucas and sharing a look Eddie can’t decipher. They make a silent decision, and she moves to stand by her husband at the door.

“Steve’s getting married this summer,” she states, like it’s nothing. Like it’s not the end of Eddie’s world.

The tears fall, then. He loses control of a sob before he gets his voice back. “To who?” he pitifully asks, pretending he actually wants to know.

“You don’t know her,” Lucas replies.

Her. Her. Herherherher.

“Oh,” Eddie says softly. He can’t stop shaking, or is the earth quaking beneath him.

Max sighs, sympathetic, and rips his world open further still.

“Steve wants to talk, but you’ll have to get through Nancy first.”

~~~

I SWEAR it's gonna get better!!! Some solid Eddie and Nancy comfort coming up next. Think I might keep adding on to this fic via prompts only but we'll see.

#eddie is officially a wheeler sibling in this fic #hurt/no comfort (but the comfort IS IN FACT on it's way)#rockstar eddie munson #modern au #steddie breakup #eddie munson whump #steddie microfic #steddie ficlet #steddie prompt #eddie munson #hurt/no comfort #max mayfield #lucas sinclair #lumax #steve and max #steve and max is still my favorite thing #QueenieWritesStories

37 notes · View notes

space-invading-pigeon · 2 years

Text

Monsters AU, anyone????

If you haven't already guessed it, Steve Harrington is my comfort character and almost everything I write lately has to do with him. But I love myths and monsters, so I mashed them up.

Steve is a werewolf; not always, but an incident when he was four changed him. His mother blames herself for his accident and tends to stay away from him, too overcome with guilt to even look at her son. Unfortunately, of all things, he was changed into a pack animal, and the loss of his mother's comfort has a negative effect. He's withdrawn, aggressive, unable to get comfortable in his own skin, all before even starting kindergarten- his only relief is when his mother hires an old friend to watch him. Her friend is from the supernatural world: the oldest son of a family of vampires that have lived in the United States since they stowed away on the Mayflower.

Steve and his new babysitter are instantly bonded: Steve goes back to being a sweet, albeit clingy, little angel, and his sitter is always more than happy to indulge him and shower him in love. Life is really looking up for Steve, to the point that he secretly refers to himself as "Stevie Munson," and dreams up a world where Wayne is his pa, instead of his actual father. But life is rarely kind to Steve, and soon his beloved Wayne has to leave town for an undetermined amount of time because of a "family emergency." Steve is heartbroken that he isn't allowed to go with him.

As if losing his sitter isn't enough, Steve's mother dies in a robbery-gone-wrong on Steve's ninth birthday, five years to the day after the attack that changed him. Richard Harrington can't be assed to take care of his son in her stead, and hires another sitter. Claudia Henderson (human, through and through) decides on her first day that Steve is as much her son as Dustin, and that only solidifies when she discovers that the poor baby her late husband attacked years ago was actually Steve. Dustin (a born werewolf as opposed to Steve, a changed werewolf) decides that Steve is his brother immediately, and it's like two puppies have found each other. Steve is protective, loving, and maybe a little bit possessive of his new brother, but Dustin has love to spare. As he grows from toddler to kid to preteen, he acquires more and more friends: first, Will Byers, from a family of light elves, who is shy and artistic and never cuts off one of Dustin's excited rants, even though they're both seven and Dustin's grasp of engineering is on par with a college undergrad. With Will comes Mike Wheeler and his older sister, Nancy, both of whom are descendants of the great Valkyrie. Nancy is a little more.... ethereal than Mike, because their Valkyrie blood is more prominent in women, but they're both stubborn and snarky and have a weird obsession with the Byers boys, but Dustin swears that they're both very nice. Lucas Sinclair comes around soon after, and he's really the only friend of Dustin's that Steve has actually met. He's a soft-spoken kid until he's comfortable, and then he's quick witted and so loyal that Steve actually thinks that maybe he's a werewolf, instead of a chimera.

Steve refuses to meet anyone else in Dustin's friend group; he says it's because he's too big to be around Dustin's friends, but it's actually because he doesn't think that he can be around them without lashing out for taking his baby brother away from him.

When Dustin is eleven and Steve is seventeen, Chief Hopper- the only Berserker in Hawkins- adopts a little witch named Jane, although she answers more to El than she does Jane. Soon after, Max Mayfield moves to town, and Dustin's little group of friends adds the banshee to their ranks.

Finally, Steve agrees to meet his friends, lovingly dubbed "the Party" by every member of it. They're wary of Steve at first- Richard Harrington is the most outspoken anti-supernatural in town, and they didn't know that Dustin's Big Brother Steve the Werewolf was actually Steve Harrington, so almost all of them are sure that they'll be harassed in their safe space. Steve is quiet for a while, yes, but Will and El take to him immediately, and Steve is weak for people who look at him like he's worth something (it's why he's such a pushover for Dustin and Claudia; they love him unconditionally and he will do anything to make himself feel worthy of that) so he adopts Will and El into his little family almost immediately.

Will and El adore Steve: El insists that he's a big, fluffy puppy, and her descriptions have never been wrong, so it makes the entire Party warm up to him. Will is painfully shy, and the speed with which he warms up to Steve is unheard of; but Will quite literally glows when Steve shows up, and even once he's calmed down the air around him glitters with his excitement. Steve takes to them both; at first, Dustin is over the moon at this.

Next to warm up to Steve is Lucas, a few weeks after Steve joins the Party. He's frosty toward Steve at first, but at a group movie night he watches Steve jump out of a dead sleep to jump out of a window and slam into a tree, face first (apparently, he'd been having a dream about a cheese monster trying to eat his toes). Then, Jonathan and Nancy, who both watch Steve with the kids and decide that, yes, they do have a crush on the sweet, dumb dog that's joined their ranks. Nancy asks him out first, though, and Steve is flustered enough that he agrees (and is almost instantly smitten with her). Mike refuses to warm up to Steve; the guy can't even breathe right, as far as Mike is concerned.

The longer that Steve and Nancy date, the angrier Dustin gets. He feels like he's being left behind. Steve spends more and more time with Nancy, at her behest. Neither of them realize how unhealthy their relationship is growing to be, just how the relationship between Nancy's parents are. Nancy demands that everything be held to a certain standard, and Steve does everything he possibly can to meet that standard. It isn't until Nancy dumps him- a very nasty affair that has Steve avoiding everyone except Dustin- that they actually grow as people and become something healthier to each other. (Just like in the show, they get into a fight at a party, and when they revisit it while sober, they fight again; Steve is hurt and wants to know if she really thinks he's bullshit, and Nancy won't give him a straight answer. He's upset and he can feel himself losing control of himself, so he walks away. Nancy leaves town on an overnight trip to get some info with Jonathan, and when she comes back, she spits vitriol at a panicked, concussed Steve. She does a lot of growing up after that, but she never actually apologizes for hurting Steve, although he frequently tries to "make up" for his own mistakes.

Max joins the group soon after that, and gets along with Steve almost immediately. She's a young banshee, and a part of her lore explains that she screams; she can't control when, how long, or even how loudly she screams, and as a result her step-brother (a human named Billy) is incredibly abusive. He belittles her for her Screams, and isn't afraid to shove her around (never where their parents can see: if Susan caught wind of it, his father Neil would hear, and Neil was not a man to cross). When Max meets Steve, and watches how he picks on the Party using their own species(he calls Lucas "little lion man," Will is Sunshine, Mike is Paladin Shithead, and Dustin has always been pup) while still encouraging them (Steve encourages the kids as they grow and develop these new abilities, never belittling them for their struggles, but showing them that it's okay to mess up. She doesn't know that it's because Steve had no one to do that for him until his mother died and the Hendersons were brought into his life). She's afraid to open up to the guy, right up until, in the middle of a crisis situation where Max is forced to use her powers on purpose for the first time, Steve throws himself in the line of fire to protect the Lucas- and by extension, the whole Party- more than once.

Steve protects her from Billy when he tries to "pick her up" (read: drag her home by the hair without regard for her safety), allows Billy to beat his ass because the alternative at the time was to chase him away until no one was around to protect Lucas, and then, with a whole concussion, does a full shift and defends the children from these strange alternate hellbeasts that were summoned by some crazies at the Hawkins Laboratory for Scientific Witchcraft. The guy even praised her for Screaming on purpose, calling her a hero. Max is soon just as attached to Steve as any other.

In the summer after breaking up with Nancy, Steve gets a job at the mall. He meets Robin, who seems for all intents and purposes a simple human being. She's quirky and goofy and she smells like the ocean after a storm; Steve loves her very quickly, but something in him keeps him from actually developing a crush. Robin is his beloved other half, his soulmate, the yin to his yang, whatever else means that she completes him. She calls him Dingus exclusively, and Steve knows that if he ever heard it while he was shifted fully, he would be rolling around like a delighted puppy. He learns later, after they've fought for their lives and suffered and survived, that Robin was born a normal human, but after the most traumatic experience of her life, she was transformed into a siren.

After the mall, Robin is inducted into the group. She keeps an eye on the kids while they're at school, partially for her own sanity, but also for Steve, who is beside himself at the prospect of his babies being out of sight for so long (he gets like this after every Upside-Down interaction, he loves those kids and he can't stand the idea of losing the family he's built for himself). By the end of the first month, Steve is desperate to meet this guy his kids keep ranting about, Eddie Munson, and it's just because he's worried about them, not because he's afraid of losing his spot as their Big Brother or because the name Munson struck a chord in the back of his mind(for whatever reason).

Without the kids knowing- except Max, because she saw him going up to the Munson trailer. She would never bring it up to the Party unless Steve did first- Steve goes to meet this Eddie Munson and maybe scope out the competition a little. Instead, he meets a pasty boy with unfairly attractive hands and full lips and the warmest chocolate eyes and-

His mooning over this pretty boy is cut short when a man with a painfully familiar face peers in from the kitchen, meeting Steve's eyes with a surprised, "Stevie?" The greeting is enough to make Steve tear up, and he starts freaking out because why is he so happy that this guy knows him, and he's ushered into their little home and onto an old, well-loved couch. Eddie is gushing about finally meeting the Stevie Harrington, he's been told all about him from Wayne through the years. Eddie asks him why he's never seen him at school, and Steve mumbles about being home-schooled ("I won't let people see my mistakes so easily," Richard Harrington drilled into his head from the moment Steve was old enough to go to school). Wayne is flustered and standoffish for all of three minutes before Steve is smothered in more paternal affection than he's received since he was seven; it clicks in his brain when Wayne calls him Stevie again, that he used to wish and beg the stars to change him into Stevie Munson, not Harrington, and that Wayne was his best friend for three years.

Eddie is smitten with this strong, pretty, downright fluffy boy that showed up on his doorstep, even more so when Wayne Munson (easily most comfortable when left alone in quiet) spends almost an hour fussing over and showering him in praise. Steve becomes a regular fixture in the Munson household, after that. Wayne spends weeks explaining the different types of supernatural creatures that have made their homes in Hawkins and the surrounding area, explaining Munson family history, and Steve finally has someone to walk him through everything about werewolves (Claudia tried, but she was really only parroting things she'd picked up as she raised Dustin, not any formal education. Steve never knew that it was a special thing to achieve a full shift; that particular afternoon had Eddie calling him a sweet little pup for a month).

********

I'm too lazy to spend another two days puzzling out how I want the rest of the show's plot to align with this au. I have it in my wips folder but this is already suuuuper long. My bad, pals

648 notes · View notes

steddie-fanfic-recs · 6 months

Text

love letters in your lunch

by mourningshowers

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationship: Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson Characters: Eddie Munson, Steve Harrington, Robin Buckley, Nancy Wheeler, Dustin Henderson, Original Male Character(s), The Party (Stranger Things), Maxine "Max" Mayfield Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Post-Canon, Getting Together, Mutual Pining, Didn't Know They Were Dating, First Kiss, Everybody Lives, Canon-Typical Violence, Fluff and Humor, The Rituals Are Intricate, but what else is new Words: 20,276 Chapters: 4/4

Summary

Rumor has it that whenever any one of the seven or so gremlins that Steve has magnanimously decided to adopt sleep over at his ridiculously large and empty house, he’ll get up extra early in the morning and pack them all lunches in brown paper bags. He’ll make them breakfast, too, and drop them off at school with a ruffle of their hair, a slap on their shoulder, or a pep-talk, depending on the kid.

Not that Eddie Munson, of all people, would know anything about it. It's October and Steve starts packing Eddie lunches for work. Eddie doesn't know what to do about it.

#steddie #steddie fic rec #multi-chaptered #part of a series #10-25k #getting together #mutual pining #fluff

39 notes · View notes

kaylawritesfics · 2 years

Note

HEYYYY I have another request! due to max mayfield x reader but the readers like an adopted “sister” from the lab and she likes to play guitar

(Like el’s adopted sister is dating max)

(with she /her pronouns!!)

plz ad thank you!!!💗💗

-Tia🤍

Dating Max Mayfield And Being From Hawkins Lab

headcanons

summary: what it’s like to date max mayfield while being from hawkins lab

pairing: max mayfield x fem!reader

warnings: mentions of canon typical violence, swearing, mentions of abuse (not descriptive)

note: hii tia !! sorry this took me literally forever i hope you love it :)

You and Max probably met through Eleven. You had escaped Hawkins Lab a little earlier than Eleven did and she quickly found you and introduced you to her friends.

Max immediately thought you were so cool. You had powers, like El did, and could even play the guitar.

She would totally teach you how to skateboard, telling you how cool it would be if you could skate and play guitar.

She becomes really protective over you, especially during the bad times in Hawkins. She knows how dangerous it can be for you and El, so she’s really determined to keep you safe.

Max would love to just lay in bed with you and read comic books or something. It’s really soothing for her and she loves to just be able to relax with you.

She’ll read aloud to you as she lays on your chest. She really likes when you play with her hair, as well.

She loves to listen to you play guitar, especially when she’s upset or overwhelmed.

When you’re feeling anxious about the lab, she’ll remind you that nobody is ever going to hurt you again as long as she’s around.

God forbid Dr. Brenner ever meets Max Mayfield because she’ll beat his ass.

She likes to hear stories from the lab, but only the ones you’re comfortable telling. She likes to hear about the friendly nurses and orderlies and the friends you made while you were there.

She loves complimenting you, especially because she feels like nobody really ever showed you a lot of love in the lab.

She’s not a very affectionate person but she tries really hard to become one because she just wants to show you so much love that you’ve been missing out on.

She’ll also show you all the things you’ve missed out on. Whether it’s tv shows, movies, music, etc. She keeps you up to date with everything pop culture.

She loves having movie nights with you !! She makes sure that you get to watch all the classic movies.

She just adores you so much and she really wants to protect you and show you so much love !!

895 notes · View notes

mooncakesofpan · 2 years

Text

A MILF

Teen dad!Billy Hargrove x Teen mom!hopper!Reader

Summary: Over hearing some of the moms in Hawkins can cause you to have your doubts.

A/n: sorry it took so long to put out another part to this. Also i think ive mentioned this before Reader is Adopted.

Warnings: teen parenting , fluff, non sexual nudity(reader is breat feeding), mentions Neil's terrible and abusive parenting, established relationship, strong language, Billy threatens to beat Mikes ass, She/her pronouns

Word Count: 1.3k

Stranger things Masterlist | Main Masterlist

DO NOT STEAL MY WORK

Something about the middle-aged women and their own vendetta with you because of Billy and your’s child Victor, always rubbed you the wrong way. You had told El. you would pick Miked up on your way to Billy’s cause the group was gonna go biking to the arcade from there.

You got to the Wheelers and saw the group of moms huddled around the lemonade stand on the warm day of Holly. they all recognized your truck. you had tried to keep it down low but secrets are hard to keep in a small town. No one had seen you for a good few months you trying to avoid being seen on the way to doctor appointments, but when you had Vicky you looked different. It was hard to miss you around town with a stroller and a baby or the fact that sometimes you would have to drop Vicky with your dad to go do things. It didn't take long for theories to come to the surface and the truth to come out once Vicky was seen with Billy and the noticeable similarities were mainly Billy’s pretty eyes and, his widow's peak. You pulled up and Vicky was asleep so you opened the door and stepped out to ask Ms.Wheeler to get MIke while the ac ran in your car. You could feel the eyes of the neighborhood moms as they spoke about you. “Hi Ms. wheeler can you let Mike know I'm here to pick him up,” you say with a smile. “Yes of course hun,” “Of course” you could hear the other moms behind you "To think getting pregnant so you thank goodness my daughter would never be so irresponsible,” one mom said. “She must have slept around a lot and it finally caught up to her,” another whispered. “She's not a very good mother I hear, Marcy told me she sees her all the time alone around town and doesn't spend nearly enough time with the baby,” one of the moms says. You rolled your eyes getting back in the truck, it stuck to you. Were you a bad mom? Sure you were new to everything but you thought you were doing well considering your situation. The times you were seen without Vicky he was either with billy or with joy so you could shop for you El., and your father. You were drawn out of your head by the sound of a door slamming, seeing Mike go out his front the door and walk to your truck “Hey Mike,’” you say smiling “Hi Y/n” he gets in and looks at Vicky. sees the baby is miraculously still asleep. You take your guy's ride to the Mayfield-Hargrove household in somewhat silence Vicky wakes up about halfway there not too fussy more or crying cause he was hungry. “Sorry he must be hungry but we're almost There," you say feeling slightly embarrassed about the fact that Vicky was hungry and you still had about 10 mins left in your drive. your insecurity setting in. Sure it was just a 14-year-old who probably didn't care but in your head, the fact you didn't stop and weren't immediately feeding the baby was eating you a bit. Even tho you were less than 10 minutes away from Billy's. “Oh it's fine,” Mike says shrugging. You finally get into the driveway and Mike says thanks while hopping out while you grab the backpack with Vicky's stuff and pick the fussy baby up. “I know I'm sorry Vicky I know I know mama's gonna get you some food,” you saw Max walking out the door billy in tow his shirt slightly unbuttoned “Hey hot stuff, woah someone upset,” Billy says chuckling a little as he walks up to the two of you. Leaning in to hug you careful of Vicky. “Yeah uh let's get inside he's hungry,” you say as Billy kisses your forehead. He grabs the bag as you head inside you hear the sound of your door slamming close. You get into his room and he closes the door. you laid the crying baby down on the bed trying to slip some of your top off to try and feed Vic. Billy could tell something was upsetting you probably from the way looked like you were gonna cry outside in front of your car or the fact you still looked like you were gonna cry while trying to get Vicky to latch on which seemed to not be going so well. Vic not latching on was frustrating you more Tears filling your eyes. This entire day was hard on you, and the more the day went on the worse felt. Billy could see the tears welling up in your eyes and decided that he should probably do something other than stare at the situation in front of him. "Okay doll let's try something else huh?” Billy said lifting Vic out of your arms carefully. “Lean on the pillows,” he says. The few pillows on his bed propped up you lean up more against the pillows on the wall the pillows are nice and soft surprising, and defiantly new in the teen boy's room. He closed the blinds a little more allowing a little light threw and turned off the lights so that the room was a bit darker and put a cassette in the player but kept it on a low volume. The room became calmer allowing you to relax a bit. “Now while Vic Feeds your gonna tell me What got you all fussed up,” you nod there was more success the second time trying to feed Vic. “So I was getting Mike and-” “That little Dip-Shit didn't say anything I have no problem beating a 14-year-old as-” Billy says leaning up from the spot he was laid back on, on his bed. “No! no, he didn't say anything, I was gonna say I was asking Ms.Wheeler to call mike out and some of the other neighborhood moms were there and they started talking about me, and it's just-, Billy am I a bad mom?” the words were followed by tears running down your face. Billy looked at you with confusion written all over his face. “You a bad mom? Doll, your probably one of the best moms to ever grace this earth, one of the hottest fucking moms too,” Billy swears ”Language,” you say looking up from Vic's little face “an absolute MILF doll” you felt warm by Billy’s words. The smirk on his face on top of his flattery was enough, to create butterflies. “Your so attentive to Vic, you juggle taking care of you, Vic, your sister, and pretty much your dad while you're at it too, it would be a damn shame to call you a bad mom when you take such good care of our kid. I don't want you believing that crap okay, you're a good mom, you understand?” Billy says seriousness laces in his voice. “And you still find time to do stuff with those kids bad mom my ass” he mumbles the last part. The reason for your falling tears changed with Billy’s words. “Thanks, Billy” “Only statin’ truths Imma go grab you a snack” Vic in true baby fashion had fallen write back to sleep with some milk in his system. You had swaddled Vicky up and placed him in the crib in Billy's room and you had laid down your head in Billy's lap when he got back. "I'm sorry I try to block that stuff out but sometimes it just gets to me," you say softly as you feel Billy's hand rubbing soft circles on your cheek. It was moments like this you wouldn't have it any other way your boyfriend could be a little rough around the edges but he cared a lot for you and Vicky. He was determined to be a better man than his father. "Don't apologize for things that aren't your fault," he said plainly. A toothpick sticking out of his mouth that he had been chewing on. You leaned into his Touch. "Thanks, Billy,"

dad!Billy taglist:

@and-claudia @daringvixen @justarandomflowerchildofthenight

Let me know if you would like to be added or taken off the taglist

#billy hargrove #billy hargove x reader #billy hargove fanfic #billy hargove imagine #billy hargrove fluff #stranger things x reader #stranger things #stranger things fluff #stranger things fanfiction #x fem!reader #x female reader #x reader #xreader #fluff #fanfic

407 notes · View notes