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artiststarme · 1 year

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The Kids Grovel for Steve's Forgiveness

Part 3 of the "The Party Forgets Steve's Birthday" fic! I hope you guys like it and please leave your thoughts in the comments!

~*~*~*~

There was something off with Steve and Eddie lately but Dustin couldn’t quite place his finger on what it was. They’d both been distant for the past few weeks for unknown reasons. Steve hadn’t been answering any of the Party’s phone calls and he’d refused to drive any of them anywhere. The times he did interact with them, Eddie would swoop in and take him elsewhere. He was acting as a blockade of sorts, preventing any member of the Party besides himself from getting close to Steve. The last time any of the kids had spoken to him uninterrupted was weeks ago when Steve refused to let them rent a rated R movie and if anything, the kids should be mad at him, not the other way around.

Perhaps most concerning about the whole situation was how Eddie was postponing sessions for the campaign. He’d canceled Hellfire club two weeks in a row, an action he once called “blasphemous and unjust”. Everyone was really worried about his change of heart and Dustin was determined to get to the bottom of it.

Everything came to a head at Friday’s session, the first one in weeks that Eddie hadn’t tried to postpone. He was unnecessarily brutal at this session and was doing his darndest to kill everyone like some sort of fantasy nerd serial killer. The session was supposed to continue from where they were recuperating at an inn in a small village and all of the boys were looking forward to some light humor in these confusing times. What no one was expecting was for the evil gorgons and their tamed serpents to attack the town in an effort to kill their group in an act of revenge.

They were supposed to be having a fun time playing a campaign for DnD but Eddie seemed more malicious, more hostile than usual. Only two hours in and half the Party was dead, the rest low on hit points, right on the verge of death.

“Okay, what the hell?” Dustin shouted as Gary the Great turned to stone after being caught in a fire and cornered by a gorgon.

“What?” Eddie asked him, his expression a careful mask of neutrality.

“What’s your problem? We ended the last session safe at an inn, what the hell is this?” The other guys nodded their agreement with his outburst. No one was expecting to get their favorite characters murdered so ruthlessly, at least not so soon in the session.

“The inn burned down and the town is under attack by merciless gorgons. That’s not my fault,” Eddie told them all.

“Yes it is, you literally wrote this! This session was supposed to last ten hours. We’re two hours in and most of us are dead! Why are you doing this?” Dustin’s voice was embarrassingly shrill but it got his point across just fine.

“It’s not my fault your strategy sucks, Henderson! Maybe you should try a little harder to stay alive!” Eddie yelled back.

Will piped up then, “we should ask Steve for help, he’s good at strategy!”

“You will not! Do not bother Steve,” Eddie pointed at him.

“Why are you being so neurotic today? And why are you gatekeeping Steve? We want answers!” Dustin yelled again. The other kids voiced their agreement as well.

They heard a crash in the Munson kitchen and everyone jerked to look at Lucas standing in the doorway. He held up a small Polaroid picture dated from a few weeks ago with a small ‘Happy Birthday, Stevie-poo! I love you’ written in the corner. “What is this?”

Mike scoffed, “who cares about Steve right now? I want to know why Eddie’s been so weird lately.”

His comment must’ve thrown Eddie over the edge because he jumped up from his seat and started screaming at them. “You fuckers forgot his birthday! Steve’s been your friend for at least three years and you’ve never even done as much as tell him happy birthday! So now he’s hurt because he doesn't think you guys care and I think you’re all jackasses that shouldn’t get to be around him anyways! Nice going assholes, you pissed us both off.”

Jeff, Grant, and Gareth looked around the room before standing up from their spots on the couch. Jeff awkwardly clapped his hands and started moving towards the door. “Well guys, there seems to be some friction today so we’re just going to head out for now. We should probably just pick this up next week, that way we have plenty of time to make new characters.”

Eddie nodded at him before sneering at the rest of the Party. “That’s a good idea, Jeff. The rest of you can get the hell out.”

Then he dramatically whirled around and stormed into his room, slamming his bedroom door behind him. Jeff, Grant, and Gareth shook their heads at the kids before leaving, which left Dustin, Lucas, Mike, and Will to consider the gravity of what they’d done. None of them had ever even thought about Steve’s birthday, it had never come up in conversation and they’d never noticed a lack of celebration. Dustin felt particularly guilty as he picked up the DnD table in the Munson living room. Steve was practically his brother, he of all people should’ve known his birthday.

Nearly twenty minutes later, they heard the bedroom door down the hallway open and paused in their ministrations. Eddie was either coming out to apologize to them or to yell at them some more and while they were all nervous, they were prepared for either option. They deserved it. But to their utter shock, it wasn’t Eddie that came out. No, instead it was a sleep-rumpled Steve, shirtless, with glasses on and his usually immaculate hair in disarray.

He squinted his eyes at them in confusion before making a double take. “What the- what are you guys still doing here?”

“Steve! What are you doing in Eddie’s room and why are you shirtless?” Lucas asked him.

“Uh, I was taking a nap.”

“In Eddie’s bed? Why wouldn’t you just sleep at your own house?” Mike sneered at him.

“What’s with the interrogation?! Stop asking questions you don’t want the answers to and let me live!” Steve yelled at them.

So Steve was still mad. But now, Dustin understood why. “Steve, we’re so sorry! We didn’t know it was your birthday so we know why you’re mad and we don’t blame you. But-”

“Dustin, I’m not mad, I’m disappointed,” he said. Oh shit, that was worse! “But it’s fine. I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up, that’s on me.”

“Steve, we should’ve done something and we’re sorry. You’re one of our best friends and we’ll do better,” Lucas told him. He patted his bare shoulder to emphasize his point.

Mike nodded at his words but said nothing in further agreement. Dustin felt awful. After everything Steve had done for them, they’d forgotten his birthday. And then he had the nerve to say it was his fault?! What was wrong with this guy?

“Steve, you didn’t deserve that. We’ll make it up to you somehow. We’ll wash your car and bring you lunch when you work, and we’ll never forget another one of your birthdays, we promise.” He promised him earnestly.

Steve pulled him into a hug and messed up his hair despite his squawk of outrage. “I forgive you guys. Really, it’s not a big deal. I haven’t celebrated my birthday in years so it’s fine.”

“You will not forgive them!” Eddie stormed down the hallway to pull Dustin out of Steve’s embrace. He wrapped his own arms around his… Steve, and pointed an accusing finger at them. “He’s not just going to drop his hurt feelings to make you assholes feel better. You bitches better grovel if you want Steve and I to forgive you. Now scram, why are you still here?”

~*~*~*~

For the next two weeks, the kids made it their mission to prove to Steve how much he meant to them. Eddie told them to grovel and grovel they did.

Dustin brought him a homemade lunch from his mom to Family Video every shift he worked. He cleaned his car (technically he just bribed Nancy to drive it through the car wash but still, the thought was there). And he taught him how to play DnD so he could join the next campaign with his own character.

Lucas went over to the Harrington house to clean the pool every week and mowed the lawn while he was over there. Steve looked shocked when he came home to that but Lucas was reasonably sure he was happy. He also played basketball with him at the park and listened to all of Steve’s mostly helpful tips.

Mike just eased up on the glaring and brought him a Slurpee once. He also made sure to take his anger out on Nancy instead of Steve as he usually did.

When they told Robin shortly after their odd interaction at Eddie’s, she was horrified. She immediately ditched Vickie to devote all of her time and best friend-ness to Steve as she should’ve done in the first place. She bought him dinner, stole movies to watch at movie nights with him, and bit her tongue when she saw Eddie kiss him in front of her. She would be the best friend she should’ve been initially and wait for Steve to come to her (which he did a few hours later).

Needless to say, Steve was freaked out for a good month. People were being too nice to him and it was like he slipped into a parallel universe. Everything looked the same and the rest of the town seemed the same but his friends couldn’t be more different. After multiple panic attacks and burnouts, Eddie told the Party to ease up or deal with the consequences.

What finally got things back to normal was Hopper organizing and hosting a belated birthday celebration at the Hopper-Byers’ house. All of his friends came together to celebrate him turning 20. Eddie obtained another cake from the bakery and decorated it himself, as per usual. This time, he had more room and was able to write a grotesque “BIRTH STEVE, Another year gone”. The adults of the Party were of course horrified at the dripping red frosting of the lettering and the spattering of rainbow sprinkles but Steve had never felt so touched.

The Party sang him happy birthday in a myriad of too-flat notes and screeches but it was special nonetheless. Especially when Hopper threw an arm around Steve’s shoulder to tell him that it would happen every year. And from that point forward, it did.

The End

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#Eddie stays mad for months and whenever one of the kids tries to backtalk he brings this up #“oh yeah what are you going to do? Forget my birthday? Yeah you're doing that again huh?”#every year the birthday cake gets creepier #stranger things #steddie #steddie ish #fanfic #steve harrington #eddie munson #chief hopper #robin buckley #dustin henderson #lucas sinclair #mike wheeler #nancy wheeler

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