#scared Steve Harrington

[genderflu1dwh0r]

My little beaten boy

DO NOT REPOST ⚠️

#stranger things steve #steve harrington #stranger things #joe keery #jamie edits #scared steve harrington #lil baby boy #edit #harringrove

[italiansteebie]

Guess Who's Back

Also on ao3

------

It has been decided that Steve Harrington is an enigma. 

He tells people everything, yet somehow the boy still has his mysteries. He’s moved out of his parents house, and his roommates are constantly learning new things about him. They’ve kept a running list of things Harrington’s said, either in passing, or while drunk, because it seems... It seems that is the only way they find anything out about him. 

He’s constantly on the phone, with many different people, Joyce and Hopper are the main ones, Ray (one of his roommates) has a sneaking suspicion they are his parents, but Devon reminds them that if they were his parents, he wouldn't necessarily call them by their first names. Would he? And other times, Ray thinks Richard, the guy Steve speaks to, quite briefly, in harsh, hushed Italian, may be his father. From the way Steve’s face screws up in distaste at the demanding tone coming through the phone, he can see that if this is Steve’s dad… He’s definitely an asshole. 

And that’s just the beginning of the list his roommates have been keeping. 

Crue, which is just a nickname for a government name nobody's ever heard, is the keeper of this list, and they have trouble skipping over any details. So when Steve wakes up screaming, from terrors that plague him in his sleep, they try and carefully weasel out the reason, while still comforting him. They’re never successful in this quest, and it seems each time any of them ask, he only gets more standoffish. 

—--

There's a storm in the area. And their apartment isn’t the greatest, and Ray has a habit of falling asleep with his eyes open, and when he falls asleep, he falls asleep like a brick. So when Steve shuffles inside, groceries in hand, catching the lights flickering and Ray’s still body, with open eyes flickering about the room, it really ruins his day. 

“Ray? Ray!” 

There’s a bit of a commotion, but Devon is tired, and commotions are common here, with Ray and Crue being siblings, so she ignores it. That is, until Steve bursts in her room, flicking through her tapes, muttering incoherently, with trembling arms. She watches as he grabs a tape, snatches her walkman, and runs out of the room. “Steve?” She calls, but to no avail. 

She gets up, begrudgingly, and what a sight it is to see Steve in the living room, sobbing over Ray’s sleeping body, trying to get the tape into the walkman as his hands shake uncontrollably. Crue saunters out not much later, Steve’s crying turning into wailing. The two bystanders make eye contact, to which Devon shrugs her shoulders. “Steve?” Crue asks gently, his head whips up, and he sniffles, tripping over his words, a jumble of sounds falling out of his mouth. “Should we call someone?” They ask, and Steve nods, “Please, p-please. Uh. Joyce. Ho- Hopper, call- The. Tell them he’s back.” 

“Who’s back?”

“He is.”

And the shaking has gotten so much worse, Crue’s afraid his heart is going to fall out of his butt, so they jog over to the phone, dialing the number labeled “Joyce,” that has been tacked to the wall, with a note under it that says “Call anytime, Steve. Love, Joyce and Hop” with a heart next to it. 

—--

At the Byers-Hopper household, it is peaceful. They had just finished dinner when the phone rang. Hopper groaned, considering just letting it ring, but Joyce smacks him lightly on the stomach, “What if it’s Steve?” She reminds him gently, she stands to grab it, but Will beats her to it. 

“Hello?”

“Uh. Hi. This is uhm. This is Crue. Steve- Uh. Steve’s roommate. He’s really kind of freaking out. Uh. Something about ‘He’s back?’” 

Joyce watches as the color drains from her son's face, “Will, Honey? What's wrong?” He drops the phone in response and she watches as his nose tinges red with tears. She gets up quickly, sending Will to sit down, and grabs the phone.  

She can hear the other person asking for someone faintly, and she puts the phone up to her ear, “Hello, is everything alright?”

“Oh! Thank god. An adult. Well, you sound like one anyways.. Uhm. This is Crue, Steve’s roommate. He’s like. Having a freak out. Uh he said he’s back.”

Joyce takes a deep breath, “Who’s back?”

“We asked him that. All he said was “He is.” 

“Shit. Okay honey, listen to me. I want you to play some music, I know Steve has a record player in his room, so take that and turn it up loud, play something everyone likes, okay? I’ll be over in a second.”

She hangs the phone and looks at Hop, who is already standing, shoes on and gun in holster. The kids are standing too, El and Will looking scared but determined, and Jonathan with car keys in hand. The group walks quickly to the car, and drives to Steve’s, only breaking a few laws. 

—---

“Steve, please. Tell us what's going on? Can we help?” Devon practically begs, watching from the corner of her eye as Crue runs to Steve room, coming back out with his record player. Ray, still dead asleep, not picking up on the chaos surrounding him. 

There’s pounding on the door, and Steve moves quickly, grabbing his bat, and approaching the door with caution. “Steve. It is us.” A small voice says, young, but determined in tone. Crue and Devon watch as the relief quite literally washes over their roommate. He opens the door, stepping aside, letting the family in. 

“Has he started floating yet?”

“I don’t feel him,”

“Are you okay, Steve?”

The overlapping words seem to settle him just a bit, but the shaking is still there and Crue feels like he might collapse any minute now. “He- He won’t wake up, a-and I. I got his favorite song! I kept a list, just like you told me to, and I-.” His chest is heaving and tears are streaming rapidly down his face. Crue guesses the woman that pulls him into her arms is Joyce and the burly man standing beside them his Hopper. However, the little girl with short hair,is standing over Ray with her eyes closed but moving, searching, under her eyelids. Well. Neither Devon nor Crue know who that is, and the boy with the awful haircut that is inspecting light bulbs is a stranger too. The girl smiles gently, before smacking Ray across the face. 

He sits up rapidly, “What’s going on? Who slapped me? Who are you guys? Why am I wearing headphones?” The words came out rapidly, and slurred with sleep. “I am El. Steve’s friend. You are okay. You just sleep bad.” She says simply, moving over to Steve and wrapping him in a hug. “I? What? I sleep, bad?” The girl, El, nods. 

“He was asleep, Steve. Henry is dead.” She says, and with that he crumples to the ground, Joyce and Hopper following him, until the whole family is in a heap on the floor. The roommates watch in curiosity, and Crue thinks this is another thing that needs to go on the list, but pushes that thought away. “Not the time,” they think to themselves.

The roommates move to the kitchen, giving the family some semblance of privacy, but still staying close. Devon decides to make Steve some tea, something they see him drinking often, and hopes it helps him. 

“I couldn’t. I couldn't do it again,” they hear Steve say shakily from the living room. 

“Sweetie, it’s like El, said. Your roommate just sleeps with his eyes open. Everything is okay.” Joyce says gently.

The roommates feel a little guilty for listening in but. Steve’s their roommate, and they care. Even if he doesn't want them to. Devon finishes the tea, and starts walking towards the family that’s still sitting together on the floor near the front door. She hands the tea to Steve with a gentle, “I hope everythings okay.” To which Steve nods and scrubs a hand over his face. 

Yeah, sorry guys. I uh-” He’s cut off by Hopper gently pushing him over.

“We talked about you apologizing for having feelings, Steve. It’s okay.” 

The group of roommates quickly nod, and rush to reassure him. Steve sighs, “Okay. Well. I guess I should introduce everyone, now that I'm… Not freaking out.”

 He stands, and so does everyone else, “This is… My family,” He starts shyly, to which El and Will smile brightly at. “Uh. This is Hop, and Joyce. And the awkward guy standing over there is Jonathan… And these guys are Will and El.” They all wave to the roommates standing in front of them. “And well. That’s Ray, the one I thought.. Yeah. And Uh. Crue is who called you guys. And that’s Devon.” He says pointing to each of them, before moving out of the way and letting them finish their own introductions. 

“Wait. Why do you call your mom and dad by their first names?” Ray asks, filter non-existent, often reminding Steve of Robin, Crue smacks him on the shoulder to which he responds with and exasperated, “What?!” Crue gestures vaguely, “You can’t just ask that,” they stage whisper. 

Steve laughs, “They’re not actually my parents,” he says lightly to which Hopper gruffly responds, “Yeah, but we’re better than the dick heads he got stuck with for 18 years.” He cracks a small smile after that, and Steve laughs softly, nodding in agreement. 

“Yeah. They’ve been better parents to me in the last 2 years than my biological parents have been since I was born,” He shrugs, eyes brightening as he looks around at his family, and the roommates smile. It wasn’t often they saw Steve this happy. And after everything they’ve witnessed today, and well… The whole time they’ve been living together, they’re happy that Steve has this found family to hold on to.

“Wait. Okay.” Ray says, with a groan from Crue, “Dude. Ruin the moment why don’t you.” To which Ray responds by shoving them over. “As I was saying,” he pauses to glare at Crue, “If you guys aren’t his parents, then am I right in assuming that the asshole that Steve talks to in Italian is Steve’s dad?” 

“Yeah, that’s. That’s Richard. Technically my father, but he never fucking acted like it. Hop’s better in my book anyways.” He says, knocking a shoulder into the gruff man. 

“Well. We should let you guys catch up,” Devon says, pulling them back to Crue’s room, giving the family some actual privacy. And if they take out the list and do some major revisions, well. That’s their business.

And if Steve goes back to his family’s house for the night, then. That’s his business.

#italian steve #found family #good mom Joyce Byers #Steve Harrington #joyce byers #will byers #eleven hopper #el hopper #jim hopper #Steve Harrington angst #steve harrington centric #good parents Joyce and hopper #steve harrington #the hopper-byers are Steves family #scared Steve Harrington #Steve Harrington has ptsd #Steve Harrington has anxiety

[missingexaltation]

Wayne coming home to find the boys viciously and LOUDLY arguing and immediately getting ready to a) throw that Harrington boy out on his ear and b) be a shoulder for Eddie to cry on.

As soon as he walks through the door the Harrington boy gestures at him and screeches "TELL HIM WHAT YOU TOLD ME", and Eddie just crumples in on himself in shame, refusing to look at anyone.

Wayne standing there listening to Steve rant about how 'he doesn't care about kids or marriage or any of that shit' and how he's going to throttle Eddie for trying to break up with him because he thinks he's trailer trash and therefore has nothing to offer Steve in the long run.

Wayne excusing himself to get ready for bed, chuckling to himself as he realises that 'that Harrington boy' is gonna be around for a long time, and he's actually good with that.

#eddie munson #steve harrington #wayne munson #steddie #i can see Wayne being completely aloof and distant with King Steve 'The Hair' Harrington until he shows that he puts Eddie first #and then realising that his boy is actually in good hands and backing off completely #Wayne Munson is a god tier parent...no i don't take criticism #(Eddie thinks he's being practical but he's just scared shitless bless him) #Steve is in full 'shut the fuck up and listen to me while i aggressively tell you how amazing you are' mode and it's terrifying #how the fuck did this get 1k notes #and now 2k notes wtf...thanks guys! #3k Holy shit #This post is sponsored by 4k notes #5k notes omfg...it's an honour to be on this hellsite #6k nightmare 😂 #7k superstar #8k baby! #9k nugget! 😄

[loveinhawkins]

ao3

A gnawing sense of foreboding creeps up on Steve as they head to Eddie’s trailer, armed with weapons.

He tries to outrun it through action: ensuring he’s the first one to go through the Gate; jumping back and forth between The Upside Down and their world whenever someone forgets something, “It’s okay, I’ve got it!”; triple checking that the cables for Eddie’s amps are long enough; searching for the slightest thing than seizing upon it with an enthusiasm bordering on desperate, “Hey, we could use this, right? Better take it, just in case.”

But that only works for so long, and then Steve’s just standing in Eddie’s kitchen, the real one, staring blankly at the cupboards, all out of distractions.

Out of time.

He hears a grunt of exertion behind him, then an unsteady landing, a muffled curse. Eddie.

“Jesus Christ, Steve. Wanted to fit your aerobics routine in?”

He’s teasing, so light-hearted despite it all; Steve can’t stand it.

Keeps his back turned, gut twisting, opening the cupboards then slamming them shut, thump, thump. He doesn’t know what he’s looking for. He never has.

“Uh, so I was thinking,” Eddie continues, like Steve’s not doing anything weird, “that I could stretch out the, um, the song? My playing? Could buy you some more time, anyway.”

“Sure, great,” Steve says shortly.

He thinks—with a numb kind of calm—that he’s going to be sick.

He gets to the bathroom, tries to shut the door, but his grip slips on the handle.

Turns on the faucet, scoops cold water from his hands into his mouth, and it helps until it doesn’t, until he’s almost choking on it, and he’s been here before, the feeling familiar: a shadow looming over him, just waiting, waiting, and he knows it’ll pass, it always does, but he can’t stop thinking of Robin, it might not work out for us this time, and what if, what if—

He can hear Eddie knocking on the doorframe, just out of view—as if he’d seen Steve’s failed attempt at shutting the door and wanted to respect it.

“Hey, man, you okay?” Then Eddie mutters to himself, “Obviously not, get a fucking clue.”

Steve’s laugh is strangled but real. He wipes his mouth dry and shuts off the water.

“You don’t need to talk to a wall, dude,” he says.

And Eddie steps into view, leans against the open door. His eyes flicker across Steve’s face, and Steve doesn’t want to know what he’s noticed, so when Eddie opens his mouth hesitantly, he speaks first.

“We should—they’re gonna wonder where we are.”

Eddie pauses on the verge of speech; Steve watches him reevaluate whatever he was going to say.

“Well,” Eddie says, gesturing to the bathroom, matter-of-fact, “we could be peeing.”

Steve manages a chuckle. “You’re an idiot.”

Eddie grins like he’s saying yup, that’s me, like he’s won a prize.

Steve has seen him wear something close to that expression not even an hour ago: when the kids had started a line to use the bathroom in the RV, and Eddie had snorted, giggled with a childish kind of delight, “You—ha! You all look like you’re on a field trip,” before joining the line himself—calling out that he hoped their plan accounted for bathroom breaks because, “There’s no way I’m pissing in the alternate dimension,” and that had made Nancy break, laughing in a way Steve was certain he hadn’t heard since ‘83.

Eddie steps into the room and shuts the door quietly. Steve gets why: his breathing’s still all wrong, and if Dustin happened to see him, he doesn’t think he’d ever forgive himself.

“Sorry.” Steve sucks in a breath, tries to hold it. Loses it in an exhale that shudders at the edges. He speaks through the tail end of it, hoping that’s enough to conceal the sound, “Gimme, like, two minutes.”

“Make it ten,” Eddie says.

The way he says it makes it seem like it’s already a done deal; he must’ve spoken to Robin and Nancy before he tumbled through the Gate.

Despite himself, Steve feels a wave of relief: just for a little while, he has time; it overpowers the shame, leaves him sinking down to sit on the closed toilet seat.

He closes his eyes, just breathes. In… out… in…

He doesn’t realise that Eddie’s sitting down, too, until he hears the clunk of his boots, the rustle of clothing as he moves.

“Sorry,” Steve says again, and it annoyingly still comes out a little shaky, like he’s in the pool and he’s left it too long to snatch a breath. “You can go back, man, I’ll… I’ll be right there.”

He opens his eyes to see Eddie shaking his head, sat with his back against the bathtub.

“Stop apologising,” Eddie says, and then it’s as if the seriousness of it is too much for him, because he adds, with a self-deprecating smile that Steve hates, “I get it. You’re walking into the dragon’s lair, I’m just putting on a concert.”

“Don’t,” Steve says, and he doesn’t intend for the word to come out as sharp as it does, but that doesn’t change the fact that he means it. He means it.

Eddie’s smile fades.

“Don’t,” Steve repeats, quieter. Not quite an apology.

Slowly, he moves off the toilet seat, until he’s sat next to Eddie. There’s just enough space that they don’t need to touch, but Steve presses his shoulder against Eddie’s anyway, like he can somehow pass on everything he means through that alone.

Eddie sighs, presses back for just a second. “Don’t what?” he asks. He sounds tired all of a sudden.

“Don’t—don’t joke like that,” Steve says. “Like you’re not—” He swallows. “Like it’s not dangerous.”

There’s a pause. Eddie reaches across and puts a hand on Steve’s knee. Squeezes briefly and pulls back; already Steve finds that he misses the warmth of him.

“Hey, don’t worry,” Eddie says. There’s no joke in this, not a trace. “I’m not gonna let anything happen to Dustin.” Another smile. Gentle. “Swear on his mother.”

I’m not worried about that, Steve wants to say, but of course that’s not true; he’s tried hard not to look at Dustin directly ever since they arrived at the trailer, because his throat would start to close up alarmingly whenever his gaze lingered, and he knows the kid’s doing that whole semi-aloof teenager thing lately, but a part of him still wants to hold him tight and never let go.

It’s more that the shape of Steve’s worry is different to what he thinks Eddie’s imagining, covers more than Dustin’s safety alone—that the cold dread in his stomach brings him back to the tunnels in ‘84; to clutching Dustin, who was so small, Steve desperately trying to shield him with his own body, thinking the kid’s thirteen, only thirteen, this isn’t fucking fair; and that if this had to end one way, all he could do was pray that he’d be the only one to…

And Steve hadn’t wanted to die, but he was suddenly facing it anyway, and Christ, looking back at it, that was crazy, the whole damn thing was crazy, but it all made a twisted kind of sense at the time.

Eddie must spot that his train of thought’s gone down a dark alley because he knocks their knees together, but he doesn’t say anything. Just breathes, slumped against the bathtub; it’s probably the first time he’s been still—truly still—in a long while.

He must be exhausted, Steve thinks.

The gnawing feeling digs in, grips his heart.

“I can hear you thinking,” Eddie says quietly. “Listen, Steve, I know I’m new to, uh… all of this shit, but I’m on it, okay? Got it all up in here,” he taps the side of his head, “trust me—”

That’s not what—I trust you, of fucking course I do, but—

“—no deviations, and—”

“Plans change,” Steve says, and he hears himself, the calm decisiveness, just get ready; Dustin’s scream carrying across the junkyard, Steve, abort, abort! “Just… just promise me.”

“Promise you?” Eddie murmurs.

Steve feels the words on his tongue, the weight of them. Don’t do anything stupid. 

He swallows them down—afraid suddenly that if he really puts a name to it, it’s going to happen.

Fuck it, he’s exhausted too, and for a long moment he evades speaking: gingerly rests his head on Eddie’s shoulder. Feels his body heat, the swell of his breathing.

Eddie doesn’t tense up, just lets him rest there. 

If I kissed you, Steve thinks, drained, would you stay?

He doesn’t say it. Instead he lifts his head and asks, “What are you doing tomorrow?”

Eddie chuckles. They’re still so close, Steve can feel his amused sigh.

“Tomorrow? I’ve not really… like, hopefully I’m not in jail. Anything else is a bonus.”

“We’ll fix it,” Steve says fiercely. “Trust me.”

“Oh, I believe you,” Eddie says, grinning fondly, but he sounds genuine. “Shit, man, I think you could do anything.” He gestures outside. “Got the fucking dream team out there.”

“We solved a secret Russian code last summer.”

Eddie laughs. “Did you?” His eyes sparkle with mirth.

You’re beautiful.

“Gospel truth, I swear,” Steve says. He tries to stay light, but he makes the vow anyway. “I’ll tell you tomorrow.”

I have so much to tell you.

They stand up, and Steve doesn’t know who’s the first one to move—just that they both probably sensed the time dwindling.

And maybe it’s that, the inescapable thought that something’s coming to an end that does it. Steve doesn’t know for sure, just knows that his eyes are burning suddenly—mortifyingly—with tears. He looks up at the ceiling, hurriedly trying to push them back, but Eddie notices anyway.

“Steve, what is it?” he whispers, with a look of utter devastation.

Steve shakes his head. “Just being stupid,” he says, voice brittle, cutting himself off before he can say something ridiculous.

God, Eddie, let’s just stay here and grow old.

“You’re not stupid,” Eddie says, heartfelt—he stops just short of touching Steve; he clearly wants to help so badly, but he doesn’t know how.

Steve wants to tell him it’s fine. He doesn’t know either.

Maybe nothing can help this.

They leave for the Gate in unspoken agreement; at first Steve finds comfort in the sight of Eddie dangling on the rope, not quite in either world. Like every possibility is laid out before him.

I’ll tell you tomorrow.

But there’s a near imperceptible shift as Eddie keeps climbing, and Steve needs to look away, anything to avoid the pit in his stomach: the suspicion that the path’s already been chosen.

#they’re all just scared kids #Steve “desperately trying to escape a tragedy” Harrington #Eddie “if I make a joke it isn’t real” Munson #steddie fic #pre steddie #steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #steve x eddie

[dreamofbecoming]

listen i know we all love steve “completely ignorant of queer culture to the point that bisexuality is a surprise” harrington being roasted and educated in turns by robin and eddie, yadda yadda, good stuff. i read “they made a horror version of rocky?” in a fic recently and cackled. also a big fan of “he knew he was bi from the start and just never talked about it” as a trope, love it excellent well done

but what about steve who realizes after starcourt that the most important person in his life now has this thing that’s a major part of her life that he knows nothing about, and what if he fucks it up? what if he says something ignorant or rude by accident, and hurts her? what if he loses her because he didn’t know the right thing to say? what if he can’t keep her safe because he doesn’t know what to look out for? absolutely fucking not, this steve says

and listen she’d never say anything, because she can tell that he can tell how much she likes teasing him and teaching him things, so he plays dumb, and she thinks it’s very sweet. but she notices when the zines she keeps under her bed that she buys at that one secret bookshop in indy when she can sneak away on family trips start going missing, always one at a time, and replaced in a few days with another disappearing. and she finds the new ones he must have gone to buy the weekend she was at her aunt’s house hidden in the back of his closet when she goes to steal one of his sweaters. and she notices when he slips more of her queerer movie recommendations into his personal take home pile rather than the movie night stack when he thinks she’s not looking.

she doesn’t notice when he drives to indianapolis after she tries to explain to him why she can’t just ask out a cute girl, tries to impress on him the fear attached to every moment of attraction that he simply has never had to feel, but later she finds a crumpled receipt from a diner in one of his jacket pockets when she’s looking for his keys, and the address is across the street from the bar the gorgeous woman at the bookstore told her about, the one she memorized the address of but hasn’t worked up the guts to think about visiting, and she knows he must have gone looking for a place like that, must have been trying to understand, must have been scoping it out to make sure it was somewhere she could feel safe, after she told him she never had.

so when eddie nearly pops a blood vessel when they clock each other and she mentions that steve is the only person she’s ever come out to before, her hackles come up. because she gets it, she does, he’s only known king steve until recently, so it makes sense that he would be afraid, be concerned for her safety.

but steve is her person, and no one- no one- has ever made her feel as protected or as cared for as he does. no one has ever tried as hard to understand her, no one has ever put so much work into making her feel safe and seen and loved. and she thinks maybe even if no one else ever does, that’s ok. because she has steve, and more importantly steve has her, and that means no one gets to question his ally credentials in her presence without a dressing down to remember, no matter how well they mean or how recently they helped save the world.

(and maybe she’s not as surprised as she could be when he figures out bisexuality all on his own, because she’s been reading all the same pamphlets he has, after all. and she’s seen the way he looks at eddie, i mean come on. maybe no one else has noticed, but then, nobody knows steve harrington like she does.)

#stranger things #steve harrington #robin buckley #platonic stobin #steddie #(if you squint) #this got away from me #i just really love love giving steve a bit more credit yk? #like yes he’s very stupid and he has a history of being self absorbed #and we love that about him #he’s very flawed and that makes him interesting #but i really feel like one of his defining traits is his need to be useful to the people he loves #combine that with his abandonment issues and i really feel like he would be scared of fucking up and losing robin #and yeah he would play dumb like he does with dustin and d&d #but i don’t believe he knows nothing about d&d after all this time and i don’t believe he would let himself know nothing about queer culture #i’m just so so attached to the idea of steve who knows that teasing him for being dumb is his friends’ love language with him #so he pretends to be dumber than he is so they have chances to explain things to him #also stobin sharing clothes is so so so important to me just putting that out there #anyway i just think they’re neat #my writing

[catharusustulatus]

Steddie Drabble, TW: child abuse.

Initially, Wayne doesn’t care for Steve. Calls him “the Harrington boy” or “Richard’s son” with contempt, asks if “Richard’s son” is coming over for dinner again and Eddie just rolls his eyes and says “yes, Wayne, STEVE is coming over at 7.” Wayne doesn’t like him because…well, he’s not stupid to judge a book by its cover, he thinks.

But the fifth time Harrington comes over, he brings a bouquet of flowers, and Eddie, well, his cheeks are redder than the spaghetti sauce Wayne’s been stirring, so that’s something.

And then the sixth time Steve comes over, he brings Wayne a Garfield magnet. It’s small, “found it at the thrifty mart with Robin, I’m sorry it’s not brand new…” Steve mumbles, and Eddie is wide eyed and smiling, and Wayne LOVES Garfield. He puts it on the fridge, pats Steve on the back, says “um, thank you son.”

They fall into a pattern, the three of them. Steve comes over for dinner every Friday night after work. He dresses clean and is polite to Wayne, helps with the dishes, sometimes brings bread rolls or licorice or beer or jokes. Eddie starts setting the table. Wayne starts laughing at the jokes. After Steve leaves, Wayne knows Eddie smiles himself to sleep. It’s different, now.

And then the next time Steve is supposed to come over for dinner, he doesn’t show. Eddie had been making macaroni and cheese all evening, grating the cheese carefully as he bopped his head to some metal song, cheerful, and then it was 7 and then it was 8 and then Wayne thought “maybe call him, Ed.”

Nobody answers. When they call again, nobody answers. And Wayne has a bad feeling about it.

It isn’t until almost 11, dinner cold and Eddie pacing, about to radio someone named Robin when Steve’s car pulls up, they know the lights so well. They run outside to greet him and Eddie freezes when Steve starts falling out of the drivers seat, face dark and pained. Wayne jumps into action. Wayne catches Steve and hauls him into the trailer, his living room, and oh god, he’s covered in bruises like he was put through Eddie’s cheese grater, and oh god, Eddie’s broken out into tears behind him.

Steve’s left eye is swollen shut, and his face is purple and bloody. His lip is split and his hair is wild, his shirt is torn, and Wayne wonders what’s underneath the shirt as he gets the first aid kit, wonders how the hell he thought Steven was anything other than an angel.

Eddie gets a dish towel wet in the kitchen and cleans Steve’s face, quiet and crying, and Wayne sets the first aid kit down next to Eddie and makes some coffee. He thinks about talking, doesn’t. Touches the Garfield magnet for good luck. He feels like maybe Steve needs it.

Steve who is holding Eddie’s wrist as he cleans him up, wincing and crying from his good eye. Finally, after a silence that gives Wayne heartburn, Eddie sits back on his heels and says whisper quiet, “your dad?”

Steve gulps, blinks. “My uh, my dad. I was writing you uh, uh a love note.” Eddie looks over at Wayne. Wayne wipes his brow. “But uh, he found it, and your name’s not uh, Edith” Steve lets out a chuff, winces again. “So he asked what was going on, and I told him. I told him. And then he said I had one minute to take it back or he’d make me take it back.” Eddie lets out a small gasp, more like a howl, and sits completely on the floor. Wayne sits down at the table, cold mac and cheese looking like a sick joke. And he’s so mad. Wayne is so, so mad, seeing this young man who so obviously loves his pride and joy, shares in his pride and joy, who brings him apples to make apple pie, he growls out

“Don’t you worry about a thing, Steven, not one thing. You stay here long as you like, hell, don’t leave. We got you, boy.”

And that’s that. Steve crumples in on himself, and Eddie pulls him into a big hug, just holds him, rocks him, coos “a love note, huh, sweetheart? For me?” And Steve nods until he nods off.

The next morning, while Robin takes care of Steve, Wayne and Eddie break into Steve’s room, clear out everything he owns, and slash his dad’s tires. That was Wayne’s idea - the least he could do for a loved one.

#stranger things #steve harrington #eddie munson #steddie #steddie drabble #wayne munson #I just am obsessed with Wayne being like who is this snotty rich kids oops I adopted him #Wayne and Steve forever #also Steve gives me huge scared of my dad vibes #so I just feel like if he came out he’d be beat up #tw: abuse #but I also think that if Steve was hurt #Wayne and Eddie would be like oh yeah? death to you #anyway idk #I just love them your honor

[lucassinclaer]

@stcreators event 06: tropes teens & hero tropes

#strangerthingsedit #jonathanbyersedit #robinbuckleyedit #steveharringtonedit #nancywheeleredit #userlaro #userraffa #tuserheidi #uservaleria #userrin #usermadita #underbetelgeuse #usertiny #usermaguire #userbeopi #userspacey #userbuckleys #userbanana #userallisyn #usersen #tuserjess #jonathan byers #kali prasad #robin buckley #steve harrington #nancy wheeler #i'm hesitant to post this bc i'm scared of steve fans this trope i just thought fit him the best i'm soRRY #*mine #*gifs

[hawkinsbnbg]

Steve: Hey, where's Eddie and Robin?

Dustin: They're just over here– Argh shit, we lost them to the crowd again!

Lucas: How can we find them? There are too many people here!

Erica: I know a way.

Lucas & Dustin: What way?

Steve: I don't feel good about this...

Erica: Just watch me, losers.

Erica: Steve Harrington fucking sucks!

Steve: Wha–

Eddie & Robin from an Italian ice cream vendor: Who the fuck is talking???!! You piece of fucking shit–

Erica: There they are.

Fun fact: The trick always works perfectly with everyone. One time, they even found Erica when she was gunning for the person who had insulted Lucas. Needless to say, Dustin had *died* in cold blood.

#steddie #steve is a sweetheart #erica is a menace #dustin & lucas are scared for their lives #eddie & robin: steve harrington protection squad #they're gonna gouge your eyes out if you look at steve funny #silly dialogues

[estrellami-1]

Steddie Week 2023

May 28th Prompt: Free Space

Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6

@steddie-week

(Warning for queer slurs, but spoken in love, if that makes sense?)

���I hate you,” Robin hisses, eyes glassy. She covers her mouth, shakes her head. “Steve. Holy shit.”

He’s looking at her with an unreadable expression. His eyes are also glassy. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. He’s gonna love it. Fuck. Fuck you, dingus, I didn’t want to cry today.”

He laughs, then, and gathers her into his arms. “Thanks for letting me practice on you, Robbie.”

“I’m never doing that again. Holy shit.”

Steve smirks. “It’s alright. I promise to cry whenever you practice on me for Vickie.”

She pinches his side. He elbows hers. “Let me know when you decide to do it, yeah? I’ll steal Jon’s camera.”

Steve snorts. “Just borrow it like a normal person, Robs.”

“Literally when have I ever been normal.”

“…Fair point.” He shifts. “You think he’s gonna like it? For real?”

“If he doesn’t like it I’m taking your nail bat and practicing with his head.”

“Robin, oh my god.” He laughs, probably more than the joke warrants—especially considering he’s not entirely sure she’s joking—but he’s so relieved. “I love you.”

“Yeah, yeah. Love you too, dingus. Just tell me when.”

“Um. Tomorrow night, actually. I’m taking him back to Hawkins, to the quarry.”

She makes a face. “Why there?”

“It was our first date. We had a picnic.”

“Oh my god,” Robin says, then her eyes widen. “Wait. Steve. Steve. You have a ring.”

Steve laughs, digs his hand into his pocket. “I was wondering when you’d ask.”

“Oh, fuck you,” she says, grabbing at his hand and peeling his fingers open, grabbing the ring as soon as she can, turning it and inspecting it. She frowns a little, looking intently at the inside. “What-”

Steve smiles. “I love you in Elvish.”

“You’re both suck dorks.” She looks up at him, smiles. “He’s gonna absolutely love it.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. You know he’s head over heels for you.”

Steve blushes. “I still don’t know how.”

“Because you deserve it, dingus, you’re a good guy. A really good guy. And, according to everyone who likes guys, you’re extremely attractive.”

Steve laughs. “Thanks, Robin.”

“You’re welcome.”

A key in the lock startles them, and Robin slips the ring back into Steve’s pocket a second before the door opens. “Hey, sweetheart,” Eddie says, smiling at Steve, before turning to smirk at Robin. “Hey, freeloader.”

She squawks and launches herself at him, clinging on like a koala. “I’ll show you freeloader.”

“Oh my god get off of me you weigh a ton, Stevie, baby, help me!”

Steve just laughs. “You brought this upon yourself, babe.”

“Ah!” Eddie winces. “Jesus, Robs, elbows! In my spleen! How the fuck did you even do that, you fucking contortionist?”

“Dick.”

“Dyke.”

“Faggot.”

“Jesus fuck,” Steve mutters, eyeing the two of them. “It’s impossible for there to be peace when you two are together, isn’t it?”

They both look at him and answer simultaneously. “Yes.”

They both laugh as Robin drops off of Eddie, pressing a kiss to his cheek as she ruffles his hair. He grins and kisses her forehead before moving to embrace Steve, wrapping him in a hug and kissing his temple. He sighs, long and content. “It’s good to be home.”

Steve chuckles. “Was today that bad?”

“No, just long. Dinner?”

“In the oven.”

Just then the timer dings, and Robin races past them, yelling over her shoulder, “I’ll get it!”

They both chuckle, then Steve kisses Eddie’s cheek. “Hey.”

“Hey yourself.”

“We’re going to Hawkins tomorrow.”

Eddie’s brows scrunch up. “What?”

“Hawkins. Tomorrow. I’m the one with hearing loss, babe.”

“Actually, with your hearing aids, I’m pretty sure you can hear better than I can.”

“Fuck off.”

“Mmm, no. Something about how you love me.”

Steve softens. “Something like that,” he agrees, pressing a soft kiss to Eddie’s lips, swaying them in place, like they’re dancing. “I already called off for you. And for me. It’s overnight, but just for a night. We’re gonna drive back the next day.”

Eddie smiles. “Am I ever gonna understand what goes on in your head?”

Steve laughs. “You already do. Sometimes you know me better than I know myself.”

Eddie nudged Steve’s nose with his own. “Something about how I love you.”

“Something like that,” Steve agrees, then lets Eddie seal their lips together.

That is, until a knitted potholder flies into their faces. “Dinner time,” Robin says brightly when they break apart, like she isn’t the reason for the airborne potholder.

“And you’re sure you can’t tell me why we’re going to Hawkins?” Eddie wheedles for what feels like the millionth time.

“Nope,” Steve says happily, popping the p. “You’ll just have to wait. Enjoy the suspense. I am.”

“You’re only enjoying it because you know where we’re going,” Eddie argues.

“Exactly,” Steve says, then takes Eddie’s hand. “You’re gonna love it, Eds. Please stop worrying.”

“I’m not worrying,” Eddie says, then slumps when Steve just turns an eyebrow on him. “Okay, maybe I’m worrying a little. But only a very little!”

Steve chuckles. “Sure, babe.” A few minutes later, he reaches up to turn the radio down. “How’d you feel about no music for a while?”

“Okay,” Eddie says immediately, looking at Steve. “Are you okay? Headache?”

Steve smiles, brings Eddie’s hand up to his mouth to kiss it. “No headache, I’m okay. I was actually wondering if you’d read to me for a bit.”

Eddie raises his eyebrows. “You brought a book?”

Steve hums. “In the backseat, blue bag.”

Eddie reaches back and rifles around for a minute, then looks at Steve with a delighted expression. “I’m kissing you as soon as you stop driving.”

Steve chuckles. “Duly noted. Start wherever you want.”

Eddie blinks. “I’m in the middle of this one.”

“I know.”

“You won’t have any idea what’s going on.”

“I like listening to you.”

“You’re a sap,” Eddie says, even more delighted. “Holy fuck, I love you. Okay, um, I’m on chapter ten. The choices of Master Samwise. Frodo was lying face upward on the ground and the monster was bending over him, so intent upon her victim that she took no heed of Sam and his cries, until he was close at hand. As he rushed up he saw that Frodo was already bound in cords, wound about him from ankle to shoulder, and the monster with her great forelegs was beginning half to lift, half to drag his body away.”

He continues reading, getting more and more into it, affecting accents for the different voices, slowing down for some parts and speeding up for others, and Steve thinks his heart might burst for how much he loves this man.

They arrive in Hawkins before too long, and the first thing they do—just like every time they have to go into Hawkins for whatever reason—is visit Wayne.

Eddie blinks when he opens the door. “What the fuck?”

Steve and Wayne share a look borne of knowing Eddie. “You alright, Wayne?”

Wayne waves him off, makes a face at his cane. “Fine. Slight accident at work, fell wrong, banged my hip. I still get around fine and I didn’t want you two worryin’ none.”

“That’s our job, old man,” Eddie says, pulling Wayne into a hug. “It’s good to see you.”

“It’s good to see you boys, too.” He hugs Steve next. “C’mon in, make yourselves at home, y’know the drill. Steve, you wanna grab us some beers?”

“Love to,” Steve replies with a chuckle, following Wayne inside.

They talk and catch up for a few minutes before Eddie excuses himself to use the restroom. “Your stuff’s in the pantry,” Wayne murmurs to Steve. “Want to run it out to the car before he gets back?”

“Oh,” Steve says, like he just realized. “I asked after you’d fallen, didn’t I?”

Wayne hums noncommittally. “Not like I minded. Was just about goin’ stir crazy with the time off work.”

Steve chuckles, leans in to hug Wayne, and goes to put the bag in the car.

A few minutes later they’re hugging goodbye. “Robin’s here to take pictures,” Steve murmurs in Wayne’s ear. “I’ll get her to drive you up to Indy for the dinner tomorrow.”

“‘Preciate it,” Wayne says, clapping Steve on the back before turning to Eddie. “Get in here, boy.”

Eddie laughs and hugs his uncle. “Love ya, Wayne.”

“You too, kid. Take good care of ‘im, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Eddie agrees. “We’ll see you later.”

“Mhm. You kids have fun.”

Eddie narrows his eyes at Steve as soon as they’re back in the car. “That wasn’t what we came down here for.”

“Nope,” Steve agrees. “You’ll see soon enough, Eds.”

Eddie sighs and collapses back into his seat. Steve just grins, wholly in love.

Soon, though, he sits up again, interest piqued. “Are we going to the quarry?”

“Got it in one.”

“Steve,” Eddie says slowly, suspiciously. “What are we doing here?”

Steve doesn’t answer for a few minutes, just plays with Eddie’s fingers with one hand, the other on the wheel, his eyes never leaving the road. “Remember the first time we went to the quarry?”

“Must’ve been eight years ago, now, huh?”

“Just about,” Steve agrees. “We were just kids, terrified and halfway in love and no clue about how our lives would turn out. But we made it. Against all odds, we made it.” He glances at Eddie, smiles. “Thought it would be kinda poetic, coming back here.”

“Yeah,” Eddie agrees softly, rapt attention on Steve.

“So,” Steve continues, shrugging. “There’s some stuff in the back. Thought it might be nice to have a picnic again. Just to take some time off and remember how it was back then, think about where we were versus where we are.”

“Ugh,” Eddie says, glassy-eyed. “What have you done to me, I used to be cool.”

Steve laughs. “You’ve always been a nerd, babe. Pretty sure I’m the only one who thinks you’re cool.”

“Well, joke’s gonna be on you when we have a kid and they think I’m the coolest dad ever.”

Steve blinks, smiling even as Eddie freezes beside him. “I bet they will, Eds.”

That small sentence is enough to release the tension coiling inside Eddie, flowing out and leaving him looking at Steve, besotted.

Steve parks and they make their way to the edge, a mirror of all those years ago. Steve unfolds a blanket and lays it out, thrusting the bag at Eddie. “Here, start getting the food out, please.”

Eddie’s eyebrows steadily climb higher as he unpacks. Sandwiches, fruits, brownies, and drinks. Both of their favorites, and Steve makes a mental note to do something for Wayne soon, because nobody deserves the actual angel that is Wayne Munson.

They eat and talk and joke around, and kiss—a lot—and just as they’re finishing, the first raindrop splatters down.

Steve looks up, dismayed, to see dark clouds all around them.

Eddie whoops and jumps up, packing everything up and stuffing it back in the car, before running back to Steve and swinging him around in a hug, laughing. “What,” Steve says, but he’s laughing too, because he can’t not be happy when Eddie’s happy.

Eddie stops, sets him down, and grabs both his hands, looking Steve in the eyes. “Do you remember a few days ago when we were watching Singing in the Rain?”

The last time they’d seen the movie was at least four months ago. “Sure.”

“And you were sighing, all forlorn, and I asked what was wrong? And you said you thought you would’ve liked to dance around with someone in the rain?”

Steve can’t help the laugh. “I’m in love with your brain. That was at least five years ago, Eds.”

Eddie frowns. “No, that can’t be right, that was like, a week ago.”

Steve laughs harder. He can’t tell if the water on his cheeks is rain or tears. He doesn’t really care. “It was at least five years ago,” he assures his boyfriend.

“Huh,” Eddie says, shrugging. “Okay, well, I waited and waited and waited and it never worked out. It either always rained while we were asleep or while we were at work, or if we weren’t either of those things, it was a thunderstorm, and I sure as hell wasn’t gonna take you out in that. So.” He grins, wide and unashamed, and bows, offering Steve a hand. “May I have this dance?”

Steve’s going to die and it’s going to be Eddie’s fault. His heart is just going to give out one day because it can’t take how much he loves Eddie. “Of course,” Steve answers, taking Eddie’s hand, and Eddie lights up, dragging Steve into a crushing hug and pressing their lips together in a bruising kiss. “I love you,” he murmurs against Eddie’s lips. His breath hitches. “I love you so much.”

“I love you so much,” Eddie responds softly, wiping away Steve’s tears. “Happy?”

“Beyond,” Steve answers, floundering for a way to tell Eddie exactly how he’s feeling. But then Eddie smiles at him, and his smile is wobbly, and Steve suddenly knows Eddie knows exactly how he’s feeling.

They sway together for minutes or hours or days, Steve doesn’t know or care, letting the rain on the leaves and the ground be the rhythm they move to, an unhurried dance that somehow means everything.

The rain eventually lets up, and Steve pulls away after a few minutes, so they’re holding hands. “I have a question.”

“Okay.”

“We’ve known each other for a little over eight years now. We saved the world and managed to fall in love in the middle of it. The Shire was burning, we defeated Sauron, and I carried you out of Mordor. Against all odds we made it out alive, and against all odds we made it out of the Shire, and against all odds we made it together. It’s been eight years and every one’s been an adventure. Every day has been an adventure with you. And I may not know what our lives may hold next, but I know whatever the adventure is, I don’t want to do it without you by my side.” He kneels, pulling out the ring, and Eddie gasps, tearing up.

“Stevie-”

“So,” he continues. “Eddie. I know we can’t legally get married. I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to, but I don’t care. I don’t need the government to tell me who I can and can’t marry. I love you, baby, and if you’ll have me, I’ll love you forever. Will you fuck the government and marry me?”

Eddie’s shaking. “That,” he manages after a minute, “was metal as fuck, baby.” He sniffs, shakes his head, and laughs. “Of course. Of course I’ll marry you. We’ll flip off the whole of the government together.”

“Hell yeah,” Steve says, grinning, and stands. “Before you put the ring on, though, there’s something I want you to see.” He turns it, points out the inscription on the inside, and Eddie tackles him with a yell, and they both go down laughing.

“Baby,” Eddie manages after a minute. “Holy shit. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

“Yeah?” Steve asks rhetorically, and they both watch as he slides the ring onto his fiancé’s finger.

It’s a perfect fit.

#steddieweek2023 #stranger things #steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #platonic stobin #robin buckley #steve and wayne #eddie and wayne munson #wayne munson #did I scare y’all at first? #did I make y’all cry? #I hope so #i hope y’all like it #starambles

[rogueddie]

eddie jokes that he can swim but he can't do any of the strokes so steve takes him to the pool and tells him to show him what the hell he's on about. he goes to the bottom of the pool and crawls along the floor like an underwater spider. steve has nightmares for weeks.

#stranger things #steve harrington #eddie munson #steddie #I used to do that all the time when I went swimming often #used to jump scare people by coming by up for breath when I saw someone pause for a rest lmao

[imthursdaysyme]

Robin and Steve know Everything about Everyone. Your second cousin twice removed that doesn't even look Hawkins anymore? Yeah they know that he cheated on his wife and dyes his hair with box dye he gets from the grocery store a town over. No one is safe.

Steve opens a hair salon and somehow they know even More about everything. The police start by asking them if they know anything. They may give you exactly who stole Jim's pumpkins and what else he did as well as why he stole Jim's pumpkins.

But they might also completely misdirect them cause what? An explosion on the south side? They know nothin about who did it (eleven) but in that area there is the old man named Carl who sells weed outside of his car on Thursday's sooo not saying it's a coincidence but also so weird right? (they just hate Carl)

#stranger things #steve harrington #robin buckley #stobin #they have so much knowledge #so many things learned #they could put so many people in prison #they are unintentionally the biggest scare to every criminal cause stobin just wanna gossip but know they also have blackmail on everyone #did they mean to collect hoards of blackmail? no. do they threaten with it often? also no #they just like knowing shit #but they will use it if need be #and that's why everyones terrified #unintentional mob bosses that do business out of their hair salon

[infinite-orangepeel]

my two moods are:

1. steve harrington has final girl energy and nothing can kill him

and

2. steve harrington is destined to die a tragic and martyrous death and i will never be okay again

#season 5 i have my eye on u 👁️ #okay but if steve really dies i’ll never recover i’m so serious #that’s my princess and i cannot lose him i’ve projected way too much of myself onto his character #also scared for him to be final girl bc i know the duffers will find some way to fuck up his character arc #keep steve in ur prayers #he’s too sexy for this world #steve harrington #steve harrington headcanon #steve harrington hc #steddie #joe keery #fruity four #steve x eddie #eddie x steve #stranger things 5 #st5 predictions #st5 theory #stranger things #steve harrington my beloved

[princessstevemunson]

All this talk about shovel talks and nothing about Claudia Henderson. Like where’s her giving steddie shovel talks?

Claudia is eternally grateful to Eddie for saving her Dusty’s life, but she sees the pain her boys were both in after his sacrifice. She hears the screams at night from Dustin’s room. She watches as he either radios whoever was sitting with Eddie—usually Steve—or calls if the person doesn’t have a radio. Always asking for updates in the morning. Making sure the other boy is still there. Still alive.

Steve on the other hand is hiding his pain as he always does. She still sees Steve sitting vigil at the young man’s bed when she comes to bring real food and good coffee to Steve, Wanye and occasionally Dustin’s middle school science teacher Mr. Clarke. She sees the way Steve took extra care washing the other’s vest. All under a guise of being a good friend and not wanting Eddie to wake up alone.

When Eddie starts tagging along with Steve to their dinners occasionally she slowly watches as the two go from friends to pining to something else entirely. It’s when she’s certain that Eddie and Steve have become EddieandSteve that she starts doing it.

She would never give a shovel talk to Eddie. Steve’s a grown man, and can protect his own heart, but she’s already seen the pain Eddie had unwilling caused him. She’s seen the way Steve held the metalhead’s vest as it was his anchor to this world. She knew Eddie would never cause him pain like that again, but that doesn’t mean she can’t have a little fun scaring Eddie.

It starts innocently enough, she’s just sharing fun facts.

“Did you know,” she says to Eddie while Steve and Dustin are clearing the table, “that pigs can eat a human body. It can take some time, but sixteen pigs can do it in about eight minutes actually.”

She hides her smile as the younger squirms uncomfortably and replies “um, no I didn’t know that.”

She didn’t think anyone else but Eddie heard her, but she was wrong. Dustin says something about remembering going to Claudia’s cousin’s farm shortly after his dad left them, and thinking it had pigs. She had an even harder hiding her smile after Eddie went as white as a ghost with that information.

She continues to give Eddie little fun facts like that, and one time confirming that Eddie is in fact allergic to cinnamon, because she’d hate to forget that when baking him something.

She’d never ever be the cause of Dustin and Steve’s pain, or give her new found friends Wayne and Scott the panic she had in spring break not knowing where her Dusty was, but she does like seeing Eddie squirm on occasion.

#Claudia henderson absolutely adopted Steve and is far more observant than the kids #she’d never give an actual shovel talk to Eddie but she’d have fun scaring him #eddie thinks she hates him #Steve who’s partially deaf and somehow is never in the room when she drops tidbits is very confused #He’s like ‘what? Ma loves you’ #claudia henderson #steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #dustin henderson #I’m totally not pushing my Claudia killed her husband hc into this #my writing #blurb #steddie blurb #steddie fanfic #clarkson if you squint

[kennahjune]

the moment mike accepted steve into the party

he didn’t get it. what was so good about steve harrington?

yeah, he was good looking and strong. but other than that? nothing. in mike’s eyes, he was still the asshole rando that dated his sister. and he didn’t plan on that changing.

until march of 1985.

mike had been held back after class for falling asleep. it wasn’t his fault. he couldn’t ever sleep unless someone else was with him. and there was no way in hell he was gonna cuddle with nancy. besides, he was good at the class— so no need to pay attention really.

at least miss noelle didn’t call his mom.

dustin, lucas, and will were waiting for him in the hall. oh, and max, cause she was actually kind of cool.

“what was up with miss noelle?” lucas asked as they walked down the hall.

“pissed i fell asleep in class,” mike said dejectedly. max snorted from beside him.

“maybe just don’t fall asleep?” she asked rhetorically.

mike huffed and flipped her off. “you sound like my dad.”

dustin shuddered from his other side. “ew. not cool man.”

mike rolled his eyes. “it’s true! my dads always like ‘just don’t this’ and ‘just don’t do that’ instead of actually helping! It’s so annoying.”

will came up and bumped arms with him while they finally left the school. classes were done and they were finally left to do what they wanted.

“uh oh.” came from lucas. mike sighed, catching sight of what— or who— lucas was “uh oh-ing” about.

“just don’t look at them,” max said under her breath while she averted her eyes to the ground.

“that never works,” retorted lucas.

“you have any better ideas? just keep walking.”

great. the one day nancy or jonathan aren’t picking them up and they run into noah and joey.

in 1983, el had gotten troy and james to back off— even scaring them into moving. but el’s not here right now, so she can’t help with noah and joey— the party’s most recent tormentors.

will stepped closer to mike and mike nudged his hand with his. everyone pulled in closer to each other in hopes of concealing themselves and the others. of course, it didn’t work.

“hey hey! look man, it’s the circus!” mike saw noah nudge joey beside him.

“shit,” dustin cursed.

and ‘shit’ was right. no one wanted to deal with noah and joey. especially with the mood mike was currently in after being held up.

“seriously what hell is it, tanner?” mike addressed noah directly.

joey whistled lowly and took a sharp step forward. will and dustin both flinched pretty hard. max gave a twitch but lucas and mike held their ground for the most part. noah and joey got a kick laughing at dustin and will.

“awwww they’re scared, joey! like a bunch of babies!”

mike forgot how stupid kids sound most of the time. they could call him a baby all they wanted— nothing will ever compare to watching will get possessed and then watching bob die.

mike still reached out and grabbed someone’s hand. he thinks it was lucas’.

joey and noah were both a good bit taller than mike, which meant they were also a good bit taller than everyone else in the party. they liked to use their height to their advantage but mike had dealt with monsters twice his height. it wasn’t scary, just annoying at this point.

still didn’t help the fact that they didn’t want to deal with this.

mike had zoned out, because next thing he knew he was being shoved to the ground. it probably wouldn’t have hurt too bad if they weren’t outside in the parking lot. mike felt his chin bust on the pavement in a sickening repeat of ‘83 with troy and james.

will was there in a second with dustin, helping him up off the ground and dusting him off. dustin held his hands while Will held his face, frantic over the now gushing blood that he could feel running down his neck. he was trembling. why was he trembling?

he faintly heard yelling and assumed lucas and max were arguing with joey and noah.

“just fuck off, murphy!” he heard max yell at joey. “we’ve literally done nothing to either of you and yet you make us hate our fucking lives!”

“aww, noah, she thinks we actually care! isn’t that cute?”

mike stood up with the help up dustin and will. but that only served to turn noah and joey’s attention onto him. well. better on him than on max.

“so whatcha gonna do, wheeler? gonna push me like troy? gonna wimp out and go cry to mommy and daddy?”

mike actually considered pushing joey. but that’d probably just make thing worse. if el hadn’t been there last year to save his ass from troy mike would’ve gotten pummeled.

but it was a serious option he considered.

dustin stepped in front of mike and shoved joey back. mike didn’t even realize how close he’d gotten. wow. he was really out of it today, huh?

“back off murphy.”

mike wanted to hug dustin, but at the same time he wanted to smack him upside the head for putting himself in the way. it’s easier when they target mike. just let them target him. he doesn’t care at this point.

dustin stayed arguing with joey and stopped only when there were multiple shouts from max, will and lucas.

noah had pulled max’s hair and in return was shoved to the ground by lucas. but noah had taken will down with him and now will struggled with lucas and max to get noah off.

mike saw red, and in a moments notice had noah off of will and on the ground. he was vaguely aware of dustin and max cheering him on with dustin and will watching.

it didn’t last very long until noah shoved mike hard enough that he fell backwards and busted his head on the ground. again.

at this point he was working himself towards a concussion. just like steve, he thought deliriously. and speak of the devil.

“aye!”

mike, dustin, lucas, will, and max all looked up, startled by the familiar voice and claps.

“what the fuck are you shits doing, huh?”

steve fucking harrington was suddenly right next to mike on the ground, kneeling and helping him sit up.

“shit, you ok mike? that’s a nasty scrape you got there. i have bandaids in the car, let’s go get you one, yeah?”

mike just nodded. he really wanted to know what the fuck steve was doing there and why he seemed to intent on helping.

“who the fuck are you?”

steve stood with mike halfway to the car, the rest of the group following, mike noticed. joey and noah stood idly in the parking lot, seeming put out by steve’s sudden appearance.

steve’s eye twitched and mike watched him bite the inside of his cheek. mike watched in real time as steve recognized joey and noah and seemed to piece together exactly what happened. he scoffed. not what mike was expecting.

steve gently nudged mike towards the car and knocked his knuckles on dustin’s hat. “you kids go get in the car. max you can toss your board in the trunk.”

dustin seemed to want to protest but even he could see how pissed steve was. even max was keeping quiet. lucas and will were quick to follow instructions and headed to the car. mike was right behind them.

lucas tried the back door (knowing mike got shotgun for the bandaids and possible concussion) but the handle only wiggled. “locked.”

“did he give one of you the keys?” asked will.

they all shook their heads. they didn’t have to wait long until steve was back with them at the car.

“why aren’t you guys in the car yet?”

“locked.” informed will.

“ohhhh. oops.” steve unlocked the car and helped max put her skate board in the trunk. when he hopped into the drivers side dustin and lucas were hounding him with questions.

“why are you here?”

“I thought we were walking home?”

“what the hell was that?”

“what did you do to noah and joey?”

“settle down and shut up, would you? nancy mentioned you guys were walking home so I came to grab you. you’d think that after everything they’d be a little more cautious. and also, language, henderson. I am so not taking the blame when you end up slipping in front of your mom.”

“awww you were worried steve.” max teased.

steve scoffed. “‘course I was, red. and it turned out I had every right to be. anybody wanna explain what that was?”

suddenly the car was quiet.

steve clicked his tongue.

“fine. guess you’re all coming to my house, huh?”

there was a sudden uproar in questions and “what the hell?”s.

“listen! i’m not letting any of you shits go home until I one; know for sure mike doesn’t have a concussion—“ steve eyed mike and he felt himself flinch. “—and two; before I get the whole story.”

there was a bunch of grumbling from the backseat, but mike himself stayed quiet throughout the rest of the ride.

“oh! and mike—“ mike looked at steve briefly and barely caught the box of tissues tossed at him. “—put that on the scrape for now, yeah? I’ll clean it properly when we get to the house.”

mike nodded and held a wad of tissues to his chin.

when they pulled up to the harrington house, everyone was inside quickly. everyone went to use the phone in the living room to call their parents and when mike went to follow he was grabbed gently on the shoulder.

“can you head to the kitchen and grab out the med-kit? I need to make sure they don’t drive my bill up.”

mike knew it was meant to be used as a distraction. but he’d take it. so he headed to the kitchen before realizing he didn’t know where the med-kit was. he rifled around in the cabinets for a bit before finding it stored away under the sink.

mike pulled it out and waited at the kitchen island. he noticed that it was a pretty heavy kit. and it seemed to be used a lot judging by the lack of dust and how it had a couple of bandages peeking from the crease.

everyone piled into the kitchen, book bags dumped in the living room and shoes discarded by the door. will sat on a stool next to mike and dustin and max hopped on the counter. lucas took a seat on the other side of mike.

“ooookay. ah! there it is.” steve opened the kit and grabbed out a brown bottle and a few cotton balls. mike noted how he seemed to know where everything in the med-kit was as if he used it on a daily. he filed the information away for later.

“what’s that supposed to be?” mike eyed the bottle with weariness.

“just peroxide. it’s meant to clean the cut. I know for a fact that that parking lot is fucking filthy and I’m not risking an infection due to gunk in the wound.”

steve put a cotton ball to the open top of the bottle and tipped the bottle over. “i’m not going to lie and say it doesn’t hurt, cause it does sting a bit. but it also definitely helps in the long run.” steve held up the cotton ball as if in question.

mike nodded and looked up, giving steve more room to see the scrape. mike gripped will’s hand and hissed when the cotton ball first dabbed, but the pain soon subsided.

“now this part isn’t too fun either but it’s kind of needed. how attached to that shirt are you?”

mike looked down at that faded, off-white with blue stripes shirt he was wearing. “not very. why?”

“ok, good. this won’t ruin the shirt but you might have to change is all i’m saying. I need to pour the peroxide directly on the scrape to clean it out properly. “

(I know that hydrogen peroxide actually tends to damage tissue and delay healing but they didn’t really know that in the 80s so bare with me.)

mike shuddered at the thought. “I don’t have clothes to change into.”

“I have an extra shirt in my bag.” offered lucas. “I had gym today.” he clarified when he got off looks.

“that’d be perfect, thanks sinclair.”

lucas jumped up to get the shirt and came back in with a white t-shirt with red sleeves. he set it on the counter for afterwards. lucas wordlessly took mike’s hand that will wasn’t holding.

it wasn’t long before the scrape was clean and steve was putting away the kit. while everyone else ran into the living room to watch movies and raid steve’s snacks, mike took the shirt and went to the bathroom to change.

when he came back out (after looking at the funny bandage on his chin— because seriously, what kind 17 year old just had dinosaur bandaids in their med-kit?) mike was quick to join everyone in the living room before steve could pull him aside again.

honestly? fuck that guy.

(but when mike sat between will and max on the couch he couldn’t stop thinking about how soft steve was when taking care of the scrape. he couldn’t stop himself from thinking about how old he was when he last felt that gentleness.

the answer was 7. mike was 7 when his mom deemed him old enough to deal with his own cuts and bruises.)

steve eventually held out on his promise of getting information. and after their first movie he forced them all onto the couches while he stood in front of them.

“so am I actually going to get an answer this time?” he stood with his hands on his hips and a dish towel thrown over his shoulder. mike remembered this same stance from not even a year ago, when they were trying to talk him into going in the tunnels.

steve almost reminded mike of his mom for a moment. but mike doubted his mom would go this far if she ever found out about the bullying. (mike refused to admit that he liked the idea of steve fretting over them like this. the idea made him almost sick to his stomach.)

everyone refused to look at him. max looked dead ahead at the wall, lucas kept his eyes trained on the floor, will was messing with his jacket sleeves and dustin was paying extra attention to the ceiling.

mike chewed the inside of his cheek.

“what the hell do you wanna hear from us, steve?” he asked. “that we’re being bullied? that they picked a fight with us first? that we’re nerds and freaks and weirdos?”

will, dustin and lucas flinched with each insult. max refused to look at anything other than what mike assumed was the odd spot on the wall. mike saw steve’s left eye twitch— the one he was always getting punched in.

“that what they told you?”

mike scoffed. “that’s what everyone told us. we’re the school circus!” his voice raised at the end and will flinched violently next to him.

“mike..” dustin uttered from beside max.

“sorry.” he mumbled, finally letting his gaze drop from steve to the coffee table in front of them.

steve sighed quietly.

“noah tanner and joey murphy, right? they both have older siblings, noah an older brother and joey an older sister.”

that made head snap to him.

“what—“ lucas started.

“mitchel tanner and annie murphy are their names. mitch is on the swim team, annie on the cheer team. they’re both barely passing their classes and aren’t exactly the kindest either— in fact I watched mitch shove freshman into a door yesterday.” steve continued, his voice soft as if he was simply talking to himself.

dustin’s and lucas’ jaws were on the floor, max and will were looking at him as if he were insane.

“so— wait—“

“you know their older siblings?”

“what the hell does that have to do with anything?”

steve smirked. and mike was /scared/. he’d seen steve smirk before, when he was dating nancy, when he said something particularly bitchy.

but this. this smirk was plain /mean/.

“would be a real shame if.. I dunno, their coaches suddenly find out about the poor sophomores they make do their homework. or worse— principal higgins finds out. who are mitch and annie gonna blame then, huh?”

dustin sputtered, “you! they’d just blame you, wouldn’t they?”

steve shrugged. “sure. but then they’d know why I did it. their brothers fucking with my kids.”

he said it so calmly. as if it was just the plain truth. as if he wasn’t scared to admit it.

if this is how he’s treated, being of steve’s “kids”, then shit. he may not be all that mad after all.

steve pulled the towel off his shoulder and walked back into the kitchen, a call over his shoulder about ham and cheese sliders and chips for dinner.

but none of the kids were listening.

lucas turned dustin who turned to max who turned to mike who turned to will who looked back at all of them with the biggest grin mike’s ever seen on his face.

ok. so maybe mike gets the hype the steve harrington.

(and if the next week of school went by with no issues, with noah and joey looking at them in /fear/? well. mike had steve to thank.)

#stranger things #steve harrington #dustin henderson #mike wheeler #will byers #max mayfield #lucas sinclair #el hopper #nancy wheeler #jonathan byers #bullying #steve protecting his kids 🙌 #as he should #bitchy steve harrington #swim captain steve harrington using his status to scare assholes #steve harrington is scary #and mike admires him for it #(begrudgingly) #mike being forced out of his shell pls #mike and steve bonding time #kind of mike wheeler angst #mike is my sweetheart #and so is steve #mike wheeler appreciation #mike finally accepting that he’s one of steve’s kids

[babyrunsforfanfic]

Tangled Necklaces

summary: the four times steve harrington untangles your necklace for you, and the one time do it for him.

steve harrington x fem!reader

warnings/tags: light angst, talk of anxiety, reader and steve meet while reader is dating someone else but they don’t cheat or anything they just kinda have a moment y’know, reader described as having hair long enough to put in a bun at one point, everyone lives ok like zero talk of the upside down or vecna, platonic fruity four, talk/use of drugs & alcohol, talk of kids but it’s like four sentences and it’s over so fast i swear

based off these two posts (one) (two) that i really had the urge to expand on.

wc: 4500ish

1. when steve harrington agreed to tag along to a party to keep his friend, eddie munson, company during some “party favor” deals… he didn’t really know why. okay that was a total lie, he had mainly agreed due to nancy and robin being out on a double date with vickie and jonathan respectively, and he didn’t want to fifth wheel.

however, watching the party with a red cup of warm beer to his lips, he wasn’t sure why people still threw these fucking things. eddie was decently in his element, happily spouting about something to some guy buying a pre-rolled spliff, the guy in which who looked like he had no want to be there. said guy who, after passing eddie a ten dollar bill, made some comment about a girl sobbing in the upstairs bathroom.

now steve, steve couldn’t deny he had things for saving people and the whole ‘kicked puppy’ schtick, so when he glanced at eddie, eddie simply waved him off toward the house. steve maneuvered through wasted teenagers, kicking a few plastic cups out from under his feed, before he treaded up the stairs slowly. upstairs was quieter, though not completely vacant, and the floor still thrummed from the music that was being played just below.

“i can’t believe that girl is in there crying over a stupid fucking necklace.” a girl had snickered in passing, and steve ignored whatever the girl’s friend had said (though he knew it was as equally malicious as the first girl).

instead, steve walked straight to the only closed door on the floor, and tapped his knuckles against the wood. he could hear the sniffles, the water running, and when you opened the door… god he didn’t think he had ever seen someone as pretty.

“m sorry.” you mumbled, mascara black tear lines under your eyes, and steve watched as your hand came up to wipe at your face. “if you need to-”

“what’s wrong?” steve instead asked, and he caught the surprise in your eyes as you rapidly blinked. “someone said something about a necklace?”

“oh.” you wince, and you lifted your clenched fist that steve had just realized had been tucked behind your back so far. “it’s nothing, really.”

“let me see.” steve folded his hands on his hips, waiting, before you let out a soft sigh. “let me see, c’mon.”

you said nothing, and instead just brought your hand around to open your palm face-up. steve sucked a breath through clenched teeth, though didn’t say anything as he glanced at the clump of metal chain you had in the center of your hand.

the necklace itself was pretty, some thin silver chain with a tiny stone on it, and you scrunched your nose as you shrugged noncommittally.

“it’s fine, i can take it to a jeweler in the next town over.” you shrugged again, and steve watched as you touched the knot with the tip of your nail from your other hand’s pointer finger. “not a big deal, y’know?”

“give it.” steve murmured, and when you didn’t move quick enough- steve plucked the necklace out of your hands for you. “wash yourself up, i got it from here.”

you blinked owlishly as steve closed the toilet lid and sat, balancing the chain on his own palm as he stared at it. you didn’t necessarily know what to say (was there anything to say?), and so instead? you just listened to him.

you used a hand towel to wash your face, paired with the bottle of cheap face wash you found tucked under the sink. you were able to scrub off most of your leftover makeup, though you were delicate around the eyes, which left the majority of your now smudged eyeliner and eyeshadow. you huffed, breathing deeply as you leaned forward, before you cupped water in your palms. the trickle of the water, the coolness of it, grounded you- and you didn’t flinch when you looked up in the mirror to see steve harrington standing just behind you. he smiled at you, slow and steady, before he jerked his head toward you.

“move your hair.” steve kept his voice soft still, and you did as he asked- before your necklace was back where it belonged. your fingers smoothed over it, as steve connected the clasp closed, fingers brushing just under the back of the collar of your sweater. “there we go.”

you both stared at each other’s reflection, unblinking and quiet, your fingers of one hand pressed to your necklace- while the other kept you steady as you stood against the counter. steve watched you, arms and hands limp at his side, though he offered you a smile still.

a sharp thwap on the door caused you to jump, and you glanced at the locked doorknob as it jiggled.

“baby? you in there?” chris, your boyfriend of six months and some change called, and while steve mouthed the word ‘baby’ to himself, you answered back with your eyes still locked on the harrington boy still stood behind you.

“i’ll meet you downstairs!”

steve let you go when you stepped away. when you whispered your apologies, he murmured his own back.

later that evening, when he makes eye contact with you when you’re pressed into the side of some jock, he can’t help but feel smug when your hand lifts to ghost against the necklace that’s nestled between your collarbones.

2. steve harrington was pretty sure his friends were out to get him. when eddie had whined and pleaded to let him throw a little friend-movie night thing. steve had reluctantly agreed, but he made his friends instead switch it into an all day thing. starting with swimming in the pool, and then. when they were tired enough, pizza and movies.

steve should’ve known something was up when eddie asked if he could invite someone over, and when steve later asked who, eddie had instead changed the subject.

but steve hadn’t pressed, and instead figured eddie had probably lucked out with a girl or guy— and was embarrassed.

he hadn’t expected to walk out of his house to see you sitting by the pool. most of your hair was scraped up in a bun on the top of your head, but your hands were currently fiddling with that fucking necklace of yours.

steve dropped off the case of beers next to a grinning nancy, who winked playfully at steve, before she gestured to you. when you turned around you beamed, giggling and waving at steve as he got closer to you.

“surprise!” you grinned wide, eyes bright, and steve chuckled as the sun caught the shine of the sunblock you’d applied to your cheeks and nose.

“hey there!” steve greeted you in an quick one arm hug when you dropped one arm, though he took note that one of your hands stayed tucked at the hair at the nape of your neck. “what are you doing here?”

“eds invited me!” you chirped, eyes bright as your dark tinted sunglasses tipped down your nose. steve glanced over his shoulder toward eddie, who was fiddling with the boombox steve had propped on a table. “said you wouldn’t mind.”

“the more the merrier.” steve grinned when you smiled wide, before he couldn’t help but gesture towards your neck with a jerk of his chin. “problem?”

“oh.” you winced, and steve felt a familiar rush of deja vu, though this time you’re spinning to show steve the back of your neck. your necklace had grabbed hold of the hairs at your nape, and it was spun almost to the root. steve whistled this time, murmuring a curse word. “i know, it’s bad huh?”

“you sleep in that thing or something?” steve settled down behind you without asking, and quickly flicked your hand out of the way. you flushed, though tipped your head forward as to make his ministrations easier.

“yeah, i uh, shower in it too.” you shrug, and steve balks as he sets about carefully pulling your hair out of the chain’s teeth.

“now, i’m no jeweler…” steve’s words trail off as he untangles one section, before moving to the next. “but pretty sure sleeping in this and showering in it is not helping you with taking care of it.”

“i just.. i don’t want to lose it, y’know?” you shrug, and steve can see over your shoulder you’re fiddling with a thin bracelet that’s around your wrist. “i don’t want to lose any of it.”

you gesture then, from head to toe, and steve looks at where you point. the tiny earrings in your ears. the necklace in between steve’s fingers. the bracelets. the rings. an anklet on your left ankle.

“i don’t have a jewelry box so i just..” you shrug again, and steve watches from over your shoulder as you start to turn a ring around your thumb.

“hm.” steve makes a noise of acknowledgment, mainly so you know he’s still listening to you, before he smooths his hands under the last bit of your previously tangled hair. “all done.”

you smile from over your shoulder at steve, an ear to ear thing, and steve pretends his heart doesn’t skip a beat when later you tell robin while you’re tipsy that you dumped your boyfriend.

you pretend yours doesn’t skip a beat, when you get back home and empty out your bag. tucked inside the towel you’d borrowed, you find a beat-to-shit jewelry case. when you eventually got the courage open it, all that’s inside is a small sticky note.

signed— from, s.

you don’t tell anyone that you tuck the sticky note away into your wallet for the safest of keeping.

it’s the first night you sleep where when you wake, your necklace isn’t tangled into your hair, and your anklet isn’t snagged on a lose thread.

steve pretends to not blush when he gets his own sticky note back, alongside a small ring, a ring that while it doesn’t fit his hand, it does fit on his key ring.

his note is signed— with a doodle of a necklace.

3. steve liked working at family video on one particular day the most out of any other day. sure, there are the days where his friends come in, keeping him and robin company at the two work while their two other friends pick their way through the stacks.

steve however, steve especially likes saturdays.

he mainly (okay fully) enjoys saturdays because those are the days where you come in. the hour varied— sometimes right when the store opened and other times you’d slink in just before your shift though.

however, when he arrived to work one day and found you sniffling while you sat on the curb in front of your car, his heart ached. you’d blinked up at him, pretty and hands shaking, as your hands cradled two parts of the necklace that you usually wore. the clasp was in one hand and the body of the necklace in the other, and steve said nothing to you as he ushered you inside the family video store.

robin wouldn’t be in for another hour, and steve didn’t care what keith would probably have to say come monday. steve instead ushered you to sit behind the store’s counter, and you sunk to the floor as steve moved around quickly.

first, he’d relocked the doors. secondly, he’d taped a piece of paper to the glass of one with just the word ‘emergency’ scrawled across it. thirdly, he’d draped his jacket around your shoulders in passing, since your body was still trembling as you cried. fourth and fifth, he snagged a coke from the vending machine in the break room, alongside a pair of needle nosed pliers.

when steve came to sit in front of you cross legged, knees touching yours, you sniffled as you held the broken necklace in your hands. you didn’t say anything at first, and instead let steve pluck the broken necklace bits from your hand, swapping them for the coke. he let you, keeping quiet as you drank, before you started to fiddle with the tab.

“my mom gave me that.” you explained, and steve nodded, set about using the pliers to reopen the clasp end that had gotten pulled off. “and whenever anything happens to it… god i just fucking freeze.”

“what made you come here?” normally, steve would think he had more tact then that, and for a moment he thinks about robin and the ‘you suck’ tally marks at scoop’s.

“i…” you blow out a huff of air, and steve gets a smell of mint and coke, smiling as he watches you become flustered. “this is gonna sound so dumb.”

“hey, you aren’t dumb.” steve’s answer is an almost bite, and you blink up at him prettily as steve’s eyes harden as he watches you. “you’re not. we all have things that stress us out, yeah? so don’t say you’re dumb just because you think you’re overreacting about something.”

you say nothing, bottom lip between your teeth.

steve continues to fiddle with the necklace, pliers helpings as he’s able to loop the rings back together. you’re smiling as you watch, steve notices, and you happily turn around after steve lets out a small ‘ta-da’.

you move your hair out of the way as if it was something you did all the time, and steve is gentle as he clasps the necklace around your neck.

“be careful with this, okay?” steve murmurs, and you hold back a shiver at the way his breath fans over the back of your neck. “if it breaks, try and not lose the rings, i can get it back together if you have all the pieces.”

you nod and promise, and for the next forty minutes, you and steve talk about life. you both say nothing when robin walks in, the girl mumbling to herself about an ‘emergency’ and you and steve both try to not squirm when she grins down at you. instead, you let steve pull you up so you’re standing on your own feet, and he finally opens the store with robin as you’re looking for your next movie to watch.

when you find it and are later checking out, you see steve’s keys, and steve looks up when the most adorable choked out puff of air falls from your lips.

“oh.” you’re grinning, shifting your weight on both of your feet, eyes bright as you rub your thumb over your ring that’s sitting on his keys.

steve just smiles at you, nervous, and you accept the movie and receipt from him. when you leave, robin slides a sticky note to him, with a sloppily drawn ‘you rule | you suck’ diagram, with a single tally mark under ‘you suck’.

steve pushes it away with a scoff, just as the door chime alerts your re-entry to the store. you don’t have the movie in your hands, and instead you’re fiddling with your necklace, your bracelets, your rings. steve and robin both keep quiet as you huff to yourself, before you send a smile to steve.

“go on a date with me.”

later, after steve agrees and gets your number, robin slides a new sticky note his way when the store is packed full.

‘you rule: I | you suck: 0’

4. steve harrington is pretty sure, almost a hundred percent fucking positive he was meant to be your boyfriend. he decides this early on in your relationship, while he’s listening to you giggle to robin about leaving hawkins and all seven of you moving into a duplex of some kind. he listens to you giggle with nancy, mainly when nancy tells you steve’s vision of having six kids.

when you squirm and say you wouldn’t mind, eddie claps steve’s shoulder and proclaims him to now officially be a goner. steve rolls his eyes and pushes eddie away as eddie teases him about being whipped. (steve will never tell eddie about how that night, you and steve laid nose-to-nose in his bed talking about name ideas).

he later hears you checking with nancy that she’s not upset with you for dating steve, and when she assures you that she’s not- you quietly say you think someone like steve had always been missing from your life. (that night, steve lays in your bed beside you and wishes that you’ll never leave him). when you wake up the next morning and notice he’s more bleary-eyed than usual, you have him call out and you spend all day in bed together, sheets tangled and skin to skin.

steve doesn’t mind that you both have morning breath the whole day. you do, but you’d never say a word.

if steve had to pick a favorite though, mornings would definitely be at the top of the list. you had a job at the police station with nancy, both of you working as secretaries to save up money so all of you could get the fuck out of dodge, before you all intended to move just.. out of hawkins.

but mornings, mornings steve got to help you. he got to slip your rings onto each finger, before he pressed a kiss to the digits. He carefully selected your bracelets, making sure they wouldn’t snag on anything you were wearing that day (he knew you had certain ones that were finicky for certain clothes).

your necklace, the one your mom had given you, was long since broken. you’d had a full meltdown when it happened, sobbing into steve’s shirt as held you to him. you’d both stayed like that for a long while, him cradling you to his chest as you held the necklace to yours. later, when your tears ran dry, he helped you slip the necklace into a small plastic bag, and tuck it carefully against your jewelry box.

(he’d offered to buy you a new one, a better one than the old one he’d snuck into your bag. you told him to shut the fuck up with silly questions, and steve hadn’t asked since)

he’s gifted you a necklace, just last week, a dainty chain with a small teardrop pendant that hung in the hollow of your throat. your eyes had teared up, breath stuttering in your throat, and you’d instantly turned around so you could push your hair off your shoulder.

and all of that, led to now— where you and him were getting ready to go pick up steve’s adopted children (how you’d fit them all in his little car you weren’t sure), but you’d manage. you were fully ready, one of his sweaters on but pouting, your chin cradled by the palm of your hand. steve shook his head fondly at you, even as he used the pair of tweezers you’d offered him to try and untangle the knot that you’d made with your necklace.

“oh.” you mumbled, and steve huffed playfully at you, eyes rolling fondly as he hushed you. “i’m sorry.”

“don’t apologize, pretty thing.” steve wet his lips with his tongue, slowly working out the chain as he shrugged his shoulders. “not too bad, ‘m a pro at this now and everything.”

“need to start paying you.” you teased, and you squirmed when steve grinned at you.

“pay me in kisses, huh?” steve grinned as you stuck your tongue out at him, before he pressed his hand to his chest with a grin. “ouch! fine, pay me by doing my dishes when we all move in together.”

steve gestured to one of the polaroids tacked to your vanity mirror, and you smiled as you glanced at it. it was a picture of all of you; you, steve, robin, vickie, nancy, jonathan, and eddie. you were all tucked close, hazy eyes but with bright smiles, and you’d loved the photo since the day you’d taken it.

“you want that, really?” your voice was soft, and steve clicked his tongue at you and gestured you closer as he held your necklace up.

you turned, allowing him to clip your necklace on, before his hands curled around your shoulders to hold you in place.

kiss. a soft kiss to your shoulder.

“i can’t wait to move in with all of you. waking up every day with you in our bed, not having to sneak around anyone.” steve hummed, and you let out a soft sigh to urge him on. “we’d all balance each other out, and we’d have our own space to hang out if they got on our nerves.”

kiss. a soft kiss to your shoulder.

“i can’t wait to start the rest of my life with you, sweet thing.” steve thumbed the clasp of your necklace, and you nodded as you shifted so you could straddle his lap and face him. “okay?”

“okay.” your answer has steve smiling, and you can’t help but smile back shyly.

steve let’s out this soft, almost fucked out laugh, before his fingers curl around the necklace chain..

and pull.

the kiss is shy, sweet, both of your noses brushing and giggling and smiling into each other’s mouths. steve pulls away first, eyes flickering to the clock you have above your bed, before he presses another kiss to your mouth.

“c’mon, sweet thing. let’s go get the kids.”

you don’t tell steve, but the entire drive there and back with the kids… you can’t help but think that it would be easy to have a life where steve’s hand was in yours.

unknown to you, steve feels the exact same way.

5. steve huffed as he leaned his head to rest against the headboard of the bed he sat on, brow furrowed and lips pulled down in a frown. he glanced around the room, and couldn’t help but let a slight smile curl at the edges of his mouth.

you’d all done exactly what you said you would, and now, two years almost to do the day of meeting you, you’d all moved out of bum-fuck nowhere that is hawkins. it wasn’t without its challenges, of course, the main one being it took a whole extra year to follow through with the group’s goals plan. (the group had unanimously voted to stay while eddie finished his third try of senior year, even with eddie’s insistence that you didn’t have to and he’d follow soon)

but, all eventually was okay- and you’d all thrown several darts on the map to decide where you’d move. you’d all decided on texas of all places, renting a large 6-room duplex to fit the entire lot of you. it was nice, slipping into the domestic life with steve’s friends and you around him— if he was honest with himself, it was everything he’d ever wanted in life.

on the day you all moved in, you’d gifted steve a necklace of his own. steve had blushed (and totally did not teared up thank you very much), and now it was his favorite thing to wear. it was simple, just a chain necklace, but you’d given it him. steve could also fully recall the nervous ramble you’d slipped into, one that rivaled one of robin’s. you’d been worried he wouldn’t like it and that it wouldn’t fit his style, but steve just cut you off with a kiss, before clipping it around his neck.

all of that culminated to now, steve having gotten off much earlier than the rest of you. he’d changed and showered to rid himself of just the funk for working for a little under eight hours, and while slipping his shirt over his head- he knocked his necklace off the bathroom counter. it’d fallen to the floor in a clatter, and steve felt his heart lurch in his throat as he scrambled to pull it off the floor.

his hands shook as he tried to untangle the knot of chain, but everything he did just seemed to make it worse. he’d been working at it for over an hour, hands trembling and curses on his tongue, and he couldn’t help but feel idiotic. he couldn’t count the amount of times you had to have his help untangling yours, and here he was not even being able to do his own.

“hey baby,” your voice caused steve to flinch and instinctively cup his hands together, and steve glanced up at you with wide-eyes as you slipped into your shared bedroom. your fingers were quickly unbuttoning the blazer you had on, and steve watched as you cocked your head as your brow quirked. “what’d you have there?”

“oh.” steve blushed, and took a few short breaths as you draped your blazer over the footboard, before you crawled up so you were sitting across from him. “uh-”

your hands were on his, uncurling and parting his hands, and steve watched as you smiled. you didn’t say anything, even as his own hands trembled as he held them flat. you used them as a surface as you carefully began working at the knots, and steve wet his lips with his tongue.

“do you wanna talk about it?” your brow pinched as you glanced up at steve, and he felt his cheeks warm as he swallowed. “you always make me talk about it, y’know?”

“it fell and i just-” steve let out a puff of air, clenching his eyes shut as he steadied his breathing. he focused on the light brush of your fingers against his, and the small hum you made to prompt him to continue. “i can always get yours untangled and then it fell and i…”

“i know.” you had a smile on your face when steve opened his eyes, and he watched as you plucked the chain up and shook it lightly. it was untangled now, dangling from the tips of your fingers, and you cocked your head with a small smile. “there we go, want me to put it on for you?”

you were teasing, steve could tell, but you didn’t even wait for him to respond before you leaned forward. your hands went behind his neck with the necklace, and he felt the slight brush of your fingers as you clasped the chain together. when you pulled back, you brushed your fingers down, smoothing the chain so it sat smoothly on his chest.

“there we go.” you smiled up at steve, who stared down at you with a slight shyness in his eyes. “all good, baby?”

“mhm, love you.”

steve watched as you curled your fingers around the chain of his necklace— and pulled.

your lips connected in a kiss, nose bumping and giggling into each other’s mouths when your teeth clashed. when you both disconnected, you had your hand placed on his chest, fingers twisting the chain of his necklace around.

“love you too, stevie.”

later, that night, while you’re flush to his chest- quiet snores falling from your mouth as you sleep, steve is thinking about rings.

specifically to go on that finger on your left hand.

#babyrunsforfanfic #first fic please be gentle ok i’m scared #steve harrington #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington x y/n #except i never actually used y/n #steve harrington x you #steve harrington fanfic #steve harrington fic #steve harrington fluff #steve harrington imagine #steve harrington one shot #stranger things #stranger things fanfiction #stranger things x reader #read steve’s shirt it says ‘boyfriend material’ #steve harrington is boyfriend

[morganbritton132]

Eddie’s live streaming one night on his way to get a snack out of the kitchen when he runs into Steve sleepwalking.

Eddie’s just like, “….Hey, Steve.”

Steve gives him the blank empty stare of a man who is not awake and then says, “Ms Byers?”

“Oh, hon,” Eddie says. “This is doing nothing to disprove your mommy issues.”

He gets another blank stare so Eddie tests his luck and holds out his arm for Steve to take “Let’s get you back to bed, big boy.”

Steve eventually takes his arm and lets himself be lead back to their bedroom but not before asking, “Is Will okay?”

“Oh, yeah,” He says cheerily. “He’s gay now!”

#Eddie’s not even offended by this one #Also Steve’s definitely another jump scare to Eddie’s audience but Eddie is so use to this that he’s not fazed #eddie munson tiktok saga #steve harrington #eddie munson