#anyways there’s a Robin ‘you’re dying in my arms but I don’t want you to know that’ smile they use on civilians that they all share

[thenewtitans60page22]

Something something inheritances

Jason, half dead with the league, still flipping the way Dick taught him

Tim throwing punches the way he learned watching Jason on shaky phone footage he obsessively watched as a kid

Damian smiling Dick’s robin smile, having learned it at Dicks side

#jason todd #dick grayson #tim drake #damian wayne #I have lots of thoughts #they’re brothers and they all hold the same legacy #even if none of them grew up together they still picked things up #Tim would sit in his dads home office at a big box computer and spend hours searching for Batman and Robin footage #Jason learned part of his fighting style from dick and no matter how brain dead or angry he was he’d still have that muscle memory #honestly Jason still visibly showing traits of Dick and Bruce while he was most angry with them gets me #also Jason avoiding everyone but still running into Tim and seeing Robin traits from both Dick and himself #anyways there’s a Robin ‘you’re dying in my arms but I don’t want you to know that’ smile they use on civilians that they all share #my post

[spicycinnabun]

“Steve, something is wrong with Christofern!” Eddie entered Steve’s room, cradling the potted plant in his arms.

He’d come home after work, ready to greet his bud-dy, but one look at him had made Eddie gasp. His leaves were shriveled up like sad little green raisins. Usually, they were puffed up like oversized Rice Krispies.

Christofern had been Robin’s, originally. It had been in a very sorry state on her windowsill before she’d left for college—a lot worse than it looked now, under Eddie’s care, thank you—and she’d told him, “I honestly can’t stand the thing. You keep it. It sheds worse than my aunt’s Great Pyrenees, and I’m tired of vacuuming. Just don’t throw it out, or Steve might murder you.”

And that had been that.

Christofern didn’t look like a typical house plant. He wasn’t a fern, which Steve kept reminding him. Steve was more practical. He didn’t give his plants names but called them by their designated labels.

Christofern was a Donkey’s Tail, or sedum morganianum, part of the succulent family. That term meant absolutely nothing to Eddie unless it was referring to a big bowl of pasta—he had no idea there was a whole plant category called delicious.

“But maybe he wants to be a fern, Steven,” he’d argued. “Ever thought of that? He doesn’t have to be a succulent just because he was assigned so at birth.”

“You’re fucking ridiculous,” had been Steve’s reply.

At first, Eddie had enlisted Steve’s help purely because he’d wanted his attention, and talking about plants was an easy as hell way to get Steve’s attention. Steve was a very passionate plant dad. But later, Eddie grew to love Christofern, and the trials and tribulations of learning how to care for him were almost like raising his own child.

Christofern had not just one but seven long, thickly spiked green tails. Seven tails. He reminded Eddie of a mutated dragon. He was adorable but occasionally grumpy and high-maintenance, like a certain someone Eddie knew. (Perhaps Christofern was more of a prince than a dragon—a dragon prince?)

If he didn’t get enough sunlight, his leaves shed, and he wilted. If he wasn’t rotated daily, he got yellow and sunburnt. And if he didn’t get enough water…

“I swear I watered him... uh, recently.” When had Eddie last watered him? Not the day before, but maybe Wednesday? Or had it been Tuesday? Shit. Eddie pouted. “I just gave him a drink now, anyway. It’s not too late, is it, Doctor Steve?”

He clasped his hands and watched Steve’s attentive eyes rove over his plant, waiting for the diagnosis.

“Eddie, how could you neglect Christofern like this? I should call Plant Protective Services.” Steve grabbed his hand, startling Eddie and his overactive heartbeat.

He took Eddie’s index finger and pushed it into Christofern’s soil right down to his second knuckle. It felt inappropriate. Eddie made a noise, appalled. “Steven, why are you making me violate Christofern?”

Steve ignored him. “What do you feel? The soil is soaked down there, isn’t it?”

Eddie wiggled his finger. It felt goopy. “Yes,” he admitted.

“You’ve overwatered it,” Steve chastised. “Now, the leaves might rot instead of rehydrating themselves. You’ve got to make sure you don’t drown it. Christofern only needs a moderate amount of water every two weeks, okay?”

“Okay,” Eddie said meekly. “I’m sorry, Christofern.”

Steve pulled his finger out of the soil and gave him a look bordering on amusement. “Leave him with me for a few days, and I’ll get him back to where he should be.”

“Thank you, Doctor Steve. How can I ever repay you?” Eddie imagined repaying Steve with his mouth, his tongue, his hands (after he washed the soil off)…

“You can clean the bathroom,” Steve said.

Eddie’s fantasy shattered. He whined. “Does it have to be that?”

“Yup.”

“Damn it, Steve, just make me suck your dick next time,” Eddie grumbled on his way out.

He missed the way Steve’s jaw dropped.

#fic #steve harrington #eddie munson #stranger things #steddie #steve x eddie #steddie au #roommate au #steddie fic #plant dad steve harrington #crack fic #christofern is their love fern #eddie won’t let it die #🪴

[jasntodds]

Alive | J.T.

Pairing: Jason Todd x Fem!Reader

Request: yes, here

Summary: Red Hood shows up at your apartment only to reveal he's your not-so-dead boyfriend

Warnings: Swearing, 18+, smut, some fluff, mentions of death, mentions of canon drug use (he's not actually high in this but it's mentioned)

Words: 3,412

A/n: A huge thank you to @tenpintsof-sundrop for the idea 😭 please go check them out if you haven't already!! This kept turning into angst (why can't I just write fluff and smut ffs) which is why it took forever I'm so sorry to the anon who requested this lol but there's no angst!! If you wanna be tagged in my fics, you can click the link below, send me an ask/comment, or follow my library blog @jasntoddslibrary and turn on notifications if you prefer that!!

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Gotham’s city lights are the only thing illuminating parts of your room where your curtains don’t quite close all of the way. The sounds of distant sirens and passing cars echo into your room as you’re finally getting some much-needed sleep. Bruce called you three days ago with the news about Jason. Nothing really seems worth the energy anymore, including sleep but tonight it’s as if your body finally caved under the pressure of grief. But, you’re not asleep long before something wakes you up.

You stir awake to the sound of creaking near the window. Your eyes shoot open as you keep on your side, facing the opposite direction. Your heart starts to thunder and you swear you locked that window. It’s Crime Alley in Gotham City, you always lock your door and window. Jason even got you good locks for your window and your door. Someone can’t possibly be breaking in but that’s the only explanation. 

You reach to the side of the bed, slowly, careful not to make quick and harsh movements so whoever is in your home doesn’t realize you’re awake. The metal of the baseball is cold against the palm of your hand as your fingers curl around the handle. It’s not a knife or a gun, but a metal baseball can kill and incapacitate all the same. All you need is one really good swing and you’re good to go. So, you suck on a deep breath, gripping the handle as hard as you can before you sit up quickly, turning around on your knees to face the intruder.

“Get out of my apartment!” You yell, baseball bat swung over your shoulder with your arms ready to swing the second he comes close enough.

He takes a step forward into the light coming from your window and your heart drops. 

Red Hood.

Why the fuck is Red Hood, Gotham’s newest crime lord, standing in your apartment?

“Don’t freak out.” He says, the voice modulator disguising his voice.

You almost laugh at the request. He’s killing people out there and is ruthless but he doesn’t want you to freak out when he’s standing in your bedroom? That makes perfect sense. And why does it have to be your apartment? There are so many other ones he could have picked but it just had to be yours.

Jason is careful as he takes the helmet off, revealing himself to you. Your eyes grow wide as your jaw starts to fall open. Jason can see your grip on the bat start to loosen as his chest starts to swell. He always questioned your choice of a baseball bat, thinking you'd never wake up with enough time to grab it and defend yourself. He's happy he was clearly very wrong.

“You…you died…?” You question, almost certain you’re dreaming.

Bruce Wayne himself called you and told you Jason had been killed. You knew he was Robin and it was all over Gotham City News. Robin had been killed by the Joker. But, Jason Todd is currently standing in front of you, his chest moving with every breath which means he's alive.

He's desperately trying not to think about dying. That's not why he came here anyway. It wasn't to discuss the gorey details of a deranged clown with a bloody crowbar. It was just to see you and let you know he was alive. That is it. No more reminders of dying, not tonight. Not when he isn't high enough to numb the panic or pain of the thoughts. All he wants to do is see you and exist in a moment with just you and him.

“Didn’t stick.” Jason chuckles softly, holding the helmet on his hip.

There’s something Jason would describe as a chortle escapes your lips. “Didn’t stick?”

Jason shrugs his shoulder easily but there’s still some tension wrapped around his bones. “Yeah.” Jason clears his throat, looking to the floor and then back to you, thinking you probably don't believe him. Who would?

“How though?” You ask and you’re not sure how this is real.

Maybe you think you’re actually hallucinating now. Maybe grief has sucked you into insanity. But he sounds just as you remember and he looks the exact same. Jason dying and coming back as Red Hood, still fighting crime in some way, does sound like a very Jason Todd thing to do.

“Gotham.” Jason scoffs. “It’s a long story.” Jason skimps on the details, partially because he doesn’t really know how it works and also just to keep you out of it. He didn’t really like that you knew he was Robin anyway. Too dangerous.

Jason takes a step forward as you watch him closely. Maybe it’s a dream. But, it’s Gotham City and the weirdest and most unbelievable shit tends to happen here.  Jason being resurrected isn’t actually the most insane thing you’ve heard of happening. It's just one of those things that's hard to believe because losing him hurt so bad you swore you'd never recover. You want to be positive it's him before you let your hopes up even if they're rising like a steady tide. Jason can see the hesitance the way your brows are still creased and the bat still hanging over your shoulder.

“Not convinced?” He asks through a shallow breath, his own hopes falling.

He didn't really think of what he'd do if you didn't believe him.

“In my defense, this is insane.” You state as your grip tightens on the bat. "I mean, resurrection or being zombified, kind of insane."

Jason lets out a sigh as he starts listing things only he would know about you and only things you would know about him. He tells you about your first date which wasn’t anything fancy but was yours. He told you about how he has his half of a photobooth picture you two took on your third date as a bookmark. And he tells you about Alred teaching him how to make chocolate chip cookies his first week at Wayne Manor because Jason couldn’t sleep. It was too quiet in the manor.

“I also told you the bat was a shitty idea because you’d never wake up in time to grab it.” Jason offers a smirk.

“Guess you were wrong.” You point out with a teasing look.

“Yeah,” Jason scoffs. “But you didn’t take a swing so…” Jason shrugs his shoulders, a grin splitting his face.

“Haha.” You scrunch your nose with the sarcastic remark. "I'm not gonna just hit someone with a bat." You shake your head dramatically.

"I broke into your apartment?" Jason lets out a chortle "I mean, don't fucking hit me now but someone breaks in, do something, babe."

"Oh, it must really be you because only Jason Todd would criticize my weapon of choice and then criticize what I do about someone breaking in my own apartment." You quip right back as you place a hand on your hip, the bat now hanging loosely over your shoulder being held with just one hand.

Jason's smirk turns softer, a gentle smile pulling at his lips as he looks to the floor and then back to you. "Yeah, it's me." His shoulders move forward as he sucks in a breath, letting it out slowly as if the very act of breathing too hard might make all of this disappear.

Your face softens and as hard as it may be to believe, it has to be him. Everything he listed is all stuff only the two of you would know and the quick quips, Jason never missed a beat. You don't know how or even why he's alive, but it's him. So, you drop the bat to the side of your bed, quickly getting up from your bed. You don't notice how cold the floor is as you run up to Jason, colliding into him with a force study enough to make him step back just so neither of you wall.

Your arms wrap around his neck as you bury your face into his shoulder. He smells different than before but somehow the same. He smells like gunmetal with a mix of the minty shampoo he always used. But, his arms come and wrap tightly around your middle and it all feels the same. His arms are still as sturdy as always and warm. He still feels like home and you do for him, too.

His chest erupts in warmth like a dormant volcano erupting for the time in decades. Every piece of him starts to be encompassed in warmth and a sense of comfort. It's been the longest three days of his life but that doesn't really matter, not right now. It just feels safe here. Between coming back, the drug, and Crane, it's been busy and hectic and heavy. But, he's standing here with you and all he wants to do is focus on this moment because it's not so heavy or loud anymore. You always let him just exist in a way no one else ever did.

Jason's the one that pulls away first but only until you look back at him. The corner of his mouth perks up before he collides his lips with yours. The kiss nearly sucks the breath out of your lungs as your eyes close and your hands tangle in his hair. Jason's grip tightens around you as if he's afraid you'll fall away from him if he lets go.

You can feel him smile against your mouth and it's something that always sent your stomach swirling. Jason Todd genuinely happy is something irreplaceable. And he is always happy to be anywhere near you.

The kiss starts to grow sloppy and desperate, teeth clacking against each other. The happiness of being reunited starts to collide into relief and desperation to never let go again.

Jason's arms loosen just enough to go to your hips, his fingertips sliding under your shirt and digging into your flesh. He's missed the feeling of your skin against his. It's been three days but dying really has made it seem like it's been years and he doesn't want to waste the time he gets anymore. All he wants to do is be with you and you slide his jacket, then hoodie off of the armor.

"Miss me?" Jason asks against your lips and you can feel the devilish smirk that's splitting his face.

"Always." You mutter before Jason tugs your shirt over your head and tosses it to the floor.

In a heartbeat, Jason has you backing up until your knees hit the edge of your bed. The two of you fall onto the soft mattress, Jason bracing the fall for the both you and his lips never leave yours. He slides his leg onto the bed, slotting his knee between your legs right until his thigh meets your wetting slit.

You almost groan at the contact and Jason feels the tremble of your lips against his. And he fucking smirks again.

"Seems like you missed something else, too, huh?" His voice is low but easy with the teasing remark.

"Shut up." You bite back.

It's something about the way he says it that you almost want to bite him and melt under his touch at the same time. Jason has never been one to just let things flow and meet in the middle, he always had to have some sort of comment about it with the corner of his mouth perking upwards. He just can't help himself and maybe you always found it a little bit endearing, even when he's annoying.

Jason pushes his thigh against your slit again and this time he's successful in getting a quiet moan from the back of your throat. The pressure is hot and thick as your underwear start to stick to your pussy. You grind yourself on his thigh and Jason knows he has you exactly where he wants you, not that you would rather be anywhere else right now.

You help Jason tug the armor off and onto the floor, leaving his chest bare and every toned muscle on display. Your mouth practically waters before you yank him back down to you.

He keeps his leg slotted between yours as you slide your hands over the muscles of his back, feeling every raised piece of skin where his back is tensed. His skin is always warm under your fingers. You can't help but glide your fingertips along the skin before digging your nails in.

Jason arches his back, a snarl leaving his throat before his eyes lock with yours. His pupils are blown, black consuming almost every trace of green. So, you do it again as a smirk tugs at your lips because you know that'll get him going. The look he gives you turns feral and hungry as if he hasn't eaten in weeks.

His thigh is pushed harder against your slit, earning him a whimper before he takes it away entirely. There's a triumphant smile on his lips as he raises his brow.

"I can still play the game better than you, babe." Jason teases before he kisses your cheek and moves down to your neck.

"Up for debate." You quip back as his teeth graze your pulse point.

Your heart jumps and you know he can feel it. A snicker falls from his lip before he nips down and starts sucking a purple mark into your skin. A reminder that you're his.

Jason slides his leg back between yours and as if connected by a magnetic force, you don't miss a beat in grinding yourself back on him. Jason scatters just a few more marks across your chest as your breathing becomes quicker, a warm and static pit growing in the pit of your stomach.

"Could just leave now." Jason huffs as he comes back to your lips, sliding a hand between your bodies.

"Don't you dare." Your threat is weak and almost pitiful.

Jason tugs the elastic of your underwear up, exposing your pussy to some of the cool air in the room. You wiggle against him, desperate to feel more than just his thigh. But, then he snaps the elastic back, making you jerk forward and let out a displeased whimper.

"Jay." You scold, a hollowed glare on your face as his face fills with amusement. "Come on." You whine, pushing yourself against his thigh as your hands trail from his back and to the zipper of his pants.

"Since you asked nicely." Jason offers you a toothy grin before he sits up.

Jason reaches for a condom from your nightstand before tugging his pants down and sliding it on. His hands come to your thighs, pulling you to the edge where he can position himself right up to your leaking slit. He nearly licks his lips as he slides a finger through your folds.

"All for me?" Jason asks with a confidence that makes you want to burn from the inside out.

You almost tease him back but you know if you do, he might just plop down next to you and get himself off.

"I missed you." You stick out your bottom lip, offering him a pout.

A rumble comes through his chest as he moves his finger to your clit. You lose all bite and snark from your words as the rest of the room melts away. It's been the longest three days of his life and he's missed you, too.

It's more than this that he misses. You always had a way of making any place feel like home. You always got him to feel comfortable in his own skin even when his own mind was running away with damaged versions of himself. And he's missed the way you go back and forth with him. A lot of people find him obnoxious and sure, you do, too sometimes but you still go back and forth. He's missed the way you always smile at him, with something like warm and kind. It's a relief being alive again, but it's also a relief getting to see you again.

"I missed, you, too." Jason finally says and he pulls his finger away.

Jason grabs his throbbing length in his fist, pumping himself a few times before he lines himself up with your pussy. He pushes forward, slow and steady as he rests a hand beside your head, holding his weight up. You turn your head, offering his forearm a kiss and the feral look in his eyes softens.

As he bottoms out, Jason places his other hand on the other side of your head, bending down to offer a soft kiss to your lips. His chest is heaving, moving rapidly but his lips are gentle against yours.

You slide your hands into his hair and instead of tugging, you wrap your fingers around the messy strands gently, as if happy to have him near you. Jason pulls out and then pushes back in, keeping up a steady rhythm as the two of you seem to savor the moment with each other.

He showed up as Red Hood. In the back of your head, you know he'll probably leave after this. He's not injured and he didn't seem upset. It's not really late which means he probably has something to do after this. Maybe that raises a lump in your throat for a split second because he's Red Hood.

It's not that Jason Todd magically came back from the dead and he's here again. It's that Jason Todd was murdered as Robin and then came back from the dead to be Red Hood, pick up being a vigilante just a more brutal and ruthless version of one. Being a vigilante is dangerous, as was proven just this week but Jaon comes back to go right back in the game. That part is scary.

Your heart skips as you kiss him back and you'll always be worried as he goes out there. Knowing it'll happen again. But, there is a part of you that admires him for it. He gets murdered and instead of quitting, he comes back to fight harder. Maybe that's completely insane but it is admirable. And you're proud of him for it. Worried, sure, but proud of him. So, you savor the way his lips are chapped against yours and the way his thrusts start to become a little quicker and desperate.

"Missed you." Jason mutters against your lips, his voice raspy and staggered.

"I missed you, too." Your voice is caught between a whimper and a whine.

Jason slides his hand between the two of you, finding your clit. His finger is gentle against the bud as your eyes roll back. He quickens his movements, matching the speed of his thrusts. A pit grows deeper in his own stomach as he nips your lip between his teeth.

He gets a low moan from you and he nearly finishes right then and there, his hips almost stalling. But, he recovers quickly, moving his finger in the way that always got you to unravel.

Your hands move to his back, nails digging in as the pressure feeling grows, echoing into your legs and down to your feet. He's pistoning out of you, the sound of skin on skin mixing with your moans and his groans fill the room. You tug him closer to you as you wrap your legs around his waist.

"Jay." You manage to get out as your throat feels like it's closing.

The room spins and Jason is relentless, knowing you're close. You can feel yourself pulsing around his length and you think your head might explode while your heart shoots out of your chest.

"Gonna cum over my cock for me, princess?" Jason drawls, his breath hot against your lips before he moves back to your neck.

"Uh-huh." You sputter out feeling the stars start in the back of your head.

His name falls from your lips loudly and sharply as everything around you explodes into static and stars. Your toes curl as everything starts to shake and convulse against Jason's length. The squeezing of his length sends him falling right off the edge with you, biting down on your neck as the orgasm rips through his body.

Jason works you both through your highs, slowly sitting up but keeping himself inside of you once your legs fall from his waist. He gives you this smile that's a contrast between cheeky and gentle. He bends down and presses a kiss to your forehead, earning a tired but loving smile from you.

"Thanks for stopping by, Jay." Your voice is hoarse but soft.

"Can make it a habit." Jason's grin turns into a smirk, but there's a softness in his eyes.

"Uh-huh, okay, Jay." You roll your eyes, kissing him back.

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#jason todd x reader #jason todd x you #red hood x reader #red hood x you #jason todd smut #red hood smut #jason todd fanfic #jason todd fanfiction #red hood fanfic #red hood fanfiction #titans fanfic #titans fanfiction #dc fanfic #dc fanfiction

[s-brant]

okay for my steve girlies i’m just having some thoughts abt him as a boyfriend rn that i cannot get out of my head so you’ll have to put up with this.

as a partner i feel like he’d be the most touchy person on the face of the earth. constantly having his hands on you in a casual way whether it be holding hands, pulling you onto his lap to sit there even when there’s a spot open right next to him, standing behind you with an arm wrapped around you, playing with your hair/clothes/jewelry, and so on. he’s probably very touch-starved so i feel like he would be on you 24/7 and very shameless in terms of PDA because he’s just dying to have someone to love. robin and dustin would fake gag in the background but he could care less. also he gives me the vibes of someone who is just constantly warm. like the human incarnation of a furnace, so cozy and inviting in terms of cuddling.

boyfriend steve in season two was very cute to me (i.e: him coming to apologize with flowers even though he literally didn’t even know what he was sorry for because she was the one who hurt him, trying to cut her off when she was drinking too much/take care of her) so i can only imagine he’d be an even sweeter boyfriend in the later seasons with his character growth. i picture him being chivalrous for some reason, like always opening the car door for you, wordlessly taking off his jacket to put it over your shoulders when it’s cold and you stubbornly didn’t wear one, and not wanting you to pay for dinner even though his salary at family video is probably not that great. long story short he is a simp and very romantic. i feel like that’s just canon at this point but i digress.

anyway for the sexy stuff you’re gonna have to go under the cut

okay here we GO

i personally feel, despite my love for the kinkier fics, that steve is pretty vanilla in bed. at least, until he’s exposed to something new by a partner? like i feel that he would be open to trying certain things with you because duh you’re you and he loves you and why wouldn’t he wanna try slightly freaky shit with you, but it’s not something he just thinks up himself if that makes sense? but that doesn’t mean he can’t rock your world, let’s be 100% clear on that. this man eats pussy like it’s a five course meal and i will die on that hill. he’d get so into it, his eyes would close and he’d make soft little noises into you every time you pull on his hair UGH. you sitting on his face is probably his favorite thing you two have ever done because, honestly, suffocation between your thighs is a great way to go as far as he’s concerned.

also, it’s canon at this point that he’s hung right? did that originate from joe keery’s bulge in those tight ass vintage levi’s? probably, but it’s a steve thing now and i wholeheartedly agree with the fandom’s unanimous decision that he has unparalleled big dick energy. that being said, i also feel like he knows how to use it. a lot of well endowed guys aren’t that great because they’re like “oh i have big dick so sex with me is good already and i don’t need to do anything” but steve is a ladies man. he knows what he’s doing, and he doesn’t even need the buffer of kinks and shit to fuck you stupid. and he would be soooo cocky about it. i feel like he would be into degradation and dumbification a bit. he loves the fact that you are basically rendered useless when he’s fucking you open with his thick cock, caging you in with his arms by your head and cooing at you while the room is filled with the wet sound of him pounding into you. the filthiest he gets is whispering stuff like, “look at you. hardly even fucked you yet and you’re already a dumb little slut for me, huh?” like he can get nasty but i feel like it wouldn’t go far beyond dirty talk like that.

then there comes the hopeless romantic in him that cannot resist the opportunity to make love to you. i fully believe he is one of the people who seeks out that type of intimacy more often than the type in the paragraph above simply because he is so needy to be loved. his parents literally have never been in the show and never seem to care, he hasn’t had a steady girlfriend since nancy, and he doesn’t exactly get affection from other people in his life, so he would be absolutely insatiable with you.

his favorite kind of lovemaking is that slow, barely conscious morning sex when the two of you wake up right as the sun’s rising and he is faced with the realization of how much he loves you in those quiet moments. he’d be so sleepy, most of his weight would be let go if he’s on top of you, but you don’t even care because you’re caught on that hazy line between being asleep and awake as well, and the pleasure of him fucking you is heightened by it. it’d be full of sloppy kisses and heavy-lidded eye contact, both of your noses brushing with every deep thrust he makes into you. sometimes you’re on top though, and for those times he’ll just wrap his arms around your back to pull you down so you’re chest to chest while you do the work, albeit very lazily, and enjoy the sight of you. his favorite position for this lazy morning sex is when he’s spooning you tho. it happens the most often anyway, when he wakes up hard and naturally starts grinding into you from behind, which then escalates as normal. he’d keep a hand on your face to keep it turned for him to kiss your mouth and cheek though. just because he’s behind you doesn’t mean he won’t long to see your face and kiss you during.

i also feel like there would be a natural dominance to him that’s unrelated to any actual bdsm or dom/sub thing but rather his default disposition with you. he could definitely get down with being in a more submissive position sometimes and allow you to take care of/worship him—which would probably leave him with teary eyes by the end because of how overwhelming it is—but he gives me a lot of casually dominant energy. he loves sneaking into your bedroom in the middle of the night and fucking you with a hand over your mouth right across the hall from where your parents are sleeping, whispering to you that you have to be quiet and good. he also loves manhandling you, it turns him on unlike anything else to just toss you down on his bed and rip your clothes off because he can hardly wait to be inside of you. it’s also little sfw things like knowing what you like from your favorite take out place so he just orders for you or stopping to tie your shoe when it comes undone because he just loves taking care of his girl in the most innocent ways as well as a sexually.

he has a breeding kink by the way. it’s not something he acknowledges as a kink officially or even fully realizes, but considering that the man wants six children in canon, i feel like the idea of getting you pregnant, or even just coming inside of you whether or not you’re on a contraceptive, definitely gets him going. and if you are pregnant eventually once/if you two decide it’s what you want, forget about it. my god, he would be on you all the time. he’d love having you ride him with your breasts bouncing and a bit fuller from the hormones, your belly protruding with a bump as an undeniable piece of evidence that you’re his. it just checks all the boxes for him. i also believe that his chivalrous behavior would increase tenfold when you’re pregnant. in the later months, you physically cannot tie your shoes so he is right there to help you. he’s always extending his hand to hold while you walk, walking with his body closest to the street and yours closer to where it’s safer, and in general being even more of a simp than usual. if you thought he was a gentleman before, when he knows his baby is inside of you, he’s literally trying to do anything and everything he can for you.

now don’t even get me started on him as a dad. this has gone on long enough.

#steve harrington #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington smut #fem reader

[loove-persevering]

Promise (Steve Harrington x Reader)

Description: Reader is helping Dustin and Eddie with the bats when things go south. Eddie makes the reader promise to admit her feelings for Steve if they make it out alive.

Warnings: SPOILERS SEASON 4, Character Death, Broken bones, Gore, Mentions of death.

‘’Promise me you’re not going to do something to get yourself killed?’’ Steve asks you. You were both sitting outside the RV, you were wrapping the wire around the spear you were going to use against the bats in the upside down.

You rolled your eyes at his assumption, ‘’I’m don’t plan on dying anytime soon Steve,’’ You set down the spear on your lap looking at him, ‘’You better not either.’’ You say threatening him. ‘’Then who is going to drive me around?’’ You say earning a hint of a smile from him. ‘’I’m thinking of making you drive me to Yosemite next.’’

‘’Yosemite huh?’’ He asks, sounding amused, ‘’I’ve always wanted to go on a roadtrip like that, take all my kids with me when I have them.’’ He tells you.

‘’Kids as in plural?’’ You ask him. ‘’You already have like six,’’ You say gesturing out in the field to Dustin and Eddie who were wrestling, Dustin was in a headlock making you laugh.

‘’And I want six of my own too,’’ He says and you widen your eyes at him making him laugh, ‘’I could change my mind but at least two, no three.’’ He sounded very sure of his answer.

‘’A big family sounds nice,’’ You tell him.

‘’You think so? Doesn’t scare you away when I say that?’’ He asks fiddling with his hands.

‘’No not at all, plus it makes sense you’re an only child. Figures you’d want a big family.’’ You tell him.

He looked at you like he was shocked, he let out a sigh before he spoke. ‘’I never really thought of that, but it makes sense.’’

‘’I always do Harrington,’’ You say, taking your hand pushing on his arm gently. You glance up noticing Nancy and Robin talking, she was sawing her gun down it seemed like her conversation with Jason made her a little on edge. ‘’So you and Nancy?’’ You ask Steve.

He looked a little uncomfortable when you asked, ‘’What about us?’’ He asks and you give him an annoyed look, he knew what you were asking. ‘’I don’t know what's going on I’m just as confused as you.’’ He explains. ‘’I think apart of it is because Jonathan is halfway across the country.’’

You look down at the ground unsure of what to say, ‘’What if it’s not that?’’ He looks over to you, ‘’Would you do that again?’’ You ask him, it was practically eating you alive to know.

‘’I feel like a lot of things got left unresolved with us,’’ Is all he answers, ‘’Would it be wrong if I did?’’ He ask you.

‘’I mean it’s your love life Steve,’’ You point out. ‘’Why do you care what I think anyway?’’

Steve looked at you, his face looked like he was confused, ‘’I always care what you think Y/N,’’ He tells you.

You stand up and Steve looked to you as you did, ‘’Who knows what happens when we go in upside down Steve, you almost died earlier.’’ You say scrunching your face up at the thought, seeing Steve on the floor, those bats gnawing at his skin would forever be etched in your brain. ‘’Now is not the time to hold in emotions, if you care about someone you tell them.’’ You see Steve visually take a deep breath, he patted his hands on his jeans standing up next to you. You watched his eyes on Nancy as he took a hand patting your back walking over to her, Robin slowly made her way over to you.

‘’You okay?’’ She asks.

You watched Nancy smile at something Steve said and you shake your head turning to Robin. ‘’Never better,’’ You say, offering her a fake smile.

If only you could take your own advice.

______________________

Steve was the first to go into the upside down, then Nancy followed of course. Then Robin and finally it was your turn, you grabbed onto the sheets pulling yourself up and finally felt yourself free falling, landing on your back knocking the wind out of you. Steve reached out a hand helping you up, as soon as you were on your feet you pulled your hand from his and he seemed distressed. ‘’You okay?’’ He says his hand is touching the side of your arm.

‘’We are currently upside down, how do you think I’m doing?’’ You say the sarcasm dripping from your voice.

‘’Right,’’ Steve says, a moment later a pile of weapons falls down landing on the mattress. You and Steve both turn looking down at it, you bend down grabbing as many as you could, taking yours and strapping it behind your back.

It was moments before you all split up, just as you walked out of the RV behind Dustin and Eddie that Steve stopped you. ‘’Hey listen, if things start to go south, I mean at all you abort.’’ His voice was serious, you glanced at Dustin knowing you had to do what you could to protect him, that if anything happened to him Steve would never forgive himself.

You hear snapping breaking you out of your thoughts, Steve looked at you, ‘’You hear me Y/N? No hero shit.’’ He emphasizes.

You walk closer to Steve staring him straight in the eye, ‘’Now do we look like heros to you?’’ You ask him to gesture to Dustin then Eddie.

‘’We are not heroes,’’ Eddie emphasized behind you, laughing.

You reach forward laying a hand on Steve's shoulder, ‘’Don’t worry Steve, you can be the hero.’’ You tell him. He gave a sort of half hearted grin but he still looked nervous as Hell.

His eyes lingered on your for a moment before he pulled away your hand dropping back to your side. Just as he turned around Eddie stepped out from behind you, ‘’Hey Steve?’’ He calls out. Steve turns around to look at him, ‘’Make him pay.’’

Steve nods, turning back around taking off with Nancy and Robin. ‘’We should go,’’ You tell both Eddie and Dustin. You all began walking off in the opposite direction, a few seconds had passed and you glanced back to look at Steve for more time, he had happened to be looking too. You shift your weapon on your back, turn around and walk backwards, you look at Steve and give him a salute from afar but it was too far for you to see his response back.

‘’Humor me Y/N,’’ Eddie tells you. ‘’How long have you been pining over Harrington?’’ He asks.

‘’What?’’ You ask him to turn around, noticing both Eddie and Dustin with an amused smile on their faces.

‘’At least since last year,’’ Dustin chimes in.

‘’Dustin!’’ You yell at him. ‘’You don’t know that!’’ You tell him.

‘’Do you not remember when you were on drugs last year?’’ He asks you to refer to the Russian Base underneath the mall. You had worked there with Steve and Robin last year and got wrapped into everything.

‘’Drugs?’’ Eddie says amused. ‘’You don’t take me for that kind of girl.’’ He smirks.

‘’I’m not!’’ You glare at Dustin, ‘’He left out key information, which was that I was unknowingly drugged by Russian Soldiers!’’ You say and Eddie's face looked bewildered.

‘’What?’’ Eddie says his voice seemed confused and amused at the same time.

‘’She totally confessed to being in love with Steve last year when she was on drugs,’’ He tells you.

‘’Why have you never told me this?’’ You ask him.

Dustin Shrugs his shoulders, ‘’Never came up,’’ He says simply.

You sigh and Eddie laughs, ‘’Is it really that obvious?’’ You ask tilting your head.

‘’Kind of I mean you practically lost it when he got pulled in the water,’’ He says. ‘’Why haven’t you said anything to him?’’

‘’Just never the right time, last year after the mall was just too much. And finally when things were calming down this happens.’’ You admit. ‘’And now Nancy is back and Steve has a soft spot when it comes to her, and I don’t know if I want to compete with Nancy.’’

‘’She was his first love,’’ Dustin chimes in.

‘’Thanks,’’ You pause. ‘’For that reminder Dustin,’’ He holds his hands up in defense.

‘’You should tell him,’’ Eddie says.

‘’If we make it out of here I just might,’’ You admit to him seeing the RV in the distance. ‘’Emphasis on the if,’’ You felt the nerves in your stomach getting worse by the minute and it was only going to get worse from here.

‘’Promise?’’ He says.

‘’What?’’

‘’Promise you’ll say something,’’ He says.

You look at him amused that he cared so much, ‘’Promise,’’ You say scrunching your eyebrows not questioning him as to why he cared.

When you got to the RV everything had seemed to speed up, you were waiting for the phase three signal from Robin. Dustin was supposed to tell you when Eddie was and Dustin were on top of the RV getting the Amp set up to broadcast the sound, you were down on the ground putting up more metal to help shield you when the bats came. Plus eventually you’d end up here anyway, that was the plan when the bats got closed you all were to use the RV as a way to shield yourself knowing they would come after you.

You hear Dustin from up above you, ‘’Copy, Initiating Phase three!’’ Dustin yells. Only a moment later you heard Eddie beginning to shred on the guitar, as the song went on you felt your heart practically pouding out of your chest. A flash of red lightning is what caught your attention seeing the silhouette of the bats getting closer.

‘’Dustin!’’ You yell, you could see him glance down at you from the top. You point with your finger at the bats showing him your plan was working, he looked through the binoculars and yelled to Eddie. You ran back to the inside of the cage surrounding the van your hand against the metal ready to close it when they finally came down. And the thirty seconds quickly turned into ten and Dustin and Eddie came barreling in as you slammed the cage shut just as the bats hit causing you to jump. ‘’Inside! Inside!’’ You scream at them following behind as they ran in the RV slamming the door shut.

You were all panting, your hands rested on your knees as you were bent over trying to catch your breath, ‘’Dude!’’ Dustin calls out gaining your attention, ‘’Most metal ever!’’ He says and Eddie and him begin jumping upside down, you look at them both laughing.

‘’That was pretty amazing Eddie,’’ You tell him.

‘’Best concert I’ll ever go to,’’ He laughs as you tell him. Dustin and Eddie look to one another and begin yelling, jumping up and down shaking the van even more than it already was from the bats outside.

It didn’t take long after that for you all to figure out you were surrounded, the screeching was getting louder meaning more and more were around you. They were banging up against the metal, all three of you stood back to back with your weapon in your hand as you all just waited for them to break through.

That was when it got quiet.

‘’Hey dipshits!’’ Dustin screams.

You took a deep breath as he yelled, ‘’Dustin!’’ You whispered.

‘’Give up that easy huh?’’ Dustin screams even lounder.

Both you and Eddie shush him, ‘’Is that really necessary?’’ Eddie asks.

The clattering from above you stopped any conversation. You looked up hearing the metal above you being scraped, ‘’Eddie they can’t get in right?’’ You ask him warily, all of you followed the sound above ending up under a vent. ‘’Eddie?’’ You ask him after no response

You screamed when the bats broke through the vent, the panic rising in your chest. You lifted your weapon moving in close with Dustin taking turns stabbing the bats trying to get in. “Die! Die, Die!” Dustin screams everytime he stabs them.

“Eddie!” You yell. “Eddie help!” You yell in a panic.

A second later you feel Eddie pushing you back slightly, “Get out of the way! Get out of the way!” He yells the shield he made earlier in his hand. He runs directly at the vent slamming it over top of him stopping the bats. Dustin falls back leaning against something a deep breath falls from his lips.

“Holy shit, Holy shit,” Eddie keeps repeating.

You felt yourself relax but it was only for a short moment, until Dustin spoke. “Are there other vents?”

The look on Eddie’s face told you there was, “shit, shit, shit!” He kept muttering. Everyone moves with him running to the back of the RV where Eddie’s bedroom was and as soon as he swung the door open the bats came flying toward you ready to attack. “Shit!” He screams along with you and Dustin pushing you both back behind the door slamming it shut. Immediately after he shut the door the wood began to break, you knew it wouldn’t hold long.

‘’Shit, shit, shit,’’ You mutter, also hearing similar words from both Dustin and Eddie. ‘’What do we do?’’ You yell over the bats pounding into the door, ‘’That’s not gonna hold long!’’ You yell at them.

‘’Let’s go! Let’s go!’’ Eddie screams.

You turn to Dusin who already had his hands on the sheets, you help him by holding his foot in your hand giving him something to push off as he climbs through the gate. ‘’Eddie, go!’’ You yell at him as Dustin goes through the gate.

You were the oldest making sure everyone got through before you was important, ‘’You first!’’ He tells you.

‘’Eddie, go!’’ You yell trying to plead with him.

‘’We don’t have time to argue go!’’ He yells at you holding his hand out for your foot. He was right there was no time to argue the door was breaking further by the second. You lift your leg putting your foot in his hand and he helps give you a push up at you grab onto the sheet pulling up as fast as you could. You landed on your back, Dustin held his hand out pulling you up so Eddie had a place to land.

You finally got to your feet looking down at the gate seeing Eddie starting to climb, he was about halfway up when he paused. ‘’Eddie! Come on!’’ You scream down at him, Dustin doing the same next to you. ‘’Come on!’’ You yell at him.

Eddie seemed to have some sort of realization on his face as he looked up at both you and Dusitn. ‘’Eddie climb!’’ You yell at him. You got down on your knees peering down at him as he glanced back at the door.

Eddie let go of the sheet a moment later and you and Dustin screamed, ‘’Eddie what the Hell?’’ You yell down at him. He picked up his spear and cut the sheet and it dropped into Dustin's hand.‘’Eddie! No! What are you doing?’’

He picked up the mattress and began flipping it out of the way, no doubt so you and Dustin couldn’t follow in pursuit. ‘’No! No! Eddie!’’ Dustin was screaming next to you.

‘’What are you doing Eddie?’’

‘’I’m buying more time,’’ Is all he says. Grabbing his shield and the spear, he ran off after that.

You watched Dustin next to you with his hands on his head in distress, ‘’Oh god,’’ He says to himself.

You looked around panicked and unsure of what to do, you couldn’t let Eddie go alone. Think, think, think. ‘’Dustin, I am going to get him and bring his ass back here.’’ You tell him. You grab the chair laying a few feet away, putting it just under the gate.

‘’Y/N let me go!’’ Dustin yells at you as you brace yourself for a run. You were a few feet down the hallway you knew a running start would help you.

‘’No,’’ You tell him sternly. ‘’You stay here, do not follow me Dustin, and when you can radio Steve.’’ You instruct him. You took a deep breath ignoring the rest of Dustin's pleads to get you to stay and him to go.

You took off running and as soon as your feet got to the chair you jumped, you went through the gate and landed on your arm. You screamed in pain when you landed, ‘’Y/N? Y/N? What happened?’’ You can hear Dustin yelling.

When you finally got over the immediate wave of pain you pushed yourself up with your opposite hand looking down you could see your hand was visible disformed at the wrist, you had broken it. ‘’I’m fine Dustin,’’ You call up to him though your voice says otherwise. ‘’Radio Steve when you can!’’ You tell him through your tears, the pain was terrible, but you had no time to wait around Eddie was in trouble.

After that you walked out of the RV, Eddie couldn’t be too far ahead from you. You looked around the area when you got outside noticing the bike was missing that had been there previously. ‘’Dammit,’’ You mutter to yourself. You heard a loud noise come from inside the RV one similar to when you had come down. When you peered in the door you saw Dustin laying on the ground his face grimaced in pain as he held his leg.

‘’Dustin!’’ You yell running toward him. ‘’I told you to stay!’’ He must’ve landed on it. ‘’Are you okay?’’ You ask him.

‘’I landed on it.’’ He tells you through the tears in his eyes.

‘’Can you walk?’’

He nods his head, you reach down grabbing his hand with your good arm helping him off the floor but he puts no pressure on his leg. ‘’Go ahead without me,’’ He tells you. You reach over grabbing what looked like a broom handing it to him so he could use it to help walk.

You didn’t wait another second; you practically ran out the door glancing around for the bats in the sky. The red lightning illuminated the bats and you saw they were swarming in a circle which couldn’t be good at all. You looked back Dustin was only a few feet behind you hobbling toward you, you quickened your pace running over toward the bats not giving yourself long enough to debate if it was a good or bad idea.

When you finally got there all of the bats had dropped from the sky as if some invisible force had killed them. You saw Eddie laying on the floor, all the bats surrounded him. You ran as fast as you could landing on your knees in front of him. The blood was coming from his mouth, you knew that was not a good sign.

‘’Eddie? Eddie?’’ You say taking your good hand touching his cheek, tapping it lightly, ‘’Hey come on you need to look at me,’’ You forced a smile at him with the tears forming in your eyes at his state. ‘’You’re okay, you’re okay.’’ You kept repeating.

A moment later Dustin dropped onto his hands carefully getting on the ground with you, he pulled Eddie’s head so it was resting on his leg, ‘’Oh god Eddie,’’ He said examining him, there was blood all over him.

‘’Dustin,’’ You say still trying to hold back your tears but he just kept his eyes on Eddie, ‘’Dustin I am gonna try and find something maybe we can stop the bleeding,’’ You tell him. He doesn’t seem to pay attention so you raise off the ground and start running back toward the RV once again, the sheet in there that could stop the bleeding right?

You ran as fast as you could to the RV still cradling your arm to your chest, you finally made your way back running inside. The sheet was already on the floor so you quickly picked it up running back out of the RV toward Eddie and Dustin, that was when the ground began to shake. You felt the ground shaking and immediately tripped but caught yourself. The loud noise behind you caught your attention and you watched as the gate that was once inside the RV had broken out and it just kept expanding straight ahead, luckily it was opposite of where Dustin was.

The ground shaking was making it hard to walk but you got back to Dustin as fast as you could, you noticed when he came into view that he stood above where Eddie had previously laid on his leg, Eddie laid on the ground shaking with the earth but he wasn’t moving. ‘’Dustin?’’ You yell out at him gaining his attention. When you got close enough you noticed the tears were streaming down his face, ‘’He didn’t-?’’ You couldn’t finish the sentence.

He shook his head before you could finish anyway, ‘’What do we do?’’ He asked and you could clearly hear how emotional he was.

‘’I don’t know-’’ You say glancing around, ‘’I don’t know!’’ You say. ‘’Did you radio Steve? We need to call Steve - Nancy, Nancy will know what to do.’’ You tell him feeling distressed.

‘’I did,’’ He tells you. ‘’No response, from him or anyone else.’’ He tells you.

And it seemed like someone, somewhere was looking out for you and Dustin because only a moment later you heard a voice sounding just a stressed as you felt coming through.

“Y/N! Dustin?” You hear coming from the radio, it was the sweetest sound you had ever heard.

____________

‘’Y/N!’’ You hear your mom call from downstairs, ‘’Phone!’’

‘’Busy,’’ You yell, staring up at the ceiling, not busy at all in fact.

You hear footsteps coming up the stairs and you pull yourself up from the bed resting on your elbows anticipating her opening the door. She swings the door open a moment later, ‘’It’s Steve,’’ She pauses, ‘’Again.’’ You sigh. ‘’He really wants to talk to you honey, he’s probably just worried.’’

‘’Are you going to work?’’ You ask, noticing her scrub uniform.

‘’Yep, lots of shortages. Lots of people packed up and left, I don’t blame them if we had the money we would too.’’ She tells you. ‘’Do you need anything before I leave? Need any more medicine for your arm?’’ She asks and you glance down at the cast.

‘’I’m good,’’ You tell her. ‘’Love you,’’ You tell her before she leaves. Your mom worked as a nurse at the hospital when you finally got out of the upside down you went straight to her and she was pretty much able to help you get in to get your arm that same night although your injuries were nothing compared to some peoples.

A few hours later you were down in the kitchen making a frozen pizza, a little bit after the pizza went in the doorbell rang. You began walking toward the front door when the person decided to knock persistently, ‘’I’m coming!’’ You yell, shaking your head slightly annoyed.

When you pulled the door open Steve Harrington stood in front of you hands in his pockets. You looked at him in shock for a moment which gave him the perfect opportunity to slip in the house, ‘’Can I come in?’’ He asks, already walking through the door.

‘’Sure come on in,’’ You say sarcastically, shutting the door behind you. ‘’What are you doing here?’’ You ask him.

He puts one hand on his hip resting it there, ‘’Well you don’t return calls and it’s been three days.’’ He tells you. ‘’Why are you ignoring me?’’ He asks.

You sigh, ‘’I just needed some time to myself…a lot,’’ You say your eyes are focusing on a single spot on the floor, ‘’A lot happened.’’ You tell him.

‘’I know it did,’’ He says, stepping forward. ‘’Are you okay?’’ He asks.

You shrug your shoulders, ‘’I mean yeah,’’ You tell him but you can tell in your voice that you were about to break.

‘’Hey,’’ Steve says gently, pulling you into a hug, your hands wrapped around his torso as he rests his head on top of yours. ‘’You’re okay now,’’ He tells you.

‘’We just left him Steve,’’ You sob.

You could feel him pull you in closer if that was possible, ‘’We had to get out, and there was no way we could carry him out.’’ He says rubbing comforting circles on your back with his hand.

‘’His uncle-He-He is putting up missing flyers for him.’’ You try to get out your crying not letting you get out a sentence without having to take a deep breath. ‘’My mom she told me they’re all over the hospital.’’

Steve pulls back from you, ‘’Come on,’’ He says walking you to the couch sitting down with you, he still had his arm around you and you curled your body up so it rested on him. ‘’We did what we could, what we had to do.’’ He tries to tell you. ‘’And that doesn’t make what happened any easier but we have to think about what could've happened had we not gotten out when we did. Someone else could’ve been hurt, then what would we have done?’’ He asks you.

‘’It just feels wrong,’’ You tell him. You push yourself up looking at him, ‘’How is Dustin?’’ You ask, realizing you hadn’t talked to him since you got home.

‘’He’s rough,’’ He admits. ‘’But managing.’’

You didn’t say anything after that, you just both sat in silence. An hour or so later your head was in his lap and he was tracing circles on your shoulder as you stared up at the ceiling. ‘’Thanks for coming over,’’ You tell him.

He looks down at you, ‘’This is the only way I could talk to you,’’ He says and you smile sheepishly at him.

‘’Steve?’’ You ask. He hums in response, ‘’I don’t know what happened with you and Nancy and I made a promise I would do this, and I really want to keep it.’’ You start to ramble and Steve looks at you intently. ‘’And I'm just gonna come out and say it instead of beating around the bush-’’ You continue.

‘’Y/N,’’ Steve interrupted you, ‘’Just say it.’’

‘’I’m in love with you, and not in the way best friends love each other.’’ You say watching his eyes widen a bit looking at you as if he was shocked. ‘’And I have been for a while..’’ You pause, not really sure how he was feeling.

‘’You are?’’ He asks. ‘’Since when?’’ He asks.

‘’Since last year,’’ You tell him, ‘’When you got the job at scoops and I was training you I had a crush and we’ve hung out a lot more since and yeah,’’ You explain to him. ‘’And I just-,’’ You pause feeling emotional from the confession. ‘’I just had to tell you, I promised Eddie I would.’’

He glanced up when you mentioned Eddie his facial expressions looked shocked like he didn’t know what to say. “I just had to tell you and if you don’t feel the same-“ You began to say but your were cut short when you felt his hand come up to your cheek he was staring at you not saying a word.

“Steve?” You say breathless from his touch.

He doesn’t say anything instead he leans in his lips touching yours. He was slow with it and delicate, his hand gently resting on your cheek. “I never wanted to ruin anything,” He says when he pulls away. “Last year I realized I felt the same, and then now when we were upside down all I could think was is Y/N safe? That's when I knew.”

He paused for a moment, “And then I heard Dustin on the radio and he was begging us to come and I felt like I couldn’t breathe because he was so vague I thought something happened to you,” He tells you.

You reach your hand up putting it over the one that was on your cheek, “And then I saw you and your hand,” He glances down to the cast.

“I was fine,” You say, offering him a smile, “I was just waiting for you,” You admit. “You always keep me waiting, Harrington,” He smiles.

He leans in kissing you again, “No more waiting around, I’m right here.” He tells you.

______

Thanks for reading! apologies for any mistakes i’m on my phone writing! Let me know how you liked it!

I have like 5 other fics im working on rn so just wanted to post something but Request are open still!

#steve harrington x reader fluff #steve harrington x reader angst #steve harrington angst #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington x eddie munson #platonic eddie munson #eddie munson #dustin henderson #steve harrington x yn #stranger things x you

[ahsokaismyqueen]

My friend @lovinblueheart99 showed me your blog and I loved it! You're really REALLY good 😍 Can I send a request? Making out with Steve H. and kissing his delicious neck! Or maybe he kissing me till I forget my name 🥰🥰🥰🥰

Awww you are so sweet! Thank you so, so much! I'm glad you've enjoyed it! Of course you can! I hope you enjoy <3

You could admit it now. Did it pain you and your stubborn streak? One hundred percent, but the fact was, dating Steve Harrington had made you so happy that you didn’t care. Robin had declared the two of you still to be in your ‘honeymoon phase’ even though it was around three months away from your one year anniversary. 

As you pulled into Family Video, here to pick up Steve, a smile forming on your face as you saw him stacking videos through the windows, you knew this feeling wasn’t going to go away. The feeling of peace and content when you looked at him was going to be around forever. 

And you were okay with that. 

When you climbed out of your car, the smile on your face turned down somewhat in confusion as Robin came rushing out the door, her hands in a stop motion in front of her. “No! You can’t be here yet!” She said, glancing back at Steve to see if he had spotted the both of you. 

“Uh . . . why?” You asked, glancing down at your watch. You were a little earlier than normal, but you didn’t want to sit at home any longer, especially since Dustin was at one of his Hellfire Club meetings and your mom was watching tv making herself anxious. 

“Because if dingus’s radar senses you he will lose any of that small bit of concentration he has and focus on you, and today was absolutely crazy, and we have three carts of movies to put back on the shelf, but I need to get out of here on time so I can -”

You raised your eyebrows, “Steve’s radar -?” 

“I swear he always knows when you’re within like five miles of him. You haven’t noticed?” Robin asked. 

“He doesn’t -”

“Hey! You’re here early!” Steve’s smile was so pleased that you couldn’t help but mirror it, letting out a happy sigh as he wrapped his arms around you in a tight hug, and you melted into his embrace. Since dealing with the Russians and him almost dying for you and your brother, his hugs had become nothing but solace, and you treasured every moment of them. 

 “Mom’s driving me crazy.” You murmured, closing your eyes for a brief moment as you felt Steve’s lips against the top of your head. 

“Is she watching the news again? I told her she’s gotta stop doing that.” Steve said as if he was talking about his own mother. 

It made you smile so much that you didn’t even care about the smirk that was on Robin’s face. “It’s okay,” you said, leaning back so you could look into his warm eyes. “Anyway, I thought I’d come by and let Robin off the hook. Help you close.” You said, shooting her a look. “If you don’t think Keith will mind -?” 

“Nope, he won’t have a clue!” Robin said, already running back inside to grab her bag, which was apparently ready to go because you didn’t even get to manage another word before she was racing back out the door. “Thanks! Have fun!” She called without even looking back. 

“Guess we’ve got work to do?” You said, laughing a little at Robin’s actions. 

“Yeah . . . Or . . .” Steve grinned, raising his eyebrows. 

“Or?” You repeated, confused.

Steve grabbed your hand, tugging you inside Family Video, and flipped the sign to closed behind the two of you.

__________

“Steve!” Another laugh left your lips as he lifted you up on the counter. “We’ve got to do those carts or Robin will never forgive me.” 

You watched his hands, warm and soft as they traveled up your thighs, stopping right at the hemline of your shorts. Even though his hands were hot, you still felt a shiver travel down your spine at the sensation. “We’ve got time.” He insisted, and you held your breath as he stepped even closer, pulling on your thighs to encourage you to wrap them around him. “Besides, the store’s closed.” He said, a smirk on his lips as he nodded back to the door. 

“A half hour early.” You teased, but despite your words, pulled him closer until he was flush against your chest. “You’re gonna get fired,” you murmured as Steve’s lips found your jawline. 

“You’d be worth it,” he whispered into your skin, his soft hair tickling your cheek. 

Unable to resist, you slipped your hands into his locks, tightening your grip as his lips traveled down to your neck. “I don’t want Robin to get mad.” You protested weakly, eyes closing as Steve continued to kiss that spot on your neck he knew you loved so much. 

“I promise I’ll get to work early tomorrow and do it before anyone gets here.” He pulled back enough to look into your eyes and cupped your cheek with one hand while the other slipped under the bottom of your shirt and landed on your bare waist. “Now, should I be concerned you’re thinking about Robin when I’m doing some of my best work?” Steve asked, raising an eyebrow at you. 

You grinned at him in a teasing manner. “Well, she is cute -” The look on his face made you giggle, but he cut it off with an intense kiss that had you seeing stars behind your eyes. 

Steve Harrington invaded every one of your senses with the groan he made against your lips as you tugged on his soft hair, the scent of his cologne, one you had gotten him for his birthday that he insisted on wearing all the time, and the taste of the spearmint gum he must have been chewing on before you arrived. 

You loved every second of it. 

He kissed you like it was the last time every time, and it only showed you how much he loved you every time he did it. There was never a second when Steve was kissing you that you felt like his mind was somewhere else. No, the intensity and passion in his kiss let you know that there was no place he’d rather be. His kiss was all consuming, and this time was no different. In fact, you were so wrapped up in thoughts of him, it took you a couple of moments to realize that he had pulled away, and he was saying your name. 

You opened your eyes, and by the smirk on his face, realized that he must have been saying it for a while. “Hmm?” Was all you could manage, your brain still fuzzy from his lips. In fact, that was all your eyes could focus on, how red and slightly swollen they were from your own. 

“How much trouble would I be in if I stayed over tonight?” He asked, biting his bottom lip, almost as if he was teasing you. 

“With mom? A hell of a lot if you get caught.” You told him, trailing your hands from his hair down to his chest, grabbing a hold of his Family Video vest and pulling him close once again so you could whisper in his ear. “But I think you’ll be in more trouble with me if you don’t.” 

Steve grinned, leaning forward to meet your lips again. “I guess it’s a good thing I’m such an expert and sneaking in and out of windows.” 

Your lips had barely brushed when the store phone rang and Steve groaned. “Don’t answer,” You murmured against his lips. 

“Robin could have forgotten something.” He replied, leaning away and making you pout as he answered the phone. You didn’t let him go far though, bringing him right back to where he was between your legs as soon as he answered the phone. “Yeah, kid, I know. I recognized your voice as soon as you answered, what do you want?” 

Bored already with the conversation, you nuzzled into Steve’s neck, teasing him with a little bite that made him groan. 

“No-no, I’m fine, just - just stubbed my toe. What do you want?” He asked again, while his hands tightened on your hips in warning. 

It made you giggle, and you trailed open mouth kisses up and down his neck, pausing every few seconds to inhale that spicy scent of him. 

“Why can’t your new best friend take you home from your club? He’s got a van doesn’t he?” Steve said, and you knew him well enough to sense the bitterness in his tone, and knew immediately who had called. 

Of course the person on the other end picked it up as well. 

“I am not jealous, Henderson.” Steve insisted. 

“Yes, you are,” you said, pressing another kiss to his neck. “It’s absolutely adorable.” 

Steve let out a sigh. “Yes, that is your sister.” He pulled back and held out the phone to you. “He wants to talk to you.” 

“Hello, baby brother.” You said into the earpiece. “I thought Eddie was driving you home tonight?” 

“Could you stop making out with Steve like twenty-four, seven? Your lips are going to get stuck together.” Dustin said, making you roll your eyes. 

“Do you need a ride or not? Because I’m Steve’s ride so it’s either both of us or you’re biking.” You told him, your fingers tangling back in Steve’s hair, playing with it. 

Dustin let out a groan. “Fine, but can we stop and get pizza on the way home?” 

“Already on the agenda. Be there in about ten.” You told him, and after he said bye, you hung up the phone, sighing. “Looks like this will have to be continued.” 

Steve’s eyes had closed as you played with his hair, but they opened again at your words. He pouted in the most adorable manner that made you want to kiss it off his face, so you did. “I promise I’ll make it up to you tonight.” You murmured against his lips, giving his hair a little tug. 

“Oh, I’m holding you to that.”

#steve harrington #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington imagine #steve harrington x you #stranger things imagine

[marie-swriting]

All Your life - Robin Buckley

Stranger Things Masterlist

Summary : Since you started dating Robin, you've been more and more distant with your friends and everyone feels like you're changing so much, even Robin who starts fearing she might be ruining your life.

Warnings : fluff, a little bit of angst, some jealousy, parties, bad friends, mention of dying because of the cold and car crash, happy ending, maybe some grammatical mistakes as English is not my first language so tell me if you see any or if I missed any warnings.

Word Count : 3.9k

French version

Song inspiration : Ruin My Life by Zolita

Hands on the wheel, you listen to Robin explaining to you Back To The Future passionately. She talks about every minute of the movie as she adds little comments about what she thinks. All your attention is focused on her, your eyes are also mostly set on her even though you’re driving. Robin is completely lost in her explanation so she doesn’t notice you’re distracted. When she finally realises, she reprimands you immediately.

“Calm down, I’m a real driver” You try to reassure her.

“I don’t want to die !”

“I know how to drive.”

“We'll talk about it the day you’ll have a car accident.”

“Hey !” you retort, appalled “Who is the one who has her driver licence between me and you ?”, you ask and she stays silent as you can see her annoyance on her face. “That's what I thought ! So you can’t criticise my driving.”

“I can when you put us in danger.”

“I know what I’m doing, Robs !”

“Yeah, well look at the road.” Robin orders you as she points in front of you.

“It’s not my fault if what you’re saying is interesting.”

“Do I have to remind you we listen with ears, not eyes ?”

“But I love watching your face lighting up when you talk about something you’re passionate about ! You’re even cuter when you can’t stop rambling.” You admit, making her cheeks turn red.

“Anyway, don’t make an accident !”

“Never, I care too much about you to put you in danger.”, you affirm, putting your hand on hers, “So you were saying ? Marty has to help his father ask out his mom to the ball ?”

Your question is enough to make her rambling once more. Robin starts analysing the movie again, but this time she makes sure you keep your eyes on the road.

Robin hasn’t finished talking about Back To The Future when you arrive at your destination half an hour later. You drove her to a lake you know. When you were younger, your parents used to take you there often. Not a lot of people know about it so you're pretty sure you’re going to be alone for your date. You set your stuff on the ground for the picnic. When everything is ready, you look at Robin with a mischievous smile and she knows nothing good is going to come out of your mouth.

“What ?” she asks, fearing the worst.

“I hope you brought your bathing suit, like I told you.”

“I was hoping you weren’t serious.”

“I’m more than serious.” You smile and Robin’s eyes get wide.

“But the water must be so cold !”

“Wimp. Come on, let’s go !” You say as you start taking your clothes off so you’re only in your swimsuit.

You run toward the lake and jump without wasting time. The water is, indeed, cold, but you don’t mind. You swim a bit before screaming at Robin to join you when you see her in her bathing suit. With reluctance, she walks to the water. She takes a deep breath before coming to you, swimming quickly. You laugh when you hear her teeth chatter.

“It’s so freaking cold !” She exclaims as you take her in your arms.

“Don’t worry, you’re gonna get used to it in five minutes.”

“Five minutes ? It’s too long ! I’ll have time to die because of the coldness.”

“Why do you absolutely think everything I want to do today will kill you ?” 

Robin needs a second before answering you because of the cold.

“It’s not my fault if all of your actions can lead to an awful situation.”

“You’re not gonna die of hypothermia.” You state as you rub her arms to give her some warmth.

“If I don’t die in this cold water, I’m gonna get sick and that’ll kill me. I’m warning you, if it turns out true, I’ll haunt you.”

“I don’t mind.”

“Y/N !” She screams, horrified.

“I’m joking. I want you close to me, alive and in good health.” You reassure her before pecking her lips. “Let’s get out of the water ?”

“I thought you were never gonna ask it.”

She doesn’t give you time to answer before getting out of the water, hugging herself as much as she can. You laugh when you look at her like that, but deep down, you’re cold as well. You run to your car and pick up the towels and blankets. You go back to Robin and give them to her. She practically rips them out of your hands and dries herself fastly before enveloping herself in a blanket. When you’re done, you get closer to Robin, wanting to get both of you warm thanks to your body heat. 

“You’re almost blue.” You say after looking at her closely.

“No shit, your lake is like an iceberg !” She retorts, her teeth still chattering.

“Don’t be so dramatic.”

“So you’re telling me you’re not cold, too ?”

You don’t respond immediately so Robin looks at you as if you were an alien as she thinks you’re warm.

“A little, yeah.” You murmur with a smile.

“Ah, see !” 

When your body has returned to a normal temperature, you eat your picnic while Robin rambles on another subject. When you’re done, you lay down and embrace each other. You can’t be close physically as much as you want very often so you make sure to make the best out of it. In the middle of the afternoon, Robin’s head is on your chest and your hand loses itself delicately in her hair. You enjoy the warmth of the sun on your face, making this moment nicer. You close your eyes, relishing every second of it. At that moment, you think  to yourself you could stay in that position all your life. You want to stay with Robin all your life. Your romantic thoughts are stopped when Robin whispers your name.

“Yeah, Robs ?” You answer softly.

“You know we’re going back to school next week ?”

“Yes, I’m aware of it. Why ?”

“What are we going to do at school ?”

You stop stroking her hair and lift up her chin. You see on her face she’s nervous, you frown as you try to understand the reason.

“What do you mean ?”

Robin sits on the blanket as she tries to find a way to share her thoughts. Worried, you get in the same position, guessing it’s a serious conversation.

“Are we gonna act as if we don’t know each other ? Or are we going to pretend we’re just acquaintances ? I mean, in a perfect world, I’d ask you if you wanted us to act as a couple in front of everyone, but it’s not the case, so what are we going to do at school ?” she asks quickly.

“I want to be able to talk to you whenever I want. I can’t kiss you in front of everyone but I don't want to act as if you’re a stranger. I mean, if you’re cool with it, obviously ! If you prefer for us to be low-key about it, I’m okay with it.”

“I also want us to be as close to each other as we can.”

“Perfect then. Let them think we’re just best gal pals.” You smile and Robin does the same. “By the way, I’ve been meaning to ask you, Jason told me he’ll have a party this friday to celebrate the end of the summer holiday, do you want to come with me ?”

“A party at Jason Carver’s ?”

“I know it sounds bad, but we don’t have to stay near him. We can just dance or stay with my friends. You can even invite Steve !”

“I think Steve has a date that night. But are you sure I can come ? He didn’t invite me.”

“The more, the merrier he is. There’s gonna be so many people, he won’t even realise there’s one more person. Besides, like I said, we can stay on our own and if it really sucks, we can always leave.”

“Alright, let’s go !” Robin confirms while you lay back down.

At Jason’s party, you talk with your friends whilst you’re waiting for Robin ー you couldn’t drive her so Steve is the one who brings her before heading to his date. Even if you’re listening to your friends, your eyes are set on the front door. When you see her coming, you don’t pay attention to your friends anymore and walk quickly to her. You don’t give her the time to react and hug her. She hugs you back immediately. When you break the embrace, you take her hand and bring her to your friends with a big smile on your face.

“Girls, I don’t know if y’all know her so this is Robin. She’s in the school’s band.” You smile, proudly.

“You play the saxophone, right ?” Your friend Crystal questions. 

“Huh, trumpet, actually.” Robin corrects her, embarrassed.

“Same thing.”

“Nice to meet you, Robin. Did you guys have classes in common last year ?” Chrissy asks.

“No, we became friends this summer. She needed my help to find a movie at Family Video.”

After Robin’s answer, your friends start talking to each other again until Chrissy catches Robin’s attention. 

“The drinks are in the kitchen if you want.”

“Right ! You must be thirsty.” you exclaim, “Let’s go. We’re coming back soon, girls.”

You bring Robin in the kitchen and pour her a drink after she told you what she wanted. You stay in the room to discuss, completely forgetting about your friends. You didn’t have the time to see each other after your picnic day so you make up for the lost time.

You’ve been talking for the past hour when Carol, another of your friends, comes and drags you on the dancefloor because her favourite song is playing. You don’t even have the time to apologise to Robin, because before you know it you’re already in the living room. You dance with your friend for thirty minutes when you finally manage to escape her to find Robin. You want to make sure she’s okay and you want to go to the living room with her as well. You don’t have to search for her very long. You find her in the kitchen, an empty glass in her, talking with a guy from the basketball team. You think he’s too close to her. Your jealousy makes an appearance without realising it. You walk toward them and stand next to Robin with a fake smile.

“Sorry to interrupt but I need to talk with Robin.”

“Sure.” Joshua nods but he doesn’t leave, making you even more annoyed.

“We should’ve left ten minutes ago to be sure to bring you back home on time.”, you say to Robin and she looks at you confused, “You should call your mom to let her know we’ll be late.”

“Wh-”, she starts but you look at her with insistence, “Oh yes ! It’s true. I should go, you’re right. See you, Joshua.”

You look while Robin is leaving the room before setting your gaze back on Joshua. Just by looking at him, you understand he’s totally attracted to her, making your jealousy grows bigger.

“Y/N, where have you been hiding that beautiful friend of yours all this time ? I never noticed her before.” He states with a grin.

“She’s in the school’s band. She’s there at every single match of yours.” You answer dryly.

“Now, I’ll know. Tell me, you’re good friends right ? So you know what her type is ?”

“Sorry, but you’re not her type.” You say, hoping he’ll let go. “Besides, she’s already with someone.”

“You know what we say, it’s not because there’s a goalkeeper that you can’t score.” He laughs and you try to not roll your eyes. “Is it serious with that guy ?”

“Yes, very serious.”, you state, crossing your arms on your chest, “This person loves Robin very much, just like Robin loves them. You don’t have a chance with her, Joshua. I have to go. Robin’s waiting for me.”

You ditch Joshua in the kitchen and leave Jason’s house. You meet Robin next to your car. You get in it and you start driving while your anger calms down.

“What was that made-up story about my mother ? I’m sleeping at your place and your mom set up a curfew at one am, it’s currently midnight.” Robin wants to know.

“I just wanted to leave the party. It sucked.”

“But, you were having fun with your friends.”

“I… I just wanted to spend some time with you.” You lie, but she sees right through you.

“There’s something else.”

“Alright, okay ! Maybe I was a little bit jealous.” You admit, ashamed.

“Why ?”

“Joshua.”

“He was a bit unbearable, but he was nice.” Robin says, confused.

“He was flirting with you !”

“What ? Not true !” She retorts and you laugh a little at her obliviousness.

“Robin, I can assure you he was. He even asked me what was your type and if you were with someone.”

“Oh… What did you tell him ?”

“That he doesn’t have a chance”, you start before biting the inside of your cheek, “And… I might have let slip that you were with someone. I didn’t say it was a girl, especially me, obviously, but he knows you’re in a relationship. I’m sorry, I know I shouldn’t have, but my jealousy spoke for me ! He just upset me so much because he was sure he could try and hit on you even though I told him you weren’t his type.”

You don’t dare to look at Robin, fearing she’ll be angry at you. Though, you feel her hand on your thigh, she smiles at you before talking “At least, he’ll leave me alone. Don’t worry, I’m not mad at you.”

Like you agreed at the end of Summer Break, you keep seeing each other at school ; you talk, work and eat together. Some of your friends are surprised to see your sudden friendship with Robin seems that strong. Even though they don’t make any comments in front of you, they don’t hold themselves back when you and Robin are not around ; they’re especially mad that you’ve dared cancel a lot of your plans at the last minute because of Robin. Once, you didn’t even come to a cheerleading practice because Robin was sick, obviously, your girlfriend reprimanded you but you assured her it wasn’t that serious. Although, Crystal doesn’t hesitate before bringing up this moment whenever she can. Chrissy seems to be the only one of your friends to support your ‘friendship’ with Robin, she defends you when she hears the other girls talking behind your back. However, you know these ‘friends’ talk more and more against you. You’re not a fool, you see the looks they give you, especially if you mention Robin or if she’s close to you, but you don’t pay attention to it. You were never really close with them anyway and you knew since the beginning most of them were hypocrites so you’re not impressed. As long as you have Robin at your side, it’s all that matters. Crystal, Carol and the others can keep talking, you just want your girlfriend next to you.

One Friday night, in November, there’s a basketball game at school. As usual, you have your cheerleader uniform and show your support to the team. And for Robin, she motivates the players with her trumpet and the band. One of the advantages with those games is that you can watch Robin discreetly. It’s not rare that you laugh softly while you look at each other for too long. 

That night is no exception. With your teammates, you do your routine as the audience applauds you. At a moment, You make the mistake to look in Robin's direction, resulting in you messing up the choreography and end up accidentally stepping on Crystal's foot. She sends you a glare but you pay no mind to it. Robin tries to hold back her laughter as she plays the horn. You keep doing your routine as if nothing happened. 

At the end of the game, Hawkins High’s team wins so you do your special choreography until the players go to the locker room. When everything’s over, you and your teammates do the same. When you’re almost done changing, there are only two girls left in the locker room. You take your bag and walk to the door when Crystal stops you by standing in front of you, Carol next to her.

“Will you explain to me why you stepped on my foot ?” Crystal asks you with a questioning look.

“I just mixed up the steps, it happens.”

“It’s not the first time you’ve made a mistake like that since the beginning of the school year.” Carol notices and you roll your eyes.

“I just need to work on the routine more, it’s not that big of a deal.”

“You especially need to come to the practices and be focused.” Crystal retorts.

“Look, if you have something to say, tell me now instead of making insinuations.” You start getting angry.

“All I’m saying is you’re more and more distracted, particularly during the games. You’re always looking at the band.”

“You mean the audience ?”

“No, you’re always looking at the band in particular.” Crystal corrects you with a mischievous smile. “Isn’t that right, Carol ?”

“Usually you’re looking near Robin.” 

“So what ? I can’t look at my friend from time to time ?”

“I just find it weird that since you became friends with Robin you’re less and less invested. And don’t get me started on the times you dumped us, brought her or sneaked out at parties because of her. I mean, isn’t she supposed to have a boyfriend anyway ? She could leave us alone a bit.” Crystal continues and you clench your fists. 

“You should stop talking.”

“I don’t even know why you keep talking to her. She’s not mean but she’s weird, you have to admit it.”

“You take that back now. I forbid you from insulting her !” You lose your temper as you take a step forward.

“Calm down, I didn’t say anything mean !” Crystal defends herself. “Besides, last time you invited her, she didn’t stop talking about the last movie that came out at the movies. Like we get it, Breakfast Club is a masterpiece, but we don’t need to know every single detail about it.”

“It’s true it can be a bit annoying.” Carol nods, thoughtful. 

“If you’re not able to enjoy her company, I don’t know why I even bother talking to you. Robin is my best friend and it doesn't matter if you like it or not, I’m gonna keep hanging out with her.” You state. 

“That’s your problem, but stay focused during the games, I don’t need you to destroy my feet before the end of the year. I mean, that’s if Chrissy still wants to keep you on the team. With everything you’ve been doing since we're back to school, I wouldn’t be surprised if she kicks you out.” Crystal says, waiting for your reaction.

“You know what ? She won’t have to bother to do any of this because I quit.” You inform them, seriously. “I don’t want to be a cheerleader anymore and more than anything I don’t want to be friends with hypocritical people and people who need to bring down others.”

Mad, you pass by them and walk through the door. When you close it behind you, you find Robin with an awkward smile on her face. You throw yourself in her arms, needing her comfort. She hugs you back tighter. A few seconds later, you leave the school grounds and drive to Robin’s, because you sleep at her place. On your way home, she’s silent and you know her mind is preoccupied by something. You don’t ask her anything, knowing she’ll come to you when she’ll be ready.

Tired from your day, you don’t waste a second before putting your pyjamas on when you arrive. In the comfort of her bed, you hold each other in the dark. You slowly start falling asleep while Robin has her eyes wide open. Your breath starts being even when Robin shakes you a little. You open your eyes while Robin turns on the light on her nightstand. For a second, you block the light with your arm before looking at Robin sitting in front of you.

“Sorry”, she says about the light, “I just needed to talk to you about something.”

“Tell me.” You murmur with a sleepy voice.

“Did you really quit the cheerleaders ?” Robin asks you and you frown. “I heard you. I know you argued with your friends because of me. I didn’t want to create any problems, I feel bad.” She admits, avoiding your gaze.

“Robin, it’s not your fault.”

“It’s a secret for no one that they don’t like me and they accuse me of ruining everything you do.”

“They’re just stupids.” You state as you sit as well.

“They’re your friends.”

“Were.” You correct. “Besides, I was never close to them. I always knew they were waiting for the perfect excuse to put me down. There’s only Chrissy with whom I get along and I know despite me quitting, I’ll still talk to her so don’t worry about it.”

“But still ! You quit cheerleading because of me but you love it.” Robin exclaims, feeling guilty.

“I’m not gonna lie, I wanted to quit cheerleading for a long time now, let’s just say Crystal and Carol opened the door for me.” You admit. “And even if I had loved cheerleading, I still would have left, because they’re not nice to you. I don’t like what they say about you. I’ll kill my cheerleader pseudo-career if it means being next to you. And also, it’s only high school, I can always do another activity. It’s not a big deal.”

“I just don’t want you to change because of me.” Robin whispers and you force her to look at you.

“Believe me, if I’ve been changing since we’re together, it only means something good. Since we met, you help me accept myself. I want to stop trying to be somebody I’m not. I want to be the real me. And it’s thanks to you if I have the courage to do it now.”

“I still have the feeling I’m ruining your life.” She affirms and you shrug.

“I wouldn’t mind if you ruin my life, if it means having you in my life. I mean it, Robin. I’m glad to have you by my side, so stop thinking you did something wrong, because it’s not true.”

Robin takes you in her arms, not knowing what else to do. You hug her more while stroking her back.

“Thank you for defending me, by the way.” She murmurs in your ear.

“No need to thank me, I wouldn’t let them call you names ! Was that what was bothering you ?” You ask her, breaking the embrace and Robin looks at you, surprised. “I saw the look on your face when I joined you after the game.”

“Let’s just say I’ve been having some fears for a few weeks now and hearing your conversation didn’t help me. I started being afraid. I told myself if I was really destroying your life without realising it, it was only a matter of time before you’d leave me.”

“Never gonna happen.” You affirm. “I’m with you and I don’t intend on leaving. I want to stay with you all my life, if you’d let me.”

“That's all I want.”

You press your lips on Robin’s while you put your hands on her hair. Her hands make their way to your hips, bringing you closer. You kiss for a few seconds before breaking it. You smile at her while Robin turns off the light. You peacefully fall asleep, knowing you’ll stay together all your life.

Stranger Things Masterlist

{This is my side blog so I'll be answering comments under the username @marie-sworld}

#marie swriting in english #stranger things x y/n #stranger things one shot #stranger things x reader #stranger things imagine #stranger things #robin buckley fanfic #robin buckley x fem!reader #robin buckley x female reader #robin buckley #robin buckley x y/n #robin buckley fluff #Spotify

[keerysquinn]

@cheerscoopscentral’s cheerscoops week 2023 | day 6: reuniting

Title: Knowing Me, Knowing You Pairings: Steve Harrington x Chrissy Cunningham Word Count: 18k Summary: Back in Hawkins for her mother's funeral, Chrissy must face the life she left behind when she went off to college and vowed to never set foot in Hawkins again. CW/TW: parental death, verbal/mental abuse, mentions of disordered eating, minimal smut A/N: If you only read one thing I've written this week, please let it be this fic. I poured my whole heart and soul into this one, and I'm really proud of this fic. Also, apologies in advance for the emotional roller coaster that this story takes you on. I cried while writing it, so I can only imagine what reading it will be like.

Chrissy didn’t know what she was doing at the mall. She didn’t know why she was shopping for several all black ensembles when she already had a perfectly nice black dress that was appropriate to wear for a funeral. But the first thing her dad had commented on when she got out of her rental car was the fact that she was wearing a light blue tee and sweatpants.

“You’re supposed to be in mourning, Christine,” he’d said as she carried her suitcase and garment bag into the house. “What are people going to think if they see you wearing that?”

“I don’t know. Maybe that I wanted to be comfortable for the two days that I spent on a train to get here?”

“It’s disrespectful.”

“It’s not like we’re in Victorian England. I don’t have to wear nothing but black for a specified number of days. My life is allowed to go on.”

That only seemed to upset her father more, and since she decided that maybe it would be best if she didn’t antagonize him when his wife had just died, she was now at the mall looking for anything black that wasn’t too expensive. Screw her own feelings about any of this. She just had to play the part of the grieving daughter for a few days, and then she could head back to Maine and finally put all of this behind her.

With her arms loaded down with a selection of sweaters, dresses, and a few pairs of pants that she thought would most likely work, she was on her way to the dressing room when she heard a voice that made her stop in her tracks.

“So much for never setting foot back in Hawkins.”

Chrissy slowly turned around and found herself face to face with the second most person she didn’t want to run into while she was back in town: Robin Buckley. Luckily, the person she wanted to avoid the most was nowhere to be seen.

“He’s not here if that’s who you’re looking for,” Robin said when she noticed the way Chrissy’s eyes were scanning the surrounding area.

“I wasn’t looking for anyone.”

“Sure you weren’t.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “What are you even doing here anyway? The last time anyone heard from you, you made it pretty clear that you’d rather die than ever come back here again.”

Chrissy felt like she was being punched in the chest with every angry word, and she couldn’t help but feel like she deserved this.

“Robin!”

For the first time, Chrissy noticed that Vickie was also there, and now she was pulling Robin away to have a hushed conversation. Robin’s eyes went wide as they darted back and forth between Chrissy’s face and the pile of very clearly all-black clothing in her arms before her shock dissolved into an expression of pure, unadulterated pity. From the look on Robin’s face, her girlfriend was probably telling her that she’d just mentioned dying in front of a girl whose mom had just passed away unexpectedly, and the last thing that Chrissy needed was to feel responsible for Robin's guilt on top of every other bad feeling that being back in Hawkins gave her.

Soon enough, Vickie was pushing Robin back over to Chrissy.

"We're both just so sorry for your loss," she said. "I can't imagine what you're going through."

“Thanks,” Chrissy said, staring down at the clothes in her arms instead of making eye contact. “I should go try these on.”

She started to turn away from them, hopeful that this interaction was finally over, but she was stopped by Robin speaking to her again.

“Does he know you’re back in town?” she asked.

“I don’t know. Not unless somebody else told him, I guess.”

“If he doesn’t know, can we keep it that way? I don’t want to have to pick up the pieces when you vanish again.”

“He wasn’t the only person who was hurt by everything that happened, you know. It destroyed me.”

She didn’t know why she was telling them any of this. Didn’t know if they even deserved to know her side of the story. But, she had to defend herself. She had to try to make them realize that she had to do what was best for her own mental health and wellbeing even if it left devastation in her wake. She wouldn’t have survived if she'd stuck around, and nobody took that into account when they judged her for the choices she made.

“That might be true, but you’re the one who stopped trying.”

“I couldn’t help it.”

“You could have. You just didn’t want to.”

“He’s the one that didn’t fight for me.”

“Only because you told him that you wouldn’t come back here for him!”

Vickie put a hand on Robin’s arm and pulled her back slightly.

“Okay, I think that’s enough,” she said. “I really don’t think that this is the time or the place for us to be having this conversation.”

“I just . . . he’s my best friend, Chrissy,” Robin said, sounding defeated. “I don’t want to see him hurting like that again.”

“Finally. Something we can agree on.”

Chrissy turned and made a beeline for the back of the store, not bothering to say goodbye or listen to anything else they might want to say to her. It was only then, locked away in the dressing room and away from prying eyes, that she broke down and cried for the first time since she’d gotten the call that her mother had passed away.

Seven Years Earlier

“I’m not ready for you to go,” Steve said as he rolled over to cage Chrissy in his arms and trap her underneath him. “Do you think, if I called your school, they’d let you skip freshman orientation and stay here with me for another week? I can be incredibly persuasive. Turn on the charm. Next thing you know, they'll be letting you take all of your classes through the mail, so you never have to leave my side."

“You know I can’t do that. I have to leave tomorrow.”

“Then what if I don’t let you leave?” he asked, tightening his grip around her. “I’ll just keep you here in my arms forever, so you can’t go?”

They'd been playing this game for weeks now. Steve would do everything he could to convince Chrissy that she didn't need to leave to go to college, and she would insist that she had no other option than to go.

Today, on Chrissy's last day in Hawkins, he'd invited her over to watch movies while snuggled up in bed with him, but they hadn't been paying much attention to any of the tapes that Steve had brought home from Family Video. It was hard to care about whatever Tom Cruise was doing in the movie when they were both painfully aware that they wouldn't be getting to see each other every day anymore.

"You know, there's a third option that neither of us have suggested," Chrissy said as she wiggled one of her arms free. She ran her hand through Steve's hair, and he moved to rest his head on her chest so she could lovingly scratch at his scalp. She loved that she was the only person who was allowed to touch his hair and the tiny relaxed noises he made whenever she did this.

"Why do we need a third option when I've already decided I'm not letting you leave?" he asked.

"I'm serious," she told him. "What if you just came with me?"

"You want me to come with you?"

"Of course, I do. Maybe not for the first year since my dorm has already been paid for, and I doubt my roommate would be too happy about some random guy she's never met living with us. This year we'll have to try to make long distance work, but we can call each other every day, and you can visit me whenever you can get time off work. You'll be with me so often that it'll be like I never left in the first place.

"But next summer? We can get an apartment together off campus. You can find a job that actually makes you happy, and I can get something part time for when I'm not in class. We can start our life together a little earlier than we'd originally intended, and after I graduate, we can find a place to settle down that'll make us both happy. I want that forever with you."

"I want that forever with you, too," he told her. "But I think it makes more sense if I stay here while you're at school. It'll be hard to be away from you, but we'll be able to save money in a way that we couldn't if we had an apartment together."

"So we'd be able to start forever without going into debt?"

"Exactly. I want to give you the life you deserve, and even if the distance is hard to deal with at times, I know that being apart is only going to make what we have stronger."

"I love you," she told him. "So much more than I'm able to express in words."

"I know. I love you, too."

"It's a lot for me to ask for you to be the one doing all the traveling just to make our relationship last though. I feel bad."

"I know, but it's something I want to do for you. Besides, you'll be home on breaks, so no one will have to do any traveling then."

Despite being wrapped up in her boyfriend's loving and warm embrace, Chrissy felt her stomach drop and her blood run cold. She'd known Steve for as long as she could remember. He'd been her first friend growing up after her parents had left them to play together while they socialized at the club, and he'd been around for all of her best and worst moments even before they'd started going out. He knew how much she hated it in Hawkins and how she couldn't bear to stay anywhere where her mother could have any influence on her life. She didn't think she was strong enough to survive if she had to deal with that constant criticism any longer.

During her sophomore year of high school, she'd decided that when she went off to college, she was never coming back, and Steve had been the first person she told. He'd always been so supportive of her need to get away and be her own person, but now she was afraid he hadn't really been listening to her.

"But I'm not coming home for breaks," she told him. Her voice sounded so small when she said it like she was afraid of what his reaction would be.

“You’re not?” He lifted his head slightly so he could meet her gaze. “I thought you’d at least be back for the summer.”

“Steve, we’ve talked about this. I can’t put myself in a position where my mom has any control over my life anymore. If I come back home and have to live in the same house as her again, she’ll pick and pry at me until all of the boundaries I’ve set are non-existent, and the cycle will just repeat over and over again until I’m just a shell of the person I was. I can’t do that again.”

“Then what if you live with me on breaks? Your mom can’t control what you’re doing if you’re over here.”

“But what about your parents?”

“What about my parents?” he asked. “They’re barely ever home anyway, and when they are, it’s not like they pay any attention to what I’m doing. They probably wouldn’t notice if I had five other people living here.”

“They’re friends with my parents. They’ll see each other at the club, and my parents will mention they heard that you and I are living in sin under their roof. Next thing you know, your parents will be inviting mine over for dinner just so they can check up on me, and this won’t feel like a safe place for me anymore because my mom will have weaseled her way into another home just to make me feel inferior.”

Chrissy started to try to push herself up into a sitting position. She was already feeling trapped by the downward spiral that her thoughts were taking her on, and it was making the way Steve was laying on her feel almost suffocating.

The moment he felt her struggling, Steve pushed himself up and moved to sit next to her on the bed. He tried to take her hand in his, but she'd already pulled her knees to her chest in an attempt to form a protective barrier around herself. He settled for resting a hand on her back instead.

"I don't know where all of this is coming from, but I promise you that nothing like that will ever happen. I won't let it."

"I know you would never intentionally allow that to happen, but you can't guarantee that it won't, and it's a risk that I'm not willing to take. That's why I can't be in this town. Right now, my plan is to take summer classes so I can stay on campus and maybe even graduate early. Then there would be even less time that we’d have to spend apart. I’m doing this for us."

"Are you really doing this for us?" he asked. "Because it really doesn’t feel that way. What happens to us if you won't come back?"

"That's why I want you to come with me. You know how much I love you. I don't want to lose you."

“But what about my life here? Robin, Dustin, and everybody else? You can’t honestly expect me to never see any of them again.”

“That’s not what I’m saying at all. I would never make you choose between me and the other people in your life.” she insisted. “I know how much they all mean to you, and I want them to be a part of our lives, too. They can come and visit us wherever we end up whenever they want, and you’re welcome to go back to Hawkins to see them whenever you want. I just won’t be going with you on those trips.”

“I don’t want there to be parts of my life that I can’t include you in,” he said as he pinched his nose.

Chrissy turned towards Steve and took his hand in hers.

“You can include me in everything. I promise. Even if I don’t come back here, you know I’ll want to hear every detail of what you did while you were gone.”

“That’s not the same, and you know it. There are ways that you could come back to visit without your parents finding out. Different places we could stay. You just don’t want to try.”

“I don’t want to spend our last day together arguing about this with you. This is a hard boundary I’m setting for my own well being. I've been saying that I wanted to get out of here since before we started going out. You just never heard me."

"I heard you loud and clear," he said as pinched his nose again. "I just hoped that if I loved you enough, you'd realize you had a reason to stay. I guess it just never occurred to me that when you said you couldn’t wait to leave Hawkins that it meant forever."

Chrissy dropped Steve’s hand and moved to get off the bed.

“I think it might be best if we both take a little time to cool down,” she said as she headed towards his bedroom door. “Eddie is still planning on driving me to the train station tomorrow. We’re leaving my house at ten. I love you, and I still want to be with you. If you still feel the same, come with us. If not - well, I guess I’ll know when you don’t get in the van.”

The next thing he knew, she was down the stairs and out the front door. Maybe if he'd seen how heartbroken she looked or the fact that she was holding back tears, he would have run after her. He would have promised to find a way to make their relationship work. That's what he wanted.

But he couldn't look in her direction as she was leaving. She just sounded so calm and cold when she got up. He couldn't risk seeing her looking okay when he was struggling not to cry.

When Robin showed up at his house an hour later with her arms weighed down with party supplies, she was shocked to find Steve laying on the sofa.

"What are you still doing here?" she asked as she threw herself down next to him. "I thought you were taking Chrissy out to dinner so I could set up her surprise going away party for you?"

"Party's canceled," he said. He buried his face in one of the pillows and angled his body away from her. "You can go home."

Robin was never one to abandon her best friend when he was clearly upset even if he was telling her to leave. Instead, she flopped over to lay on top of him.

“I’m not leaving until you tell me what’s wrong.”

Steve was quiet for a couple minutes, and Robin just let him be. She wasn’t used to seeing him like this, and if she could physically take away his pain and feel it for him, she’d do it in a heartbeat.

“We had a fight,” he said, lifting his head slightly and finally breaking the silence. “She left, and I didn’t run after her.”

“Then call her and try to fix things. Better yet, go to her house and talk it out. I’ll even sit in your car as moral support if you want. You can’t spend her last night in Hawkins apart just because of some stupid fight.”

Steve didn’t say anything. He just buried his face back in his pillow and started crying. He never cried - at least not in front of her - so she didn’t know how to react to this. She didn’t know what he wanted from her, so she did the first thing she could think of. She climbed off of him and pulled him up to sit next to her before wrapping her arms around him in the most bone-crushing hug she could muster. He wrapped his arms around her in turn, and she rubbed his back as he sobbed into her neck. Whatever this fight was, she didn’t think it was something she was going to be able to fix.

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked once he’d stopped crying and didn’t seem like he was struggling to catch his breath anymore.

He pulled away from her and wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand.

“She’s not coming back.”

“What do you mean she’s not coming back?”

“When she gets in Eddie’s van to head to the train station tomorrow, that’s the last time anyone is ever going to see her in Hawkins.”

“But you’re here, and she loves you, so she has to come back. She has to.”

“Apparently, I’m not enough of a reason for her to stay. Which makes sense. I’m never enough.”

“You’re enough for me.”

She thought she maybe saw a small flicker of a smile on his face. It only lasted for a second at most, but she knew it was still there under the self-loathing.

"And I'm sure you're enough for her," she continued. "I've seen the way you two look at each other, and when it isn't nauseating, it's actually very sweet. There has to be a way for you to fix this."

"She still wants me to come with her to the train station tomorrow. If I show up, it'll be like today never happened, and we'll still love each other just as much as we did before this fight."

"Then why are you moping around? You can save this."

"Because I don't know if I can do it. She's going to get on that train and go whether I'm there or not, and now that I know she isn't willing to come back for me, I'm afraid that I can't give her the relationship she wants anymore. I can't be the only one putting in the effort to make us work no matter how much I love her. We're just gonna end up back here again, so why bother prolonging the inevitable?"

"I always thought you two were the perfect couple. If you two can't make it work, is there any hope for the rest of us?"

Steve didn't say anything else. He just wrapped his arms around Robin, and she held him as his emotions overwhelmed him, and he began to cry again.

The next morning, he didn't show up at Chrissy's house, and that was the end of that.

Chrissy spent the majority of her time back in Hawkins locked away in her childhood bedroom. Anything to avoid spending time with her brother and dad. She loved her brother, and she tolerated her father when she had to, but she couldn't bear the idea of being around other people. Not when she felt this numb.

The only times she really went downstairs were when she needed to eat. And, for maybe the first time in Chrissy's entire life, it didn't feel like she was going to be vilified for daring to open the refrigerator door.

Whenever someone died, it was customary for everyone they knew to bring food to their grieving family. The fridge and freezer would be overflowing with casserole dishes from friends and acquaintances who wanted to pay their respects. This wasn't the case for Laura Cunningham. Most of the people who knew her and liked her enough to bring over food were the kinds of people who rarely cooked for themselves and probably wouldn't start cooking just because their diet-conscious friend died. Instead, the Cunningham fridge was filled with premade veggie trays from the grocery store. Occasionally, their friends from the club would shake it up and they'd drop off a fruit tray or a deli platter, but those were few and far between. It seemed almost too on the nose to Chrissy that her mother only inspired people to drop off rabbit food.

She was about to make herself yet another plate of assorted veggies and dip when she noticed two very familiar looking casserole dishes on the bottom shelf. Dishes that she'd seen and been served out of at least once a week for pretty much the entirety of her relationship with Steve. She pulled back the tin foil covering the trays and was greeted with the sight of a tater tot hotdish and a chicken and wild rice casserole. Actual comfort food.

"Danny," she called out from her place in the kitchen. "When was Mrs. Henderson here?"

"I don't know," he said as he made his way into the kitchen. "A couple hours ago maybe? She asked about you."

"Why didn't you come get me? It would have been nice to see her."

"Figured you were sleeping or you didn't want company since you were locked in your room. I told her you'd be at calling hours and the funeral if she wanted to see you though."

It was not lost on Chrissy that the two dishes that Mrs. Henderson had brought were some of her favorites from the family dinners she'd been invited to. That woman had always cared more about her comfort than her own mother, and she was desperate for one of her hugs.

But the fact that Mrs. Henderson knew she was back in Hawkins filled her with dread. If she knew that Chrissy was here, Dustin definitely knew. Robin might have been able to keep that fact a secret, but there was no way Dustin wasn't going to tell Steve. It was looking more and more like running into him was an inevitability.

Before they headed to the funeral home for calling hours, Chrissy's father lectured her about his behavior expectations for her as if she were five instead of twenty-five. She was supposed to be polite to anyone no matter what, answer any probing questions about her life that any random person asked, and play the part of a grieving daughter no matter what she was really feeling. She had to keep up appearances and do damage control for whatever her seven year disappearance made people think.

It almost made her mad that Danny didn't get a lecture as well, but then again, Danny had always had a much better relationship with their parents. They were always proud of him no matter what. It was hard for her not to resent him at times for that, but she knew that it wasn't his fault. He couldn't control the way her parents chose to treat them anymore than she could, and he'd only been eleven when she left. Even now, he was just barely an adult, and he was appropriately sad about losing his mother.

So she stood up straight and tried to look somber. She answered every question she was asked about living in Maine and still being single and just generally implying that she was a disappointment to her family by not settling down and starting to have kids immediately. She let every single one of her parents' friends from the club tell her that this was such a tragedy and that they were sorry for her loss. She played the part that she was supposed to play and did whatever she had to do to make this whole situation as painless as possible.

It took everything in her to stop herself from smiling when Claudia Henderson made her way through the line. Neither of them had to say anything for Claudia to know what she needed, and she instantly wrapped Chrissy up in the tightest of hugs. She'd thought that she wouldn't cry at all that day, but there was something about this comforting embrace that had her tearing up.

"Oh sweetie, I'm so sorry for your loss," Claudia said as she pulled away. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm doing okay," she replied as she dabbed at her eyes with the tissue she'd balled up in her fist for show. "Thank you so much for the casseroles you dropped off. We really appreciated it."

"Don't even mention it. You shouldn't have to be thinking about cooking at a time like this." She leaned in and lowered her voice. "And we both know that nobody else was going to bring you any real food."

The pair shared a small smile before Claudia pulled Chrissy in for another hug.

"How long are you in town for?" she asked. "I'd like to have you over for dinner before you leave again. I've missed you so much. We all have."

"I've missed you, too," Chrissy replied. She could feel the tears welling up in the corners of her eyes again. "I'm only really in town for the funeral tomorrow though. My train leaves pretty early the very next day."

"You'll have to come back and visit me again soon then. It would be nice to see you under happier circumstances."

"You're always welcome to come and visit me in Maine, too. I don't see many familiar faces out there."

Claudia gave her one last tight squeeze before breaking away.

"We'll plan something soon. I promise. I better get moving and quit holding up this line, but don't hesitate giving me a call if you need absolutely anything before you head back, okay?"

Chrissy gave her a slight nod before dabbing at her eyes with her tissue again. She didn't really have time to recover before she felt her heart grip in her chest though. Next in line to see her was Dustin, which she had expected would be the case, but she was surprised to find that none other than Steve Harrington was standing beside him.

Dustin barely said anything to her. He just echoed his mom's words of being sorry for her loss before moving on. She figured that he was just another name on the long list of people who were mad at her for breaking Steve's heart, and she was sure that he'd only showed up because his mom told him he had to come.

Or maybe he was there to be emotional support for Steve who was looking about as nervous to see Chrissy as she felt to be seeing him.

There was a shuffle where they didn't know whether to hug or just continue to stand there and awkwardly stare at each other, but then Steve was opening his arms, and Chrissy was stepping into them as if no time had passed and they'd never fought in the first place.

He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to his chest, and she was reminded of how she always felt like this was where she belonged. She couldn't help but feel like she no longer deserved to be there. As she breathed in the distantly familiar scent of his cedar cologne mixed with the calming eucalyptus and peppermint of his deodorant, the tears that she'd been trying so hard to contain while talking to Mrs. Henderson finally started to fall.

"I'm sorry," she said as she pulled away from him. "I don't know why I'm crying."

"It's understandable considering where we are," he replied.

"I guess." She dabbed at her eyes with her tissue again.

Neither of them spoke for a moment with Chrissy staring down at her shoes. She couldn't bear to look at him. Not when she looked so pitiful and didn't know if she'd find any kindness if she looked into his eyes. Especially when she didn't think she deserved any kindness from him.

"Are you okay?" he asked, finally breaking the silence between them.

"I think so." She forced herself to lift her head and look at him. She didn't know if there was any kindness in his expression, but he did look genuinely concerned for her wellbeing. 

"How have you been?" she asked.

"Do you actually care, or are you just asking because you think you have to?"

His words felt like a slap to the face. One that she probably deserved.

"Of course I care." Her voice was barely louder than a whisper. "I never stopped caring."

"Look. If you actually want to talk, we should probably do that somewhere else. Whatever needs to be said between us is going to take more time than we have here, and it should probably be said somewhere more private."

"We're done here in about an hour. I can meet you somewhere after, if that's okay? Maybe Benny's? Our old booth?"

"Yeah. Sure. I'll see you there."

As Chrissy watched him walk away, her stomach began to churn. She knew that this conversation was a long time coming, and it needed to be done, but that didn't mean that she would ever actually be ready to have it.

Steve was already waiting in the back booth when Chrissy arrived at Benny's. They'd spent so much time in that booth together - hangouts when they were nothing more than friends and weekly date nights once they had started dating. Steve had even taken a sharpie and written their initials inside of a heart on the underside of the table on one of their dates. It only seemed appropriate that whatever needed to be said was said at that table.

Chrissy slid into the booth across from Steve and pulled her cardigan tighter around her chest. When she'd suggested Benny's, she hadn't realized how exposed and vulnerable she was going to feel having this conversation in public. It was the only neutral spot she could think of in that moment, and now she was going to bare it all under the fluorescent diner lights.

"So, how are you holding up?" Steve asked, skipping the pleasantries.

"I'm fine. Better than most people are expecting me to be actually."

"Are you sure? What you're going through can't be easy."

"Can we please stop pretending that I'm brokenhearted about my mother right now? You should know better than anyone that my relationship with her was terrible at its best."

"I know that, but you were crying at the funeral home, and you're back in town, so I thought maybe something had changed."

"I wasn't crying because of her. I was crying because I'm pretty sure I'm a terrible person."

"Chrissy, you're not -"

"I didn't say that because I wanted you to comfort me or tell me I'm wrong," she interrupted him. "You're the last person I deserve comfort from anyway. After the way I left? You still hugged me even though I ruined us, and I started crying because I don't deserve that kindness. Why did you even show up at the funeral home? I thought you'd be trying your hardest to avoid me the second you heard I was in Hawkins."

"Well, with how much you insisted that you were never coming back, I had to see it to believe it myself."

"That's fair. I deserved that."

It was then that their waitress appeared at the table. Chrissy's stomach was in knots, and she couldn't fathom attempting to eat anything, so she only ordered a coffee for herself. Steve followed her lead and did the same.

"For the record," he started as the waitress walked away, "I couldn't not hug you. Your mom just died."

"And I was relieved when I got that call. My brother told me what happened, and the first thing I felt was relief that she couldn't have an effect on my life anymore. That's why I'm a terrible person.

"But I don't want to talk about her. Not now. I want to talk about what happened with us. I think I owe you a pretty sizable apology, but I don't know if I have the words to express exactly what needs to be said."

“You could try.”

Chrissy could feel the tears prickling in the corners of her eyes. She knew why he was being so cold to her, but that didn’t make it hurt any less. It felt as if the man who had hugged her back at the funeral home was a completely different person than the one who was sitting across from her now, and knowing that it was her fault that he was like this was breaking her. She wanted to run away and avoid having this conversation, but running away is what got her into this situation in the first place.

“First and foremost, I’m sorry for the way that I handled things. I should have told you about my plans a lot sooner than the day before I was leaving, and it wasn’t fair for me to drop that bombshell on you last minute. I loved you with everything I had, but my actions painted a very different picture, and I’m more sorry for that than I’ve ever been for anything else in my life. You deserved better than that.”

The waitress reappeared with their coffees, and Chrissy wrapped her hands around her mug and pulled it closer to her, taking in comfort from its warmth.

“Why did you handle it that way then?” Steve asked, staring down at his own mug. “Why did you treat me like I wasn’t going to be affected by the decisions you were making?”

She didn’t know whether she could tell him the truth or not. She wanted to clear the air between them more than anything, but she felt like the truth would only make them both feel worse. She owed it to him to tell him though. He deserved that much.

“I was scared,” she started. “I knew what my plan was by that Christmas, and I tried to tell you so many times. Practiced what I was going to say and made a concrete plan of what I thought our lives would look like after I went to college. You were included in every part of it, but I was too afraid that you wouldn’t go along with it to share it with you. That you’d push aside my fears and try to convince me not to go through with it.

“So I started dropping hints. Instead of telling you what I had spent so many nights thinking about, I tried to find ways to tell you that I couldn’t wait until Hawkins was just a blip in my rearview mirror, but I know that wasn’t enough. I wish I had been braver. I’m sorry that I wasn’t.”

“Do you have any idea how that makes me feel?” he asked her. “If you’d told me what you were planning sooner, maybe I could have come to terms with what you wanted, but you didn’t give me any time to adjust. You just told me the way things were going to be and expected me to go along with it, no questions asked. You say you loved me with everything you had, and I loved you just as hard. I would have done anything for you, and you still didn’t think enough of me to know that.”

“Steve, I was miserable back then. The only moments where I was happy and didn't actively hate myself were when I was with you. You were the sun shining through in an otherwise shitstorm of bad feelings. I was desperately clinging to the little happiness I had because my mother was doing everything in her power to make me feel as insignificant as she possibly could. My house was a nightmare, and leaving Hawkins for good felt like my only real escape. So, I'm sorry for how my choices affected you, but I did what I had to do to survive."

She'd been staring down at her hands as she spoke, and she could feel herself starting to tear up again, but she forced herself to look at Steve. She was surprised to find that he looked just as broken as she felt.

"Why didn't you tell me any of this back then? I knew your mom wasn't great, but you never told me it was that bad."

"Appearances are everything for the Cunninghams. If I did or said anything that made my mom look bad to anyone, things probably would have been a lot worse for me, and I could barely handle the criticism I was facing already."

"Screw appearances and whatever your mom thought. I would have protected you."

"How? There was nothing you could do. You couldn't change her anymore than I could change myself to fit the impossible image of perfection that she demanded from me."

"You could have stayed at my house more often. You could have moved in permanently if you needed to. Whatever you needed from me, I would have given you. You have to know that."

"Hindsight is twenty/twenty, I guess."

He reached out to take her hand in his, but she pulled it out of his reach. She couldn't handle him trying to comfort her. Not now. Not when she was still feeling so guilty and unworthy of his attention.

"I'm sorry," she said as she got up from their booth. "For back then. For coming back when I said I wouldn't. For being here now. All of it. You don't deserve this, and I don't deserve your kindness."

She didn't wait for him to respond. Just turned and ran for the door. He was up and out of his seat as quickly as he could be, fumbling around with his wallet to leave enough money for their coffees and a tip on the table before racing out the door after her.

“Chrissy, wait!” he called out to her once he’d exited the diner.

She’d had a bit of a head start, but he was faster than she was, so he caught up to her quickly. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her to face him, and his heart dropped when he saw the tears streaming down her cheeks.

“I can’t do this,” she told him. “I can’t bring all of this back up and hurt us both again. I can’t do that to you.”

“Please talk to me,” he pleaded. “I just want to understand.”

“Why are you doing this? Why do you still care about me or what I went through? After what I did to you, you should hate me. I would.”

“Hate you? I could never hate you. Yeah, what you did really hurt me, and that hurt is still there, but I still love you. That doesn’t just go away.”

Chrissy lunged forward and wrapped her arms around him as she buried her face in his chest finally allowing herself to accept the comfort he was offering. He wrapped his arms around her in turn and held her close to him, rubbing her back and attempting to soothe her as she cried. No matter what happened between them, he’d still do whatever he could to take away her pain.

“Can we go somewhere else?” she asked after a minute. “Somewhere more private? I feel like we both have more to say, and I think it would be easier if I didn’t feel like everyone was watching me.”

“We can go back to my place if you want. Where’s your car?”

“Back at my dad’s house. We all rode to the funeral home together, so I just walked here afterwards. It was easier than explaining to my family where I was going.”

“I can drive you then.”

Steve led her over to his car, and they spent the short ride over to his place in silence.

When they arrived, Chrissy was surprised to find herself standing in front of Steve’s grandfather’s house. She didn’t know why she had assumed that he would still be living with his parents. Maybe because that was where he lived when she left. But even if she had been thinking that he’d moved at some point in the last seven years, she never would have expected him to move here.

Steve let her into the house, and it looked different than she remembered it. Occasionally, when she and Steve were still just elementary school friends, his Grandma Evie and Grandpa Otis would babysit them there while their parents were spending time at the club together. She and Steve had just started dating when his grandma passed away, and every so often they’d go spend time with his grandpa. The house had been an escape for both of them. A place where they could hide from their parents. She'd spent enough time there to have distinct memories about this house, and she was certain the front room had been painted a different color, and the flooring looked a lot newer than what would have been in a house this old.

Steve kicked his shoes off, leaving them on a mat by the front door, and Chrissy followed his lead and did the same with hers.

“Can I get you anything?” Steve asked as he headed back towards the kitchen. “I know you didn’t touch your coffee at the diner, but I could make a fresh pot here, and I think I’ve got beer and maybe some sodas in the fridge. Or I could get you some water if you don’t mind tap.”

"Tap water is fine," she said as she stood awkwardly in the doorway.

She didn't feel comfortable making herself at home and finding somewhere to sit without his direction, so she watched him instead. He'd rolled the sleeves of his sweater up to his elbows, and her eyes were drawn to his forearms. It was criminal that he could still be so attractive to her even after all this time.

Steve moved around the kitchen with the ease of someone who had been living there for a long time. He pulled a beer out of the fridge for himself and then fixed Chrissy a glass of ice water from the tap. When he was finished, he ushered her into the living room and motioned for her to sit with him on the couch before handing her her glass.

"Thank you," she said before taking a small sip. "How long have you been living with your grandpa? I hadn't realized you moved."

"Right after Christmas of '88," he started. "He couldn't really handle a house this big by himself anymore, and you remember how stubborn he was. He was refusing to downsize and move somewhere that'd be easier for him to manage, and my dad wasn't exactly jumping at the opportunity to actually help his own father. I wanted to get out of my parents' place, and he needed the help, so it was a mutually beneficial situation for the both of us."

"It looks different than I remember it."

"That's because I've done a lot of work on the place since the last time you were here." He took a long swig of his beer. "When I moved in, he said that he wanted to fix the place up, and that it was about time for me to learn some valuable life skills. You remember how he used to do home renovations and carpentry?”

“Of course, I do. He made me that beautiful rocking horse to match the one you had here when he saw how much I loved yours. I still have it on display in my living room.”

“Well, I can make those now,” he told her, smiling a little at the thought of her still considering something his grandfather made maybe twenty years ago to be so precious to her. “I don’t think they’re as nice as the ones he made, but I’m getting better at it. He taught me everything he knew, and we remodeled this place together. I did all the physical work, but he sat nearby and walked me through replacing and refinishing the floors, replacing wallpaper and repainting. I redid the entire kitchen and the upstairs bathroom, too. He had me take him to his favorite suppliers that are still in business and helped me find the best deals when we were dealing with people he’d never worked with before.

“Even though he was helping me with everything, he let me make all of the major decisions and made me feel like this was really my project so I could actually learn how to do this on my own. After we finished with the house, he started teaching me what he knew about making furniture. I realized that I just really liked working with my hands, and I liked that I had something to show for my work. It’s what I do for a living now. Custom furniture pieces and home renovations. I’ve got my own little business going, and I’m doing pretty well for myself.”

He was beaming as he finished speaking, and Chrissy couldn’t help but smile back. This was easy. Learning what he'd been up to in her absence and seeing how happy what he was doing made him. She knew they had more to discuss regarding what happened between them, but she could listen to him talk about his work for hours.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized. “I’m rambling, and you probably don’t care about any of this.”

“Of course, I care,” she reassured him. “I’m really glad that you found something that you love doing. I always knew you would.”

"I'll have to give you a tour of the place. Show off my handiwork a little bit."

"I'd really like that. Won't we wake up your grandpa though?"

“That shouldn’t be a problem,” Steve said, averting his gaze and staring down at his beer. “He passed away in April of last year.”

“I’m so sorry to hear that,” she said as she moved a little closer to him on the couch and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. “I know how close you two were.”

“Thanks.” He moved one of his hands to cover hers on his shoulder. “I think we both knew it was coming, but that doesn’t make it any easier.”

“I’m sorry I missed the funeral. If I’d known, I would have come back for it. I would have tried to be here.”

He pulled away from her at that.

"Would you really?" he asked. "Because you were pretty adamant about never coming back here."

"I'd make an exception for the important things."

"So our relationship wasn't important enough for you to come back for?"

"It's not that simple."

"Then please explain it to me because I still don't fully understand your reasoning here."

"I don't know what you want me to say."

Chrissy could feel herself getting worked up, and she knew that it was only a matter of time before she broke down again. It didn't matter how many years had passed. She still felt so raw about everything surrounding her relationship with Steve, and she didn't think that would ever change.

"I want you to tell me why you wouldn't come back for me."

"But I did come back for you!"

And there it was. She'd blurted out the secret that she swore that she'd never tell, and with that admission, the tears started flowing again.

"What?" Steve just stared at her in total disbelief.

"You heard me," she said as she turned away from him. She couldn't look at him. Not now.

"Chrissy, please." He reached for her hand, and this time she let him take it. "What do you mean you came back for me? I thought you were here for your mom's funeral?"

"Not now. I did come back for the funeral this time." She took a deep breath and turned to face him. She had to look him in the eye when she told him this. He deserved that much.

"This isn't the first time I've been back to Hawkins."

"Why is this the first I'm hearing about this?"

"It's complicated."

"Can you try to explain it to me?" he asked. "Because I'm really confused here, and I'd really like us to unpack this bombshell you just dropped on me."

"The first summer after I left, I came back for one day. I was intending on staying longer, but there was a change of plans."

"You came back for me, but you didn't come to see me?"

"That's the complicated part. After being away for a year, I realized what a huge mistake I'd made. I spent that entire year missing you more than anything. I picked up the phone to call you more times than I could count, but I kept stopping myself because you deserved more than some bullshit phone call. I was seeing the counselor at my college pretty regularly, and we agreed that if I wanted to try to fix things with you, I had to do it in person. I had to go back to Hawkins, face my fears, and tell you that I was willing to do whatever it took to try to fix us because I couldn't picture spending another day without you.

"I psyched myself up, and I went to your house as soon as I got off the train. No one was home, so I figured you were probably at work and headed to Family Video. You were there. I saw you through the front window, but I couldn't bring myself to go inside and talk to you."

"Why not? Why come all that way for me just to walk away and act like it never happened?"

"You were flirting with Rachel P. She had her hand on your forearm, and she was laughing at something you said as you handed her different movies off of the new releases shelf. And you just looked so happy and in your element. How could I go in there and ruin whatever you had going on? After the way I left, I couldn't upend your life when you were so clearly over me. I made the decision to put your happiness ahead of my own, so I left without you seeing me. I got a ticket on the next train out, and I never came back. Not until now at least."

"Why didn't you ever tell me?"

"How could I? Walking away that day was maybe the hardest thing that I've ever had to do. Sitting here and telling you about it now is a pretty close second. It doesn't matter how much time has passed or what happened between us. You're my best friend, and I'm always going to love you. I will sacrifice my own happiness for yours every time, and I feel so selfish for telling you this when you probably have a really lovely girlfriend who treats you right and appreciates you and everything you do for her. Someone who's just an all around better partner for you than I ever was.

"And I hate that I'm the kind of person who hates her for it. I don't even know who this girl is, and I hate her. I hate her simply for existing and for loving you which is so petty and immature. Especially when it's my fault that you and I are in such different places now, and our lives aren't intertwined anymore. But I hate her, and I hate myself for opening the door and letting her swoop in and fill the space I left."

The tears were flowing again, and Chrissy hated herself for crying. She couldn't help that she was an easy crier, but it felt so manipulative in this situation. She had just openly admitted to hating any girlfriend he had just for having the audacity to exist in his life, and now he was going to comfort her because she was crying, and he couldn't stand to see her in pain.

She wanted to get up and run. To leave his house so she could stop hurting him and making him feel responsible for her emotions. But he was still holding her hand, and he wouldn't let go. He was just sitting there in silence, and it was killing her that he wasn't saying anything.

"I should go," she said as she tried to pull her hand away and get up from the couch. "I shouldn't have told you any of that, and I'm sorry I did."

He didn't let go of her hand. Only held onto it tighter.

"I don't have a girlfriend," he said, finally breaking his silence. "I don't remember flirting with Rachel P., and while Robin has tried to set me up with a countless number of women, none of them got past a first date. I've been single since you left."

"You have?"

"I have."

"But why?" she asked. "After that day, I always assumed that you would have moved on. I stayed away because I couldn't bear the thought of seeing you with somebody who wasn't me again. There has to have been someone else."

"I met the love of my life when I was three years old. There haven't been any other girls. It's always been you."

For the second time that night, Chrissy found herself lunging towards Steve. This time, it was to pull him in for a kiss. Her free hand moved to caress his cheek, but she was pulling away from him far too soon for either of their likings.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I shouldn't have done that."

"No," he said as he leaned back in. "You definitely should have."

He let go of her hand only to grip her hips and pull her closer to him, and she wrapped her arms around his neck for the same reason. He initiated their kiss this time, and as he did, he moved to reposition them on the couch with her leaning back against the cushions and him hovering over her.

"You don't waste any time, do you?" she asked, smiling against his lips.

"We wasted the last seven years. I'm not wasting another second."

He moved to kiss her neck, relishing in the way she gasped when he grazed her pulse point.

"Not here," she said after a minute, struggling to catch her breath. "I feel like we're a couple of a horny teenagers hoping they don't get caught by their parents."

"You say that like it's a bad thing." He nipped at her pulse point again, and she squirmed underneath him.

"How about that tour? Maybe start with your bedroom?"

Steve kissed her one more time before pulling her up, and soon he was leading her towards the stairs.

"My bedroom's nothing special," he said as they started climbing the stairs. "But I think you'll really like the guest room."

"Lemme guess. You replicated your childhood bedroom? Plaid wallpaper and matching curtains?"

"Even better than that."

He paused outside of a room that Chrissy was very familiar with. This was the room that Steve always stayed in when he was with his grandparents. When she and Steve had both been very little, they'd shared the bed in there and slept snuggled up together for nap times and the occasional sleepover when his grandparents babysat them. Chrissy would often make Steve sit on the window seat with her while she read chapter books to him because he loved the stories but hated the headache that trying to read them gave him. When she was fourteen and Steve was a few days away from his sixteenth birthday, they'd shared their first kiss as a couple hiding out in that room in the middle of a Christmas party his grandparents were hosting.

"It's going to look a lot different than you remember it, but I don't know. I think I did the room justice."

He opened the door and motioned for Chrissy to enter before him. Immediately, she was in awe of the sight before her. The bed was still the same. The queen-sized mattress topped with the floral quilt that had always been her favorite for building the best forts and naps when it was especially cold. But the bed was the only thing that stayed the same. Originally, the floor had been covered in a plush red carpet that had faded in a few places from age and wear. That carpet was gone now, and the original hardwood floors underneath had been refinished in a deep chocolate brown color. The window seat cushions had been reupholstered in a soft cream colored fabric, and there was a matching area rug in the same color on the floor. The walls had originally been beige, but they'd been repainted in a shade of blue that matched the forget-me-nots on the quilt - Chrissy's favorite color. She didn't want to say it out loud for fear of being wrong, but it felt like this room was redone with her in mind.

"Steve, it's beautiful," she said, turning to face him. "Did you really do all of this?"

"It was the last room we tackled, so it's probably my best work in the house. Took me forever to decide what I wanted to do in here, too. I felt weird changing things because it had never just been my room, you know? I just went with what I thought looked nice. Didn't even realize what I'd done until the room was finished."

He didn't have to say it out loud for the meaning behind his words to be crystal clear: when he'd updated this room, he'd done it with her in mind.

"It's perfect." 

She turned to him and stood on her tiptoes to press a kiss to his cheek, and from there their hands were all over each other again. She'd barely pulled away from him when he pulled her flush against him. One hand splayed across her lower back, and the other cradled the back of her head as he leaned in to kiss her. It was probably a good thing that he was holding her up because his eagerness made her weak in the knees.

It took her a moment to register that this was really even happening. That the fantasy that kept her awake at night wishing that she felt safe in Hawkins and wishing he still loved her could be real. If she'd only been just a little braver, she could have had this so much sooner.

She hadn't been too far off with her comment about them feeling like a couple of horny teenagers. Of course, this wasn't their first time together, but after being apart for so long, they were both so eager to get reacquainted with each other's bodies that they were acting like they'd never held each other before. Tripping over their own feet as they stripped down and stumbled towards the bed if only because they couldn't keep their hands to themselves a moment longer.

It was so strange to feel so distant from someone who carried so much intimate knowledge about all the things that made her body quiver and her toes curl in ecstasy. And it felt strange for the opposite to be true as well. To know that if she pulled his hair at just the right moment, he'd moan into her folds, and she'd see stars. That once he flipped them over for her to be on top, all she had to do was run her fingers through his chest hair and whisper that he was almost too big for her to handle, and he'd whimper as his fingers dug in to bruise her hips. She knew how to pull the exact reactions she wanted out of him, and he knew the same for her almost as if their bodies had been made simply for the art of pleasuring each other.

It wasn't just the sex though. It was the feeling of being connected to someone who cared about her so deeply and wanted to take care of all of her needs. It was the fact that after laying there for a minute reveling in how phenomenal being able to touch each other again was, he took her into the bathroom and shared a shower with her. That he washed her hair for her and kissed her shoulder before helping to wash her back. That he let her do the same for him and let out the most contented sigh every time she placed a kiss on a spot where her nails had left a mark during their previous activities. That he gave her one of his softest t-shirts and a pair of boxers to sleep in before ushering her back into the guest room for cuddles and stolen kisses. That there was no expectation for her to leave now that they'd had their fun.

It wasn't just the sex. It was that he wanted more than that from her, and he wasn't afraid to make that known.

Once they were back in bed, she moved to straddle his waist. She sat back, and his hands moved to rub up and down her thighs. She didn't say anything. Instead, she was mentally taking stock of all her favorite parts of him. The things that she missed the most about him over the years. His kind eyes and sleepy smile and the way he looked at her as if she was the only girl who ever existed. He still had the remnants of his sun-kissed summer tan, and it only made him more handsome to her - something she didn't even know was possible.

"What's going on in your head?" he asked her after a moment.

"Nothing. Just thinking about how much I've missed this. Missed you."

"The feeling is mutual if that wasn't obvious."

"It was very obvious," she said with a small laugh before leaning down to kiss him again.

When she pulled away, she was back to studying his features, and her focus was drawn towards the moles and freckles that decorated his skin. She'd always loved them. When they were little kids, he'd let her play connect the dots with ones on his arms even though his mom always got mad at him for drawing on himself. She stopped drawing on him as they got older, but she still traced patterns on them with her fingertips whenever she could.

Once they'd started dating, she'd insisted that she was going to kiss every single one of them and shower him with the affection that he gave her on a daily basis, but she'd never been able to actually do it. She'd started on more than one occasion, but Steve got restless every time and flipped their positions so she was the one getting kisses instead. He couldn't handle not being able to reciprocate her affection for more than a minute at the most.

She didn't think she'd get to kiss them all this time either, but she thought she'd at least like to take the opportunity to give him every last bit of the attention he deserved after all this time apart. It couldn't make up for her leaving, but she could show him how much she still cared.

She started with the two on his cheek and then moved down to kiss his jaw. Next was two on his neck that she'd always teased him about being the perfect spot for a vampire bite. She wasn't trying to kiss all of them this time. Just her favorites.

She kissed the one in his ear next, and he scrunched up his shoulder and held in a laugh as her lips tickled his skin.

"What are you doing?" he asked her.

"I'm kissing my favorites of all your moles," she replied as if that should be obvious to him.

"And that includes the one in my ear?"

"Absolutely, it does!" She kissed it again. "I always thought this one was especially cute."

She traced the shell of his ear with her finger and placed another soft kiss on his mole. This time, he let out a breathy laugh.

"Move somewhere else." He tightened his grip on her hips. "You're making it tickle on purpose."

"I am not!" she said, faking offense. "I think you're just too tickly for your own good."

"That's pretty rich coming from you," he teased.

"I promise I won't make the kisses tickle anymore, okay? Just relax and let me love on you for a little bit."

Steve loosened his hold on her slightly, and she moved down to kiss some of the moles on his shoulders. If she was going to kiss all of her favorites, she'd have to get him to roll over, so she could get to his back. She'd often had him cuddle with her in a way that allowed her to run her fingers along the moles that decorated his skin there. They'd both found it relaxing, and she missed that level of intimacy more than anything else.

That kind of cuddling always led to them falling asleep though, and she wasn't ready for this night to be over just yet. She was feeling playful, and she wanted something more than cuddling.

So, she kissed his neck again. She kissed his shoulder. She trailed kisses across his chest. And then, as she went to kiss a mole on his side, she shoved one of her hands into his armpit and tickled the skin there.

Steve flinched and sputtered out a laugh, but with Chrissy sitting on top of him, he couldn't easily get away.

"You promised you weren't gonna tickle," he said between his laughs as he squirmed underneath her.

"I said I wouldn't make the kisses tickle anymore," she teased as she wiggled the fingers of her free hand up his side. "I didn't say anything about not using my fingers."

Steve was always a little sleepy after sex, and while he was batting at Chrissy's hands and trying to push them away, she could tell he was too tired to really fight her off. She slowed her fingers and gave his sides one final squeeze before leaning down to press a kiss to the tip of his nose. He wrapped his arms around her as soon as she was close enough, and she squealed as he rolled them over so she was lying beside him.

"That was very sneaky," he said as he pressed a kiss to her cheek.

"It's not my fault that you look so cute when you're giggling like that."

"You do realize this means that I have to get you back now, right?"

"I don't think that's necessary actually."

"Oh, but it is. Fair is fair."

When he'd rolled them over, she'd landed on one of his arms. That arm was now snaked behind her shoulders and holding her close to him. His free arm just hovered over her as he tried to decide where to attack, but a wiggle of his fingers in her direction was all it took for Chrissy to start giggling and trying to hide her face in her hands.

A mischievous smirk lit up Steve's face. He'd almost forgotten this game of theirs. Just having his hand flex near any of her sensitive spots tickled her without him having to even touch her. He assumed it was because of the anticipation of real tickles, but she always accused him of having freaky mind powers and being able to tickle her telepathically. He was happy to see that this was still the case.

He decided to just tease her at first. He hovered his hand over her body, occasionally flexing it when it was above her thighs, her stomach, her neck - any spot where he knew she was ticklish. And every time he did it, she flinched and let out a stream of giggles.

"Quit it," she said through her laughter as she tried to bury her face in his neck.

"Quit what, Chrissy?" he teased. "I'm not even touching you."

"You know what you're doing. Please stop using the force on me."

"Well, I guess I can stop since you asked so nicely."

She removed her face from his neck, and he moved to kiss the tip of her nose.

"But remember," he started. "You asked for this."

Chrissy's eyes widened, but she didn't have any time to react before Steve had shoved his hand up her shirt and started tickling the spot on her ribs that always made her dissolve into what he thought were the cutest snort-laced giggles.

He didn't tickle her for very long. Maybe only a few seconds longer than she tickled him. She had always been more sensitive than he was, and he never wanted to push her to the point of being too uncomfortable. So, with one last flutter of his fingers across her stomach and a raspberry blown into the crook of her neck, he ended his tickle attack.

Immediately, she rolled away from him to curl up in a little ball and protect her tickle spots, but he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her back against his chest. Once he'd pinky promised that he wasn't going to tickle her anymore, she relaxed into his embrace and allowed him to press a few soft kisses to her neck.

"You know, we talked about my life, but you never told me what you've been doing since you left," he said as he pulled the neckline of her shirt out of the way slightly to kiss her shoulder.

"I've spent pretty much the entire time in school," she told him. "I got my degree in education, and then I went back to get my master's in school counseling. It took me longer than I would have liked since I was working full time to support myself on top of my coursework, but I'm glad I did it. Right now, I'm just substitute teaching and looking for something to do when I don't have a steady subbing job, but my goal is to be a guidance counselor in a middle or high school. It feels silly, but I want to do something that matters. Give some kids the help and support that I never really got."

"I don't think that's silly at all. I think it's really cool that you chose to do something so selfless, and I'm really proud of you."

She rolled over in his arms to face him and wormed her arm between his arm and side so she trail her fingers up and down his back as she leaned in to kiss him again.

"We should get some sleep," she told him. "I don't want to be tired at the funeral tomorrow. Can't really keep up appearances if I'm falling asleep in the pew."

Steve was quiet for a moment almost as if he was afraid of how she would react to what he wanted to say.

"You could skip the funeral," he told her. "You don't have to go if you don't want to."

"I know," she replied. "But I should go. They'd never forgive me if I skipped it, and I want to be there for Danny. My mother may not have loved me, but she loved him, and I'd be a terrible sister if I didn't sit through it for him."

"She doesn't deserve to have you there."

"You knowing that is enough for me," she said before kissing him again. "Just hold me for tonight. I don't want her memory to taint this, too."

"That I can do."

He kissed her again and moved to situate them so that she was laying flat on her back and he was laying with his head resting against her chest. He held her close to him, and she traced her fingers over the moles on his shoulders and upper back.

Neither of them had to say it out loud for it to be known that there was nothing but love between them in that moment.

When Chrissy woke up, she was cold. She and Steve had rolled away from each other in the middle of the night, and she missed the warmth and comfort that being snuggled up with him provided. She whined as she reached out for him, scooting herself over to his side of the bed.

When her fingers connected with his skin, she draped her arm over his waist to pull herself closer to him and pressed her cheek against his shoulder blade.

"Good morning," Steve said as he took Chrissy's hand in his and kissed her fingers before holding it against his chest. She could hear the sleepy smile in his voice, and it made her smile in turn as she went to press a kiss against his shoulder blade.

"What time is it?" she asked.

Steve reached for his watch where he'd left it on the bedside table the night before.

"Five after ten," he told her.

Their morning cuddles were short-lived as Chrissy shot up from the bed and started collecting her clothes from around the room cursing under her breath.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"I need you to take me back to my dad's place right now. We overslept, and the funeral starts at eleven. I'm not going to have enough time to get ready, and my dad is going to kill me. They're going to end up heading to the church without me because I can never do anything right."

As soon as he heard her starting to spiral, Steve was out of bed and at Chrissy's side. He stopped her frantic searching and pulled her close to his chest.

"I know you're never supposed to tell a panicking girl to calm down," he said as he ran a hand up and down her back. "But maybe this can be the one exception?"

"We don't have time for this. I need to get back so I can change for the funeral and stop being the family disappointment for once in my life."

She tried to pull away, but he held onto her tight.

"I'm not going to let you talk to yourself like that, okay? Let me go brush my teeth and throw some clothes on, and I'll take you back to your dad's place. If they leave for the funeral without you, I'll drive you there myself. I promise that everything is going to be okay. Do you trust me?"

She nodded her head slightly.

"Okay. Good." He swiped his thumb across her cheek and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Take a few deep breaths and then get changed. I'll be right back."

Steve rushed through what he had to do to be ready to leave the house. Normally, he might have spent a little longer in the bathroom, but the last thing he wanted was for Chrissy to go into a full-blown panic attack mode. He just got her back, and he wasn't going to let anything ruin that for them - least of all Laura Cunningham.

When he went back into the guest room, he found Chrissy sitting on the edge of the bed. She was dressed in her clothes from the night before - minus the pantyhose that he'd torn off of her in his eagerness - and the clothes of his that she'd slept in were folded neatly on the bed beside her. As soon as she saw him, she shot up from her seat and went to grab his hand so she could drag him down the stairs. He knew that he had nothing to feel guilty about. They’d just fallen asleep together and neither of them had suggested setting an alarm. It was nobody’s fault that they were running late, and neither of them really wanted to attend this funeral in the first place. But seeing Chrissy so distraught about the mere idea of what would happen if she was late made his heart drop. He was going to get her to that church on time even if it killed him.

So, maybe he drove a little bit over the speed limit down residential streets to get to her dad’s house as quickly as he could. Her dad and brother had already left for the church by the time they got there, and that nearly sent Chrissy into another wave of panic. But Steve held her hand and reassured her that they still had plenty of time to get there. He wasn’t going to let her be late.

He waited in the living room for her while she raced upstairs to change into her funeral dress and make herself look presentable enough as to not offend her father by looking less than perfect. As he looked around the room, he noticed that Chrissy wasn’t in any of the photos on display. There were pictures of her parents, her grandparents on both sides of the family, and Danny at all stages of his life thus far, but she was completely absent from their memories. If he hadn’t known that this was her childhood home and that those were her family members in those pictures, he would have assumed that she was a stranger to all of them. He tried to think back to the last time he was in this house and remember if it had always been like that, but he honestly couldn’t remember there ever being any photos of her on display here other than the large family portrait above the mantle. Even now, that portrait was gone. It had been replaced by a new one that looked as if it had been commissioned after she’d gone off to college. She’d left a place that made her miserable, and they’d responded by making it look like she’d never been there at all.

He didn’t have too long to dwell on the anger brewing in his stomach because Chrissy was soon racing down the stairs with her shoes in her hand and urging him to hurry out the door. Today was not the day for him to get into a fight with Mr. Cunningham, and it was going to take everything in his power not to say something dumb when he saw him, but right now, his focus had to be on Chrissy and getting her where she needed to be.

She was shaking with anxiety the entire car ride, jostling her leg around as she continuously tapped her foot in an attempt to rid herself of the nervous energy coursing through her body. Steve tried to calm her down with a comforting squeeze of her knee, but she couldn’t relax until they’d made it through the doors and she was certain that she wasn’t late.

She tried to take Steve to the front row with her. She was still having a hard time believing that she was deserving of his comfort, but she knew that holding his hand through the service would make this easier for her to get through. But, when she tried to enter the pew, her father stopped them.

“Front row is for blood relations only,” he said quietly enough that no one would hear him turning away the Harrington boy who was clearly holding his daughter together.

Steve was ready to insist that he needed to sit with Chrissy, but she stopped him with a hand placed against his chest.

“It’s okay,” she told him. “I’ll be fine. We can meet up again afterwards.”

Steve was hesitant to leave her side. He didn’t want her to have to go through this alone, but he had no other choice than to move back a few rows with her father blocking his path.

Chrissy desperately wanted to move to sit with him, but she knew that her father would never let her get away with that. Instead, she focused on playing the part of the grieving daughter that everyone expected her to play. She thought she was doing a pretty good job of it until the priest started waxing poetic about her mother's life.

"As a stay-at-home mom, her one joy in life was doting on her beloved son and daughter. To lose a mother's love so young is always a tragedy, but I can only imagine how much worse it is when said mother is as good as Laura was to her children."

Chrissy had to stop herself from laughing in the middle of the service. She thought she disguised it as a sob pretty well, but from the look her father gave her, she could tell that she'd messed up.

The priest rambled on for what seemed like an eternity about what a joy Laura Cunningham had been to be around and how she had been such an integral part of the church community. About how it was such a shame that she lost her long battle when she still had so much left to give. He ended the service by saying that anyone who wanted to say one last goodbye to her could join the family at the cemetery for a prayer before they lowered her into her final resting place.

 All Chrissy wanted to do was go back to Steve and skip the rest of this horrid day, but her father clearly had other plans for her. He ushered her away from where Steve was waiting and out to his car where she was forced to sit in the backseat while her brother rode shotgun. As soon as her father started speaking to her, she felt like a child being berated for no good reason.

“Your behavior in there was absolutely unacceptable, Christine,” he started. “I asked you to do one thing this week, and you couldn’t bother to do that correctly. I will not let your bad attitude sully your mother’s memory.”

“I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Oh, really? You don’t think you did anything wrong?”

“I showed up, didn’t I?”

“You were barely on time after not bothering to come home last night, and then you walked in with your one night stand and tried to get him to sit in the section reserved for family. What were you thinking?”

“Steve wasn’t a one night stand. You know better than anyone that he means more than that to me.”

“You haven’t spoken to him in seven years, Christine. I highly doubt that whatever you two did last night means anything more than that. The point is that you brought him to the funeral and drew attention towards your sins.”

“I’m twenty-five. I think I’m allowed to decide if I want to spend the night somewhere else. I’m allowed to participate in whatever adult activities I choose and live my life in whatever ways that I see fit.”

“When you’re living under my roof, you follow my rules, and my rules state that what you did was unacceptable. Not to mention the fact that you laughed in the middle of your mother’s funeral! All you needed to do was act like you were upset about your mother being gone, and instead, you had the audacity to laugh when the priest was talking about how much she loved you and your brother.”

“Because she never loved me!”

Chrissy’s outburst silenced all conversation in the car. She could feel herself shaking with rage, and while she knew it would probably be best if she just dropped the subject and stayed quiet, she couldn’t help but poke the bear.

“She may have loved Danny and been a wonderful mom to him, but she never cared about me in the same way. I was never worthy of her love no matter how hard I tried because her love was conditional, and I couldn’t fit the mold of impossible perfection that she tried to force me into.

“So, yeah, I laughed. I found it hilarious that he thought her one joy in life was being a loving mother when it was actually making me feel like garbage. It’s bullshit. This whole thing is bullshit. Everyone saying what a shame it is that she’s gone and that it’s terrible that she suffered from whatever mysterious illness you vaguely alluded to her having because heaven forbid anyone learn the truth about her being a narcissist with severe appearance issues that she tried to force me to have right along with her. Wouldn’t everyone just love to know that she died because the quack she was getting liposuction from messed up and punctured her lung mid-procedure? I may have laughed in the middle of the service, but at least I had the decency to cover it up and pretend I was crying. I haven’t told anyone about how she really died, and I’ve nodded politely and said exactly what I was supposed to say to every single person who’s told me that my mother was just the greatest woman in the world even though everything in me was screaming to say how much I hated her. I did what I had to do to protect the image of this bullshit family that never cared about me in the first place. I played my part perfectly, and -”

“That is enough, Christine!” her father interrupted her. “I don’t want to hear another word about your mother from you. You don’t want to be here, and frankly, the feeling is mutual. Maybe she made some mistakes in how she raised you, but your mother was always looking out for your best interests whether you want to believe that or not. You may have chosen to abandon this family the first chance you got, but the least you can do is pretend that you’re grateful for everything your mother did for you for the first eighteen years of your life. So I need you to shut up and pretend you’re grieving for the rest of the day. You will speak to no one and keep this bad attitude of yours to yourself, or you can sleep at the train station tonight instead of in the house that your mother and I provided for you. And then you can leave and never come back since this town needs you just about as much as I need a hole in the head. Do I make myself clear?”

“Crystal.”

So, Chrissy did as she was told. She stood between her father and her brother at the cemetery and tried to look as hurt on the outside as she felt on the inside. She tossed a flower into the grave just like everyone else even though she felt nothing for the woman in that casket. At the luncheon afterwards, she sat quietly at the table reserved for her family. She acknowledged people when they spoke to her, but otherwise, she said nothing. She barely touched the plate in front of her, mostly just rearranging the food with her fork and never actually bringing said fork to her mouth. It struck her that her mother would have been so proud of her for not eating, and it took everything in her not to scream.

But, worst of all, she ignored Steve for the rest of the day. She let her father lead her away from him at the cemetery, and she said nothing when her father told him that their table was for family only. She didn’t acknowledge him or move when he asked her if she wanted to go somewhere and get some fresh air. She let her dad tell him to go away. She couldn’t see him right now. Not when she knew that she had to leave and break both of their hearts again.

As soon as she was back at her father’s house, she was ripping off that god awful funeral dress and pantyhose not caring if any of her clothes were damaged. She was going to associate that simple black dress with this rotten day for the rest of her life, so it could burn for all she cared. She was never going to wear it again anyway.

Once she’d changed back into her sweats and scrubbed the little makeup she’d put on off of her face, she made her way into the kitchen and heated up what was left of the tater tot hotdish that Mrs. Henderson had made and brought it out to the front porch. She couldn’t breathe in that house, and if she wanted any chance of actually enjoying her dinner, she was going to eat it while sitting on the porch swing and pretending that she was already back in Maine where nothing in Hawkins could hurt her.

She’d barely taken the first bite when Steve’s car pulled into the driveway, and she completely lost her appetite. She should have known that he’d show up to talk to her, but she was too focused on getting away from her dad to think clearly. Now, he was here, and she couldn’t hide from the pain she was going to cause him.

He bounded up the porch steps and was sitting next to her before she had a chance to get away. Her nerves were raw from everything that had already happened that day, and she didn’t have the energy to deal with this, too. Part of her knew that Steve would be on her side if she told him what her dad had said to her. He’d be supportive and caring and angry on her behalf. He’d reassure her that she was wanted, and he’d convince her to stay when all she wanted to do was disappear back into the life she’d made for herself. There might not have been much to her life out there, but at the very least, she felt safe. She couldn’t say the same for Hawkins.

“Are you okay?” he asked as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to him. “You shut me out all day, and I was really worried about you.”

“I’m fine,” she said as she leaned into his embrace. She felt so guilty accepting his comfort when she knew she didn’t deserve it. She felt like she was using him, but she couldn’t help that he was the only thing that made her feel even remotely okay right now.

“My dad and I got into a fight in the car on the way to the cemetery, and it was easier to just shut everything out than it was to be an active participant in anything that was going on.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“I can’t think of anything I want to do less.”

She swirled her fork through what was left in the casserole dish, but she made no moves to actually eat anything.

“Is that Mrs. Henderson’s?” he asked her.

She nodded.

“You know, I still go to Sunday family dinner at her house every week. I bet she’d be really excited if you came to the next one with me. It could be just like old times.”

She could tell he was trying to make her feel better. Doing whatever he could to get her to smile and erase whatever pain the events from that day had inflicted. But his kindness was what finally broke her and caused the wall that she'd built to hold in all of the horrible thoughts she had about herself to shatter. She set the casserole dish aside on the small table next to the porch swing to ensure that she wouldn’t drop it and break it as her body shook from her sobs.

Steve’s hold on her only grew tighter as he moved to rub her back. He didn't know what he could have said to have caused this, but she was starting to scare him.

"Please talk to me," he urged her. "I can't help if I don't know what's wrong."

"There's nothing you can do."

"Try me. I hate seeing you like this."

Chrissy wondered if he'd feel the same when he knew why she was crying. He'd probably think she deserved to feel as awful as she did. She just had to rip the bandaid off and tell him the truth. It was the only way.

"I can't go to Sunday family dinner at the Hendersons' with you," she said as she wiped at her eyes with the back of her sleeve.

"Is that what this is about?" he asked, giving her a small squeeze. "We don't have to go to dinner over there if you don't want to. I mean, I don't see any reason why you wouldn't want to go because she's always loved you, and she's probably the best cook in Hawkins, but if there's some weird reason why you can't go over there, we can do something else. It's not the end of the world."

"It feels like it is."

"Then clue me in on what's going on. You're starting to scare me here."

Chrissy took a deep breath. It was now or never, and choosing never felt almost too cruel. She couldn't disappear from his life without telling him. He deserved better than that.

"It's not that I don't want to have dinner there. Nothing would make me happier. It's that I can't be there . . . My train leaves first thing tomorrow morning, and I don't know when I'll be back."

"You're leaving?"

She nodded but said nothing. She couldn't verbalize this any more than she absolutely had to.

"I just assumed that after the funeral, there was nothing left to keep you away."

"I thought so, too, but that fight with my dad made me realize that her being gone doesn't change the fact that nobody wants me here."

"That's not true."

"It is. Half the town hates me for what I did to you when I left, and the other half is going to hate me the second my dad tells them what a horrible, ungrateful disappointment of a daughter I turned out to be. My only choice is to go back to Maine and stop hurting people because that's apparently the only thing I'm actually good at."

"But you leaving hurts me. You have to know that."

He took her hands in his and held on tight as if somehow that simple action could keep her tied to him and prevent her from leaving. He felt like it was seven years ago all over again. The only difference was that Chrissy actually seemed to be hurting this time.

"Even if I stayed, it wouldn't work between us. Your best friend thinks I'm the scum of the earth and all but told me that when I ran into her on my first day back in town. She told me not to tell you that I was back because she was afraid that I would end up hurting you again, and I hate that she was right."

"What about last night then?" he asked. "I thought that it meant something to you like it did to me. Maybe it was stupid of me to think that, but it felt like something was starting up between us again."

"That's the worst part," she said as she stared down at where he was still holding her hands, seemingly clinging to what little hope there was that he could change her mind. "I managed to trick myself into believing that I could be happy here. Last night was a dream that I've had so many times since I left, and I wish I could stay in it forever. But that's the thing with dreams: you always have to wake up and face reality in the end."

"You could be happy here. You're just afraid to try, and once again, I'm the one who ends up getting hurt."

"Hurting you is the last thing I ever wanted to do, and I hate that this is happening all over again. That was never my intention, and I'm so sorry that I can't be the girl that you wanted me to be."

For the first time, Chrissy looked into Steve's eyes, and it pained her to see that they were glassy with the tears that he was trying so desperately to hold in.

"Why am I never enough for you?" he asked. "I spent so much time beating myself up over how I wasn't good enough for you to stay, and I refuse to do that again, so the least you can do is give me an honest answer."

"You were always enough for me. You're perfect. I wouldn't change a thing about you, how you treated me, or the way you loved me."

"Then why aren't you willing to stay and try for me?"

"Don't you get it?" she asked. "I'm the one who isn't enough. I never have been. I'm the one who can't live up to anyone's expectations. You deserve so much better than the broken girl that everyone else throws away. I'm not good enough for you."

The tears were streaming down her cheeks now, and there was nothing she could do to stop them. She'd thought that their fight before she left for college was bad, but that pain felt like nothing compared to this.

"I know you said you could never hate me, but I wish you would," she told him. "Learn to hate me, so it gets easier to find someone better. Find that hypothetical girlfriend of yours that I hate so much and let her love you the way that you deserve. Whatever makes you happy."

Steve dropped her hands and got up from his seat. He hesitated in leaving though.

"You've always been enough for me, Chrissy. I'll never understand why you can't see that, but if that's the way you really feel, there's nothing else I can do to change your mind. Have a nice life, I guess."

With that, he made his way back to his car and drove off leaving Chrissy alone with her bad thoughts once more. Before she could fall apart again, she forced herself to get up and head back inside. She took the casserole dish up to her room with her. If she could find her appetite, she could eat while she packed. The sooner she was ready to leave the better.

Chrissy barely slept that night. She was restless, and the fact that she didn't feel safe in that house was making it worse. She felt trapped in a suffocating loop of not wanting to leave Steve and the happiness she thought that she could find with him and needing to get out of this town where she never felt like she really belonged.

She ended up turning in her rental car and arriving at the train station two hours before her train was going to be ready to board, so she found a quiet bench where she'd still be able to hear the station announcements and settled in to wait. She hadn't bothered to say goodbye before she left. She was pretty sure that her family wouldn't have cared if did. She was finally ready to put this town behind her.

She wondered, if she was so ready to leave, why she was spending the entirety of the time she had to wait for this train convincing herself that she was making the right decision in going. Maybe it made her a coward, but she knew she was taking the easy way out here. It just felt like the only choice she could make.

When it was finally time to board her train, she gathered up her belongings and made her way over to the platform. This was really it. She was going to get on that train, and it was highly possible that Hawkins was never going to see her again. She was just about to step on when she hesitated. She thought she heard someone calling after her, but she thought her mind was playing tricks on her.

"Chrissy! Wait!"

The voice was louder this time, and she turned to find Steve running towards her holding what looked like a fully packed duffle bag.

She stepped back from the platform and started to walk towards him. Maybe she'd fallen asleep on that bench waiting for the train. Maybe she was asleep right now, and she'd dreamed him up. That was the only explanation for why he'd be here right now.

"Steve? What are you doing here?" she asked. 

"I'm coming with you," he told her.

"You are?"

"I am. Just bought my ticket and everything."

"But why? After yesterday, I assumed you were done with me for good."

"Maybe I should have been done with you. I don't know. Maybe I'm crazy. Maybe this is the stupidest thing I've ever done in my whole life. I don't care. I made the biggest mistake of my life when I didn't run after you the last time you left, and I refuse to make that mistake again."

"But what about your life here? You have your business, and all of the important people in your life are here. I can't ask you to leave all of that behind. You'd be giving up your life for me, and I won't let you make that kind of sacrifice."

"Here's the thing," he said as he took a step closer to her. "I think you're running away from any potential happiness you might have because of whatever your dad said to you yesterday, and I need you to know that he was wrong."

"You don't even know what he said to me."

"I don't need to know what he said to know that he's an idiot, and he's never been right about anything. Yesterday, you told me that the whole town hated you, and you're wrong about that. Maybe you upset some people when you left, but if I don't hate you for it, I don't think any of them can hate you either. And anyone who would take your dad's side in this isn't someone you want in your life anyway."

He set his duffle bag on the ground and moved to take Chrissy's hands in his.

"I couldn't sleep, so I was up all night thinking about this, and this is the way I see things going. I'm going to go back to Maine with you, and we'll spend a few weeks there together. I don't have any big jobs lined up right now, and I've got enough money saved, so I think I'm deserving of at least two or three weeks of vacation time in coastal Maine with a beautiful woman. When those few weeks are up, you'll move back to Hawkins with me. You told me that you didn't have a steady job out there, and we could find you something that you love doing here until a counseling position opens up at one of the schools. We could make a life here together just like the one we used to dream about."

She could feel the tears starting to prickle in the corners of her eyes. She couldn't believe that he was really here and asking her to stay. She wanted to say yes more than anything, but she still had her hesitations.

"Where will I live?" she asked. "I can't go back to my dad's house. Not after everything that was said this week."

"I mean, I thought it was obvious that you'd be moving in with me? But if that's moving too fast for you, we could keep separate bedrooms at first. I kind of have a pretty nice extra bedroom, you know."

"And what about Robin? I don't think she'll ever forgive me for leaving you before. I don't want to come between you two."

"She'll come around eventually. Once she sees how happy you make me."

"But what about -"

"Stop trying to come up with reasons to stay away," he interrupted her. "You told me you'd put my happiness before yours every time, remember? Well, you're what's going to make me happy. You coming back here with me will make me happy. Why can't you admit that this will make you happy, too? You deserve happiness, Chrissy. Screw anyone who's ever made you feel otherwise."

"That was really sneaky," she said as her tears finally started to fall. "Using my words against me like that."

He dropped her hands and moved to cradle her face, wiping away her tears with the pads of his thumbs.

"Gotta use every available weapon in my arsenal."

"It won't be easy, you know. Convincing me that I deserve to be loved. I'm kind of a mess."

"And I'm up for the challenge."

"There might be days where I feel like running away and hiding from the world under that quilt I love so much."

"Then I'll hide there with you. It'll be you and me against the world."

"I like the sound of that."

"So is that a yes?" he asked. "You're choosing Hawkins?"

"No," she told him. "I'm choosing us."

Steve dropped his hands from her face and moved to wrap his arms around her waist. He lifted her into the most bone-crushing hug, and she burst out in laughter as he spun her around. When he stopped spinning, it was her turn to cradle his face in her hands as she leaned in to capture his lips in the first kiss of their new relationship.

When they broke apart, Steve's face was lit up with what was maybe the biggest smile that Chrissy had ever seen grace his features.

"I love you," he told her.

"I love you, too," she replied. "More than I'll ever be able to express in words."

"You've got two days on a train to start."

"And then for the rest of our lives?"

"I can't wait."

So, with Steve's hand in hers, Chrissy got on the train, and for the first time in a long time, the idea of having to eventually go back to Hawkins didn't sound so bad.

#cheerscoops #my writing #cheerscoopsweek23 #steve x chrissy #stissy #chrissy x steve #harringham #chrissy cunningham x steve harrington #steve harrington x chrissy cunningham

[mangoisms]

ok here are my current thoughts on ck and tim’s silly goose-ness and steph’s very low tolerance to it

aka an excuse to introspect on their past relationship and also my first ever attempt to write a canon character’s pov which might or might not be good so! You Have Been Warned

(also excuse any typos LOL)

“What do you think you’re doing?”

A slow blink. “Updating Redbird’s security protocols?”

The garage of Tim’s townhouse smells sharply of oil and rubber. But he isn’t elbow-deep in the engine today, just seated off to the side, laptop perched on his lap and hooked up to its system. ‘Updating’ it. God knows why. The Redbird’s security protocols are just as stringent as the Batmobile’s.

Jason once regaled them with his plan, way back when, to blow it up. Bruce included. And how he went about it.

“It’s got safeguards like crazy, right? Even when it’s idle or shut down. Come up to it, fire a gun, launch a missile—doesn’t matter. Not gonna touch it before the security protocols kick in. It can sense you on thermal, air currents, video recognition, all of it.”

“So, how’d you get past it?”

“SEAL-grade wetsuit. Invisible to thermal with reflection fibers that play hell with video. But the biggest thing? Going slow. And I mean slow. Like five seconds per inch slow.”

The insane attention to detail and paranoia runs in the family, obviously.

Tim had sat in for that. Stephanie remembers the look on his face. Begrudging respect, combined with a familiar twitchiness that told her he was absolutely dying to run out and start updating his stuff.

Question everything. That’s what Bruce says.

Tim tries to separate himself from it. He really does. It gets tiring, exhausting, to live like that. But old habits die hard and his big brain precedes him sometimes. Wondering at the possibilities, at the million-in-one scenarios.

Ordinarily, Stephanie has more sympathy for him. Really. But right now, after your phone call about his little visit to Circle K…

She’s pissed.

“Don’t play dumb,” she says, crossing her arms tightly over her chest.

“What is it that I’m playing dumb about?” he asks, averting his attention back to his laptop, keys clacking quickly, pausing momentarily as he takes a swig of Red Bull.

She tells him.

At the sound of your name, he stops.

But now that she’s started, she can’t stop. “Visiting her? As Red Robin? What are you thinking, Tim?”

The clack of keys resumes. The set of his gaze on the laptop screen is very intentional now. Avoiding her.

“It’s nothing, Steph,” he says and she almost believes it. But she knows him, so she doesn’t. “It’s harmless.”

“So, why won’t you hang out with us? Her? Because I assume you’re also avoiding her individually.”

A little sigh. Impatient. “I’m not avoiding her. I really was busy. Have been busy. You know how the heat messes with the city.”

It’s the excuse that bothers Stephanie.

Tim is making some kind of choice here. Choosing to favor Red Robin over himself, over Tim Drake, and it makes no sense. Red Robin isn’t your best friend. He isn’t even your favorite vigilante. (Black Canary is. She agrees, though it would be nice for Spoiler to get some spotlight but that is neither here nor there.)

You know who is your best friend? (One of them, anyway.)

Tim freakin’ Drake.

Stephanie knows why he’s avoiding you all of a sudden. The connection will be too easy to make. It’s why she—as Spoiler—keeps her distance. Tucks away her hair, hides her face even more, when she and Cass visit Circle K.

Even though! They had talked about telling you. Stephanie wanted to tell you so badly. You know who her father is. Was. You know how her mom used to be like. You know everything and you never once judged. You were, to be sure, a bit wary of them—the vigilantes—but most were. You wouldn’t turn them away if you knew.

If there is anything Stephanie knows, it is that.

But then she went away to Metropolis for a week and a half and suddenly, he’s visiting you as Red Robin. And he’s not trying to ease you into it, not trying to help you latch onto some clues, to make it easier—because they’d discussed that, too!—he’s doing it because… Well, she doesn’t really know. But there is a reason. She knows that much. A big reason.

It makes no sense to her, considering his feelings. Complicates things unnecessarily. Especially with how he’s avoiding you because of it, because he apparently got cold feet on telling you the truth.

And it’s the excuse… it’s the excuse that pisses her off.

Their relationship, back when they were kids, had some questionable origins. It did. Stephanie did things she wasn’t proud of. He did things he wasn’t proud of. It was messy. She tries not to kick herself about it—about being a silly girl in love, awed at the attention of a boy like Robin, knowing he was dating a girl (Ariana Dzerchenko, her name was, she would later find on) and making moves on him despite that, moves that he always, always went along with. Like two magnets that couldn’t help but fall together.

Don’t get her wrong! The blame is not solely on her. It’s on him, too. She shouldn’t have pushed. He shouldn’t have went along with it, knowing he had a girlfriend, too. He shouldn’t have held his knowledge of her identity over her head the way he did. He isn’t mean-spirited at heart but he had an advantage over her. He knew she was Stephanie Brown. She knew him only as Robin and nothing else. Not until later on that would change and that… that was another mess entirely.

But they were dumb and young. Stephanie tries not to hold it against herself. They know better now. She knows better now. Knows what she deserves.

But this feels too close to him crossing that line.

No, he has crossed that line.

Given one persona up for another.

Approaching you as Red Robin, while you know nothing of him, and doing god knows what…

Someone is going to get hurt.

Last time, it was him. The circumstances, Bruce’s unceremonious reveal of his identity to her—a mistake, an egregious overstep—it all culminated in Tim feeling betrayed. Betrayed that Bruce would reveal that to her without Tim’s say so, without even asking him if he was okay with her knowing. Betrayed that Stephanie went along with it.

This time?

Stephanie feels it in her bones.

The person who is going to get hurt is you.

You, clueless about these lives they lead, clueless as Tim monopolizes your time as Red Robin, all the while you have no idea it’s him. You, her best friend. Stephanie loves you to the end of the universe.

She doesn’t want to see you hurt.

The mere thought of it, of the potential fallout, leaves a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach.

“Steph. Steph, it’s fine.”

She blinks, coming back to herself. Tim is standing in front of her now, dark brows knitted together, blue eyes intent on her face. Concerned.

“You’re lying to her.”

“We’ve been lying to her.”

“Not like this,” she says quietly. “Not this way. You’re… This is too much, Tim. I don’t understand why you’re doing this. What happened?”

“Nothing,” he says. For what it’s worth, to anyone else, it sounds believable. But like she said. Stephanie knows him. For better or for worse.

And on that end, she also knows he is not going to budge. No matter how much Stephanie wants to drill this into him, grab him by the shoulders and make her point. Once he’s made a decision, he commits.

Or more like he’s dug himself into this grave and he doesn’t (can’t?) want to get out.

“This is a mistake,” she says. “And you know it. I just hope you actually try to fix it sooner rather than later. Because if you break her heart, I’m going to break something of yours.”

Stephanie loves Tim. He’s a great friend. They’ve had their ups and downs—even discounting their relationship—but they’re solid. They are.

But she loves you, too. So much so it sometimes feels like she’s going to burst with it. She’s never had something like that, like this, and in the end, she doesn’t want to choose, but Tim knows better. And because he knows better, you are her first priority.

Even worse, he doesn’t seem bothered by the threat. Relieved, if anything.

“I’m counting on it, Steph.”

Which is so unfair in so many ways (fix it, she wants to yell, don’t rely on me to come clean up when shit hits the fan—do it yourself!) but she’s had enough of this conversation and all the ways this can go wrong.

Maybe he will turn around. Maybe. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

But she doesn’t think so. He won’t. Not until the consequences of this, of his lies, of his excuses, come hit him in the face.

She wishes it weren’t like that—knowing what it will result in.

But some things you just can’t change.

She knows better with Tim.

She really, really does.

#wrote this last night directly in post #my phone autocorrects her to hee. for some reason. god knows why. genuinely #so if there’s any mistakes. i didn’t edit it too much or read too closely #it was just a silly little thought that ended up turning out a pretty good scene #i’m not sure if i’ll put this somewhere on ao3. maybe

[cunninghamschrissy]

I wrote my polite “angry about Vol 2” post earlier, now get ready for my not-so-polite version starting NOW…

Man, fuck the Duffers. This feels like lazy writing at this point. It’s the same formula over and over: introduce the new character and then kill them off so you still get the emotional impact on the fans but you don’t have do anything to the OG cast because you don’t want the backlash of what happens if you do. 🙄

Hear me out: this was the perfect season to finally break the pattern and kill off one of the OGs (and for real, not this repeated fake-out death shit). They had hyped it up that it would be colossal, we had gotten teasing about Steve dying, a lot of the fans were even expecting it, a new character was brought in that could have filled Steve’s role after he died…only for them to do the same old fucking thing they’ve done every other season and kill off the new character and give one of the OGs a fake-out death.

I mean, I get it, I’m an Eddie fan so naturally I’m pissed off and distraught that he died, but I’m more pissed and distraught because of how cheap and lazily written the whole thing seemed. If I didn’t know any better, I would think they pulled random writers off the street to write the last two episodes of the season because that was how out of character some things felt and how a lot of the plot development of Vol 1 just felt ignored. Why didn’t we see anyone else’s reactions to Eddie’s death? Weren’t Lucas and Erica close with him too, and hell, even Steve? Dustin and Uncle Wayne being the only ones mourning Eddie just seemed so wrong to me. And Mike?? Mike literally grew out his hair and got the Hellfire shirt specifically to model himself after Eddie, someone he clearly looked up to and admired! Why weren’t we shown his reaction to Eddie’s death? Why are none of Dustin’s friends around to comfort him after he’s held his friend/older brother figure in his arms while he died obviously been through something incredibly traumatic? And don’t get me wrong, I bawled my eyes out with the scene between Dustin and Uncle Wayne, because at least he got closure about Eddie (unlike Barb’s parents), but you can’t tell me that someone like Nancy, who KNEW how much Wayne cared about Eddie, didn’t try to do something herself too to tell Eddie’s only living relative what happened to him? I get that it made since because Dustin had been with Eddie when he died, but it also seems like no one really gives a shit about Eddie except for Dustin?? At least that’s what the writing made it feel like.

Even taking Eddie’s death out of the equation, there were other things about Vol 2 that just felt off to me. For starters, the last episode felt rushed, which, for being over two hours, I wouldn’t think this should be the case, but I definitely feel like I came out of it feeling like they crammed too much in. There were instances of dialogue that just felt off (“you’re the heart” was sooooo cheesy, I’m sorry but it was) and Steve and Nancy just STANDING there when Robin got grabbed by vines until she screamed for help?? I don’t buy that shit for one bit. Steve would have been trying to get her loose immediately and Nancy would have been right behind him. I don’t care how shocked they were with the situation, that characterization was soooooo off.

And last by not least, that fucking time jump. WHAT was the point of that “two days later” bullshit? I felt it cheapened Eddie’s death and took away from what happened with Max. And leaving Eddie’s body in the Upside Down? I don’t buy that either. Eddie wasn’t a big guy, Steve and the rest of the group definitely could have gotten him back through the gate, especially after seeing how distraught Dustin was over his body. I don’t buy for a single second the fact that everyone just willingly left his body in the Upside Down. More characterization I felt was very strange.

Anyway, sorry for the rant. I just really had to get this off my chest. Hopefully I’m not the only one who felt this way.

#stranger things #stranger things 4 #eddie munson #st4 #stranger things season 4 #joseph quinn #joe quinn #dustin henderson #steve harrington #nancy wheeler #robin buckley #fuck the duffers #duffer brothers #suffer brothers #matt duffer #ross duffer

[arkhamsrevenge]

Lost and Resurrected pt 3 final part

Hey yall! So sorry for the delay I'm working on the Arkham Knight and the Queen of Hearts as well as other Jason x Reader one shots! Thx for being patient

Part 3 

Jason was able to stop the truck full of drugged children. I sent it to the police, hopefully they can get the children back to their homes.  

“Come on Egon’s probably heard the truck didn’t make it to the drop point already.”  Jason whispered. I nodded, holding out my hand for Jason to take. “This isn’t gonna make me puke again, is it?” Jason asked, referring to the first time we teleported to the truck; he threw up on the side of the road right before he put a bullet into the driver’s shoulder.   I snorted. 

“Again pretty sure it was nerves and not teleportation.” Jason rolled his eyes and took my hand. In an instant we were standing outside Egon’s warehouse.  

“WHERE ARE THEY? THEY ARE TWO HOURS LATE! FIND OUT WHERE THEY ARE NOW!” Egon screamed in German. I smiled slightly. That bastard deserves everything that’s coming to him.  

“Oh good. He’s pissed. Let’s go.” Jason started towards the warehouse, I smiled and ran after him flicking my hand to break the window while Jason jumped inside, kicking Egon who let out a shout.  “Don’t worry, we got them.” Egon roared grabbing Jason my the throat and throwing him back outside, into me. Jason and I both fell, his back to my front.  I hard a crack as my nose smacked into Jason’s back. Fuck broke my nose. I pulled Jason to his feet as Egon stalked towards us.  

“You children cannot beat me. I taught you how to fight and you are but a women. You cannot fight man.”  

“Cannot fight man?” I smirked. “Then why is it you’re dying.” Egon stopped in his tracks, and started to foam at the mouth. He choked once, twice then dropped to his knees. Jason chuckled.  

“How’d you know?” I wiped my nose the blood, spiting some out of my mouth.  

“You always have a back up plan.” I said smiling, blood surely still staining my teeth. Jason’s brow furrowed, he came closer to me putting both hands on the side of my face.  

“You good, Princess?” He asked, examining my nose. We hadn’t been this close since the night I got attacked. Heat rose in my cheeks. I swallowed.  

“Yea. It doesn't hurt.” I said taking his hands in mine and bringing them down. I then ran my finger down the bridge of my broken nose, healing it up right away. “See? Magic.” I whispered, doing jazz hands. Jason laughed. 

“OK Houdini, let’s get out of here before the cops show up.” I nodded, letting Jason lead the way.  

5 Years went by, Jason and I traveled all over the globe, funded all by Talia herself. Though I’m pretty sure she just wanted to stall us so we didn’t kill Batman. She loves him, I don’t blame her for wanting to protect him, but I don’t think Jason wants to kill his former mentor anymore. Hell, what do I know, Jason’s been a mystery from the day I met him. Over the years we’ve became close for sure. Fighting along side each other, knowing the other will always be right there if trouble arose. Jason and I stared to be able to communicate without saying anything, our moves would be in sync with each other, we’d be capable to pull off any combo attacks we wanted . And spending 5 years with a person...it changes you. I changed anyway. I felt like I could really love Jason given the chance but his goal was more my feelings. He needed to heal, mentally. I don’t know how to help him other than what I’m doing now. I’ve only see him break down once. When Talia informed us that Batman had taken another robin, a boy name Timothy Drake. Talia had left the photo graph taken of the two with Jason, when she left, he stood holding the picture for a moment.  

“Hey Princess, do you have a spell to erase memories?” Jason asked, his voice breaking slightly. “Because I wish I never met Bruce Wayne.” He finished as his knees buckled. I was able to catch him before he hit the ground. I brought us gently down on the carpet, arms around Jason as he silently cried into my shoulder. I held him for over an hour until he declared he wanted to go to bed. I helped him get ready (no stranger to doing that as he still had his bad days from the pit. Some days he struggled to function, some days he’s out of it and needs a little more assistance). I wiped Jason’s tears away with my thumbs, knowing I couldn’t take away his pain, caused me pain. He kept his eyes down, staring at the floor, his breathing was fairly normal now exhaustion was sinking in.  

“I’ll be out there if you need me.” I whispered standing up. I combed his hair back with my fingers trying to relax him a bit more, then lightly kissed the top of his head, before turning to leave. Only to be stopped by a hand around my wrist, only this time, his hand was warm, not ice cold. Turning back to Jason, I caught his green eyes staring into mine. He swallowed roughly, his adams apple bobbing.  

“Stay?” I didn’t want to know his mental state but something about the way he asked. It’s a question but a plea. He moved his hand from my wrist before holding his hand in mine before slowly pulling me towards him, giving me time to pull away if I wanted. I followed his lead and climbed into bed with him. We laid next to each other, starting, hands still intertwined before I spoke.  

“Always.” I woke up the next morning still holding Jason’s hand. From that night on, we slept next to each other. I wasn’t off the hook from the pit either. There are days at a time when I can’t feel ANY emotion. That’s when I really dive into the mystic arts as emotions won’t get in the way. Although, because I’m numb essentially, Jason must remind me to eat and drink water or snap me back to reality if I stare off into space too long.  

“Earth Space Princess. Come back.” He’d say to bring me back. Sometimes I wouldn’t hear him, I would tune him out accidentally. Then Jason would crouch down in front of me and put a hand on my knee, shaking it lightly. “Hey Y/N come back to planet earth, will ya?” Eventually, I’d come back. On the days I’m out of it Jason would become closer to me, watches me like a hawk, just like when he’s out of it, I do the same. Jason, now 21 and I now 22, are going back to Gotham, Jason’s plan coming together. Talia came by an hour ago she’s debriefing us on everything going on in Gotham, A man, going by the name Hush, has some information for us that will help us get an advantage over the big bad bat.  

“My father is dead. Ra’Al Ghul is no more...The Batman did it. Defeated my father by sealing up the pits, he can no longer revive himself.” Talia spoke sadly.  

“I’m...sorry.” I replied not really knowing what else to say. Granted, life is better without that evil roaming around. And as for the pits...no one else can abuse the power they grant.  

“Thank you, I want you both take all you can from the Batman. Take his city, his power, everything. I want him to fall.” Talia sneered. She then grabbed Jason by the shirt and kissed him. Jason’s eyes went wide, he froze in place. Anger bubbled in me. I reached for Talia, gripping her hair my the roots and pulling her off of Jason. I threw her aside, putting myself between them. 

“You’re one sick bitch.” I lashed. My voice sounded different...deeper. The power I was feeling. “Leave now. Before I scalp you.” I growled. Talia held her head, looking at me and smiling? 

“There it is. That's what I was looking for.” I blinked and pointed to the door. “I needed to see for myself how far you got.” My eyebrows furrowed. “Jason told me you were good at dark magic but I didn’t think you’d reach this level. Those black eyes give you away, if you wanted to you could kill me by raising your hand. You’ve done it my dear. You are as beautiful as an angel but dangerous as arsenic. A deathly angel. An angel of death. Look yourself.” Talia said pointing to the mirror beside me. I turned to the cracked mirror hanging on the wall. Sure enough black eyes were looking back at me, with dark veins surrounding them, my entire body was covered in dark veins in fact. I inhaled closing my eyes, trying to calm down, I felt an arm wrap around my waist. I knew immediately it was Jason. My anger ceased. I opened my eyes to see my natural eye color had returned. I looked normal. “I apology Jason. I wanted to see Y/N angry, I wanted to see if what you said about her was true.” I glanced at Jason who was looking straight ahead at Talia. He still hadn’t said anything. 

“Leave. Now.” I sternly said. Talia nodded and went out the door. Jason and I stayed where we were for a moment.  

“Angel of Death is a little dramatic, huh?’ Jason finally said. I breathed out a laugh.  

“Says the guy wants to go by Red Hood.” I shot back. Jason chuckled.  

“So what do I call you in the field then, Princess?” I shrugged.  

“I don’t know. Why? Did you have something in mind?” Jason shifted, running his hands through his hair.  

“Yeah, actually. You looked like...like my definition of an Archangel.” I blinked.  

“An Archangel? How?”  

“You looked just...I don’t know how to describe it Princess...you just did. Something not of this world, something ...so beautiful but deadly. Just as Talia said.” A small smile formed on my face.  

“Beautiful huh?” I teased.  Jason rolled his eyes.  

“Shut up.”  

“Archangel it is then.”  

#jason todd x you #jason todd imagine #jason todd #red hood imagine #jason peter todd #jason todd x reader #red hood x y/n

[hazardsoflove]

sorry i’m still upset about #that in v2 so lil rant under the cut <3

the duffers are such fucking cowards. like why are you hyping v2 up so much and teasing all these deaths when you don’t even have the fucking balls to kill off any of your main cast. this szn literally followed the same formula as all their other ones and fuck the whole “the deaths aren’t predictable” thing they said because yeah they were lol. like i didn’t want eddie to die obviously and i rly thought he wouldn’t but given the fact that they always kill a new character and there were so many signs etc etc but he was probably the stupidest character to kill off. like sorry but i’m pissed he died while the two fucking russian guys who are never going to be seen again and did nothing get to live. and i like argyle but i’m still mad he got to stay over eddie i just don’t see him having any agency if hes in s5. like you’re gonna waste all that talent and potential and chemistry and TIME you spent on developing his character and wardrobe and go to great lengths to market him and promote his actor and then kill him?

and don’t even fucking get me started on the fact that he’s still a villain in the eyes of hawkins. that is the ONE thing i didn’t want them to do. i would’ve been more okay with him dying if the town got to see that he’s actually innocent but the fact that he will forever be seen as a ritualistic satanic cult murderer to hawkins just devestates me. it feels like a slap in the face to his character too like. he literally did not need to die. he played the hero by leading the bats away from the creel house he should’ve just fucking left with dustin but instead they had to fucking kill him for basically no reason and have him die IN DUSTINS ARMS effectively traumatizing him and then do some fucking two days later bullshit where NO ONE except dustin seems to be affected that eddie died. like didn’t even tell mike??? where was the scene of lucas and erica finding out??? robin steve and nancy??? like sorry but i’m sick to my stomach over the fact that they had to leave him there. he was treated like shit at the end and it just hurts me so much it makes me so fucking SAD

and dustin. god when he talks to eddie’s uncle?? that scene make me wanna kms so fucking bad because dustin loved eddie so much he looked up to him and having to tell his uncle that he died that he always knew he was innocent and that despite what the town thinks he died a hero? he died a hero and it doesn’t even matter. like sorry for getting so worked up over a fictional character and tv show but his death ruined the rest of the ep for me. like i was just sitting there like 🧍🏼‍♀️ and i’m so glad max didn’t die bc i love her!! but it’s like. there were no stakes. none of the mcs died. they built up all this hype for like five weeks and for what. and also??? how the fuck can el do that what did she even do. since WHEN can she do that. i would literally sacrifice murray and jonathan in a heartbeat for eddie. i’m just fucking glad jason got bisected

anyway i’m developing insane theories abt how eddie can still win bc they said the upside down being stuck in 1983 is important for s5 so fuck it they’re time traveling somehow. joe quinn i will avenge you

#st spoilers #its rly my only bunch of criticisms #that and what the fuck was steve going on abt with nancy. dude?? #r.txt

[tennessoui]

would you ever do a hunger games au? like anakin and obi-wan in the arena and doing a katniss and peeta thing where they both survive? anakin maybe killing the competitors so obi-wan wouldn't have to? (just thinking that child killing is in character for him) anyway no pressure or anything I just haven't stopped thinking about a hunger games au of obikin and. I thought maybe you could do something with it!

i need you to know i shamefully snorted at the child murder thing i'm sorry and i'm also sorry this took so long and it's a bit all over the place and doesn't actually get into the Games at all (+ it's been years since I read the books so all inaccuracies should be tastefully ignored pls) this may not be what you asked for tbh but here you go!!

(content warnings: hunger games typical discussion of child murder, but nothing graphic)

(1.7k)

Anakin’s first emotion after his name is called is a strange sense of relief.

Good, he thinks. I’ll get to go with Obi-Wan. He won’t be alone.

He dutifully steps forward out of the crowd towards the stage, where the announcer is waiting next to Obi-Wan.

Obi-Wan who is looking at him with an expression of naked devastation.

Anakin tries to convey that it’ll be alright, that it’s fine, that they knew this was a possibility. Sure, it’s Anakin’s last year eligible to be in the Games. Sure his nineteenth birthday is in two weeks, at which point he would become too old to qualify as a child to the Capitol, but what’s done is done.

Obi-Wan will be his mentor, because Obi-Wan has been the mentor for District Four ever since he won his own Games seven years ago when he was sixteen and Anakin was twelve.

That year’s known unofficially as the most boring Games in Panem history, but the Capitol loves how handsome Obi-Wan’s grown to be. So what if he didn’t kill his competitors messily or with a bloodthirsty joy? He’s so polite in his interviews all these years later, and look at those dimples!

It makes Anakin sick, every time Obi-Wan has to leave District Four and travel to the Capitol to be fawned over and stroked and used. His nightmares are always worse the weeks after he gets back, and he never lets Anakin hold him during them.

And it’s even worse during the actual Games, when Obi-Wan is put in charge of two children’s lives only to see them brutally murdered on screen a week later. The cameras always show his reaction when the competitors from District Four die. They must think he cries pretty or something.

Anakin hates the Capitol. He hates them for what they’ve done to Obi-Wan. What they’ve made him into

As he gets close enough to the stage, he notices that Obi-Wan’s hands are shaking slightly.

He doesn’t even listen to the name of the girl being called. She’s not important. She’ll be dead in a few days time. What’s important is Obi-Wan. What’s important is comforting him, is reassuring him. Is coming back to him.

This is the moment when Anakin resolves that these Games will become known as the quickest in history.

---

The girl is understandably sullen and upset on the train. “I should get a different mentor!” she demands. “It’s obvious you’re going to play favorites with him.”

Anakin doesn’t snap back because she’ll be dead in a few days. Though she really shouldn’t use that tone with Obi-Wan.

“I’m not playing favorites,” Obi-Wan insists. “I don’t have favorites.”

“You literally just wiped sauce off his mouth with your finger,” the girl points out. “And then he licked it!”

Anakin smirks at her. Of course Obi-Wan has favorites. Of course Anakin is Obi-Wan’s favorite. It took him years to wear down Obi-Wan until he allowed him this close, and years after that until he finally got to kiss him for the first time, just a few months ago.

If she thinks he’s going to give up any of his Obi-Wan time so she can get her hopes up about not dying in a few days, she’s got another thing coming.

But Obi-Wan shifts away from him and he looks guilty.

If Anakin could get away with killing the other person from his district, he would. But it’d probably make Obi-Wan sad.

“Is whining part of your strategy?” he asks waspishly instead. “I don’t think it’ll make you many allies.”

She has the nerve to look offended.

“Anakin,” Obi-Wan chides. Underneath the table, he squeezes his knee.

“Everyone in the district knows about you two,” she glares at him. “You haven’t exactly kept it a secret.”

Anakin hasn’t exactly tried to keep it a secret. The first night Obi-Wan had kissed him, he went straight home and told his mother, his neighbor, his schoolmates, his cat, and his ex-girlfriend.

(No one had been surprised, except maybe the cat.)

“It’s not fair,” she cries. “Who can I talk to to get a different mentor for me?”

“The ethics board,” Anakin smiles, all teeth, settling back into his seat and slinging an arm around Obi-Wan’s shoulders.

“Anakin,” Obi-Wan says again, this time more exasperatedly. “Robin, I promise I will be the best mentor you can ask for. It is my wish to see you survive as long as possible in the next few weeks.”

The girl jumps to her feet in outrage. “You can’t even say you want me to win!” she yells. There are tears at the corners of her eyes. If she were a little less annoying, Anakin would feel quite bad for her. Obviously Obi-Wan doesn’t want her to win. Anakin’s right here.

She storms out of the train compartment, her face in her hands. Anakin barely waits for the door to close before he’s slipping into Obi-Wan’s lap and throwing his arms around his neck with a groan. “God, I thought she’d never leave.”

He isn’t pushed away. Obi-Wan must realize they only have a handful of days left to be together before he goes into the arena.

“Anakin,” Obi-Wan says wearily, even as his arms encircle his waist.

Anakin presses a kiss to his nose and then another to his cheek. “It’s alright to have favorites, Obi-Wan,” he murmurs. “And she should know there’s no way she’s winning anything. Don’t waste your time.”

“I will do everything I can to make sure she survives as long as possible,” Obi-Wan repeats. “I don’t think I can survive anything else.”

Obi-Wan’s voice sounds shaky, so Anakin presses their lips together. Best not to talk for awhile.

------

“We should discuss strategy,” Obi-Wan says later that night through frantic kisses. “Sponsors, story, training--”

“I have a strategy,” Anakin murmurs back as he moves further down the bed, rucking up his partner’s shirt. “Win.”

----

“You look absolutely radiant,” Anakin tells the girl in an undertone while they’re in line for their interviews. She turns around to glare at him. The designer for their district has gone for the typical fish designs that people always associate with District Four, and they’ve dressed her up in a shimmering iridescent gown that flares at the ends like a fish’s tail.

Anakin’s own outfit is mostly a fishing net draped over one shoulder and a pair of tight pants. The designer, much to Obi-Wan’s embarrassment and Anakin’s satisfaction, had taken one look at his shirtless chest and decided to dress him in as little clothes as possible.

“Weird braid,” is all she says.

Obi-Wan had done it late last night when both of them had tired each other out and Anakin had curled up on his chest. After his Games, Obi-Wan’s hands like to do something. The repetitive motion of braiding and unbraiding Anakin’s hair soothes his demons.

It’s one of the reasons Anakin’s grown it out to his shoulders, much longer than is practical for his district.

Obi-Wan had gone to unbraid it, and Anakin had stopped him. He wanted to keep it. To wear it into the Games.

“Thank you,” he says generously. “I saw your score. 7’s not too bad.”

She sneers at him. “Did you celebrate your 11 with your boyfriend?”

“Oh sorry,” he winces. “Did you hear us? I’m just so bad at biting my tongue when he does this thing with his.”

She scoffs in disgust and turns back around. “I hope he has to watch you die.”

Anakin glares at her back. He knows he can’t kill her himself. But there has to be a way to hurt her and her chances and still have plausible deniability.

When it’s her turn for an interview, she’s vapid and pretty. She laughs and touches the interviewer’s arm.

“I’ve never spent much time in District Four,” the interviewer says jovially. “But tell me, really. Is everyone there as beautiful as the people you keep sending us? I mean. Obi-Wan Kenobi, ladies and gentlemen, am I right?” The audience laughs and hollers. Anakin hates them all. “And now you, Robin, and Anakin Skywalker. Damn!”

Robin--Anakin needs to stop forgetting her name--giggles high in her throat. “It was a very, very enjoyable train ride up,” she says with a stupid wiggle of her eyebrows. “Just this side of too long.”

The audience loses it.

Anakin loses it.

He can’t believe she’s sitting there publicly suggesting that Anakin shares Obi-Wan with anyone. With her. The nerve.

The camera pans to Obi-Wan in the crowd, who looks shocked, embarrassed, and deeply troubled.

Anakin won’t let this stand. He just hopes Obi-Wan forgives him.

The interviewer greets him excitedly when he walks out, and Anakin gives him a sheepish sort of smile.

“Lady killer Skywalker!” the interviewer says. Anakin laughs along with him. “All the girls back home must have been heartbroken to see you leave.”

“But I’ve heard they love watching me go,” he jokes with a charming smile. If that girl--Robin--can do it, he can do it much better. “There’s really only one person for me though,” he murmurs, letting his smile die.

“Oh?” The interviewer asks, leaning forward with interest.

“But sometimes I wonder if they’re only using me for my body,” he says, casting his eyes down. “I love them. Heart and soul, everything I am. But when I told them, they just laughed.”

This is technically true. The first time Anakin had told Obi-Wan that he was in love with him, the older boy had laughed his confession off, saying he was too young to know what he wanted.

“Oh, to be young and in love,” the interviewer sighs theatrically. “So your plan is to win the Games and then win her heart when you get back home?”

Anakin makes himself look sad. Tragically sad. Like he can’t bear to go on.

“They came with me,” he says.

If the audience’s reaction to Robin’s fake confession was huge, its reaction to Anakin’s words is even bigger. Of course they think he’s talking about the girl. That’s exactly what Anakin had wanted. Now he’s the broken-hearted boy and she’s the vapid, self-absorbed bitch. She'll have a hard time finding sponsors now.

It’s very, very hard to hide his smile, a task made exponentially more hard when he sees Obi-Wan bury his face in his hands.

“It’s alright,” Anakin tells the interviewer, without taking his eyes off of Obi-Wan. “I’ll survive.”

#asks #hunger games au #anakin's a bit dark here lets be real i love writing him like that #his games are the quickest games for sure #he does lose his right arm #but he wins #and then moves in with obi-wan #and obi-wan kisses every mechanical finger of his hand before bed each night #anakins just so heartbroken over the death of the girl #that he leans on obi-wan to help in the aftermath #(the story he'll tell the capitol people) #thank god his friend obi-wan is such a strong rock in these times #he has to write the girl's name on his hand so he doesnt forget it #the capitol thinks its so he can carry a piece of her with him into the games #shes furious but how is she gonna set the record straight without admitting to lying herself? #she started it anakin was just finishing it #bitchy dark obsessed anakin my love #obi-wan would be just as obsessed remember #he spends anakins games avidly watching and worrying and going around trying to get sponsors for him #but like within 50 hours the games are over anakin won #obi-wans gotta call everyone back and be like 'um never mind haha' #prompt fill #obikin

[boa-h]

Hi boa! I really loved what you did with the touching arms hcs it was SO cute!!! 💕💕💕💕could I please request Zoro with a f reader crush? Scenario: He thinks she sees him as just a friend, until he overhears a convo about her crush on him.

Thank you so much 🥺💕

Hi! Thank you and of course 🌸

【Roronoa Zoro】 Don’t Give Up on Me

Zoro isn’t a person that can express love that easily. In fact, his behavior towards you was often misinterpreted as dislike. But he really likes you, he just doesn’t know how to show it. He’s never spoken about this to anyone, even Robin, the most trustworthy member to tell a secret to.

Another day on the Sunny ended, it was dinner time, where you ate on the crows nest with Robin to stand guard. Sanji was the first to go against the idea but you told him that it was okay, and you wanted to talk with Robin privately anyways.

“Hold on, Y/N-chan didn’t take her dessert!” Sanji exclaimed, “Oi, marimo!” He called, “Go take the dessert to Y/N-chan, don’t you dare to eat it yourself!”

“Hah?! Why should I? You go yourself!” Zoro gave him a glare

“Maybe I really should, you’re just gonna get lost.”

“WHAT DID YOU SAY?!??”

Forehead bumping onto forehead, the two of them started their 1000th fight of the day.

“Stop it, you two.” Nami hit both of them on the head. “Zoro, just take the plate to Y/N. Sanji’s got to feed Luffy.” She pointed to the young captain who’s almost finished with his meat.

“Sanji! Meat!!” He shouted.

Zoro grumbled as he took the plate from Sanji’s hand rather harshly. Climbing on the ladder to the crows nest, he heard some talking and the mention of his name.

He stopped his tracks and listened to the conversation.

“I think I’m giving up…” You sighed

“Zoro doesn’t express affection easily, you don’t know if he likes you or not unless you ask him.” Robin told you

“But I’m scared.” You pouted

The green haired man climbed on the top of the ladder and popped his head out, startling you.

“I brought you your dessert.” He said, stepping into the room.

“Ara, I will go refill my drink then.” Robin chuckled before climbing down the ladder.

“Wait-” You tried to stop her, but it was too late.

Zoro handed you the plate of dessert and you reached out your hand to take it, but he didn’t let go immediately.

“I like you too.” He said before letting go of the plate, ears turning red.

Your entire face was dyed a red hue as you shoved the first bite of dessert into your mouth.

“Don’t give up on me.”

“I won’t.”

#roronoa zoro #one piece scenario #one piece #anime #one piece oneshot #zoro x reader #zoro x y/n #zoro x you #pirate hunter zoro #writing #boa-h

[fishfingersandjellybabies]

You’ll Have To Come and Find Me - fic

Characters: Tim Drake, Damian Wayne Summary: Damian runs into someone on his way to the League of Lazarus’ tournament. The last person he wanted to see. The last person who should have been looking for him. A/N: Just a thought in my brain that wouldn’t quit. Dialogue heavy. Shittily written idk. ‘Polarize’ by TwentyOne Pilots is such a Damian song to me, and was in my head while writing this, so inspired the title. Might continue this idea a little bit as the Robin series continues, who knows.

~~

He was counting the money from his fight with King Snake as he walked into the café. That’s why he didn’t notice. That’s why he didn’t see.

That’s what he told himself.

But after he walked in the door, he found himself freezing as he looked up.

No.

He’d been so careful, so deliberate. He didn’t leave any traces. He knew he didn’t. There was no way they could find him.

And of course, he couldn’t even back out now. Couldn’t sneak back out of the restaurant, back into the darkness. Because Timothy Drake was already lowering his cup of tea and raising his head to look at him.

They stared at each other for a second. Two. Three. Four. Five. Faces blank, mouths shut.

Then Tim smiled, turned towards the café’s counter and waved. The barista nodded and started on a drink.

Nope. No turning back now.

“How did you find me?” Damian demanded as he stomped forward. Tim motioned to the empty, waiting, chair across from him. A glass of water was already there, as was an empty plate.

Tim shrugged. “Wasn’t that hard.”

“Liar.” Damian spat. “I covered my tracks. I made sure-”

“You made sure Bruce couldn’t find you.” Tim countered, pulling his napkin onto his lap. “And I am not Bruce.”

“…Oracle is smarter than you.” Damian tried.

“Absolutely.” Tim took another sip of his tea. “But I know you better.”

“You don’t know me at all.” Damian crossed his arms. He nodded a thanks to the waiter as he brought Damian’s drink, and a basket of bread. It was tea, like Tim’s, and he could see two sugar cubes dissolving in the bottom.

…His preferred preparation.

He never told Tim how he liked his tea. He never told Tim he liked tea at all.

He glanced up to the elder. Tim smiled behind his own cup and raised his eyebrows. See?

Damian huffed, taking the drink. “What do you want?”

“To find you. Duh.”

“To what, mock me? Remind me of my failures? Rub it in my face that once again you prove you’re better than me?” Damian listed. But as he spoke, Tim’s amused face fell back into stoic, blank.

“No. I wouldn’t do that in the first place. Not…” He lowered his cup once more, stared into the liquid. “Not now, anyway.”

Damian narrowed his eyes, gaze bouncing around Tim’s face, trying to read it. Trying to figure his predecessor out.

“Really?” Damian drawled in disbelief. “So, you’re not here to gloat about how Father gave you Robin back?”

Damian was surprised to see Tim’s face darken, just a little. “I didn’t want it back. He forced it on me in a weird grief-fueled crusade after you disappeared.” Tim glanced up. “A lot’s happened since you left.”

“I’ve been back since I renounced Robin. All this tracking me and you didn’t know that?”

“No, I mean, even since then.” Tim sighed. “…Did you know Dick had regained his memories before you helped save him and the family?”

Damian pursed his lips, stared at the basket of bread. “…No.”

“…How are you feeling about that?” Tim asked softly.

“I don’t need your pathetic brand of therapy, Drake.” Damian snapped.

“I’m not trying to play therapist, I’m just trying to make sure my little brother is okay.” Tim shot back just as harshly. “Especially since he’s running off to some secret tournament that he could die in.”

Tim’s mouth clamped shut then, and Damian watched him. “…How did you know about that?”

“That’s not important, here, okay, I just-”

“It is to me.” Damian countered. “Tell me or I’m leaving.”

Tim glowered back at him. “I’ll follow you.”

“Not if I break your leg.”

“Why do you…!” Tim cut himself off in a sigh, slumped back in his chair. “I got word Talia was in town, followed her tracks. Saw the security footage from her apartment when you went and met her. Heard about that League of Lazarus thing and looked into it.”

“How did you look into it?” Damian asked. “Even I didn’t know about it. And if Mother wasn’t forthcoming with me, I can’t see her being a source of information for you.”

Now it was Tim’s turn to cross his arms and look away.

Damian studied him for a moment, then let his eyes go wide. “…You didn’t.”

“Look, I said it didn’t matter-”

“You did not contact Grandfather for information.” Damian practically begged. “Drake!”

“You know as well as I do he’ll give me anything I want if I’m the one to reach out to him.” Tim reassured quickly. “And sorry if my brother’s safety is a good reason for me to contact an enemy!”

Damian glared at him for a moment before looking at the clean white plate. “…Stop calling me your brother.”

“Oh, for god’s sake, Damian-”

“Because after what I’ve done, I don’t deserve the title.”

Tim paused then, stared right back. Sighed and leaned forward to grab his tea again.

“What happened wasn’t your fault.” Tim whispered. “Definitely not Dick, not Alfred…especially not Alfred…I know you think it is, and trust me, I get that. I felt the same back when my dad died. Bruce.” A moment. “…You.”

Damian glanced up at him.

“I get that you think it was. Because you were there, because you’re supposed to be a hero, that’s what the world thinks you are, but…It’s not, Damian. It never was. You’re just a kid. A kid in a shitty, traumatic situation.” Tim hesitated, and Damian watched as he swallowed a lump in his throat. “And we just want you to come home.”

“Why?” Damian asked quietly. “I’ll do nothing but hurt all of you.”

“Can I make a counterpoint to that?” Tim asked. “What do you think you’re doing to us now? Disappearing? We don’t know how you are, or if you’re even alive. Don’t you think that’s hurting us too?”

“…It shouldn’t.”

“Well. It does.” Tim sniffed. “That’s why I’m here. That’s part of why Babs became Oracle again. That’s why Dick wants to use the fortune Alfred left him to find you.”

“Forget about me.” Damian shook his head. “You’ll all be better off. Grayson especially.”

“A matter of personal opinion. An opinion I highly disagree with.” Tim shrugged. “And just because Dick, arguably, loves you the most, therefore is the most heartbroken with you not there, doesn’t mean he’ll be better off if you just…vanish from his life like you weren’t ever there in the first place.”

“He thrived without any memories of me as the cab driver, so we have proof that he would be.” Damian explained. “Besides. Time heals all wounds. Or whatever. You’ll all forget about me if you give yourself the chance to.”

“And I think you dying is proof that we won’t, and can’t.” Tim leaned forward more, reaching for Damian’s hand. Damian allowed him to take it. “Which is why I’m here.”

“I’m not going back to Gotham, Drake. I can’t.” Damian murmured, closing his eyes and shaking his head. “I’m not…I can’t be there. Right now.”

“I know. I know I said we want you home, but I never said I was taking you back. I told you I’m out here to find you.”

“Well. Congratulations.” Damian said bitterly. “You did.”

Tim smiled. “Great.” He squeezed Damian’s hand and released it. “So, where’s this island? For the tournament?”

Damian furrowed his brows. “What?”

“I’m not taking you home. I promise.” Tim let his grin widen, become just a little too shit-eating. “But that doesn’t mean I’m leaving you.”

“…You’re not serious.”

“My goal was to find you. And not lose you again. The only way to do that is to not leave you, in my deductions.” Tim winked. “Besides, you were right – this Lazarus Tournament sounds interesting. And concerning. You’re gonna need backup. More than the folks we know who are gonna be there already, anyway.”

“…How do you know who’s in the tournament?” Damian asked slowly. Tim just pursed his lips, blinked, and grinned. Damian sighed. “After this tournament, I’m making sure my grandfather never contacts you again.”

“Hey, sometimes it’s nice having a super-villain obsessed with you.” Tim shrugged. “Helped me get you back, after all.”

“All the more reason I’ll have to kill him.”

Tim laughed at that, took a piece of bread for himself. “…You okay with me tagging along?”

Damian sipped his tea. “Not in the slightest.”

“Good.” Tim glanced at his watch. “About an hour until your boat arrives. That’s enough time for you to rest a little while we figure out an outline of a plan to take out this League of Lazarus.”

At that, Tim turned, digging in the backpack he had hanging off his chair. Damian watched him as he pulled out papers and notebooks, dropping them on the table between them.

And he didn’t want it. Didn’t deserve it. His family deserved better. Drake deserved better. Drake had better things to do than chase him, a failure, across the world, and hardly for either of their own sakes. All for the sake of their family. Because Tim loved them. Because Damian loved them. Because Tim loved Damian too.

“…Drake?” Damian whispered. Tim glanced up. “…Thank you for finding me.”

Tim blinked, and let his face drop into a smile. “Any time, little brother.”

#Damian Wayne #Tim Drake

[wdwmarveldisney]

Hell, Most Likely

Ginny Weasley x reader

Summary: Ginny catches you sneaking out.

Masterlist

A/N: A short little thing that I love. Honestly the HP girls are my weakness.

GIF isn’t mine

It wasn't uncommon for you to get into trouble at school. Actually, you had quite a knack for it. Though not necessarily a good thing, it was entertaining from time to time. So it also wasn't uncommon for you to sneak around at night or for you to be caught red-handed helping out the Weasley twins. Sometimes you were even used as a diversion for the prefects while the two redheads executed the plan. But never once were you caught when you weren't supposed to be. However, on this fateful night, there was one variable that you hadn't thought of and that variable was a Miss Ginevra Weasley.

Being so talented in the art of sneaking out of the dorms, you knew what time everyone began to head up to bed and every night, without fail, the common room was empty by one thirty latest. All parties had moved to dorm rooms or somewhere else in the castle by that point and you were always careful to check the common room before heading out. See, you went up to your dorm by eleven every night and then came down after those three hours, since you wanted to leave another half hour to be sure. Usually if there was still a kid or two, you'd sneak back up. But not tonight, a shoe happening to trip you up and bring the attention of a certain redhead, who you may or not be crushing on, over to you. Knowing that she knows you're there, you just sigh and take those few steps into the light so her face becomes less confused and more, well no its still a little confused.

"Did you just fall over?" You shrugged, face scrunching up as your cheeks burned with embarrassment. It wasn't like you'd never spoken to her before, you were good friends with her brothers and Ron was your partner in Potions from time to time so your paths had crossed. But you had just fallen up the stairs in front of her so. "You know, it would look that way," She snorted, pulling her blanket up as she looked back to the fire and at the lack of another response, you assumed the conversation was over. Taking another couple of steps to the portrait to leave, you stopped when you heard her ask, "Where are you going?" Turning on your heel to face her, your hand flew to the back of your neck, scratching as you tried to avoid eye contact, "Hell, most likely," Another laugh was pulled from her at that and you grinned at the sound. You knew you shouldn't just stand around like this, staring at her whilst she laughed but how were you supposed to turn away. Butterflies swarmed your stomach as you thought about how she'd laugh at your joke, not something that happened often.

She noticed the staring, grinning sheepishly as you did so too and when she patted the seat next to her, you weren't sure what to do. As awkwardly as humanly possibly, though not intentionally, you walked over and fell onto the space next to her on the sofa. She was staring at the fire as you looked round, trying to will yourself to say anything. You noticed how her arms were wrapped tightly round her knees as she brought them to her chest and smiled at the plaited ponytail that had become looser since Quidditch practice earlier. It was silent except for the fire and you felt extremely awkward so you just blurted out the first question that came to mind, "Have you ever seen the muggle movie Robin Hood?" She glanced over to you, smile confused as she took in your pained expression.

"Um, no? Should I have?" You looked up, shocked she answered at all. It took a few seconds for her words to process before you began to stutter out a response, "No- no, I was just- It's a good- I just thought that you'd like it is all. I thought you'd- it was my favourite movie growing up, is my favourite movie. It was just a suggestion," the heat in your cheeks wasn't dying down anytime and Ginny was grinning to herself at how flustered you'd become. She'd never seen you break like this for anyone. She was kind of enjoying it.

"What's it about?" Ginny laughed at how you seemed to just stop working every time she spoke, hands fiddling with the blanket whilst you stammered to form a sentence, "Um, there's an outlaw called Robin Hood and he steals from the rich to, er, give to the poor and then he falls for this girl called Maid Marian and the king refuses to let them be together given that Robin's a criminal and all. Anyways, basically there's some bad guys and some problems but Robin ends out on top obviously, 'cause the good guys never lose," she nodded along to the explanation, watching your scrunched up expression before your face lit up and you exclaimed, "Oh, and they're also all animals!"

"Animals?"

"What? It's an animation! Don't judge the cartoon," you mockingly pointed a finger in her direction and she burst out laughing, hearing you join in within seconds. After the laughter had died down, she grinned to you, "Well, it sounds like a good, um, what do the muggles call it?" You were still smiling brightly to yourself as you fiddled with your fingers, switching your focus from them to her, "It's a film. Or movie. I'm not sure what the difference is," she nodded, seemingly holding back giggles at your half shrug and instead carried on, "Right, movie. Maybe you could show me it sometime," Once again, your focus had been on your fingers but your head shot up as you stared wide eyed at the girl, "What?" Once you realised she was serious, you tried your hardest to play it off, "I mean, ye-yeah, I could do that,"

The two of you sat in silence for a couple more minutes, both grinning from the conversation before Ginny's laughs caught your attention again, "Aren't you supposed to be going to 'Hell'?" Your eyes widened again and you shot up, cursing yourself as you rushed towards the portrait to help the twins out like planned. But you stopped halfway there, stumbling back as you grinned to the youngest Weasley and leaned against the back of the sofa. "Okay so, there's a possibility that I've read this entire situation wrong and I'm in a hurry so I won't have until later to actually think about what you say now but would you want to go on a date sometime?" Her grin grew impossibly bigger as she slowly nodded, trying to seem casual about the whole thing. "Yeah, yeah that'd be cool,"

"Great! Talk to you when it fully hits me," with a wave, you dashed out the room and left a chuckling Ginny behind.

#ginny weasley #ginny weasley x y/n #ginny weasley x reader #ginny weasley x you #ginny x you #ginny x y/n #harry potter imagine