Atticus

REQUESTS ARE OPEN DEAR GOD SEND ME REQUESTS I BEG

These are all the fandoms I write for;

If a master list isn’t linked, I haven’t written for that fandom yet!!

[Crush x reader]

DC

Gilmore Girls

Marvel

My Hero Academia

Star Wars

Stranger Things

Supernatural

Twisters

Peacemaker

Insecure

Pairing: Katsuki Bakugou x reader

Summary: req^^

Warnings: age not specified but they’re at UA, hes called bakugou by narrator but katsuki in dialogue, mention of spending the night in his dorm, Bakugou’s okay at feelings, light cursing, kissing

Word Count: 1.2K

Everyone knew, of course, that training was sin integral part of UA’s Hero Academy; the young heroes couldn’t just go straight to fighting villains, after all.

Training was actually how you met Bakugou. You were paired up with him because your quirks were polar opposites and you needed to figure out how to get around it. He ended up getting frustrated that your training kept ending in draws, so you began to spend a lot more time training with him to improve, then finding stupid excuses to hang out without the context of training before you started dating.

One thing you could never stand was when people would underestimate you, not going as hard as they should in training because they think you’re weaker than them. Bakugou never did that and you were thankful for it even though sometimes it ended with both of you having to see Recovery Girl.

This time, it was entirely your fault. You miscalculated where his blow would land and dodged it straight into his explosion.

It took a week to simply get you back to normal classes because Recovery Girl couldn’t use her quirk on you very many times, and you were under orders not to indulge in any sparring until you’d been given the all clear.

“Mmph…” You cracked your eyes open at the sound of someone shuffling around the dorm room. “Kats, where’re y’going…” your speech was slightly slurred as you shook off the grogginess of last night’s sleep.

“Sparring with Uraraka.” He toweled off his hair haphazardly, letting it hang loosely over his shoulders as he sat down on the bed next to you. “Stay in here if you want, but don’t let Aizawa catch you.”

You giggled, remembering when Aizawa caught you sneaking out of Bakugou’s room one morning and threatened to kick the two of you out of UA if he ever saw that behavior again. “How long are you gonna be out?”

“Dunno,” He shrugged noncommittally. “A couple hours maybe, why?”

“I thought we might do something later. We haven’t gone out much since I got hurt.”

Bakugou leaned in and gave you a quick kiss on the forehead before standing up and tugging on a shirt. “I’ll be back in a few hours. Get some sleep.”

You didn’t protest when you rolled over to glance at the alarm clock and saw that it read 6:30am.

——

You didn’t mind that Bakugou had been sparring with Uraraka while you healed. You couldn’t expect him to stay bedridden as well, after all. That was until you overheard a conversation over dinner.

You were in the kitchen heating up some leftovers while Mina and Yaoyorozu were nearby. The conversation wasn’t very interesting so you’d just been lost in your own mind until your ears perked up at the ent ion of your boyfriend.

“Y’know, Bakugou’s been hanging out with Ochako a lot,: Mina commented offhandedly. “I wonder if she’s still got that crush on him.”

The conversation was hushed so you had to strain your ears to figure out what was going on. “I don’t think so. She’s liked Midoriya for a long time, so unless her feelings came back they’re probably just friends.”

“Say,” Mina turned to you suddenly, raising her voice above the previous hushed whisper. “Didn’t you and Bakugou start dating because you used to spar?”

“Well… yeah.” You didn’t know what to say other than to confirm her question.

Mina and Yaoyorozu shared a look that you couldn’t quite decipher, but it formed a pit in your stomach nonetheless.

That night, you didn’t see Bakugou. You ignored his texts and locked yourself in your room, hoping to have some space to think about it, only to be interrupted by a pounding on your door that could only have been coming from one person.

You didn’t have the chance to get a word out when you opened the door before he started talking.

“You’re avoiding me.” It wasn’t spoken as an accusation, just a simple fact. He was staring at you pointedly, eyebrows furrowed ever so slightly in frustration. “Why?”

A million thoughts crossed your mind in that moment. You wanted to lie, to shut the door in his face, to do something to avoid the question because the reason seemed so… stupid. What were you going to say? ‘I heard some people talking about how apparently Uraraka who you’ve been with a lot recently used to like you and that’s how we met and now I’m insecure?’

Yeah, no.

“R’you okay?” He looked more concerned than accusatory all of a sudden as he scanned you head to toe. “Is the… is it hurting?”

You almost scoffed because of course he’d be considerate about your recovery while you were trying to avoid him. “No, Katsuki, it’s fine. I’m- everything’s fine, alright?” You shot him a fake smile. “Happy?”

“Hell no.”

Bakugou barged his way into your room and almost slammed the door shut. He probably would have actually slammed it if he wasn’t so afraid of Aizawa.

Crossing your arms over your chest, you tried to avoid his gaze. “Kats, it’s really nothing.”

“If it was nothing you wouldn’t be avoiding me.”

He stared at you pointedly until you couldn’t stand the silence any longer. When you finally did talk, your words came out a jumbled mess.

“I just- you’ve been sparring with Uraraka and I haven’t been able to do like- anything and I heard the girls talking in the kitchen about how she used to like you and— you should’ve seen it, Katsuki— they turned to me and were like “oh, that’s how you and Bakugou started dating right?” Implying, y’know, and I don’t know why it got in my head, I just…” You stopped yourself before you could continue your rambling, placing your hands over your face and slowly pulling them back down. “It’s stupid and I’m just being jealous.”

You looked up to see his reaction, but you didn’t catch a glimpse because you were swiftly wrapped in a tight hug.

“It’s not stupid.” Bakugou placed a tender kiss on the top of your head. “It’s my fault.”

You pulled away quickly, ready to protest. “Kats-“

“Stop. I pulled away ‘cause I didn’t wanna see what I… I didn’t want to see what I did to you, okay? I know it’s shitty for you and I already feel shitty that I did it, even more now because I’m making you feel like…”

“Like shit?”

“Shut up.”

You giggled at his response, reaching out to take his hand. “It’s alright, Katsuki. I don’t blame you.”

He groaned deeply, tilting his head back. “That makes it worse.”

“Fine.” You crossed your arms. “I blame you deeply and may never forgive you for this training accent. Happy?”

[reqs open]

Katsuki Bakugou

Wandering

Wandering

[reqs are open!]

Pairing: Katsuki Bakugou x reader

Summary: ^^^

Warnings: light cussing, maybe ooc Bakugou

Word count: 0.5K (short one sry)

The stubborn habit refused to leave you, even after you tried to make it go away when your friends complained about it.

On your morning run you had spotted a farmer’s market that had popped up almost overnight in a nearby park and dragged Katsuki right back so you could explore together.

“Oh my gosh, look! It says they make all that stuff out of honey.” You pointed to a nearby stand and took Katsuki’s hand before rushing over to peruse, not quite paying attention to whether or not your boyfriend was behind you when you wandered over to the next stand, and the next.

You became so lost in your own thoughts that you didn’t realize you had left Katsuki behind until you felt strong hands on your shoulders. You flinched back at first, thinking it was a stranger but coming face to face with Katsuki instead.

He simply scoffed in response, letting the faintest embers of a smile cross his face. “Where the hell were you?”

Your face flushed red in embarrassment, realizing that you’d wandered off once again. “I was just- I got distracted,” you admitted, feeling deflated.

“By…” he looked around for a moment. “Wax carvings of Lord of the Rings characters…”

You were about to mutter another apology, but you were interrupted by the feeling of an arm around your shoulders, guiding you to the nearest carving.

“Who’s this one?”

“Wh-“ you almost pulled back in surprise. “You-“

“If this shit’s enough to distract you from me, I wanna know what’s so special.” He huffed. “What’s its name?”

A slow smile plastered itself on your face in response. “I think that’s Gandalf.”

“You think?”

“It’s kind of hard to tell…” you tilted your head to the side like you were trying to get a better angle, feeling Katsuki mirror you. “I think it’s more of a gesture thing than a detail one.”

That comment got you a dirty look from the vendor, which you took as your queue to leave.

Since your boyfriend learned about your habit, his solution had simply been to be touching you at all times, which was a surprise to you. You had always thought he’d be the kind of guy to hate pda, but you were clearly proven wrong when you were pulled into his side and kept there in front of both of your friends.

Soon enough, it became a habit— not to stop wandering off, but to bring him with you. Unfortunately for your friends and family, Katsuki had also started to wander slightly away from a group when he got distracted.

Pairing: Steve Harrington x reader

Summary: You got locked out of Hawkins when it got locked down. The first thing that Steve did when it got lifted was rush to see you.

Warnings: Fluff, kissing, mentions of long-distance, pet names, Henderhop mentioned, backwards hat Steve, heavy making out, roommate walks in oops

Word count: 2.1K

It was a difficult decision— leaving Hawkins for college— but in the end, you thought you made the right one. Hawkins didn’t have great colleges and you wanted to pursue something bigger, so you left.

“It’s only two hours away, it’ll be fine,” You comforted Steve as he laid stomach down on your bed, chin buried in a pillow as he watched you pack up your clothes. “We can meet halfway whenever you feel like it-“

“-unless you have a test.” He smiled knowingly.

“Well,” You tossed a shirt into the box and sat down next to Steve, placing a hand on his back. “Maybe you could help me study.”

His head lifted from the pillow in surprise, turning to look you in the eye. “Are you serious?!”

You laughed at his surprised reaction and leaned down to kiss him on the cheek. “We’d actually have to study though.”

“You insult me! I’m like, the king of studying! Though my specialty is-“

You shoved Steve lightly and got up to continue packing. “We are not studying anatomy.”

“I was going to say math, you pervert.” You turned around and saw a shit eating grin plastered on Steve’s face.

“You were not.”

“How do you know?”

“I just know.”

——

The day you left, there wasn’t some big ‘sad to see you go’ event. Hardly anyone even knew you were leaving except your friends, who showed up to your house bright and early to get your things into your car so you could go out to lunch with them before you left.

It was almost like any normal day, actually. Dustin and Eleven were huddled on their end of the table talking about Dustin’s newest project and Max and Lucas were making themselves busy launching projectiles at whoever was unfortunate enough to sit across from them.

When it came time to say goodbye, you weren’t too sad about it. You knew you were going to come back and see everyone again, so it was mostly a tearless goodbye.

Thankfully, your friends were socially aware enough to let you and Steve have some time to yourselves before you started driving.

He hugged you tighter than anyone else. Steve didn’t let it show until then that your leaving was affecting him much, but you could see it.

“Don’t you start crying on me, Harrington,” You said, feeling tears threaten your eyes.

He sniffled once and wiped his nose, pulling away slightly. “Or what? You gonna move two hours away?”

The laugh you shared at the sad attempt at a joke wasn’t like the ones that had been earlier in the day. It was the looming feeling that you wouldn’t be able to see each other around town or even visit each other at work anymore.

“Call me, okay?”

“I couldn’t forget your number if I tried.” You smiled at the comment, but it son turned into a laugh. “I’m serious, I all but carved it into my dash. Matter of fact, that’s not a bad idea.”

You leaned forward to give him one last kiss. “Alright, I think… I think that’s about it.”

——

One week later, Chrissy Cunningham was murdered.

Three weeks later, Hawkins was placed on lockdown. Nobody was allowed in or out.

You heard it from Steve before the news. When you got home and played the messages on your answering machine, there were two. You initially thought it was strange because the only person who ever left you messages was Steve, and he left one at most because he hated leaving messages. He said he preferred to talk to a real person, not himself.

The beep of the machine sounded, and you listened to Steve talk as you started on your homework.

“Hey, it’s me. I, uhh… some crazy stuff’s been going on here, babe. I dunno if I can get that much into it cause I’m like, 90% sure every phone in Hawkins is tapped at this point, but I’ll tell you when I see you this weekend. Anyway, I was at family video and this guy— real loony— kept arguing that Footloose was a horror movie? How crazy is that? Anyway, I uh, picked up that movie you said I’d like. Love you.”

Another beep, indicating the start of another message.

“Hi. Me again. Hawkins actually just split in four. They’re calling a bunch of military guys in because the upside down is swallowing everything. Everyone’s saying it’s an earthquake, and- it’s really really bad. They’re putting a shutdown in place. Nobody in or out. Call me.”

The lockdown was hard on everyone. You had to go a year and a half without seeing any of your hometown friends and your parents.

The phone calls didn’t always go through in Hawkins, which you chalked up to the interference of both the military and the upside down. It had been so bad that you’d begun resorting to sending letters through Murray who, thankfully, made the two hour drive to your college town anyway to pick up the necessary supplies.

——

It was November 16 and you were expecting a letter from Murray any day now. You’d started counting down the days from letter to letter. It was the highlight of your week every time, so when you heard the familiar pattern of Murray’s secret ‘it’s me, come to the door’ knock, you rushed to open it.

“Did he send a-“ Your face dropped because Steve— your Steve— was standing right in front of you.

You wasted no time in practically launching yourself into a hug, letting yourself inhale his scent, letting your hands wander into his hair and not caring that you were messing it up because he was in your arms and nothing else mattered.

“You’re-“ You pulled away and relished in the feeling of both of his hands cradling your face.

“They lifted the quarantine this morning, baby. I drove here as soon as I heard, I-“ He let out a soft, almost imperceptible breath. “You cut your hair.”

“And you,” You let your arms rest around his neck, tracing the brim of his backwards hat. “Got a hat.”

Quickly, you snatched it off his head and placed in on your own before retreating back into your dorm.

Steve yelped and chased after you. “Hey!” He made a grab at the cap, but just barely missed. “That’s not funny, I have hat hair!”

Before you knew it, you were trapped in a bear hug, unable to move. Unless…

You drove your elbow into Steve’s side just hard enough to free yourself and scurried backwards onto your bed. You didn’t realize in doing so that you’d effectively cornered yourself.

“Ah ha!” You felt strong hands on your waist and the mattress dipped beside you.

“Wait! Mercy!” You laughed loudly, still trying to scramble out of his grip. “The hat hair isn’t even bad!”

You could tell he didn’t believe you, but he was biased as someone who always had perfectly coiffed hair. The way it flopped forward in front of his eyes and stood up in odd ends looked kind of cute in a way.

You brushed a hair out of his eyes. “I kind of like it.”

Never able to say no to you, he almost immediately gave in, turning the brim of the hat to the side so that he could give you a kiss. “I guess it looks better on you anyways.”

Without thinking, you pulled him back into for a second kiss. It was unlike the first with its quick nature. This one was deeper, more meaningful. It was your first real kiss in almost two years and it was a good one.

Quickly, you found your rhythm. It started slow, meaningful, with all of those months of missing each other behind it. It quickly turned heated, though, with you grabbing at each other like the other was a lifeline.

When Steve snuck his hands under the hem of your shirt, you didn’t protest. You separated yourself from him so that you could fully take his shirt off, relishing in the feeling of skin to skin contact after so long. Kissing your way down his neck, you savored the little noises that escaped him when you paused to suck at the crevice where his neck met his collarbone that he loved ever so much.

“Please,” He huffed. “I-“

The sound of the door creaking open separated the two of you like shrapnel. You ended up standing in the middle of the room awkwardly while Steve sat on your bed, quickly trying to re-clothe himself.

“Shelby!” You hoped she didn’t notice your out of breath nature. “Hey, I uh, I told you about Steve, didn’t I?”

Steve shot her a tight lipped smile. “I’m Steve.”

“Steve, like, trapped in Hawkins Steve? The one from the letters? That Steve?”

“You showed her my letters?”

“Murray has a big mouth.”

“Murray reads our letters?!”

You sighed and turned back to your roommate. “Yeah, the quarantine was lifted this morning. Steve drove over as soon as he heard.”

All of a sudden, your situation seemed to click to Shelby. She eyed your ruffled clothes, the state of your bed, then the thin sheen of sweat that was forming on your brow.

Grinning knowingly, she grabbed a few books off her desk and gave you a very non-discreet wink. “Alright then… I’ll be in the library studying. For exactly two and a half hours. Be safe.”

The door slammed shut and Steve burst out laughing behind you. “Oh, I like her. She’s funny.”

You felt your face turning red at the thought of the state that Shelby found you in, but tried to ignore it. “Whatever, Steve.”

“Hey, c’mon! She gave us two and a half hours, and I intend to use that time wisely.”

You smiled coyly. “Are you finally taking me up on that study date?”

Pairing: Steve Harrington x reader

Summary: Steve Harrington is bad at giving good signals. And bad signals. Actually all signals.

Warnings: canon typical violence, canon divergence, lazy post :P

Word Count: 1.7K

When you met Steve Harrington, you didn’t think much of him. You were too busy focusing on the potentially world (and life) ending threats to think about him in any other way than as someone who’s had your back.

Things changed, though, when you were in the upside down with him, Nancy, Jonathan and Eddie. You had split into two groups to try and find something to do with what was going on and had come up dry.

The sound of heavy winds alerted you to the presence of demo-bats above you. You braced yourself for a fight, holding your weapon in front of you like a vice but when the time came for you to fight the bats alongside Steve, you found yourself backed into a corner by the man you were supposed to be helping.

Although it was an inconvenience, you just shoved him aside and shot him a snide remark.

“I can fight better than you. Don’t corner me again.”

Either he didn’t attempt to respond or you didn’t hear him because there was nothing to be heard after that.

What you supposed was a one-time thing quickly became an annoying habit. Whenever something even slightly dangerous came towards you, you noticed how Steve would subtly shift his weight so that he was in front of you even if he never took a step forward.

Even months after the plates had been put down where Hawkins broke open, some lady’s dog got off its leash while you were with Steve.

It was clearly not dangerous, only a mid-size dog that was running over with it’s tail wagging, but apparently that translated differently to Steve because before you could do anything, he had stepped in front of you, bravely taking the brunt of the slobbery dog kisses that were to follow.

It was only a small incident, but it ticked you off more than any of the others. Those were real life threatening situations, but this? This was Steve stroking his own ego.

“God, these people need to put their dogs on leashes…”

“I don’t need you to try and protect me, you know,” you crossed your arms and rested the majority of your weight on one foot while Steve took his time brushing himself off.

“Huh?” A small crease formed in between his brows. “That dog could have been vicious, you never know-“

“No, it’s— whatever, never mind.” You decided to drop it. It wasn’t too big of a deal anyway, and you didn’t want to make it seem like you were making a mountain out of a molehill.

Steve shrugged noncommittally, always willing to let whatever you weren’t ready to talk about go. “Alright, I’ve got something at the station.”

“See you,” you said, waving over your shoulder at Steve, who had already begun walking.

——

When Holly got kidnapped, you didn’t know until you heard a knock on your door— no, a banging.

You quickly rushed over after being woken up in the middle of the night to find Steve Harrington standing there panting in his pajamas. Butterflies almost formed in your stomach at the sight of Steve Harrington at your apartment door in the middle of the night until he opened his mouth.

“Are you alright?” He breathed out.

Immediately your face soured. “What happened?”

It seemed as if between incidents of protectiveness, Steve would completely forget about you.

One thing you hated especially was being led on, and you had no idea whether or not you were actually being lead on by Steve. Unsure if he was being a playboy or painfully oblivious, you opted to simply distance yourself from him. Although it hurt, you’d be able to stand the moments when he looked at you like you were the most important thing in the world if you didn’t have feelings for him.

Honestly, he didn’t seem to notice. In retrospect, you’d started to wonder if you’d been picking up signals at all.

Of course, you had to field a few questions from your friends about why you and Steve don’t seem as close as usual, but they got used to it as well. You thought you were starting to get over your feelings for him.

That was until Holly went missing.

A whole year and a half, you and Steve had been nothing more than hood acquaintances and it all went down the drain the moment he ran at the demogorgon you were fighting— though it could barely be considered that with how bad you were getting beat— with no regard for his personal safety.

“I don’t need you to protect me,” you spat at Steve with an unjustified amount of anger.

He huffed, only sparing you a glance. “Humor me.”

The moment the demo crumpled to the ground, he didn’t go to see what killed it. He ran to you.

Steve grabbed your shoulders, looking you up and down for injuries. “Are you hurt? Did it get you?”

It was that look again that almost pulled you back in. You had to remind yourself that this was Steve. It meant nothing to him, even if it did to you. You snapped yourself out of it and shrugged his steady hands off your shaky shoulders. “I’m fine.” You forced a smile onto your face. “Now, I don’t know about you but I wanna know what took that demo down.”

——

You had opted to stay behind with Murray on the day that everything went down. It helped you distance yourself from the emotional confusion that often came with conflict, and Murray had a helping hand.

You didn’t notice the walkie going silent after the explosion. You couldn’t hear much at all over the ringing in your ears, let alone try the walkie.

Apparently to Steve, it was the end of the world that your walkie went silent.

When you found your way back to the truck where everyone was set to meet up, it was no surprise that a certain someone ran to you first.

In the beginning, you let him hug you tighter than ever before. You relished in the way that he held your face in both hands, gently running his thumb along the line of your cheekbone where shrapnel had cut open.

Then, you came to your senses. “No.” You pushed Steve away.

“Wh-“

“You can’t do this. You can’t- you can’t just treat me like this when we’re in these high stakes situations and then go back to pretending like it’s all normal! I just-“ You felt tears threatening your eyes and suddenly became all too aware of the way you were beginning to draw your friends’ eyes. “We can talk about this later.”

There was no word of protest from Steve at that, but as luck would have it, you found yourself smushed into his side in the back of the truck. Every bump and turn felt like torture as it pressed you closer and closer to the one person that you would have liked to see the least of in that moment.

“Can we just- I mean, we might as well talk about it now that we’re here.” Steve kept his voice low, as to not be heard by the others.

You groaned inwardly, loathing to admit that he was right. No time like that present.

“I just… you…” You struggled to find the words. “You’re kind of sending me mixed signals here.”

Steve blew out a breath and you could tell he knew what you were talking about, but he played dumb. “Mixed signals?” His voice raised in pitch in the way it did when he was avoiding something.

You craned your neck back so that your head was resting against the metal wall of the bus. “You only seem to care about me when I’m in danger, or— when you think I’m in danger. If I’m not about to die, it seems like you couldn’t care less.”

An almost self deprecating smile appeared. “I really like you, y’know that?” The confession came out of nowhere. You were completely stunned by it, but somehow not surprised at all. “Do you know how it feels to see this girl that you’re just… so in love with be so willing to throw her life away?”

Your eyes blew wide open at the second confession. Steve Harrington loved you?

He chuckled dryly when he saw your reaction but kept talking. “I didn’t want you to feel like… like I was using you as a rebound for Nance. I know everyone thinks I’m not over her, but… it’s you. It’s been you for a while now, and apparently I’m not as good at hiding it as I thought.”

“You’re not.” Silently, you interlocked your fingers together as a way to acknowledge his words. Steve looked at you with a gentle smile and squeezed gently and that was all it took. In the crowded truck full of people, Steve told you that he loved you. It was a moment just for the two of you.

Of course, that moment was soon interrupted by the Upside Down being blown to smithereens, but soon enough (after extensive questioning) you found your way back to each other.

You were exhausted after the long hours in the facility. Not knowing if they had let anyone else go, or even where anyone else was, you just sat down on the nearest bench to think. When rubbing the tiredness out of your eyes, you felt a small tap on your shoulder followed by a mocking voice.

“Uh, excuse me, ma’am, do you believe that US law applies to otherworldly dimensions?”

Of course, Steve Harrington had found a way to make you smile after everything.

“Hi,” You said simply.

Pairing: Steve Harrington x reader

Summary: Steve invites you to a party with some high school friends and things get a bit hectic

Warnings: drunkenness, micro-bullying, partying, pet names, making out, the Bimmer is alive and well, Carol and Tommy had slight character development, Steve doesn’t like emotional convos with drunk girlfriends anymore

Word Count: 2K

You’d never heard much about Steve’s high school life other than the rare, off handed comment about how much of a jerk he was for the first three years. Nancy denied it vehemently, having dated him during those three years and claimed it was just the people he hung out with, but Steve still insisted he was just as bad.

Of course, you saw no hint of a high school bully in your boyfriend. To you, he was just Steve who you had (apparently thankfully) never been to high school with. That version of Steve, along with his friends at the time, were all in the past.

That was, until he ran into them at Blockbuster on a random Friday night.

——

While perusing the horror section, thinking about you clinging to him in fear at the movie, (and pushing away the fact that it would likely turn out with him clinging to you for safety) Steve heard an all too familiar voice.

“Babe, come on!” Carol strolled into the store and Steve quickly tried to hide in the nearest hidden aisle. “I heard from Sue that they have it!”

Footsteps that he had assumed belonged to her boyfriend followed and- oh lord, it was Tommy. “If you tell anyone I watched this-“

“Don’t worry!” Her horribly exaggerated vocal fry was like nails on a chalkboard to him. “You have things that could get me in more trouble than if I told someone you watched a chick flick.”

A chick flick? What aisle did he duck into again?

“-Steve?” Tommy’s scrunched eyebrows were a striking juxtaposition to the bright smile that spread across his face. “Man, what’re you doing here? Looking for a…” he took a glance around the aisle and the look on his face showed his disappointment at the lack of masculine options in the aisle. “Cowboy romance?”

“It’s uh, for my girlfriend.” Steve didn’t know why he lied. He could watch some raunchy cowboy romance if he wanted.

Carol gasped with exaggeration. “Nancy likes these movies?!”

“Uh,” he braced for impact. “Nancy’s not my girlfriend anymore. We’re just friends.”

Steve didn’t quite catch it all, but he was pretty sure somewhere between the fussing, the rambling, and the high pitched squeals, there was an invitation to a housewarming party.

“Tommy and I just moved in together! You gotta come. Bring your girlfriend too.” Carol had that subtle hint in her voice that Steve had heard too many rimes to ignore, although it was never directed it at him until now. She thought he was bluffing. She was talking down to him.

Being the most mature (or so he told himself) one out of the three, Steve just nodded and tried to find the most polite way to get the hell out of there, which, unfortunately was to give them his number and say he had a doctors appointment, ignoring Tommy’s mocking comment that he forgot to rent his chick flick.

——

You almost didn’t catch the fact that the party Steve was asking you to come with him to was hosted by Carol and Tommy.

“Baby?” The two of you were lying down on the couch in front of an old movie, Steve’s head rested on your chest while you dragged your nails lazily through his hair.

“Hm?”

“Some friends from high school invited me to their housewarming party, can you come with me?”

You almost said yes on instinct because Steve’s only ever asked you to come to parties that he actually wanted to go to, but something in his voice said he was hesitant to ask you. “Didn’t you say your friends from high school were jerks?”

“Yeah, but…” he lifted his head to look at you, revealing his red face. “I dunno, they have these mind tricks- got me to agree to come and to bring my super hot girlfriend!”

You smirked. “They didn’t say super hot.”

“They didn’t have to,” Steve shrugged playfully and leaned in for a kiss that never landed. “It’s implied… also there’ll be free food. Probably.”

“Free food or free booze?” You leveled him with an unimpressed stare.

“Both?” His voice raised to a higher pitch like it was another question rather than the answer to one.

You didn’t like to admit it, but with Steve, flattery worked every time. “Fine. When is it?”

He seemed to shrink in on himself before your eyes. “Tomorrow…?”

“Steve!”

“I’m sorry!”

You sighed and finally granted him the kiss. “You owe me big time.”

“Big time.”

——

After a short five minute drive, you arrived at a quaint house, just big enough for a couple who had just bought their first home together.

The actual party was smaller than you had anticipated. After hearing all the stories from Steve about these huge house parties that would get shut down by the police, you almost asked Steve to turn around and assumed you had the wrong address when you saw only six or seven cars parked outside the house.

As you were quickly patting down the ruffles in your dress to make yourself more presentable before walking in, you felt a gentle hand on your waist.

“Hi,” You greeted your boyfriend with a smile.

A cheshire grin spread across his face and he leaned in for a kiss. “You look good.”

You were wearing an older dress that you’d recently dug out from the back of your closet. It wasn’t anything Steve hasn’t seen before, but he seemed to especially like it that night.

You giggled and captured his lips in another kiss, feeling his grin against yours as he leaned in closer, trapping you against the car with his body. Your hands snaked around his neck as the kiss intensified because you relished in the way he would let out quiet, almost imperceptible noises when you tugged at his hair.

“Mph-“ Steve pulled away, still panting from the kiss. “We should get out of here..”

You were about to say yes when you saw a vision in yellow approaching you.

“I know that Bimmer anywhere, Harrington.”

Steve closed his eyes and his brows scrunched as if he was trying to build up the courage to be nice to her before turning around. “Carol, hey!” His bright white smile was as fake as could be, and it almost made a laugh slip out of you. “This is my girlfriend!”

“Oh! The one who likes cowboy romances.” A smirk was plastered on her face, but you didn’t care to notice because when you looked at Steve with confusion, he seemed as if he would combust with embarrassment.

You just gritted your teeth and begun to walk towards the house. “Yep! Love a good cowboy romance…”

In your opinion, the first half of the party wasn’t that bad. It was a smaller function with about fifteen or twenty people there, most of which had split up based on gender. While you were planning to stick by Steve for the duration of the night, that fell through the moment you felt a taloned hand grasp your wrist and insist you ‘let the boys do their thing’ because ‘it’s much funner over here anyways.’

Steve, Tommy, and the others were hanging out in the kitchen while you were squished between two girls on a small couch.

You actually thought it was quite fun. The girls were nice to you and only asked a few intrusive questions about your relationship (and brought up Nancy once or twice to see your reaction) but other than that, it was fun.

A drink was placed in your hand at one point that you had assumed was non-alcoholic because Carol’s younger sister was drinking the same thing as a sixteen year old. The party only got better from there for you.

By the time you noticed the drink was spiked, you had already consumed enough for it to be extremely obvious to those around you that you were slurring your words slightly.

“Heyyy… is this alcoholic?” You held up the small plastic cup to the woman sitting next to you while trying your hardest not to spill on her pristine white dress.

You never got a straight response, just an “Oh, honey…” and a hand on your knee while she spoke murmured words to another woman.

In what seemed like two seconds, Steve came to you with a glass of water and a concerned look on his face. “Here, drink this…” He crouched in front of you and handed you the drink, waiting for you to finish before discarding both your empty water cup and your mysterious alcoholic beverage on the nearest coffee table. “Are you okay to get up? How many did you have?”

Ever stubborn, you waved him off frivolously. “I’m fffine, I only had- I had as many as I had.” You stood up quickly, ignoring the woozy feeling that washed over you. “R’we leaving?”

A solid arm soon locked around your waist, stabilizing your unsteady walk.

You sighed as the cool autumn air hit your skin. It was sobering, in a way, and in that moment of clarity you decided to halt your steps, forcing Steve— who was all but carrying you— to stop with you.

“Stevee I wanna- lemme tell you something.” Something that you didn’t care to look into flashed across his face.

“Please, just- don’t talk to me until we’re home.” Steve snapped at you and you didn’t know why. The alcohol must have had a greater effect on you than you were aware of because instead of sticking up for yourself like you normally would have, you just stayed silent in the passenger seat for the remainder of the drive home.

As Steve walked you through the door of the apartment, even though you knew you should have been mad at him for snapping at you back at Carol and Tommy’s house, the words just escaped your lips before you could stop them.

“I love you…” You looked up at your boyfriend and he seemed surprised, almost taken aback at your confession.. It wasn’t like you hadn’t told the other that you loved each other before, so why was it different now?

He smiled, just a little, as he smoothed out your hair and placed a kiss atop your head. “Let’s get you to bed.”

“Wait!” You protested when Steve grabbed your hand to take you to the bathroom. “You didn’t say it back.”

This time, a full belly laugh came out of Steve instead of that gentle smile. “I love you so much, baby, now let’s get you some sleep. You’re gonna hate me for your hangover tomorrow.”

You giggled and followed him towards the bathroom. “I would never hate you.”

——

You woke up with a pounding headache the next day and the light straining in from the curtains made it feel like there were needles behind your eyes.

“Steve, love?”

“Hm?” He grunted out, half asleep.

Pairing: Steve Harrington x reader

Summary: req

Warnings: jealousy, pet names, y/n used sparsely

Word count: 2.6K (short, sorry)

You had started seeing Steve Harrington sometime in the beginning of the year after you decided to give the shameless flirt from Family Video a chance, never thinking that it would turn into anything more serious. Much to your surprise, you ended up liking said shameless flirt more than you’d ever liked anyone and just a few weeks later, he had asked you to be his girlfriend.

Months later found you sitting in the Harrington house, cuddled up against your boyfriend and laughing to yourself every time Steve pretended like the horror movie on the tv didn’t scare him.

“We can turn it off if you want.” You felt bad for letting Steve pick a horror movie after he had flinched for about the hundredth time in the first half hour.

“No, no,” He assured you, thinking you didn’t notice how he would hide his face in your hair whenever a tense scene would come up. “It’s a- it’s a great movie, actually.”

You looked at him, knowing that he was lying but shrugged and turned your face back toward the screen. Horror movies didn’t bother you much, but you’d planned on acting scared anyway as an excuse to be near Steve. Turns out, you didn’t even need to pretend because Steve was actually scared of the movie.

When the phone rung, both of you jumped sky high at the unexpected sound before turning to each other and bursting with laughter.

“I think that’s enough Freddy Krueger for one night,” Steve commented. You didn’t have time to speak your agreement because Steve was already leaning in to kiss you.

It was a sweet kiss, not long or drawn out but still nice. You could feel Steve’s smile against your lips as you pulled away, gently running your nails along the back of his hair.

“Aren’t you gonna answer it?” You nodded towards the phone.

Steve shrugged. “If it’s important they’ll leave a message.”

It was almost comedic the way that the moment Steve leaned back in, the voice of one Robin Buckley rang out through the living room.

“Hey, where are you? I-“

Steve’s eyes blew wide open, suddenly darting off the couch and towards the phone. “Oh my God, I forgot… yeah, I know. I told Y/n we’d hang out tonight- yes, I know I shouldn’t’ve, but… no, yeah. It should be in the drawer on the left— okay, I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”

Normally you’d take the chance to ogle Steve as he spoke on the phone, watching as he fiddled with the cord or rocked back and forth as he waited for the other person to finish talking but not today.

You crossed your forearms over the back of the couch, resting your head on it, staring at Steve in dissatisfaction. It bothered you the way that he was always around that girl, and even if he didn’t see it, it was obvious to you that she liked him. No girl would spend that much time with Steve Harrington and want to keep things 100% friendly.

You didn’t realize a pout had worked its way onto your face until Steve hung up the phone and walked back over to you.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” His eyebrows pinched together in concern.

Schooling your expression, you sat back on the couch. You couldn’t help being a bit jealous of Robin, but you didn’t want to act like the ever stereotypical jealous girlfriend, so you just smiled and took his hands in yours, pulling him down towards you. “Just missed you is all,”

A grin spread across Steve’s face. “Well, I am very missable.”

——

Steve had always let you know that you should feel free to stop by WSQK any time. You never took him up on the offer because you figured he’d be busy actually working, and you couldn’t offer much of anything more than standing and watching Robin and Steve do their thing, but one boring Saturday when you had nothing to do, you found yourself wandering into the building.

Immediately upon entering you saw Robin flipping through a large bin stuffed with records, old and new and Steve was sitting off to the side in a swivel chair, mindlessly throwing a robber ball at a wall.

At the sound of the door, both heads turned to you. You saw Steve’s face light up at your presence and Robin’s drop at the sight.

Silently reminding yourself that you trusted your boyfriend and that Robin’s feelings wouldn’t change his, you awkwardly waved at the duo from the door. “What are you guys doing?” You asked, not really sure what to do.

“Uh- Steve looked at Robin and her records and back to you. “Just going through some old music- pretty much nothing. What do you say we grab a bite?”

Robin’s head shot up, looking at Steve like he was ridiculous for the suggestion. “Steve, what do you think of this upside down record?”

Steve made a pshhh noise and waved her off. “We’ll be back soon, Rob. It’ll be fine.”

“Whatever.” Robin rolled her eyes.

For a moment Steve looked conflicted, like he was unsure whether to go with you or stay with Robin but with a small sigh, he grabbed your hand and led you down the street.

As you sipped on your drink, you tried to look interested in the conversation at hand but for the past few weeks, almost every time you’d hung out, there had been some sort of issue with Robin.

“Hey, do you think Robin doesn’t like me?” You didn’t mind that she liked Steve— well, maybe just a little (a lot)— but you could tolerate it if she weren’t actively trying to come between the two of you.

The question stopped Steve mid-chew. He had been rambling on about something to do with Ronald Reagan, so the question had come completely out of left field. “Why would you think that?”

You shrugged instinctively. “I dunno, she just seems to have… protests whenever we hang out.”

Steve popped a fry into his mouth. “Robin likes you fine, don’t worry.”

You definitely worried, because when Steve invited you to hang out with him and Robin afterward and you accepted, you received possibly the worst death glare of your life.

It was alright when Robin was going through different cassettes loaded with sound effects to use on-air, but when she finished up and sat with you and Steve on the couch, you began to get uncomfortable.

“Speaking of scandals…” You cut into Steve’s rant about politics. “Did you see Prince Charles is cheating on his wife with that woman— what’s her name?”

“Oh, Camilla!” Robin perked up. “I heard about that!”

“Yeah,” You couldn’t help but stare at Robin. “I don’t know how she could come and try to break up their relationship like that— right Robin?”

Robin’s eyebrows furrowed in response. “Well, we don’t know the circumstances there, to be fair. Like… maybe Charles and Camilla were friends for a while before Diana and as soon as Diana comes along- poof! He just starts ditching Camilla for Diana.”

“Well,” You let out a laugh that wasn’t quite funny. “Maybe Diana’s allowed to take up more of Charles’s time. She’s his wife-“

“Woah!” Steve’s voice cut in and you both turned to look at him. “I’m starting to get the feeling here that this isn’t about the royal family.” In a rare moment of solidarity, you and Robin shared a look to marvel at Steve’s density. “What’s going on?”

You pursed your lips, not wanting to be the one to speak first, but after a considerable amount of silence in which Steve’s head swiveled from you to Robin and back, you decided you had no choice but to speak up.

“Look, I just don’t like how Robin keeps trying to get between us— sue me.”

The other girl’s face contorted into that of disgust. “I’m not trying to get between you— I just don’t want to get ditched every time I hang out with my friend!”

“Right,” You scoffed. “Cause that’s your only intention.”

Robin’s eyes widened. “I don’t want Steve, like, at all.”

You crossed your arms, unwilling to compromise.

There seemed to be some sort of telepathic conversation between Steve and Robin that you weren’t privy to, but you didn’t comment on it. “Y/n, I really don’t like Steve.”

Your eyebrows furrowed at the emphasis, trying to process what she was trying to say. When you looked at Steve, he looked like he was trying to hold in a laugh. “Wait, so you’re saying…”

“I should be more jealous than you.”

You facepalmed in embarrassment. “So all those times you called to say you needed him here wasn’t just so you could hang out?”

“It’s harder than you think.”

You then turned to Steve, having a sudden realization. “And you’ve just been… bailing on her for no reason?!”

“Wh-“ Steve looked around the room to an imaginary audience. “How did this become my fault?!”

“I thought you were trying to avoid her advances or something, not avoid doing your job!”

——

After clearing things up with Robin, things became much better for you and Steve— especially because it had become the new normal to hang out with all three of you present, or even just you and Robin.

It was nice to have a new girl friend to do things with and who wouldn’t judge you for anything except dating Steve.

“Ooh, we should go roller skating!” Robin spotted a sign within the mall for a new place that opened.

You smiled. “I feel like you take me on more dates than Steve at this point,” You joked, knowing it was untrue.

“Well,” She shrugged. “If he’s gonna be a deadbeat boyfriend, then I might as well use you to scout for future locations.”

That statement made your eyebrows raise in surprise. “Things are going well with Vickie, I take it?”

Crush

Pairing: Steve Harrington x reader

Summary: req^^

Warnings: canon divergence, canon typical violence, reader briefly dates an oc, y/n is used maybe 3 or 4 times

Word count: 9.6K

For some reason I didn’t realize they recorded at family video until after I wrote this 🥹🥹 also I havent seen Girl Meets World but I looked up clips on YouTube and hopefully I got it right!!

Reqs are open :)

[Age 14]

You’d never been interested in hanging around with Dustin’s friends. He’d always been a bit nerdier than you, and you never really got into dnd anyways, so you had nothing to bond over with Lucas, Mike, and Will. They’d rush into the house, murmur scattered greetings, and scurry back out the door with your brother in tow.

That was until you went to answer the door one day and saw possibly the most attractive man in the world, like, if it were between him and Patrick Swayze, you’d pick this guy.

He held a wide stance with one hand resting on his hip and the other shielding his squinting eyes from the sun. You saw the barest hint of something metal peeking out of his bag, but you were more focused on his face than anything else.

“Hi, is Dustin here? Do you know?”

You gave him a deceptively sweet smile and closed the door so that it was only cracked before screaming to your brother. “DUSTIN! Some guy with great hair’s asking for you!”

Seconds later, footsteps sounded on the stairs. “Steve!?”

You opened the door again. “Steve?”

Steve nodded. “Steve.”

You wiggle your eyebrows in what you hoped was a suggestive manner. “Steve.” 

Steve’s eyes blew wide open and he held his hands out in front of him. “Woah, there. You’re like- what, thirteen?”

“Fifteen,” you pouted.

“Fourteen.” You silently cursed your brother who had crept up behind you. “And mom said you can’t have a boyfriend until sixteen.”

“Ugh, shut up!”

Dustin laughed obnoxiously in your face and slipped out the door to join Steve. 

——

From that day on (much to your brother’s demise) you found yourself tagging along with Dustin and his friends much more often. He complained almost every time you darted out the door behind him but you didn’t mind because you’d get to see your future husband Steve.

Unfortunately, this meant that you were eventually exposed to what Dustin was really doing with all that time he’d spent with his friends.

You were biking back home from a friend’s house one night and spotted an all too familiar red car. You also happened to hear the distant shouting of your brother and his friends in the woods, so you figured you’d go check it out, maybe even give them a good scare. 

Making the trek into the woods that night proved to be less than fruitful. You had been following the shouts for around two minutes when you finally reached a clearing where you saw the whole group fighting some… thing. 

A scream sounded from you before you could stop it because leaning over your brother was a disgusting, slimy creature that looked like it was about to kill him. 

In a moment, the thing turned to you and begun in a sprint. You were frozen in fear, unable to do anything but stare as it barreled towards you. 

At what seemed to be the last second, a blast sounded and the head of the creature exploded in a firework of gore right in your face. 

When the thing collapsed, it revealed Steve standing behind it at point blank range with a 12 gauge rifle still pointed where the head of the monster used to be. 

“Are you okay? Y/n? Hey, Dustin! Your sister- she’s here!”

You couldn’t bring yourself to respond, still trying to fight off a panic attack from what the hell just went down. 

In a moment you saw your younger brother running over to see what was going on. “Shit!” He shouted. “Steve, what the hell!?”

“A demo came for her, I don’t know what’s going on now!”

He came to a stop in front of you and waved a hand in front of your face. You spat out the blood of the ‘demo’ and tried to stop yourself from crying in front of your brother. 

“I’m… I’m fine.” Your voice came out shaky and unsure, which was apparently obvious because of the look that Steve and Dustin shared. 

Steve sighed deeply. “How’d you get here?”

“I was… I was biking, and I heard you guys shouting. I thought you were playing a game or something, not-“

“Alright.” He cut you off and looked to your brother. “Henderson, you guys got it from here?”

Dustin nodded. “You take her home.”

You watched as Steve rummaged through the backseat of his car, trying to find something for you to wear so you didn’t get blood all over his seats. He managed to find a towel for you to sit on and wrapped you in an old jacket he no longer cared about. 

For some reason, that simple gesture let you slip back into your normal self, if only slightly. “Giving me your hoodie, how romantic.”

Steve rolled his eyes and grabbed the handle of the passenger door, preparing to close it. “I’m too old for you. Don’t you have someone a bit more… age appropriate for you to crush on?”

“Three years isn’t that bad,” You argued. “Most people’s parents have like, a ten year age gap!”

He just shut your door and begun to drive.

——

[Age 16]

“Hello sailor!” You shot Steve a mocking salute before approaching the counter. 

“Don’t even start.” He pinched the bridge of his nose in faux annoyance. “I saw Max in here just a minute ago, why don’t you go hang out with her? I think Nancy’s around here somewhere too!”

You pursed your lips. “Woah, Steve. I’m a bit young for someone of that age!”

“C’mon, you know it’s different, now scram! I’ve got work to do, ice cream to scoop!”

You heard a snort from behind him and looked up to see Robin. You’d heard so much about her from Steve that you couldn’t help but be a bit jealous of their relationship. Even if Steve didn’t think you were too young for him, he was very obviously interested in Robin. Still, you didn’t let your feelings be known to either of them, just listening to the banter between friends. 

“Puhlease, the only reason you work here is because you have to do like, nothing.”

“Hey, I scoop ice cream.” He held up his hands in a ‘gotcha’ gesture, but Robin raised her eyebrows in a way that signaled for him to continue to list his duties. “I… I-“

“He doesn’t have to do anything, just has to stand there and look pretty in uniform.” You made a clawing motion with your hand similar to a cat’s, which made Robin double over with laughter. 

“I have to continuously remind one girl in particular that she’s too young.”

“Woah there, sailor boy. All that matters is the motion of the ocean, not the size of the wave.”

Steve covered up the bottom half of his face, which was turning red in embarrassment. “Get out. That was so bad, just- Robin, please. It’s really not that funny.”

Satisfied with the chaos you’d caused, you obliged him and left to find out where Max had gone off to. 

Hours later, you regrouped with Dustin and mutually agreed that you didn’t feel like biking home in the dark after walking around all day, so you walked on over to your favorite ice cream shop to beg Steve for a ride. 

Of course, he gave in, but told you he’d never give either of you a ride ever again. (lie)

Dustin was asleep in the back seat of the car almost immediately, prompting you to whisper-shout to Steve to pull over while you pulled a marker out of the center console. After you had doodled all over Dustin’s face, only then did you allow him to keep driving. 

The drive was mostly silent, which was unusual for the both of you. Normally, there was some form of banter whether it be insults towards each other or inside jokes, but it had never been silent before. 

You told yourself over and over not to overthink the situation. He was just quiet because it was later at night and he had been at work all day.

Then you let your gaze wander, your mind along with it. You couldn’t help but focus on his hand, which was normally so busy was sat stationary on the center console. 

Before you could even think to stop yourself, you placed a hand over his.

Steve instantly flinched away from your touch, putting his hand on the steering wheel. 

“Y/n, I-“

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it-” You didn’t realize it, but all of your flirtatious advances had been presented as jokes up until that moment. The notion of Steve actually knowing for a fact that you felt something real with him scared you. 

A million things flashed in your mind that moment. You were afraid that he’d stop wanting to be friends with you, stop coming around your house. You were afraid that his rejection would be real as well, not just some of handed comment he threw at a horrible pick up line. 

“Look,” You couldn’t help but stare at the muscles in his jaw tensing up as he thought about what to say. “I know you like me, but this… it’s never going to happen. I’m sorry.” 

You knew he felt that way already, but hearing it out loud made your heart break into tiny pieces. You thought he knew that too, and that was why he kept his eyes glued to the road, refusing to so much as spare you a glance. 

“You’re just… too young for me. I want you to find someone your age— someone normal that you’ll really, really love because you’re so amazing, and there has got to be someone out there who can appreciate you like you deserve.”

“But,” You looked down at your lap, absentmindedly picking at your nail. “It can’t be you?”

“It can’t.”

You got home, and for the first time in a long while, you dug out that hoodie that he gave to you when you were fourteen and slipped it on. 

Back then, you’d washed the hoodie about fourteen times so that you could be extra sure that any demogorgon blood got out of the fabric, but soon regretted it because along with the blood, it had washed away his smell.

 It wasn’t like you hadn’t been rejected by Steve countless times before, but it was always served with a smile and a joke. The way he said it that night— serious, with his lips pressed into a thin line— made it feel like a real rejection. That was him drawing a line in the sand, telling you that it would really never happen, that the whole thing had gone on too long. That was Steve telling you that it wouldn’t happen in a million years.

Of course, it didn’t help that Steve was kind enough to check in on you and make sure you were alright. 

“I might have been a little harsh yesterday. I just wanted to kinda check in and make sure we’re good.”

“Yeah,” You nodded and smiled without opening your mouth. “It’s all good.”

“Cool,” That seemed to appease Steve because he held out his hand for a fist bump. “See you around, Henderson.”

——

[age 18]

It was a bit awkward at first, figuring out how to be ‘normal friends’ with Steve, but strangely enough you liked hanging around him even more once you were able to relax into a comfortable friendship (which did not help the crush that you were still pushing down.)

Robin had become one of your closest friends in the past year, so much so that your house pretty much became her second home. So, when you mentioned needing a bit of extra money, of course she would mention that she did run a pretty successful radio station, if you’d be interested in helping her out.

You said yes on the spot, only once letting it cross your mind that Steve and Robin had always worked together. What you didn’t take into account was that you would be working in very tight quarters. 

“Hey, what’s my second favorite Henderson doing here?” Steve bounded out of the booth to greet you with a side hug.

He had become much more affectionate now that you were strictly just friends. It made sense now that there was a boundary that wasn’t going to be crossed, but you couldn’t say that it didn’t make you uncomfortable. You hated that he was still able to affect you like that in any way, but you didn’t let it show. Telling Steve would force you to admit that there was still something there, and there definitely wasn’t.

“Robin didn’t tell you?”

Robin took off one of her headphones and rolled over to the door of the booth on her swivel chair. “She works here now, by the way.”

“Huh… and what does she do?”

Robin grinned evilly. “I know how much you struggle to keep up during broadcasts, so…”

“I do not!”

“Hmmmm…” Robin tapped a pencil to her chin. “I seem to remember you playing screams of terror instead of applause, just yesterday…”

“Okay, it was one time-“

“What about last week when you-“

“Okay! We don’t need to bring that one up, Rob.” Steve raised his hands in surrender.

“Plus, she has good music taste.” Robin winked at you.

You smiled and walked into the booth, taking a seat beside her. You had her music taste because you two shared practically all your records. 

It only took two days of working with them until Robin made up some ridiculous nonexistent task to get Steve out of the studio so she could talk to you.

“Holy shit! You still like Steve, don’t you!?”

“Wh- no!” You looked at her like she was insane and went back to sorting through cassettes. 

“I saw you giving him eyes during the broadcast today.”

“I was not giving him eyes-“

“And what was that last night during the crawl? Dustin went out to fix the tracker and you and Steve just happened to go radio silent.”

What really happened was that Steve had run over a cat and you insisted on having a funeral for it on the side of the road. Steve protested briefly, but gave in after you guilted him about the ethics taking a life. Demogorgons excluded. 

Steve told Dustin to radio that the tracker was broken as an excuse to stop for five minutes without being shamed by everyone else. 

“We were helping Dustin fix it!”

“Wait,” Robin gasped. “What about Mark?”

You’d been dating Mark for a few months now. He was the first guy to show interest in you since you’d stopped rejecting guys in hopes that Steve would ask you out. In the moment you weren’t interested in him, but figured he was cute enough. You’d give him a chance. 

As it turned out, he was a really funny, really sweet guy. When he kissed you at the end of your first date, you didn’t pull away. You just leaned in and told him you’d see him tomorrow.

It wasn’t the sort of relationship that brought fireworks or fiery passion, but it was nice. Mark was safe. He was faithful and kind and you could hardly ask for anything more. 

“I told you, I don’t like Steve. I wouldn’t be with Mark if I liked Steve.”

“You don’t like Steve, you looooove Steve.” Robin giggled at the groan of frustration you let out. “I’ve never seen you look at Mark that way.”

Your nose crinkled in confusion. Nothing had changed about the way you’d viewed Steve. “What way?”

“Like he hung the damn stars, Y/n.”

“I look at Mark like that! I’ll… I’ll bring him in to watch the broadcast tomorrow, you’ll see.”

——

“Woah, this place is sick!” Mark let go of your hand to meander around the building. “I’d miss half our dates to keep my job here too.”

Shane bloomed in your chest as you nodded silently. You had almost forgotten that you’d used Rockin Robin as an excuse to help out with the crawls for the past few months. You made up a tyrannical boss that ordered you to work long hours and held the job over your head. Hoping he wouldn’t notice that you had no such boss, you grabbed his hand and lead him over to the booth where Robin and Steve were having an animated conversation.

“Hey, guys!” They paused the conversation immediately. Robin smiled and Steve’s eyes darted from you to Mark to your hands then back to you. “Mark’s gonna stay for a bit to watch.”

“Perfect,” Robin said in a sing songy voice. “Make yourself comfortable- Steve, I need you to queue up the cassettes, and Y/n-“

“Hm?”

“We need the song.”

You nodded shortly and went to grab the ‘crawl song’ as you’d started calling it.

Steve muttered something under his breath that sounded a lot like “Don’t get in the way,” but you chose to ignore it. He was just being petty having another guy there.

The moment that Robin hit the button to go on air, everything shot into action. You and Steve had begun rapidly exchanging cassette tracks, trying to keep up with Robin as she vomited faster than an auctioneer. 

You practically threw the record at her when she motioned for it because you were distracted with Steve your other job. 

When she started up the song was when you got to relax. Robin told you she’d be saying a few words to her mystery lady before the song started so you needn’t worry about too many sound effects.

While she finished up her message, you spared a glance at Steve with the expectation of barely concealed laughter. You and him would always share knowing looks when Robin gave coded messages to her mystery girl. 

Instead of the usual smug expression, there was a softness to his face. You turned away quickly, feeling that for some reason you saw something that you shouldn’t have. You didn’t care to decode the look in the moment, especially because you knew that when it came to Steve you had a tendency to overthink every little interaction. 

“…alright, and we should be all set for toni-“ Robin glanced at Mark. “That should be all for this morning. Y/n, you’re good to go.”

“Thanks, Rob!” You grabbed your backpack and your boyfriend and made a mad dash to your car. 

The broadcast had run long and you couldn’t have another late or you’d get a detention, so you hopped in the drivers seat and slammed on the gas. 

In your rush, you didn’t notice that Mark had been strangely silent for the entire ride. It wasn’t until you were parked and had begun to make your way across the parking lot that you took note enough to inquire about it. 

“Hey, you’ve been awfully quiet.”

Mark shrugged noncommittally. “Yeah, just thinking.”

“Are you mad cause I almost made us late? Because we made it with ten minutes to spare and I promise, that was the only time I’ll drag you to work-“

“Oh, right. Your job with the strict manager that always makes you stay late? Or was that a different one.”

Crap. He noticed. “Mark, it was for a good reason-“

“Was that reason to hang out with that guy- Seth?”

“Steve,” your voice came out small. You couldn’t tell Mark about the crawls— you knew that— but you didn’t want him to know that you’d been lying to him. 

“Oh, who gives a crap? Either way, you-“ He cut himself off, putting a closed fist to his mouth. “I really think we should call it here.”

“Wh- you’re breaking up with me?”

“I don’t know what’s going on with you and- and that guy, and if I’m being honest right now, I don’t want to.”

He turned to walk away, but you managed to grab the cuff of his sleeve not hard enough to pull him back, but just enough to give him pause. “Please, I- I really like you.”

He pressed his lips into a thin line. “Then tell me what you were doing with all those nights you cancelled on me.”

You couldn’t. You stayed silent, and forced yourself to watch as he tugged his arms out of your grip and walked into the school with his hands shoved in his pockets. 

The strangest thing happened in that moment. You’d been feeling just fine all day, but in that moment a wave of nausea overcame you and you threw up right there in the parking lot. 

You guessed it was alright to skip school if you were sick. 

A mere hour later would find you bawling in your room while Robin made meager attempts to cheer you up.

As soon as you’d made the decision to stay home that day, you called Robin to come over while your mother was at work. Normally on a day like this, it would be Steve’s house that you’d all meet up at because of his distinct lack of parentage, but the matter at hand wasn’t a particularly Steve one. Robin must have guessed what it was about because she didn’t even question it, just showed up at your door with snacks and a pitying smile on her face.

As you recounted the story to her, you managed to stay fairly level headed. She nodded along with an intensity that furrowed her brow. 

“Okay, wait- he broke up with you because you lied or because he thinks you have something with Steve-“

“Both. I couldn’t tell him why I was lying about having work, so he… filled in the blanks.”

Robin released a huff of air. “I hate that this stuff comes with the whole saving the world thing.”

“No kidding,” you snarked.

“… do you, though?”

“What?”

“Was I right… about Steve?”

You pursed your lips, not wanting to admit what you’d been afraid was true. You’d never really gotten over Steve— not really— though you’d tried your hardest to push the emotions down, being around him so much hardly helped. 

“I… do you remember when I was like, 15? I came into Scoops Ahoy like, every week.”

She laughed. “And you’d use those horrible pickup lines on Steve! That was like, the highlight of my day.”

“Yeah,” you laughed but it sounded more self deprecating than anything. “I stopped all of that cause Steve rejected me, and-“

“Wait, didn’t he reject you like, every day, though?”

“Yeah, but this was a serious one, Rob.”

“Oh.”

“Anyway, so I had my moment and I thought I’d cried all my feelings out. I could safely ignore it, and- and,” your voice cracked slightly and you blinked back a barrage of tears. “I hate that it never went away. He can’t know- it’s been so good being friends, I don’t want to ruin it.”

“Oh, Y/n.” Robin pulled you into a tight hug. “He’s an idiot, I’m sorry.”

“Not really,” you sniffled. “I don’t think I’d date a fifteen year old.”

Robin laughed. “Probably not.”

——

You showed up to the crawl with puffy eyes and dressed like a total bum, but you were prepared. It seemed at first like it’d be a normal crawl (minus Dustin who’d never showed up) so you’d hunkered down and prepared for a long night.

Jonathan sat in the backseat of the van, relaying directions while Steve drove around. The three of you fell into casual conversation about your lives soon enough, but the peace was quickly broken when you mentioned that Nancy’s hair had been looking nice lately. 

“Steve sure thinks so,” Jonathan said accusatorially. 

“Wh- what is with you thinking that I like Nance?”

“Oh, come on. The flowers thing? It’s so obvious.”

“That’s bull shit and you know it. We’ve had this conversation already!” He braced an elbow against the window to rest his head on. “Besides, I like someone else.”

“Who?” You asked much too hopefully. 

Steve’s mouth opened and closed once, and it looked as if he was about to say something. 

“LEFT!” Jonathan’s shout made you flinch in your seat. “Left right here!”

——

You woke up late the next day and couldn’t even bother to change out of your hoodie and sweats. It was later in the day— already afternoon— and you had slept right through everything. 

Initially, you panicked over being late to the crawl that night but calmed down when you saw that it was still dark outside, so you allowed yourself to clear the answering machine before your mom got home and had a light lunch before showing up to see your deranged little brother drilling a hole in the roof of Steve’s car. That was when you knew it’d be a crazy night. 

Hours later found you hurtling towards a closing inter-dimensional portal, gripping Steve’s arm like he wasn’t the one driving you towards certain death. 

When the car crashed into a large wall with no hope of getting out, you started to panic. Steve, Jonathan, and Nancy were walking ahead, busy trying to find a solution and all you could think about was that there were not only demogorgons and Vecna in the upside down, but there was also no conceivable way for you to get out yet. 

You’d never been in the upside down before, somehow always narrowly escaping because you happened to stick with the right group. Your breaths quickened as the air in the upside down suddenly felt poisonous. 

“Hey,” You jumped. You were so stuck in your own head that you hadn’t noticed that Steve had dropped behind Nancy and Jonathan to walk beside you. “It’s alright, we’ll get out of here.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do.” He didn’t even look at you as he reached out and interlocked your fingers, keeping his eyes on the path he was walking. “We’ve always made it back somehow. Plus, I think Dustin would kill me if I let you die.”

You snorted a laugh. “He’d probably start kissing the ground you walk on.”

For some odd reason, it didn’t even register to you that Steve Harrington was holding your hand, that he was brushing his thumb along your knuckles every few seconds in an attempt to comfort you. Since you’d been working at the video store, Steve had become more touchy, giving you full hugs instead of side hugs and finding excuses to annoy you by poking your side or putting his cold hands on your neck. You figured it was just another one of those things. He was being a good friend. 

Shots fired in front of you as three heavily armed military trucks pulled to a stop.

The four of you immediately went darting into the woods— smart thinking on Nancy’s part. There were too many trees in there to get a straight shot. 

Even so, you felt a stray bullet just barely graze the outside of your calf. You grunted in pain, but motioned that you were fine and kept running. 

“There! After Barb, Jonathan and I went to the upside down through a tree— I think that one’s it!” Nancy pointed to a trunk of a tree that was just hollowed out enough to fit one person. 

“And if it’s not!?” You shouted. 

Nancy looked grim. “It will be.”

You felt them before you saw them.

One of the soldiers had managed to grab hold of your hair and yank you back to them, shoving the barrel of a gun up against your head. “Where’s Eleven.”

“We don’t know! We accidental-“

The last thing you saw was the man bringing the butt of his gun out and slamming it back against your head.

Time passed quickly with you floating in and out of reality, only gathering enough information each time to know that you were safe before passing out again. 

When you finally woke up, you were in an unfamiliar room. Sitting up to get a look at your surroundings, you felt a weight that stopped you from fully sitting up. 

You knew that head of hair too well for it to be anyone else. 

Steve had fallen asleep sitting in a chair next to your bed. You poked him a few times, wondering what the hell happened in between then and now for you to be wherever the hell this place was. 

“Wh- oh my God.” He sat up quickly. “You’re awake.”

“I am,” You grinned. 

Almost immediately, Steve took it upon himself to tell you just about every detail that happened in the night before. 

“I’m so, so sorry. I shouldn’t have left you in the back, you could’ve-“

You smiled softly, wanting so badly to reach out and run a hand through his messed up bed head. “I’m okay, Steve. Really.”

He interlocked your fingers like the night before, only this time he turned your hand so that it faced him and brought it to his lips. He looked up at you with that same look that you didn’t want to try to decipher, but you hoped you were starting to understand the meaning. 

“I don’t want to lose you— ever.”  Steve stood up from the chair and leaned in toward you, bracing his arms on either side of you for balance. 

It was strange how up until the very moment that it happened, you doubted that he would actually kiss you.

It was slow and sweet. More meaningful than you knew how to describe— an apology and a promise both wrapped in a neat bow. He brought one hand to cradle the back of your neck, bringing you impossibly closer to him and you gratefully leaned into the touch. 

By the time you pulled away, your lips were red and puffy and you both needed to catch your breath. 

“Oooooh, you like meeee,” You couldn’t resist the urge to tease him after all those years. 

Steve only chuckled and pressed a chaste kiss to your lips. “I do.”

That response made your face flush red. It was clear now that your feelings were reciprocated, but hearing it aloud had a certain affect on you. 

“Also,” Steve squinted his eyes. “How’d you get the demo blood out of that hoodie? I swear, I can’t get it out of anything.”

You looked down and saw that you were still wearing the hoodie that Steve had lent to you after the incident with the demogorgon when you were fourteen. Barking a laugh, you told him about the insane amount of washes it’s been through and showed him the faint stains that still remained from four years prior. 

——

“…and this song is for a certain someone out there. They know who they are- love you, babe.”

You’d heard Robin recite her sappy spiel hundreds of times and laughed at how corny you thought it was but suddenly when it was your boyfriend reciting that same sappy spiel, it made your heart skip a beat- especially because you got to see him as he said it. 

As the song played, you drifted up behind Steve and let your hands run over his shoulders and down his torso before interlocking in a sort of half-hug. 

He leaned into the touch and looked up at you with a grin. “Were you tuned in? I said some stuff about you.”

“No, I think I missed it.” You spun Steve around in his chair and leaned against the armrest. “Guess you’ll have to do it again.”

“Or,” Steve said. “I can just do this.”

His lips settled against yours, falling into that familiar motion that you both loved so much. 

“Augh- guys!”  Robin pretended to shield her eyes as she walked into the room. “What did we say about macking in the booth!”

You pulled away and wiped the shine from your lips smugly. “You don’t follow it either, Rob. Don’t forget about you and Vickie, Thursday night…”

You made a lewd gesture that made Robin flush and Steve laugh.