#ditc

Though, truth be told you might have, given that you almost thought about Mews instead of the kitten by your feet. You could potentially blame being half asleep for that one, though. You’d still have to remember to ask Dustin about Mews running away later in the day. The cat food is, thankfully, still in the same spot it always had been in the pantry and you fill up Tews’s bowl, petting her head as she begins to chow down on her own breakfast while you begin to work on the pancakes you planned. 

Humming along to the music on the radio, you’re stirring the pancake batter while letting the pan heat up, and you hear footsteps behind you. Without turning around, you say, “I’m making pancakes. But it’ll still be a couple minutes. Could you set the table?”

“Can do.” Comes the yawn of a reply, but not from your cousin like you had expected. 

You hesitate to glance in the direction of the cabinet opening and spot Steve, hair out of place from sleep, as he’s pulling plates down like he’s done it countless times before. 

Quickly, you turn your attention back to the pancakes on the stovetop, flipping them as needed while you speak, “I didn’t realize you’d spent the night. Do you do that often?” 

“Just if Mrs. H is gonna be out late,” Steve replies, grabbing everything they need and then setting the table for the three of them. It was still relatively new for him to be in the Henderson household, but he’d acclimated quick, and was accustomed to being in their house and in their kitchen far more than he was his own. “She learned my parents aren’t around much, and she worried.” Plus, Steve himself had been worried given everything that happened, so he was grateful for Mrs. Henderson and the place to crash, too. 

“Yeah, that’s Aunt Claudia, she’s a worrier.” You laugh softly, putting some new pancakes in the pan once the others are safely on the plate you’d taken down earlier. “I think she kind of took all the worry genes in the family between her and my dad.” 

It’s supposed to sound like a joke, but you’re not sure your words truly gets the tone you were going for. And while Steve doesn’t say anything, or ask any questions about it, you can feel his eyes on you while he moves around the kitchen. 

Clearing your throat, you decide to change the subject, “Thanks, for last night, though.”

“What do you mean?” Steve pauses, eyebrows furrowed, looking at you while he was grabbing cups. 

“Well, unless Dustin has gotten super strong since the last time I saw him, I don’t think he’s the one who carried me up the stairs and put me in bed last night.” You reply, pointing the spatula in Steve’s direction with a smile. “I am sorry that you had to sleep on the couch, though.”

Shrugging his shoulders, Steve waves you off, “Don’t mention it.” It was no big deal, he wanted to say. He would do it again in a heartbeat, he would have added. He was sure that he’d be spending a lot of time with Y/N now. 

“Tell Dusty that. Cause I swear, he’s going to come down those stairs any minute and be like,” you pause, trying to make your voice sound like your cousin’s when you continue speaking, “Y/N I can’t believe you fell asleep last night during the movie! I mean seriously, who even are you? I’ll never live it down.” 

Steve’s eyes widened briefly as he looks at you, shaking his head, “The scary thing is you really did kind of just sound like him.” Then, he turns toward the staircase and shouts, “Hey, dipshit, time to get up. Your cousin’s down here making pancakes and if you don’t come down soon, I’m going to eat your share.” 

“That is one weird term of endearment, y’know.” You keep to yourself, flipping the last of the pancakes as you glance over to look at Steve. 

“Yeah, well, he knows I mean well.” Steve shrugs his shoulders. What’s he supposed to do? Explain everything to you? He’s not even sure you know what he knows, and he doesn’t think breaking all of the news about some sort of other dimensional demon thing would go with pancakes. It’s not like he got the chance to ask Dustin if he had told you everything between the video, moving your sleeping form upstairs, and cleaning up when Dustin finally went to sleep himself. “Coffee?” 

You’re about to nod your head when Dustin comes barreling down the stairs, probably worried Steve will be true to his word, and took a seat at the table piling pancakes onto his plate. “Morning Steve, Y/N.” Dustin yawns, glancing up to look at you as he takes the syrup on the table and pours it on his plate, “I can’t believe you fell asleep last night. I mean, like, totally passed out on the couch with Tews in your lap and your head on Steve’s shoulder. I mean, c’mon, Y/N…it’s The Karate Kid, it’s not a boring movie, right Steve?” 

“Need I remind you about the time I took you to the movies in town and we watched The Rescuers.” You begin, a heavy pause as you take your seat at the table. Dustin glances up from his plate, eyes wide looking at you with a look of betrayal as you continue to speak, “because I remember someone holding my arm in the chair next to me and crying because he didn’t think the mice were going to save Penny.” 

“I thought we promised to never mention that day.” Dustin says rushed before holding his hands up in accusation to add,” Also, I was six.” 

“Just remember that while you tease me,” You reach across the table, poking Dustin’s cheek only to be swatted away by his hands, to which you just shake your head and pick up the cup Steve’s put down in order to go grab your usual fix-ins for coffee, “I’ve got lots of embarrassing Dustin stories to go around too, Baby Henderson.” 

“Baby Henderson? Should I call you Old Lady Henderson?” 

“Do you want to piss me off?”

Dustin just sticks his tongue out at you, to which you return the same gesture as you sit down once again. 

“Children!” Steve waves his hands between the two of you, causing you both to look in his direction. “God, you two are so alike.” 

Instead of either of you addressing the comment Steve had just made, Dustin’s turned his attention to Steve completely with a mouth full of pancake and asks, “So are you coming today?” 

“To…” 

“Mike’s house, Steve.” As if the comment was obvious. Dustin rolls his eyes as he continues to speak, “For D&D. I mean, I know what you’re thinking, we kept making fun of you last week, but it’s only because you…well, you sucked, buddy.” 

“Dustin, you can’t just say that.” You add, turning your eyes to Steve and offering a sheepish look as if you were apologizing for your cousin’s own words. 

“What? It’s true, Y/N. I mean, it’s not like I’m saying he can’t get better. But he just needs to keep coming by. Or a miracle. Or practice. But probably just practice, I think.” Dustin explains with a nod of his head in your direction. “I’d tell you the same thing. Do you want me to lie to you? I’m not going to send you into a battle like that with false information.” 

“How kind of you, Dustin. It’s what we all need, to hear how bad we are at these kinds of things.” You can’t help but laugh at the comment. 

“Plus, Steve, Nancy and Jonathan are gonna be there. And so will Y/N. I mean, who else do you hang out with now?” Dustin asks, looking at Steve with a smile. You know that realistically this is his way of asking his friend to come without acting like it’s the one thing he wants, but you’re still intrigued by their dynamic. Truthfully, you have a lot of questions you still want answered. 

“Well now that you’ve made me sound both incapable of learning D&D and like a loser for having no friends,” Steve winced slightly, but managed to laugh too, as he worked on his plate. “How could I say no?” 

“Hey, dude, you have friends. I mean, we’re friends.” Dustin says with a glare, gesturing to himself as he shakes his head. 

The comment gets Steve’s attention and instead of replying, Steve picks up a piece of pancake from his plate and tosses it in Dustin’s direction. 

Before you can say anything, Dustin slings back his own piece of broken apart pancake and it becomes an all out battle between the two of them. 

You stand up, rolling your eyes as you make your way to the sink avoiding the bits being thrown. “You two are so cleaning this up. I’m going upstairs.” 

You go back to the guest room, stopping in the hallway to pick up the chorded phone that lives on the hallway table, so that you can call up Nancy to chat. Despite not having called her in a while, the Wheeler’s phone number is still ingrained in your memory. 

“Wheeler residence, this is Mike.” 

“Mikey!” Your grin is wide when you speak, picturing the group of kids on his front lawn when you were younger, chasing them around. “Oh my God, you practically sound all grown up.” Knowing your cousin and his friends were teenagers now was freaking you out, if you were honest. 

“Y/N?” Mike’s surprise is genuine, but so is the happiness you can hear in his voice too. “I thought Dustin was lying when he said you were back in town.”

“Yeah, I think I’m getting that impression.” You laugh at the comment, shaking your head as you play with the chord in your hands. “How are you?”

A pause on the other end, static for a moment too long before the reply comes in, “I’m good, Y/N. Dustin said you’re gonna come with him today, right? He promised to bring you by, cause no one thought you were really here.” 

“Is that Y/N?” You can hear the muffled comment on the other end of the line. Nancy’s voice, you’re sure, as you hear movement. “Give me the phone, Mike, she called for me.”

“Nu uh, she called and I answered. That’s how it works. Besides, Y/N wants to talk to me, right?”

It takes you a moment to realize Mike’s asked you a question and you have to shake the thoughts out of your head, “C’mon Mikey, I’ll see you later. Nance did want me to call, and I totally passed out yesterday, do you mind?” 

You can hear the grumpy fine and the shuffling of the phone between hands and footsteps retreating, and you’re pretty sure you hear Mike’s voice calling back that talking on a walkie is even better than on the phone before Nancy comes on, “Y/N? You still there?” 

“Still here.” You reply. “Is Mike okay?” 

“Mike’s fine,” Nancy brushes off your comment as she focuses back on you. She has about a million questions to ask and not a lot of time with you before you’re around everyone else. “I’ve missed you. Why are you back? How’s New York? What have you been up to? How’s everything? You’ve got to tell me all about it.”

“Nance, I missed you too, but can you take a breath for a second? You almost sounded like Dustin for a second there.” You shake your head at the thought. There was a lot Nancy had missed in your life, and quite a bit you’re sure you’ve missed in hers as well. “Before we get into me, can we discuss you, cause Dustin told me something and I have got to make sure I heard him right. You and Jonathan are dating? Since when?”

“It’s very recent,” You can practically tell Nancy’s smiling when she’s talking about it. “I’ll tell you all about it sometime.”

“Now isn’t going to be that time?” 

“Well you’re giving me literally nothing. Can you blame me?” 

“Fine, I swear we’ll do a girl’s night soon and fill each other in on everything we’ve missed. Cause last time we talked you were…” You pause, sitting up straight on the bed and turning your attention to the noise you hear downstairs before looking down at the phone chord in your hand, “dating someone else.” 

“Yeah, that’ll be a story for our girls night.” Nancy replies, and you can feel some hesitation in her tone. Is it hesitation because she’s in the middle of her house and she doesn’t want to talk about it there or is it because you haven’t talked in a while and she doesn’t think she can share everything with you like you two used to? 

“Y/N!” You hear your name being called from downstairs followed by footsteps. Dustin pokes his head into your room and looks at you, “There might be a bit of a problem with cleaning. Which is that, well, Steve’s never cleaned anything in his life.”

“What do you mean Steve’s never cleaned anything in his life?” You reply, eyes wide. 

“Steve’s there?” Nancy asks, her voice coming through the phone in your hand. 

“Hey, Henderson, did you leave me with all this cleaning to go rat on us to your cousin?” Steve’s voice echoes from the kitchen. 

“Rat on you for what…” You turn your gaze from behind Dustin to look him in the eyes with a light glare. “What did you break, Dusty?” 

“Nothing, I swear.” Dustin holds his hands up as he takes a step back into the hallway. “Anyway, can you give Steve a hand cleaning up?”

“Why can’t you?” 

“Cause I gotta go to the arcade to hang out with Lucas and Max before we’re going to Mike’s. Tell Nancy we’ll see them at three!” 

Before you can reply, Dustin races off to his room and you’re left holding the phone in your hands and watching out the doorway. 

“Uh…Y/N? Are you still there?” 

You hear Nancy’s voice on the other end of the phone and pull the phone to your ear with a nod of your head. “Sorry about that, Nance. I swear, Dustin is the kid brother I never wanted.” The fact is you were always glad to have Dustin because he was the sibling you never got to have. Him and his whole group of friends. “I should probably go see what mess he left in the kitchen.” 

“Did I hear that Steve is over?” Nancy asks.

“Yeah, he and Dustin had a movie night last night. He stayed on the couch. I think he’s gonna join today. Three, right?” 

“Uh, yeah, that’s right.” Suddenly Nancy is sounding weird. 

“Oh my God. His name was Steve, wasn’t it? The guy you were dating before. Is it this guy?” 

Nancy winces, groaning as she replies, “Yeah, that’s him.”

“Didn’t you say he had some ridiculous nickname?” You ask, standing up and walking around your room and speaking again, “I have so many questions here, Nancy.” 

“Hey, Y/N, didn’t Dustin tell you I’m practically drowning down here?” Steve calls from the kitchen.

“Nance, I gotta go save Steve from doing chores, apparently.” With that, you hang up the phone and wonder what your cousin has gotten himself into. 

Just how is Dustin friend’s with Nancy’s ex boyfriend? 

You make your way down the stairs, realizing that at least the kitchen doesn’t look like a total war zone like you had worried it might. Pancake pieces aren’t coating the floor, syrup isn’t staining the walls or anything like that. It’s all relatively contained and seems to be fairly cleaned up from what you can tell. 

“So what seems to be the problem, Steve?” 

Steve turns to you, holding the pan you’d been cooking with in his hands and looking at you, “I don’t know if it’s obvious, but I’m not really the best cleaner.” 

You laugh, “I didn’t get that from the help I’m drowning down here call you shouted just a few minutes ago.” 

“I’m more of a take out or go out kind of guy, not really a cook.” He explains, glancing between the plates as he puts the pan back down in the sink, making room for you. “My parents aren’t around much, y’know.” 

“So you said.” You reply, moving in front of the sink to get everything organized as you look over at Steve. “Neither are mine, you know.” 

“What?” Steve asks, picking everything else up from the table and turning back to look at you. 

“My parents are pretty absent too.” You explain, shrugging your shoulders. “Anyway, do you think you can handle drying while I take over washing?” You pick up the cloth from the counter and hold it out to Steve, looking expectant as you wait for him to take it from you. 

You let silence take over between the two of you as you wash the dishes, passing them to Steve once you finish. You watch out of the corner of your eye as he dries them, placing them on the mat. 

Instead of making conversation, you find yourself humming along to one of the songs that had been playing on the radio earlier. 

Even Steve, who often felt the need to fill any sort of silence because it could feel awkward was comfortable in this moment. It was surprising, as if it had been something to just be expected. 

The two of you finished dishes quicker than you expected to given Steve’s I don’t really wash dishes attitude, and as you moved to put everything away he had gone to his car. He’d brought a bag with him, just in case he’d put it. 

As Steve went upstairs to get ready, you went to the phone to leave a message for your Aunt Claudia. You knew she was staying at her friend’s house, so you figure it would be safe to call there, finding the name Mary in her phone book and giving it a ring to let your Aunt know that both you and Dustin were going to be heading out for the evening. 

Then, you finally go up to get ready yourself. You almost consider putting on overalls for old time’s sake, but think better of it. Plus…did you even pack the overalls you bought right away or would they be shipped out later on? You weren’t entirely sure. 

Steve’s just glad that he’s let Dustin in on his little hair care secret, so that way he didn’t have to schlep the whole process with him to the Henderson house. By the time you get back downstairs he’s waiting with his car keys in his hands, nodding, “Okay, ready to head over to the Wheeler’s?” As if he’s done this a hundred times before—and you suppose that he has, man you really do need to ask Nancy about that when you see her. 

“Yeah, but it’s not that far, we can just walk over.” You explain, buttoning up your jacket as you look at Steve with a confused look on your face. 

“Y/N, it’s freezing out there.” Steve answers, as if it’s the most obvious answer in the world. “We’re taking the car.” 

“Alright, fine, if you insist.” 

You thought it was crazy, but then again, you’d been living in New York City for a while and had been walking most of the time so you were used to walking no matter what kind of weather conditions.