#drag path

Obvs had to be a drag path question 💕🫶🏻

let's be honest

i genuinely thought you meant the show and i was so confused BUT

as far as #stel goes when they’re older and together for years, and either as they’re starting or have their lil family started—

what holidays do/don’t they celebrate?

are there any habits of caution either of them still carry influenced by the upside down that they pass onto their kids? (obv more with Steve than Mel but curious if she’d have anything too) like just extra worries most Normal™️ parents would not have (good lord I hope this makes sense lmao)

this is more prob when they’re younger and before they start their family, but: where’s one of the first destinations they travel to in that lil hitch camper Steve has at the end of s5? any places they love and would visit again? or never return to? lol

who says “I love you” in actions more than words?

does Mel take the kids portraits for special occasions? 🥺 (yk, like graduations and stuff. I assume she and Steve both are constantly shoving point and shoot cameras in the kids faces for candids lol)

ok tyfyt lid :)<3

(apologies if any of these were in any snippets you’ve sent me before!!)

SYL I LOVE YOU!!

holidays — they celebrate pretty much every major american holiday! but, like, casually. steve keeps up with mr goose, but for them the major holidays are july 4, thanksgiving, christmas, and new years. i think the older steve gets, the more he uses memorial and labor day as an excuse to have barbecues and open up the pool in their backyard hehe

habits of caution — i'd have to think more deeply about this!! i would say that mel's childhood is the thing that influences their parenting decisions more than anything, but tying that into UD stuff, they have a very "open doors" policy when communicating. they're never ones to make their kids feel silly for being scared of monsters under the bed and they take their kids concerns seriously (because, genuinely, god forbid their kids get sucked into it the way they were!). but their kids 100% know that they can come to their parents with anything and they won't be judged or mocked or belittled. there's a point where their oldest skips school and goes to mel's work because she wants to ask mel a (pretty serious) question and there's never a question of if she will get in trouble for it, because they would rather their kids be safe! for a long time, steve struggles on how much he should tell his kids about what he went through. (mel, similarly, struggles a lot too, but she will tell her kids about how she was raised and what she went through because she never wants them to feel like they have to hide things the way she did.) but when they're older, steve sits them all down and tells them the sparksnotes version and i think for them it makes sense as to why steve was always pretty protective of them

they go to a beach on the east coast! hehehehehhehehehehehe this may or may not be how the fic ends

mel 10000% says "i love you" more in actions than words. she's not the best at communicating her emotions but steve never questions her love for him hehe