Can't stop thinking about either an omegaverse au or a trans masc Steve AU with not quite deadbeat dad Nancy. (For ease of writing this post will take the omegaverse perspective. I'm also playing with timeline, so Steve and Nancy are both in their senior year at this point.)
Like, post season two before they've officially broken up but after Nancy has slept with Jonathan and they are generally on the rocks, Steve finds out he's pregnant.
Nancy is adamant that she's not going to end up saddled with a baby she didn't really want with a partner she's not in love with, just like her parents, but also genuinely cares about Steve and doesn't want to leave him in the lurch. She's getting ready to bite the bullet and marry and mate Steve, but he has also matured a lot over the last couple of weeks and genuinely loves Nancy and has no desire to trap her.
He wants a mate and a pup more than anything and he would love for that person to be Nancy, but he doesn't want to be his mom either; trapped with an Alpha who resents him and has no romantic love for him.
Nancy makes an offer. She's off to Emmerson in four months, and she's got a full-ride scholarship to go with it. Since she doesn't have to worry about tuition, she'll leave Steve with the majority of her savings she no longer needs from the Hawkins Post for him and the baby. She'll work a summer job to cover her living expenses and send whatever is left over his way as alimony payments. Once she starts working full time, she'll send about 10% of her income to support the baby until they're 18.
They agree to tell the child about their parentage when they either hit double digits (or whenever Steve judges them ready) or when they ask. Nancy can visit, but she'll always be Auntie Nancy.
They both agree and things actually work out great. Despite the disapproval of their parents and Hawkins at large (it's the 80s and everyone is scandalized that he's all but volunteered to be a single dad), they have a good life. Steve buys a place not far from the trailer park, near the Hendersons, and makes a community of like minded people. With a baby in the picture and Nancy free to live her best life, Mike comes around and helps out a lot too, which makes both Nancy and Steve feel a lot better about the whole situation. At least one Wheeler is on their side.
Meanwhile, Steve and Eddie had a thing before Eddie graduated (the first time around) and got the hell out of Dodge. They had been in love, but neither of them said anything and they had parted on amicable, if equally heart broken terms. Eddie always thought he would go back for Steve after he graduated. Show up and whisk him away at the afterparty and leave Hawkins in the rearview.
But Jeff and the guys keep him in the loop of Hawkins High gossip after he leaves. They didn't know about their relationship, so they don't know to be careful with what they say, and he learns that Steve went full tilt into a courtship with Nancy Wheeler, not two months into their senior year. He doesn't give up hope until February, when he hears from Garteth that Steve shook the gossip mill when he started showing, and it got out that he was graduating early to get ready for his baby. There's a wild moment where Eddie thinks maybe it's his, but then the timeline and Gareth confirm that it's Nancy Wheeler's.
He lets himself mourn his romantic fantasies. He always imagined a life with Steve full of love and pups, but clearly it wasn't meant to be. He doesn't hear much else about the situation outside, passing comments about the delivery date and Steve's move to the less reputable part of town. He assumes that Steve is living his white picket dream with Nancy, and it only makes his heart ache a little.
Then, three years after he learned Steve was pregnant and four years after he left Hawkins, he comes back. Wayne has a fall at the plant, and while he says he's fine, the doctor said he could use someone around the house for a week or so. Eddie is only an hour away, and his uncle is the most important person in his life, so he's more than happy to come stay with him.
Only to get to his childhood home and be met with Steve Harrington, assumed to be Steve Wheeler, on the front porch with a toddler on his hip. There's no mistaking whose kid it is. Big hazel eyes, slightly curly light brown hair, freckles and moles, and that Harrington nose. It's a damn cute kid. Of course it is.
Steve is happy to see him. Apparently, he and Wayne became fast friends, with Wayne taking up babysitting duties anytime Claudia isn't able to. Eddie swears he's imagining it, but it almost feels like Steve is flirting with him again, looking up at him from underneath his eyelashes and complimenting him the same way he did when they were in high school. He lets Eddie hold his kid, seemingly content for them to take care of Wayne together.
He spends the week in town, then calls his job and gets another week off, and in all that time, he doesn't see hide nor tail of Nancy. He tries to bring it up, but Steve doesn't seem perturbed by it in the slightest. But still, he can't get over the fact that Nancy has left her pup and mate alone for so long. The longer he spends with both of them, the more he falls back in love with Steve and in love for tthe first time with the pup. He wants desperately for them to be his, and the more it seems like Nancy is throwing it away, the angrier it makes him.
The day he's supposed to go back to his own apartment, he confesses to Steve. He tells him that he can't stand to see him neglected by his mate and wants to whisk him away just like he always planned. He says he doesn't care about Steve's mating bite or that the pup has a different sire, he just wants Steve and his family any way he can get them.
He's expecting anger, or tears, or even a happy acceptance, but what he gets is laughter. He's just on the verge of getting mad, but then Steve explains it. How Nancy isn't really in their life, but not because she's neglecting them. They're not mated, and Steve's kid has only ever had one parent.
Steve agrees to being whisked away, just like he always wanted, and they raise that pup, and a few more, with an abundance of love. And Steve gets the mating bite he always craved.
