#strangerthingsau

I'm sorry if there are any typos, I'm hardly able to focus because I'm in a fuckton of pain, but I wanted to share because hey, it's the spooky season! I'm also writing most of my stuff in hospital waiting rooms, so that's great. My brain is already planning this as a fanfic, but I'm too distracted to do any proper writing these days, so have a Burton-esque Steddie AU.

Hawkins, a small town in Indiana, undefined time. Steve Harrington and Nancy Wheeler are childhood friends of two well-established families. There is an expectation that they are going to get married - only the best for the Harringtons, the family line needs to continue and so on and so forth. Steve's parents are lawyers and, frankly, tyrants. Nancy's mother is a wonderful lady, but her father has no spine and Mr. Harrington basically announced that it would be beneficial for their families to merge via marriage. Both are respected, Mr. Wheeler works for the government, the Harringtons deal with law, their kids know each other...it's perfect.

It's not. 

Steve and Nancy are friends, they used to be together, much to their parents' happiness, but they broke up a few years back. They just wanted different things in life and while it hurt, Steve has to admit they actually work better as friends. He still pretends to be with Nancy to help her conceal the fact that she's head over heels for the local librarian, Robin. Robin doesn't come from a prestigious family and she's a girl, so Steve takes Nancy on "dates", drops her off at Robin's and spends the rest of the "date" sitting by the piano, his restless fingers traveling over the keys and producing melancholic melodies. He wishes all the happiness for Nancy, he just hopes that one day he'd find companionship too. He's lonely, no one wants to talk to a Harrington. He sometimes thinks about a boy with wild hair and a wolfish grin he used to know, who taught him to play in secret because Steve's parents considered the instrument too soft for their only son. "I didn't raise some artsy weakling," scoffs Mr. Harrington when Steve mentions he'd like to take lessons, maybe even teach in the future. Hunting and sports, that is appropriate. Music? Useless in the world of the Harringtons.

The fragile balance continues for a while, but not long enough. One day, the parents sit Steve and Nancy down and tell them it's time, the wedding will happen soon. It doesn't matter when Steve and Nancy tell them they've broken up, marriage is a union of families, it cannot be based on something as fickle as feelings, Mr. Harrington says. Mrs. Wheeler looks like her heart is breaking for Nancy and Steve wonders if she maybe knows. But her marriage isn't about love too and her protests fall on deaf ears. The wedding is on.

Steve, Nancy and Robin, who also became Steve's close friend, try to come up with a plan. Maybe if they botch the wedding rehearsal badly enough, the Harringtons will back off, the threat of public embarrassment too severe to go through with their plan no matter what. 

They give it all they've got. Nancy spills the ceremonial wine on Mrs. Harrington's white blouse and when "panicking" (Steve finds it hard to keep a straight face, the only time Nancy's nerves of steel ever experienced panic was when Robin confessed she loved her and Nancy blurted out "thank you" as a response), she sets her father's trousers on fire with a candle. Steve trips on the carpet and falls into the priest, ripping off his robe. Then he messes up his vows beautifully ("with this candle, I will...burn your sorrows?" he tries and very pointedly looks at Mr. Wheeler), but it's all for nothing. The fire is put out, the blouse is changed, the robe is put back on and Steve is sent away to practice his vows because "your lack of intellect isn't a sufficient excuse for your unwillingness to commit to the right thing", his father says.

And so Steve leaves. He walks around the woods around Hawkins and mumbles more and more ridiculous vows to himself ("with this hand I will punch my father’s perfectly shaved face. Your cup will never empty because we'll become alcoholics together if this stupid wedding ever happens"), tossing the ring into the air and kicking random branches and moss. Of course, he could just marry Nancy and continue the ruse, being the eternal third wheel to the girls' romance. They've talked about it at length, but it just wouldn't be fair, not to Nancy, not to Robin and definitely not to himself. Steve dreams of meeting that one right person, someone who'd make him feel truly alive, make him discover who he really is, although Hawkins probably isn't the place for that...if anywhere is. 

He sits down by an old oak tree, the trunk and its roots long destroyed by lightning, and he starts humming a song. It takes him a while to remember the melody, but he does eventually, his voice gaining confidence and strength. It's the song the long-haired boy taught him, his own creation. Eddie, Steve remembers, his name was Eddie and he loved spending time together, until his father found out about them and forbade them ever meeting again, threatening the livelihood of Eddie's uncle. Steve often watched the boy walk past the Harrington residence, waving at his window, but he never dared to wave back, he couldn't bear to be another Harrington to destroy people's lives. The best he could do for Eddie was to pretend he didn’t exist, no matter how painful that was. Eventually, Eddie stopped coming around and Steve didn’t see him in their fancy part of the town anymore. Perhaps he moved away, away from the town’s bigotry, the threat of Harrington influence...away from him. 

He's so caught up in the song he doesn't notice the slight movement of the ground. He just hums the song and wonders if Eddie ever published it, if he ever became famous, enchanted crowds with his dark eyes and wild personality. The boy he knew was ready to take on the world, no matter what life threw at him. 

As the last note fades into the silence of the forest, Steve finally notices that something is shifting underneath his feet. He jumps up and tries to take a step to safety, he's so sure he just stepped on loose soil or something, but then a dirty claw grabs his ankle and tugs. No, not a claw - a hand. Steve screams, scrambling back, but the grip is strong and as he retreats, he doesn't just drag the hand with him, but a whole body. A corpse. Its clothes might have been black once, but they're dirty now, its long hair matted and tangled. He doesn't even know if it used to be a man or a woman. He can't see the face, but the skin is pale, with a blue tint (surprisingly intact, his brain supplies and he can't believe this is what it decided to focus on). 

And when he thinks it couldn't get much worse, he’ll just run to Chief Hopper and report the weirdest discovery of a body possible, the corpse coughs, spits out a mouthful of soil and clambers to its feet, tossing its mane back. Steve probably forgets to breathe at this point and he drops the ring to the ground. He watches in horror as it rolls quietly towards the reanimated figure. 

so i read this steve x reader fic SO long ago and i just cannot find it again. I’m gonna describe it pls tell me if you know it❤️

so steve and reader had been together for 4 years and then steve broke up with her because he didn’t wanna hold her back but he didn’t say that he just broke up with her. They see eachother at a party a few weeks later and steve has a new girlfriend who is there. reader is upset but makes it through the party but does get drunk. when steve has taken his new girlfriend home he comes back to check on her. robin is asleep on the sofa and he asks her where she is and robin says she’s in the bathroom. steve runs to the bathroom and finds her crying and comforts her and takes her to his house. they have “one more night together” that turns into basically steve telling reader why he broke up with her and then reader convinces him that he IS good enough and they get back together❤️❤️❤️

basically just this angst to comfort fic i read ages ago that i wanna read again

Part 1