Steve Harrington X Oc - Tumblr Posts

18+ content!

Ok, hi, hello everyone. So, I have a few stories I've been working on and need help deciding which to post first. Most of them have at least the prologue complete, and some are just ideas I have. However, they are all Stranger Things fan fictions and all but 1 are Cannon Character x Oc because I SUCK at x Reader's. Anyway, here we go.

Get Isakied Bitch(Steddie x female Oc): Main character is a huge Stranger Things fan and gets sent from our world to the world of Stranger Things. (Prologue needs MAJOR editing but chapter 1 is complete)

Don't Be Gay in Indiana(Billy Hargrove x male Oc): When a new kid around Billy's age moves to Hawkins and becomes the new freak of the town and starts tutoring Max, Billy can't tell if the tension between him and this new kid is sexual or not. (It is. It very much is. Prologue and chapter 1 are complete)

Louisiana LuLu(Eddie x Oc, Wayne x different Oc): A girl turns up on the doorstep of Berri Love's trailer. Berri recognizes the girl as Luane, a girl she once babysat until 3 years ago. What was she doing here, and why was she so terrified of Berri's closest friends, Eddie and Wayne Munson. (Based off the song Leave Luane from 35MM, except she survives and escapes. Prologue and chapter 1 are complete, chapter 2 in the works)

Now for the ones that are just ideas.

Gotta Keep Her Happy(18+ Eddie x reader, Jason x reader): Jason Carver, for the life of him, could not get his girl to cum. He's tried every way he can, but he just can't. However, he's heard the stories of Eddie 'The sex god' Munson. Jason wants to keep his girl happy, but is letting his rival fuck her really worth it? (This is a one-shot, possible 2-parter if the first part goes well. Mostly complete)

Pandora's Box(Enzo x Oc): Enzo and Hopper meet a new prisoner the night before they fight the Demogorgon. When the time comes to fight the beast, this new prisoner is able to distract it. Apparently, she is not entirely human, partly a different creature from the Upside Down, and can communicate with other creatures from there using growls or chirps or other animalistic noises. Enzo wants to learn more about her now, curiosity grabbing him by the throat, but he knows she's dangerous and he isn’t sure if that’s a box he’s ready to open yet. (None of this one has been written yet, but I have plenty of ideas)

Polaroid Princess(Rockstar!Eddie x Oc): Once Corroded Coffin finally made it big, they took the world by storm. Their concerts were fully booked and hundreds of women(celebrities and your average Joe alike) were practically on their knees and begging for at least a touch from one of the band members. Eddie was the most sought after, but he always rejected any advances from women. People began to speculate he was gay. Then a picture from his high school days starts circulating. It's of him and an unknown girl making out at a party. Everyone starts asking Eddie who this girl is, and even though he denies ever knowing her, the next two albums he releases are jam packed with love song after love song, something Corroded Coffin had never written before. Who was this girl, and why was Eddie suddenly so in love with her?(no chapters are written for this one either, but I have plenty of ideas. Even if another story gets chosen, I might just start writing this one between the others)

Beware the Human in the Cottage(Platonic! Various Fae!Characters x Oc/Reader): The old wooden cabin just over the hill and bordering the river had been left abandoned for centuries, yet never crumbled. Any time someone new moved in, the kelpie in the lake quickly ridding of any human to come near the house. However, this new human seems to be smarter than the others he has seen. They have more control, more knowledge on the 'supernatural'. He just hopes this human doesn't find out about the fae that live deeper in the forest. (This idea was inspired by @pastel-pillows Stranger Things Fae head cannons. I loved the idea and I'm probably gonna write this even if it isn't chosen. If you think the idea is cool please go check out their head cannons, I personally love them a bunch!)

Alright, so, there's the main ideas I have so far. I have plenty more but I need to edit them and figure out plots a bit more. I'll eventually post all of these, I just need help choosing which one to post first. Let me know which one you think should be first, thank you!

Az, signing off <>

Falling For You

prompt: “You’re just so stupid!”

warnings: sexist comments, underage drinking, swearing (when do i not?)

Steve Harrington x oc; alludes to Billy Hargove x oc

a/n: this was written in response to a larger plot, so there are some references to outside events. it should still be easy enough to follow! requests are open

The last people on earth Beth thought she might publicly agree with were Carol and Tommy. Tonight, as she struggled to keep Steve upright and conscious, she couldn’t help but to concede when Carol suggested they find a way to drag him up the dock and inside before he blacked out or fell in the lake again and turned her rager into a crime scene. His wounds only worsened as he wriggled about in all three of the teenagers’ grips, as if he could somehow overpower them. Steve royally, monumentally, epically screwed up that night. 

While Beth commonly slapped a band-aid on his bruised knuckles and kept Tylenol in her purse solely for his use, she was in way over her head this time. Her babysitting training course never covered drunk, injured teenage almost-boyfriends. 

She knew things had gone from bad to worse when Carol called the party off, shooing everyone else from her lake house, for Steve’s benefit. By some miracle, the three of them managed to get him inside and relatively conscious. Carol and Tommy were quick to scatter and leave Beth to tend his wounds.

Steve groaned excessively from his makeshift bed on Carol’s pull-out couch. He protruded his bleeding lip in a haughty pout. His wet hair gave him a chill and without a dry shirt to keep him warm, he was left with only a blanket to huddle in. The worried pull in her brow looked an awful lot like anger to him, and Steve only wanted to see her smile.

“You’re mad at me!”

Beth stroked the side of his cheek, sighing:

“I’m not. Some things are just best left alone, Steve.”

“But I just wanted to protect you!”

Steve was a protector. He put himself in harm's way only as a barrier between his loved ones and danger, like he had done with the demogorgon and with the very human monster that is Billy Hargrove.

“I know,” she said.

He pulled at her hands, grasping to keep her close, milking this as much as possible. Beth let him, happy with the surge of energy his touch left her with.

When Beth suggested they go to a party thrown by his former best friends, Steve fully intended to coax her into a night at the drive-in movie theater, instead. After all, he hardly imagined a lake house was much fun in winter. However, when she showed up on his doorstep wearing white sunglasses much too large for her face and using one of his t-shirts as a bikini cover-up, Steve was putty in her hands. She had him wrapped around her finger for everyone to see- everyone, apparently, aside from Beth herself.

Not long after they arrived, Steve lost Beth in the crowd. He merely smiled and insisted she go have some fun when her two best friends cornered them. For a while, he watched contentedly with a solo cup in one hand and Beth on his mind. She danced along to every song as if it were her last. The smile she wore with every lyric she shouted alongside Amy, pulling playfully at Tiffany’s hands as the three of them danced drunkenly by the bonfire, tightened his chest.

He no longer cared much for parties. Nancy Wheeler spoiled the whole scene for Steve in a similar fashion to the way he forever stained her white blouse. House parties now equated heartbreak for Steve. Though he tried to avoid the thought, he couldn’t help but to wonder how Beth could break his heart tonight, if he wasn’t even hers. As if on cue, Steve’s train of thought received a rude interruption.

“Harrington,” the voice boomed.

Steve exhaled sharply, trying to remember the promise he made to Beth. Nothing stupid tonight. So, he kept his voice detached and prayed the message might be received:

“Hargrove.”

The Californian clasped a hand over Steve’s shoulder with more force than necessary.

He wetted his lips in an animalistic aggression. It seemed he had yet to leave well enough alone; Billy wanted revenge for the chance with the cute head cheerleader that was stolen from him. Stolen, he assumed, from Steve Harrington.

He knew Hawkins was a far cry from the golden coast before he ever set foot in the town. Still, he hardly expected to ever find himself fighting for women’s attention against a boy who couldn’t throw a punch to save his life. It was pathetic; Hawkins was pathetic. It had a saving grace, though. A glimmer of hope for Hawkins came from the smile of the girl whose hair reminded Billy of the beaches he missed so much and in her laugh, that never failed to melt the bars around Steve’s heart. If Billy had a heart, he might think about giving it to her. Instead, he took out the unchecked rage that filled that void on the boy who unmistakably captured her attention.

“I believe you have somethin’ of mine,” he paused. “I want it back.”

“What? Are you drunk? Get lost, Bill-”

The taller boy erupted into a humorless rumble of a laugh. Steve was playing with fire, though he was made of ice.

“Cut the bullshit, Harrington.”

Subconsciously, Steve flinched at that all-too-familiar word. He wished new curse words existed so he never needed to hear the words that triggered his first heartbreak again. He much preferred a sarcastic King or a straightforward asshole than any form of that word. Billy didn’t need to know this, of course, so Steve tightened his jaw and decided to play along.

“What do you want? ‘M not in the mood”

He watched with wide eyes as his foe’s lips rolled inward like an engine revving up for a drag race. Steve said the wrong thing. His eyes merely followed as the blonde curls forming his mullet nodded in the direction of the short, oblivious girl who captured Steve’s- and apparently Billy’s, as well- full attention.

“No, no way.”

“Wrong answer”

Steve sucked his gums inwards, wishing Billy would fall off the dock and into the lake. Tonight was an escape for him and Beth. Billy fit nowhere in that equation. As much as Steve’s rational mind told him otherwise, his insecurities whispered to him that Beth agreed to go on a date with Billy for more reasons than a petulant promise to Dustin. Could she possibly fall for his looks? Steve hardly considered himself insecure in that right, but he found himself wondering if he could hold a candle to boys like that in Beth’s mind.

“She’s not an object! No one owns her”

Steve gaped incredulously up at him. Eyes wide, innocent, and begging to be destroyed, Steve was Bambi and Billy was the forest fire ready to devour everything he loved.

“Well, shit,” he said. “You really don’t know, do you?”

“Man, what are you even talking about?”

Billy’s fingers traced over the healing scars he put on Steve’s otherwise smooth skin, a devilish smirk on his lips. He pulled it away just as smoothly, now booming with laughter. A cigarette breath coated Steve’s face as he exhaled like a snarky dragon. Steve took an involuntary step away from him, closer to the the edge of the dock. His insecurities manifested themselves in the form of a harsh reality check from his least favorite person.

“If it weren’t for you and my bitch of a step-sister-”

“Watch it!”

“I would have been elbow-deep in that pretty little skirt of hers. Maybe we might have actually watched some of the movie we were supposed to see,” he sighed.

“You’re delusional!”

“Don’t believe me? Why don’t you ask her yourself, then.”

He chanced a glance back over at Beth, who danced freely and blissfully unaware of the unfolding conflict between the two boys. Licking his cold, nicotine lips, he flickered his gaze between the two of them.

“It’s a shame, Harrington”

Steve disdained the sinful glint in his eyes. If he didn’t know any better, he might have half a mind to punch that smirk right off his lips. Against his better judgement, he decided to humor him:

“What is?”

“Plenty of bitches in the sea certainly did not mean I was giving you free reign of the hottest piece of ass in this cow shit town-“

Like the last bit of a heavy rain season on an overflowing lake, it was the burst that snapped the dam holding back Steve’s rage. He reached his arm back with every intention of clocking Billy in the nose, even remembered to plant his feet, too, only to realize that he miscalculated his balance and stepped a little too close to the edge of the dock. All it took was the seizure and twist of his cocked wrist by Billy, and Steve’s New Balances gave way to the slippery wood and he fell down into the water below, knocking his head against the wood pretty hard in the process.

“Steve,” she called out to him.

Beth glanced warily at the weak, tired boy with her hands planted firmly on her hips. She exhaled slowly like a deflating balloon before gingerly placing herself on the edge of the coffee table.

“You said something, uh, when we got you out of the water-“

He hummed in acknowledgement. Steve’s heart skipped a beat. His mind was still hazy, either from the alcohol or the concussion that was most likely forming. He hoped she would let him play dumb a little longer.

“Did you mean it?”

“What? What did I say?”

He wasn’t a very good liar.

“C’mon Steve, don’t play dumb with me! I want to hear you say it.”

He caved, locking eyes with her. If this turned out badly, at least he had a plethora of excuses to back him up.

“I just thought, y’know, maybe you liked him. It’s just that he’s the first boy you were willing to go out with in years and, well, I want you to be happy, even if it is with… him.”

Much to his horror, she burst into a hysterical fit of laughter. Steve rubbed nervously at the back of his neck.

“What- what, uh, what’s wrong?”

“You’re just so… stupid, Steve!”

She had him there. On a scale of confused to competent, Steve was well past clueless.

“Well, yes, but-“

“Billy Hargrove is a racist, self-serving, narcissistic douchebag and I would rather die than be his girlfriend. As far as I’m concerned, he and his right hand should get very well acquainted at the rate he’s going, because that's the only thing that will even get close to him when I’m done with him. And that’s exactly what I told him”

Steve sat up a little, shocked and admittedly excited, only to shrink back from the pain in his head. Beth, who was honestly one of the most angelic girls he ever laid eyes on, had declared war on the new popular kid, which could jeopardize her own reputation in the process, and he couldn’t help but to hope it was loosely tied back to him. Either way, Steve was twitterpated with her.

“I think I love you.”

His brash comment flushed Steve’s cheek a scarlet as deep as Carol’s fingertips. As if falling in the lake weren’t mortifying enough, he’d gone and said one of the dumbest possible things to Beth. His stomach only began to plummet to the ground when she spoke back, its descent turning from a freefall into somersaults of butterflies.

“I like you, too, Steve. A whole lot. But there’s plenty of time to talk about this later- when you’re sober and a little less concussed. Right now, let’s just get some sleep, okay?”

Beth tucked him in on the couch and set aside some pain killers for when he woke up with a hangover and healing wounds. Steve refused to stay put until she cuddled up against him on the pull-out. He sighed out in a happy relief.

Steve may have gotten his ego bruised beyond recognition that night, but all he cared about was the girl who stayed to nurse his wounds. He didn’t think he deserved Beth. Beth could have gone home with Billy and let his faint-hearted attempt to let her go work, but there was one thing far more important than any of that:

She loved her stupid boy.

psa

for those of you who have been keeping up with my writing, i’ve been working on the next chapter of hypochondriac. i also have a new series coming out sometime this month, which will feature the oc from falling for you. requests are also open, so don’t be shy!

i really missed writing and i’m so pumped to have my muse back

Kings and Queens

Summary: Bethany Sullivan might uphold her nice girl status pretty well, but also she can’t keep that queen bee crown with just sugar. Billy Hargrove learns this the hard way. Or, alternatively, the one where Beth puts Billy back in his place.

Steve Harrington x oc, Billy Hargrove x oc (one-

sided)

warnings: not smut but there are a lot of sexual innuendos and overtones

a/n: this one's for you, Fiona.

The first thing Billy Hargrove noticed when he moved to Hawkins, Indiana was the utter lack of excitement in the tiny town. There wasn’t a beach in sight and the town had only one mall. He thought he might die of sheer boredom. Hell, that sounded better than suffering another second in this Cow Shit Town.

His opinion shifted only with the second thing to catch his eye in Hawkins. That thing had the prettiest pair of legs he had ever seen, a voice like smooth honey, bubblegum lips, and a banging body small enough that he didn’t doubt for one second that he could lift her right over his shoulder with little to no effort. He could already feel her soft golden hair between his calloused fingers, her smooth legs around his waist. Billy shivered with delight at the dirty thoughts already racing through his mind. He’d always had a thing for blondes, and this Indiana Babe put the Golden Coast Girls to shame. He had to have her. Billy Hargrove always got what he wanted; she wouldn’t even know what hit her.

It didn’t take long at all for Billy to learn as much as possible about his mystery blonde. The dumb, freckled, and eager-to-please kid in his history class named Tommy almost snorted the moment Billy showed an interest in her, but spewed information nonetheless.

Bethany Sullivan, as he soon learned her name was, was just the kind of girl Billy wanted to have on his arm and under him in the back of his Camaro. As if her stellar looks weren’t enough, Beth sat atop the social ladder. If Billy was going to mingle with some Midwest bitch, he figured the head cheerleader and homecoming queen wasn’t a bad place to start. Only, Tommy had warned, Beth didn’t date. Maybe a college guy here or there, but there wasn’t a single guy in Hawkins she had accepted a date with. Billy laughed at this. He wasn’t a Hawkins boy, and he didn’t take no for an answer.

Billy put his plan into fruition at Tina’s Halloween Party. Like something straight out of Billy’s fantasies, Beth strolled into the party with her equally gorgeous girl friends. His mouth dried at the sight of her, dressed fittingly as a pristine white angel accompanied by sultry redhead and promiscuous brunette red devils at each shoulder. The costume was just a little too short for an actual angel, but Beth could still easily have been one. God, Halloween was a beautiful holiday. As Billy downed the rest of his beer, he decided then and there that tonight was the night. Their little cat and mouse game, fun as it was, needed to end before Billy died from the need to touch her. He wasn’t leaving this party until he either had her under his arm or a night at the drive-in theater scheduled. Nothing could stop him now, not even that Bambi-eyed fucker Steve Harrington everyone seemed so fond of. In Billy’s eyes, Steve was not an equal opponent. He saw Steve as a pretty boy with his daddy’s money in his pockets and very little to actually show for himself. Tommy Hanson had a big mouth and was a little slow, but he did know Steve just about as well as anyone in Hawkins. So, when he reported that Beth was the one thing Steve had once wanted but never got, Billy knew he was doing something right. Apparently, if Tommy wasn’t confusing a real house party with a wet dream, even he had once swapped spit with the blonde beauty- and Harrington hadn’t. Billy gobbled up Tommy’s gossip with glee, happy to know that Beth really was uncharted territory. He was more than ready to conquer her.

He caught her on the dancefloor. Billy turned the charm up and tried as casually as he could to boast about his new title.

“I saw you taunting Steve earlier. You should be nicer to him,” she drawled, frowning.

Billy chuckled lowly. He didn’t quite understand why Beth gave two shits how he spoke to Harrington, but he was willing to play along if it  got him into her skirt any faster. If Billy wasn’t so self-absorbed, he might have noticed she was sweet on him. 

“Okay,” he said. “I’m really only here for you, anyways.” Beth swirled her cup of unidentified alcohol around and cocked an eyebrow at him. “Oh, really?” “Mhmm. How ‘bout that movie, sweetheart?” Beth took one last glance over at Steve and Nancy in their matching costumes, swallowed hard, and forced a coy smile. “All right, Hargrove,” she said. “You can pick me up Friday at 7.” With a soft, ghost of a touch to his exposed chest, she disappeared into the crowd once more. Billy allowed himself to celebrate with even more beer, with no way of knowing that he would be incapacitated on the floor of Joyce Byers’ kitchen come Friday at seven o’clock.

Still reeling from his non-date with Beth, Billy strolled into the Harrington backyard on New Year’s Eve with a bone to pick. He heard Steve had shacked up with the one girl he’d made it pretty clear he wanted. 

If either Beth or Steve received any warning that their party had been crashed, they likely would have left the hot tub much earlier than they did. Their smitten, lovestruck bliss instead left them too absorbed in one another to notice the sudden parting of the crowds like the Red Sea to Moses. “Steve,” she insisted, trying not to smile. “C'mon, you’re gonna catch a cold out here. Let’s go inside” “Just a little longer?”

“Fine,” she said, shaking her head. “You can, but I’m going to go get changed, all right? I want to be warm by midnight” Steve glanced down at her skin, where his thumb circled absently, and thought how little he wanted to see her in anything else but that yellow bikini. She slipped from his grip, though, with the promise of a fresh drink when she returned- fully dressed this time- and a sweet peck to his lips. He watched her disappear with a smile on his lips and a semi hard-on in his swim shorts. Beth had no sooner returned to the back patio in dry clothing than she noticed a very unwelcome figure standing next to her boyfriend on the grass by the hot tub. Fuming, she stormed over to the two boys. Beth was the first to speak.

“Who the hell invited you?” She looked disgusted enough to chill even Billy’s spine. He wasn’t going to back down easy, though. “Hey there, princess,” he cooed. “Lookin’ good.”

Beth ignored Billy’s affections, instead handing Steve his beer, as promised.

“What do you want, Hargrove?”

The healed scars littering Steve’s brow and chin from his last encounter with Billy were enough to keep his temper in check. Despite his brutal defeat, the animosity between the two teens had yet to fade out entirely. Steve didn’t care what Billy thought of him, but he would have died to protect the people he loved. Even if they begged him not to.

The only thing Billy wanted to destroy was Steve and Beth’s relationship. He was surprised it took as much as effort as it had; girls tended to fall into his lap, no matter who they were seeing beforehand. Beth was different.

“Just wonderin’ when you were gonna cut the shit. I mean- look at him! What’s he got that I don’t? Just let me-“

If Billy had meant to get a reaction out of her, he’d just struck gold. Beth turned abruptly away from Steve to face him head-on. She sauntered over to him, hands placed firmly at her hips.

“I’m glad you asked,” she said, smiling. “Steve has me, and you- well, you showed up here alone, am I wrong?”

He clicked his tongue to his teeth as if amused, but inside Billy was churning. No girl was worth this sort of humiliation. Leaving now, though, showed defeat and Billy wanted to win.

“Why so uptight, babe? Is Harrington here not enough for ya-? You just need a real man. Maybe that’s why you’ve been such a bitch-“

She’d had enough. Beth’s bemused smile melted into an unreadable line. A soft giggle escaped her, and she stepped as close to Billy as possible. Her voice came out soft:

“See, what I think you’re forgetting, babe,” Beth was touching his face, lingering so close with a voice so sickeningly sweet that Billy thought for a fleeting moment that she might kiss him. Instead, the hand that had been absently combing his hair yanked back sharply so that his throat bared and he had no choice but to look her dead in the eyes. Her honey eyes were swimming in a dark swarm of calm anger. The sight sent Billy’s blood cold. “Is that this is my town. You hear me, you piece of shit? I gave you a free pass on Halloween because you were new, but now you’re going to answer to me.” His eyes widened in a lethal force of anger and raw arousal at her brazen attitude. Beth was out for the blood, and there wasn’t a soul- not even Tommy- dumb enough to step in and save him now. She was the town’s wet dream, an endless supply of spank-bank material, a sort of taboo daydream that left you aroused and ashamed for even thinking such a thing about such a nice girl. It was times like these, though, that squashed any doubt as to her social monarchy.

“But,” he wriggled in her grip. Billy could clearly see the crowd of interested party-goers that had gathered to watch his social execution, but none of them made any moves. “Harrington- keg- I-“ A laugh so unexpected and harsh passed her lips that Billy thought he might have jumped in fright if she hadn’t been holding his head still. 

“Oh, my god,” she hissed. “You really are dumb, aren’t you?” Billy blinked up at her. Social hierarchy was perhaps one of the few things he thought he really understood. In Hawkins, it seemed, he was dead wrong. “That doesn’t mean a goddamn thing, Hargrove. What, you think because you can guzzle beer faster than a certified alcoholic would even dream to that you’re suddenly hot shit? Please! “Stay the fuck away from me and my boyfriend. I don’t think I even need to remind you what would happen if you bothered those kids either, no? Your little stint was amusing while it lasted, but it’s over now. If I so much as see your face around here again, you won’t even be able to find a gas station willing to sell you a pack of cigarettes. Understood? He swallowed harshly. Under normal circumstances, Billy would have laughed at her, maybe even spat in her pretty little face. Now, he could see the murder in her eyes. He nodded eagerly, solemnly, as if signing his own death certificate. “Good,” she said, grinning devilishly. Beth set him upright, pat her palm against his chest, and sent him merrily on his way. Over his shoulder, with her arms crossed triumphantly over her black sparkly dress, she called out to him one final time: “Hawkins is a matriarchy, and don’t you forget it!” The dust from their verbal brawl settled fairly quickly once his demise was set in stone- or rather, in the hardness of her scowl. Beth melted easily back into Steve’s waiting arms. “Damn, that’s my girl,” he said, fully awestruck. He was sure he was in love now, if he hadn’t been before. Giggling, she planted a wet kiss to his plump lips. Steve pulled her in for another hungry kiss, grinning. Sweet Beth melted his heart, but that side of her was probably the sexiest thing he had ever seen. His girlfriend sure knew how to start the new year off right.

Cheerleader

Summary: Steve’s feeling neglected by his parents, but his girlfriend’s always right there to cheer him up.

Steve Harrington x female OC pairing

warnings: angst, allusions to sexual activity, mushy fluff

a/n: requested by the lovely @casaharrington . This took me forever and a day to finish, but I hope it was worth the wait!

Steve didn’t know why he expected anything from his father or where that tiny sliver of faith he had in him came from. His father had never given Steve much. Any small promise Mr. Harrington tossed at his son fell empty. In hindsight, Steve should have known that his father couldn’t be bothered to get involved in his life a long time before he actually did learn. Probably should have learned his lesson the day his Dad shirked his third grade Career Day and left Steve feeling embarrassed and unimportant. Then, his eight-year-old mind couldn’t fathom that, maybe, he really was unimportant in his father’s mind.

Now, although on the cusp of adulthood, Steve clung still onto that little shard of ignorance like a stubborn child might refuse to sleep without their safety blanket. Not once- not even when he outplayed several upperclassman for his spot on the varsity team as a freshman- had either of his parents bothered to actually watch their son in action. It had only ever mildly disappointed him before, so why did he care so much now? Why had he allowed himself to think that tonight would be any different?

Steve was used to Dad disappointing him. He eventually came to the bitter conclusion that until he no longer served as a disappointment to him, he would be disappointed in return.

Half-heartedly tossing a ball back and forth with Todd Ackerman, Steve tried his best to keep his pregame spirits high. The surrounding bleachers slowly filled with his peers and people from across Hawkins who came to cheer on one player or another. Although surrounded by people, Steve had never felt lonelier as he realized that his parents were nowhere in sight.

Steve only partly listened to Todd’s attempts at small talk. His mangled mind mistook the concern in his friend’s brow as an echo of the disappointed scowl he received from across the dinner table the night before. For someone who he saw so little of, his father sure took up some prime real estate in Steve’s insecurities.

He thought over the previous night’s dinner conversation. Steve replayed the scene in his mind while going through the motions of warmup.

“So, Dad. We’re playing Northern tomorrow,” he had said casually.

Steve forked absently at his peas, craving some form of praise. With Billy Hargrove benched after an altercation on the court, he finally felt like he was back at the top of something.

Between his lackluster transcript and last year’s fall from social grace after his falling out with Tommy and Carol, Steve Harrington felt like an entirely different person from the King Steve he once was. The new Steve didn’t command attention from those around him, and often didn’t get any in turn. Secretly, though, he had hoped that generalization excluded what he did on the court.

After all, Steve didn’t think he was good at much. He accepted that his essays were subpar at best and that his jealousy often interfered with his relationships, but he counted on sports as the one thing that he was really good at.

From across the mahogany table, his Father merely huffed in acknowledgement. Nervous, Steve pressed the matter further.

“Are you coming, uh, to the game? It’s tomorrow”

His father paused momentarily, cocked an eyebrow, and promptly returned to his dinner plate:

“We’ll see, Steven.”

The words rang around Steve’s head like a prayer. It wasn’t much, but it wasn’t a no. He just really wanted to prove himself. What better way than to score the winning shot against Hawkins’ biggest rival?

“Harrington!”

“Hm, yeah?”

“C’mon! Let’s get out there and kick some Titan ass!”

As the cheerleaders assembled on the sidelines, tossing around green and white pom-poms, Bethany found herself distracted by the sullen demeanor of her boyfriend. She frowned. Steve always seemed in his element at games. Something was off today, though.

He scanned the crowd as a last ditch effort to find his father. Instead, Beth, standing in the center of it all, caught his eye and broke into a grin sweet enough to warm Steve’s cold spirits, if only a little. She looked adorable in her cheerleading uniform; he liked her in green. Her blonde locks were curled and pulled half-up into a dark jade bow. Altogether, that pretty little skirt and that smile he loved so much which always tasted like strawberry, it sent a spark of white heat up Steve’s spine with the notion of what he wanted to do to her- with her- later, when he got her alone.

Momentarily, Steve forgot all about the new promise his father had broken. He started the game with a smile, comforted in part by the knowledge that Beth would cheer him on just a little bit louder than the other cheerleaders.

Despite the heavy pump of adrenaline dispersing through his veins, Steve fell from his excitement pretty soon after sinking the final, victorious shot of the game. It took one glance over the bleachers to confirm his fears. His heart sank. Dad never showed. Wiping sweat from his brow, Steve wanted little more than to retreat to the locker room for a pity party in the showers.

The warm reception he received from his teammates and friends, instead of fulfilling that gap of loneliness he felt like it usually did, only made him feel even more miserable. The Pope himself could congratulate Steve on yet another win and it wouldn’t mean a damn thing unless it was coming from his old man, too.

He made his way through the wave of gratitude with only half a heart. Part of him knew he should have been just as excited as the rest of the team, - maybe even more so- and yet Steve wasn’t looking any more forward to the Playoffs he had just guaranteed them a spot in than he might like one of his mother’s stuffy dinner parties.

Steve dragged his feet to the locker room, stalling before the inevitability cold return home. He could already picture his father perched on his living chair, unphased by his entrance, not caring or not knowing how his son felt, or perhaps swept away from Hawkins on another last-minute business trip. His bruised ego tempted him with the half-used bottle of tequila he kept under his bed and a night in with his sorrow.

No sooner had Steve revamped his beeline for the showers than Todd flagged him down in the hall. Amy, the redhead he recognized as one of Beth’s girl friends hung off of him, giggling softly.

“Hey, man. Reed is throwing a party to celebrate. You in?”

“Maybe I’ll drop by later.”

“Oh, all right. Great game, Harrington!”

“Thanks. You too”

He watched his friend disappear down the hallway with a sigh. A party sounded like the last thing he needed. Steve didn’t feel much like celebrating tonight. He’d rather just drink alone in his room. No matter how many winning shots or passes Steve pulled off, it was never enough. He didn’t feel good enough for his own father. How pathetic was that?

“Steve!”

The familiar voice lifted his spirits some. Steve turned his head to find Beth, her golden hair reflecting off the cheap fluorescent lighting like an angel’s halo, standing with her arms wrapped around herself. She exhaled slowly.

“What’s wrong? Is it your Dad again?”

She hadn't needed an answer. One of the many things Beth loved so much about Steve was his deep sense of loyalty, of faith. His father and, in her complacency, his mother, too, were the  anomaly that made Steve’s greatest asset also his Achilles heel. Beth already knew the answer.

“I just,” he exhaled. Steve tugged at his sticky-sweat hair, kicking his feet against the wall for good measure. He knew he likely looked like a toddler midway through a temper tantrum, but Steve couldn’t be bothered to care.

Hell, he thought bitterly. Maybe I really should just start breaking shit. That’ll get his attention!

Steve, however, had already tried acting out to grab his Dad’s attention. It failed when he punched Johnny Cross right in the nose for no real reason, when a five-person party turned his backyard into a possible crime scene, and again when he took the blame for Tommy H and Carol’s obscene spray paint job on the Hawk.

When the police started asking questions about Barbara Holland a year ago, most of Steve felt a deep fear of his father’s punishment. The vulnerable parts of him, on the other hand, felt a demented delight in the attention it earned him- even if it was for all the wrong reasons.

“‘My father is-“

“An asshole. I know. So you’ve said.”

Beth approached him slowly. She glanced up at him, her eyes soft with concern. Despite the height difference, Steve slouched easily into her touch.

“What did he do now, Steve?”

She grabbed at his hands, squeezing them in reassurance. Just her presence made Steve feel touched by angel. Bits of heaven dripped from her fingertips, her lips, and in her embrace Steve finally felt worthy of something ethereal. In the simple shine of love in her eyes, he finally saw a boy worthy of something as holy as her golden heart. She might not have been perfect, either, but Steve really thought she was an angel sent for him. It didn’t matter what his father, or anyone else for that matter, thought of Steve Harrington as long as Bethany Sullivan looked at him in that way that made him feel invincible. Steve swore that was why Beth was his saving grace.

“He promised… um, I thought he was coming to the game. He lied to me. Jesus, I mean, I bet he doesn’t even remember there is a game tonight! Am I really so unloveable that my even my own Father doesn’t want to be seen with me? I wasn’t good enough for Nancy-“

“How can you say that?”

Beth’s heart dropped down to the floor, beaten and deflated by the sight of her goofy boy so downtrodden. She always understood that Steve and his parents had a cold, complicated relationship, but she never imagined that it hurt him so badly.

“Come on, Beth. It has to be me, right? Everyone’s always leaving me. Nancy, Mom and Dad, my old friends… This feels like one hell of a coincidence”

Steve tried to swallow past the gumball lump in his throat. He didn’t want to cry in front of Beth. Not because he saw it as a sign of weakness, but in compliance with the tiny voice in the back of his mind- his Father’s voice- that told him that she would only find it pathetic and leave him, too.

Rubbing stray tears into the pad of her thumbs, Beth cupped her hands to his cheeks and held his gaze firmly on her. She had to lift up on the balls of her feet to reach his eye level, but Beth didn’t waver one bit.

“That’s not true, Steve. Nancy just didn’t know what she wanted. I do think she should have handled it a little differently, but I know she didn’t intend for any of that to happen. You did the right thing by telling Tommy and Carol to shove it. I never liked them. Not since 1972, when Carol ruined my favorite dress and Tommy told the whole class I kissed him behind the swing sets-“

“I remember that,” he says. Steve’s eyes lit up slightly at the memory.

If being abandoned was a series of coincidences in Steve's life, then his run-ins with Beth as kids was another. The pair were friends in preschool; Beth was pretty sure her Mother still had that framed photo of them squished cheek-to-cheek hanging in the hallway. Steve remembered perhaps more than Beth did. Years later, when asked, he might cheekily remark that he gave her his heart as a gap toothed six-year-old and he never truly needed it back.

“Ms. Gardner gave me a time out for cutting off Carol’s ponytail. And I swear Tommy was sneezing sand for weeks after you pushed him-!”

She calmed her laughter, rolling her lips nervously inward. Beth stroked his cheek in soothing circles. Her emotions teetered somewhere between a cry and a laugh.

“You’ve always wanted your Dad to be someone he isn’t, Steve. Even back then, as kids…

She sighed.

In his mind's eye, Steve saw Beth again as the bright-eyed girl who, back in grade school, silently wiped his tears and offered up her last cookie just to see him smile. His heart swelled with undeniable love for her just as it had then.

“Look, I’m not defending him. In fact, I think he needs a reality check himself, but I just want you to look at this in a different way. Your father, his actions- they don’t reflect on you. You are a good person, Steve. The fact that your Father didn’t want to be here tonight doesn’t mean that you’ve done something wrong or that you aren’t enough. It means that he doesn’t even realize what an amazing son he’s got. And I feel sorry for him.

“Your Dad being gone doesn’t have anything to do with you. It says a whole lot more about him than it does about you. You know that, don’t you?”

He hadn't considered the possibility, but Beth made it sound clear as day. Thinking, he rested his chin atop her head, arms scooping her closer. His bottom lip trembled. He didn’t deserve her.

“Do you really mean all that?”

“Of course I do, Steve”

She flattened her chin against his chest and held his gaze with doe eyes full of sincerity and raw love. He looked hopeful, enamored with her. Steve ran his fingers through her silky hair, a sad smile on his lips.

“I don’t deserve you, Bethany Sullivan.”

“I love you, Steve Harrington, so that’s just too bad. You’re stuck with me now. I can be your own personal cheerleader”

He hummed from deep within his chest, smiling devilishly, and pulled her into into a kiss that said everything Steve didn’t know how to. The kiss was mostly soft whimpers and gnashing teeth, hands much too grabby for a public place. Steve pulled away, hands balling up the hem of her skirt.

Beth pulled from his embrace and sauntered down the corridor towards the showers before he even registered the loss of touch. Grinning, he called out to her:

“So, does that mean you’ll keep the uniform on tonight?”

“Oh, shut up!”

He jogged to keep up, his parents the last thing on his mind.

“That’s not a no!”

Steve quipped in return. She thrust her middle finger upwards, but offered a cheeky wink as she led him into the nearly abandoned locker room.

“C’mon, lover boy. Let’s get you cleaned up.”

Steve scrambled to follow her. For the first time all night, he finally felt like a winner. His father might not have believed in him, but Beth sure did.

send help

hi so i have a couple of pieces in my lineup but i’m not sure which one to work in first. here’s what i have coming up, in no particular order:

• hypochondriac: pt 3 (stan uris x oc)

• tidal pools: pt 1 (steve harrington x reader)

• babysitting 101: blurb (steve harrington x oc)

• send her my love/second choice: pt 3 (steve harrington x reader)

• fossilized: blurb, possible series? lots of angst, lots of fluff. (dustin henderson x oc, steve harrington x oc)

a concept

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, and i miss these kiddos, so here’s a Steve Harrington x oc! head canon for y’all:

beth has this poster up in her room- right between one of johnny depp and like 20 of michael j fox, mind you

as seen in s1 especially, steve’s insecurities often play out in the form of jealousy and rash conclusions that interfere with his relationships, and after overhearing two girls comparing billy hargrove to the guy from st. elmo’s fire, he never wanted to see that stupid thing again

he pulls away from her sweet strawberry lips, pouting and glaring daggers at her lilac walls

“hey beth? who’s that” ‘...rob... you mean rob lowe?’ does that earring look familiar?” etc

she’s not about to let him feed into that side of himself bc it’s only a poster of freaking rob lowe, not a polaroid of some guy she met at the hawk. it’s bc she understands the real reason he doesn’t like it

she ends up taking it down, folding it in half, and stuffing it into her whiny boyfriend’s fists.

she’d never admit it, but beth thought it was kinda cute that steve was jealous. besides, she’d always been more into back to the future than the outsiders, anyways

Back to Risky Business

summary: Steve’s plans for Halloween sound a little too familiar for Bethany’s liking. She lets her insecurity and jealousy get in the way of their relationship.

pairing: Steve Harrington x  oc

a/n: this did not turn out quite the way I intended it to, and spooky season is over, but I hope this lives up to your expectations, anon :)

Steve Harrington lost his flair for horror and a cheap scare somewhere around the time he fought a very real monster. The boy who once lived for scary movies and Halloween mischief now flinched at movement in the dark. If it were up to Steve, he would bury himself under a pile of blankets, a bowl of candy, and smother his girlfriend with kisses until everything returned to normal. However, Bethany loved Halloween.

He watched her carve one too many pumpkins and stockpile enough horror movies into a shopping cart at Blockbuster to make it impossible to ignore her love for the season. Happily, the boy held her hand through yet another rerun of Gremlins and teased of her love for Bill Murray through three-quarters of Ghostbusters. He gulped down mug-fulls of her homemade apple cider, aghast at her ability to liquefy her honey warm love with each mug. Bethany felt like smooth honey, a sticky sweet caramel melted over a crisp apple that Steve could never seem to finish; he loved to try, though. He may not have liked Halloween anymore, but Steve sure did love Bethany.

Their little college town had only one pizza place that could bear some semblance of their sacred joint back home in Hawkins. Nothing could ever quite top that Mom ‘n Pop restaurant where Steve once made an utter lovestruck fool out of himself the night Dustin first properly introduced them, and their corner booth still proudly displayed their names amid a crudely drawn heart - a parting gift from Steve. This was as good a place as any to continue their Tuesday night tradition.

Steve turned his chin towards Beth, smiling. He cupped her hand in his. Like an insecure pound puppy, he cuddled up to her, quietly pleading for affection with his big brown eyes.

“So,” he said. “I’ve been thinking”

Beth hummed, an eyebrow cocked playfully. He stole a sip from her drink, not once taking his eye off of her. She noted the twinkle in his eye. Steve loved mischief, and in the season of trickery, she couldn’t imagine what he had on his mind.

With a mouthful of pizza and his free hand wrapped up in her, Steve trudged on:

“I know you said you just wanted to rent a movie and have a night in for Halloween, but one of the guys from the team mentioned some party he’s throwing on Saturday. Why don’t we dress up for it? I was thinking we could go as that couple from the Michael J. Fox movie you love so much-“

At this, Beth shifted her weight away from him, suddenly silent. She stirred Dr. Pepper around her cup with the straw, deflating. Steve’s sly grin shifted into a pull of his eyebrows.

“Oh,” she stalled. “Steve, I don’t know.”

Beth sighed, the tension creasing into her forehead not unlike that of the disapproving grimace usually reserved for her time as a stressed babysitter. A heavy, nauseous weight settled over Beth and the scared girl inside of her wanted little more than to flee the diner, to give in to her insecurity. That little girl saw the handsome, unattainable boy who stole her heart on the playground but who never bothered to return the favor. She suddenly felt very small.

“What is it?”

Steve reached for her hands, only to watch her pull them out of arm's reach. She scoffed but refused to look at him. Undeterred, Steve lifted her chin gently up to face him with his pointer and middle fingers. A familiar sick settled over him like a cold breeze. It was a smoggy feeling that looked an awful lot like his father and made him feel just as inadequate. Steve struggled to keep his insecurities at bay, to remember that Beth wasn’t Nancy; she would keep his heart safe. Once she pushed him away, Steve was suddenly the touch-starved boy who first asked her out; he needed her to nuzzle and coddle him.

“Hey,” he murmured. “You know you can talk to me.”

Commitment still came relatively new to Steve. Before Nancy, Steve Harrington was a womanizer and a ladies’ man. The old Steve couldn’t be bothered to sit still long enough to funnel the overwhelming love he had to give into a single relationship. At least, he had chalked the whole thing up to an inner fear of commitment. Nancy felt different his junior year of high school, but with Beth it felt like forever. He now knew that he had never been unable or unwilling to commit; Bethany Sullivan and her big heart stole him away the first time they met on the Hawkins Elementary playground. Even now, knowing that she was it for him, Steve worried that he didn’t deserve her. In his mind, Steve still saw himself as the shitty boyfriend he felt he had been to Nancy Wheeler, even if that was never true.

“There’s nothing to talk about.”

“Beth, c’mon. I know that look. Tell me”

Pound Puppy Steve now looked as pathetic as an unruly mutt returned to the pound’s doorstep. Panicky, he wrapped his hands around himself. His watery eyes begged her to cave in to his affections. However, Bethany knew better. He really struck a nerve this time. She refused to look at him. Pulling her coat over her shoulders, Beth brushed off his pleas.

“Take me home, please,” she slid from the booth.

With her arms wrapped defensively around her chest, she made for the door. The blonde refused to look back for fear of what truth she might find within this eyes. He called after her but she ignored him.

“Beth!”

“I’ve got class in the morning and I know for a fact that you still have homework to do.”

While true, her concern over schoolwork had nothing to do with the mounting desire to escape to the sanctity of her dorm room. Even if her roommate wanted to gossip about people Beth neither knew nor cared for, she preferred Chrissy’s chatter to the nagging voice of her own insecurity. With her puppy at her heels, Bethany crossed the parking lot to his car.

It was a tortuously quiet car ride back to campus. Her traitorous mind conjured up images of a smiley, lovesick Steve clinging to the arm of Nancy Wheeler at a house party; she foolishly remembered the coordinating Risky Business costumes. Back in high school, the world belonged to Bethany, but the only thing she wanted was far too busy mooning after a girl who didn’t love him.

Steve remembered that night differently. The devilish parts of his mind flashed carnal images of a younger Bethany. He might have belonged to Nancy at the time, but the deepest, rawest parts of Steve tingled with desire at the mere image of her golden hair bouncing with each step, of that tiny, oh-so-perfect angel costume and its ironic halo that made Steve want to absolutely ruin her. He often thought of her as she was that night- young, smiling, angelic. She had his heart as much then as now. Nancy Wheeler may have ruined Halloween for him once, but he swore that Bethany Sullivan would save him.

He parked his BMW outside her dorm building. Steve watched her as she reached for the door handle, noticing her hesitation to pull it. A semblance of hope lit up for Steve but it felt clouded by his inability to wrap his head around why Beth reacted so strongly.

“Look, if you still wanna do movie night-“

“No, no. That’s not it, Steve.”

“Doesn’t it all seem a little too,” she treaded lightly. “Familiar?”

Beth needed him to validate her insecurities. The vulnerable parts of her really needed Steve to touch her face and tell her how much he loved her. Maybe to kiss her unruly heart right back into place. Only he didn’t. Instead, his puppy eyes blinked at her. He shook his head.

“No,” he said. “Should it?”

Beth smiled sadly in return. She pushed the car door open. Hanging in the doorway, hovering and silently hoping he chased after her, she succumbed into a long night of self loathing.

“Goodnight, Steve.”

Steve Harrington thought of himself as a dreadfully average student. He often struggled to apply himself and bits and pieces of things sometimes struggled to connect for him. Unfortunately for Steve, Beth’s hurt was a puzzle he felt ill equipped to solve. Alone and close to crying in the parking lot, he pulled at his chocolate locks as if it might yank the last piece out of his thick skull.

One thing Steve held himself to was to never give up on what truly matters. Even if he rushed himself right into the eye of a hurricane by not seeing the obvious, he had to fix this. Afraid he might have just lost the love of his life, Steve sped off to conjure up a big gesture to win her back.

“He’s not gonna just go away.”

Beth and Chrissy’s quiet Saturday girls’ night in was interrupted by a vicious tapping at the window. The party began half an hour earlier. Not that it mattered much to Bethany, who refused to speak to Steve since their fight.

Chrissy peeled back the blinds, smiling apologetically at the pouty boy two floors below. She cracked the window open. She cooed under her breath at the sight of his jean jacket and puffy red material vest, looking straight off the set of Beth’s favorite movie. If a boy had done this for her, Chrissy would have been outside hours ago. She knew nothing about their fight, but she’d be damned if she let the only two people she believed truly loved each other simply give up like that. Steve Harrington knew his romance tactics only through movies, but he executed them well. He would throw every pebble in sight at her window until she appeared, even if only to shoo him away.

The relentless raps against the windowpane stalled a little after 9. Beth paused skimming through the copy of People Magazine in her hands, surprised by the silence. Just as she began to consider looking for Steve, she stumbled upon an article on Tom Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay publicizing their movie Risky Business. It must have come from an old pile of her mother’s magazines. Disgusted with the ironic timing, Beth tore the page right in half. She wrinkled it up into a ball and tossed it right at the window, back at Steve. Beth couldn’t see him from her bed but she knew it was him.

He straightened the paper as it landed at his feet and prayed for some clarity. It took only one look at the magazine spread for that last piece to click in Steve’s head. This had nothing to do with bailing on their date with Poltergeist and Psycho; it was about Nancy. The last thing he wanted was for her to feel like competition to his ex-girlfriend.

Chrissy sat down at the foot of Beth’s bed. She placed a hand gently on her roommate's knee and gently squeezed. It was time for some tough love.

“Look,” she said. “I know it’s none of my business, and I don’t know what he did, but that boy is absolutely crazy about you. I think it would be a mistake not to at least hear him out”

Beth sighed:

“You’re right.”

“Alright, well, I’m gonna head to library,” Chrissy pointedly glanced at the window before leaving Beth alone in their room.

Beth pulled at the sleeves of her sweatshirt- Steve’s hoodie- and swallowed her pride. She peeped her head out the window. Steve flashed her one of his infamous charming grins.

“Get in here before you break the window.”

She opened the door sheepishly, gazing up at the mopey boy in the threshold. Beth squished her cheek against the wooden door frame; she knew she might have overreacted. With her pride still stuck in her throat, she gestured for him to come inside.

Standing in the center of her tiny dorm room, Steve shoved his hands deep into the pockets of his blue jeans. He crushed the balled up article, feeling like a complete ass. Steve couldn’t help but to notice how perfect she looked in his clothes, even pouting. They both spoke at once:

“I’m sorry-“

“I overreacted.

“No,” he shook his head. “You didn’t. Look, I get it and I want you know that I never, ever meant for you to think that it had anything to do with her. I just wanted you to be happy”

“I know you did, Steve. I just,” she exhaled sharply. “I kept seeing you and Nancy- uh, y’know before everything and… You know what? It doesn’t matter anymore.”

“No?”

“No, it doesn’t. You mean so much to me and I couldn’t live with myself if you never looked at me like that again.”

“Like what?”

She stroked his cheek with her thumb. The love emanating from his puppy dog eyes intoxicated her so much so that even Beth, even in her most insecure state, couldn’t deny it.

“Like I’m the only person in the world.”

The pure love and admiration in her hazel eyes lured Steve in a lovestruck daze. He was a big, smiley mess of hair.

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

He pulled her in for a hug, her tiny frame swallowed by his arms. Steve’s arms would always keep Beth safe from everything outside of his touch; even her own insecurity dulled away whenever he looked at her like that. Suddenly, Beth couldn’t remember why she reacted so severely. Sure, he and Nancy shared one Halloween together; the rest were for Steve and Bethany.

She cupped his cheeks, pouring her apology into their kiss. As she pulled away to drink him in, Beth smiled faintly:

“I’ll be right back, okay? We can still make it in time”

She returned moments later, dressed for the party and back to her usual bubbly self. Steve slung his arm nonchalantly around her tiny frame, a sunshiny smile across his lips.  Much like Marty McFly, Steve Harrington was the all-American dream boy; he wasn’t perfect, and his pride often got the best of him, but he was everything Bethany ever asked for. Like Jennifer Parker, she vowed to always be right by his side when he needed her the most.

“You changed your mind,” he said, unable to stifle a grin.

Giggling, she flicked her chin towards him:

“How ‘bout a ride, mister?”

a sneak peek into my next piece, For Old Time’s Sake. Rated 18+ for mature themes

PLAYLIST:

[ https://open.spotify.com/user/7hhllluub11kkwrsnejtv4mps/playlist/6ZMvcO9MrqL3H8j7ANdTZv?si=vpN63WHnSqqr6OFqnaXBWg ]

cont.

Hackensack: Fountains of Wayne

When We Were Young: Adele

End of the Day: One Direction

For the First Time: The Script

(steve harrington x female!oc)

For Old Time’s Sake

Summary: It’s 1995 in Hawkins. When Heather Johnson returns home for the Hawkins High School reunion, she comes face to face with an old lover. Or, alternatively, the one where Steve falls in love with Heather all over again.

Steve Harrington x oc

Warnings: 18+, mature content, smut

Tags: @casaharrington

The town of Hawkins kept its secrets well. From the outside, and to every kid who made a run for it after high school, not much about the town changed. Small town stillness washed over the buildings and suburban homes that Heather Johnson passed on the drive home to her parents’ place. If not for the empty lot where the Dairy Queen had been and the newly painted houses, Hawkins could have been a time machine to 1985.

She parked curbside outside of her childhood home. Through the trees, just past the Harrington home, she could vaguely make out the ruins of what was once Hawkins Lab. Even abandoned, it brought bile to her throat. When Heather left Hawkins, danger eschewed the rosy lens of childhood she knew it under. Time blurred and muddied her memories, but fleeting images of a boy with a baseball bat comforted her; whatever it was, they defeated it together.

Heather yanked the keys from the ignition. She didn’t come back to dig up old nightmares. Steadying her breath, she hauled her suitcase from the hatch of her car into her old home. Whatever she saw ten years ago in that shadowy building couldn’t hurt her now.

She retired to her bedroom that night with a head swimming in unsaid words and forgotten dreams she bottled up and left here in Hawkins. Traveling through the hallways of her parents’ house brewed an unwelcome, lonely sense of dejavú that could swallow Heather whole.

The door closed softly behind her. Heather looked to the window next door, partially out of habit, partially wrapped up in foolish hope, but instead found the curtains drawn. She longed for the secret notes passed through window panes on late nights and the stolen kisses as he stumbled into her bedroom. That was- they were- long gone now.

Now, standing alone in her girlish lilac bedroom, she felt like a stranger in her own life. The knick-knacks, trophies, polaroids, and photo booth strips belonged to someone else entirely. She thumbed over the picture frame sitting proudly on her nightstand, swiping the dust away from the picture-perfect memory of two smitten teens. Her mother must have retrieved it from the floor and replaced it sometime after she left. The crack down the center obscured her face, but she cared more about the way Steve looked at her. Just as she let herself want, her finger caught on the crack and blood sullied the cheap frame. Cursing, she cushioned the wound between her lips to dull the bleeding.

Heather Johnson blossomed into her own person through the past decade; she had a place to call her own, a job she felt passionately for, everything she once doubted she could earn without her Daddy’s help. Something about Hawkins, though, made that woman shrink slowly back into the scared girl who ran away from it.

High school for Heather looked picture perfect. In some ways, it had been, yet a part of her always felt sandwiched into the tiny pond that Hawkins was and desperate to swim upstream into the outside world. For someone with as many friends and as surrounded by people as Heather the Cheerleader had been, she never felt more lonely. Her friends’ parents worked boring desk jobs that required no traveling and most of them had one boyfriend or another to waste their time with. She kissed as many boys as she could just trying to make up for the loneliness she felt in her parents’ absence; it always found its way back. Until Steve.

Steve Harrington lived next door. He talked too much, slept around quite a bit, and had a poor taste in friends. Heather might nod along and listen as Laurie or Becky rambled off reasons why he could not be trusted, but she never cared to listen. She liked to think she knew Steve perfectly well.

The first time Heather met Steve, she might have agreed with what her friends thought of him. They knew each other only through summer block parties and whatever other events their parents dragged them to until 1982. That summer leading up to sophomore year changed a lot for Heather; her body filled out and her Dad started leaving home more. She took up a job lifeguarding at the community pool and returned to school in August sunkissed, slightly curvy, and in need of a little trouble. Steve, who received a shiny new BMW for his sixteenth birthday, looked exactly like the kind of trouble she wanted.

She had him completely, utterly wrapped around her finger by the end of September. Heather and Steve soiled every inch of that car as summer came to autumn. She only meant to distract herself, but her desire for fire and trouble died down into an ache for the boy next door. Heather let herself love him wholly. Steve became her future; he tamed her rebellious spirit into a lovestruck girl who wanted only for him to stay with her forever.

Forever, for Heather and Steve, instead became the beginning of junior year. He stomped on her heart and spit it right back at her. As Heather pulled back to lick her wounds, Steve zeroed in on his next prey. Nancy Wheeler stood for everything Heather could never be. Girls like Nancy didn’t just offer up their virginities to the first boy who called them pretty or invent their own hangover cures out of necessity. Heather hated the thought of Steve with someone like that, because she could never be half as good. Good girls like Nancy shone like blank canvases void of any tarnish and squeaky-clean enough to bring home to Mom; Heather the Whore and her Father-sized baggage could never compete with a girl like that.

Even now, the sight of that swimming pool nauseated her. Mr. Harrington had it drained years ago, but she only saw the very end of Barbara Holland’s life, the thing that took her, and the boy she still loved already falling for Nancy Wheeler, all right outside her bedroom window. Heather yanked her curtains shut. The demogorgon might be unreachable now, but nothing so far healed her battered little heart.

---

“Joey, you little shit! Let go of your sister’s hair”

Heather clung to the kitchen island, watching as the red-headed toddlers tornadoed across the living room. Carol stormed out of the bedroom sporting only one shoe and looking more grown up than Heather ever imagined she would be. Tommy and Carol’s wedding unsurprisingly predated the prompt birth of their first child by mere months. Between the two nightmares currently messing up their house and the heavily pregnant bump in her purple gown, Carol looked about one temper tantrum away from a spectacular breakdown of her own.

However exhausted parenthood and married life looked to someone like Heather, that new sheen in Carol’s eyes and the bizarrely adult change in Tommy’s demeanor suggested otherwise. The life of a Hawkins housewife, with all its cliquey glory and PTA snobs, suited Carol’s catty nature and, to everyone’s surprise, fatherhood had calmed Tommy’s recklessness. Heather took one look at their messy, chaotic, love-filled life, and her confidence crumbled. Her life in New York outpaced anything Hawkins could offer her, but she couldn’t pretend that she had once not wanted anymore more than this life with Steve.

“For fuck’s sake Tommy, would you hurry up?”

Carol herded her husband towards the door, cursing under her breath at his inability to correctly tie a necktie. If not for the wedding rings and Carol’s baby bump, Heather might have mistaken the scene for a recreation of their senior prom night.

Heather piled into the backseat of Carol’s mini-van. Tommy stuck his head out of the driver’s seat as they sped off to Hawkins High, screaming:

“Class of ‘85, motherfuckers!”

Carol yanked him back into the car by the collar. She added a swift smack to the head for good measure. Heather smiled to herself; at least some things never did change.

As the burgundy minivan pulled into the spot once reserved for Heather’s Jeep, she saw her life from the outside. Without the safety of her green and white cheerleading outfit, Hawkins High School looked a whole lot less impressive than back in the day.

Tommy and Carol dispersed into the crowd not long after their arrival, while Heather gravitated towards the open bar. She greeted passersby who recognized her and watched the crowd swell. She stirred her drink absently and watched the night unfold around her.

Old cheer squad members earned careers in fashion or television or teaching. Her third grade best friend married her ninth grade lab partner. Old Hawkins friends gathered like nothing ever changed, but Heather felt acutely aware that everything had.

Meanwhile, Steve tore himself away from a conversation with a few classmates he only vaguely remembered. He stopped a few feet away from her, as if unsure whether or not to proceed.

Time dealt Steve Harrington the short hand. He stayed in Hawkins, he told himself, not out of fear but just to keep an eye on things for a while. Jim Hopper promised to call if any more monsters popped up. No need, he said. I think I’ll stick around a while longer. First, Nancy and Jonathan Byers, even Billy Hargrove, graduated and took the fast track out of town. By the time Dustin and Lucas and Mike and the rest of the rugrats set off to college, Steve was fresh out of excuses.

Hopper took a quick visit down to the record store where Steve took up a job to pay his bills. He leaned down over the counter Steve worked behind and lowered his voice:

“What the hell are you still doing here, kid? We both know you don’t belong in this shithole.”

“Yeah,” he deadpanned. “You’re probably right”

Hopper, more a father to Steve than his own ever was, refused to let him give up like this. Where Steve saw in himself the self-righteous asshole who vandalized the town movie theater, Hopper saw the young man who readily put his own life on the line to save those kids.

“Look, I don’t really care what you do,” he lied. “Just quit feeling sorry for yourself and do something with your life.”

The next morning, Hopper arrived at the station to find Steve Harrington sitting with his tail between his legs in the chair facing his desk. By that time the next year, he was the latest member of the Hawkins PD. And a damn good one at that, he might add.

For the first time in his life, Steve had everything he could want. Everything, that is, except someone to share it with.

His heart skittered as he worked up the courage to get Heather alone. He’d heard that she came alone and wanted little more than to catch her attention. Things ended so badly between them- his fault, really- that he hardly imagined she wanted to see him again. So, with the same sense of humility as that fateful morning in Chief Hopper’s office, he tapped her shoulder:

“Save me a dance? For old time’s sake.”

Gooseflesh rippled her bare arms; she would recognize that voice anywhere. Heather set her cocktail glass on the bar, turning her head towards him. He looked the spitting image of the nervous boy who first asked to take her out to the movies. Hands scrunched in his suit pockets, and sporting the very same crooked smile she remembered, Steve Harrington stood before her.

Heather’s powder blue dress blended well with her skin tone in the dim gym lighting and her dark hair popped against the fabric. His heart swelled at the sight of her standing in the very same gym they shared their first kiss in. Steve wondered how he ever let a girl like that slip through his fingers.

“Okay,” she said. “For old time’s sake”

He led her by the hand to the makeshift dance floor, feeling for the first time in ages the sweaty anticipation of a lovestruck school boy. Her rosy cheeks swelled with a smile in tandem with her shaky hands as they locked between the ducktail of hair at the nape of his neck. His hands resting easily on her hips, they danced.

“Y’know,” he chuckled. “I really didn’t expect to see you again. I’m glad I did”

The way he looked at her, even after all these years, sent Heather to the verge of tears; no one had looked at her like since she was a teenager. Since she and Steve were in love.

“Yeah,” her voice came out soft and small. “Me, too.”

They’d come full circle. Although life led them in different directions, and took Heather and Steve to the wrong people in their journey to find the love they first had in each other, it seemed their story looped back to that dingy old gym. Steve knew the second he saw her that tonight would be a whole lot more than reminiscing with a lost lover. Even if Heather didn’t know that, yet, Steve didn’t mind waiting.

Steve would wait forever for her if it only meant that he could see that smile one last time. The way her brown eyes sparkled in the dim lighting, the way her hips filled out the fabric of her gown, the way her delicate touch ghosted over him as they danced; Heather was filled with reminders of the way he once loved her. The way Steve still loved her.

Heather cupped his cheek, stroking it with her thumb and watching after him with a melancholy smile.

“I am so proud of you,” she whispered.

Heather clung to her once-lover long past the end of slow songs, the two swaying to synthetic pop tunes. It seemed that each of them darted around fears that, should they let go of each other, they might never get the chance to do so again. Whether she admitted it to herself or not, Heather let herself believe that, maybe, she was always meant to find her way back to him. She felt not like an adult but once again like a teenage girl nervously dancing with the prom date of her dreams.

He nuzzled his nose forward against her cheek. His hot breath fanned out against her skin and pulled her in even more. The sweet, mesmerizing scent of Steve’s rosewood cologne, the ghost of spearmint chewing gum, and a hint of musk hypnotized Heather. As he finally kissed her, Heather folded into his touch. The kiss was a decade in the making, the kind featured on movie screens and cheesy discount novels. Every word they were too afraid to speak into existence and all their repressed emotions poured into the kiss.

Reluctantly, he broke off the kiss. Only as the final song of the night faded into its closing note did Heather pull herself away from his warmth. Steve stole a quick kiss to her cheek. They walked slowly towards the edge of the dance floor.

“Here,” he said. Steve draped his sports coat over Heather’s shoulders.

Hair bouncing along with his lopsided grin, Steve couldn’t take his eyes off of Heather and that captivating laugh of hers. Even as she led him away from the dance floor, Steve found himself absorbed in her. Her neatly styled hair fell rebelliously out of place, the heat on her cheeks and perspiration from nerves and the dancing all adding just the right amount of lived-in smudge to her make-up. Heather looked radiant. The words fell out of his loose lips like thoughts so strong that his mouth couldn’t contain them:

“You’re beautiful.”

She slumped into a seat, letting out a breathy laugh. He slid into the empty chair beside her. Although his mind seemed acutely aware that they were running on borrowed time, Steve swore that the night would last forever. Time was edging on despite his best efforts to run backwards against the current; he would never be fifteen again, and their relationship would never be from a clean slate again.

She thanked him quietly. Another stolen kiss followed. The night grew thin around them, their classmates retiring to whatever lives they put on pause for the night's trip down memory lane, but neither could be bothered to tear themselves away. Heather was quiet for some time afterwards, trying to make sense of her emotions. Steve turned to her, forehead pulled in thought:

“We made quite the mess, didn’t we?”

Heather paused, tearing herself away from the fears of yesterday. Her eyes flickered to him. She smiled sadly. All Steve has to do was stay. When it was Heather’s turn to choose Steve, she decided to run instead. It seemed neither of them had the courage to face the very real feelings between them that even time and betrayal couldn’t seem to erase.

“Yeah,” she said eventually. “We sure did.”

He chuckled dryly, rubbing his palms together in thought. The universe seemed to laugh at them, to revel in the tragedy of their bad timing; love itself just wasn’t enough to make them work. His eyes begged Heather to ease his nerves. Steve needed Heather to give him some sign that this was more than just in his head.

“Why is this so hard for us?”

The worry in his tired face looked all too familiar to Heather. A sinking feeling returned to her stomach.

It wasn’t until the summer after graduation that Heather let herself start to forgive Steve for breaking her heart. With the drama and confines of high school now behind them, Heather and Steve vowed to make that summer theirs. A last hurrah of bad decisions with minimal consequences. What they intended to be a string of crashed house parties and getting drunk by the quarry instead was a summer filled with late-night conversations on the hood of Steve’s car. With Heather often teetering between sunburnt and sun-kissed after a shift at the community pool and Steve sticky and burnt out from serving ice cream at Starcourt Mall, they lacked much time or energy to live out the summer they outlined.

Neither of them really minded the extra time to themselves. In fact, Steve soon found himself excited for his shift to end and comforted by the knowledge that Heather was waiting for him in the parking lot, food in hand. By late June, Heather had his order memorized and Billy Hargrove had stopped trying to get her to hang around with him past closing time. That was how they found themselves devouring take out from Dairy Queen, still in their work uniforms, and sitting closer than necessary on the BMW.

She wiped the grease from her fingers with a napkin, laughing. Heather caught a glimpse of Steve in her peripheral vision- dripping with happiness, a shine to his eyes, his Scoops Ahoy sailor hat sagging lowly on his head.

Having Heather back in his life, even if only for brief, stolen moments on the hood of his BMW and late summer nights thick with their past, the future; it patched up the broken parts of his battered heart. She felt like home. It might only be for the summer, but Steve fully intended to hold onto every second with Heather that he could.

“Hey, Steve?”

He looked so eager, so happy to see her. Steve wouldn’t even know what hit him. That summer, he slowly tore down the walls their break-up built against her and she knew from the start that she couldn’t take him with her. The thing about running away from her problems, it seemed, was that Heather had to abandon every good thing in her life right along with the bad. Unfortunately, that included Steve.

She knew she should have told him from the beginning, that she never should have let herself get that close to him again so soon before leaving town. Heather should have told him, and yet she couldn't bring herself to break it to him. Not that Heather hadn’t tried to; she had, many times. It just hurt too much.

His laughter tapered off into an inquisitive hum.

“Do you ever think about leaving Hawkins?”

Maybe it had treated him less than kindly the past year or so, but it was still the only home Steve had ever known. The thought of skipping town never crossed his mind. He decided a long time ago that he would stand his ground and fight until his dying breath if he had to- Steve was braver, more stubborn than Heather that way. Another reason she would tell herself they didn’t work out; Steve Harrington was a fighter but Heather Johnson was a survivor. And sometimes that meant putting herself first.

“No, I can’t say that I have. Why?”

She shrugged, uncharacteristically shy:

“I don’t know,” she balled the napkin up into a makeshift stress ball. “I-I just think maybe I need to get out of this town, Steve. Parts of me can’t seem to shake what I saw, what I did-“

She let Barbara Holland die. Heather watched from her bedroom and did nothing as the thing ate her whole. And when she saw the damn thing again, she hadn’t been strong enough to kill it. She couldn’t save its future victims.

“Hey,” Steve pulled her under his arm. “Don’t say that, okay? You did what you could… We all did. It’s not your fault.”

Tilting her chin upwards with his fingertips, Steve pressed a meaningful kiss to her lips. She leaned into him. His embrace quieted her thoughts enough to mute her worries away. It wasn’t the first kiss they shared that summer, but something hid behind it that made Heather unable to shake him- so much so that she lost her nerve to break the news to him. She left Hawkins the next morning, while Steve dreamt of seeing her again.

The guilt ate at her from the inside out until the town she once loved only suffocated her with living nightmares and her own inadequacies. Deep down, Heather knew that running away from her problems would not solve anything. Still, she craved a change of scenery, an escape from the reminders of what Hawkins truly was under its all-American suburban facade. Hawkins was, quite simply, home to the gates of Hell and Heather didn’t want to stick around and wait for them to crack their way open again.

They had, eventually, done just that; only, Heather wasn’t by Steve’s side that July Fourth when he needed her the most.

Steve stood abruptly, offering her his hand:

“You want to get a drink?”

Nodding, she smiled. The last thing she wanted was to leave Steve’s side. Heather took his hand and followed him through the parking lot. They walked in a comfortable silence. She squeezed his hand in hers.

“Steve?”

The pair paused beside his car. Heather glanced up at him with the guilt of a child caught breaking their parents’ valuables while playing inside the house.

“I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you I was leaving,” she paused. “I should have.”

Steve’s eyes softened. He brushed loose hair from her face, smiling sadly.

“I know you are,” he said. “It’s okay, Heather. That was a long time ago.”

Forgiven or not, Heather still juggled her feelings of guilt and lingering feelings for Steve between stolen glances on the drive home. He may have absolved her, but Heather still needed

to forgive herself first.

“Come on,” Steve opened the passenger door. “How ‘bout that drink?”

---

The pair of them stumbled into Steve’s old bedroom between stolen kisses and wandering hands. Retracing steps from a lifetime ago, they fumbled blindly in the dim lighting, too utterly consumed in each other to care much for the world outside those walls. There was only the electric rush of pure, raw sexual chemistry and unresolved feelings.

Steve pulled back momentarily, lips dripping in unspoken words. Heather shook her head, stroking his cheek sensually with her thumb:

“Not now, Steve,” she shushed him, her waiting kiss soaking up his silent fears.

He pulled her hips flush against his torso, working blindly on her dress zipper. Steve’s rough palms explored every inch of her flesh that he could reach. He pinched purple hickies into the crook of her neck, chasing after her as her head flopped in pleasure. Heather hadn’t let anyone mark her skin that way in years. Steve made her feel young again, like his touch was the Fountain of Youth and she was Ponce de Leon, drinking him in deeply.

Her dress pooled on the floor around her feet as Steve pushed the thin straps from her shoulders. She looked even more mesmerizing than he remembered. Heather grew into her curves; time transformed her from a bewitching teenage beauty to the woman of Steve’s dreams. And he wanted to feel, to taste, every inch of her.

Spreading her legs apart ever so slightly, Steve dropped to his knees before her. He thumbed at her through the meager fabric of her lace panties. Another hickey on her smooth upper thigh. He groaned at the smell of her arousal. His expert mouth latched hungrily onto her core through the fabric.

Heather wriggled in pure, hot pleasure against his magical lips. Her fingers dug into his scalp, pulling on his hair just the way she knew drove him crazy. Steve pushed aside her panties, buried his nose, his lips into her most sensitive nerves. She tasted like heaven to him, the mere sight of her writhing above him an ethereal vision. Her taste dizzied him and Steve coddled her closer to his lips.

Steve loved the chase almost as much as the kill itself. He knew what he was doing, and knew he was damn good at it, too. If Steve had been a wolf in the bedroom as a teenager, then the only thing to stop him now was a silver bullet. And Heather was his full moon.

Her first orgasm hit hard and unexpectedly early, received by Steve’s eager tongue. He pulled her in by the neck for another kiss. The salty taste of her own arousal clinging to his breath intrigued Heather; touching Steve turned all her other experiences into blurry non-memories. Touching Steve felt like coming home after a long day.

The sight of Steve in all his naked glory sent Heather into a tizzy. She licked teasingly along his length, easing her way into giving him the head of his life. As she worked, Heather focused in on the bliss reflected in his face.

“Jesus,” he whined. “I forgot how good you were at that.”

Eager to be inside her, Steve reluctantly pulled her back up to her feet. He backed her up against the bed. Heather melted back against his pillows, a siren waiting for him to fall right into her trap. He kneeled over her figure. Steve kissed her sweetly. One hand thumbed at her clit. In one fluid motion, he pushed inside her.

Steve loved the way she clung to her. Her touch only egged him on. Steve rutted into her deeply. He made love to her with a veracity and dedication that put every other man she’d been with to shame. It was only Steve.

With one final grunt sandwiched by her name, Steve came deep inside of her.

She fell back against his sheets, spent in a fucked-out bliss. Heather felt her life in the city slipping further from her mind the more Steve Harrington and his magnificent cock drew her to a future here.

“Do you remember what you said to me the night Nancy and I broke up?”

Heather hummed in her sleepy daze, nodding:

“Sure, I do.”

“Did you mean it?”

She rolled over on the pillow to face him, fully awake now. Heather blinked through the darkness. Grasping in the dark, she clamped their hands together. From behind his messy hair, Steve looked like a shivering puppy left out in the rain. A soft smile graced her lips. She thought of the last time she saw that look.

“She never loved me.”

Nancy might have been the good girl toying around with Hawkins’ playboy, but instead she tore Steve to shreds and ran for the hills. Now, he wanted someone to sympathize with him. Heather, though, had no room in her life to be anyone’s second choice.

Heather tossed the hat to her candy striper costume on the duvet, sighing. She pawed at the vomit stain on her skirt with a damp towel. Perhaps the only person in town who had missed Steve and Nancy’s fallout, Heather left Tina’s party early to lull a dangerously intoxicated Brittany Matthews home before she ruined anyone else’s costume.

“What? Why are you even here, Steve?”

“I don’t know,” he shrunk down. “This is the first place I thought of.”

Oblivious to his pity party, Heather fussed about. She tried to clean the night’s memory of her drunken, sophomore team mate nearly passed out on Tina’s front porch right off her dress right along with the stain.

“What the fuck are you talking about, Steve?”

“Nancy,” he suddenly fell sheepish. “She never loved me.”

Heather watched after him, incredulous. Her hands gripped at the soiled towel as she bit her tongue. Steve, craving some sort of reaction from her, pressed on:

“I should have known,” he sulked. “I mean…God, when did I become such a fuck-up? This is bullshit. Of course it was. I should have known no one could love me-”

“Oh, fuck you! I did! I loved you so much, Steve. You had to have known that.

“What? Heather-”

“You broke my fucking heart, Steve. I’m not about to pretend that I didn’t see this coming and I’m sure as hell not your shoulder to cry on”

She tossed the soiled washcloth right at his chest. If Steve hadn’t been crying before, he sure was now. Still no movement.

“But-“

“I think you should leave.”

When he made no moves to do so, some part of her snapped right along with the last string of her heart that still reached out for Steve. She plucked the picture frame from her nightstand, their picture, and chucked it towards him, only narrowly missing his head. It landed on the floor under her dresser, as cracked and broken as their relationship, where it stayed until well after Heather graduated and left home.

“Get the fuck out, Steve.”

He faltered a moment, her words hitting him full-force with the one thing he must have known and feared but chose to ignore for the past year. Thick layers of tears caked his cheeks. Steve moved slowly and fluidly back towards the window he snuck in through, hoping all the while that he might uncover some magic words to undo the damage he slung onto her poor heart. He found only silence, and by the time his feet hit the ground, Steve knew he’d really done it this time.

He wanted only to be the carefree fifteen-year-old who got to kiss her in secret moments shared in the backseat of his BMW and late at night in her bedroom, when her parents were asleep. Steve wanted Heather back, but this was too little, too late. She locked the window behind him.

Looking at him now, her heart ached. The stubborn parts of her hadn’t forgiven him for breaking her heart all those years ago. Yet, she mostly just wanted him.

“Yes.”

Steve pressed his lips lightly to her knuckles.

“For what it’s worth, I loved you too.”

Steve leaned over the extra pillows to face her.  

When Steve awoke the next morning, he found himself surprised to see her messy hair splayed out across the pillow beside him, and utterly bewitched by the sight of Heather curling into the sheets as she slept soundly in his bed. He thought, though not for the first time in his life, that he might like to wake each day to the sight.

Later, as he walked her to her car, the idea still bounced around his mind. He grabbed at her hips, using every last drop of cheekiness to woo her away from that car. Steve let Heather go once before and he spent the next ten years regretting it.

“Stay.”

“You know I can’t.”

“What’s keeping you?

She exhaled with a soft laugh. Her home, her friends, her career, all waited for her back in the city. The only thing Hawkins, Indiana had that New York City didn’t was Steve Harrington.

“I’m sorry,” she kissed his lips sweetly. “Goodbye, Steve.”

He stood at the curb, hands balled into his shorts pockets, and watched her drive off until the Honda turned out of sight. Steve smiled after her, sporting the same smile he’d flashed the first time he told her his name, only this time a bitterness hid behind it.

Like Lot’s wife fleeing Sodom, Heather knew better than to turn around, knew his puppy dog eyes would trap her here forever, melt her down into a pillar of salt. And, like Lot’s wife, she did anyways.

She knew she’d see him again, if only in her dreams.

-----

Heather nervously twirled the phone cord around her finger. She stared at the slip of paper and dialed his phone number, her mind stuck over the words. The last time she felt this afraid, Heather lodged an axe into the neck of an interdimensional monster. This time, though, she knew that wouldn’t solve her problems.

“Steve? I need to see you.”

The trek to Indiana did little to calm her nerves. She drove silently, the radio turned down to silence. No matter how many times Heather practiced the speech in her head, it didn’t get any easier.

She stood at his doorstep. Fiddling with her hands, she contemplating blowing him off. Heather felt out of place at his apartment. To her, Steve would always be the boy next door. No matter what happened tonight. She thought of him always as he was then- handsome, full of life, brimming with dreams. Full of love for her.

When he opened the door to let her in, Steve couldn’t dull his smile. He looked almost the same as the boy in her memories. The love hadn’t quite left his eyes yet. It was with the comfort of this thought that she stepped inside.

Steve’s apartment was neat, small, homely. She could see him settling down before the TV with a beer or fussing over his hair in the mirror by the door. The thought made her smile.

He sat down with her on the couch, hands clasping with hers. His bright eyes watched her closely, waiting and ready to accept her back into his life.

“Is everything okay? You sounded upset on the phone.”

“I just- I wanted to talk.”

“Talk?”

He blinked. Steve knew this song and dance and he was tired of trying to keep her here. Tired of letting her toy with his heart.

“I haven’t seen or heard from you in months and you came all this way just to talk?”

Steve told himself he would hear her out, but his emotions got the best of him. He raised his voice in frustration. The abrupt shift in tone caught her off guard. She hadn’t meant to upset him. Heather deflated in her seat, the speech she’d had prepared now stuck in her throat.

“Forget it,” she rose. “I don’t even know why I came here.”

He followed her out onto the sidewalk. Heather walked out of his life too many times for him to let her go again.

“Where are you going?”

“I don’t know! Home, I guess.”

“Don’t you dare walk away from me again!”

The brunette stopped in her tracks, whirled around to face him. Angry, frustrated tears welled in her eyes. He stood just close enough for her to touch. Close enough for her to feel his heart breaking.

“And why not? We both already know how this ends.”

“I love you so much that it hurts. Why can’t you just admit that you want this, too?”

“That’s not why I came back, Steve.”

“Well, then, what? Is this some kind of a game to you-“

“I’m pregnant.”

His expression blanked. Steve didn’t know the first thing about fatherhood. His own gave him next to nothing to start from; the last thing he wanted was to find himself repeating his father’s shitty parenting style. He liked to think that he had finally shed the damage his absentee parents did to him, and that he had found a way to fill the gap their cold demeanor created where affection should have been in his childhood, but that didn’t stop his fears of repeating the vicious cycle.

Heather looked just as afraid.

“Do you really think we’re ready to be parents?”

“No,” he held her hand tighter in his. “But I know that I’m not my father and we can learn from our parents’ mistakes. You’re my future, Heather”

“Do you mean that?”

“Of course, I do.”

They sat together on his front porch steps. Silence engulfed them for a moment as her earth shattering news settled in. Fear crept back up on Heather the longer he stayed quiet. Did Steve want to raise this child with her? Did he want her? Her questions and insecurities were overwhelming.

She broke into tears. “I’m scared, Steve.”

“Me, too.”

He held her close to his chest as she cried. A few tears slipped from his own eyes. Steve combed his fingers through her hair and whispered comforts into her ear. Suddenly, he saw a future for himself. A modest, comfortable cottage with a nice yard for the kids to play in, maybe a dog too, and Heather standing beside him with all the love in the world in her eyes. It was comforting, warm. He wanted that future, with her.

“Stay here, with me. I love you, Heather, and I want to raise this baby with you, if you’ll have me.”

Sniffling, she turned her chin upwards to face him.

“Okay,” she said. “Yes, I will. I love you, too, Steve.”

As he pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead, Steve knew that everything would turn out okay. He loved Heather Johnson and that was enough for him.

Feels Like Forever

Summary: It’s Valentine’s Day 1991, and Steve has a romantic getaway planned for himself and his girlfriend. But it might be a little more than a weekend away. Or, alternatively, the one where Steve has a very important question he wants to ask Beth.

steve harrington x female!oc

warnings and content: not proofread, probably not geographically accurate, established relationship, tooth-rotting fluff, smut, mentions of breeding, slight praise kink, unprotected sex

Just a lil (tiny bit late) valentine’s day blurb and some self-indulgence in oc fics. I have mixed feelings about this tbh but i love steve and beth so much & i’d like to send a big thank you to @powderblueblood for encouraging me

word count: 2.9k

(psst: want more beth & steve? Here 1 2 3 are some old classics from the vault ;)) )

“ARE you sure you know where we’re going?” 

Beth turned her gaze away from the passing countryside to lock onto the man sitting in the drivers’ seat beside her. Steve drummed his fingers against the steering wheel in time to the beat of the radio, which he had turned on low.

“Yes,” he scoffed. “Maybe. I’m pretty sure it’s just straight down this road and then we turn after the… cornfield”

Steve’s cheeks pinkened. There were miles of cornfields, nothing but them, as they drove through rural Indiana. The laugh that Beth gives in return is kind, mirthful.

“Oh, Steve,” Beth reached to retrieve the map from his glovebox. As she unfolded it, she broke out into a playful grin. “Where would you be without me?” 

She clicked her tongue playfully. Steve tore his eyes away from the road just in time to witness the glow in her eyes as a ray of sunshine caught the hazel and warmed it into the color of fresh honey. He reached for her, gently squeezing her hand in his.

“Darling,” Steve shook his head and pressed a feather-light kiss to her knuckles. “I don’t wanna know.”

“Good,” she breathed over a giggle. “‘Cause you’re stuck with me.”

“Promise?”

Her laugh and the soft hum of agreement she gave with it was like smooth butter melting over toast, and Steve was just as soft. 

This little Valentine’s Day weekend getaway was much-needed. Beth had been working herself too hard, taking up extra shifts at the hospital, and Steve had missed her terribly. She came home tired and overworked more often than not. Beth took care of everyone around her—in and out of work; he only wanted her to feel taken care of, too. It took minimal convincing on Steve’s part to talk her into a weekend for just the two of them. He took Nancy’s suggestion of a place off of Lake Michigan where she and Jonathan had gone some time prior.

“Okay,” she said, tapping at something on the map. “So, I think the turn’s just up the road…”

Sure enough, the sign stuck out of the cornfields just enough for her to spot it. 

“Well, would you look at that,” she teased. “It was by the cornfield.”

The eyeroll Steve gave in response was half-hearted. “See?” 

Beth shifted in her seat as the car finally turned off the gravel road. She tilted her head to look out the window, leaning against it like a little kid. It wasn’t long until the cabin came into view, a quaint little structure that looked cozy and inviting in the winter cold.

Despite her best efforts, Steve refused to let her help him carry the bags inside. She acquiesced and took him up on his suggestion to check the place out instead.

Steve watched with a lovestruck grin as Beth rushed to the back deck. She gripped the bannister and stared out at the view. Even in the dead of winter, the scenery was breathtaking. Lake Michigan was just visible through the trees and what bit of it Beth could make out was frozen solid. Winter or not, she doubted they would have any trouble staying warm in their cozy little cabin.

Mischief shined in her eyes as she completed her visual sweep of the back deck. The jacuzzi had a perfect view out on the nature below and clear through to the water.

“Ooh,” she lilted. “Look, Steve: hot tub!”

This finally pulled him away from the bag he was busy rummaging through and out to join her. Steve padded over to her side like a puppy, eager to find her touch. He hooked his chin over her shoulder. A content sigh rumbled through his chest as his hands slid around her waist, fingers gripping to pull her flush against him. Steve’s breath tickled her neck as he spoke:

“Whaddya say we test it out?”

His hands were warm as they slid under her sweater, heating her where the chilly air hit and spreading from the inside out. Beth shifted in his embrace until their faces were mere inches apart. 

“I’d say: ‘let’s do it, lover boy.’”

The sweet sound of Beth’s laughter faded into a shriek as he lifted her clean off the ground.

“As you wish.”

Steve insisted on planning the weekend for the both of them; he kept as much of it a surprise from Bethany as he could get away with. She only managed to pull it out of him once they were in the car that he was taking her to that zoo she had mentioned wanting to see for the day. Dinner was still a mystery, but she had until 7 PM to weasel her way to that information.

The Washington Park Zoo teemed with families and couples alike. As they strolled through the gift shop, Steve absently rubbed his thumb over the back of Beth’s hand that he was holding. He was pulled from his thoughts by her voice:

“Look, Steve! He kinda reminds me of you,” She held up a small stuffed lion. “You know, sweet face, cool hair…”

Steve took the toy in his free hand and held it up close to his face, puppeting it, “Funny you should say that, because he and I just so happen to both think that you are the most beautiful woman we’ve ever seen.”

She flushed, “Why, thank you.”

“What’s that?” He held it up to his ear, nodding in agreement. “He says he wants to come home with us.”

Beth’s eyes sparkled. Playing along, she took another half-step closer to Steve and gripped its little paw in her hand. “Yeah?”

“Welcome to the family, little guy,” locking eyes with Steve, she beamed. “Say hello to your new Daddy.”

Beth turned on her heel and sauntered further down the aisle. Steve’s cheeks burned and he stood, stunned, until his brain caught up and he ducked away towards the checkout counter before she could even tell him that she had only been joking.

When time to leave for their dinner reservations rolled around, Steve was the last one ready. Beth stood in the living room, leaning over the mirror by the foyer, and giving her lipstick one last glance over, while he was nowhere to be found.

Steve had been fully dressed for a while—crisp button down, even a tie and sports coat— but he was so busy running over things in his mind that he lost track of time. Only the sound of her voice calling his name was enough to pull Steve out of his stupor.

He reached a hand into his pockets one last time; some of the tension released from him as his hand gripped around velvet. Squaring his shoulders, he rushed out to meet her.

“Wow,” he breathed. “You’re gorgeous.”

“Thank you,” she leaned into his touch to meet his kiss. “And you look very handsome.”

“Is that so?”

“Mhmm,” She nodded. “Very.”

“Happy Valentine’s Day,” Steve pulled away enough to whisper. “I love you.”

“Happy Valentine’s Day,” she repeated. “I love you, too.”

Steve leaned in for another peck, but didn’t quite make it there.

“Ah,” she gently placed her palm to his chest, head shaking. “As much as I love where this is heading, we have to go. We’ll be late.”

An exaggerated whine escaped him. Steve hung his head. He lingered just a moment with his nose breathing in the scent of her perfume:

“All right,” he lifted his head, pressing a chaste kiss to her lips to punctuate each word. “Just. One. More. Kiss.”

Reluctantly, he pulled himself away from her. While Beth went ahead to the car, Steve made a show of turning the key. He didn't turn back to join Beth until the lock clicked back into place and the deadbolt was retracted. With the door left unlocked, Steve jogged over to his car. Step one: check.

His breath caught in his throat at the sight of her leaning casually against the beemer, her blonde locks cascading effortlessly over her shoulders, and the flowy skirt of her cherry red evening dress peeking out from beneath her coat. She was the picture of beauty, and Steve nearly forgot how to think.

Adjusting his jacket, Steve pressed one final kiss to her cheek. He opened up the passenger door and helped her inside.

As he rounded the car, Steve tapped his hand to the trunk twice. And now: dinner.

“Okay,” Steve lowered his hands. “You can look now.”

When Beth opened her eyes, she blinked a few times to adjust to the new lighting. The cabin was dimly illuminated by candlelight, affording a soft glow to the room and emitting a pleasant vanilla scent. Rose petals scattered the floor in a path down the hall, guiding her towards the living room. She followed hesitantly, bolstered by the gentle squeeze of Steve’s hand to her shoulder.

The trail led into the main room where it tapered off just before a semi-circle of candles. Steve moved to stand in the center of it. Tears slipped from his eyes before Steve even hit the ground. He knelt on one knee and, with shaky hands, clumsily opened the ring box.

“I love you so, so much, Bethany Lynn Sullivan—honestly, I have for a very long time now—and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you. You make me happier than I ever thought I could be. And, if you’ll let me, I will spend the rest of my life trying to make you feel the same. Will you marry me?”

From where Steve knelt, the candlelight just brushed over her face and the single hall light hovered over her head, reflecting like a halo over her blonde hair.

“Steve, yes. Of course, I’ll marry you!”

His hands shook as he slipped the ring onto her finger. It slotted into place like it was always meant to be there. Robin was right, he thought, it was the perfect ring. The band was a shiny yellow gold that stood out against the halo setting. Smaller stones of white diamond and emerald clustered around a one carat diamond that Steve had saved up for for months.

Wiping stray tears from his eyes, he stood, quick to pull her in for a tight embrace. He kissed her with everything he had. Unable to contain his excitement, he lifted her up off of the ground, spinning in a heated smooch.

“Did you do all of this yourself?”

“No,” He shook his head. “Actually, I had a little help from Robin and Eddie. Wanted to keep it a surprise, you know?”

“It’s perfect,” she hummed.

Steve’s heart swelled within his chest so quickly that he was surprised it didn’t just beat clean out of his rib cage. The kiss was a messy blur— his teeth and greedy tongue nipped away her lipstick, grasp liberally taking handfuls of hip and ass, and her hands tangled up in his hair. She tasted of champagne and sugar from the ice cream they shared at dinner; it was every bit as sweet as Beth was. 

The moments that followed were a blur of kisses and champagne. Steve can’t even remember how they ended up in the bathroom or if it had been him or Beth who started the bath. Their clothing long since forgotten, the couple clambered into the soapy water.

Steve sat up on his knees, turning around to face outside the bathtub. He slotted into place between Beth’s knees from where she sat on the edge. His hands slid over the smooth skin of her thighs, grip tightening to hold her in place. Steve spread her open with one hand, licking a long stripe from her wetness up to her clit. His eyes fluttered shut with a groan of arousal and he finally wrapped his lips around her clit, suckling greedily. Every sigh that Beth breathed out went straight to his cock. It twitched with want, neglected, save for what tiny bit of relief he found from bumping his hips against the tub.

“God,” he whined against her. “Such a good girl. Taste so fuckin’ sweet. My good girl.”

Her canary yellow nail polish popped against Steve’s chestnut locks which she grabbed handfuls of and pulled at the roots of in just the way she knew drove him crazy. More praise dripped freely from his lips, every word hurdling her closer to the edge. Pure pleasure and white-hot pressure built up inside Beth until she could hardly stand it. With one last cry of his name, her thighs clenched tightly around his head.

His iron grip on her thigh was the only thing to keep Beth in place through her climax, centering her between each convulsion. Finally, Steve pulled away from her core with a lewd pop. He planted one final sweet peck to her inner thigh, muttering just loud enough for her to pick up on: “I love you.”

Gently, he helped lower her into the warm water. Beth settled facing him, her legs straddling the bottom parts of his thighs. She dropped a kiss to the corner of his jaw. “I love you, too.”

Her kiss-swollen lips slotted against his in yet another sloppy make out. Blindly, she reached her hand between their bodies and palmed lightly at his erection. Her touch was tentative, teasing, as she wrapped her hand around him and slowly began to twist her wrist.

Steve’s jaw lowered in awe. The new jewelry sparkled each time it caught the light and fuck did it look just perfect wrapped around his cock. It was a nod to Steve and the rest of the world that Beth was his fiancée, soon his wife. And the idea alone nearly made him spill into her hand like an overeager teenager. 

“Fuck, sweetheart,” he whined. “Ah, I need to be inside you. Please”

“Yeah?”

He didn’t have to tell her twice. Beth stabilized herself with her hands now gripping his shoulders. Careful not to slip, she straddled him fully and sank herself down onto him. Steve reached to clasp her hands in his as she began to slowly ride him.

It’s messy and sweet, like the rosewater bubbles that had started to fade away around them.  Water sloshed softly with every rock of her hips, slightly drowning out Steve’s whimpers in the same way Beth’s pants muffled out into the warm skin of his shoulder where her head drooped to rest against.

“Ah, ‘m gonna cum,” he bucked his hips up to fuck into her in tandem with the slow rock of her hips. “Gonna come inside of you and— shit, just like that— fuck a baby into you.”

“Me too,” she whined. “Steve, ‘m gonna cum”

Steve’s grip was bruising as he stilled her, fucking up into her one last time. He swiped his thumb lazily over her clit until her second orgasm milked him. Beth was pliant in his arms, slightly sweaty skin plastered to his.

“You know,” Steve broke the silence as he wiped her clean. “I’ve actually been holding onto that ring for a while now.”

“Really?” She smiled, opening her tired eyes to get a good look at him. “For how long?”

“A year.”

He paused his fingers where they had been combing through her hair. Steve’s cheeks burned and swelled as his lips curved into a sheepish smile. 

“It’s perfect,” Beth assured him.

“And so are you.”

As Steve rinsed the shampoo from her hair and Beth turned to start on him, he let her in on another secret: “How does September 16th sound?”

“I think it sounds nice.”

“Good,” he hummed. “I, uh, I don’t know if you remember this, actually, but I wanted it to be then because it was on that day when I first thought I wanted to marry you. I mean, okay, technically, we were 6 and it probably doesn’t really mean anything, but I meant it. You kissed me on the playground behind the slide because I punched Tommy for destroying your art project.”

“God, I’d forgotten about that,” she laughed. “But, yeah. That sounds perfect, Steve.”

“Good,” he hummed. “Okay, so a fall wedding it is.”

“Sounds like a plan to me. So, who’s gonna be your best man? Eddie, or Dustin?”

Steve thought it over for a minute, “Dustin, definitely. After all, he is the one who pushed us together in the first place.”

She laughed. “That’s true.”

Steve grinned and splayed one hand over her belly, musing, “We should name our first born after him, actually.”

“Woah, slow down, there, Mr. Mom,” she patted her hands to his, laughing. “Wedding first, then we can talk about babies.”

Steve pushed his lower lip out in a playful pout, “Fine. But, for the record, you’re gonna be really cute when you’re pregnant”

Her cheeks flushed. “I’m actually not sure about the name, though. I may or may not have lost a bet to Eddie and drunkenly promised to name my eldest child after him.

“Okay,” He snorted, “How does ‘Eddie Dustin’ Harrington sound?”

“It has a certain ring to it.”

Another idea occurred to him as they finally clamored out of the rapidly cooling water, letting the tub drain as Steve grabbed each of them a fresh towel.

“Hey,” Steve perked up. “We can still practice making babies, right?”

She rolled her eyes but couldn’t quite stifle the chuckle this pulled from her. “Yes, you idiot.”

“Okay, good,” he hummed. 

Steve cupped her cheeks in his hands. It drew her eyes to his. He didn’t even wait for the laughing fit to subside before he leaned in to kiss her again. She clasped her hands over hers, and he massaged his thumb over the diamond on her engagement ring.

“I love you, Mrs. Harrington,” Steve whispered as he wrapped the towel around her frame. 

“I love you, too, Mr. Harrington.”

pls excuse any typos, to be edited later

Babysitting Wars

Summary: Steve and Beth engage in a friendly competition for the title of best babysitter. Or, alternatively, the one where Steve uses a bet to his advantage.

steve harrington x female!oc

warnings and content: not much, fluff, short

A/N: this was something i wrote in 2018 so pls forgive me. but it's my birthday today so i am celebrating with a bit of stethany

word count: 1k

THE kids’ bikes raced in the direction of the arcade before Beth could even get a word in. With a heavy sigh, she set the cookie dough she’d been mixing down on the counter. Arms crossed over her chest, she whipped around to glare at the other teenager. 

“Steve!”

Steve shuddered under the intensity of her gaze, a sheepish grin working its way across his lips. This side of her, usually reserved for when one of the kids stepped out of line, shocked him. While just last week he’d sniggered at the sight of her chewing out Mike Wheeler for an off-handedly sexist comment, Steve found no humor in the look on her face when directed at him.

“What’re you doing?” she scolded. “You heard what Joyce said; they’re meant to stay here.”

“It’s just for an hour,” he offered.

When her expression remained unchanged, he lifted his palms in surrender.

“I’m a damn good babysitter!”

“You don’t know the first thing about babysitting,” she said, brows cocked. “I bet you probably let them watch whatever movie they want because you believed them when they told you that their ‘mom said it was okay.’” 

A giggled died in her throat at the guilty smile on his lips. 

“Oh, my god!” 

“Tell you what—why don’t we let those little shits—"

“Kids, Steve. They’re kids.”

“Yeah, Okay. Fine. Let the kids decide who’s the better babysitter.”

“Like a competition?”

“Yeah. If I win, you’re spending the entire weekend with me. No questions asked.”

“And if I win?”

“I’ll take you to see that Michael J. Fox movie for the 20th time, and I promise I won’t even tease you for drooling.”

“All right,” she smirked. “I’ll take that bet. Game on, Harrington.”

Beth’s competitive streak brought out a side of her Steve didn’t even know existed. While he figured she brought home all those cheerleading trophies for her team using more than that sweet smile of hers, he had no clue what he was really up against.

In a competition with no rules, Beth chose to get creative. 

As she leaned in closer, reminiscent of the day that had officially marked the start of their friendship, the pad of her thumb wiped at his cheek, erasing an imaginary stain. 

He gaped down at her, using whatever self-restraint he had left to keep from pulling her flush to him. Steve seemed to have trouble thinking of anything other than what her lips might taste like lately.

“Something a matter, Harrington?”

Feigning innocence, she chewed on her lower lip. Steve’s cheeks flushed a scarlet color, suddenly worried she could hear his thoughts.

“I-I, uh,” he cleared his throat. “Beth?”

“Hm?”

“Can I kiss y—“

“Steve,” a voice chastised from the hallway. “C’mon, man! That’s, like, the universal first rule of babysitting. ‘No boys,’ duh—"

“You mean girls, Dustin. I like girls”

“If you say so… Not my fault you’re the only male babysitter in existence. Beth-1, Steve-0.”

“Better luck next time, then?”

He didn’t need to catch the look on her face to see her triumph smirk as she slipped past him and into the living room.

After that, Steve decided to up his ante. He got his first point by convincing one of the girls on the cheer team to call Beth with some made-up conflict, knowing she would stay on the phone until she had it in her mind that everything was fine with who he’d heard her refer to in the past as ‘her girls.’

Ordinarily, her maternal approach to most things warmed his heart. He often thought she might make the perfect mother—a thought he kept to himself, of course. But he really, really wanted to use this as an excuse to take her out on a real date and he didn’t think he could win against her if he played it fair.

Dustin’s face lit up like Christmas morning at the news of their bet and even more so at the stakes. In hindsight, they should’ve known better than to assume any of those kids would play fairly. While Dustin promised Steve not to meddle in his relationship with Beth anymore, this game was the perfect loophole.

He freely tossed points around for made-up rules. 

Dustin wasn’t entirely sure how many of those points Steve deserved, but he knew Beth. He knew otherwise she would win, and they’d stay in the limbo between friends and lovers. Dustin thought he had it figured out- until the end of the week left them with an even score of 5 to 5, thanks to Will.

While Steve hadn’t been able to stand the sight of the pool in his backyard for the past year, he felt right at home with Beth by his side. Just her feet dangled in the water, which the heater could bring only to a lukewarm temperature in the December weather. 

“So,” she said. “Do we have to do both things now?”

Steve chuckled lightly.

“Maybe. But mine was better.”

“Yeah,” she rolled her eyes, stifling laughter. “If you say so.”

He held his hands up to his right ear in a mock-telephone, smirking:

“Hello, 911? I’d like to report a loser.”

“Steve, what are you even talking about? It was a tie!”

“Nah,” he pulled her closer. “Not really, ‘cuz I still won the girl.”

With one playful shove to the shoulder, she sent him splashing into the pool. Steve smiled through the salty taste of chlorine and dragged her by the ankle down after him.

As she resurfaced, Beth pushed her sopping hair from her eyes with a chuckle.

“For the record, Steve,” she said. “You could just ask me on a date next time.”

“There’s gonna be a next time?”

“Not if you aren’t careful, Harrington.”

Steve imagined he looked ridiculous standing in the shallow end of his pool, fully clothed and stuttering over his words. Beth couldn’t help but think she could get used to the sight.

POWDER this is so sweet 💛 thank you so much uGh i love them

i’m gonna love you for a long time — BETH SULLIVAN & STEVE HARRINGTON

for the lovely @su8arandspite 💖 stethany hive RISE!!!!

combed through my old rps and wanted to share the beth lore i found buried in them

- she adores her baby blue volkswagen beetle but cannot park for shit

- this girl cannot stop showing physical affection. she has so much love to give and damnit if her parents aren’t giving her any, you bet your ass she’s doling it out. i’m talking the kind of friend who doesn’t think twice about hugs and cheek kissing and holding your hand. when she first befriends steve harrington, he finds this very hard not to take as something more than platonic. but can you blame him? there’s only so many times the girl you’re pining after can kiss you on the cheek before you wish she’d just aim a little to to the right

- At all times, she wears a dainty heart shaped locket around her neck. this was originally an antique store find that became her greatest treasure. Inside is a photograph of her, dustin, and katy

- this is almost always matched with a charm bracelet her best friends, amy and tiffany, had been gifting her additions to over the years

- she tried to confess her feelings to steve twice and they were either interrupted or he misunderstood her both times. the result was a ridiculous 8-month-long period of mutual pining and denials that threatened to drive dustin henderson insane

- she had insane beef with jim hopper for a little over a year that made for some awkward apologies and eating crow when the truth came out and hopper finally helped her find katy

- speaking of beef, she has a never ending hatred for carol perkins. you know the phrase sandbox love never dies? yeah, well, schoolyard hatred doesn’t either

- she’s a true romantic and has a borderline obsessive amount of knowledge on the greatest loves of all time. despite the fact she’s never been in a relationship herself

- her ex-military grandad used to take her target practicing as some sort of bonding experience, so girlie can shoot a gun no problem. her weapon of choice just happens to be an axe; it’s silent and far more satisfying in terms of channeling rage. she tucks into the waistband of her skirt or steve’s sweatpants crime and punishment style for monster hunting purposes

- beth is a chronic hoodie kleptomaniac. she has collected, so far, steve harrington’s letterman jacket and one each of his basketball and swim team hoodies… that’s just what he knows about

- pls don’t ask her about her fling with billy hargrove. the look you get in return may turn you to stone. you’ve been warned

Masterlist: Beth & Steve edition

in chronological order of writing:

key: ✧-contains smut, 18+ only mdni

falling for you

the one where steve makes a big splash at carol's lake party in an attempt to defend beth's honor

babysitter wars

the one where steve uses a bet to his advantage

cheerleader

the one where steve feels unloved by his parents, but his girlfriend is always there to cheer him up

kings and queens

the one where beth puts billy back in his place after he tries to weasel his way into her relationship

back to risky business

the one where steve's plans for halloween sound a little too familiar for bethany's liking

feels like forever (18+) ✧

the one where steve has a very important question to ask beth

*inhales*

me bracing to myself knowing that i am not going to be okay

*exhales*

shattered

sequel to repaired

pairing: steve harrington x hopper!oc

Kate Hopper thought she’d finally had everything taken from her. With her father gone and her sister all the way across the country, she truly didn’t have anything left. Since her father’s death eight months before, she’d broken up with her boyfriend Steve Harrington and moved to New York City for school, leaving everything she knew behind. When she loses touch with her sister’s adopted family, however, and finds government agents on her doorstep, she makes a run for it, going to the only other place she knows.

warning: sorry they break up, language, canon-typical violence, canon-typical injury, previous character death, parental loss, grief, major character death, parent loss, trauma, survivor's guilt, ptsd symptoms, mentions of suicide, implied drug use, hurt/comfort, mentioned parental issues, allusions to abuse

word count: 61k

masterlist

PART ONE: March 21st, 1986 one: working for the weekend two: unopened letters

PART TWO: March 22nd, 1986 three: the death of chrissy cunningham four: after hours

PART THREE: March 23rd, 1986 five: arrested development six: the road trip seven: the reunion eight: cigarettes

PART FOUR: March 24th, 1986 nine: the academic scholar ten: for whom the bell tolls eleven: the visit

PART FIVE: March 25th, 1986 twelve: the creel house thirteen: the episode fourteen: opening up

PART SIX: March 26th, 1986 fifteen: grocery shopping sixteen: skull rock seventeen: the dive

PART SEVEN: March 26th, 1986 eighteen: wounded nineteen: lite-brite communication twenty: the snack-sized gate

PART EIGHT: March 27th, 1986 twenty-one: vecna's curse twenty-two: the dream twenty-three: war-zone

PART NINE: March 27th, 1986 twenty-four: the confession twenty-five: four chimes

EPILOGUE: March 29th, 1986 twenty-six: the aftermath

I have three stories I’ve written on wattpad, a Daryl Dixon one that I’ve published, a JJ maybank one that I haven’t even started yet other than my blurb and cast list😭, and a Steve Harrington one that was the very first one I started and now I’ve had a kick to write more of it so that’s what I’ve been doing the past few days. But I really love reading stories on tumblr so I’m gonna start posting instalments of it on here because I find it easier to write chapters without the pressure of getting it all out at once. Anyway I’m rambling but essentially I’ll start posting some of my writing here. My Steve Harington fic hasn’t been posted on Wattpad yet but it’s x my oc Athena Henderson. So I’m wondering whether you’d prefer I posted it with my oc or change it to x reader? I don’t know if anyone will see this but if you do and you have a preference please let me know.

Steve Harrington

Blurbs

Imagines

Series

ELECTROMAGNETIC | watt.

❝ and if you don’t love me now, you will never love me again... ❞

NOTHING STRANGE EVER HAPPENS IN HAWKINS, INDIANA.

That’s what residents of the sleepy town have been telling themselves for years. They take pride in the plainness of their town, in their perfect rows of cul-de-sacs and idealistic families and the knowledge that their quiet little town is the ideal place to settle down.

But when a local boy goes missing and leaves nothing behind but the sound of static crackling through the air, it becomes clear that hidden behind the bright smiles and book clubs are countless dark secrets.

Will Byers' disappearance is the beginning note in a rising crescendo, an echoing tune that brings the town's hidden mysteries to the surface. Now numerous locals find themselves on a manhunt not just for a lost boy, but for the vicious monsters loose in their town, both mortal and supernatural alike.