Chapter Text
December 15, 1984
You sat with Max in Steve’s house, looking in the mirror and thinking about how you would style your hair for the dance. After everything with the gate and the Demo-dogs had died down, you spent most of your time at Steve’s house or in Hopper's cabin. You’d kept the idea going of you being Dustin’s cousin, but explained to the rest of the team how his mother didn’t like you, as she and your mom had always been at odds, so sadly you couldn’t stay at Dustin’s, for now. And seeing as you didn’t have a job as of right now, everyone offered you to stay at their house. Well, except for Max who herself needed some time away from that house, and given you were the reason for those still-fresh scars on her step-brother's face, you didn’t really mind too much staying as far away from that house as possible. You didn’t feel super comfortable staying at the Wheelers, not knowing how their parents would react to a strange girl staying in their house on consecutive nights and you didn’t want to bother the Byers now that they had Will back and Joyce was still grieving Bob. You acted as a kind of babysitter to Max and El when Hopper was away, and sometimes to Mike as well when he’d come to see El.
Right now, though, you were getting ready to head to the Snow ball to help out. One of the few times you had been to the Wheeler’s house since November, Nancy had asked if you wanted to come along as a chaperone, as they were still missing a few. You’d agreed, really just so you could spend more time with the kids and so you’d have an excuse to walk Max to the dance so she didn’t have to get ready at her house.
“What’re you going to wear?” Max asked, pulling you out of your head as you held your hair up, trying to see if a ponytail would fit the night. You turned to her and bit your lip. You hadn’t really thought too much about that. You didn’t really have any of your own clothes here. You’d told everyone you’d packed light, as the trip was kind of rushed - oh if they only knew - and Nancy and Joyce had been sweet enough to lend you some of their old clothes. Other than that, you wore some of Steve’s clothes on the regular, mainly pants as the girls didn’t have much of that and you could always make his fit with a belt. But you didn’t really have anything too formal yet.
“I’m not sure…” You said and Max raised her eyebrows at you.
“You’re doing your hair and makeup without even knowing what you’re wearing?” She scoffed at you and rolled her eyes, straightening her dress neckline. An idea popped into your head and you smiled at yourself in the mirror.
“You know, I actually have just the thing for the occasion…”
—
Steve stopped the car outside the school gym and looked over at Dustin.
“Alright, Buddy. Here we are.” Dustin looked out the passenger side window at the students walking into the gym. “So, remember. Once you get in there…” Dustin turned his head and nodded.
“Pretend like I don’t care,” he said, repeating it like a mantra.
“You don’t care.”
“I don’t care.” Dustin reiterated.
“There you go, you’re learning, my friend. You’re learning.” Steve spoke as a mentor would. Dustin adjusted the front mirror to look at himself. “Hey,” Steve said softly and grabbed the mirror from him.
“What?” Dustin said, trying to see his hair at the angle of the mirror.
“Come on,” Steve said and placed the mirror back in its original position. “You look great, okay? You look… you look great. Okay? Now you’re going to go in there…”
“Yeah,”
“Look like a million bucks,”
“Yeah,”
“And you’re going to slay them dead,” Steve said as he leaned in toward Dustin.
“Like a lion,” Dustin responded and purred.
“Yeah, uh, don’t… do that, okay?” Steve winced.
“... Okay.” Dustin’s face dropped. Steve put out his hand and Dustin grabbed it.
“Good luck,” Steve said as Dustin opened the car door and stepped out. You’d been silently watching them from the door, smiling to yourself, and decided to walk out to meet Dustin.
“Hey, Henderson,” You said, startling him and he looked at you.
“Woah,” Dustin said as he looked up at you. You had kept your hair loose, in your natural waves, and put on the dress you wore at your Halloween party. You thought the blue would complement the gym decorations and Cinderella did love going to balls… “Where’d you get that dress?” Dustin asked and purred at you. You chuckled at him and spun.
“You like it? I made it myself,” you walked up to him and looked him up and down with your hands on your hips. He looked at you with wide eyes.
“You made that yourself?” he asked and you nodded.
“My mom taught me,” You explained.
“But– when’d you have the time?” he thought back to the last month, fighting Demo-dogs with you and had no idea how you’d fit sewing a dress into that. You chuckled again, rolling your eyes.
“I didn’t make it here, you moron,” you teased and his eyes lit up with understanding before his brows furrowed and he looked back at Steve in the car who was looking right at you, and then back to you who gave him a concerned look. He smirked and shook his head. “What?” you asked. He waved you off and turned to walk to the gym.
“Nothing, nothing…” he said with a lilt in his voice. “It just makes sense now,” he added mysteriously before disappearing into the gym. You raised an eyebrow at him but decided to let it go and turned around to walk over to Steve’s car.
He noticed you approaching and pulled a bit on his shirt, straightening out the neckline and brushing through his hair with his fingers before you could see his face, then turned to the passenger side. You leaned down on the passenger window and looked at him.
“Oh hey, cab driver? Yeah, could you drive me to the airport?” you joked and he chuckled at you.
“Only if you pay for gas,” he responded, you chuckled softly.
“Will ten future dollars be enough?” You asked, picking up your wallet out of your pocket and waving it in front of him. “They’re not worth much now, but I swear, they’ll skyrocket in value.” Steve raised his brows as he looked at your wallet, then your dress.
“It's got pockets?” You rolled your eyes and opened the passenger door to get in.
“Of course, it's got pockets, I like to be practical when I want to get shitfaced.” He chuckled at that and leaned back in his seat, both hands on the wheel. You closed your eyes for a second and took a deep breath in, just taking in the moment. Steve looked over at you and sighed, shaking his head. “Oh yeah, thanks for letting me borrow your shoes.” you laughed and looked at him with a smirk. He furrowed his brow and you lifted your skirt a little to show a pair of dress shoes not in your size. He laughed but acted mock-offended, putting a hand to his heart.
“Mia! You stole my best shoes?” you laughed and kicked him with one of them.
“Of course Harrington,” You said. “you’re the only one with big enough shoes for me to fit in,” you smirked at him and he rolled his eyes at you. Then a memory played through his mind and he grabbed the driver’s side door to get out.
“Actually, on that note…” he said and stood up out of the car, moving to the backseat and reaching under the driver’s seat for something. You were intrigued and got out of the car as well, waiting for him to fish out whatever it was that he had found. He stood up - almost hitting his head on the car roof - and held up a pair of shoes. “Ta-da!” You quirked your brow at him as he walked over to you and you saw that they were your shoes, from Halloween. You gasped.
“Harrington, what–” he opened the backseat door and motioned for you to sit and knelt in front of you with the shoes.
“Before you passed out on the grass,” he explained, referring to your first night here. “You almost fell over and you dropped one of your shoes,” he continued as you kicked his shoes off your feet and put them down gently under the passenger side front seat. “So when I had to carry you to the car, and then to my room, I put the shoe under my seat and it didn’t really make sense for you to wear one shoe to bed so I just… stuffed the other one down there as well.” He said as he helped you put your high sandals on. “I guess I just… forgot I still had them.” He pushed the last shoe on your foot and looked up at you. You smiled and shook your head as he took your hand and helped you up. You were now equal height. “What?” he asked as he held onto your hand and looked at you. You smiled and sighed,
“Nothing,” you answered. You leaned in and planted a kiss on his cheek, giving him the same expression as last time, brows high up on his forehead and lips parted in surprise. You glanced down and then back up at him and smiled softly as you felt that oh-so-familiar heat rise to your cheeks again. “Thank you…” you said quietly, almost so he couldn’t hear it. “For everything.” he smiled back at you.
“Don’t mention it.” he let your hand go and moved to the side as you walked past him back to the gym. He leaned against the car, watching you go. You stopped and turned halfway around, giving him a playful look.
“See you later Harrington,” His brows shot up and he opened his mouth to speak but closed it again and thought for a second.
“You will?” he asked and you smiled.
“Of course, I’m staying at yours tonight. Hopper wanted to be the one to make sure El got home safe. If you ask me, I think he just doesn’t trust I’ll throw Mike out on his ass if he comes over.” You rolled your eyes. Steve chuckled.
“Right, right. How could I forget?” you turned around and kept walking back to the gym.
“Bye Harrington, I’ll be home by ten, promise.” you waved back at him.
“I’ll hold you to that, Scott.” He shouted back before getting in his car. You rolled your eyes.
“Alright, mom,” you shouted back before going back into the gym. You stopped at the doorway and watched his BMW leave the parking lot and you smile to yourself.