Chapter Text
It had been almost a month since the final battle. Steve was living with Dustin. He had tried to sleep at his own house, but panicked the first night alone and
called Dustin in the middle of the night. Dustin hadn’t been able to sleep either, and answers in a second. Ever since, Steve had stayed with Dustin and his mom. He technically slept in the guest bedroom, but most nights one of them had a nightmare and they ended up sleeping in the same bed comforting each other.
In the day the entire party would meet at Steve’s house and just hang out. They all needed each other. That particular day Dustin was nervous. He had been putting of a very important conversation for far too long. A part of it was because he didn’t know how to say it, but mostly because he didn’t want to think about the memories it brought back. It was one thing acknowledging it in the middle of the night with Steve. During the days and fully awake was another.
Dustin took a deep breath and went up to Jonathan who was sitting and talking to Nancy on the couch.
“Can I talk to you?”
“Yeah, sure”
They walked away to an empty room and closed the door behind them.
“I just want to say thank you.”
“For what?”
Johnathan genuinely looked confused. Dustin slapped himself mentally. He should have started with some context.
“For the tower. For saving Steve.”
It took a few seconds for the words to settle in. Then Jonathans face lit up with realization.
“Don’t worry about it, it wasn’t a big deal.”
Dustin swallowed, not sure if maybe backing down was the best option. But he needed to make Johnathan understood.
“But it was. If Steve had fallen…I…”
He could not bring himself to finish the sentence.
Jonathan looked at him the way he always looked at Will. Full of understanding and love. It made Dustin continue.
“We have… had this pact, if any of us die the other dies to. And I just, I…”
He had no idea where he was going with it any more. Thankfully Johnathan just squeezed his shoulder and gave him a tired smile.
“It’s okay, Steves alive. And he won’t leave in a long time. I mean seriously, you’d have to lock him up to get him away from you.”
I’m done, replayed in his head, as it so often did. The moment he was sure he had finally pushed Steve too far over the edge. The older boy must have caught it, because he said in a softer voice:
“Come on, let’s go check up on the bastard and you’ll see he’s fine”
Dustin nodded and they went back to the living room where the rest of the party had started playing an aggressive game of uno. Nancy was of course winning, and Steve sat with a hand full of cards. As soon as they entered everybody looked up. It was an instinct at this point to react to every sound.
Dustin locked eyes with Steve. His shoulders visibly relaxed when he saw his young minion. Dustin also let out a quiet breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. They were going to be alright. Maybe not then, maybe not months or even years later, but they would be alright.