Chapter Text
The bustling and hubbub of bright and shiny New York City wasn't something Steve "The Hair" Harrington was ever not accustomed to. Sure, he was born in a small Hawkins, Indiana, but he moved up to the big apple of America when he was three years old. After a few years, his parents didn't see Hawkins as the kind of place they were expecting, hoping they would get lucky and be the foundation of a growing community that never seemed to really grow. So his parents just packed everything up and moved into a way-too-big-way-too-fancy penthouse in the heart of New York City.
So that's where he lived for the rest of his life, slowly growing to know the every street and every cloud that passed over his head. NYC would always be his state, his home, his very place of belonging. Midtown High School becoming his very playing grounds for the bright and charming boy. Captain of the basketball and swim at only a junior, with the smartest girl as his girlfriend and the popularity of a king, Steve couldn't have asked for anything more in life.
Well, he thought he couldn't ask for anything more. That was until he was begging his parents not to ditch town again like they always did. It was a foolish request, but he soon learned that it was one of his most tragic requests as he was sent to live with his nana after weeks of no-shows from his parents. Someone at school had the guts to even call him an orphan now, but one well placed punch had the whole school shutting up about it.
Steve didn't know what really happened, all he knew that he was supposed to pick them up from the airport one day, and he suddenly found himself in the back of a cop car on his way to file a missing persons report. What in the fresh fuck.
But Steve didn't really care all that much, thinking that his parents probably went on vacation for some reason and left their phones at home. Maybe they wanted to stay an extra week or two, maybe they got into a fight or something he really couldn't care less. They were always out of town, for business, for vacation, for whatever reasons he never bothered to remember every single one in detail. It didn't really matter. All he knew was that since he was fucking seventeen he couldn't stay at home any longer. His goddamn grandma ratted him out and everything.
He was met with sympathetic eyes when he pulled up to her home, a spacious but well lived in home right across from central park, and all he could really do was gawk and sneer. He didn't understand why, his parents have been leaving him home since he was 12. Not a big deal.
But to her it was a huge deal, and some deep and ugly part of his soul secretly thanked her for rescuing him from that big and draft penthouse. Her home was smaller, but it was so homey, with old grandma furniture and pictures of her family and friends all over every wall he looked at. Portraits of his old man as a kid, some of his grandfather, a few of some great aunts and uncles he couldn't name, and a few of himself too. One was a baby picture of his, with bright gleaming eyes and caught in a mid-laugh, it made something weird in his stomach churn. Because he looked happy, which was weird.
Because Steve Harrington was a lot of things; proud, charismatic, a bit self-centered, charming, the golden boy, ridiculously handsome and a total heartthrob. But he wasn't really known for being happy. He was snarky, sarcastic, and goddammit a little bit lonely. But some stupid photo on his grandma's stupid wall made him think he could've been that. Be happy.
He had to go sit down in his room for a bit after seeing his baby self hanging on the wall.
---
So living with your grandma while your parents still fail to show up tends to start a few rumors. And at first he ignored them, actually liked the attention a bit when pretty girls flocked to him to show sympathy and support (although Nancy hated it). But after a few more days, people started whispering about him behind his back. A few even asked really insensitive questions, like if his parents left him on purpose, like if he thinks they're dead.
Tommy had shoved one rude douche who told Steve that "he hoped they were dead, that'll be somethin' huh? King Steve being on the same level as the rest of us without his daddy's money--" And it struck him to his core. Naturally, he scoffed and gave the kid a shove of his own before storming off while being chased down by Nancy.
And so things weren't going smoothly for him, weren't really going smoothly for his grades right now. But at least he could find solace in the fact he still had Nancy on his side, if nothing else. But she seemed skittish of him, averting her eyes and shrugging out of his touch. It made something disgusting creep into his throat and reside in his stomach. Because he had to still have Nancy. If nothing else he still had Nancy. But she was being weird, she didn't sit with him at lunch anymore, and she took up an internship at some fancy laboratory so now they couldn't even hang out after school. It made him all antsy in ways he's never felt before.
Because he was King Steve. He could've gone for any girl he wanted and they'd fall into the palm of his hands easily. He'd get confession letters all throughout his school life, he was a ladies man, a total chick magnet. So why has his magnetism suddenly stopped working on his own girlfriend?
Before he could really calm down he was being pulled into a quieter room with Nancy and he should start to feel better. Should start to calm down and breathe properly now that it was just the two of them, but the hard look in her eyes made Steve stutter on his breath and look away in fear. He wasn't ready for the conversation she seems to be gearing up for, and so, to delay the impossible, he broke the ice first.
"Are you mad at me for pushin' that kid?" Steve asked, blanketing the insecurity in his voice with hard anger. "Because he started that shit-- Who even says that to someone?!"
"Tommy's been picking on him since middle school Steve--" Nancy blinked in surprise at Steve's question, going straight for the defense of some random kid over her own boyfriend. He couldn't hide the way his jaw tightened at the idea. "Anyways that's not important... I wanted to talk to you--"
"What's not important? The fact you're defending someone who just said he wished my parents were dead--?!" Steve yelled, "Did I not hear him correctly? Or was that exactly what he said?"
"Okay yea! It was really shitty thing for him to say but you and Tommy haven't been the saints of the school--" Nancy argued back, crossing her eyes and jutting her chin out at him in the way he used to love. Now he was just getting really annoyed by it all. "But that's not why I wanted to talk to you--"
"Are you kidding me? You're joking Nance-- you can't just pull me back here after knowing what I'm going through to lecture at me--"
"I'm breaking up with you!" Nancy suddenly shouted, making the rest of the world and himself go numbly quiet. He slammed his jaw shut in shock as his hands moved to rest by his sides like dead weight. He didn't blink for a hot second, which probably made her think he was braindead because she said it again, "I'm breaking up with you, Steve Harrington. We just, we aren't working out."
"We're not?" He asked dumbly, not really looking at her but not really looking at anything. His vision had suddenly gone a bit blurry and he hurried to blink away his oncoming embarrassment.
"No." She stated, like there was no room for negotiation. "No, we really aren't."
There was a long string of silence as Steve watched Nancy pull her arms around herself, something she did when she was nervous, and it took all the strength in him to not want to reach out and hug her. Because he can't now. Because in her eyes, he's not good enough for that. He didn't realize his heart was breaking until it was already in pieces, in a matter of quite literally seconds.
He didn't know what to say, what to do, where to go from here. Because in his heart of hearts he truly believed it would be him and Nancy against the world forever. Steve wanted to ask why, to drag his feet and beg for her to take him back, to give him a reason as to why she's suddenly breaking his heart, what had caused this, what has he done? Every question only birthed another one and he couldn't stop himself from wanting to shrivel up and cry himself silly.
"Why?' He asked, after what felt like forever.
"Because you are an asshole! And you don't even know what college you want to go to, even though you're a junior this year! I just, I can't be with someone who's so unsure of himself all the time. It's like I'm your babysitter--" She didn't even hesitate, didn't soften her words, didn't look into his eyes as she listed thing after thing after thing that was wrong with him. He felt his throat close and quietly hoped a bee had stung him and he was having some sort of allergic reaction to get out of this god awful conversation.
"Did you pull me back here to ridicule me?" Steve whispered quietly, after Nancy was finally done with her long rant about What Was Wrong With Steve Fucking Harrington. "I thought we were good-- we were fine just a week ago-- You were in love with me--"
"What?" Nancy whispered harshly, eyes bulging out of her head and her face scrunched up in near disgust. Ouch.
"What do you mean 'what?'" Steve shot back, pointing a finger at Nancy accusatory, "You said you cared about me. You loved me-- why else would we have been together for so long? You knew I loved you, and you loved me back--"
"Steve." She calmly said, looking at Steve with... sympathy now. Steve wanted to hurl just at the sight of it. "I'm sorry."
No amount of anything could've prepared him for the next words to leave her mouth. Nothing. Steve still thinks about it at night.
"I never loved you."
---
He sat numbly with a cup of some sort of tea in his hands, nana to the side of him carding reassuring fingers through his hair. And if Steve wasn't so incredibly heartbroken and sad, he would've pushed her away and told him that no one ever touched the hair. But he couldn't because he was sad, and lonely, and pathetic, and couldn't think of anyone else in his life he could've turned to in his time of utter self-hating and depression.
And well, nana was being so kind to him right now. Not like she hadn't before, but tonight was different. Tonight, she was holding him like she was made of nothing but warmth and love and home and safety and--
"Shhhh, Steven," Nana had shushed him as another wave of sobs wrecked his body. "It's gonna be okay honey, I've got you... Nana's got you." And so what if he fell asleep like that, so what if his nana's soft words and comforting hugs made him feel like his whole world wasn't just ending.
Because god-fucking-dammit he felt like it was. Nancy was his first everything. Sure she wasn't his first girlfriend, or first kiss, or first time; but she was the first girl he had ever loved. And to him, she was his future, his dream. She was everything he wanted to be in life and everything he wanted for himself. And he did everything in his power to be everything to Nancy too, going to all her speech and debate meetings, taking her out on holidays and spoiling her rotten with gifts and affection, he even got her a seat at his table with her best friend. And maybe Tommy and Carol didn't like her all that much, maybe all of his efforts felt very teenage, but he was trying. And he wanted to try everything if it meant Nancy could be with him forever.
So sue him if he cried over the breakup, in his nana's arm, on her old couch, while she shushed and comforted him like he was a newborn or something.
"Oh honey, I'm so sorry..." Nana whispered into his ear, wiping at his tears and kissing his forehead. He may have hated moving in with her at the beginning, but now he was nothing but grateful. Going to a house all alone after the worst thing to ever happened to him happened, sounded like actual hell. Like living, breathing, fire and all, hell.
"I loved her--" Steve hiccupped into her shoulder, cup of tea abandoned in favor for the comfort of her warm embrace. "She-- she-- she said she never l-loved me--"
"Shh..." Nana had hummed, "I know, honey, I'm so sorry--"
"W-" he began, choking on tears, "W-what am I supposed to do--?"
"Heal." Nana answered, pulling back to cup his face and look him hard in the eyes. He took a shuddering breath, noting the strength in his nana's eyes, her resolve, her bravery. He wanted that. Wanted it so bad. "That's all you can do right now."
And she must've been right, but Steve got another idea in his mind. Because sure, Steve was a bit of an asshole, but damn did he not fight for what he wanted. He had went to bed with a kiss to his cheek and a fresh new idea buzzing in his head. So he quickly ran up to his room, closed the door, and pulled up his laptop for some research.
Nancy had said she wanted someone who was serious, someone who knew what he wanted in the future. He could be that. He really could.
Steve might not be all that serious, but he was seriously in love, and he might not know exactly what he wanted in the future, but he did know she had to be in it. So he opened up the a new tab on his laptop and began to look up anything and everything he could about the Brenner Lab Institute of Science and Discovery.
He'd show her. He could be serious. He could have a future.
He applied for an internship process as fast as humanly possible, and without so much as a second thought.
---
He woke up from his nap on the couch, laptop on his chest, to the loud sound of a scream. Jerking up he saw the sight of a young boy, probably middle school aged, with a bag in hand and teeth missing form his mouth. He was looking confused and a bit scared as Steve snoozed on the couch, and well, it was Steve's turn to bolt up in surprise.
"Who the hell are you?!" Steve yelled, pointing at the boy in question.
The boy in turn stuck his own finger out at him, anger etching into his face. "Who are you?!"
"I ask the questions around here, considering it's my house--" Steve shot back, slapping the kid's hand down as he moved around the coffee table to get right up in his business.
"No it's not! It's Mrs. Harrington's!" The boy challenged, not backing away as Steve approached, and instead moved to clutch onto his backpack straps like he was protecting something.
"Uh, yea-- That's my fuckin' grandmother--" Steve responded, before the sound of hard snapping could be heard from the corner of the room. He turned to see his nana looking at him disapprovingly, and his shoulders immediately dropped.
"Steven!" She nearly shrieked, "Language! I told you my next door neighbor, Mrs. Henderson, had a son who's staying with us a few days!"
"You said he'd be here Sunday though!" Steve argued, motioning towards the boy angrily.
"It is Sunday, dipshit!" The boy retorted, causing Steve's face to flush red from embarrassment. To be fair, time had escaped him ever since his nasty breakup.
"Language Dustin!" Nana shot back, moving closer to tug on not only the boy's ear, but Steve's own. "I oughta ground you two for such foul language--"
"Nana--" Steve whined, escaping her grasp easily. He was nearly a head taller than her.
"You two better get on good terms, and soon! You'll be spending a lot of time with each other soon!" Nana huffed, moving her hands back to her hips as both boys easily escaped her grasp. "Steve's gonna be driving you to school after all."
"Nana!" Steve shouted now, "NO way in hell am I driving some sixth grader around--"
"I'm in eight grade!" Dustin rolled his eyes annoyed, "And I've been biking just fine Mrs. H, there's really no need--"
"It's already been decided by both me and your mother," Nana stated, and her tone left no room for any other debates, so Steve just gave up with a sigh. Dustin sure as hell tried to argue more, but nana kept shushing him with a finger to his lips. The boy then moved to look at Steve as if to ask him for help, but Steve just shrugged halfheartedly in defeat, knowing nana would just give him shit for weeks if he refused anymore. "No more debates!"
And with that she left to go upstairs to ready the other guest room, leaving Steve with an eight grader. After a few really uncomfortable beats of silence, Steve finally sat down with a heavy sigh and ran a hand over his face tiredly.
"So, Steven--" Dustin had begun, making Steve scowl.
"Steve." He responded harshly, "Just Steve."
"Just Steve..." Dustin copied, nodding his head as he moved to sit down in the chair at the opposite side of the room. "You like computers?"
"W-what?" Steve looked at the other puzzled, "What do you mean? Doesn't everyone under the age of 80 like computers?"
"No no," Dustin clarified, and just like that, the tension that was once in the room melted away almost completely. "Like code and stuff, like robots, tech-y stuff."
"Oh." Steve said, "No not really, I'm not that smart."
"But you're researching the Brenner Labs?" Dustin looked confused and then Steve looked at his abandoned computer on the couch, showing the article he was reading. About the said Brenner Labs.
"Oh, no, no I'm not like into it I'm--" God this is humiliating, "I'm trying to win back my ex-girlfriend. And she, she interns there."
"That's kinda pathetic," Dustin admitted, although his voice carried a heavier emotion. Pity, almost, but more like empathy. It made Steve snort in a self-deprecating way.
"Yea. It kinda is." He admitted, while slowly closing his laptop out of sheer embarrassment.
---
Ever since the breakup, Steve's popularity slowly slipped further out of his hands. Mostly because Steve didn't do the dumping, Steve got dumped. And a lot of people rushed to his defense, saying that Nancy Wheeler was a player, and a whore, and a bitch and other words that made Steve's stomach churn violently. He had told every single person he heard to shut up, he erased things off of whiteboards and blocked every social media account that slandered her. Because although Steve felt loved that people would rush to his defense so openly, he also felt like burying himself six feet under by every reminder that he was, in fact, dumped.
The fact his parents are still no where to be found doesn't help him. People were quieter about it but fact there has been little to nothing said about them after weeks of radio silence, it made people believe he was nothing more than an orphan now that he didn't have his daddy's money. Which, was false, he did still have access to his father's money. He just didn't feel like spending a dime of it, not when he doesn't know when he'd actually need it.
Tommy and Carol had fucked off after one bad fight he got into with them, about Nancy. Because everything had to be about Nancy now. Because that's all he can think about now. But the absence of his two best friends had felt so nice, because they were assholes, and maybe so was he. But at least he could admit it, at least he knew.
He completely forgot about his application to be an intern until he actually got the acceptance letter in his mail. And, wow, what the fuck? He had ran to Henderson, thanking him profusely for a few pointers and facts he had given him and went to tell nana the good news.
She was surprised, obviously, but she had congratulated and made her homemade spaghetti that night. And Steve slept easy that night knowing that he was one step closer to proving to Nancy that he could be serious, that he could have a future, that he could be hers.
He could barely contain his joy as he dressed himself as nice as he could, wearing his best polo and loose jeans and rocking up to the Brenner Lab Institute of Science and His Future like he owned the goddamn place.
Turns out, pretending to be smart is really fuckin' hard, as he stood waiting for the grand tour of the institution. He was sweating all over the place as he shifted his collar over and over again from where he was standing amongst a good handful of people who actually deserved to be there.
That's when he saw her, through a window on the second floor, being smart and making connections and doing whatever she was doing. He nearly ran to the elevator, nearly ran straight to her, but he stayed still, just observing. She was beautiful in any lighting, in any clothing, in any place. And he was so so gone, and she was so so perfect.
Steve swallowed hard. He couldn't blow this. Not again.
As the group made their way up to the second floor, into the exact room Nancy was in, Steve couldn't hold it back any more. And as their tour guide began talk of leaving this room and making it towards another room, Nancy was up and leaving, and who was Steve if he wouldn't follow her anywhere? So he stupidly hid from the group and made his way down the hall she went down with quick steps and occasionally glancing behind him to check if anyone was following him. It's not like he totally lied about how smart he was just so he could prove something to his ex-girlfriend, oh my god he was whipped.
But suddenly she was moving towards a restricted area, and Steve had accidentally slipped in too. She was moving faster now and he was struggling not to just break out into a run, fuck fuck fuck. He should've just called her name out when they were in a Not Restricted Area. God fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck--
Suddenly two security guards came around the corner and Steve felt his heart nearly burst out of his chest in nerves. He did the only logical thing he could, which was jump into the first open door he could find, closing it quickly with a quiet sigh. He hear the footsteps pass by slowly, idle chatter being made amongst the two guards, and Steve nearly sank to the floor if it weren't for the bright glow of something in the corner of his eyes.
There stood a machine surrounded by... spiders? Weird. Super weird. Steve curiously moved forwards despite his entire body telling him not to, making his way till he inspected one curiously, which had the number 42 on it.
And suddenly he was super curious and he always knew he was a grade-A idiot because the second he touched the creature it began to crawl on him, moving around like it was exploring the person who dared to be an idiot and touch him and well, he was kinda chill about the fact a whole spider was crawling all over him. And it was all going fine until suddenly it bit down. Hard. On his hand too, it would leave a really ugly bump no doubt about it. He was suddenly weirdly grossed out and he flicked the thing off, it was harmless, just a tiny little tap and then suddenly the thing was on the ground unmoving.
If Steve wasn't so scared of ruining a million (billion?) dollar science project, he would've called the dead thing dramatic. But he was panicking, rushing to scoop the thing up and put it where he found it and get the hell out of there--
Which sounded like his best plan yet because he suddenly was hyper aware there was a second door in the room that opened to a whole other lab, and that lab held people, and those people were coming oh god--
Steve had never ran out of a building so goddamn fast. Fancy shoes scuffing the concrete as he ran towards his car with a hastiness he knew his basketball coach would be hella jealous of right now. But he made it back to his car surprisingly quickly, and shoved his keys into his car to start the engine in get the hell out of there like he was a fucking criminal now. Maybe he was. Maybe this would be all over the news come morning and his face plaster across all of CNN or something. But he didn't get a chance to think too hard about his oncoming criminal record as his vision began to swarm.
He barely made it home with how sweaty and hot he suddenly was, goddammit it was the damn thing poisonous? He stumbled upstairs as the world felt like it was shifting with every step. His eyes felt like they hurt, like blinking was way too fucking much and they would be popping out of his head soon. His polo and jacket were too hot on his skin, making him sweat like crazy as he rushed upstairs with something close to "I feel sick--!" being called out to both Henderson and nana as he threw his door open and barfed into the nearest trashcan.
He didn't remember falling asleep, didn't remember breaking the doorknob when he gripped it, didn't remember even making it to his bed, didn't remember a damn thing before he was passed out like a light.
All he remembers is waking up and feeling... different. And not in a good way.