Chapter Text
Christmas
You stand in front of the full-length mirror in the guest room, looking over your outfit and trying to flatten down your hair after you straightened it with the flatiron you’d borrowed from Nancy. You’re wearing an old, red, velvet dress that you borrowed after the Snow Ball from Joyce, realizing you didn’t have any other formal wear. You wore some boots Hopper had given you money to buy. As you fiddled with the sleeves on the dress you heard the front door open and shut and you went out to meet Steve.
“The weather is horrible, are you sure you want to go by everyone?” he asked, his back turned to you as you got to the stairs. He was carrying a bag of gifts he’d presumably gotten from his parents at their brunch meeting. You felt bad that that’s what he called it, but that was basically what it was to him. “We could just–” he starts as he takes off his gloves and turns around to you as you start walking down the stairs and he stops. “Woah,” he lets out and you smile at him as you step off the last stair.
“Yes, I’m sure,” you say and help him carry the bag into the living room, putting it down on the table in front of the couch. you turn back to him and he stands frozen by the front door. You roll your eyes and put your hands on your hips. “Hey, Harrington, you’ve got some drool right there,” you say and motion to your chin. He quickly puts his hands to his face and you laugh loudly at him. He sighs and glares at you, taking off his coat and walking over to the living room.
“Ha ha, very funny, Scott,” he says as he stands beside you, picking up the things he’d gotten in the bag. A nice dress shirt, some tapes, and a blazer you know he’s never going to wear. Merry Christmas. He stops as he puts the blazer down and then turns to you with a sigh. You beam at him and prepare to tease him some more for his obvious gawking at your dress. “What can I say, you look… good,” he says and catches you off-guard. Your retort dies in your throat and you blink at him. Now he’s the one smirking at you as you feel your cheeks begin to go pink. You clear your throat and walk over to the door where you’ve placed a duffel bag full of gifts for the others. you swing it around your shoulder and prepare to head outside.
“Come on, Harrington, it’s time to play Santa’s little helpers,” you say and he sits down on the couch, taking a breath.
“Please say that doesn’t involve me wearing elf ears,” he sighs and you laugh.
“I hadn’t even thought of that, that’s a great idea!” you tease and Steve looks at you with squinted eyes before he gets up from the couch and walks over to you, beginning to put his outer layers back on. You push the door open but Steve stops you before you can take another step. “Woah, where do you think you’re going?” he asks and you give him a quizzical look.
“Outside?” you ask, confused. He shakes his head at you.
“Without a jacket? Are you out of your mind?” you roll your eyes and grab one of the jackets off the hanger and wrap yourself in it. You hate to admit it, but the brown jacket is actually very cozy, even if it doesn’t look like it. You pout at him as you let your arms down.
“There, happy?” Steve smiles at you and lets out a laugh. You scowl at him and start taking the jacket off again. He stops you and drags it back on your shoulders.
“I’m sorry, Mia, it’s just– that jacket is so big on you,” he says as he zips you up as if you were a child. You roll your eyes and turn back to the door, heading out toward his car.
—
Your first stop is the Wheeler's house. You make the stop quick, due to how awkward it feels to bring Christmas presents to Steve’s ex-girlfriend. You give Mike some new cool dice you found and a bag you made for him to store them in and you give Nancy a new diary for the new year. They thank the both of you and you hurriedly follow Steve as he practically drags you back to the car and you wave the Wheeler kids off. You laugh hysterically at his pout when he drives off and tease him about the awkward tension you felt standing beside them and he nudges you in the rib, making you cough violently.
—
The next stop is Dustin and then Lucas, who you give a new hat and a pair of binoculars, Lucas feeling a little awkward receiving a gift from you, and his sister Erica scowling at you as you didn’t bring her a gift. Dustin complains that you could’ve gotten him something cool like a cool book on lizards or something and you roll your eyes at the ungrateful little twerp. You and Steve discuss the sass of the kid on your way away from his house.
—
You go by the Byers' house to find Hopper and El with the Byers sitting around the tree. You don’t want to intrude too much so you simply greet everyone, giving the kids each a gift and talking to Joyce for a bit as Steve sits with Will and El for a bit, talking to them about school and other normal kid things. It makes you happy to know that not all their conversations involve outer-dimensional creature hunting. As you watch Steve talk and laugh with the kids, Hopper looks at you as he helps Jonathan get some food out in the kitchen. He follows your gaze over to Steve and then looks back at you, shaking his head and huffing. Jonathan comes up beside him with a questioning look and he gestures to you and then to Steve and Jonathan looks between the two of you, his mind slowly figuring out what Hopper had already pieced together.
—
You stop by Max next and bring her a very special gift. As you walk up to the door, Steve stands in front of you to make sure you have an easy time escaping in case things go bad with Billy. As you assumed, Billy is the one who opens the door for you and Steve and he stares you down, faint marks still all across his face from November.
“Harrington, Henderson,” he says, not moving his eyes from you. “What owes me the pleasure?” he asks, his tone hard despite the friendly greeting.
“Relax Hargrove, we’re not here for trouble,” Steve says and Billy scoffs at him.
“Guess you came to the wrong house then,” Billy says and takes a step forward, Steve mimicking him. You roll your eyes and step in between them, pushing your head through the door past Billy.
“Max!” you yell into the hallway and suddenly you feel a hand on your arm, a hard grip on it. You turn your head and meet Billy’s eyes staring you down. Steve pushes Billy’s shoulder, the man barely reacting to it.
“Come on man, let her go, we’re just here to see Max,” Steve tries but you and Billy are only paying attention to each other. His eyes dart down to your neck and his lips spread out in a sly smirk as he lifts his eyes to yours again.
“How are the bruises?” he asks and you scowl at him.
“Better than your scars,” you retort and his smirk drops.
“Mia?” Max’s voice draws you out of the moment and you see her standing behind her step-brother, who lets you go as she walks up to you. “What are you guys doing here?” she asks as she sees Steve next to you.
“I just wanted to give you this,” you say as you take the last gift out of your bag and hand it to her. “I think you’ll make good use of it,” you say and smile at her. She beams up at you.
“Thank you, Mia,” she says.
“Merry Christmas, Max,” you say and look up at Billy. “Merry Christmas Hargrove,” you say and he nods at you. You turn and walk back to the car, Steve having one last stare down with Billy. “Harrington, come on!” you yell and he gives in and follows you to the car. Once you're both in the car Billy leaves the doorway and Max watches your car leave their driveway. She opens the gift as you drive off. It’s a new walkman.
—
Once you’re home again, you get on the couch and wrap yourself in a blanket as Steve makes some hot chocolate from premade packs in the microwave. He hands you a lukewarm cup and you laugh at his inability to cook even the simplest thing. You don’t have to say it for him to know what you’re laughing about. He sets his own cup down and bows his head in defeat.
“Hey, microwaves are difficult, it’s like high tech,” he tries to defend himself, only making you laugh harder.
“Yeah, okay, Harrington,” you say and take a sip of your chocolate. You hate to admit it, but it is still pretty good, well, as good as a pack of Nesquik can get. Steve watches you and smiles slightly to himself and then remembers something and gets up to walk over to the kitchen again. You follow him with your eyes as he opens a cupboard and retrieves a small box. He sits down on the couch again and hands you the box.
“What’s this?” you ask and he shrugs.
“It’s just a thing I have no use for that I got from my dad, I thought maybe you’d like it,” he says and you open the box to see a nice digital watch laying in it. “You could see it as a Christmas gift, I guess,” you look up at him and down at the watch then shake your head.
“Harrington, I didn’t get you anything–” you start and he holds a hand up to stop you.
“And I didn’t get you anything, my dad gets me a watch almost every holiday and I’m better at analog watches anyway,” he says and you smile at him. “I thought maybe a digital watch would be your speed, since I’m assuming that’s all you use in the future anyway,” you chuckle at him as you look down at the watch.
“You’re funny,” you say and look up at him. “Thank you, this was… sweet. But on the subject of time,” you point down to the watch as you clasp it onto your wrist. “It’s getting late, so I’m going to head to bed. Good night Harrington,” you say and squeeze his shoulder as you pass him on your way to the stairs. He watches you as you go. What you’ll never know is Steve didn’t get that watch from his dad. He used some money he’d saved to buy you a nice one. Because he thought you’d like it.