Chapter Text
November 8, 1983
Sitting in that hospital waiting room in 1983 made Steve reassess a lot about his life. The punch to the face from Jonathan Byers had also helped. But sitting in that waiting room, as he watched those kids sit in the fear that their friend might be dead changed everything. He knew he was being an ass to Byers, (to be fair the pictures were still really creepy) he knew that the shit he said about his family was way out of line. It wasn’t till he was sitting in that waiting room, that he realized what fear even meant. Sure, seeing that flower-faced monster made him afraid. He was afraid he was going to die, that was simple. This? Fearing that this kid had actually died had nothing on that fear. He only saw him for a little, less than a minute, when Nancy went in to say hello. But standing behind her, looking at this child, no older than twelve, he knew he would go to hell and back if it meant these kids would be okay.
November 4, 1984
The next year, he and Will were roommates in the E.R. for the first three days after he was beaten within an inch of his life by Billy Hargrove. Will was skinny, really skinny. He was so small, and he spent most of the time Steve was in the hospital with him asleep. When Steve has the energy to stand, he went over to Will, and held his hand, just for a moment. Just to prove that he’s alive. They were rarely awake at the same time. Really the only moment was their second night.
Mrs. Byers had been there every day and night, looking at Will, holding him, making sure he was real. Steve was almost jealous, his parents hadn’t even picked up the phone. Edna– his dad’s secretary– picked up the call, she fretted as much as someone who he only knew from phone calls and Christmas cards could and she sent a Williams-Sonoma gift basket and put their names on the card. He caught Mrs. Byers looking at him a few times, he offered her an apple from his basket, and she smiled and accepted it. She had been making sure the nurses were treating him well, and when he tried to turn on the T.V. she would scold him and say it was bad for his concussion.
The night after, Mrs. Byers was working, and Jonathan was going to come by after his shift, so they asked if Steve wouldn’t mind keeping an eye on Will for the 30 minutes in between their shifts.
Steve sat down in the chair next to Will’s bed and turned on the T.V. He was just in luck, it was still the first quarter. Steve was not going to let some California piece of shit make him miss the Bulls game. A Chicago team was finally doing well, he had given up on the Cubs some time in ‘76. As an Indiana boy, he probably should have supported the Pacers, but they were just close enough to Illinois and the Pacers were just new enough that the Bulls just made sense.
The nurse– Lisa– came by with dinner, she didn’t say anything about the T.V. Just checked his and Will’s vitals. Told him to make sure Will ate when he woke up and left. The food was shitty, but that was hospital food for you. He saved Will his cookie, the kid deserved it after everything. Steve’s bed was by the window, and it was a commercial break. He needed to stretch his legs, make sure the town wasn’t on fire, maybe just look at the stars. He had not been outside in a couple of days, and the last time he truly saw the stars was probably Halloween. Unless you counted when he got his lights knocked out and it looked like a Looney Tunes fight.
“Jonathan?” A tiny voice called from the other side of the hospital room.
Steve turned around, and put on his best smile, even though it hurt like hell with his split lip, “Hey, Will, it’s Steve. Jonathan is on his way, he’s just working a little late tonight, so you’re stuck with me as your babysitter till then. Sorry.”
“It’s okay.” He yawned.
“Oh, we got dinner. The chicken’s nasty, but I saved you my cookie.” Steve smiled, and sat back down next to Will’s bed.
Will was on some pretty heavy pain meds, even stronger than Steve’s. He was more than a little loopy. It would be kind of funny if it wasn’t so… sad. They sat in silence, and Will surprisingly watched the game with him. Steve thought he’d want cartoons or something.
“What is this?” Will asked.
It made Steve laugh a little, “Basketball.”
Will just nodded, staring quite intently at the screen. He started asking him questions, who the players were, what their jobs were, who was winning. Will finished his food, and Steve had given him some of his. Steve always got the urge to give the kid a sandwich whenever he looked at him. Will started nodding off about halfway through the third quarter. During one of the commercials for Monday’s Celtics vs. Pacers game, Larry Bird came on the screen. Barely audible, and half asleep he heard Will say, “He’s cute.”
Steve was frozen, he didn’t know what to say or how to respond. He didn’t know if he should respond. Hearing Will say it was kind of surprising, but not necessarily the fact he meant it. Steve knew, he knew what people said, what he had said. He knew the kid was sensitive. Artistic. A little light in the loafers. Whatever you wanted to call it. In the quiet of the hospital, all he heard was Will’s restful breathing and the game. Or that should have been all he heard if it wasn’t for the loud nasally laugh of Lisa and one of the other nurses. He got up to close the door but he heard what the joke was. He didn’t like it one bit.
“I’m telling you, the kid’s a fag!” Lisa cackled to the other nurse.
“Lisa! Stop it! You’re so bad!” She had laughed.
“Mary, I’m telling you! That Byers boy is such a sissy! When I was taking his vitals yesterday-”
Steve saw red, he stomped over there as quietly as he could and he hissed “He’s your patient, and he nearly died. Show some respect.” When he got back to Will’s bed, he was only stirring a little. “Everything okay? Is he back?”
“No, nothing like that Will. Everything’s okay. I’ve got you, buddy.”
Steve would normally fall back to sleep, in the chair, in the bed. But not tonight. He had to watch Will until Jonathan got back. He realized, that even though this kid survived the Upside Down, it might not be Will’s biggest problem, and that scared him.
When Jonathan got to the hospital, Will was asleep. Steve was watching Carson. The guy who wrote the music for those Indiana Jones movies was the guest. A little weird for a guest, but it was something to fill the silence so Steve wasn’t too upset. Maybe it was paranoia, maybe it was realizing how shitty he had been last year, maybe it was what that nurse had said, he hadn’t felt like going to sleep yet.
Steve was released from the hospital the next morning. He went back to his empty house, drove himself despite the doctor’s orders. He always hated the silence of his home, the way that the white walls and interior lacked any sense of being lived in or warmth. It had felt all-consuming his entire life, but right then it had never felt louder. He called his parents, only to get Edna. They had jet-setted to yet another location, something with the Philippines and important business. He didn’t really hear it all that well. She finally asked him what happened, and he told her a car accident, it was a decent lie.
November 23
Lucas and Will called him that Friday, asking to come over. They didn’t tell him what it was about, but anything to fill the silence. He looked around and realized the house was a mess. He tried to clean up a little, threw the pizza boxes and Chinese take-out containers in the trash. He at least folded the blankets on the couch and tried (and failed) to make the pillows look like they were actually supposed to be on the couch and totally not because he was in so much pain he couldn’t make it up the stairs.
He knew they were coming, but when he heard the doorbell ring, he grabbed the bat. It was like another limb at that point, and he didn’t really mind it. There were worse habits than making sure you have good security. When he opened the door, he was not greeted by flower-faced monsters or any other threats from the other dimension or even regular high school assholes. Just two unimpressed middle-schoolers. “What are you guys here for again?”
Lucas is rocking back on his heels, almost bursting at the seams with excitement.
“We want to join the basketball team,” Will gave him a glare, almost like a challenge.
That was... new. He knew he wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. But Will was…sensitive…artistic…quiet. Not in any way interested in sports.
“Really? Are you sure? That’s um, not really you guys’ thing.” He thought maybe it had something to do with the Larry Bird comment, but the both of them had been high out of their minds on the good stuff at the hospital. He wasn’t sure if he had dreamed that.
“I’m not a sissy, I can do it.” Will hissed, almost instinctually (like an animal trapped). And yeah Will must have heard their nurse. It shocked him to be quite honest. Will was kind and sweet, he didn’t have Mike or Dustin’s potty mouth (that might just be because he had only ever really seen Will when he was passed out). So yes, Steve kind of figured Will was going through something hard, and he was lashing out. However, Steve knows how this starts, and if he let Will act like that, they were all going to.
“Hey, don’t be an asshole.” Steve didn’t say it too harshly, but he did feel like he was turning into a mom at age 17. “I’m just a little surprised is all, especially after how anti-basketball Mike was.”
“Sorry,” Will whispered to his shoes and had the decency to look like he meant it. Steve tussled his hair, hoping to show the kid he was all good.
“What Will means is that we think it could be fun…and maybe Troy and guys like Billy will leave us alone,” Lucas said staring at Will like he had grown a second head. Steve had to take a guess that his feeling that this was weird behavior from Will was right.
When the words sunk in, he felt his heart break a little. When Steve was 13 his biggest concerns were the creepy lady in The Rescuers and Buggs and Elmer Fudd’s feud. It sucked more, because this wasn’t even Upside Down fears. They fought monsters straight out of the movies and their first priority coming out of all this was trying to avoid assholes at school. Steve couldn’t even say that the fear was unfounded. Billy had punched his freakin’ lights out, and it could get a lot worse for Lucas when he actually got to high school.
Steve also remembered being that age, and being afraid. Basketball had been a life raft or whatever his guidance counselor said. It was fun, getting his energy out, running around, working with other people. He liked it, he didn’t have to worry about his dad, or anything else. It wasn’t just playing though, he loved watching. Watching the Bulls with his dad in the owner's box was probably the only really good memory the two had.
“Well, I can’t guarantee they’ll leave you alone, but it is pretty fun,” Steve sat down on the couch with a grunt. His whole body felt like it was on fire. “I’m not exactly in practice condition, but we can try some warm-ups and stuff. There’s a Bulls game on Tuesday, you guys can come over and I’ll explain the rules to you.”
He had the boys do some sit-ups and jumping jacks, just to get them motivated. It’s gonna take a lot to be Mickey in Rocky, and Steve needed to dig the old Jane Fonda tapes out of the basement.
Mrs. Byers knocked on the door around 6:00, and Steve invited her inside. “Let me get you a cup of coffee.”
“Thank you so much, honey, I promise I won’t be too lomg.” She smiled.
The boys were holding each other’s feet down while doing sit-ups. Mrs. Byers was looking around with an unreadable expression on her face. “Honey, where are your parents?” She looked at him like she was worried, which was ridiculous, considering what she was just going through.
“Oh, um, they’re in Manila on business. Something with a factory and Uncle Paul.” Steve said. “They come back for New Year’s.”
“Steve, that’s a month from now. You really shouldn’t be alone with your concussion.” She was scolding him? Steve wasn’t really sure what was happening, and before he could reassure her he was fine she kept rambling. “Are you sure you can drive? Jonathan can pick you up for school.”
Steve technically wasn’t supposed to be driving, but it’s not like he had any other options. “No, Mrs. Byers, I can’t ask you to do that-”
“It’s Joyce. And I’m not asking,” She said it with a firm smile, leaving no room for argument. He didn’t know what else to do, so he just nodded and fixed her a cup of coffee. “Listen, I can never thank you enough for protecting the kids. What you did, stopping Max’s brother, Steve–that’s every parent’s worst nightmare. And you’re here–alone– in this big house. And you’re just a kid yourself. The least I can do is make sure you don’t die in a car accident on your way to school.”
“I appreciate it Mrs– Joyce– but I was just doing what anyone else would have.” Steve knew he was a bad person. He was cruel, and he had made Jonathan’s life hell. Nancy was right, he was bullshit. And he didn’t need anyone else falling for his bullshit, certainly not Joyce Byers.
“That’s certainly not true. Plenty of people would have sent Max out to her step-brother. Believe me, standing up to someone like that takes guts. You can tell yourself all you want that it was nothing, but that won’t make it true.” It felt like a punch to the stomach, the way she was just so casually kind. The way it doesn’t phase her to tell him something like that. The way she seemed like she meant it. “I’ll have Claudia-Mrs. Henderson check out your head, she’s a nurse. Ask Dustin to have her come over.”
Steve just agreed and took down the Hendersons’ number. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to have her look at his wounds. He certainly still felt like shit.
“So, did Will tell you why he’s got the sudden interest in basketball?” He asked, not really knowing what to expect, hoping it wasn’t what he thought.
“The doctor told him he needs to get some meat on his bones. He wants him to get more physically active, eat more, the whole shebang. You’re the only athlete he knows, other than his dad, but that’s out of the question. I think it’ll be good for him, I hope he has fun. He needs more friends his age.” She was looking over at Will now.
“I hope so too,” Steve smiled, looking at Will and Lucas who have now decided to lie on the ground. “Hopefully I’m a good coach.”
“I’m sure you will be.”
When Joyce and the boys left Steve called Claudia. Dustin picked up, so excited to hear from him. He started talking his ear off about whatever new radio piece he got.
“Hey, bud, I actually need to talk to your mom real quick. Can you put her on the line?”
He heard some rustling. “This is Mrs. Henderson, how may I help you?”
“Hi, this is Steve Harrington,” Steve hadn’t actually thought of how this part was going to go. He definitely should have thought of a good lie. “I um, babysit Mike and the other kids sometimes. I was- um, in a car accident recently. I got out of the hospital like a week ago, but Mrs. Byers said I should call you, have you check my head and the cracked rib and stuff.”
“Oh, sweetheart! Of course! I’ll come over tomorrow morning with some soup!” She had the same tone Mrs. Byers had had, he didn’t understand it. But he rattled off his address for her.
She came over at 10:00 in the morning, just as she said she would. He hid the bat in the umbrella stand when he opened the door for her. The kids were practically feral, forgetting that they are not actually supposed to talk about the goings on of the other dimensions, but Steve was not. He knew he looked crazy carrying around a bat full of nails. He hoped he could hide just enough, just so he wouldn’t have to worry about his parents finding out. Maybe that’s why Nancy said he was bullshit, maybe she didn’t want to hide the Upside Down scars, maybe he wasn’t that brave.
“Oh honey, what happened?” Mrs. Henderson cooed, grabbing his face and inspecting him before she even go through the door.
He had spent the whole of last night thinking of a good lie. It needed to make him look good enough that none of the parents worried about him. “Oh, I was babysitting the kids when Will had the episode, and Mrs. Byers, Nancy, and Jonathan took him to the hospital. The kids wanted something to eat, and I got hit by a car.”
“Oh my, well let’s take a look.” She took him to sit on the couch. She did all the same things his doctor had done, he didn’t understand how that could tell her anything about him, but he just had to trust her.
“Well, I’m sorry to say, you definitely shouldn’t be driving. You probably shouldn’t be alone. What time do your parents get home?” She was looking at her watch and feeling his pulse. It made him feel kind of embarrassed.
“Oh, they’re away for the next couple of weeks. It’s a business thing.” He smiled kind of sheepishly.
“Well, let me pick you up and make you some dinner tomorrow. I figure I owe you for all the free labor you’ve been giving me lately. I can start to pay you, it would be really great if you could babysit Dusty while I’m at work a few nights a week. I work nights at the hospitals on Wednesdays and Thursdays and I’m always worried he’s getting into trouble.”
You don’t know the half of it. “Sure, you don’t need to worry about paying me or anything. They’re good kids.”
“Well, at least let me make you dinner.”
When Mrs. Henderson picked him up the next day, he was shocked to find how sweet their home was. They had adopted Tews, to acknowledge the memory of Mews. Tews seemed to like him, curling up into his lap when he and Dustin were watching 60 Minutes. Ronald and Nancy Reagan were on the screen talking about what they planned to do now that Ronnie was re-elected.
“Dusty, turn that nonsense off. We have better things to do than listen to that rat bastard lie.” She yelled casually from the kitchen where she was making spaghetti and meatballs.
It caught Steve off guard. He wasn’t used to hearing people talk about the president like that. His parents loved the Reagans, that’s who they were spending Christmas with. He knew the man wasn’t always the most well-liked, but he wasn’t really plugged into any of that. He just kept his mouth shut and scratched Tews behind the ears. Mrs. Henderson had that authority about her.
“Mom! We have company! You can’t call the president a bastard.” Dustin complained, and it shocked Steve again. Talking back to your parents like that was absolutely not something that would fly at the Harrington household.
“I will stop calling the president a bastard when he stops being a bastard, company be damned. I don’t care what happens when you go over to Ted Wheeler’s house but as long as we are under my roof, I’m going to call a spade a spade.” She started stirring whatever it was she was stirring in the kitchen with more anger. It was barely audible from his place on the couch, but he heard it. It was like a sigh or a prayer, “7,000 sick and 5,000 dead without so much as a god damn word.”
Steve knew what she was talking about. It was impossible not to. But Steve didn’t like to think about it, so he didn’t.
Dinner was nice, and he agreed to come by Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays to watch Dustin. It was so foreign, talking so loudly and excitedly at the dinner table. Mrs. Henderson was interested in what Dustin had to say and asked him things about his day. She was just as interested in Steve’s life, and it was nice. She wanted to come to his baseball game in the spring.
November 26
It should've been more awkward than it was. His newly ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend and his little brother driving him to and from school. But that demagogue or whatever had a tendency to make things like that irrelevant. They explained that Dustin was riding his bike to school, but they were going to put it in the trunk and drive him back after school, which worked out great for Steve so he could babysit Dustin.
Will sat in the back seat coloring something, while Jonathan attempted to make awkward conversation. He was asking him how he was feeling, how Thanksgiving was, and trying very hard to dance around the elephant in the room.
November 27
Lucas and Will came over for their first day of training. Steve’s ribs were healing, but he was certainly not in practice shape, so he popped in Jane Fonda’s Workout VHS.
“Are you sure we have to do this? This seems like it’s for girls.” Lucas complained as he moved along to the Oscar winner’s direction.
“Yes, I don’t want to catch either of you slacking. This tape will help us get in shape in no time.” Steve scolded from the kitchen.
“But you’re not working out with us,” Will said in that tone Steve could never tell if he was trying to sass him or not.
“That is because I am on doctor’s orders not to. However, you are on doctor’s orders to work out and eat some more. So while you two have fun with Jane, I will be making you some dinner.” Mrs. Henderson had taken him grocery shopping, so now he had some pasta and some sauce from the can. It wasn’t much, but it should be enough to feed the (hopefully) growing boys.
After dinner, they watched the Bulls game, and Steve explained all the rules. Lucas kind of understood, but Will was working from scratch. He didn’t mind though, they were really interested and got excited when Steve did.
Lucas asked questions about the players, who they were, and their backstories. Steve had a great time explaining Michael Jordan, and Lucas listened with rapt attention. Will asked more questions about the rules but listened intently about the players. When the Larry Bird Crunch Bar commercial came on, Steve noticed a not-so-faint blush on Will’s cheeks. He watched the commercial more intently than he had any part of the game. It made him smile, a little bit. It was something so normal, having a crush on a celebrity that is only questionably attractive. Will deserved to have a dumb celebrity crush, if anyone was going to give him shit for it, Steve would probably hit them with the bat.
“It’s kind of like DnD, but really really different.” Will had told his mom when she came to pick them up. (maybe complained? The kid was hard to read.)
Babysitting Dustin was easy. He just heated up whatever Mrs. Henderson put in the fridge, and let Dustin talk and do his homework. On Thursday, Dustin asked if Max could come over since Billy and his dad were going to be out of town.
When they finished their homework, they watched some movies and it felt like the ground beneath Steve’s feet was shaking. Dustin had chosen The Outsiders , it was a movie Steve had seen before with Nancy. But this time when he watched all the guys on screen, he felt himself blushing like Will did. It was just like the Larry Bird Crunch bar commercial, but instead of a basketball player with some truly questionable facial hair it was Matt Dillon as Dally. But Steve wasn’t like… that. He wasn’t anything like Will, he was athletic and loud and a ladies man. So Steve just went to the kitchen and started heating up some pasta for the kids.
After dinner, they played with Dustin’s radios and ended up talking to some kids out in Boston.
Eventually, Max got bored. “Does your Mom have any nail polish?” Dustin ran upstairs and got a big box full of different brightly colored glass bottles. Steve prepared to badly paint this little girl’s nails, but she was not having it.
“Pick a color.”
“It’s your nails, you pick the color.” He scoffed.
“Hilarious, but I’m painting your nails,” She sassed back, and Steve rolled his eyes. “Unless you would rather me pick, because that’s completely fine too.”
Steve grabbed a dark blue quickly.
They sat in relative silence, while Dustin was sitting next to them fiddling with the radio, deep in thought.
“I don’t really have a lot of friends who are girls, and I kind of hate this girly shit. But it’s kind of cool to do it every now and then.” She said really quietly, as she tried to get his pinky just right.
“Well, I never got to do girly shit, so if you ever want to do this shit together, I guess I wouldn’t mind.” It was like pulling teeth, but Steve managed to go toe to toe with Max in terms of emotions. It kind of made them both want to die, but that’s kind of the point.
Steve babysat Will for the first time at the Byers that Friday night. Joyce and Jonathan both had work, and were understandably opposed to the idea of Will being home alone. So, Will took Steve out to Castle Byers, which was frankly cool as shit. They sat in there while Will finished his homework. Will had this worried face on, which in turn worried Steve.
“I need you to teach me how to fight.” He said just as resolutely as he had demanded to learn basketball.
“Your brother would be better at that than me. He literally knocked some sense into me.” Steve didn’t have a great track record with fights. He was 2 for 0 right now, and at this point his best bet was to just stop fighting.
“Yeah well I don’t want him to teach me. I want you to.”
“Why? I’m like, really bad at it.” Steve sat up to get a better look at Will. Out of all the people in the world who could teach him how to throw a punch, any of them would be better than Steve.
“Jonathan is really cool, but he’s always worried about me. I’m not made of glass. I need to know how to fight monsters and not just the Demogorgon.” It was clear what was not being said, and it worried Steve.
“Kid, if anybody is hassling you, you tell me, you know? Your mom and your brother, hell Nancy, we can help you-”
“No, Steve, you don’t get it. You can’t always be there to protect me. No one can,” Will took a deep breath in. He looked around, even though they were in a secret fort. “Do you know what Hopper thought when I went missing? He thought my dad did it, and if it wasn’t him it would be any thousand guys like him. I get notes all the time, telling me I should’ve stayed dead. That something or someone else is going to do it one of these days. I need to know what to do, I tried to shoot the demogorgon and that didn’t work. But Dad’s old shotgun isn’t going to help me deal with Troy either.”
And yeah, that was some pretty sound logic. The kid had a point. Steve knew what his parents thought, what he thought. He was a little caught up in the Nancy thing at the time, but when they found Will’s body at the quarry he remembers everyone at school whispering. The queer offed himself or Somebody finally gave that fag what he had coming . At the time it felt like a fucked up thing to say about a dead eleven-year-old, but it made Steve sick to his stomach now. Will was right, they couldn’t always be there to protect him.
“Alright, I’ll teach you, but you’ve gotta promise me if anything gets bad you’re gonna tell someone. It doesn’t have to be me, but someone.”
That’s how Steve Harrington started teaching Will Byers how to fight. It was a friendship no one expected, and a lesson he felt particularly unqualified to teach
That night Steve made Will dinner, and Will couldn’t get his eyes off of Steve’s hands. Steve had almost forgotten about the manicure Max gave him, when Mrs. Henderson dropped him back at home, he realized he didn’t have anything to help remove it.
“You good kid?”
“What’s on your nails?”
He let out a soft laugh, “Max wanted to paint someone’s nails, so I was her newest victim.”
Will looked deeply lost in thought, he opened his mouth to speak but kept closing it. Steve just let him, figuring Will would say something once he figured it out.
“I didn’t realize you could do that,” Will whispered.
“You can do anything you want, Will. Sure, people might give you shit for it, but hey isn’t that what our little practice was for.” Steve shrugged, he knew this was a particularly bold move on his own part, if his dad saw he’d be a dead man. But his dad wasn’t home, and he was trying to be brave for Will. “Do you want me to paint your nails? I’m not sure if I’m any good, but I can try.”
Will’s eyes widened, and he nodded. “Okay, go grab your mom’s makeup, it should be in there.”
Will ran to the bathroom and grabs his mom’s makeup bag. There was only a silver and an olive green that looks like it gave up on life, so silver it was. They ate the macaroni and cheese in relative silence. Steve had gotten Will to come out of his shell only to realize Will was just kind of naturally quiet. He made sure to ask him about his day like Claudia had asked him. He asked about the Dragons and Castles game he was planning or whatever it was called.
Will put on some album by The Cure while Steve did his nails. “My dad never let me do anything like this,” Will told him softly.
“My dad didn’t either, but parents are dumb,” Steve laughed, then remembered that that wasn’t quite true. Maybe it was just dads who are dumb, or maybe their dads just sucked. “Well, maybe just dads. Your mom is pretty cool.”
That made Will smile, “Yeah. Yeah, she is.”
They listened to the Cure till 7:30 when they watched Bulls vs. Knicks. Will was starting to grasp the rules of basketball really well. His playing skills were another story entirely, but it was still really new.
It was during half-time that Jonathan got home. He greeted them with a friendly smile, which Steve was becoming more and more accustomed to. It was… nice.
“Hey bud, how was school?” It slid off Jonathan’s tongue like it was nothing. He just said it, like it was breathing or drinking water. He was a good brother like that.
“Good, we started a new project in art. It’s like a collage thing, so if you have any old magazines, could I use it?” Will was sketching something in his notebook while they watched the game.
“Of course, I’ll look through and see what I’ve got.” Jonathan looked over Will’s shoulder to see what he was drawing, but he didn’t say anything. He was just staring at it, but then Steve realized. He wasn’t looking at the drawing, he was staring at Will’s nails. Steve felt like he couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t move. He just steeled himself and looked around for the bat. “When’d you get your nails painted?”
“Oh, Steve did them after dinner,” Will sounded so small, so frightened. Jonathan just looked at Steve with wide eyes and an unreadable expression. “Are you-do you- what do you think?”
“They look great! That color looks really good on you.” Jonathan ruffled Will’s hair and Steve felt himself exhale, and he saw Will exhale too.
The Bulls won that night, Will kept looking at his nails the whole game and Steve didn’t even yell at him for not paying attention.