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The crash had jolted Steve up from his bed so badly that he literally fell out of it, looking around for any intruders, or any sign of the Upside Down.
When he didn’t immediately die a brutal death, he stumbled out of bed to go see what had caused the noise.
Steve stumbled down the stairs tiredly with his spiked bat, just in case there really was some sort of monster or intruder.
But when he got to the main room, all he saw was Mike stood in the kitchen, staring down at the floor paralyzed.
“Mike? What’s wrong?” Steve questioned tiredly, brain not fully registering the situation as he came over.
A plate was shattered on the floor. He must’ve dropped it.
“Ah shit,” Steve groaned. “Don’t move, you might step on-“
“I’m sorry.”
Steve paused when Mike cut him off, and Steve finally took a good look at Mike’s face.
He’d gone white as a sheet, staring down at the broken pieces of the plate in sheer terror. “I-I didn’t mean to. I’ll clean it up right away!”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa- careful!” Steve snapped, reaching forward to grab Mike’s arm to stop him from stepping on the shards.
But the moment his hand made contact, Mike flat out screamed and fell back, crashing down onto the floor without a care as he scrambled to get away from him.
Steve’s eyes widened in horror. “Mike- Mike calm down, it’s me!” His heart rate quickened when he realized what was happening as Mike curled in on himself. “Shit. ROBIN! NANCY!” He yelled for them.
He turned back to Mike, who was covering his head with his hands, shaking like a leaf. “’m sorry, ‘m sorry, ‘m sorry-“ He whispered fearfully. Tears rushed down his cheeks against his will as he stared up at Steve like he was a fucking Demogorgon or something.
Steve could only stare down at him uselessly. He didn’t know how to help. He didn’t want to make it any worse.
Well putting the bat down might be a good start.
Steve set the bat down on the counter and carefully knelt down in front of Mike, who was tracking his every movement like his life depended on it.
“Mike, do you know where you are?” Steve asked gently.
“I’ll clean up the plate, I promise. Please stop-“
Okay, that was a no.
“Mike, you’re at my house. I’m Steve, remember? Number one babysitter?” He joked weakly.
Mike blubbered uselessly, cringing away from Steve as he continued to cover his head with his arms.
“It’s okay, Mike.” Steve insisted softly. “You’re not in trouble. Nobodies in trouble. Nobodies mad. It was just a plate, it can be cleaned up and replaced easily.” He soothed. “You’re with me, Nancy and Robin, remember?”
At the mention of the girls, Mike whimpered a little, but still looked unconvinced.
“Remember your plans for today?” Steve continued. “You were gonna eat breakfast, go see a movie with Dustin, Lucas and Max, and then you were gonna call Will and El.”
“El.” Mike whispered her name like a lifeline.
Steve smiled a little. “Yeah that’s right. And it’s gonna be hard to talk to her if you can’t breathe, so you need to take some deep breaths, alright?”
And thankfully, he did. After a few heavy breaths, Mike seemed to finally come back to himself.
“Steve?” He mumbled tiredly.
“Right here, buddy.” He promised.
Mike made grabby hands for him, which made his heart melt just a little bit.
He wrapped his arms around Mike as gently as he could, like the kid would break under his grip. He ran a hand through Mike’s hair and sighed. “You’re such a good kid, you know. And nothing is going to hurt you, not while I’m here.”
“Mmm…” Mike merely hummed in response, but Steve could tell by his tone that he appreciated it.
That’s when Robin and Nancy came running down the stairs, barely put together.
“What happened? Why did you yell!?” Nancy fretted. “Mike what happened!?”
“Oh my gosh.” Robin gasped. “Is he okay!?”
Steve chuckled, looking down to find Mike fell asleep in his arms. “Yeah, he’s alright. He had a bit of a freak out though when he broke a plate, it brought him back to…” He let out a shaky breath as he glanced at Nancy. “Your old household.”
Nancy swallowed hard. “Oh.”
“But he seemed to snap out of it when I mentioned El. God, that girl is a shining star even when she isn’t here.” Steve sighed a little.
Nancy carefully came forward, avoiding the shards. “Let me take him, I’ll put him in his bed.”
Steve pouted and held him away from her. “I found him and took care of him, I get to do it.”
“Okay children.” Robin rolled his eyes. “Nancy, help me clean up the glass and let mama Steve do his thing.”
Nancy chuckled at that. “Yeah alright, just this once.”
Steve rolled his eyes at their teasing and carefully stood up with Mike in his arms. Despite his height, he was such a skinny kid that it was a lot easier than he’d expected.
After he put Mike back in his bed, he went downstairs to see the girls finish cleaning up the shards.
“You’re really good with him.” Nancy told him softly as she went up to him and wrapped her arms around his neck.
Steve smiled a little. “I try.” He let out a shaky breath. “God, he looked so scared, Nance.”
“I know.” Nancy whispered. “But not of you.” She reminded him gently.
“Yeah, I know.” He nodded hesitantly. “I just wish I could do more for him.”
Robin scoffed, getting their attention. “Steve, you do more than enough, so put that pity party away.”
Steve couldn’t help laughing, and conceded.
After all, when were the girls ever wrong?
Maybe things weren’t perfect, and there would still be struggles.
But for now, Steve felt pretty content in Nancy’s arms.