When they finally get back to Hawkins, it's much later. They just assume Steve's fine, I mean, he always is, right? They never assumed their son could just be gone one day, but then they see the girl their son had been dating for a year and another weird girl who was his co-worker and they go to them to find out what happened. They are not unaffected, especially Steve's mom is fighting back tears through her alcoholic daze. What they don't expect is for Robin to start shouting at them, shrieking, full hysteria, and Nancy calming her down by placing hands on her shoulders. "I apologize for my friend," she says, "we're all on edge. Where were we? Oh, right." And she punches Steve's father right in the face, breaking his nose, and walking away with Robin. Not a single word.
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They later find out there is no body to claim. It shouldn't have been possible, but Hawkins has been a mess since the earthquake and with the recent death toll, the local morgue just wasn't enough. They find out their son has been cremated, he has a headstone in the cemetery, next to Eddie and Chrissy, but no body underneath. His ashes were scattered. And they are enraged, but there is nothing they can do now.
What they don't know that Steve begged Robin and Nancy in his last moments to ensure they wouldn't be able to take him away, "Don't let them take me somewhere else, don't let them, I want to stay, I'm right where I want to be" and while Robin sobbed and babbled how he can't leave, Nancy's face hardened, she grabbed Steve's hand and made the promise. She and Robin spent a good chunk of the money they saved for college and got Steve what he wanted. A headstone saying "a beloved brother and friend". The Harringtons are confused, ask for an explanation, but the only one who talks to them is Robin and she says a single sentence, nothing else.
"You don't deserve to know."
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The Harringtons are enraged because "He's our son we should've gotten to choose what to do with him!" They had screamed at Hopper who had been reinstated as Chief, "Why weren't we contacted!?"
Hopper just closed his eyes and took a deep breath, he'd buried one child and he was still shaken from having to bury another one of his children, "You were contacted, we left you messages for two weeks." The Harringtons don't have much to say about that, what could you even say to defend that?
They tried to get the headstone changed, but the town refused. Many of the people of Hawkins actually came to visit him, old teachers, teammates, regulars at Scoops and Family Video, the kids, the adults, and even Hellfire members talk to him sometimes when they visit Eddie. He had touched so many people, more than he knew. They didn't see him as King Steve, they saw the real him, the caring him, which is what he wanted.
The Harringtons were no longer welcome in Hawkins, and they never returned.
Steve could finally rest in peace.
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Hawkins lost so many residents in the events of 1986 that burials became way too common. There were lines of newly dug graves, side by side, and groups of mourning friends and family members would come and go, bring flowers, cry before leaving Hawkins and the memories of their loved ones behind. The time would heal, but it would take years, maybe decades. Not everyone chose to stay and no one blamed them.
In the uniform lines of headstones, one row kept sticking out like a sore thumb. There was a grave dedicated to young man, Steve Harrington, that was always covered in flowers. It seemed someone was visiting it nearly every day, sometimes two girls, Buckley and Wheeler, the Byers brothers, the chief of police, a group of local high schoolers, a blind ginger girl, Mrs. Henderson and her son, the whole Wheeler family, the list went on and on. They sat there for hours, chatting, talking to the headstone about their problems, and developments in their lives, the young Henderson even brought his girlfriend to the grave for some reason. But that wasn’t the strangest thing.
Even though the space in the graveyard was now scarce, there was an empty spot next to the grave, as if someone skipped one burial plot. People would look at it, confused, wondering why. When there was another large gathering at Steve’s grave, a visitor approached them and asked if they knew what happened, why it was empty. That he was wondering if it was available because his grandmother wasn’t doing too well and-
One of the young women rose and turned to him, fire in her eyes. “Don’t you even dare think about it,” she warned him in a hoarse voice. “That plot is not free. It is mine.” She was young, not even thirty, but there was something about her words that left no room for argument.
The burial plot stayed empty for decades, even though the amount of flowers never diminished. But eventually, its time came too, shortly after the retired local high school music teacher, Ms. Buckley, came to the grave, her steps painful and slow, her cane digging into the grass. She wasn’t carying flowers this time, the first time of all her visits.
“Hey Dingus,” she said fondly, looking at the headstone. “Thanks for saving me a spot. I’ll be home soon.”
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You’d think after all the trauma they experienced there, the party would move on from Hawkins when it was all over. Some of them did, kind of. The Byers moved back with Hopper in tow taking root once more, everyone grew up as those that don’t die often do. Years would pass, Nancy and Robin went off to college only to return a few years later as if tethered to their hometown. The kids grew up but were never far from Hawkins no matter what they pursued. Nancy took up post as editor in chief of the Hawkins Post and Robin became the high schools music teacher in the hopes to make band cool.
They moved in together since after four years as dormmates it only seemed natural, drawn to each other like magnets, never straying far from the other. Tuesdays were Robin’s days with Steve, the day of the week they were always rostered together without fail, Thursdays were for Nancy as she wanted to get his opinion on her Editor’s letter before Friday’s Paper. Sundays they went together, flowers in tow, they visited everyone but always ended with Steve.
Nancy had introduced Robin to Barb one of those visits.
One Tuesday Robin told Steve she thinks she’s in love with someone. Thursday Nancy asks Steve if he ever liked boys the way he liked girls. Sunday they told Steve about their first date.
Steve was there for it all, the dates, the fights, when Nancy proposed the first time, when Robin proposed the second time legally.
Nancy died first. Buried one plot apart from Steve. The empty space waiting for the day Robin would return to her two soulmates.
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Robin isn’t afraid to die, but it’s dark and for a moment she’s wondering if she was right to believe there would be something waiting for her afterwards. And then she feels those slender fingers she knows so well, but no wrinkles, no stiffness in them, they wrap around her wrist, lead her into the light. “I missed you so much,” Nancy tells her and kisses her on the cheeks as if Robin was the one who left first.
And as tears start streaming from her eyes, choking out how she couldn’t wait to see Nancy again, she hears a familiar voice.
“Well, look who finally decided to show up.”
She looks up through her tears and sees Steve, looking as good as ever, his arm leisurely wrapped around Eddie’s waist. “I joined your club, Buckley,” he tells her with a grin that finally reaches his eyes and he just looks so happy Robin runs to him and tackles both him and Eddie to the ground. She keeps rambling into that perfect hair of his, telling him how they kept the promise they made, how his parents never touched him again, how he stayed home as he wanted, and Steve just strokes her back, her shoulders, thanking her over and over. “You did well, Robin. You did so well. Thank you.”
Nancy watches them with a touched smile, because this finally feels like home, the four of them. The two boys who died too young and the two girls who partially died alongside them. She helps Robin up, gently, as if she was worried she’d hurt her - “I’m dead, Nance, what are you scared of, there’s no escape, you won’t get rid of me now, I swear if you reincarnate before me I’ll come haunt you before it’s my turn!” - while Eddie chuckles and pulls Steve up by his belt, kissing him in the process.
Robin finally calms down, stops threatening poltergeist activity to Nancy. “So…what happens now?” she asks, unsure if she even wants to know.
Eddie grins at her, grabs her hand, his other one never letting Steve go and he pulls all four of them forward. “Good question. Let’s find out, shall we?”