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[Age 14]
You’d never been interested in hanging around with Dustin’s friends. He’d always been a bit nerdier than you, and you never really got into dnd anyways, so you had nothing to bond over with Lucas, Mike, and Will. They’d rush into the house, murmur scattered greetings, and scurry back out the door with your brother in tow.
That was until you went to answer the door one day and saw possibly the most attractive man in the world, like, if it were between him and Patrick Swayze, you’d pick this guy.
He held a wide stance with one hand resting on his hip and the other shielding his squinting eyes from the sun. You saw the barest hint of something metal peeking out of his bag, but you were more focused on his face than anything else.
“Hi, is Dustin here? Do you know?”
You gave him a deceptively sweet smile and closed the door so that it was only cracked before screaming to your brother. “DUSTIN! Some guy with great hair’s asking for you!”
Seconds later, footsteps sounded on the stairs. “Steve!?”
You opened the door again. “Steve?”
Steve nodded. “Steve.”
You wiggle your eyebrows in what you hoped was a suggestive manner. “Steve.”
Steve’s eyes blew wide open and he held his hands out in front of him. “Woah, there. You’re like- what, thirteen?”
“Fifteen,” you pouted.
“Fourteen.” You silently cursed your brother who had crept up behind you. “And mom said you can’t have a boyfriend until sixteen.”
“Ugh, shut up!”
Dustin laughed obnoxiously in your face and slipped out the door to join Steve.
——
From that day on (much to your brother’s demise) you found yourself tagging along with Dustin and his friends much more often. He complained almost every time you darted out the door behind him but you didn’t mind because you’d get to see your future husband Steve.
Unfortunately, this meant that you were eventually exposed to what Dustin was really doing with all that time he’d spent with his friends.
You were biking back home from a friend’s house one night and spotted an all too familiar red car. You also happened to hear the distant shouting of your brother and his friends in the woods, so you figured you’d go check it out, maybe even give them a good scare.
Making the trek into the woods that night proved to be less than fruitful. You had been following the shouts for around two minutes when you finally reached a clearing where you saw the whole group fighting some… thing.
A scream sounded from you before you could stop it because leaning over your brother was a disgusting, slimy creature that looked like it was about to kill him.
In a moment, the thing turned to you and begun in a sprint. You were frozen in fear, unable to do anything but stare as it barreled towards you.
At what seemed to be the last second, a blast sounded and the head of the creature exploded in a firework of gore right in your face.
When the thing collapsed, it revealed Steve standing behind it at point blank range with a 12 gauge rifle still pointed where the head of the monster used to be.
“Are you okay? Y/n? Hey, Dustin! Your sister- she’s here!”
You couldn’t bring yourself to respond, still trying to fight off a panic attack from what the hell just went down.
In a moment you saw your younger brother running over to see what was going on. “Shit!” He shouted. “Steve, what the hell!?”
“A demo came for her, I don’t know what’s going on now!”
He came to a stop in front of you and waved a hand in front of your face. You spat out the blood of the ‘demo’ and tried to stop yourself from crying in front of your brother.
“I’m… I’m fine.” Your voice came out shaky and unsure, which was apparently obvious because of the look that Steve and Dustin shared.
Steve sighed deeply. “How’d you get here?”
“I was… I was biking, and I heard you guys shouting. I thought you were playing a game or something, not-“
“Alright.” He cut you off and looked to your brother. “Henderson, you guys got it from here?”
Dustin nodded. “You take her home.”
You watched as Steve rummaged through the backseat of his car, trying to find something for you to wear so you didn’t get blood all over his seats. He managed to find a towel for you to sit on and wrapped you in an old jacket he no longer cared about.
For some reason, that simple gesture let you slip back into your normal self, if only slightly. “Giving me your hoodie, how romantic.”
Steve rolled his eyes and grabbed the handle of the passenger door, preparing to close it. “I’m too old for you. Don’t you have someone a bit more… age appropriate for you to crush on?”
“Three years isn’t that bad,” You argued. “Most people’s parents have like, a ten year age gap!”
He just shut your door and begun to drive.
——
[Age 16]
“Hello sailor!” You shot Steve a mocking salute before approaching the counter.
“Don’t even start.” He pinched the bridge of his nose in faux annoyance. “I saw Max in here just a minute ago, why don’t you go hang out with her? I think Nancy’s around here somewhere too!”
You pursed your lips. “Woah, Steve. I’m a bit young for someone of that age!”
“C’mon, you know it’s different, now scram! I’ve got work to do, ice cream to scoop!”
You heard a snort from behind him and looked up to see Robin. You’d heard so much about her from Steve that you couldn’t help but be a bit jealous of their relationship. Even if Steve didn’t think you were too young for him, he was very obviously interested in Robin. Still, you didn’t let your feelings be known to either of them, just listening to the banter between friends.
“Puhlease, the only reason you work here is because you have to do like, nothing.”
“Hey, I scoop ice cream.” He held up his hands in a ‘gotcha’ gesture, but Robin raised her eyebrows in a way that signaled for him to continue to list his duties. “I… I-“
“He doesn’t have to do anything, just has to stand there and look pretty in uniform.” You made a clawing motion with your hand similar to a cat’s, which made Robin double over with laughter.
“I have to continuously remind one girl in particular that she’s too young.”
“Woah there, sailor boy. All that matters is the motion of the ocean, not the size of the wave.”
Steve covered up the bottom half of his face, which was turning red in embarrassment. “Get out. That was so bad, just- Robin, please. It’s really not that funny.”
Satisfied with the chaos you’d caused, you obliged him and left to find out where Max had gone off to.
Hours later, you regrouped with Dustin and mutually agreed that you didn’t feel like biking home in the dark after walking around all day, so you walked on over to your favorite ice cream shop to beg Steve for a ride.
Of course, he gave in, but told you he’d never give either of you a ride ever again. (lie)
Dustin was asleep in the back seat of the car almost immediately, prompting you to whisper-shout to Steve to pull over while you pulled a marker out of the center console. After you had doodled all over Dustin’s face, only then did you allow him to keep driving.
The drive was mostly silent, which was unusual for the both of you. Normally, there was some form of banter whether it be insults towards each other or inside jokes, but it had never been silent before.
You told yourself over and over not to overthink the situation. He was just quiet because it was later at night and he had been at work all day.
Then you let your gaze wander, your mind along with it. You couldn’t help but focus on his hand, which was normally so busy was sat stationary on the center console.
Before you could even think to stop yourself, you placed a hand over his.
Steve instantly flinched away from your touch, putting his hand on the steering wheel.
“Y/n, I-“
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it-” You didn’t realize it, but all of your flirtatious advances had been presented as jokes up until that moment. The notion of Steve actually knowing for a fact that you felt something real with him scared you.
A million things flashed in your mind that moment. You were afraid that he’d stop wanting to be friends with you, stop coming around your house. You were afraid that his rejection would be real as well, not just some of handed comment he threw at a horrible pick up line.
“Look,” You couldn’t help but stare at the muscles in his jaw tensing up as he thought about what to say. “I know you like me, but this… it’s never going to happen. I’m sorry.”
You knew he felt that way already, but hearing it out loud made your heart break into tiny pieces. You thought he knew that too, and that was why he kept his eyes glued to the road, refusing to so much as spare you a glance.
“You’re just… too young for me. I want you to find someone your age— someone normal that you’ll really, really love because you’re so amazing, and there has got to be someone out there who can appreciate you like you deserve.”
“But,” You looked down at your lap, absentmindedly picking at your nail. “It can’t be you?”
“It can’t.”
You got home, and for the first time in a long while, you dug out that hoodie that he gave to you when you were fourteen and slipped it on.
Back then, you’d washed the hoodie about fourteen times so that you could be extra sure that any demogorgon blood got out of the fabric, but soon regretted it because along with the blood, it had washed away his smell.
It wasn’t like you hadn’t been rejected by Steve countless times before, but it was always served with a smile and a joke. The way he said it that night— serious, with his lips pressed into a thin line— made it feel like a real rejection. That was him drawing a line in the sand, telling you that it would really never happen, that the whole thing had gone on too long. That was Steve telling you that it wouldn’t happen in a million years.
Of course, it didn’t help that Steve was kind enough to check in on you and make sure you were alright.
“I might have been a little harsh yesterday. I just wanted to kinda check in and make sure we’re good.”
“Yeah,” You nodded and smiled without opening your mouth. “It’s all good.”
“Cool,” That seemed to appease Steve because he held out his hand for a fist bump. “See you around, Henderson.”
——
[age 18]
It was a bit awkward at first, figuring out how to be ‘normal friends’ with Steve, but strangely enough you liked hanging around him even more once you were able to relax into a comfortable friendship (which did not help the crush that you were still pushing down.)
Robin had become one of your closest friends in the past year, so much so that your house pretty much became her second home. So, when you mentioned needing a bit of extra money, of course she would mention that she did run a pretty successful radio station, if you’d be interested in helping her out.
You said yes on the spot, only once letting it cross your mind that Steve and Robin had always worked together. What you didn’t take into account was that you would be working in very tight quarters.
“Hey, what’s my second favorite Henderson doing here?” Steve bounded out of the booth to greet you with a side hug.
He had become much more affectionate now that you were strictly just friends. It made sense now that there was a boundary that wasn’t going to be crossed, but you couldn’t say that it didn’t make you uncomfortable. You hated that he was still able to affect you like that in any way, but you didn’t let it show. Telling Steve would force you to admit that there was still something there, and there definitely wasn’t.
“Robin didn’t tell you?”
Robin took off one of her headphones and rolled over to the door of the booth on her swivel chair. “She works here now, by the way.”
“Huh… and what does she do?”
Robin grinned evilly. “I know how much you struggle to keep up during broadcasts, so…”
“I do not!”
“Hmmmm…” Robin tapped a pencil to her chin. “I seem to remember you playing screams of terror instead of applause, just yesterday…”
“Okay, it was one time-“
“What about last week when you-“
“Okay! We don’t need to bring that one up, Rob.” Steve raised his hands in surrender.
“Plus, she has good music taste.” Robin winked at you.
You smiled and walked into the booth, taking a seat beside her. You had her music taste because you two shared practically all your records.
It only took two days of working with them until Robin made up some ridiculous nonexistent task to get Steve out of the studio so she could talk to you.
“Holy shit! You still like Steve, don’t you!?”
“Wh- no!” You looked at her like she was insane and went back to sorting through cassettes.
“I saw you giving him eyes during the broadcast today.”
“I was not giving him eyes-“
“And what was that last night during the crawl? Dustin went out to fix the tracker and you and Steve just happened to go radio silent.”
What really happened was that Steve had run over a cat and you insisted on having a funeral for it on the side of the road. Steve protested briefly, but gave in after you guilted him about the ethics taking a life. Demogorgons excluded.
Steve told Dustin to radio that the tracker was broken as an excuse to stop for five minutes without being shamed by everyone else.
“We were helping Dustin fix it!”
“Wait,” Robin gasped. “What about Mark?”
You’d been dating Mark for a few months now. He was the first guy to show interest in you since you’d stopped rejecting guys in hopes that Steve would ask you out. In the moment you weren’t interested in him, but figured he was cute enough. You’d give him a chance.
As it turned out, he was a really funny, really sweet guy. When he kissed you at the end of your first date, you didn’t pull away. You just leaned in and told him you’d see him tomorrow.
It wasn’t the sort of relationship that brought fireworks or fiery passion, but it was nice. Mark was safe. He was faithful and kind and you could hardly ask for anything more.
“I told you, I don’t like Steve. I wouldn’t be with Mark if I liked Steve.”
“You don’t like Steve, you looooove Steve.” Robin giggled at the groan of frustration you let out. “I’ve never seen you look at Mark that way.”
Your nose crinkled in confusion. Nothing had changed about the way you’d viewed Steve. “What way?”
“Like he hung the damn stars, Y/n.”
“I look at Mark like that! I’ll… I’ll bring him in to watch the broadcast tomorrow, you’ll see.”
——
“Woah, this place is sick!” Mark let go of your hand to meander around the building. “I’d miss half our dates to keep my job here too.”
Shane bloomed in your chest as you nodded silently. You had almost forgotten that you’d used Rockin Robin as an excuse to help out with the crawls for the past few months. You made up a tyrannical boss that ordered you to work long hours and held the job over your head. Hoping he wouldn’t notice that you had no such boss, you grabbed his hand and lead him over to the booth where Robin and Steve were having an animated conversation.
“Hey, guys!” They paused the conversation immediately. Robin smiled and Steve’s eyes darted from you to Mark to your hands then back to you. “Mark’s gonna stay for a bit to watch.”
“Perfect,” Robin said in a sing songy voice. “Make yourself comfortable- Steve, I need you to queue up the cassettes, and Y/n-“
“Hm?”
“We need the song.”
You nodded shortly and went to grab the ‘crawl song’ as you’d started calling it.
Steve muttered something under his breath that sounded a lot like “Don’t get in the way,” but you chose to ignore it. He was just being petty having another guy there.
The moment that Robin hit the button to go on air, everything shot into action. You and Steve had begun rapidly exchanging cassette tracks, trying to keep up with Robin as she vomited faster than an auctioneer.
You practically threw the record at her when she motioned for it because you were distracted with Steve your other job.
When she started up the song was when you got to relax. Robin told you she’d be saying a few words to her mystery lady before the song started so you needn’t worry about too many sound effects.
While she finished up her message, you spared a glance at Steve with the expectation of barely concealed laughter. You and him would always share knowing looks when Robin gave coded messages to her mystery girl.
Instead of the usual smug expression, there was a softness to his face. You turned away quickly, feeling that for some reason you saw something that you shouldn’t have. You didn’t care to decode the look in the moment, especially because you knew that when it came to Steve you had a tendency to overthink every little interaction.
“…alright, and we should be all set for toni-“ Robin glanced at Mark. “That should be all for this morning. Y/n, you’re good to go.”
“Thanks, Rob!” You grabbed your backpack and your boyfriend and made a mad dash to your car.
The broadcast had run long and you couldn’t have another late or you’d get a detention, so you hopped in the drivers seat and slammed on the gas.
In your rush, you didn’t notice that Mark had been strangely silent for the entire ride. It wasn’t until you were parked and had begun to make your way across the parking lot that you took note enough to inquire about it.
“Hey, you’ve been awfully quiet.”
Mark shrugged noncommittally. “Yeah, just thinking.”
“Are you mad cause I almost made us late? Because we made it with ten minutes to spare and I promise, that was the only time I’ll drag you to work-“
“Oh, right. Your job with the strict manager that always makes you stay late? Or was that a different one.”
Crap. He noticed. “Mark, it was for a good reason-“
“Was that reason to hang out with that guy- Seth?”
“Steve,” your voice came out small. You couldn’t tell Mark about the crawls— you knew that— but you didn’t want him to know that you’d been lying to him.
“Oh, who gives a crap? Either way, you-“ He cut himself off, putting a closed fist to his mouth. “I really think we should call it here.”
“Wh- you’re breaking up with me?”
“I don’t know what’s going on with you and- and that guy, and if I’m being honest right now, I don’t want to.”
He turned to walk away, but you managed to grab the cuff of his sleeve not hard enough to pull him back, but just enough to give him pause. “Please, I- I really like you.”
He pressed his lips into a thin line. “Then tell me what you were doing with all those nights you cancelled on me.”
You couldn’t. You stayed silent, and forced yourself to watch as he tugged his arms out of your grip and walked into the school with his hands shoved in his pockets.
The strangest thing happened in that moment. You’d been feeling just fine all day, but in that moment a wave of nausea overcame you and you threw up right there in the parking lot.
You guessed it was alright to skip school if you were sick.
A mere hour later would find you bawling in your room while Robin made meager attempts to cheer you up.
As soon as you’d made the decision to stay home that day, you called Robin to come over while your mother was at work. Normally on a day like this, it would be Steve’s house that you’d all meet up at because of his distinct lack of parentage, but the matter at hand wasn’t a particularly Steve one. Robin must have guessed what it was about because she didn’t even question it, just showed up at your door with snacks and a pitying smile on her face.
As you recounted the story to her, you managed to stay fairly level headed. She nodded along with an intensity that furrowed her brow.
“Okay, wait- he broke up with you because you lied or because he thinks you have something with Steve-“
“Both. I couldn’t tell him why I was lying about having work, so he… filled in the blanks.”
Robin released a huff of air. “I hate that this stuff comes with the whole saving the world thing.”
“No kidding,” you snarked.
“… do you, though?”
“What?”
“Was I right… about Steve?”
You pursed your lips, not wanting to admit what you’d been afraid was true. You’d never really gotten over Steve— not really— though you’d tried your hardest to push the emotions down, being around him so much hardly helped.
“I… do you remember when I was like, 15? I came into Scoops Ahoy like, every week.”
She laughed. “And you’d use those horrible pickup lines on Steve! That was like, the highlight of my day.”
“Yeah,” you laughed but it sounded more self deprecating than anything. “I stopped all of that cause Steve rejected me, and-“
“Wait, didn’t he reject you like, every day, though?”
“Yeah, but this was a serious one, Rob.”
“Oh.”
“Anyway, so I had my moment and I thought I’d cried all my feelings out. I could safely ignore it, and- and,” your voice cracked slightly and you blinked back a barrage of tears. “I hate that it never went away. He can’t know- it’s been so good being friends, I don’t want to ruin it.”
“Oh, Y/n.” Robin pulled you into a tight hug. “He’s an idiot, I’m sorry.”
“Not really,” you sniffled. “I don’t think I’d date a fifteen year old.”
Robin laughed. “Probably not.”
——
You showed up to the crawl with puffy eyes and dressed like a total bum, but you were prepared. It seemed at first like it’d be a normal crawl (minus Dustin who’d never showed up) so you’d hunkered down and prepared for a long night.
Jonathan sat in the backseat of the van, relaying directions while Steve drove around. The three of you fell into casual conversation about your lives soon enough, but the peace was quickly broken when you mentioned that Nancy’s hair had been looking nice lately.
“Steve sure thinks so,” Jonathan said accusatorially.
“Wh- what is with you thinking that I like Nance?”
“Oh, come on. The flowers thing? It’s so obvious.”
“That’s bull shit and you know it. We’ve had this conversation already!” He braced an elbow against the window to rest his head on. “Besides, I like someone else.”
“Who?” You asked much too hopefully.
Steve’s mouth opened and closed once, and it looked as if he was about to say something.
“LEFT!” Jonathan’s shout made you flinch in your seat. “Left right here!”
——
You woke up late the next day and couldn’t even bother to change out of your hoodie and sweats. It was later in the day— already afternoon— and you had slept right through everything.
Initially, you panicked over being late to the crawl that night but calmed down when you saw that it was still dark outside, so you allowed yourself to clear the answering machine before your mom got home and had a light lunch before showing up to see your deranged little brother drilling a hole in the roof of Steve’s car. That was when you knew it’d be a crazy night.
Hours later found you hurtling towards a closing inter-dimensional portal, gripping Steve’s arm like he wasn’t the one driving you towards certain death.
When the car crashed into a large wall with no hope of getting out, you started to panic. Steve, Jonathan, and Nancy were walking ahead, busy trying to find a solution and all you could think about was that there were not only demogorgons and Vecna in the upside down, but there was also no conceivable way for you to get out yet.
You’d never been in the upside down before, somehow always narrowly escaping because you happened to stick with the right group. Your breaths quickened as the air in the upside down suddenly felt poisonous.
“Hey,” You jumped. You were so stuck in your own head that you hadn’t noticed that Steve had dropped behind Nancy and Jonathan to walk beside you. “It’s alright, we’ll get out of here.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do.” He didn’t even look at you as he reached out and interlocked your fingers, keeping his eyes on the path he was walking. “We’ve always made it back somehow. Plus, I think Dustin would kill me if I let you die.”
You snorted a laugh. “He’d probably start kissing the ground you walk on.”
For some odd reason, it didn’t even register to you that Steve Harrington was holding your hand, that he was brushing his thumb along your knuckles every few seconds in an attempt to comfort you. Since you’d been working at the video store, Steve had become more touchy, giving you full hugs instead of side hugs and finding excuses to annoy you by poking your side or putting his cold hands on your neck. You figured it was just another one of those things. He was being a good friend.
Shots fired in front of you as three heavily armed military trucks pulled to a stop.
The four of you immediately went darting into the woods— smart thinking on Nancy’s part. There were too many trees in there to get a straight shot.
Even so, you felt a stray bullet just barely graze the outside of your calf. You grunted in pain, but motioned that you were fine and kept running.
“There! After Barb, Jonathan and I went to the upside down through a tree— I think that one’s it!” Nancy pointed to a trunk of a tree that was just hollowed out enough to fit one person.
“And if it’s not!?” You shouted.
Nancy looked grim. “It will be.”
You felt them before you saw them.
One of the soldiers had managed to grab hold of your hair and yank you back to them, shoving the barrel of a gun up against your head. “Where’s Eleven.”
“We don’t know! We accidental-“
The last thing you saw was the man bringing the butt of his gun out and slamming it back against your head.
Time passed quickly with you floating in and out of reality, only gathering enough information each time to know that you were safe before passing out again.
When you finally woke up, you were in an unfamiliar room. Sitting up to get a look at your surroundings, you felt a weight that stopped you from fully sitting up.
You knew that head of hair too well for it to be anyone else.
Steve had fallen asleep sitting in a chair next to your bed. You poked him a few times, wondering what the hell happened in between then and now for you to be wherever the hell this place was.
“Wh- oh my God.” He sat up quickly. “You’re awake.”
“I am,” You grinned.
Almost immediately, Steve took it upon himself to tell you just about every detail that happened in the night before.
“I’m so, so sorry. I shouldn’t have left you in the back, you could’ve-“
You smiled softly, wanting so badly to reach out and run a hand through his messed up bed head. “I’m okay, Steve. Really.”
He interlocked your fingers like the night before, only this time he turned your hand so that it faced him and brought it to his lips. He looked up at you with that same look that you didn’t want to try to decipher, but you hoped you were starting to understand the meaning.
“I don’t want to lose you— ever.” Steve stood up from the chair and leaned in toward you, bracing his arms on either side of you for balance.
It was strange how up until the very moment that it happened, you doubted that he would actually kiss you.
It was slow and sweet. More meaningful than you knew how to describe— an apology and a promise both wrapped in a neat bow. He brought one hand to cradle the back of your neck, bringing you impossibly closer to him and you gratefully leaned into the touch.
By the time you pulled away, your lips were red and puffy and you both needed to catch your breath.
“Oooooh, you like meeee,” You couldn’t resist the urge to tease him after all those years.
Steve only chuckled and pressed a chaste kiss to your lips. “I do.”
That response made your face flush red. It was clear now that your feelings were reciprocated, but hearing it aloud had a certain affect on you.
“Also,” Steve squinted his eyes. “How’d you get the demo blood out of that hoodie? I swear, I can’t get it out of anything.”
You looked down and saw that you were still wearing the hoodie that Steve had lent to you after the incident with the demogorgon when you were fourteen. Barking a laugh, you told him about the insane amount of washes it’s been through and showed him the faint stains that still remained from four years prior.
——
“…and this song is for a certain someone out there. They know who they are- love you, babe.”
You’d heard Robin recite her sappy spiel hundreds of times and laughed at how corny you thought it was but suddenly when it was your boyfriend reciting that same sappy spiel, it made your heart skip a beat- especially because you got to see him as he said it.
As the song played, you drifted up behind Steve and let your hands run over his shoulders and down his torso before interlocking in a sort of half-hug.
He leaned into the touch and looked up at you with a grin. “Were you tuned in? I said some stuff about you.”
“No, I think I missed it.” You spun Steve around in his chair and leaned against the armrest. “Guess you’ll have to do it again.”
“Or,” Steve said. “I can just do this.”
His lips settled against yours, falling into that familiar motion that you both loved so much.
“Augh- guys!” Robin pretended to shield her eyes as she walked into the room. “What did we say about macking in the booth!”
You pulled away and wiped the shine from your lips smugly. “You don’t follow it either, Rob. Don’t forget about you and Vickie, Thursday night…”
You made a lewd gesture that made Robin flush and Steve laugh.
“Just keep it in your pants, Harrington.” Robin flipped both of you off and left the room again.