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Steve Harrington climbed out of his car, his hands planting on his hips as he looked out over the park. It was late in the afternoon, getting towards the time families would no doubt be thinking about starting on dinner, but the park was busy still, dozens of kids filling the air with excited yelling and peals of laughter. There were kids of all ages around: groups almost as old as Dustin enjoying the warm sunshine, lazing in the grass and chatting; pups of maybe nine or ten, old enough to play without adult supervision on their way home from school while their parents were still at work; elementary school kids, some of whom Steve recognized from work, rushing around and yelling excitedly on the playground with varying levels of supervision from the grown-ups around them.
He focused on one smaller group, spotting four familiar dark heads of hair and two little blonde ones. The two adults were standing together, with the smallest pups running wobbly toddler laps around them, the sound of their raucous laughter just about carrying across the distance between them. Squinting through his glasses, hand over his eyes to shield them from the bright sun, Steve could just about make out a small four legged creature by the girls' feet, no doubt the source of the shrill shrieks that accompanied their laughter. Wren, her blonde pigtails standing almost straight up from the top of her head, stopped in her weaving figure eight around the adults and hauled the little dog into her arms, faltering only for a moment under his weight before she carried on running after her cousin.
The two older girls had ventured a little further away, whizzing around as fast as they could on their bikes. They had their helmets on, of course - there was no way Eddie or Nancy would let them loose without protecting those little noggins - but Nova's wild curls sprung out from underneath it, practically forming a cloud around her face. They were calling to each other, words Steve couldn't quite catch over the general noise of the park, but he was sure they were planning some kind of escapade, possibly plotting whether they could make it all the way to Wayne's house on their bikes before the grown-ups could catch up to them.
Steve was a little later arriving than he'd planned to be - usually he and Robin drove Nova and Holly to school in the morning and brought them home at the end of the school day, but with the end of the school year approaching and a heavier than usual workload for them they'd had to trade off some days or lean on Nancy and Eddie. Today he and Robin had had to stay for a few extra hours and he'd agree to meet Eddie at the park where the pups could all run off as much energy as possible before they finally got them home. He was grateful that his mate had a slightly more flexible schedule than Steve's, and that he'd be able to pick up the slack more in turn once school broke for the summer. They always made things work, between the two of them. They were a team; mates. Eddie was more than Steve had ever imagined he could even ask for in a partner, but here he was. Mated to someone even better than his imagination could have conjured up on even his loneliest nights.
Slowly, Steve started to make his way across the grass. Just a few years ago he'd finally made it through college, started his first teaching job and been grateful to be working alongside his best friend, his constant since they were teenagers. Robin had been his only real family for so long, the two of them thick as thieves, Steve and Robin against the world. They hadn't had much: an apartment between the two of them, equally unsuccessful dating lives, but it had been enough to give him hope that things would keep getting better as they'd done since the day he'd met her. Their co-dependent friendship had gone far enough to commit to getting matching tattoos - and if someone had told Steve all those years ago that getting those tattoos would be the single best decision of his life, he'd never have believed it.
It was, though. They walked into the the shop and Steve's world tipped upside down. He'd been smitten with Eddie from the first moment he laid eyes on him, had turned into a bumbling mess at the sight of the most gorgeous Omega he'd ever seen and practically tripped over himself trying to find out as much as possible about him in such an obvious way that Robin had no doubt been marking up tallies on an imaginary 'you suck' board in her head.
Eddie had been funny, and gorgeous, and by the time he got his hands on Steve to start working on his goofy little ice cream tattoo Steve was about ready to get on his knees to beg for a chance to take him on a date.
And then Nova arrived.
Steve loved pups. He'd always been good with them, even as a teenager with no siblings or cousins around. When he'd moved out of his parents' house and had to pay rent for the first time, he'd supplemented his retail paychecks with babysitting money, scooping ice cream by day and watching half a dozen kids in their building and the ones nearby on rotation around their parents' date night schedules. Even once he and Robin had moved to working at Family Video and made just enough that money wasn't quite so tight he'd kept up the babysitting gig, happy to hang out with the kids who'd he'd seen grow up in the time he'd spent with them over the years.
It was why he and Robin had ended up at the elementary school. Steve was good with kids and Robin could play a couple of instruments well and a half dozen more to the standard needed to teach them to uncoordinated pups, and they were committed to remaining joined at the hip for the rest of their lives by that point, so teaching let them both play to their strengths. He'd known from his first week as a student teacher that it had been the job for him, despite what people might think about an Alpha guy from a rich family wanting to teach Kindergarten. He thrived in his job, and so did the pups he taught. Sometimes he’d been half convinced he'd never end up with a family of his own, but at least he had Robin, and he loved his job, the kids he got to teach and see grow up, graduate from Kindergarten every summer and go out into the big, wide world of the first grade.
Eddie and Nova changed everything. Nova had run through Eddie's shop, her tiny jelly sandals slapping against the vinyl flooring and her adorable dinosaur impression immediately stealing Steve's heart. Once Eddie had made it clear he was a solo parent, that it was just him and Nova in their little pack of two, it had been Steve's mission to be part of their lives. Nova, not even three yet, was equal parts charm and sass, sunshine and mischief, and Steve's inner Alpha had known that he was supposed to be part of this little family.
Despite the hardships they'd gone through, the heartache and the stupid decisions Steve still gave himself grief over when he couldn't sleep at night, they were a family. Eddie and Nova had accepted him with open arms, shown him that Robin wasn't the only person in the world capable of loving Steve Harrington; had let him love them too, fiercely and unendingly. His family, his pack: his mate and his daughter; his oldest daughter once Luna came along, and wasn't that just crazy? He'd gone from just having Robin to having Eddie and their girls, Robin and Nancy, crazy little Holly and even crazier Wren - not to mention the crazy pets they'd amassed since both he and Eddie were apparently incapable of saying no to their sweet pups. He was surrounded by his favorite people in the world. He was happier than he'd ever thought possible.
Still, he took his time approaching his family. He loved watching Eddie with their girls, seeing the happy glow on his face even in the midst of the chaos that always surrounded the pups. Both of the little ones were dancing at his feet now, Macaroni held in Wren's arms still and Nooble hopping by Luna's side, no doubt too exhausted to keep chasing Nova and Holly on their bikes. Eddie's expression and wild gestures told Steve he was no doubt spinning some fantastical story to entertain the little pups - the way he overdramatically collapsed to the ground a few months later, sprawling on his back and clearly working hard to hold back laughter as both Luna and Wren pounced on him all but confirmed it. Nancy was laughing behind her hands beside them, and when she looked up she spotted Steve, greeting him with a grin and a wave before nudging at Eddie's arm with the toe of her sneaker and gesturing in Steve's direction. Eddie looked over, and when their eyes met Steve was gifted with a huge, warm grin that made his heart skip a beat in his chest.
Steve raised a hand in a dorky wave, grinning back at his mate even as he squinted hard against the sun beaming directly into his eyes. Eddie laughed again, then pushed back Luna's curls enough to whisper something in her ear. Her gasp was loud enough for Steve to hear and then she was getting to her feet, stumbling a little in her haste to start running but catching herself before she could go down face first.
"Dada!" Luna squealed, heading towards Steve as quickly as she could manage, little arms outstretched. Her curls were wilder than ever, no doubt a mess of knots that would take the length of a full cartoon to detangle that evening at bedtime; her leggings were grass-stained and there was a smudge of dirt on her chubby cheek, glasses wonky but thankfully intact on her face. Steve's grin grew into a beam that almost hurt his cheeks as he dropped to one knee to meet her as she reached him. She was perfect.
"Hi, sweet girl! Oh, look at you, you've been playing so hard, haven't you?" he cooed, pressing kisses to the soft baby skin of her forehead, the squishy apples of her cheeks. "I missed you today!"
"We pway!" Luna agreed, grinning at him and showing off rows of tiny baby teeth before squirming a little until he loosened his hold a little, shifted her to hold her on his hip as he stood back up. "Daddy siwwy," she explained, pointing at Eddie and letting out a delighted peal of laughter. "He fawws!"
"Yeah, I saw that! Silly Daddy, always falling over right in front you and Wren, huh?" Steve said as they made their way back over to Eddie, who was still on the ground with Wren kneeling on top of him as if she'd conquered her beloved uncle like a mountain.
"Uncy Steve!" Holly shrieked as she whizzed past on her bike, doing a sharp turn that had her up on three wheels, one of her little stablizers lifting off the ground. Steve instinctively hopped to the side for fear of getting his toes crushed, but then Nova was screeching his name too and he turned in her direction, grinning and bouncing her sister in his arms.
"Hi, Holly! Hi, Supernova," he said, adjusting Luna slightly so she was safely held in one arm and bracing himself for impact when Nova threw herself off her bike a few feet from him, letting it fall to the ground as she leaped towards him. She was always certain he would catch her. He scooped her up, his chest glowing with warmth at the way he was treated by his pup who'd last seen him not more than a couple of hours before. "You were going so fast! Maybe we'll get you on two wheels over the summer," he suggested, kissing her cheek and inhaling her soft puppy scent, masked only a little by the general dirt from a day of playing.
His girls. His family; his pack. He caught Eddie's eye again as he watched him finally dislodge his niece and move to get back to his feet, heading towards them. Steve met him in the middle, greeting him with a kiss that had the kids squealing with overdramatic disgust and had him smiling against his mate's lips.
Steve was the luckiest guy in the world. Who could ask for anything more than this?