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If you were to mention the name Steve Harrington to anyone in Hawkins Indiana, most would know who you were talking about. To some it would be "Grant Harrington's kid, right?" To others it would be "Captain of the basketball team, hear they got a shot at state this year!" To anyone still in high school it would be "King Steve 'The Hair' Harrington, all American jock, kind of a douchebag, but throws a great party." To one Dustin Henderson, and later, one Robin Buckley, "best friend, great guy, kinda dumb, but weirdly nice"
If you were to ask Steve Harrington though, the answer varies by who is asking.
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The first time Steve had met someone who wasn't an ever-revolving door of nannies and tutors was when he was 8. It should have been when he was 5, but on one of their rare visits home, his parents noticed what they hadn't read in the numerous reports the various au pairs they hired to raise their heir kept trying to tell them, namely their son was... strange.
For one, he was exceedingly quiet. He could speak of course, in several different languages in fact, owing to the dozen or so care givers they had hired and later fired once Allison Harrington got paranoid that they were too pretty and only gunning to be the next Mrs. Harrington. No, he was quiet in that strange way that few children are, often sitting perfectly still, starting off into nothing, gaze unwavering for hours, until he was addressed and forced to engage. It was disquieting, and not at all proper for the Scion of the vast Harrington legacy.
So, they hired tutors to teach the boy how to act normal.
There were mixed results.
Steve thrived best when given a task where all the steps were clearly defined and demonstrated to him beforehand. He could accomplish most tasks with a single-minded blank face determination, once started, not stopping until either the task is finished, or he had run out of instructions to follow. He almost never showed even a hint of frustration, but he rarely showed any emotion at all.
That is until his third tutor, Anna Preslay brought her violin to show him when he was 7. She wasn't very good, had only taken it up as a hobby, but she had read an article about music being a good way to bring quiet kids out of their shell. Connect them to something they could not just learn but build on once they had the core dynamics in place. It was also supposed to bring out their creativity, which is something Steve was sorely lacking.
She only knew three songs on it without needing to rely heavily on the music sheets. She started with the easiest song in her repertoire, “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” She stumbled a few times in the mini performance but didn't stop to start over because Steve's usual blank face was lit with genuine awe. He watched her so raptly she almost felt like she was playing a symphony for royalty, and not just a choppy rendition of the first song every newbie stumbles over to get a feel for the instrument.
When she was finished, the look of awe remained, and hoping to keep it there, she moved into the second song, “Amazing Grace.” Again, she made a few mistakes, but when she finished, and the look of awe turned into the first genuine smile she had ever seen on the strange child she was being paid just a little too much to tutor. So, she finished her concert with her pride and glory, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”
When she was done, she was rewarded with the first question the kid had ever asked her unprompted.
"Can I try?"
And with that kind of progress, the only answer she could give was a resounding "Yes!"
She showed him how to hold it, and then how to move the bow across the strings, how to place his fingers to play the first few notes of Mary had a little lamb. She then let him try on his own, resigning herself to the no doubt awful screeching she was soon to hear.
Except.
What she heard, was the full rendition of Mary Had a Little Lamb, a little screechy at first but rounding out to actual music, only to bleed into Amazing Grace, and end with Somewhere Over the Rainbow, all nearly Exactly as she had played them, mistakes and all.
She was... She was a little freaked out, but one look at Steve's face, and suddenly all she felt was excited, cause the kid was still smiling.
Instead of working on math and reading like they were scheduled to do, they spent the rest of the day with her showing him how to play scales, and then showing him how to read the music sheets she brought with her.
When Martha, the latest nanny called him away for dinner, she was further rewarded with that smile staying in place.
On her way home that night she stopped into Hawkins only music store and bought a child size violin and all 4 beginners music books for Violin the store carried.
The next three months were, in a word, bonkers. Steve was not the greatest at reading, he tried, but often got words mixed up, and by the way he wrote them Anna strongly suspected the kids was probably dyslexic, but when it came to reading music, he caught on within days. After the first week, he could play those first three songs perfectly and competently read music. By the second week, they had finished the first two song books she had purchased. By the end of the first month, he could play every song in all 4 books she had bought, without needing the sheet music at all.
Then they made a new discovery. Martha, the nanny, had cottoned onto the whole music getting the kid to genuinely emote, so she had found a few records of violin music at the secondhand store that she would play for him while they were doing their everyday tasks. After hearing the first record though, Steve got his violin and started playing those songs, not perfectly, but so well it was still astonishing.
Anna bought him a few more music books, this time with more intermediate songs, and he dove into those, learning them so quickly she was despairing keeping that healthy extra in her bank account, until, wanting a change from the three records of violin music she was able to find in town, Martha put on an old Beatles record, and Steve, well, within hours he had the whole thing memorized and was playing it on his violin.
The next month followed with them playing Steve a new record every few days, and him working out how to play the songs on his violin.
They still kept up with his regular subjects, but with the promise that he could play his violin after his lessons, he started speeding through them. No more plodding place and needing detailed step by step instructions, Anna only needed to give him his assignment, tell him what result she expected, and he was turning in the completed assignment in record time. His reading then improved when she had gotten struck by inspiration and made him a clear plastic guide that was lined like sheet music to place over the page he was reading.
By the time the Harrington's next dropped in, it was to see their strange child finally seeming normal. This had the unfortunate consequence of them deciding Steve was ready to go to regular school. Anna suggested they might want to send him to the private school a few towns over, as it had a really good music program, Lord knew they could afford it, but they decided public school was good enough, as it was close enough he could walk or take the bus if the nanny was unavailable.
Anna bid Steve a final goodbye at the end of August and gifted him an entire box of music books she had found at the flea market in Shelbyville. Her last image of that strange little boy was him almost crying as she left, and despite the obvious sadness, she was hopeful for him.
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Steve's first few weeks of regular school were very disorienting. He was used to getting lessons and finishing his assignments at his own pace and then playing his music. Now though he had to sit quietly and wait for others to finish, and he wasn't allowed to bring his violin to school, except for Thursdays when they had music hour. He did a lot of sitting and staring blankly at nothing in class. He didn't mind it really, didn't mind much, even when people kept saying weird things about him.
He was kinda used to that from his parents and his old nannies and tutors, but he hadn't had to deal with it for a while with Anna and Martha. Except now Anna was gone, and he wasn't allowed to play his music whenever he finished his assignments.
The first time a kid pushed him down in the playground he just sat there while they kicked dirt at him. He didn't like it much, but he didn't know what else to do. The teacher finally came and told him to go inside and clean up. After that, he got pushed down every recess. He didn't really care, except sometimes it hurt. It reminded him of one of his old nannies, Gloria. She used to paddle him with a wooden spoon if he didn't move for a while. Sometimes she would smack him with her special rosy necklace with the t on it. She would also splash him with water sometimes and say weird poems in Latin.
On his 36th day of school he had to sit through a meeting with his Teacher and the Principal and the Guidance Counselor. They had called his parents, but Martha came instead. His parents were doing important grown-up things in New York, so couldn't come. They gave him lots of tests to do, some of them he didn't understand because he hadn't done it before, but others were things he had done with his tutors. The principal tried to take away his reading guide, but Martha told him not to, so he gave it back. After all the tests, Martha took him out for ice cream and then let him play his violin until dinner time.
The next day when he went to school, he was sent to a different class with much bigger kids in it, fourth grade they said, not that Steve really understood what that meant, but he didn't care enough to ask, so he just sat at his new desk next to a girl with bright orange red hair like fire.
The new class was a lot better; he did a lot less sitting and staring, waiting for others to finish. They tried to take away his reading guide again, but he told the teacher that Martha said he could keep it. The teacher gave it back to him the next day and didn't try and take it away again.
At recess the kids tried to push him down again, but the girl with fire hair, Carol he later learned, pushed the other kids and then grabbed Steve by his hand and led him over to the monkey bars. She then showed him how to hang from them and swing from bar to bar with her arms to get to the other side, and even though they were really high up, he did exactly as she did and managed not to fall.
On day 48 a boy with lots of freckles tried to pull Carols hair and push her down, but Steve got in his way and pushed him instead, then he grabbed the boy’s hand and led him to the monkey bars and the three of them spent the rest of recess swinging across the bars. The boy, Tommy, showed Steve how to hang upside down and then do a little flip. Steve tried but fell the first time. He scraped his arm, and it was bleeding a little, but he just tried again and he got it on the second try.
On day 82 there was a talent show at the school and Steve brought his violin. He played Martha's favorite song, California Dreaming, because she came to see him, instead of his parents who were doing important adult things in Washington this time.
On day 103 of school, it was Carol's birthday, so Martha helped him bake cupcakes for the whole class, and Steve gave Carol a Fleetwood Mac record because they were here favorite.
On day 127 of school, it was Tommy's birthday, so Steve made brownies for the whole class, alone this time because Martha had been fired when his mother came home, and she hadn't been replaced yet. He gave Tommy a Led Zeppelin record, because they were his favorite.
On day 164 of school, Steve missed the bus home and had to walk the whole way for the first time. He got very lost, but he was found by the nice lady who worked at the diner. She gave him a piece of pie and let him play songs on the juke box, and then drove him home.
On day 174 of school, he found out there were only two more days left of fourth grade, and Steve got a little sad. Martha still hasn't been replaced and the food in the house had run out on day 148, so he only got to eat when he was at school, or when he went to visit Gertie at the diner. Before he left school that day, Steve borrowed a book about plants that were good to eat, since he didn’t think Gertie would be able to feed him every day.
On day 6 of summer Steve's parents came home and asked where the Nanny was and why there wasn't any food in the house. When he reminded them, they had fired her in day 121 of the school year, they got angry with him for not saying anything. They called him stupid for not just buying new food. When they left on day 9 of summer his mother gave him a stack of money and told him not to be stupid again.
He counted the money and there was $500. His mother had gone grocery shopping before they left, so there was still food in the house. Steve spent day 10 and 11 writing out recipes from his mother’s cookbooks for the food that was in the house and making a schedule for what to eat when. By his schedule he wouldn't run out of food until day 43 of summer. He didn't eat a lot, and Martha had showed him how to cook a lot of food and put small portions in the freezer for heating up later.
On day 32 of summer, it was Steve's birthday, so he took some of the money and walked to Melvald's to buy things to bake a cake with. It took him a long time to carry it all home. He decided to make cupcakes, and once they were cooled and iced, he took the cupcakes to the diner and shared them with Gertie and her other friends that worked there. He wanted to share with Tommy and Carol, but he didn't know where they lived, so he decided to make cupcakes again for the first day of school and share with them then.
On day 48 of summer his mother came home alone and showed him how to register for school. She made him pay very close attention so he would be able to do it himself after that. She stayed for three days this time and gave him a bike with a basket on it for his birthday and a new pile of money, this time $2000, which meant he now had $2229 for groceries.
On day 51 of summer, he walked his bike to the diner and asked Gertie to show him how to ride. It took him three tries and he scraped his knees really badly, but he finally got it. Gertie showed him how to clean and bandage his knees and sent him home with an extra piece of pie. He stopped by Melvald's on the way home and was able to buy a lot more groceries this time because of the basket. He also got a first aid kit.
On the last day of summer, day 58, Steve took some of his money and rode his bike to the secondhand shop. He bought new pants and shirts, and two new pairs of shoes, one pair that fit, and one pair just a little too big, just like Martha used to do. He wanted to go to the department store, but it was very far away. He also went to the bookstore and bought new school supplies. He now had $2004. When he got home, he made cupcakes for him and Tommy and Carol, and got his things ready for school the next day.
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5th grade wasn't very different than 4th. The teacher tried to take away his reading guide again, but the principal told him to give it back. Tommy and Carol seemed mad at him when he first saw them in class, but then he gave them their cupcakes and told them it was for his birthday because he didn't know where they lived to give it to them on time. After that, they were happy with him again, and they each wrote out their address and phone numbers for him. He did the same for them.
After that, things passed the same as the last year. Steve rode his bike to school instead of walked, until it got too cold, then he bought a big fluffy jacket and rode the bus instead.
His parents came home just once at the beginning of December, they gave him a new tape player that could record things for Christmas, and left him with more money, this time $5000, so now he had $6013.
When it got warmer out, Tommy and Carol visited him at home. They learned he had a pool and asked if they could go swimming. Steve told them he didn't know how, so Tommy showed him. They came over a lot after that, and they even had a few sleep overs. He would play his violin for them sometimes, since he still played every day, now listening to the radio on his new tape player to learn new songs.
5th grade ended, and Tommy and Carol spent almost every day of summer at Steve's house. His parents came home once in July a few days before his birthday, his mother took him to the department store and bought him all new clothes and shoes. He also got new school supplies and a few more music books for violin. They left the day before his birthday and gave him another $5000. He now had $8469. He would have more, but Tommy and Carol both ate a lot of food. Not like Steve, who only ate a little, unless Gertie was giving him extra slices of pie.
He introduced Tommy and Carol to Gertie when he brought her cupcakes on his birthday.
6th grade came and passed, his parents only visiting once in January, leaving him with more money and a new bike, since he had grown out of his old one.
Summer between 6th and 7th grade marked a change for Steve. Carol and Tommy started doing a thing called kissing, and while they still came over almost every day, they spent most of their time kissing. Steve didn't mind, he liked having them over. Sometimes Tommy or Carol would kiss him too. It was nice he supposed, and they seemed to like it, so he didn't mind that either.
7th grade was a lot different than 6th grade. His mother had taken him shopping for clothes again, and this time left him with $10,000. He now had $16,983. He was eating more now though, especially after he started having PE at school. That was okay, he kinda liked it. It would sometimes take him a few tries to understand the games they played, but in the end, he would get it.
Having to go to a different class for every subject was weird, and he only had one class with Tommy and two with Carol. Thankfully, none of his teachers tried to take away his reading guide, though it was starting to get hard to use, having turned a yellow color after so many years.
Some kids tried being mean to him a few times, but he would just stare at them blankly and they would either get bored and walk away, or sometimes they would hit him. When that happened, he would do what Tommy and Carol told him, and let them hit him first, before hitting them back. Hard. Hard enough to keep them from hitting him again. Tommy’s brother’d had to show Steve how to punch, but he was a good teacher, cause Steve only had to hit three people before no one tried to be mean to him again, and thanks to waiting until they hit him first, he didn’t even get into trouble for it.
He also made a few new friends, mostly girls. Some of them wanted to do that kissing thing Tommy and Carol liked or hold his hand between classes. He didn't mind, and they seemed to like it, so he just went with it.
The best part of 7th grade though was orchestra. He finally got to take his violin to school every day, though he only got to play it during the one class. His teacher got really excited the first time she heard him play and kept giving him new songs to memorize and play. Sometimes she would record him play, which was nice, cause then he could play the recording and then play counter melodies over them. His teacher got even more excited after that and set him to a project of recording an entire performance.
7th grade passed pretty quickly, and his parents didn't come home again until summer, but they opened him his own bank account and kept it topped off at $2000. He learned that if he withdrew most of the money, they would just keep topping it up every month, so he added to his cash savings that he kept in an old shoe box in his closet. By the time he saw his parents next he had $28,789 in his shoe box.
The summer between 7th and 8th grade Tommy and Carol spent at his house mostly again, but they started inviting other people over too. Steve didn't mind, he just put away anything that could break easy, and kept people in the back yard and kitchen mostly.
Tommy and Carol still liked kissing a lot, and they showed Steve how to do other things, like touch them in other places that they said felt good, and when they did it to him it did feel kinda good, and since they seemed to like it, Steve didn't mind. Some other girls wanted to do those things with Steve too, so Steve did those things with them, and sometimes they taught him new things that he would later show Tommy and Carol.
8th grade started and his two favorite classes were still PE and music. He still tried his best in all the other classes, and mostly got good grades, but some of them were getting extra hard. Mostly when it came to things like writing essays. He could never seem to get the words right, until his science teacher taught him to write his essays in all capital letters or type them up on a typewriter, then essays got easier, which was good because his father had gotten mad at him when his English grade slipped to a B-. He ended the year getting an A- though, so his dad was less mad, and he increased his allowance to $3000 a month as a result.
In thanks he made lemon poppyseed muffins for Mr. Clarke because they were his favorite.
Summer between 8th and 9th grade marked another change. Tommy and Carol snuck the three of them into a high school party, and Steve tried alcohol and sex for the first time. He didn't like the alcohol much, it made him feel sick, but when he did something called a keg stand it made Tommy super excited for some reason, so Steve made sure to do it every time they snuck into a party.
The sex was okay, it made him feel really nice for a while after, but the girls he had sex with seemed to really like it when he did what they told him to, and he liked it when people enjoyed themselves, so he made sure to learn really well. Tommy and Carol also started doing sex, and sometimes when Steve would learn something new, he would teach it to them too.
9th grade brought another change, Steve joined the basketball team. It was a lot of fun. Tommy joined with him too, though Tommy mostly sat on the bench during games, which seemed to make Tommy unhappy, so during one of their games, Steve pretended to get hurt so Tommy could play. Tommy made sure to play really well, so he got to play more after that, which was good because Steve was not very good at pretending.
His parents hadn't come home that summer to take Steve school shopping, so Steve asked his dad if he could learn to drive so he could go school shopping. In December some men delivered a car to Steve's driveway. His dad told him to keep his grades up and not crash the car, and increased his allowance to $5000 a month. Honestly it was getting a little ridiculous, even with paying for things with Tommy and Carol all the time, Steve now had $63,981 in his shoe box.
Steve, knowing he would need help, asked Gertie to show him how to drive, since she was the one to show him how to ride a bike. She was nice enough to take two afternoons off to show him the ropes. He caught on quickly, and always made sure to drive super safe so he wouldn't crash.
In April when the basketball team won their first championship game, Tommy and Carol threw a party at Steve's house. He didn't know where they got the alcohol, but there was a lot of it, and it was really loud. Thankfully Steve's house wasn't close enough to any neighbors, so no cops were called. It took the three of them a day and a half to clean up the mess.
When Steve got to school on Monday, he suddenly had a lot more friends. It was kinda hard remembering all their names, so Steve started keeping a journal of names and descriptions and things he learned about people, like their birthdays and allergies and favorite songs and stuff.
By the time 9th grade ended, Tommy and Carol had thrown 3 more parties at his house and cleaning up got much easier.
Summer between 9th and 10th grade, Steve and Tommy got jobs as life guards at the community pool. They worked 4 days a week, and Steve got to take first aide classes for his job and learn CPR. He only had to use it once while working but had to use it two more times at the parties Tommy and Carol would throw at his house.
His parents didn't come home at all that summer either.
By the time 10th grade started, Steve had to upgrade his shoe box to a couple ammo boxes. He now had $101,394 socked away. He honestly didn't know why, but his parents never seemed to notice that he withdrew so much money.
10th grade Steve played baseball and joined the swim team as well as doing basketball. He also had his first girlfriend. Her name was Stacy and they dated for 6 weeks before she decided she wanted to date Adam Wagner on the football team instead. Steve still gave her a really nice birthday present to thank her for being a good girlfriend. A few weeks later he got his second girlfriend, Becky Grady. She only dated him for 4 weeks, but they had a lot of fun and she showed him how to do some new sex things, so when broke up, he showed Tommy and Carol.
He dated a few more girls after that, not for very long each time, but they didn't seem mad at him or anything when they broke up with him, just like they wanted to try something different, so Steve didn't mind, trying new things was nice, and he liked seeing them happy.
The basketball team didn't go to State that year, but baseball went to All-Stars and he was made Captain of the swim team.
Tommy and Carol threw a lot more parties at his house, and Steve made a lot more friends. Some of them were mean, and sometimes so were Tommy and Carol, but not to Steve, so he didn't really know what to do about it. He would mostly just stand there confused until Tommy or Carol would prompt him to do something. Sometimes it seemed like a game, like when people were teasing with clever quips, and those times were kinda fun, but sometimes it would get physical, which would mean Steve would have to step in to take a punch for Tommy, cause Steve never cared about getting hurt, but Tommy really didn't liked it.
Another thing that confused him is people thinking it was cool to get bad grades. Steve couldn't get bad grades though, or his dad would take his car away, so Steve just had to pretend he was getting bad grades. Tommy and Carol helped him with that since Steve was still really bad at pretending. They told him what grades to say he was getting and told him to complain about his father getting mad about his grades and the parties. Steve figured his dad would never know, like the ammo boxes of money, so he did what they told him.
Sometimes he felt bad about calling his dad a "Grade A Asshole" because he didn't really know him well enough to actually know, but Carol said it made him seem more human to have a problem like mean parents. Carol was really smart about those kinds of things, so he went with it.
10th grade ended and he got his job at the pool again. Tommy and Carol threw more parties. Steve went and got his driver's license when he turned 14. Gertie helped him with it since her brother owned a farm, so she got Steve listed as a farmhand so he could use the exemption.
One thing that changed that summer is Tommy and Carol decided they didn't want to have sex with Steve anymore. He was a little sad about that, until they assured him that they weren't mad at him, they just wanted to be exclusive with each other for a while. Steve felt better after that, and to show his appreciation for what great friends they were, he got them tickets to see Blondie in concert in Chicago, and even booked them a nice hotel to stay in, so they could have a romantic getaway just the two of them.
11th grade started much like 10th, with one exception. Nancy Wheeler. He had study hall with her, and she would sometimes talk about stuff with her friend Barb. Steve really liked listening to her talk. She reminded him of his old tutor Anna. They both had the same color eyes and made everything sound interesting and exciting.
He told Carol he liked Nancy. Carol looked at him weird, but then helped him work out a plan to "woo" her. It took him until October to even get her to agree to go on a date with him, but by the time November rolled around, they had going out on 2 dates and kissed 3 times. He had never moved this slowly when dating a girl, usually they would have sex at a party and then date for a few weeks until the girl wanted to try something new.
Steve thought that maybe if they waited a while to have sex, Nancy might want to date him for longer than a few weeks. Maybe she would be his girlfriend for several months. The thought made him feel excited, almost like hearing Anna play the violin that first time. He found himself smiling more, the real kind, not the pretend one he learned to wear so people wouldn't think he was weird.
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Tommy & Carol and Steve & Nancy were standing in the hall, hanging out between 3rd & 4th period when Steve noticed the quiet kid that sometimes was the nice kind of quippy to play the mean words game with (Jonathan Byers, favorite color blue, liked to listen to The Clash, birthday February 6th, 1967, mother works at Melvald's.) He was hanging missing posters of his kid brother, which was really sad, so Steve said so. Tommy said something really mean about Jonathan killing his own brother, which, this is not the time for the mean words game, so Steve smacked Tommy on his arm. Nancy though walked over to Jonathan, and Steve didn't know if he should be following, he looked briefly at Carol to see if she would give him a cue, but she just looked away, so Steve decided to stay put.
Nancy came back and he walked her to her next class. He already kinda missed her, but he was going to see her tonight to study, so he would have to be patient. He was good at being patient.
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That night, he snuck into Nancy's bedroom. Her kid brother (Mike Wheeler, birthday April 7, 1971, best friend Will Byers who is missing, plays the fantasy game, Dungeons and Dragons) was sneaking out on his bike. Steve wondered if he should be worried, another kid had just gone missing, but maybe his parents didn't care what he did, just like Steve's.
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He liked Nancy's flash cards; they were very organized. He wanted to tell her that, but then he remembered Carol telling him to pretend he was only getting a C in science class, so he didn't tell her, instead he tried to distract Nancy with kissing so he wouldn't seem too smart, but she got mad at him for it, so he just stopped pretending and helped her study.
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The next day at school Tommy told Steve he was taking too long to have sex with Nancy, that if he didn't soon, she was going to lose interest in him, so Tommy and Carol planned a small party at Steve's house for that night, just the four of them. Nancy said she would go, and Steve was almost sad, he really thought that waiting a while to have sex would make her want to stay with him longer, but Tommy was smarter than him about that stuff, and Nancy had agreed, so Steve guessed he would just have to enjoy the few weeks of dating Nancy Wheeler instead of months like he'd hoped.
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Maybe Nancy didn't want to have sex after all, she brought her friend Barb, and Steve might not be very smart about things like this, but he was pretty sure Barb didn't want to have sex with him, so having her here really made him happy. He didn't know very much about her, maybe he could learn more tonight, if he learned her birthday, he could get her something really nice to thank her for coming.
Turns out she wasn't very talkative when it wasn't just her and Nancy. He wasn't sure but she seemed uncomfortable. He tried to include her, but it backfired when she got hurt. He tried to help but she waved him off. He wanted to tell her he was trained in first aide, but Carol gave him a look when he went to follow her into the house, so Steve stayed by the pool instead. Then Tommy threw Carol in the pool and jumped in. They looked like they were having fun, so he did the same with Nancy. Nancy seemed to enjoy it, so it must have been the right thing to do.
When they got out of the pool, Tommy and Carol went off to have sex. Steve went to get something for Nancy to change into, but then she followed him up to his room. She went to change so Steve turned away to give her privacy, but she called him to turn around, and wow, she was really pretty.
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Steve and Nancy had sex. He did his best to make sure it felt extra special for her, maybe if she liked it enough, she would still stay with him for longer than a few weeks. When he woke up, she was gone though, so Steve didn't know.
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Nancy's friend was missing. Steve didn't feel very good.
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Jonathan Byers had pictures of Nancy getting undressed. For the first time, Steve felt the genuine urge to be mean to someone. He felt gross. If the pictures had just been him he probably wouldn't have cared, but he had taken pictures of Nancy while she was taking her clothes off, and that made him.. It made him so mad. So, he broke Jonathan's camera.
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Nancy wanted to tell the police about the party. Tommy and carol had always said to avoid the cops as much as possible. If the cops came around once, they would start coming around any time they threw a party at Steve’s house, and if that happened, they wouldn’t be able to throw any more parties. Steve pulled out the line about his dad being a Grade A Asshole, but Nancy just got angry, so he tried to compromise, don’t tell them about the alcohol, it wasn’t relevant anyways since Barb had not had any anyways. Nancy just stomped off. Steve knew he should probably be worried about Barb, but all he could feel was that squirmy feeling Carol told him was anxiety. Nancy was definitely not going to want to be with him very long. Maybe he was just bad at being a boyfriend.
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Steve went to visit Nancy at her house. She was in her garage swinging a baseball bat. It was... Strange. He apologized for being an asshole earlier about the cops and asked if she wanted to go see a movie with him, something happy to get her mind off things. She said she was busy though, so Steve left.
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He snuck up to Nancy's room that night, climbing the trellis like he did when they were studying the other day, but before he could surprise her, he saw her cuddling with Jonathan on her bed.
Steve had never been cheated on. It. It hurt. He felt like he was going to be sick.
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Tommy wanted to spray paint mean things about Nancy and Jonathan on the walls of the movie theater. Steve was still feeling sick, and mad, and squirmy, so he let him. It didn't make Steve feel any better. Then Nancy found them, and she was yelling at him and Steve, for the first time in his life felt anger. He said some things to Nancy, some real mean things, but the Jonathan came up, and Steve, just let loose. For once he didn't have to pretend to be mean, and he finally understood, it wasn't a game Tommy and Carol were playing when they said mean things to people, it was because they were angry with them. So, Steve said every mean thing he could think of, would have said more, but Jonathan started hitting him. Hard. Over and over again. Steve was laying on the ground and Jonathan was still hitting him. Until someone was pulling Jonathan off him, and Tommy was dragging Steve away to his car.
-
Steve was still angry, his face kinda hurt where Jonathan had hit him a bunch, not that the pain bothered him over much, but it did give him something to focus on other than how hurt Nancy had looked when he said those mean things to her. Sure, he'd meant them when he said them, but now he was feeling squirmy again, and still angry, but at himself instead of Nancy.
He tried to explain what he was feeling to Tommy and Carol, maybe they could help, but Tommy was just mean back at Steve, and Steve'd had enough, so he left. He went back to the theater and helped clean the spray paint off the Marquee. Cleaning always helped him organize his thoughts. He decided all he could do right now was apologize.
-
Nancy wasn't at home, so Steve took a guess that she was probably with Jonathan. He was still mad at Jonathan, but it would probably make Nancy feel better if he apologized to Jonathan too, so Steve took a guess and went to Jonathan's house after getting the address from Nancy's mother.
-
Nancy was bleeding, the Byers house was a mess of Christmas lights and there was a hole chopped right through the front wall. Oh, and Nancy was pointing a gun at Steve's head and telling him to leave, aaannd some kind of nightmare creature was coming out of the God damned wall. Steve did what Nancy told him to, and left. He was nearly to his car when he heard gunshots, and he turned right back around.
-
Lights were flashing and flickering like crazy, everyone was yelling, and Jonathan and Nancy were about to be eaten by a Gods be damned eldritch horror. Steve saw a spiked bat discarded on the floor, swept it up, and pushed all the new feelings he had been experiencing as far away as they would go He let himself blank out, just like he would as a kid, before Anna came around and taught him his first feeling, Awe she called it. Now though, he let it all fall away like a cloak shrugged from his shoulders, and he swung.
And he swung.
And he swung.
And he.
Kept.
Swinging.
There was nothing but Steve. The bat in his hand. And this monster before him. If asked later, he might say something about wanting to defend Nancy, even Jonathan, but the real truth of the matter, there was nothing inside him to do anything but swing. His mind was silent and his body in full control. No thinking, just doing.
His task is to hit the monster.
The steps are to swing and swing.
And swing.
And swing.
The task is done when there is no more monster.
Just.
Keep.
Swinging.
-----
Nancy stayed with Steve. She stayed with him for a whole year. Steve didn't know why. He liked her. She was one of the few people he'd ever met that made him feel things. The list was short. Anna being the first, Gertie the second, and now Nancy.
Thing is, he's pretty sure Nancy doesn't feel the same way, but he's never been any good at this kind of thing. In the past he would have asked Carol, she was always good at explaining these things to him, but Tommy and Carol hadn't spoken to him since the day Jonathan hit Steve. They weren't even together anymore; they broke up two weeks after they stopped speaking to Steve. It made Tommy a lot meaner, not that Steve cared, he didn't have to work to keep them happy anymore to keep them around, they had already left. And now that Steve knows the mean words game isn't actually a game, he no longer wants to play.
He tried asking Nancy about it a few times, but she just changed the subject. Maybe she was like Steve, and she didn't understand feelings either?
In any case, Steve is doing his best to be everything Nancy wants him to be, everything she tells him to be. To keep her happy. Maybe she will figure it out eventually. She says she loves him, and he is pretty sure he loves her, she is the only one he ever feels things around, and most of those things are good, so if that's not love, he will probably never feel it anyway.
-
Dinners with the Hollands are always awful. Steve’s not good at pretending, and Nancy doesn’t seem to understand that Steve needs cues on how to act. So, Steve just. Does his best. He's only here to help Nancy anyways, except after every dinner they have with Barbs parents, Nancy is always unhappy for days, and Steve doesn’t know how to make her feel better.
This time though, there's a party to go to after. Nancy had chosen their costumes, and there will be dancing and alcohol and happy people, maybe it will help Nancy feel happy.
-
The party is loud, and packed with people, and kinda warm. Steve wishes he could take off his jacket, but he doesn't want to lose it, in case Nancy gets cold later. Except she disappeared almost as soon as they got there.
Tommy and some of his friends are doing keg stands outside, and Steve is kinda happy he and Tommy aren't friends anymore, because he always hated doing those.
Steve sees Carol talking to one of the cheerleaders on a corner. They are standing very close to one another, and Carol is touching the other girl on the waist, the way Steve showed her after he had dated Becky. She liked little touches like that, possessive, intimate. Nancy doesn't like those kinda touches.
-
There is some guy with a mullet and a whole lot of leather standing in front of Steve. He's not wearing a shirt. Tommy is crowing about him being the new keg king, and Steve wants to thank him for taking the title, been long enough, but his brain is stuck on trying to figure out what the hell this guy's costume is supposed to be. Sex on legs maybe? Guys good looking enough for it. Hell, he's got a mullet, and somehow it just looks sexy, instead of sad like it does in every other guy he's seen wear their hair that way.
He hasn't quite figured out what the guy’s costume is when he spots Nancy guzzling down the rat punch, and seriously, doesn't she know how germy that shit is? He makes a beeline for her, to maybe try and get her to drink some water.
-
Nancy doesn't love him. Doesn't even like him. Just thinks he's bullshit. And that he killed her best friend. Steve feels like... He feels like he's actually going to cry. He almost takes a moment to marvel at the feeling, he honestly can't remember ever crying in his life, maybe when Anna left? But then Nancy is calling him bullshit again, so he leaves the incredibly pink bathroom. He sees Jonathan on the way out, so he asks him to get Nancy home.
-
The new keg king doesn't seem to like him very much. That's okay, Steve doesn't really mind. Just keeps playing basketball with the guy practically riding his ass the whole time. It’s almost fun. Then Nancy shows up in the middle of practice.
She doesn't remember anything she said last night. Won't tell him she loves him though. He almost feels like he's going to cry again, but he gets called back into the gym. Once he gets inside, the new guy is all over him again, but even worse, shoving him, getting up really close behind him, and finally pushing him to the ground. He comes back to help Steve up though, which is kinda nice, except he just shoves Steve back down. It's elementary school all over again.
Steve still doesn't understand.
-
Tommy tells him that Nancy and Jonathan have skipped the last two days. Steve is trying not to care. He kind of misses the blankness. It was lonely, sure, but he hardly ever noticed that loneliness before. Before Nancy. Maybe he should go apologize.
The new guy says something about plenty of bitches in the sea, and Steve imagines a school of dogfish swimming after a bigger fish in a leather jacket and mullet. Before Steve can marvel over the experience, the new guy turns off Steve's water and leaves. He should really get the guy’s name, he’s kinda funny.
-
Nancy is not home. Or at least that is what the curly haired child that has press-ganged Steve into fighting some lizard thing in his storm cellar with the nail bat that lives in Steve's trunk.
-
The lizard is not there, but some smelly skin is, and there is now a tunnel leading out of the cellar.
-
If Steve were a wiser man, he would have left this child and his curly hair-brained ideas to die, because that's probably what Steve is going to do tonight, if not by the jaws of the lizard dog thing this kid was raising to try and impress a girl, then from like botulism or something from handling raw meat all day.
And now the kid is asking Steve for advice on his love life. Yeah, like Steve's the guy to go to for that. So tells the kid to just pretend he doesn't care. Steve’s spent his entire love life pretending he knows how to care, maybe the opposite will work for the kid.
-
They have finally reached the junkyard, and now there are two more children. One of them he vaguely recognizes as one of Nancy's brothers’ friends, the girl though, he's pretty sure he's never seen her before. Makes sense though, the boys are at the age when they are gaining interest in girls. Hell, by their age he'd already been having sex at high school parties.
Turns out the random girl is the only useful one of the kids, so he's not so annoyed she showed up now.
-
The lizard dog is not taking the bait, so Steve decides it's time to do something stupid. He hands Dustin his lighter and then steps off the bus to play bait. There's only one of them, he should be fine. Except, there are more. And the children are screaming. And there are no flashing lights, but suddenly he's back in the Byers house, and everything he's been feeling over the last few days, all the turmoil and confusion and hurt, they drop away, and he clothes himself in the blankness, Shrouds himself in the comfort of not feeling. And he's swinging.
And swinging.
And swinging.
And swinging.
-
He comes back to himself and he's back on the bus, whaling into a lizard dog with way too many teeth that managed to get inside. Given the state of the thing, he's pretty sure it's dead. He gives it a few more whacks to make sure.
He shakes out his shoulders and turns to do a head count on the kids, and all three are there, they all seem to have the same amount of limbs as before, and he doesn't see any blood, so they seem to be fine, except they are staring at him like he's grown another head. He stares back at them for another 10 seconds, and then says "What?"
This follows a chorus of shrieking and ohmygod's and what the hell Steve's. Steve just watched impassively until they quiet down again and then asks if he got them all.
He did not.
Apparently, he only got three of them, and at least another three ran off at some point.
-
Steve is super unclear why the hell they are following after the lizard dogs instead of getting the hell to somewhere a bit safer. Between the 4 of them they have a 15-year-old with a nail bat, a 12 year old with a sling shot, and another 12 year old with a backpack full of nougat apparently.
But follow the eldritch horrors they do. Right to the lab, just as a car pulls in, revealing the missing Nancy and Jonathan who are looking for their brothers. That are apparently in the lab. The lab that the lizard dogs just ran back to. Steve watched them fiddle with the gate for a few seconds, before he clocks Nancy looking at him like she wants to pull him aside and talk.
He decides to hold onto the blankness a little longer instead, so he heads a bit back to the forest before sprinting towards Jonathan's car, jumping first onto the trunk, then the roof of the car, then the roof of the guard shack before using his momentum to vault over the fence. He flings his bat just out of range of where he's going to land and tucks into a half shoulder roll and springs back to his feet. He scoops up the bat and sprints towards the lab.
-
If Steve were a betting man, he would not have put good odds on actually being needed when he got to the lab itself, given all the big bad government agents and their big bad guns, but apparently, he's wrong. The agents are nowhere in sight, presumably very dead, or cowering in storage closets hoping not to become very dead. Either way, when he gets to the lobby and its shattered glass door he has just enough time to pull the shroud of blankness back on fully before he'd swinging. And swinging. And swinging.
And swinging.
And swinging.
-
He's being dragged out of the lobby by the chief of police. He has enough presence to notice the small pile of lizard dog corpses they are leaving behind, before more come running out of the hallway. He shakes himself from the chiefs grip and gets into the passenger seat of a cop car for the first, and hopefully last time in his life.
-
The Byers house was certainly not meant to look normal. Steve doesn't think he would ever be comfortable here if it did. He doesn't know what it says about his messed-up brain that he actually finds some twisted sense of almost comfort to how fucked up their house looks every time he finds himself in it. Really, it should be the opposite, since the fucked-up-ness only (presumably) happens when monsters are trying to eat them. Maybe its just that the state of the Byers house seems to perfectly reflect the situation they are in, like some twisted art piece. Their fucked-up house is the embodiment of just how screwed they are.
And they are pretty screwed.
Will Byers is possessed by the shadow brain spider thing that is controlling the lizard dogs and sentient vines and probably the man-bear-flower-too-many-teeth-thing from last year's shenanigans. Oh, and there are tunnels running under most of Hawkins that these things can access and travel freely through.
-
The Chief and Mrs. Byers, and Jonathan are interrogating Will/shadow spider dude, Bob Newby is passed out in Mrs. Byers bedroom, hopefully not bleeding out from the bite he took from a lizard dog before Steve vaporized it, and there are 4 teenagers starting at Steve like he is some new species of mold that is either the cure for cancer, or the literal doom of humanity. So, just as eloquently as the last time, Steve spits out a "What?"
This seems to be enough to prompt Dustin to start firing questions at Steve so fast he can almost feel the breeze as they fly right past him. Steve just stares at the kid waiting for him to finish. After a while Steve starts counting in his head how long it takes the kid to take a breath, and wow, kids got some lung capacity, he should try out for the swim team what he gets to high school.
Apparently, Steve said that out loud, cause now the kids are back to staring. Thankfully the Chief chooses that moment to come back in and let them know, Will is communicating in Morse code.
-
They just barely manage to get the message "Close Gate" before the phone rings, and chaos ensues.
The interrogation squad comes running back in with a sedated Will, and everyone is gathered back in the living room. Steve positions himself in front of the kids nail bat held firm and preparing his shroud of blankness to slip on the second one of those makes its way into the house. He can hear them skittering and making their weird click growl noises before sudden silence, and then something comes crashing through the window, and strait into Steve's nail bat. With the first swing though, he can feel something different about this one, namely, it's already dead. Eh, he'll take it.
-
So apparently there's some mini goth girl running around with legitimate superpowers. Pretty handy superpowers that can go close the gate thing. So, her and the Chief are gonna go do that, while a thankfully not dead Bob Newby, Mrs. Byers, Jonathan and Nancy are gonna go burn the spider monster out of Will.
Steve gets to stay at the Byers house and babysit. That's fine though, even if he kinda was hoping he could see the whole superpowers in action thing.
Like she could read his mind (and hey, maybe she can, cause superpowers and all) the little goth girl gives a demonstration, lifting the dead lizard dog off the couch and back out the window. It honestly looks pretty cool, like some sort of rippling force is surrounding the lizard dog and lifting it out. Steve wonders how hard it would be to replicate. He gives it a try while the kids are busy bickering about preserving the dead lizard dog for science in Mrs. Byers fridge. Steve manages to lift a few pieces of glass off the floor before he notices his nose is bleeding. When he looks back up, the random girl is starting at him with wide eyes. Steve gives her a confused eyebrow and wanders off to find something to clean his nose with.
-
The kids are arguing again, this time about committing arson to help the goth girl, who is apparently named after a number, close the gate. He can see where they are coming from, but there's one glaring problem with their plan which he points out to them once there is a slight lull in the screeching.
"How are we going to get there?"
The kids are looking at him funny, and Lucas is the one who asks, "Shouldn't you be trying to talk is out of this?"
"Yeah man, probably, I mean, it's a good idea, but doesn't matter, unless you are planning on walking the 20 miles to this portal to hell in the pumpkin patch, it's a moot point, so I don't need to talk you out of it. Problem solved before it was one, you know?"
And like the Fates decided to prove just how much they hate him, the growl of an engine sounds in the front yard.
Steve sighed and looked at the kids, getting ready to argue them out of getting themselves killed, only to see a look of terror on all their faces, but especially on random girls face. Steve furrowed his brow at them, which prompted random girl to stammer out "It's my brother. He's going to kill me. He's going to kill all of us."
Now Steve has never been good at reading people's facial expressions, like sure he can get the gist of what most others consider blatantly obvious, but the look of abject terror on her face spoke volumes to Steve, like War and Peace levels.
Steve felt the blankness pulling away a bit, and there was a stirring of something. Something he'd never felt before, faint, but..there? It only grew stronger when Mike spat out "and he tried to run us over with his car on Halloween to."
Steve swept his gaze over the kids, before scooping up his bat and handing it to random girl.
"I got this, stay here, and like maybe hide or something"
With that Steve was out the door. He made it to the bottom of the porch before the head lights shut off and low and behold, who was it, but the new guy.
Fucking perfect.
"Is that you Harrington, or am I dreaming?"
"Yeah, yeah. Don't cream your pants."
"A little birdie told me I could find my stepsister here. You haven't seen her around have you, about this tall, red hair, kind of a bitch?"
"That's hilarious, cause see, a little birdie told me you been running kids off the road with that sweet ride of yours, damn near killed a few round about Halloween? That ringing any bells for you?"
New guy didn't even bother to respond, just shoved Steve down "thought I told you Harrington, plant your feet" he felt the tell-tell crack of a busted rib when new guys boot connected with Steve's chest. The lancing pain registering as new guy went bursting through the front door. Steve took a precious moment to assess whether he was going to puncture a lung or something, before determining it was probably just cracked, not broken.
Assessment completed, Steve was up and after him like a shot. He burst through the door to be greeted by new guy dangling Lucas in the air against a wall, Mike and Dustin screaming, and random girl sprawled on the ground, the bat rolled halfway down the hallway.
That feeling Steve had briefly touched before, came roaring up with such an intensity that his knees nearly buckled, before he let it take over, replacing the shroud of blankness, all he could think now was.
-
!!!!!!PROTECT!!!!!!
-
Where the blankness left him near totally silent, this new feeling, it has him Roaring as he tears the teen away from Lucas. Steve manages to catch the kid before he went clattering to the ground, and had just enough time to shove him in the direction of safety before new guy landed a solid left to Steve's jaw. Steve just rolls with it and dodges the right following in the wake of new guys left. Steve used the momentum of his dodge to bring up his own right hook, which landed perfect on new guys cheek. He followed it with a feigned upper cut, before landing a surprise boot to the guy’s chest, and launching him from the living room and into the kitchen.
-
"Hey, random girl, what's your brother's name?"
"Why?"
"It's rude to murder someone in cold blood without knowing their name first"
"Oh, it's Billy."
"Cool, thanks"
-
Steve stalked into the kitchen, only to be met by a swinging plate aimed for his head. Instinctively, he flings his hand out, and watches as the ripples pull the plate out of Billy's hand, shattering it against the far wall.
Steve grins, wide and bloody. Maybe even a little manic.
-
"Whoops"
-
Billy stares in shock for a second, and Steve let him, partly to give the guy a bloody, manic grin, and also because this was the first actual fight Steve had ever been in, and to be honest, he needed time to decide if he was actually going to murder the guy. Probably not, cause you know, murder charges, but he sure as hell would be putting the fear of Steve into him.
Billy seemed to have gotten over his shock and was rushing for Steve again, this time trying to grab him in a grapple, and Steve makes it look like he’s going to let hi before ducking under his right side and spinning up around Billy’s back. He hooks the arm he just ducked under with his own, and pulls it tight into an awkward angle, while planting his left foot over Billy’s left, now twisted around in an angle. Steve winds his other hand into Billy’s hair and grabbing a fistful by the roots in a tight grip, and uses the last of their combined momentum to bring Billy to his knees.
Billy tries to kick back with his right foot, but Steve just uses the action to slip his knee into the gap between his legs and force Billy’s thighs to go as wide as his tight jeans will allow, and pushes him all the way into the floor in a half pretzel.
Billy is still struggling, trying buck Steve off, or hit him with his free arm, but Steve decides he'd had just about enough, of this asshole, so he used the ripples to apply pressure where his body couldn't.
After a few minutes of struggle Billy finally goes lax, heaving great gasping breaths, and emitting a very quiet whine.
-
"Hey random girl, did you actually want your brother dead, cause I will if that's what you want, but like, you’re all gonna have to help me bury the body, and clean up the mess and shit?"
"My name is Max, and let me think about it for a minute"
"Cool, cool. You think about it, and why don't the rest of you go gather what we need while my new friend and I have a nice chat."
-
"So, Billy, this is the part where I'm supposed to threaten you, I guess, honestly, Tommy or Carol always did that part, so give me a break if it's no good."
-
Steve leans in close, his lips brushing against Billy's ear, his nose nuzzling the shell, almost seductively, and whispers soft and low.
-
"I can apparently kill you with my mind. You ever come near one of my kids again, you won't have enough time to blink before I liquify your brain. Leave me and mine alone, and I'll leave that pretty little head of yours intact. Capeesh?"
-
Billy lets out another whine, this one a bit louder, and tries to buck against the knee holding his legs apart. Steve doesn’t know what to do with that. Maybe he’s pressing to hard with the ripples? Though once Billy had stopped struggling, he'd let a few inches gap so as not to smother the guy by accident or something. He still wasn’t sure what the ripples were, so didn't know if they could actually smother someone, or liquify a brain for that matter, but whatever.
-
"Hey man, kinda need some words here, do you understand, no hurt kids, I no hurt you?"
Billy breathes out a whispered, "Understand, yes I understand."
"Awesome!”
-
"Well, what's the verdict Red, we killing him, or can I let him up?"
"Jesus Steve, just, let him up."
"Awesome."
-
Steve rolls off Billy who immediately curls into his side, breathing heavy and occasionally letting out a quiet gasp or whine. Steve shoos Max out of the kitchen to go help the boys gather supplies. He figured they would yell if they needed him for something. Meanwhile Billy still wasn't moving from where he was curled up, so Steve did what would always calm Tommy down from a bad trip and began petting Billy's hair. It was a little crunchy from hairspray, and his scalp was a bit sweaty, but Steve didn't mind.
That new feeling started to dissipate as soon as Billy had agreed not to hurt the kids. The blankness wasn’t back though. Steve was just sorta neutral right now. Steve halted his musings when Billy pushed his head into Steve's hand where he had stopped petting, so Steve started again. After a few more minutes Billy's breathing evens out and he stops whining, so Steve moves his hand down to rub circles into his shoulders instead, a sort of nudge to sit up, which Billy does after another minute, leaning up against Steve’s side.
-
"So this what you do, assert your dominance and then just, what give a back massage?"
"Dunno man, that was my first actual fight. Usually I just knock the fucker out with a single punch, never had to make sure they were conscious after."
"What the fuck does that mean?"
"Dunno, just easier that way, makes em go away quicker, and never come back to bother me again."
"Why didn't you just use your fucking brain powers?"
"I only learned how to use the ripples like, 45 minutes ago, didn't know they existed before then, so, yeah, it's kinda new."
"Fuck."
"Pretty much. Oh, hey, is it cool if we borrow your car to go commit arson?"
"What the Hell?!"
-
It took a bit of convincing to get Billy to let them use his car to get to the pumpkin patch, and even then, he insisted on driving. The boys took more convincing to let Billy come along but in the end, they managed to get the trunk packed with every flammable liquid they could find. Max found a pack of cheap Bic lighters. Steve raided the bathroom & Kitchen for anything aerosol and flammable, and Lucas found a wicked looking ax in pile of junk from the shed.
Finally, they were ready to go.
-
"So what are you guys lighting on fire?"
"Tunnels to hell."
"Whatever, don't tell me then."
-
"Are... Are these honest to God, tunnels to hell?"
"Yup. You coming with?"
"Fuck it, may as well."
-
Steve had no idea why anyone thought leaving him in charge of children was a good idea. It really wasn't, cause he was pretty sure he was gonna get them all killed.
At least the plan worked though, the "hub" was on fire, and they could hear the lizard dogs running towards the fire as they were trying to book it back to the hole.
They only ran into one lizard dog, but before Steve could liquify it, Dustin fed it chocolate, and they all got past.
They made it back to the hole and Billy and Steve were helping the kids back up. It was just Steve, Dustin and Billy left down there now, but it looked like time was up, because dozens of those lizard dogs were being down on them. Steve shoved Dustin and Billy behind him.
He was about to slip the blankness on, but he felt a surge of that protect from earlier, so he played into that instead, built it up and up, and like it was something he'd been doing all his life, he pushed the ripples out and against the lizard dogs. He could hear them snarling and whining, trying to get past, so he pushed harder and imagined the ripples honing into blades, and those blades shredding and piercing and slicing and before his eyes he watched as the first dozen lizard dogs were flayed. Pulped. Shredded. Nothing left but lizard dog goo.
-
Cool.
-
More were bearing down though, so Steve instead started moving the ripple back and forth very fast, trying to cause friction, before pulling out his Zippo and tossing it towards the dogs. The results were a little explosive. Steve hoped he still had eyebrows after this. He would look really weird without them.
-
Most of the lizard dogs are no more than a smoldering mess, and the few still standing are on fire. So are the vines surrounding them.
Steve feels Billy grab him around his waist, and say’s into his ear, just loud enough to be heard, “Hot as it is to watch you murder monsters with your brain powers, we should get out of here before the shitbird steals my car or something.” Steve agrees, he doesn’t want to walk home, so with one last push, he throws the few living lizard dogs back, and climbs out of the tunnels after Billy.
-
The first thing he does is take a head count, still got 4 kids two teens. No missing limbs, and he doesn’t see any blood. Cool. The next thing he does is check to see if he still has eyebrows. He does. Double cool.
-
The ride back to the Byers house is pretty quiet. At least until Dustin starts asking questions. Again he is asking too fast and too many for Steve to even answer any. At least until Max puts her hand over his mouth and asks one of her own.
“How long have you had superpowers?”
“I dunno, since I saw the little goth girl use the ripple to move the lizard dog.”
Dustin licks Max’s hand which she pulls away and wipes on Mikes shirt.
“Demodog.”
“Whatever man.”
-
They get back to the house just before the Chief and goth girl do. Steve goes to clean up, and notices his face is a bloody mess. Apparently, he got a wicked nosebleed at some point.
-
The Buyers, Bob and Nancy get back about a half hour later.
Everyone decides to go to sleep and touch base in the morning. Steve helps repair the phone so everyone can call home. These kids must have cool parents or something, cause somehow they aren’t even in any trouble, and are able to sleep over for the night, even Max and Billy after the Chief talks to their dad.
Steve has decided he wants to pick up his car and head home. He really wants a shower and change of clothes. He lets the chief know before heading out. Billy comes after him, asking if he wants a ride to his car. Steve agrees, since it means he wont have to walk the 3 miles where he left it.
The car ride is pretty silent, until Billy pulls up behind Steve’s car. Steve turns to tell him thanks, only to be grabbed by his shirt front, and Steve has half a second to almost panic, before Billy is crashing his mouth against Steve’s.
-
Billy kisses like he’s trying to light a fire with his mouth. It’s hot, and violent, and forceful, and Steve kinda likes it. He kinda likes it a lot. They kiss for 10 minutes, before Steve pulls away.
-
“Wanna stay at mine tonight?”
“Hell yes.”