26wh57 - Tumblr blog

26wh57 · 20 days

Text

𝐭𝐡𝐞 (𝐛𝐚𝐛𝐲) 𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐞 ✨ — a steve harrington one shot fic

modern!sperm donor!steve x modern!pregnant!fem!reader

Summary: It’s hard to find ‘forever’ in a world that glorifies hook-up culture. After multiple failed relationships, you start to believe that your dream of having a family someday will only be just that — a DREAM. That is until you stumble across The Baby Gate Foundation, a family planning organization that helps qualifying Strangers start families with one another.

disclaimers — fluff overload, strangers to friends to lovers, some angst, reader goes by “Honey”,

NSFW — very brief smut, p in v sex (unprotected), breeding kink, cream pie, soft!dom steve

word count — 6.0k words

“So… what’s your favorite color?”

It’s the most aggravating question to ask when wading in the Dating Pool — and unfortunately the most frequent. But you figure at least asking about Steve Harrington’s favorite color is a good ‘precursor question’ when trying to get to know him. After all, you are the one carrying his child.

“Cerulean,” the handsome stranger from across the table replies.

“What’s that?”

“It’s a type of blue.”

“You could’ve just said blue.”

“What’s the fun in that?”

You issue him a touché type nod as you gently place your folded hands over your growing bump…a bump that was a byproduct of an ordeal that he wasn’t even present to participate in.

Before you knew him as Steve Harrington, he was just Stranger #021 whose sperm donation gave you the gift of life. The gift of having a little one of your own.

And it was about time you started a family. It has been a dream of yours — once you bagged your dream job and got to travel the world — to get married and have kids. But apparently the person you spent 6 years with did not share that dream, despite having told you he did in the beginning stages of your partnership.

Are you crazy? How dare you think your ex wanted a family after he explicitly told you he wanted you to marry him and have his kids? Silly lady. You actually thought he meant what he said.

And Steve Harrington’s baby daddy application seemed impossible to resist. The Baby Gate Foundation disclosed to you that Stranger #021 has no physical ailments, was a star athlete in high school, isn’t a carrier for any chronic illnesses, and passed a mental health and drug clearance.

Your baby is very likely to come out healthy and, now that you’ve gotten a good general idea of the guy, will hopefully inherit Steve’s luscious chestnut brown hair, his radiant smile, sparkling eyes, and kind nature. A healthy baby. A healthy family. It’s all you’ve ever wanted.

“Your stomach feeling okay?” Steve inquires.

“Yeah,” you smile. “I just like touching it sometimes. It still doesn’t feel real.”

When selected, Steve jumped for joy. And you bet he started doing cartwheels when your pregnancy test came out positive. My dick still works! he remembers saying.

Having been a foster parent to many teenagers in the past, Steve also felt ready to have a kid of his own. But then his first long term girlfriend of three years cheated on him, and then his next long term girlfriend left him when she realized a family with him was not what she wanted. Steve was practically on the same boat as you. And the stars aligned…

“So I was thinking…when you’re in what’s considered a ‘safe’ point in your pregnancy, say second trimester… we can do cute pregnancy announcements,” Steve suggests.

Your eyes glimmer at the thought.

“As coparents of course!” Steve makes sure to add. “A-and then we can have a gender reveal. We can choose the theme and ideas for it later but I’m just thinking of an intimate cake cutting thing….pink frosting, obviously for girl…”

“And cerulean for boy,” you smirk at him, finishing his thought.

He chuckles at your comment. “Yes, cerulean for boy.”

You two then begin to brainstorm the minor details. Signing up for parenting classes. Check-up appointments. Your baby registry. Ironing out the details so that you both can relish in the pregnancy as much as possible.

When you’re done, Steve then pays for your lunch and you two go separate ways. But not before a long, grateful hug.

“Thank you,” you whisper into his ear. “You’ve made my dream come true.”

“I am just as indebted,” Steve insists, giving your back a loving rub. “I’ve always wanted to be a father.”

You decide to not let go until Steve breaks the hug. But little did you know that was Steve’s plan too. So you both stand there, in the middle of the mall food court swaying back and forth, waiting patiently for the other to let go because to be honest, you never know what a simple ‘I see you’ hug can do for somebody.

Finally, Steve pulls away.

“Listen, uh, Honey,” he says. “I hope this doesn’t sound weird because technically we don’t really know each other…but I already care about you so deeply. You’re the mother of my child. I want to be as involved as possible.”

“I care about you too Steve,” you beam at him. “And I feel like our healing journeys are coming to an end. I’m so excited to come together with another person who has the same goals in life.”

And that is all that’s said during that exchange. You hope that throughout your pregnancy, you and Steve can have more coparent dates to really get to know each other. You love that he feels safe and trustworthy, willing to put his all into the child that he, and many many medical experts helped you create. And you hope that as your baby grows up, you will find a lifelong partner like Steve someday.

“So how’d it go?”

You’re over at your best friend, Eddie’s apartment talking to him about your day. Eddie has been your best friend since middle school, bearing witness to every wonderful milestone — and tragedy — that has plagued your life ever since. Your decision to become a mother on your own, and coparenting with a stranger is no exception.

“I like him!” you exclaim. “He’s very sweet.”

“Do you trust him as your Baby Daddy?”

“If I didn’t, it’d be a little too late for that I’m afraid.”

Eddie would’ve been more than happy to be your donor, and without a doubt, you’d trust him in being fully present in the child’s life. However Eddie comes from a home with a turbulent family dynamic, and unfortunately is a carrier of the addiction gene along with many other illnesses. Eddie didn’t want to risk doing that to you or your family. So it works out that he and his boyfriend Henry are the ‘Fun Uncles’ or as he calls them “Funcles” instead, and Steve is the dad.

“But yeah I like Steve,” you circle back. “He’s funny, sweet, looks like he takes care of himself. Even paid for my food. Oh, and as a bonus, he uses big words.”

Eddie snorts as he strides over to the fridge. “He uses big words.”

“Yeah, like cerulean.”

Your bestie cocks an eyebrow and smirks at you. “What’s that?”

“It’s a type of blue,” you smirk back at him.

He releases a theatrical gasp. “Ground-breaking.”

Your banter is cut short when Eddie’s partner Henry walks through the door.

“Hello, hello.”

“Hey, Henry!”

You watch as the quiet, tall blonde dressed in dark-denim-tailored-to-fit struts in with a grocery bag, closing the door behind him with his foot.

“Hi, darlings.”

“Funcle Number Two,” Eddie greets his partner.

“I thought I was Number One.”

“You are,” Eddie shrugs. “In my heart. If you have an issue with your title and rank, I’d talk it up with Honey.”

“You can be Number One,” you grant him permission, eliciting a betrayed gasp from Eddie.

“Thank you, Honey,” Henry smirks, shooting a sassy look at Eddie.

Eddie issues a sour variation of that smirk to Henry, only to be met with a rough nudge to the ribcage. The two black cats then assemble to unload the groceries, all while focusing their attention back to you, their appointed ‘golden retriever’ of the bunch.

“Speaking of titles,” Henry adds. “How was your meeting with Daddy Steve?”

“It was wonderful,” you respond. “Was just telling Eddie how much I like him.”

Henry grimaces, understandably so. Your taste and judgment in men throughout the years have been nothing short of concerning. But because you didn’t willingly seek Steve out on a shady online dating app, at a dive bar at 2 AM, or on the dance floor of a sweaty small town nightclub, you figured you were in the clear.

“We’re gonna make it work no matter what,” you insist to your seemingly doubtful friends. “Even if there are discrepancies, we agreed it’s our kid before anything. And I’m ready. I told you guys myself that if I don't meet the love of my life by the time I'm 29, I'm having a baby by myself."

Aside from the two "Funcles", you have been the only consistent person in your life. And in this day and age, two people don't need to 'be together' to bring life into this world. And even if they are together, it’s not a happy home sometimes.

All that matters in this arrangement is that both of Baby Harrington’s parents are involved. That was Steve's promise to you.

Let's just hope he keeps it.

“That’s the head… and those…are your baby’s feet.”

You and Steve watch the monitor in awe as the sonographer scans your belly. You are now 20 weeks along, and doing a routine ultrasound check up.

First trimester was a nightmare. Constant nausea and vomiting so you’re not even sure that you’re stomaching those pre-natals, intense mood swings, and breast tenderness so bad you essentially begged Steve to just chop your tits off.

Regardless, you are healthy, and the baby is healthy. And now your camera roll is filled with pictures and videos of every frame of every ultrasound you get done, as well as audio recordings of Baby Harrington’s heartbeat. You and Steve even share your content amongst each other, just in case the other missed something that the other captured. It’s a wholesome exchange, really.

“Baby’s kicking a lot. Almost looks like they’re swimming in place,” the tech comments.

“I did swim and water polo in high school, could be why,” Steve explains.

You bat your eyes in adoration at your friend. He gives you a warm look back.

“Just like Daddy,” you say. And then Steve rests his palm atop your hand.

For the first time in a long time, everything feels complete.

“So, would you like to know the gender?” the sonographer inquires.

Immediately you and Steve bombard her with anxious-filled “No no no no”s. You decided to go with the cake gender reveal idea, and Henry and Eddie were in charge of having it made.

“We’d like for it to be a surprise,” Steve smiles. “But we sure would like an envelope with the gender in it. Honey’s gonna give it to her friends to give the baker.”

“Sounds like a plan to me!” the tech grins widely. “I will have it printed out for you shortly.”

She wipes your belly down so that there is no more ultrasound jelly on your stomach before leaving. Meanwhile, you and Steve are absolutely giddy. You are now halfway through your pregnancy and couldn’t wait to hold Baby Harrington in your arms.

But as exciting as everything is, it is also anxiety-inducing. No parenting book could ever prepare you for bringing a kid into the world. There was so much more that needed to be done. So much to do. And it seems like there was so very little time to do it.

Steve has another question for you. “When does the baby usually wake you up?”

“Baby’s a night owl, strangely,” you reply. “I’ll feel some moving and stuff at night.”

Steve sighs and shakes his head in thought.

“Man, I hope kid doesn’t wake you up at night too much when they’re born. That’d be god awful.”

“I know, I’ve been thinking of that too,” you groan. “And all the diaper changes I’ll probably have to do before putting them back to sleep. Ugh, I don’t even wanna think about diapers.”

You didn’t want to think about post-partum shit. So far, you’ve only been focused on pregnancy shit, and that shit is already overwhelming. While you seem well-equipped for pregnancy itself, the thought of actually being a fully-functioning parenting unit alongside Steve brings on a new set of fear.

Suddenly you and Steve look up at each other.

“Oh shit!” you shriek. “A crib! We need a crib! A stroller.”

“And a whole nursery,” he gulps. “And a baby monitor… A swaddle! A carrier!”

———

You and Steve are moved in together by the end of the month. Platonically, of course. With a capital P.

You both figured that raising the baby under one roof would be the healthiest way to approach your parenting situation. Both of you already get along really well and have similar communication styles. You two also have the same expectations from each other. And not every child is blessed with two parents living together in a happy home. It’s a luxury you both refused to take for granted.

So eventually the non-traditional-housewarming-slash-baby-shower-party rolls around, in efforts to help prepare for Baby Harrington’s arrival. It ends up being a huge success. Additionally, the party gave everyone a chance to mingle with one another, your friends meeting Steve’s friends and jokingly calling each other "in-laws". Robin and Eddie immediately grow very fond of each other, having deemed each other best friends after their third time meeting.

“How long do you give it?” Robin asks Eddie as they watch you and Steve work together to build the crib. “You know till they…”

They observe as you and Steve bicker back and forth about whether or not a section of the crib was installed the wrong way. You argue that it was, and Steve, still firm in his masculinity that he felt like was slowly chipping away (he can’t help it sometimes) insisted that it wasn’t.

“I know how to read, Honey. And besides, if it’s the wrong part, how did I screw it on perfectly?”

“I don’t know, Bob the Builder,” you fire back at him. “You didn’t have to 'screw it on perfectly' to get me pregnant.”

“Til that baby is born,” Eddie estimates.

Eddie chuckles at this. He’s been with Henry for many years, but you two have beat him at the argue-like-a-married couple thing. Slyly, he sips his beer.

“…The very latest.”

“Steve, I’m hungry. Wanna go to Rally’s?”

The cravings have officially kicked in (finally). But of course, it’s at the least convenient of times.

“Woman, it is 1 in the morning...”

“Yes, and I want Rally’s.”

You give Steve a light thunk on his fluffy head.

Now that you two live together, sleeping in the same bed was bound to happen eventually. But it is the least of your concerns. In a world where people go ‘ghost’ after getting what they want, laying your head down in the same bed as Steve is the farthest thing from intimacy. You’re also afraid of the dark, and being in his light calms your nerves.

Except for tonight. Where the only thing that’ll calm those nerves is a Wild West burger and some fries.

Steve huffs, clearly too tired to argue with your hungry ass. But also, you’re the mother of his child. You have the hardest job, and having a late night snack when you felt like it is the bare minimum of what you deserve.

“Let’s go.”

You smirk to yourself as you dance your way out of bed. Anything Baby Mama wants, Baby Mama gets.

Rally’s sure did the trick. When you and Steve return, you find yourself skipping back to the bedroom while Harrington fights to urge to plop onto the floor right by the entry way, his body’s natural response to a food coma, and the state of lethargy he was in from being stirred awake.

But as much as he valued his beauty sleep, he knows deep down he’d still do it again for you. Your little food dance was also pretty damn cute, anyways.

———

THE NEXT WEEK

You and Steve have been ordering way too much takeout. So tonight you decide to surprise him with a home-cooked meal. So while he’s at work, you’re searching Pinterest for healthy, savory dishes to cook. Chinese food it is. One can never go wrong with some chicken fried rice.

Steve comes home right when you finish.

“Oh my god,” Steve gawks as he enters the kitchen. “What smells so damn good?”

“I made dinner,” you smile gleefully, and with pride. “I have so much energy second trimester it’s insane. Hope you like Chinese.”

Steve slows down. Glancing around the chaotic kitchen, he takes in the array of sauces, the cutting board, and the multiple plates and bowls that most likely harbored the. Then he looks at you — a sweaty mess with stains on her apron from all the rice tossing. And he can tell, by your slightly labored breathing, that you’re gathering up all the energy you possibly can to powerwash all the dishes.

“You…made this for me?”

“Yeah! For us, actually. And the baby. I hope you’re okay with onions and scallions.”

“Y-yeah, I’m fine with those,” he insists. “It’s just that…I have a date tonight.”

Suddenly the pots and pans feel so much heavier. The air, hotter. The onions, stronger judging by how tears start pooling at the base of your eyes. At least you want to blame it on those.

“Oh,” you sniff.

“I’m so sorry, Honey. I should’ve told you so you didn’t have to go out of your way.”

“It’s fine.”

Why do you feel this way? It’s not like you two are together anyway. This pregnancy is a partnership… platonic with a capital P. So why are you upset? And more importantly, why are you jealous?

“I-I’m sorry…” Steve panics. “I-it’s just that we’ve been getting takeout all week and I thought it’d be the same toni-”

“It’s okay, Steve.”

“That came out so bad, I…”

“I know what you mean,” you shake your head shutting him down immediately. “Have fun tonight, okay?”

“You’re crying…”

“I was chopping onions,” you point out.

You nod to the bag of onions that were yet to be put away. There was a lot left to be put away actually, and you were kind of hoping Steve would help. But clearly he’s a busy man.

“And it’s probably just the stupid pregnancy hormones too,” you add.

“They’re NOT stupid,” Steve insists. “And you just said you have so much energy. You were bursting with light just a moment ago…before I killed it.”

“Have fun tonight, Steve,” you repeat.

You head over to the wok and scoop out a serving for two: one serving for you, and one for the baby. Dad will get the leftovers, you suppose.

Steve watches you intently. You can feel his stare even with your back turned. Suddenly, you hear the faint dial tone of his cell phone ringing a couple of times before someone answers.

“Hey…Lacey, I can’t come tonight,” Steve sighs. “I’m really sorry for being so last minute. A family emergency came up.”

You look back over at him. He makes sure to look you in the eyes as he says ‘family’.

The two of them talk some more before Steve hangs up the phone. Awkwardly now, you chew softly at the rice you made.

“Well she definitely hates me,” Steve chuckles. “But I don’t care.”

“Steve…” you speak. “You didn’t have to.”

“You’re carrying my kid,” Steve looks at you with glimmering eyes. “I can’t be running through the town in the arms of another woman. This pregnancy is a team effort.”

He glides over you and stops right where your hips meet. You timidly manage to look up at him, tear-jerked, all sweaty, and very very pregnant. And after Steve tucks a loose strand of hair behind the blushing cartilage of your ear, he presses his tender lips against your forehead.

“For the baby,” he whispers to you.

“For the baby,” you repeat after him.

The day is here.

The gender reveal, that is. You didn’t expect finding out something as simple as having a boy or girl was going to be this nerve wracking. And to think some people do this in front of a huge audience.

“Okay…” you exhale unevenly. “You ready?”

“Only if you are,” Steve nods, but his trembling hands betray him.

“Hand me a glass.”

Steve hands you one of the two wine glasses you brought for the intimate picnic you had planned for today. On the count of three, you two were to dig those very glasses into the cake and scoop out the long awaited answer.

SWEET CHILD O MINE, the cake reads. Boy or girl?

Henry and Eddie settled for a Rock-N-Roll inspired cake, with self-indulgent black and red buttercream on the outside, and the pre-determined blue or pink on the inside. You were afraid that it was going to be a little too edgy for Steve, but he assures you the aesthetic of a cake is the least of his priorities.

Drawing out an uneven breath now, you decide to start counting down.

“One…” you gulp.

“Two…” Steve joins in.

But you can't bring yourself to say ‘three’. Shutting your eyes closed in a bout of nervousness, you mutter softly,

"Two and a half..."

It earns you a chuckle from Steve. Knowing just how to calm you down, like he had been doing all pregnancy, he offers you his available hand to squeeze if you needed.

“Three!” you two finally say together.

Plunging your wine glasses into the cake, you and Steve gather one big scoop each while your eyes drift elsewhere.

“I can’t look,” you choke, sniffing back a tear or two.

“I can’t either,” Steve exhales, evidently nervous. “You can look first though.”

“No, I’ll look when you do.”

You’re met with messy dough and frosting in the glass at first. But after trailing after the inside part of the cake, you catch sight of the fluffy frosting that was buried beneath. A bright, eye-catching, pastel....

...cerulean blue. A baby boy.

“Oh…my…god,” your hand trembles in complete shock. “It’s a boy…”

“Oh my god, baby!” Steve sniffs going in to hug you. “We’re having a boy…”

And then it happens. Unable to contain himself from his joy any longer, Steve cups your face with his frosting-laced fingers, connecting his lips passionately to yours, and you with him.

It’s the best day of Steve’s life. You are the reason that he gets to live out his dream of becoming a dad. And now that you two are having a son, all he can imagine is teaching the kid how to throw a football in the backyard, signing him up for T-Ball and Boy Scouts (just like his dad once did with him), and taking him and his buddies out on silly, fun-filled rag-tag group adventures.

And knowing how strange and daunting the world can be, Steve already maps out how to raise your child morally, encouraging him to always treat others with kindness, to be a friend to all, to always lend a helping hand whenever the situation calls on it. And to respect women…because after all, everybody came from one. And Steve knows that he struck gold, considering the fact that he views you as an absolute queen.

You kiss King Steve back, humming in awe because of how natural his energy feels against yours.

It all feels very natural. Makes you feel like you’ve known him your entire life.

Your eyes widen in shock as you two look at each other, both stunned that a kiss was both of your initial, seemingly ‘platonic’, response to the news.

"Is it just me or is it just now hitting?" Steve questions. "We're having a kid together."

"It's just now hitting me too," you agree, the double meaning tugging aggressively at your heartstrings. "We're really doing this, Stevie."

“Our son.”

———

“What happens when one of us finds somebody?”

It’s a talk you and Steve were due for eventually. But Steve is just as unsure, looking over at your pregnant silhouette standing at the foot of the doorway.

But with how beautiful you looked standing at the doorway, your silk, maternity night gown hugging all the beautiful curves of your body while you rubbed your belly that housed your very active kicker, Steve wasn’t even sure if he’d ever want to find somebody else.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” he ends up saying.

He makes his way over to you, wrapping his gentle arms around your waistline, emitting his ever-growing love for you and the baby you two share.

“But if one thing's for sure, it's our son. Baby Harrington first. Before anything.”

“Baby before anything," you repeat the promise.

Steve’s lips graze your skin once again, an invitation and incentive to join him in bed — nuzzled up in the sheets and his warmth — so the two of you can soak in all the rest you possibly can before Baby Boy makes his entrance into the world.

Some bridges aren’t meant for crossing. Sometimes settling is the best option. And you don’t mind settling down. Because here, in Steve’s arms, it feels like home.

WEEK 38

An involuntary rush in your lower extremity stirs you awake. When you feel around to push the sheets aside and hobble to the bathroom, you’re stunned to discover your nightgown had become a raft, and that you’re laying atop your own unscented secretions. And you know it’s not piss. So if you didn’t pee…

Oh no, it’s happening.

You begin to panic.

“Steve!” you hiss, sitting up and pushing your partner awake. “HEY! Harrington!”

“Huh?” Steve mumbles, still half asleep.

“Get the hospital bag.”

“What?”

“Get the hospital bag, dingus. My water just broke.”

He shoots up. Still relatively disoriented, but now also horrified.

“W-what? Are you sure?! Does this… A-are you about to…”

“Yes! Grab the bag and start the car. He’s coming RIGHT NOW.”

While you slowly sit up to get your shoes and a robe on, Steve scurries to the car with your overnight L&D bag and purse in his arms. You reach over to grab your phone and charger, dialing up Eddie in the process.

It rings for a long time before he picks up.

“Honey, it’s 4 AM, what do you want?” Eddie grumbles.

“It’s time, Eds,” you sniff happily. “The baby is coming.”

The line is silent for a couple seconds, and for a while it’s like you can hear Eddie connecting the dots in his head. Alas, he speaks.

“HO-LY SHIT!”

*Click*. The line disconnects.

Steve holds your hand through it all. From checking into Labor and Delivery, to moving to your room, to breathing exercises with your bedside doula, check-ins with your midwife, and throughout the entire birthing process.

Not only is he nervous out of his mind, but he thinks you’re so beautiful.

"You know," Steve says in attempts to soothe you. "When I came out the womb, the nurse yelled "Oh my gosh! That's a lot of hair on a baby!"

You're too fixated on your breathing exercises to fully appreciate Steve's story. But you understand his sweet gesture, so you stroke his thumb with your thumb to let him know you're listening.

“I guess I had double the amount of hair than a usual newborn,” he continues. “And all the nurses were crowding around to get a good— OW OW OW! Watch the hand, watch the hand.”

The sudden level 9 contraction that shot through your entire stomach, causing you to scream in agony and beg for the epidural.

"JESUS, FUCK GET THIS BABY OUT OF ME!" you plead desperately.

Steve kisses you softly on the forehead before going in to stroke your, very sweaty, hair. He was not going to leave your side. Not now, not ever. This baby — and you — are the best things to ever happen to him.

Thanks to yours and Steve's mindful prep, the birthing process was a smooth one compared to others.

But still pretty painful, nonetheless. For you, for Steve, for everybody involved.

"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit," Eddie sputters as he and Henry rush onto the unit with the baby's carseat and other miscellaneous belongings in their hands. "It's happening, it's happening. He's almost here!"

"I wonder," Henry pants, doing his best to keep up with his boyfriend. "If she experienced the Ring of Fire yet."

"What's the Ring of Fire?" Eddie questions him.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" your tumultuous screams sound down the hall directly from your room. Anyone would've thought someone was getting murdered in there, had it not been a hospital unit strictly for childbirth.

"That," Henry answers him.

---

"You're almost there, baby," Steve encourages you. "Keep pushing."

The epidural had finally kicked in and now all you had to focus on was pushing.

“I see the head, Mama,” your midwife announces, rubbing your knee as you’re struggling to push. “Keep going, keep going! Couple more for me.”

“FUCK!” you cry out doing your best to contract those muscles.

“There we go…” Steve soothes you as he strokes your hair. “Doing AMAZING, baby. That’s it…”

He strokes your thumb with his, a helpless look in his eyes as he watches you struggle. It’s clear that Steve doesn’t know what else he could possibly do for you, but he attempts to mask that belief. He couldn’t wait to spoil you afterwards. It’s what you deserve.

“Few more pushes, Honey,” your nurse says again. “He’s almost out. We got his shoulders now.”

“Oh god I’m gonna faint,” Steve says, evidently growing dizzy.

“Can someone get a wet towel for Dad?!” another nurse calls out. “And maybe some juice?”

“PUSH, PUSH!”

“PUSH, Honey!”

“ALMOST THERE, MAMA!”

“I can’t,” you cry out. “I can’t anymore.”

“You can do it, baby,” Steve encourages you, pelting the back of your hand with endearing kisses. “You’re doing such a good job, I’m so proud of you…”

Before you know it, the air of the hospital room fills with tiny belted cries, followed by relieved and adorn coos as the nurse catches your baby.

“0507, time of birth!"

“Oh my god,” Steve wails in excitement. “Oh my god, he’s here he’s out. We have a baby! You did it, Honey!”

Too exhausted to say anything you simply fall back, taking a few deep breaths in relief. It’s over, the baby is here. And he is healthy.

You feel a sloppy kiss land on your cheek. Steve ruffles your hair when you look his way.

“You did it, Honey.”

Everything happens so fast after that.

From what you hear, Steve was the one who cut the umbilical cord — and he was very adamant about having the pictures to prove it. The baby was then weighed and bathed, all the hospital data was gathered with permission granted by Steve.

And soon, after an eternity, your son is swaddled and soon returned back to you and ‘Dad’.

"Oh wow!" a nurse remarks. "This baby has a whole lotta hair!"

You and Steve immediately look to each other and burst out laughing. Just like his Daddy...

———

“How does that feel, Steve?” you ask him, eyes fixated on the absolute DILF in front of you.

“Amazing,” he coos. “I’m the luckiest man in the world.”

When all needs were attended to, it was finally time for ‘skin to skin’. You didn’t think it’d be possible to be both sexy and wholesome at the same time — until you saw Steve cradling your newborn, pressing him tenderly against his exposed chest so that their hearts can beat as one.

“Hi little man,” he sniffs. “I’m your daddy.”

A single tear falls from his face and splashes onto the blanket that your son was cocooned in. Steve pulls him in closer and kisses him softly on the forehead.

“I’m your daddy,” he repeats.

It’s everything he’s ever wanted. Steve’s legacy is about to begin and it’s all thanks to you. And from your hospital bed as you recover, you are able to snap some pictures of the two loves of your life, the first photos of many, of the family photo albums.

“Ugh, when did Steve get so hairy?” Lucas wonders as he sneaks a gaze into the hospital room.

“Right?” Dustin agrees, joining him beside the doorway. “I told him he needs to tame that jungle but he claims the ladies dig it.”

“I mean, look at Honey,” Lucas points out. She seems to like it and Steve knocked her up.”

“True but it wasn’t organic, you idiot,” Max mutters.

Love pours in from every wing of the unit. Soon all your family and friends start to arrive, as well as Steve’s family and friends. You’re spoiled with ‘congratulations’ signs, and postpartum care packages, and an array of foods that you couldn’t eat while pregnant (i.e. sushi, deli sandwiches).

And with your approval, Steve comes out of the hospital room, ready — and proud — to showcase your baby to the entire world.

“Everyone, there’s someone we’d like for you to meet,” Steve says, keeping his voice at a low murmur. “This is Benjamin Dean Harrington. Benny for short.”

You and Steve end up taking parental leave at the same time.

Your entire day-to-day consists of loving on and spending quality time with Benny. The diaper changes, the cuddles, the nursery rhymes, and everything in between. It’s impossible to think you’ll ever get tired of it. You and Steve have officially transitioned to Mom & Dad Mode.

Until Benny goes to sleep.

As the golden sun peaks in through the cream colored blinds, you feel Steve’s hand trail down your back and down to your ass to grab it. Releasing a soft moan, you lean into his touch, shifting your weight to one side of the mattress.

“Baby…” he moans into you.

“Should we?” your eyes twinkle. “The baby’s asleep…”

He chuckles into your neck, raspy voice sure to be the end of you if he kept teasing you any longer.

“‘m scared I’ll hurt you.”

“I’ll let you know,” you barter. “I feel ready.”

———

“Fuck, right there, Steve…”

You grip the sheets tightly as Steve rolls his hips into you, his strokes a delicious mix of pleasure and a challenging stretch. And as you bite into your pillow, your eyes rolling up towards the sky, he maintains the pace you love so much, drilling you in, simultaneously massaging your clit while his quenched lips tenderly suction themselves to the crook of you neck.

It’s your first time together, but it feels like you two have done this before. Your bodies are naturally in sync, knowing where your boundaries lie without needing any cues, and knowing exactly how far you both can take it. Daddy Steve, being the gentleman he is, has your entire body mapped out.

“God I love it,” your overstimulated self whimpers, chest to your chin, ankles dangling off of Steve’s broad shoulders as he rails you.

“Oh, I bet you do, Honey.”

His large hand encloses around your neck, thumb hovering over your lips as he fawns over your mewling, vulnerable body.

“You want my cum, baby?” Steve asks. “Want me to fill you to the brim huh? You wanna have my babies?”

“Yes, I want your babies, Steve,” you moan. “Want all of them.”

And as an orgasm spills out of you, Steve’s spills in, coating you with his warm release as you both unravel in the sheets.

“Holy shit, that felt so good,” you whisper, nuzzling your head against his chest. Steve grins from ear to ear when you kiss him on the chin. “Thank you for making me feel so safe and loved.”

“Well when you’re you Honey, you make it so easy,” he blushes.

Steve rests his hands on your ass again, giving it a faint smack. You bite your lip as he pulls you even closer to him. And as the sun sets, you know round two is on the horizon.

“Anyways, when ARE we having another one?”

———

author’s note: i’m noticing some themes with the way i write eddie smut vs steve smut. i totally write eddie as a rough dom and steve is def a soft dom. not complaining tho, those are my headcannons for them 🤭

divider creds: @silkholland , @elfbar-baby

843 notes · View notes

26wh57 · 20 days

Text

they are watching the eclipse😇

911 notes · View notes

26wh57 · 21 days

Text

𝐏𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐒 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐎𝐔𝐑 | part IV.

an enemies to lovers prince!steve harrington x princess!fem!reader mini series | a kingdom au

index | part III

summary: your relationship with steve changes drastically when some unexpected news arrive from the battlefield.

word count: 11.1k

warnings: angst, allusions to sex, mentions of blood and wounds. this series and my blog are +18, minors do NOT interact.

author’s note: hello my beautiful angels <3 here’s part iv of this au. this chapter is not very well proofread because i’ve been crazy busy and i’m away this weekend so i spent all day at the airport yesterday. so if you see any typos pls pls ignore them. love you all and let me know what you think. <3

masterlist | ko-fi | playlist

𝐇𝐀𝐔𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐃

That night you went to have dinner in Gregory’s room. You were trying to get to know each other again, sitting next to his window and enjoying the cold of the spring night as you realised how much time had changed the other in silence. You thought of Greg as the little boy that pressed flowers in books, categorizing them by family. The boy who did oil paintings and braided your hair. Now the man in front of you discussed philosophy and ethics, drank wine, and often had to stop himself while relating the horrors he had seen in the war.

He found out you had learned another language during those years and were trying to learn a third one when you had the time. You knew about politics and economy, and your levels of geography were as vast as the King’s. You had put so much effort and money into the education of girls all over the kingdom that they often compared you to Artemis herself. You thought it was sweet of them to think so, but you confessed Gregory that what you really wanted was to keep the kingdom’s hopes strong while the men were out there in the war.

‘It’s women, I think,’ You told him, ‘The ones who always rebuild cities after the war.’

Your eyes were fixed on the stars beyond the window as he stayed silent. Of course, this was something you could tell your brother, but never confess to anyone else in the castle. Maybe Robin and Nancy would agree, but you friends were not the heirs of King Paul’s crown.

‘You remind me so much of Father.’ He murmured.

You scoffed before pushing his arm softly and Gregory let out a laugh.

‘I mean it in a good way.’ He said. ‘He’s going to be so proud of you when he comes back and sees everything you have done, Violet.’

When. If. You stayed in silence, taking your glass to you lips, drinking some wine.

You let out a frustrated sigh before placing your head on his shoulder. A part of you wished your father could do it all alone, that some miracle would happen, and he would come back triumphantly in the next days, so Gregory didn’t have to leave. So Gregory didn’t have to die.

Your brother yawned next to you, and you decided to stand up. ‘I’ll let you rest.’

‘Thank you, Vee.’ He said as you fixed his pillows behind his back. You gave him a sweet, almost motherly smile before saying goodnight.

The wine had woken you up. You couldn’t remember when was the last time you had drunk, to be fair. Always busy, always reading letters or writing them, going from meeting to meeting, traveling to the city.

The sound of male laughter coming from the East Wing made you curious. You walked into one of the painting rooms to find Prince Steve and Lord Wheeler enjoying a chess match.

‘Your highness.’ Mike stood up quickly at the sight of you while Steve stayed on his chair.

‘Hello.’ You felt suddenly shy at Steve’s lack of politeness. ‘I’m so sorry to interrupt. I was just having dinner with my brother.’

You moved to leave the room, but Mike’s voice stopped you. ‘Has the prince gone to bed?’

‘I believe he has.’ You said, narrowing your eyes at his sudden interest.

‘I must give him his medicine.’ He said urgently then, turning back to Steve. ‘I’m sorry your highness, but we could resume the game tomorrow.’

Prince Steve stared at Mike with his arms crossed on his chest, legs spread carelessly on the chair and a funny look in his eyes. You ignored the way the Lord’s cheeks turned pink under his gaze, and he bowed to you both before walking past you and leaving the room.

Steve licked his lips and shook his head in amusement.

‘What’s so funny, my lord?’ You asked walking into the room.

‘Nothing, your highness.’ He said scratching the space between his eyebrows. His eyes were tired, purple skin under them, adding an air of softness to his brown pupils.

You nodded as you walked around the room, hands interlaced behind your back. You weren’t looking for anything, just studying the mess around him. There was a jar and some wine glasses forgotten on a table on the other side of the room. Unfinished letters, some maps, and pieces of an armour you assumed were Robin’s creations all scattered on the floor.

‘Do you often wander around the castle’s rooms at night, or can I offer an answer to your question, your highness?’

You turned back at him.

‘I haven’t asked any questions, my lord.’

Steve observed you. You stood next to a portrait of yourself, hung above the mahogany desk on the end of the room. In the rare moments he found himself alone, he often looked at it. It must had been painted much after he left, because you had that air of authority in your eyes, gold tiara sitting on your head as one of your old dresses, a puffy dark purple thing, hugged your body. It made him feel like your subject, seeing you up there following his every move.

‘Then use your words.’

You didn’t find him funny, if anything it came out as arrogant, but you fought the need to roll your eyes as you walked around the desk and leaned your back against it.

‘Do you fear death?’

The question took him by surprise coming from you. His hands interlaced each other over the table where the chess board rested. He held them there, before placing his elbows on the table, thinking about his answer.

‘Most times I forget I do.’

His eyes were piercing as he looked at you from the other side of the room. There was tension, there was more you wanted to ask, but you didn’t know how – or even what.

‘How many times have you saved my brother’s life out there?’ It was a safe question. You knew how many times; Gregory had explained it to you: every single one of them.

Steve let out a bitter laugh before his eyes fell on the game board in front of him.

‘Many, your highness.’

You lowered your eyes to the floor; hand on your lips as you thought. There was nothing Steve wanted more than to stand up and take that hand off your face. That habit of yours drove him insane, making you seem small under his eyes, and he loathed the fact you would change from vulnerable to strong headed so often that he couldn’t hate you through all of it.

You looked back at him.

‘Steve.’

‘Violet.’

‘Is my brother going to die?’

He stood up, the chair behind him making a loud noise when he moved. He walked towards you, studying your face. There was no sadness or defensiveness, but something worse. A demand for honesty.

He shook his head subtly, ‘No. Not if I can help it.’

‘He’s not fit.’ You murmured, eyebrows almost touching each other as your face filled with worry. ‘He’s not fit to be a king.’

‘Don’t–’

‘Steve.’ You interrupted him. ‘Don’t even try to lie to me. You know he’s not.’

‘I’ll help him.’

‘You’ve been on that field with him for six years, and he has learned nothing.’ Your words were wounding even for you. You had no one else to discuss this with. Theodore growing up somewhere else and your mother hidden inside her room. ‘Besides, don’t tell me you’re coming back here right after if you win that war.’

His eyes studied yours, trying to tell you everything without using his words. He lifted his eyebrow, defeated, and you realised. He would come back. To marry you.

You let out a deep sigh as you looked to your side, ‘That’s not what I meant.’

‘Why do you refuse to talk about it?’ He said, standing in front of you, tone irritated as you rolled your eyes.

‘Steve, it’s not like–’

‘Do you love another?’ His tone was full of urgency, hands aching to touch you, to show you he was here. No one else. He just wanted to know why you tiptoed so much around discussing your engagement.

‘Love?’ You said the word as if it was a different language. You blinked many times while his eyes still looked for a sign, something that would tell him that you were his still. If you had ever been.

‘I am a princess, my lord.’ Your eyes lifted to look back at him, cold as stone, like Medusa’s. ‘I don’t love. I can’t love.’

His eyes filled with confusion at your words, he didn’t think you could be so faithful to your loneliness. Once again, he found himself meeting another side of you.

‘My only commitment is to my kingdom.’ You said plainly. ‘And if we marry, then it will be to yours.’

There was a short pause before the prince talked again. ‘I see.’

You failed at taking a step back when his hands found the desk on either side of you. You were almost sitting on it as Steve took a step forwards. He studied your face; your beautiful face, growing desperate as your gaze turned as pure as the eyes of the deer his father made him hunt one forgotten day of his childhood. His hair had grown so much that a few locks tingled your forehead. You turned your head to your side and his nose found your cheekbone, barely touching it.

‘My lord–’

‘What about lust?’ His breath falling on your neck sent shivers through your body. His chest was so close to yours as he wrapped his hand around your left wrist on the desk. Steve’s nose followed a sweet trace to your jaw as he noticed how you couldn’t help but close your eyes at his proximity. ‘Is a princess allowed to feel that?’

His face moved back just slightly, to be able to see your defenceless face. Long lashes entwined as your eyes kept closed and your eyebrows almost met in the middle, an angelical plea for a touch you didn’t know, a pleasure you couldn’t even imagine, and he wanted to give it all to you. Everything, if that meant he could see your face like this again. His nose played with yours, the ghost of a touch as you fought hard not to lean in. He needed to be careful with you.

You could almost feel his lips, sweet distance making you both hesitant. Steve’s head filled with thoughts of you, thoughts he had so often fought against in his tent miles away from that room. None of his fantasies made justice to you, there was only one expression that could make your face even more gorgeous, and God, would he get on his knees to give you what you wanted just so he could see pleasure overflowing from your lovely face.

Your other hand flinched, lifting it with doubt as you were about to cup his cheek and whisper his name with neediness, ‘Ste–’

‘Steve!’ An urgent voice behind him made him take a step back quickly. Robin was standing on the entrance, sweat on her face and hands gripping the door frame. She didn’t even seem to register what was about to happen a few seconds ago. ‘Lord Hargrove… The King sent a letter, they captured him.’

You walked past Steve without looking at him, your hands wrapped around Robin’s arms. ‘My father has captured him?’

She nodded urgently. ‘Yes, your highness.’

‘We need to leave as soon as possible.’ Steve said walking towards you two. You followed him with your eyes as he crossed the threshold and walked towards Gregory’s room. It took you a while to understand what he had meant.

You followed right behind him. Steve knocked with his fist on Gregory’s door when you spoke.

‘You’re not serious.’

‘Of course, I am.’ He replied before Mike’s face appeared behind the wooden door; he opened his mouth to speak but Steve was quicker.

‘Hargrove has been captured by the king. We leave at dawn.’

Behind Lord Wheeler, you could see the way your brother’s face changed its colour. You shook your head as you walked past Steve and Mike into the room.

‘Gregory, if you leave like this, you’ll die this time.’ Your voice didn’t break, it didn’t sound sad. You were not the same helpless girl of six years ago. You turned to Steve with your eyes cold as stone. ‘This is ridiculous, Steve.’

‘Violet, there’s no time for this.’ He said taking a step towards you. Your fingers found the space on his waist where you knew a cloth covered the wound that almost costed him his life. He flinched at the sudden touch of your small hand burning against his skin.

‘You haven’t even healed yet.’ Your eyes were dark and calculating as you studied his face. Your palm was still on his stomach. ‘And he’s much worse than you are, Steve. You’re going to kill him.’

‘Bullshit.’ He said removing your hand from his body, because if you asked like this again, he wasn’t going to be capable of saying no to you. ‘We’re winning this war.’

‘You’re going to get my brother killed, Steve!’ Your voice echoed through the walls as you screamed at him. He turned back to you, but the tenderness of what had happened in the painting room was long gone now.

Steve opened his mouth to speak, but a weaker voice interrupted him.

‘Violet.’ You looked behind the prince’s shoulder to find your brother fixing himself on the bed. ‘I’ll be fine.’

‘Gregory, you can barely stand up.’ You said to him. You were never cold towards your brother, but you were tired of not being listened to. ‘Listen, you’re going to be a burden out there, Gregory. For Steve, for Father, for everyone. You’re wounded, you’ve got not fighting skills, you need constant protection, and if you go out there you might not come back.’

Greg’s eyes fixed on the bedsheets in front of him at your words. He knew you were right.

‘I know you don’t want to do this. Any of this.’ Your voice was sweeter this time, making him look up at you. His eyes focused on something beyond your shoulder just for second before looking back at you. You were fighting the need of kneeling next to his bed and hold his hand. ‘You don’t have to.’

‘Yes, he does.’ Steve’s voice behind you made you turn back to him. ‘Violet, he must.’

You shook your head in disbelief, ‘You’re not a king yet, Steve–’

‘I’m his superior.’ His tone became louder as his frustration with you increased, hands running through his hair. ‘His people need him, Violet! This is his duty–’

‘You mean your duty!’

Steve took a step towards you, hands aching to wrap around your shoulders to beg you to look at him and for once, believe in his words.

‘I told you; I promised you I would protect him!’

‘And you failed me.’ Your voice silenced him. ‘Look at how he is right now. You. Failed me.’ Steve’s eyes were full of hurt at your words, years of resentment finally leaving your lips. ‘For the moment I met you, all I’ve known from you is betrayal, Steve. You didn’t help me when I asked you to convince my father not to take Gregory. You’re the reason why the ambush happened. You embarrassed me in front of councilmen when I proposed to send Lady Mayfield with you. You’ve never thought about anyone else but your duty and your glory and your kingdom.’

The tension in the room was too sharp. Robin and Mike stood silently next to the walls, looking down to the stone floor, when Gregory spoke.

‘I’m going, Vee.’

For the first time in your life, you didn’t understand your brother. You looked from him to Steve, waiting for one of them to look back at you, but they didn’t dare to.

All that could be heard was the clicking of your shoes on the floor as your walked out of the room.

You didn’t change, didn’t sleep. You just walked around your room wide awake while you heard voices and movement outside. No one came to see you for orders and as painful as that was for your ego, you were grateful they didn’t.

The early signs of dawn shined through the window when your door opened. You didn’t have to look behind your shoulder to know that it was him. You had spent so much time together for the last couple of days it’s like your mind had taken the dust off your memories of Steve. The way his steps sounded, his musky smell, how any room he walked in immediately changed its atmosphere. You had turned into what any other girl in your kingdom had become, a victim of his magnetism.

Steve traced your back with his eyes as he walked towards you. Your hands became colder, nervous by his presence, and you understood Orpheus as you were dying to look back at him just so you could memorize his face for the last time before fate took him back to the underworld of the battlefield.

But all you could do was shut your eyes when his hands found your waist, hugging you firmly against his body, no space between his chest and your back. His nose dived into your hair and pressed against the back of your neck. He took a sharp inhale, wanting you to know he was trying to hold onto this moment. Tired of pretending he didn’t need you more than anything else.

‘Please, forgive me.’ He whispered, he begged. Voice hoarse and exhausted as his forehead rested on the back of your head.

You felt the tears forming under your shut eyes, and you were shaking your head just a little bit. You couldn’t. It was as if time was just a circle and you were back at that night six years ago, except now the wounds were deeper, the pain throbbed inside your chest as if it had a life of its own.

Steve let his guard down for the first time, his arms becoming tighter around your waist, his lips tracing little, desperate kisses from your neck to the back of your ear. He couldn’t leave without showing you he loved you.

‘Please, leave.’ You whispered; eyes still shut as the tears fell through your cheeks.

‘Violet–’ His voice was low on your ear, sending shivers through your body.

‘Please, Steve.’ You insisted, standing straight enough so his grip on your body slowly untangled. ‘Please. If you respect me, leave.’

And don’t come back, you wanted to say. But you didn’t know if you had the strength to say it.

Your body was cold at the absence of his touch when his hands fell. You did what Orpheus failed at doing and didn’t look behind you. You didn’t see the way his face had turned red, or the circles under his eyes or how he hesitated on your room’s threshold.

A month had passed since the day they left, and your life was slowly coming back to normal. According to your father’s letters, Lord Hargrove was a prisoner in their camp, and he would be taken to the cells in Steve’s kingdom to be judged as a traitor when the war was over. He had managed to take more terrain while the princes were absent, but he admitted to you that Steve’s presence was very much needed. You stopped reading when your eyes found a whole paragraph describing what a great warrior and strategist he was.

You felt much better now after they departure, as Steve wasn’t in every corner of the castle spoiling your efforts to keep the kingdom hopeful while the war seemed to come to an end. It was Greg’s attitude that you still didn’t understand, and your speculations often found you awake at very late hours of the night.

A part of you still feared for his death, but at that point you had just resigned yourself that the war had changed your twin brother in ways you would never understand. You had changed too, and you had a kingdom to take care of. That’s why you sent for Theodore.

The little brother that came back was no longer a kid, but a grown teenager. He was the age Steve was when you got engaged. You and your mother agreed not to tell your father you had sent for him as soon as Steve and Gregory were gone, because you didn’t know what the forecast for the war would be. And if something happened to the King and his heir, you needed the next in line right here in the castle.

‘Sister!’ He opened his arms for you as soon as you walked in the great hall. He was so much taller than you, lifting you in the air when you wrapped your hands around his neck.

You almost teared up a little when he left you on the floor.

‘You look like a queen, your highness.’

You laughed as you took a step back to take a better look at him, almost speechless ‘A-and… you look like a king, Theo.’

He laughed at your joke, but something inside you filled with the hope that when Gregory came back, the three of you would find a way to keep your father’s legacy alive.

When. If.

‘Oh, come on.’ He said at the sight of your glossy eyes, embracing you into another hug. You realised then how alone you had felt in the last month. ‘Where’s mother?’

‘She’s preparing you a bath.’ You rolled your eyes as you dried your cheeks with the sleeves of your dress. ‘You should go see her; I’ve got so much to show you.’

Mike fell on the dirt on top of Gregory’s body, ready to face his death when Steve’s sword clashed against the weapon of the soldier in front of them. The prince pushed his body to the ground before slicing his neck with the blade of his sword. He didn’t have enough time to look at the life leaving the soldier’s eyes as he turned back to bend next to Mike, blood leaking from the cut on his stomach.

‘Fuck.’ He said under his breath, before wrapping the lord’s arm around his neck. It was only then he realised the young lord had fainted. ‘Sinclair! Help me here!’

Lucas was walking around the field trying to find any soldiers from the enemies’ lines that remained alive when he heard his superior’s orders.

He bent next to Gregory, whose eyes fought to stay open as gushes of blood came out of his leg. ‘Is he… Is he alive?’ He whispered.

But Lucas didn’t know, wrapping the prince’s arm around his neck, and wondering if Lord Wheeler would be able to make it this time.

‘Anything for me?’ Asked Steve inside the tent when the royal messenger arrived. He didn’t know what time it was, but the field out there was cold with the smell of death and useless victory. He was still stained with blood and dirt.

‘Nothing, my lord.’ He said. Steve couldn’t help but look at the couple of envelopes with your father’s name in your handwriting that the young messenger left on a golden plate.

‘Thank you.’ Said King Paul as he grabbed one of the letters and proceeded to read it.

A few minutes passed of Steve walking around the room. From this side of the tent, he could hear Gregory’s complaints at the stitches he was probably getting, but his mind was focused on Mike, who seemed to be in a worse condition than the young prince. He took his hand to his neck, thinking how badly he had messed up.

The king let out a soft laugh as he picked an apple from the vase next to him.

‘Any news?’ Steve asked lifting his eyebrows.

‘Nothing, really.’ He said biting the fruit in his hand. ‘My daughter has talent for irony. I always laugh with her letters.’

The shadow of a smile lighted up Steve’s face for a second, before the royal doctor walked back into that side of the tent.

‘Lord Wheeler survives.’ He said, and a weight fell of Steve’s shoulders. ‘Still, he is in a very delicate state. He must stay here. And Prince Gregory…’ He looked behind Steve shoulder, thinking about how to give the news to the King. ‘He shouldn’t walk for at least a month.’

‘Doesn’t matter.’ The King said, putting your letter aside and biting on the apple again. ‘We take the city tomorrow.’

Bells.

The sound of the harp stopped when you heard the first one. You looked back at Nancy, blood falling from her finger as she pinched herself with the needle when she heard the first one.

There was another one. And another one. You stood up and took her hand to leave the library. Servants and knights walked around the castle as you tried to find Robin or Queen Agnes, or Theodore. Anyone.

‘The war is over!’ Someone said outside the window, and suddenly the was a choir of voices echoing the victory.

You blinked many times and as your feet took you to the great hall all you could think about was Steve.

Your mother received you with a hug as soon as you walked inside the big room. ‘It’s over, darling, it’s over!’ She pinched your cheeks, she kissed your forehead, she showered you with a love she had never shown you before.

But it was like your soul was floating out of your body as Theodore held you in his arms and trumpets sung outside and people shouted Long live King Paul. Nancy and Robin hugged each other, and maids were crying and ladies in waiting shouted in joy and all you were thinking about was Steve, Steve, Steve.

Your family thought it was weird that you isolated yourself in your room the first night with the excuse of food poisoning, because you hadn’t eaten anything all day. There was too much to consider, too much to think about. You spent the whole night with your hand on your lips, that thoughtful look in your eyes, wondering what would happen next, what was the next move on the board. You were certain that this time, it didn’t depend on you.

When the maids braided your hair that morning and placed the tiara on your head, you seemed lost in the mahogany shades of your vanity.

‘Smile, your highness.’ One of them, the youngest one, said as she pinched your checks to bring colour into them, ‘Now that the war is over, Prince Steve is yours forever.’

But your cold eyes only made her retract herself, bending in front of you to fix the hem of your dress, avoiding your cold gaze.

You were staying outside the castle when the carriages arrived. There was shouting and joy when you father stepped outside, but his eyes were fixed on the three people that stood expecting him outside the gates of his home. Your eyes filled with tears at the grey hairs on his beard, and the new wrinkles around his eyes.

He kissed your mother, he hugged Theodore and then stood right in front of you. Eyes full of something you could not name when your gaze focused on the small brooch on his cape. Your gaze blurred even more at the memories of a month ago, bittersweetness on your tongue as you bowed in front of the King.

‘Your majesty.’ You said. He let out a loud laugh at your manners, before you jumped into his arms.

Beyond your father’s shoulder, you saw Gregory. He was sitting on a wooden wheelchair, left leg on a straight angle in front of him. You held his eyes for a second before taking a step back, but your pride was too big to even get near him. Your mother ran to him to help him, and just a bit further away you could see Nancy’s familiar brown-haired head helping her own brother to step out of the carriage.

Steve didn’t come.

There were banquets and balls in honour of the king and his son. The five of you were back at sitting at the great hall’s table along with Mike, Nancy, and Robin, as music echoed through the walls of the room. Your father drank a lot, and bragged about stories of the war, ones you knew you’d heard about for at least the next six years.

Yet there were words unsaid. Things you didn’t dare to bring up. During the dinners you could feel Gregory’s eyes on you, but you ignored him. And he was still in the chair, so he was never able to call for you throughout the day. You made sure he couldn’t, by spending most of your mornings in the archery school or attending council meetings with your father.

Mike was getting better slowly, you heard he got hurt protecting your bother. Of course, he would be gifted another noble title thanks to his bravery or something like that. You lost interest when you found out Steve had saved both of their lives again, something that could’ve been prevented if he had listened to you for once.

He didn’t write, and you weren’t going to. But your correspondence with Queen Yvette resumed when she assured you things in her kingdom were slowly coming back to normal, and that her and Queen Agnes were already discussing possible dates for the wedding.

I’m at your service, your majesty, it’s what you wrote back. You were slowly accepting your fate, Eddie could notice, when he followed right behind you the days you were at the school and all you did was stroke the arched walls and observe practise from a distance.

‘You don’t need to say goodbye now.’ He reminded you one afternoon. But you shrugged with indifference at his words, it was as if the last few months had aged you more than the last six years, and you were back at feeling ignored and insignificant.

‘I’m grateful for what I’ve done for my kingdom.’ Was all you said as you played with some loose threads of your dress.

Spring had become more colourful, days were longer, the kindness of the sun tinted everything in warm hues as you thought about the future.

‘Eddie.’

‘Yes?’ He walked the distance from you, and you were never more grateful to have someone like him take care of you.

‘Would you say yes if I asked you to come with me?’ Your eyes were full of fear, ‘When I marry Steve?’

When.

‘In a heartbeat, your highness.’

Steve came back to a completely different home.

The war had aged his parents, making them cautious and fearful by the threat of chaos, after so many years of being isolated from the rest of the world. His sisters were now the age he was when he left, and except for Heather, Kitty and Lily seemed too eager to enjoy the riches of the kingdom after years of restrictions during the war. Steve had to intervene when he saw the amount of funds used for furs and jewels and parties that shouldn’t had been taking place. It was not the time for it.

The kingdom still mourned the loss of their fathers and sons, he saw it in the way the underweight kids asked for money outside the castle, and in the looks that the subjects gave him on the strange occasions he went outside. His fingers shook when he reached for his glass of wine during dinner, and no number of teas and baths kept him from staying awake until dawn. The war had given him a sense of structure, while in the kingdom, there was so much to do he didn’t even know where to start. And he needed to start soon, or he would go insane.

He was in the council hall that morning, as his father talked about a new tax that he hadn’t agreed on, but was still going to be approved, when a messenger walked in.

‘Your highness,’ He said after bowing, ‘your mother is waiting for you in your chamber with the royal seamstress.’

Steve took his hand to the space on his eyebrows, he had spent all night reading in the absence of sleep. ‘Why– What is that for?’

‘The wedding, your highness.’

Steve’s blank stare followed the lines of the mahogany table for a second. The Wedding. ‘Can’t I just, I don’t know, can’t I just wear what I’m wearing now?’

‘Steve.’ The voice of King Talbot sounded serious as he looked at his son. ‘Go see your mother.’

‘The meeting’s not over.’ He said then. They had been discussing the tax issue all morning, still not agreeing on a resolution.

King Talbot stood up then, making all councilmen in the room follow his movements. ‘Meeting dismissed, my lords.’

The men started leaving the room and Steve stood next to his chair. ‘You can’t just leave it like that. We need to sort this out today.’

‘Steve,’ he said moving from his chair and walking to the hall’s doors. ‘Those men are not going to agree on anything unless they have drunk at least two bottles of wine each.’

The prince walked behind him as they spoke, now in the stone corridors of the castle. ‘But you can’t just throw such a high rate on people after a war like this. They’re already starving.’

‘Steve.’ King Tabolt’s hands found the shoulders of his son, ‘Go try your wedding dress on.’

The King let out a loud laugh at his absurd joke before heading to his room.

Steve sighed at the image in the mirror. Purple vest, purple cape, gold stitches, patterns, velvet. It was the same as always and as unnecessary as ever.

‘What do you think, dear?’ Asked the Queen. Steve looked at her mother, eyes on the mirror, standing behind him.

‘It’s… It’s good, mother.’ He shrugged with indifference at the sight of his reflection.

‘I hope the princess likes it.’ Said the seamstress walking around the prince in look for any loose threads. ‘She’s got flawless taste in clothes.’

‘She does.’ Said the Queen observing the piece of clothing once again. ‘She’s been writing to Heather, updating her on the design of her dress. I thought you’d like to know.’

‘I couldn’t care less.’ He replied, still looking at the mirror. ‘Are we done?’

‘Yes, your highness.’ Said the seamstress then, taking a step back.

Steve started changing his shirt as his mother spoke. ‘The invitations have been sent, decorations are being reviewed by Lady Wheeler, and the princess should be here in two days. I’d like to take you through the new rooms’ arrangements tonight after dinner.’

‘That sounds lovely, mother.’ Said Steve fixing the collar of his shirt. ‘But I trust you can sort it out yourself.’

He left a kiss on her cheek before taking his jacket.

‘Steve.’

The prince didn’t look back as he walked through the corridor. He was supposed to meet Lord Byers and his brother for lunch, but instead he walked towards the stairs. He needed some fresh air, maybe take his horse and ride for a few hours.

He was so distracted he didn’t even see his sister walking in the opposite direction.

‘Ouch. Steve!’

‘Sorry, Lily.’ He said absently putting his hands on the princess’ shoulders after he had tripped on her.

‘Why are you even here?’ She asked then, eyebrows arched in annoyance as she got rid of his grip.

‘I’m going to the stables.’ He replied in the same tone, tilting his head with authority. ‘And don’t speak to me like that.’

‘You need to take the stairs on the left wing for that, you idiot.’

‘No, I don’t.’

‘Yes, you do.’ She crossed her arms over her chest. ‘The exit on this side has been locked for years. You can’t get there from here.’ She grabbed her dress and resumed her walk through the corridor. ‘Get a map of the castle, or something.’

The queens insisted on an early summer wedding, so you smiled and nodded at everything except one thing: your dress. It was the only thing that kept your mind away from the doubts and fears of marriage. Your wanted lace fingerless gloves, a long veil, a discreet off the shoulder style. You redesigned the gown a million times, tried a hundred of models Robin helped you discard, and yet the fear wasn’t gone.

You were in bed reading a letter from Heather, Steve’s sister, expressing how excited she was about the wedding. You had shared a few of your designs with her and she wrote her opinion so eloquently that you decided maybe you’d ask Theodore to spend a season with you in the castle to introduce her to him. A knock on your door interrupted your good mood and you put the letter aside.

‘Come in.’

Gregory’s face on the other side of the door erased your smile. A servant had opened the door for him, since a pair of wooden crutches under his shoulders helped him stand.

‘Hey.’

‘Hey.’ You replied as he limped inside the room. The servant closed the door behind him, and Gregory found his way to sit on your bed.

‘I’ve got your wedding invitation.’ He said.

‘Those were sent by the Harringtons.’

‘I know.’ A small silence opened between you two. ‘I just wanted to ask if you wanted me there.’

‘Is that why you came all the way down to my room in your crunches?’

Gregory made a pause, ‘No.’

You looked down to your hands and bit your lip.

‘I’m truly sorry, Vee.’ He said, ‘I owe you an explanation.’

‘You owe me more than that, Gregory.’ You said standing up from your bed. ‘I was always on your side. We’re brother and sister, for god’s sake, we’re twins. I did so much for you, I became the firstborn king father wanted you to be to protect you. And all you did was follow Steve when you knew your life was at risk.’

‘It wasn’t because of Steve–’

‘Then tell me why!’ You voice was full of desperation.

‘It was because–’ Gregory licked his lips, you could swear his eyes turned slightly glossy as he carefully chose his words. ‘It was because of Mike.’

Your eyebrows frowned as you tried to process what those words meant. ‘What does he have to do with this? As far as I know Lord Wheeler was protecting you too.’

Gregory looked up to the ceiling letting a deep breath fall from his nose. ‘Yes. Yes, Mike was trying to protect me. All the time. He needed someone to protect him too. I had to go with him.’

‘Gregory, you didn’t have to do anything, you could’ve–’

‘Violet.’ He interrupted you, voice firm and certain as you had never heard before. ‘I had to. If Mike died out there…’

His voice broke at the last sentence, and he looked down at his hands. Your cheeks got hot at the realisation, and you kneeled next to him. Tears started falling from his cheeks as he shook his head.

‘I needed to be there.’ He said in between tears, ‘I couldn’t leave him alone in that field. It would’ve killed me, Vee. If something happened to him while I was here, it would’ve killed me.’

‘Gregory.’ You whispered, your hands found his, cold and shaky. ‘Greg, I am so sorry. I had no idea.’

‘And I felt so guilty.’ His voice was choky by the tears and sobs. ‘So guilty for feeling like this, for not telling you. For having Steve cover for us and you thinking that he was just being an asshole.’

‘Steve?’ Your tone was soft at the sound of his name.

He took his hands to his eyes at the shameful memory. ‘He knew everything, Vee. He always did. I’m so sorry, I was unhappy and hated myself and so I made everyone around me unhappy too.’

‘No.’ you said quickly standing up to sit next to him. You pushed Gregory’s head softly on your shoulder, wrapping your arms around him before kissing his temple. ‘No, no, no. Don’t say that. It was a weight too heavy to carry, Greg. I am so sorry. I’ve been so selfish.’

You swallowed hard as your tears pooled on your eyes. He sat back to have a look at you, and you cleaned his face with your fingers. You both tried not to laugh at the pathetic scene of you two crying.

‘There’s something else.’ He said.

Your eyes were expectant as he took a deep breath before speaking.

‘I talked to father. I’m renouncing to the throne in favour of Theodore.’

You made a pause and took a better look at him before letting out a breath of relief. ‘Thank God.’

Gregory pushed you lightly in response, teary smiles as you felt some of your worries dissipate.

You left on a rainy morning of late spring. The wedding would be in a few days and your parents would join you along with your brothers later. The girls from the school let out a few tears and waved handkerchiefs at you. Women from all the kingdom came to say goodbye to you, and your heart sank on your chest when your mother hugged you.

‘You’ve done so much for your country. I’m so proud of you.’

It caught you off guard, but you took the compliment anyways. After all, she was probably the only one that knew what it was like to marry someone you didn’t love.

You walked inside the carriage where Nancy and Robin waited for you, and Eddie closed the door behind you. Gregory waved at you from the window of his room, he told you he didn’t feel strong enough to walk outside after the news of his resignation became public, and that was it. That was goodbye.

After a long journey of endless hours, the trumpets announcing your arrival woke you up. You and Robin had fallen asleep on either side of Nancy’s shoulders, and she couldn’t help but whisper a low ‘Finally’ when both of you were surprised by the sudden music.

You could see the purple flags with the Harrington coats of arms hanging everywhere in the kingdom. Curious kids showed their faces through the balconies of their homes as whispers of ‘It’s the princess,’ could be heard through the glass of your window. There were other things you could detect in languages you had studied, people seemed at least interested in you. Through the architecture of the Harrington’s kingdom was different, their cobblestone streets still reminded you of the home you had left behind.

‘We need to get out first.’ Said Robin urgently.

‘And remember that you must bow with your left foot,’ Said Nancy as she pinched your cheeks, ‘Royalty bows with the left, nobles with the right.’

You were a bit confused at their nervousness, but you nodded at their advice as the knight outside announced their names and they climbed out.

You took a deep breath when your name was announced and stepped out of the carriage.

The sun blinded your eyes a little bit, but you could hear the excited whispers of the spectators. You fought hard to repress your feelings of disappointment when you found the sight of King Talbot and Queen Yvette, along with two of the princesses, but none of the prince.

‘Again.’ Steve said as Heather looked at him from the ground.

The young princess rolled her eyes at his arrogance as she grabbed the weapon.

‘You know maybe we should ask Robin to design something for you,’ He said then, eyebrows arched in thoughtfulness, ‘I don’t think corsets are fit for balance.’

Heather opened her mouth to say something when a familiar figure walked in.

‘Your princess is here.’ Said Lord Argyle as he walked out to the garden with his arms open. ‘Thought it was weird I didn’t see you there. I was invited to a wedding if I’m not wrong.’

Steve rolled his eyes as he ignored him and nodded at Heather. ‘Get in position.’

‘I think he’s nervous’ She said to Argyle before eyeing Steve. ‘That’s why he wasn’t there.’

‘Heather, I swear, if you don’t get in position, I will send you to sow tablecloths with Lily and Kitty.’

‘That won’t be needed.’ Another voice, feminine and authoritarian echoed through the garden. Heather dropped the sword at the sight of her mother. ‘We’ve got enough tablecloths.’

She walked towards the young girl as Steve put his sword back in his scabbard. The Queen put a hand on her daughter’s chin as she cleaned a stain of dirt next to her eye. ‘What you’ve done today will be forgotten just because what he’s done today is much worse. Go clean yourself.’

Heather bowed to the queen before giving a quick look at Steve and walking inside the castle. Argyle stood straight next to the door, he had never seen the queen look at Steve this way, or speak to him like that.

‘How could you?’

‘Mo–’

‘Do you have any idea of all the things I had to do to keep that girl from marrying someone else? She despised you, Steve. And her father could’ve left you alone in that battlefield if he wanted to. You’re lucky he likes you.’

Steve stood up with his hands on his hips, trying hard not to roll his eyes.

‘And then you don’t show up to welcome her. Do you know what that looked like in front of the subjects? After everything–’

‘I saved this kingdom.’ He interrupted her. He wasn’t going to have this. She could complain about everything else expect this.

‘With their resources. You can’t come back here pretending this castle is another battlefield. Rules are different here, and I expect you to follow them.’ She said, taking a hand to her forehead in frustration. ‘I’m not having this discussion now, Steve. Arguments are supposed to be dealt with in privacy, not in front of the whole kingdom. You’re a future king, and I expect you to behave like one.’

Steve lifted his eyebrows, repressing a sigh. ‘Anything else?’

The Queen looked at the prince in front of her. The boy the war had taken from her and the man that had come back to replace him. ‘Don’t be late for dinner.’

Steve followed the silhouette of his mother as she walked back into the castle, letting a frustrating sigh while Argyle licked his lips, hiding a smile.

You had been introduced to a few ladies in waiting as Nancy and Robin were busy visiting their families. They complimented your dresses and asked you questions about your kingdom and Theodore, whose popularity had apparently increased at the announcement that he’d be taking the throne in the future.

You wore one of your dresses as you still needed to meet the royal seamstress, but instead of your usual tiara your head was adorned by a diamond headpiece that didn’t make you look like you were pushing the etiquette boundaries.

‘Princess!’ Heather’s lovely voice echoed through the hall when you walked in, her chair moving when she stood up at the sight of you. Her excitement made you smile instantly, surprised at how grown up she seemed compared to the little girl you met six years ago.

Next to her, to your surprise, was Steve.

His hair was on its place for once, but a strand of hair still fell in the middle of his forehead, arms big and strong under the fabric of his shirt. He didn’t look at you as you walked the distance between the door and your chair, and you lowered your eyes, hoping that no one else noticed the tension between you two. There was so much you wished you could tell him, but you didn’t know how.

The king joined you a few moments later and you all sat down.

‘How are you finding the castle, princess?’ Lily asked just when you were starting your second course.

‘It’s beautiful. I can’t wait to have a better look at it. I would also love to see the kingdom; I’ve read so many wonderful things about Lover’s Lake.’

‘Oh, we rarely leave the castle to be fair,’ Said Kitty, ‘But I do love going to Lover’s Lake in the summer.’

‘Your highness,’ Heather’s politeness almost made you laugh as she addressed you excitedly, ‘My brother told me you had an archery school for girls back in your home.’

You looked from Heather to Steve, but the prince was focused on his food, trying his best not to look at you. You nodded. ‘I founded it during the war.’

‘How modern!’ Said the queen. You weren’t one for needing approval, but you couldn’t resist smiling at her reaction and how welcomed your ideas seemed in her eyes.

‘Do you think we could do something like that one day?’ Heather said.

‘Heather, please.’ Steve murmured; voice low but firm.

‘Steve is teaching me how to fence.’ Her eyes were full of excitement as she grabbed his arm. ‘I thought it’d be really cool to do something like that here. I mean, he’s just thinking about turning the old church into an orphanage.’

‘An orphanage?’ King Talbot interjected.

‘Or a school.’ Steve said to his father. He was looking at an untouched piece of stake on his plate, tone plain as he spoke. ‘I just asked for the plans of the church to have a look at them. It’s just an old empty building sitting there, we could do something with it.’

You noticed the dark circles under his eyes then, along with the subtle lines around his eyes. He seemed to be fighting other wars you didn’t know anything about.

The king pondered on the possibility with the wine glass on his hand before looking at you, ‘Is this your influence?’

Steve looked at you for the first time tonight, the first time since that day in your room. You lowered your eyes instantly, scared he might had noticed you were staring. He remembered what it was like to kiss your neck, to feel your body against his, to inhale you.

You seemed so unfairly gorgeous now, studying your plate as your cheeks grew hotter, and your eyes overflowed with doubt at the direct way in which the king was addressing you.

‘I think you give me too much credit, your majesty.’ You replied with a small smile before the table turned silent again. Your eyes found Steve’s from the other side of the table again, a shy gaze, a white flag.

But Steve just frowned at your politeness, thinking that your words lacked any real meaning. There was no irony behind them, or malice even. Somehow the confusion made him angry, feeling that you always chose a different mask to show depending on who you were talking to. You had been unbearably stubborn when he was a guest in your kingdom, and here you were trying to play miss diplomacy in front of his father.

‘If you excuse me,’ he said standing up, he could feel your eyes following him as he spoke. He couldn’t bear it anymore, your presence on the other side of the table was making him insane. ‘I forgot I had a training meeting with Jonathan and Argyle, they must be waiting for me outside.’

Steve bowed quickly before anyone could say anything and started walking towards the hall’s doors. You saw the way Queen Yvette shook her head subtly before taking a piece of food to her mouth.

The princesses offered to take you on a tour of the castle. You observed how Kitty and Lily talked non-stop about family facts that seemed to be made up while Heather corrected them in whispers. It was funny for you, the closest thing you had to sisters were Nancy and Robin, but the triplets managed to light up every room with chatter and noise and you found yourself laughing out loud, feeling welcomed into your new life.

They showed you the way to the library which was close to your room, and then took you through a few painting rooms where pieces of art or war relics you assumed belonged to the family collection were stored.

You stopped in front of a portrait of the prince as the sisters kept walking through the corridor. The few ones you had seen hanging on the walls were very old, approximately from the time you two had met years ago, because he hadn’t returned to the castle since then.

The image of the young prince standing with a fur cloak and in his familiar dark purple attire filled you with mixed emotions. You could see it now; he had been just a kid when he was sent to live with your family. You saw Heather’s stand next to you from the corner of your eye as you kept your stare on that young version of him, no sign of the lines or scars you knew adorned his face now.

There was so much you wish you could tell him.

‘He looks so conceited here.’ You said amusingly looking at the pride behind his stare, though Heather noticed the sadness in your eyes as you said it.

‘He came back different.’ She said, making you look back at her. ‘I like him better now.’

So do I, you wished to say. But as you turned your face back to the painting, the thought filled you with insecurity. You were getting married in two days and your future husband didn’t even want to look at you.

You excused yourself to go to your room then, where you got rid of your jewellery and dress all by yourself. These days all you did was let out deep sighs as your eyes got lost in the first thing that could distract you: the nice lace of a dress, a ladybug walking on the windowsill, the flicker of a candle.

You sat next to the window, cheek resting on your bent knee as you tried to get used to the landscape outside the castle’s window, missing the forest you used to get lost in when you were a kid. You missed your parents, you missed your brothers, but more than anything, you missed the little girl you once were.

After two hours of rolling in bed, you put a cloak over your sleeping gown and took one of the candles holders to wander through the castle. You figured everyone would be asleep, and the only place you remembered how to find was the library.

You sneaked into the giant room; the light of your candle not bright enough to illuminate your path as the intimidating size of the shelves darkened the room. Yet you felt peaceful in its coldness, comforted by the blanket of silence that fell over you.

Until a noise behind you startled you, the creak of a door making you drop your candle holder on the stone floor, a metallic sound that echoed through the room.

‘Oh, no.’ You whispered when the fire died down, leaving you in deep blackness. You heard steps, holding your breath now that you knew there was someone else here.

Another light approached you then, Steve’s features dimly illuminated as he walked towards you from the other side of the library.

‘What are you doing here?’ He sounded irritated as he moved towards you, lighting up the path in front of him. ‘You should be sleeping.’

‘I couldn’t– Oh!’ But as you moved, your foot stepped on the hot wax melting on the floor, making you gasp in pain.

‘W-What is it? What happened?’ Steve stood in front of you then, the candle lighting up your frowning face.

‘I burned myself, Steve, that’s what happened.’ You complained, your hand finding a shelf to hold on to in the dim room.

‘Why are you even barefoot?’ He said then, leaving his candle holder on a small table near the shelves. ‘For God’s sake, Violet.’

You could barely see him through the dark, the candle illuminating his profile and the way the sleeves of his white shirt were rolled around his elbows, but nothing else. You moved to sit on the floor now that you could see, the candle you had dropped a bit further away from where you stood.

As soon as you sat down, Steve kneeled in front of you to examine your foot. He didn’t look back at you as his fingers carefully stripped the warm wax stuck to your skin. Your eyes lingered on his messy hair, your cheeks getting warm at the way his rough fingers turned tender against your skin. He let out a deep sigh while shaking his head, and you wished you could just run your fingers through those brown strands.

You were so tired of this.

‘I’m sorry.’ You whispered in the dark.

But Steve just shrugged. ‘It happens. Just don’t walk around barefoot in this castle.’

A silence opened between you two, and you wondered if he pretended not to understand what you had meant on purpose. You bit your lip as he examined the burned skin in between his hands. It didn’t hurt anymore, but you just wanted to feel him close to you, even if it was in this strange way.

‘I think you’re fine.’ He said placing your foot carefully on the floor. He finally looked up at you as his hand still rested around your ankle, regretting it in the moment your eyes met his, full of an innocence he was tired of believing in. ‘Just, don’t do this again, okay?’

You nodded then, the air turning thick at the silence between you two as he finally removed his hand from your foot.

‘What are you doing here?’ You asked then, your voice soft and careful.

You thought he was going to stand up, but instead he moved to sit next to you. His head rested on the shelf behind you, and your eyes followed the perfect line of his profile as he studied the dark glass of the library’s ceiling. He ran his hand through his hair once again and you shrunk under the cloak that covered your body like a blanket.

‘I just…’ He shook his head, wondering if he should tell you, but it didn’t matter at this point. ‘When I was little, I used to come here when I couldn’t sleep. There was uh, there was a corner where I used to sit and read. I think they changed the distribution of the library years ago. I couldn’t find it.’

You tried to look around you, but the darkness just allowed you to perceive the few shelves that were close to you. ‘Has the castle changed a lot in your absence?’

He let out a laugh under his breath, hands finding his bent knees as he licked his lips in resignation and changed his posture. ‘The castle, the kingdom, the people. Everything.’ He shook his head, eyes now getting lost in the darkness of the floor. ‘I’m like a stranger in my own home.’

You smiled bitterly as his use of words, and how it seemed to describe your life. This was supposed to be your home now. One day maybe, when you got used to it. If that ever happened. ‘I know what that is like.’

You stayed in silence then. Steve still sitting next to you as you wondered what to say, how to say it. If there was a way you could fix this relationship that seemed to be doomed from the beginning. Maybe you were the worst match on Earth, maybe you were so different it didn’t make sense. But you’d have to make it work.

‘Does that hurt?’ He asked then, eyes looking at your foot from the strands of messy hair, before his eyes landed on yours. You could feel the warmth of his skin through the layers of your clothes.

You shook your head before giving him a shy smile.

He nodded slightly, a soft whisper leaving his lips. ‘Good.’

You stayed in silence for a while. And you enjoyed it. It was the first time ever that your lives were so bitterly chaotic that the idea of fighting seemed exhausting.

You looked at him then, and he pretended not to feel your heavy stare on him.

‘Steve.’ You whispered.

He tried to fight it, but the way you said his name filled him with sudden anger. When was this going to end? How long could this go for? He had promised himself after leaving you in your room that night that he would not come back for you, that he wouldn’t let you see through him ever again.

‘Just leave it, Violet.’ He said then, shaking his head. The dark circles under his eyes looked worse under the candle’s light.

‘Steve.’ You repeated. ‘I’m marrying you.’

His elbows rested on his knees, crossing his arms as he let out a bitter laugh, a soft chesty noise that sounded exhausted. ‘Took you long enough, princess.’

You fought the need to roll your eyes at him.

‘What I mean is just… let’s just try to be civil. I’m tired, Steve.’

‘You’re tired.’ He repeated.

‘You know what I mean–’

‘No, I don’t. I never do, Violet.’ He admitted, his hands smoothing the lines of his forehead in frustration. ‘I never know what you mean.’

You opened your mouth to say something, but he interrupted you.

‘Do you know what I hate the most of all of this? That you were right.’ He let out a breathy bitter sound again, and his hands scratched the stubble on his face. ‘You were right the whole time. This marriage has been wrong since the first day. We’re going to be so unhappy.’

‘We don’t need to be unhappy.’ You said then, your eyes suddenly stinging at the pessimism of his words. ‘We’ll learn to tolerate each other.’

‘Tolerance.’ He whispered to himself. ‘Is that your idea of a successful marriage, Violet? Tolerance?’

‘I don’t have another option, Steve.’ You said then, but there was not frustration in your tone anymore, and that worried him.

It terrified him.

‘I–’ But he didn’t know where to start. His eyes got lost in the golden letters of the book’s spines in front of him. ‘I spent years fighting. And it was cold, and hard, and lonely.’ He looked to the side then, momentarily hiding his face from you before looking at the ceiling again, letting out a shaky breath. ‘And then I came back, and I realised that there are orphans starving, and resentful mothers, and girls my sisters’ age selling their bodies.’ You stayed silent, as he played with his hands while he spoke. ‘Out there, they’re still pretty much in war. But I just… I don’t know how to end it this time.’

He stayed silent for a few seconds, before shaking his head and letting out a breathy scoff as his eyes got lost in the distant darkness. ‘I tried to do what you did. Go outside, being with the people. Showing them I’m here. But all I could think of while they looked at me with hatred was the irritating voice of a little girl telling me I would grow to be an influenceable king, and that couldn’t be good for any kingdom.’ You smiled sadly at the memory, ‘And maybe that’s what I am.’

You looked down at your bare feet then, biting the inner skin of your cheek.

‘I think I actually said influenceable husband–’

‘God, you’re so infuriating.’ He tried to hide the smile on his face, but you made it impossible.

You stayed in silence once again. The candle flickered, the wind outside howled, a drop of water fell somewhere, probably leaking from the roof.

Steve looked back at you, his eyes lingering on that long curtain of hair falling on your cloak. He finally accepted it then: He had lost you. You were here, but you’d never be his. Not in a way that mattered.

Your head was so close from his shoulder you could feel the warmth radiating from his skin, but you didn’t dare to move closer. You could feel the heat of your own body rising to your cheeks as you remembered the way he had kissed your neck that night he said goodbye. Now there wouldn’t be any more goodbyes, only the shared loneliness of forever.

You looked back at him. His eyes were closed, head tilting with sleepiness as he leaned against the shelf behind.

‘Steve?’

‘What now?’ He tried to sound annoyed, but you noticed the exhaustion behind its harshness.

‘What you did for Gregory…’ He opened his eyes at your words, leaning his head towards you. You were looking at him with wounded eyes. It was not fair. It was not fair you were about to apologise, and he was the one who was going to melt for you. ‘I don’t know how I’ll ever compensate you for that. For how I punished you.’

His eyes turned soft at the way you leaned against the shelf to get closer to him. ‘It wasn’t just keeping him alive,’ Your voice broke as you spoke, and you had to swallow hard before speaking again. ‘But also covering for him and Mike. I– I was so selfish. And childish. And there was really nothing you could’ve done. I’m sorry.’

Steve gave you a soft smile that didn’t reach his eyes. Then a nod, subtle but acknowledging. A white flag waving in between you two. The way he studied your face sent shivers through your spine, brown honey taking in your eyes, cheekbones, lips. He knew you, in his own strange way, he did. Only you could understand what it was like to hold the weight of a nation on your shoulders, to have power and not knowing how to use it, to fail at trying to do the right thing.

‘We were so young, weren’t we?’ He whispered, sad and exhausted.

Your hand flinched when you noticed the way his eyes turned glossy at the memories, almost lifting it to finally put those strands of hair away from his face. But they stayed on your lap.

‘We were.’ You murmured, a smile that didn’t reach your eyes lifting those pretty lips of yours, where his eyes lingered a second too long before he fixed his posture, looking up at the ceiling again.

part V: treacherous

🏷️: @thytorturedpoet @sheisjoeschateau @totally-bogus-timelady @bitterspoons @julielightwood @avie-mo @ellharrington @hollandweather @kitdjarin1

I do no consent for people to plagiarise, translate, copy or repost any of my written works anywhere. I do not consent people to use any of my written work for AI purposes.

134 notes · View notes

26wh57 · 21 days

Text

𝐏𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐒 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐎𝐔𝐑

an enemies to lovers prince!steve x princess!fem!reader mini series | a kingdom au

masterlist | ko-fi

summary: you were never graceful enough to be a princess, always playing with bows and arrows, while your clumsy but sweet twin brother gregory picked flowers and studied plants outside the castle. childhood was good and gentle to you both until the threat of a war challenged your father, the king. now he must to do whatever it takes to protect your nation, even if that means training greg to go to war and become the heir the kingdom deserves, or marry you off to the future king of the neighbouring kingdom. prince steve always knew he would marry a princess, but he never thought his parents would choose such a rebellious, wild creature like you.

overall word count: 57.7k

no use of y/n, fem!reader’s name is violet.

warnings: small age gap between reader and steve (3 years), explicit mentions of blood and wounds, fear of death, misogyny, blackmailing, eventual smut. this series and my blog are +18, minors do not interact. it is mentioned that reader has long hair but there is no specific description of hair type.

𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐱

part I: 𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐮𝐩𝐨𝐧 𝐚 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦

part II: 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠

part III: 𝐰𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬

part IV: 𝐡𝐚𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝

part V: 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐬

part VI: 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐞

‎♡ more about petals for armour ‎♡

petals for armour’s playlist

moodboard + summary

what to expect: detailed list about this au. (contains spoilers)

message me if you want to be added to the taglist ‎♡

[the dividers & banners i use throughout this series are by @firefly-graphics & @cafekitsune]

I do no consent for people to plagiarise, translate, copy or repost any of my written works anywhere. I do not consent people to use any of my written work for AI purposes.

265 notes · View notes

26wh57 · 21 days

Text

complete masterlist

hi welcome! i take requests! <3

steve harrington

series: kate hopper series: 1. unbreakable 2. fractured 3. repaired 4. shattered the kate hopper collection mixtapes i could never let you go

one shots: entomophobia dating steve and your sibling is a member of the party

robin buckley

coming soon

105 notes · View notes

26wh57 · 25 days

Text

Reads of the Week: Jan 21-Jan 27

*indicates smut

never leaving by @bettymylove

Haven’t I Made It Obvious by @angelfrombeneth

You know better* by @hpimagines

Blind Date by @magiclostinfantasy

shower* by @bettymylove

Thighs* by @suugarbabe

7 Minutes* by @angelfrombeneth

Hatred by @rainyreading

Cara Mia* by @maeblack

Smoke Slow by @thatdammchickennugget

Flirt by @suugarbabe

The Seconds Before by @distantdarlings

Through Rain or Shine* by @slytherinslut0

Can I…? by @thatdammchickennugget

shower* by @bettymylove

delicate by @riddleriddles

Red Wine by @halucynator

Sleeping with a prefect* by @papercorgiworld

A Healing Touch by @anawritez-posts

Runaway Bride by @anawritez-posts

“I’m your boyfriend” by @anawritez-posts

Can’t keep hexing guys by @anawritez-posts

Jealousy Unleashed by @anawritez-posts

Heart Break of Sorrows by @anawritez-posts

Beneath His Cold Embrace by @anawritez-posts

Locker room activities* by @jayybugg

Peaceful Sleep by @suugarbabe

Someone Gets Hurt by @anawritez-posts

Runaway Bride by @anawritez-posts

Can’t be Shared* by @etfrin

2K notes · View notes

26wh57 · 25 days

Text

You wake up to the clatter of the early morning butcher shop bustling with activity. Your name is Steve Harrington, a charming 20-year-old with a penchant for getting into absurd situations. Your heart flutters as your crush, Chrissy Cunningham, walks in, her smile brighter than the morning sun.

Amidst the chatter, Lilly Harrington, your sassy and brave 11-year-old sister, is busy teasing Robin Buckley, your loyal 19-year-old best friend. The day takes a turn when an anonymous note is found tucked beneath a stack of sausages, bearing a cryptic warning about the dangers of ignorance.

As the day unfolds, you, Chrissy, Robin, and Lilly embark on a hilarious journey to uncover the mystery behind the note, stumbling into comical mishaps and revelations. Along the way, you realize that ignorance truly is perilous, and that each of you has a lot to learn.

Through a series of misadventures involving mistaken identities, a runaway pig, and a failed attempt at undercover detective work, the group learns valuable lessons about communication, empathy, and the importance of seeking knowledge.

In a heartwarming twist, it's Lilly, with her sharp wit and fearless attitude, who ultimately unravels the mystery, teaching everyone a lesson in humility and the power of seeing things from a different perspective.

As the day comes to a close, surrounded by laughter and newfound understanding, you realize that sometimes the greatest discoveries come from the most unexpected places - even a butcher shop in the heart of a bustling town.

#steve harrington x y/n fluff #steve stranger things #steve harrington #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington x you #my fyp #fypforyou #fypツ #fypfypfypfypfypfypdypfypfypfypfypfypfyfpfyfpfyp #steve x reader

2 notes · View notes

26wh57 · 25 days

Text

Wherever You Point To I’ll Find ~ Steve Harrington x Chrissy Cunningham

Nobody expected a budding romance between Steve and Chrissy when they were invited on this graduation road trip. But, as the two spend more and more time together away from the pressures their families, they just might find that they’re the perfect match.

masterlist | prev. | next

Tags: modern au, road trip, mutual pining, fluff, angst, discussion of mental health and body issues, eventual smut, adult themes and swearing throughout

Word Count: 8.7k

A/N: Perhaps the best part of writing this chapter was the bit that came afterwards when I got to hear @quinnkeerys read it out loud and react to it in real time. This chapter has some of my very favorite bits of the story in it, and I hope you all love it as much as I do <3

In the morning, the group ate a quick breakfast at the hotel before checking out and loading up the car. They had a long drive to Cincinnati ahead of them once they factored in the two hour detour to the World’s Largest Rocking Chair since Eddie insisted that it wasn’t a real road trip if they didn’t see the World’s Largest Something, and they wanted to get on the road as soon as possible so they could combine that detour with a stop for lunch.

Of course, getting Eddie out of bed early enough to stay on schedule meant that he was not ready to face the day when they got in the car. Soon enough, he was dozing off in the backseat, and Nancy fell asleep cuddled up next to him. The silence in the car was deafening, and it only left Chrissy to obsess over every little interaction she’d had with Steve.

It was bad enough that she'd fallen asleep on him the night before, and it only got worse when they'd left the hotel. Steve had put his arm on the back of Chrissy's seat when he'd turned to back out of their parking space, and she'd come close to swooning. She felt like a silly little school girl with a crush, and it was embarrassing. She'd just graduated. She should be over obsessing about this kind of thing by now.

But every time she'd talked herself down from the blushing mess that she'd become, Steve smiled at her as he offered her the aux cord or asked her if the air conditioning was too cold for her, and she was right back at square one again.

She was considering pretending to fall asleep just so she could avoid looking at him when he spoke up.

"So, Jason Carver, huh?"

And just like that, her butterflies were gone. Instead, she could feel the anxiety eating away at her. That horrible, gnawing feeling that appeared whenever anyone mentioned him or wanted her to talk about him. She'd gladly spend the rest of her days as a giggling idiot, embarrassing herself in front of everyone she met if it meant that she never had to hear that name ever again.

"I will literally give you every last cent in my account if you promise to never bring him up around me," she told him. She started picking at the frayed edge of her shorts and avoided looking away from her lap.

"Bad breakup?" he asked.

"Among other things."

"I'm sorry. I won't bring it up again."

"Don't be. It's not your fault . . . You know, he never had a nice thing to say about you."

Chrissy regretted bringing up Jason's opinions of Steve immediately. There was no reason for him to know about that, and now she was going to ruin any chance she had of things ever not being awkward between her and Steve all because she didn't know when to shut her mouth.

"I barely remember anything he said," she told him in an attempt to backtrack and erase her last statement. "I tended to tune him out when he got like that, and you're very obviously nothing like he said you were anyway. He just wasn't your biggest fan."

Steve huffed out a laugh and shook his head.

"He was always like one of those yappy little ankle-biting dogs," he told her. "Just loud and annoying and so desperate to make people pay attention to him. I never really liked the guy either, so whatever he said about me doesn't bother me. If he needed to try to bring me down to make himself feel better, it says a lot more about him than it does about me."

"So you're not mad at me for bringing it up?"

"Not even a little bit."

Chrissy was finally able to relax for a minute. She let out a sigh as she turned slightly to look out her window.

"I wish it was that easy for me to just not care about what other people thought of me."

She said it quietly enough that she didn't know if she was saying it to Steve or to herself, but he still heard her.

"It'll get easier for you now that you're hanging out with the right people."

"You think so?"

"I know so."

She offered up a small smile. Maybe he was right. Maybe being on this trip and spending her time with people who didn't expect a certain image from her was exactly what she needed to start brushing the harsh words off her back.

"Since talking about that is off the table, I have to ask," he started to break the silence. "How did you and Eddie start hanging out? I've come up with maybe half a dozen theories and none of them seem plausible."

"He never told you?"

"All he's ever said is that you were one of his little lost sheep, and you ended up being his favorite of the flock. Whatever that even means."

Chrissy stifled a laugh.

"That sounds like something he'd say," she replied. "And honestly, it's not even that inaccurate."

"Seriously?"

"Yes, seriously. It was maybe a little over a month into my freshman year, and auditions for the first play of the year were after school. I stayed after my last class ended and went to the drama room to get started on my English homework while I waited for auditions to start. Eddie came in and found me sitting on his throne with my nose buried in my copy of A Midsummer Night's Dream. He immediately pointed out that I was sitting in his spot and that most freshmen were smart enough to avoid the school freak. I was terrified."

"You were?" Steve asked. "I can't imagine being scared of him."

"Well yeah. That's because you're you, and you know him. I'd barely been at the school, I'd never met him before, and I'd already seen him give three speeches while standing on top of his table at lunch. He was the most intimidating of all the upperclassmen to me. So I'm just stammering and trying to explain that I didn't know it was his spot, and of course, he could tell that I was scared. When he really realized it, it was like a switch flipped. He sat down on the armrest and his whole demeanor changed. Made some comment about how I was shaking like a little bunny rabbit and asked me to scrunch up my nose so he could get the full effect. Used the overdramatics that I'd seen in the cafeteria to make me laugh until I was at ease around him. Once he could tell that I wasn't afraid of him anymore, he told me that he guessed it was okay if I sat on his throne for the time being, but if he ever caught me there again, he'd pick me up and move me himself.

"I didn't even realize that he was part of the drama club until auditions started. We were paired to read together a couple times during the auditions, and the director kept commenting about how we had this natural chemistry that she hadn't been expecting.

"When the auditions ended, I couldn't get a hold of either of my parents to come and pick me up, and none of my friends were in the drama club, so Eddie offered me a ride. After that, we were cast opposite each other as the sort of leads in the play, and the rest is history. We've been practically inseparable ever since."

“So, he essentially adopted you?” Steve asked.

“Kind of?” she said with a laugh. “Adoption feels like the right term. I consider him and his uncle as family at this point, and I’d like to think that they feel the same way. I know that our friendship makes no sense to anyone looking in on it from the outside. We’re so different, and we traveled in completely opposite social circles for the entirety of high school. On paper, this friendship shouldn’t work, but Eddie is the only person I’ve never felt like I had to hide the real me from. He’s the big brother I never wanted and the best friend I’ve ever had.”

“That’s actually kind of sweet. I’ll be sure to tease him relentlessly for it.”

“Be prepared for the most overly dramatic reaction you’ve ever seen from him then.”

“I don’t think he can get any more over the top than I’ve already seen him. You forget that I also spent four years in high school with him, and I saw many many lunchroom outbursts over the years.”

“Oh yeah? During the first play my junior year, one of the new freshmen assumed that Eddie and I were dating because of how attached at the hip we were all throughout rehearsals. After opening night, the kid asked him if he was going to take me out on a special date to celebrate our performance. When he asked the kid what he meant, his response was that obviously we needed to celebrate as a couple for putting on such a good show. He spent maybe fifteen minutes running around backstage making vomiting noises and moaning about how he could never date his sister. I was laughing so hard that I started crying, and Eddie yelled that the kid was tearing his family apart. It’s one of my favorite and most ridiculous memories from our friendship.”

“Wait. People actually thought you two were dating?”

“You know how Eddie is. Personal space has no meaning to him, so he’s always been an affectionate and physical best friend. Lots of hugs and sitting practically on top of each other and hanging off of each other for no reason. He was my ride home every day until I started driving, and even when other friends tried to make plans with either of us, Sunday afternoons were always specifically reserved for us to spend time together. It’s always been an unwritten rule of our friendship. Put all of that together, and I can maybe see why people thought that there was something more going on there. Plus, when he first started flirting with Nancy, I had to spell it out to her that we weren’t a couple, and he was actually into her. She was convinced we were seeing each other, and she’s maybe the smartest person I’ve ever met. And, for the record, half the school thought Robin was your girlfriend for similar reasons until one of the football players cornered her in the bandshell before one of the games and asked her how she bagged Harrington. She yelled that you two were platonic with a capital P, and then threatened to shove her trumpet up the nose of the next person who insinuated that you two were into each other.”

Steve choked on his laughter, and Chrissy felt a little sense of pride that she could get that reaction from him even if she was just repeating something that one of his friends had said. And with Steve laughing, she couldn’t help but laugh along with him.

Their laughter woke up Eddie and Nancy, and the group decided that they were close enough to the World’s Largest Rocking Chair that they could find somewhere to stop off for lunch before finishing the last little bit of the drive there. Nancy pulled up an interesting looking diner up on her phone and directed Steve on which way to go.

It was only once they were inside the diner and being led to their table that Chrissy realized the seating dilemma. Up until this point, they’d sat at open tables or outside where she’d still have some semblance of personal space no matter who she was sitting beside. But this time, they were given a booth. Eddie slid in on one side and pulled Nancy to sit down beside him leaving Chrissy no other option than to sit beside Steve. Normally, this wouldn’t have been an issue for her. She could share a booth with a friend like that easily. She’d done it with Eddie anytime that they went out with the other drama club kids, and she’d done it with other cheerleaders during many different hangouts. But Steve was different. With the beginnings of a crush making her already feel so incredibly awkward around him, the idea of being trapped between him and the wall with no escape route both scared and excited her.

She slid into the open side of the booth, and Steve followed after her. Their knees bumped under the table as he took his seat, and Chrissy felt her heart skip a beat. She busied herself with staring at the menu in front of her in the hopes that finding a decent lunch option would be enough of a distraction from being this close to Steve that she could act normal.

She shouldn’t have been worried though. She was sitting across from Eddie, and her best friend was always up to something that would keep her from dwelling on whatever she was wrapped up in for too long. This time, he was very enthusiastically ordering a drink off of the kids’ menu and making sure that this was allowed even though he was in fact a twenty year old man and not a six year old.

“What’s so special about a Shark Attack?” Chrissy asked after their waitress had walked away with their menus to place their orders.

“You’ll see when it gets here,” Eddie told her.

She didn’t have to wait very long because the waitress returned shortly with their drinks. The only visual difference that she could see between her glass of ice water and the drink in front of Eddie was that his drink also had a tiny plastic shark sticking out of the ice and floating on top.

“Oh, I get it,” she said. “It comes with a toy and they make it look like it’s crashing out of the water.”

“That’s not the best part. Just watch.”

Nancy and Steve shared a look and an eye roll as Eddie carefully lifted the shark out of his glass and started softly singing the Jaws theme song, but Chrissy was captivated. Eddie plunged the shark headfirst into his drink as he made the accompanying shark attack noises, and the grenadine that was hidden in the shark’s mouth spilled out into the drink turning his Sprite red as if it were the ocean and the shark had just attacked someone and spilled blood.

As soon as she realized what was happening, Chrissy started giggling. She’d never been allowed to order anything like that when she was a child. Her mother always said that anything like that on the kids’ menu had too much sugar, so she had no idea that’s what was to expect from Eddie’s drink. The performance that he put on only enhanced the experience, so she couldn’t help but laugh.

Eddie was beaming at Chrissy, happy that he’d been able to pull such a reaction from her, and normally, Nancy’s attention would have been on the two of them as well. How could she not be paying attention to her boyfriend when he was making a spectacle of himself? This time, however, she found herself glancing over at Steve, and she found that he was entranced by Chrissy, too. He was just sitting there and watching her with this goofy smile on his face, and the inkling that she’d had the night before about there maybe being something starting between them only grew stronger.

Truthfully, it was the first time that Steve had looked at Chrissy that way. Maybe he didn’t notice it before because he was laughing just as hard as she was back in the car, but she was absolutely beautiful when she laughed. She scrunched up her nose, her shoulders shook, and her smile was maybe the biggest he’d ever seen it. If he could, he thought he’d maybe spend every moment with her trying to get her to look that happy for as long as he knew her.

He pulled himself away from those thoughts as quickly as he could though. She’d just implied that her last relationship wasn’t exactly the greatest, and from what she’d said when Eddie brought up making herself a dating profile, it didn’t seem like she was ready to get herself involved with anyone else right now. He didn’t even know if what he was feeling right now was attraction. All he knew was that the little voice in the back of his head was telling him that he’d never grow tired of seeing her smile.

After lunch, they made it the rest of the way to the World’s Largest Rocking Chair. Unfortunately for Eddie, there was no actual way for anyone to sit on the chair, so they had to be content with just taking photos of themselves posing in front of it.

“All I’m saying is that it wouldn’t have hurt anyone if you guys had let me try to climb up there myself,” Eddie pouted once they were back in the car.

“Except it would have hurt someone,” Nancy told him. “Specifically, you when you fell and broke every bone in your body, and I refuse to explain to your uncle why we had to cut our trip short and bring you home in a full body cast.”

Eddie didn’t have time to retort because it was at that moment that someone cut them off in traffic, and Steve had to slam on the breaks. Chrissy tensed up and braced herself for the yelling. Whenever anything like this happened when she was in the car with Jason, he spent the next five minutes honking his horn at the person who cut them off and yelling about how they needed to get their head out of their ass and learn to drive. The reaction to the offense always scared her more than anything else, and she was ready to fold in on herself until she could calm herself down from it.

But the yelling never came. There were no loud noises, and Steve didn’t lean on the horn for an extended period of time. His only reaction was to mutter something under his breath about the driver being a jackass before checking to make sure if everyone was okay. Nancy and Eddie were fine in the backseat, but when he glanced over at Chrissy, she was wide-eyed and stiff as a board.

“Are you okay?” Steve asked.

Chrissy nodded slightly.

“I thought you were going to yell,” she said barely above a whisper.

“I’m not gonna yell,” he said as he reached over and placed a comforting hand on her knee. “I promise.”

At first, she seemed to tense up even more under his touch, but after a moment, he felt her relax as the tension left her body.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked her again.

She nodded again, and he squeezed her knee slightly before withdrawing his hand.

“Thank you.”

Her voice sounded so tiny, and Steve couldn’t tell if it was because of the car that cut them off or whatever it was that was going on inside her head. He just knew that he never wanted her to look that scared around him ever again.

From the backseat, Nancy and Eddie shared a pointed look. They’d have to discuss this when they had a little more privacy. Neither of them could deny that there was some sort of electricity buzzing in the air between Steve and Chrissy, and Nancy was very interested in figuring out what was going on.

The rest of their drive to Cincinnati passed without any major incidents, and the group was able to enjoy their dinner at a normal hour. After they were done eating, Nancy mentioned something about them passing a cute little ice cream shop about five minutes before they made it to their dinner spot, and they should head back that way and get some dessert before heading to their hotel for the night.

Nobody was going to turn down ice cream - even Chrissy who could be content with a single scoop of plain vanilla if they didn’t have any low fat options - so they piled back into the car to head over there.

Once inside the ice cream shop, Eddie made a point of asking for samples of the six different flavors that he was interested in trying just so he could be sure that he chose the right flavor.

“What are you gonna get?” Steve asked Chrissy as he nudged her with his elbow.

“I don’t know. Probably just vanilla.”

“Nope. Absolutely not.”

“What do you mean nope?” she asked with a small giggle. “You can’t dictate my order.”

“Plain vanilla is too boring.”

“But I like plain vanilla.”

“C’mon, Chrissy. You’re on vacation. Live a little.”

Chrissy scanned the ice cream case in front of them. Nancy still had to order before it was her turn, so she had a little bit more time to change things up if she really wanted to. A few flavors stuck out to her, but she was a little overwhelmed by the options. Add in the fact that her mother would be losing her mind over her even thinking about choosing something so rich, and it was going to be a difficult decision to make.

“Okay, then what are you going to get if you know so much?”

“Mint chocolate chip. It’s superior to all other flavors.”

“You go before me then. Give me a little more time to decide since you’re forcing me to change my order.”

“I’m not forcing you to do anything. I’m just trying to be a good influence and get you to enjoy your vacation to the fullest.”

Chrissy waited behind Steve as he ordered his double scoop cone of mint chocolate chip, and when it was her turn to order, she chose a single scoop of salted caramel pretzel in a cup. Steve was right. It was her vacation, and she was allowed to have a little treat if she wanted. They had so much planned for the next day that she’d burn off all the calories from this ice cream and then some, so there was no way her mother could get mad at her for a small indulgence.

“That’s not vanilla,” Eddie pointed out when Chrissy sat down at the table that he, Steve, and Nancy were already occupying.

“I know.”

“But you always get vanilla,” he continued. “I’ve never seen you get anything other than plain vanilla.”

“I’m on vacation,” she said with a small shrug of her shoulders. “I’m living a little.”

Steve smirked and nudged her with his elbow.

“Oh, you hush,” she said as she giggled and nudged him back.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“Yeah, but I know what you’re thinking.”

“I’m just glad you listened to me is all.”

“You know,” Nancy started, “it makes sense that Steve would be the one to get you to try something new. He’s kind of an ice cream expert.”

“He is?”

“Oh yeah,” Eddie continued. “He’s even got the little uniform to prove it.”

“What am I missing here?” Chrissy asked.

“You don’t know?” Nancy asked before turning her attention towards Eddie. “How have you never taken her there?”

“Completely slipped my mind. Usually, we just hang out at the trailer or the school. I’m only ever over there when I need to go to the music store or we’re bothering Steve. There’s no other reason to be there.”

Steve groaned. “Do we really have to talk about this?”

“Absolutely, we do,” Eddie replied. “I mean, we’re in an ice cream shop. I can’t think of a more appropriate place for us to be talking about this.”

“Can someone please fill me in on it then?”

Steve looked up at the ceiling and let out an exasperated sigh.

“Do you remember that ice cream shop in the mall?” he asked her.

“Kind of? I can’t say I’ve ever been there, but isn’t everything sailor themed with super dorky puns for the flavor names?”

“Scoops Ahoy. I kinda worked there for the last year.”

“Well, that explains why the other cheerleaders wanted to spend so much time there.”

“And you didn’t go with them?” Nancy asked.

“I don’t really eat a lot of sweets.” Chrissy stared down at her hands in her lap. “And I always figured that there was no point in going if I wasn’t going to be buying anything, so I skipped those hangouts.”

She neglected to add that the main reason she didn’t go to most of those hangouts was because of the things she’d heard from both her mother and Jason about spending time at the ice cream shop. Jason had always been more subtle in his cruelty, but whenever Chrissy had mentioned that the girls were planning on getting ice cream after a game, he’d always had something to say about how it was fine if the other girls wanted to do it, but questioned if Chrissy really wanted to have to have an extra work out session over something as silly as a little S. S. Butterscotch. Even if she had been thinking that it was maybe okay for her to get a treat, his comments always left her feeling undeserving.

Steve was too busy being grateful that Chrissy had never seen him in that goofy sailor getup to realize how quiet she’d just gotten. It wasn’t that he was embarrassed that he had worked there. He’d gotten over that a while ago. Now it was just some job that he’d had to suffer through and was glad to be rid of it now that he’d finished his last shift there. It was just easier for people to still think he was cool if they hadn’t seen him as an ice cream-slinging sailor, and part of him hoped that Chrissy thought he was maybe just a little bit cool.

Those hopes were dashed the second she spoke again.

“So, who has pictures of Steve in uniform, and when can I see them?” she asked.

“Absolutely not,” Steve replied. “You have to earn the right to see those pictures.”

“And how would one go about earning that right?”

“For starters, you could give me a taste of your ice cream,” he said as he reached for her cup. “Which only seems fair since I’m the one who convinced you to get something interesting.”

Chrissy moved to hold her ice cream out of his reach. “I don’t think so. If you wanted to try a new flavor, you could have gotten something other than mint chocolate chip.”

“But what if I wanted my favorite flavor and to try something new?”

“I mean, Eddie had like six different samples before he made his decision. You could have done that, too.”

“C’mon. Just one little taste and maybe I’ll let them show you one picture.”

He wrapped his arm around her waist to pull her closer to him on the bench seat that they were sharing in an attempt to be able to reach her ice cream better. Having him hold onto her like that caused her brain to short circuit, and by the time she realized what was happening, he’d already stuck a finger into her cup. Just before he was about to stick his finger in his mouth, she grabbed his wrist and accidentally made him swipe the ice cream across his own nose instead.

“I am so sorry,” she told him through her giggles. “I didn’t mean to do that.”

Part of her thought that maybe she should go and grab him some napkins or something, but she couldn’t will herself to move. His arm was still wrapped around her waist keeping her pressed up against his side, and the part of her that was harboring a crush on him wouldn’t allow her to get up.

Eddie started to say something, but he was cut off by Nancy gripping his thigh under the table. She shot him a look in an attempt to silently let him know that she wanted to see how this was going to all play out.

Across the table, Steve still had his arm wrapped around Chrissy, and neither of them were making any moves to do anything about the ice cream smeared on Steve's face. Chrissy could feel her face heating up from the intensity of the eye contact that they were making. It would have been so easy for her to just wipe it off his face herself, but she couldn't bring herself to cross that boundary. Which only made her start to think that she was being ridiculous. What boundary was left in this situation when he was still holding her so close? She was making things so awkward by not saying anything or moving, and surely, he was going to avoid her for the rest of the trip.

On the other hand, Steve was starting to think that Chrissy's silence meant that she was uncomfortable. He'd made things awkward by trying to steal her ice cream, and she was too polite to tell him off. She was probably sitting there thinking he looked like an idiot with that smear on his nose, and that's why she couldn't tear her gaze away from his face.

Steve's arm retracted from its spot around Chrissy's waist, but she didn't even have time to register that she missed it because he had chosen to wipe away the ice cream by lifting up the bottom of his shirt to use it as a napkin. Seeing the exposed skin of his chest had her thinking about him half-naked again, and she was trying very hard not to think about that as it was.

To keep herself from staring, Chrissy got up from her spot and went to grab some napkins. As he watched her rush away, Steve couldn't help but think she was desperate to put some space between them and the awkward situation he'd created.

But, when she came back to the table, she sat right back down next to him like she had been before. She handed him a couple napkins, and then produced a second spoon for her ice cream. She scooped up a little bite and held out the spoon for Steve.

"You really don't have to do that," he told her.

"I know. But I feel bad that I essentially shoved ice cream up your nose, so I think I can spare a little taste. Just this once."

Steve thanked her and took the spoon. As he ate what she offered, he promised himself that he'd do whatever it took to get Chrissy to joke around with him like that again.

"Can I ask you what's maybe a weird question?" Steve asked Eddie once they were alone in their hotel room for the night.

"Sure. What's up?"

"This morning, I brought up Jason in the car just trying to make conversation with Chrissy, and she was really vague and weird about it."

"That wasn't a question. That was a statement."

"I just wanna know why. She said it was more than just a bad break up, but she wouldn't go into detail about it. And then there was that whole thing in the car where she was afraid I was going to yell. I never wanna do anything that makes her look that terrified, you know? And I promised her that I wouldn't bring him up around her again, so I figured that I could maybe ask you about it instead."

Eddie paused in the middle of getting changed and let out a deep sigh.

"Listen," he said as he sat down on the edge of his bed. "I care about Chrissy more than I care about pretty much anyone else, and the last thing I want is for her to be scared or relive any of that bullshit, but it's not my story to tell. If she doesn't want to talk about Jason and her relationship with him, it's for a good reason, and you've gotta respect that."

"I just . . . I know you won't share all the details, but I just want to know if there's anything I can avoid doing to make her feel safe . . . Did he hurt her?"

"I told you. It's not my story to tell." Eddie got up from his spot on the bed and moved to lean against the bathroom door in an attempt to put some distance between them. He ran a hand over his face trying to wipe away the frustration he was feeling over whether he should tell Steve anything or not. On the one hand, if Chrissy hadn't wanted to talk about it with Steve, it was pretty clear to him that Steve didn't need to know the whole story. Nancy didn't even know the whole story, and Eddie typically told her everything. This was different though. He just couldn't break Chrissy's trust.

On the other hand, Eddie watched the way Steve and Chrissy played around together. He couldn't remember the last time he'd seen her laugh as hard as she did with Steve in the car that morning, and he could tell that these questions were coming from a place of genuine concern and not a need for gossip. So while he couldn't tell Steve the full story, he could talk about the details that he was involved in and hope that gets the point across.

"You remember how I always said that Jason was a Capital A Asshole? And how you always thought he was annoying and too focused on impressing the basketball guys over actually being a decent person? Well, take all of that and everything you assumed I was exaggerating about and make it at least fifty times shittier. He's worse than any of us ever imagined, and I didn't do anything about it because I made a promise to Chrissy that I'd stop fucking up my life on her behalf.

"So, when you ask me if he hurt her, all I can say is that I know he never laid a hand on her because if he did, I would have thrown that promise out the window, and Jason would have spent his senior year in a full body cast. But that doesn't mean he didn't put her through it, and that doesn't mean I didn't turn a blind eye to a lot of things because she told me that she could handle him on her own. And I really can't say anything more than that without betraying Chrissy's trust, and that's something I'll never do."

Steve stayed quiet after that. As much as he wanted to ask more about what Chrissy had gone through, he knew that he was dangerously close to overstepping a boundary, and he'd rather not piss off Eddie right before he was supposed to share a room with him. But he couldn't resist asking one more thing.

"So she wasn't scared of me in the car?"

"No. It wasn't you. I'm pretty sure it was just the situation. Besides, if she was scared of you, I don't think she'd have done whatever it is you two were doing with that ice cream."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Uh huh. Sure. 'Oh Chrissy, you have to let me try your ice cream. Let me just pull you up against me so you can feel how muscley my arms are.'" After impersonating Steve, Eddie switched positions and raised his voice in pitch to mimic Chrissy. "'Oh Steve, I'm ever so sorry that I turned your nose into a booger sundae. Let me sensually feed you a bite as an apology.'"

Steve grabbed a pillow from the bed that he was sitting on and hurled it at Eddie's head.

"That's not what happened and you know it. And it's not like there's anything between us anyway. We just met."

"Keep telling yourself that, Stevie," he said as he tossed the pillow back. "But I know what it looks like when you're into someone, and I definitely know what it looks like when she's into someone, so I'm pretty sure I can tell when the two of you are blatantly flirting in front of me. Do with that information what you will."

With that, Eddie ducked into the bathroom to leave Steve alone with his thoughts. He was certain that he hadn't been flirting with Chrissy. They were just a couple of buddies messing around with each other. That's all.

But no matter how much he wanted to believe that, he couldn't deny that there was a part of him that wanted to spend more time with her. That wanted to be the reason that she was smiling just like she had been earlier that evening. There was something special about her, and he was eager to learn more.

The first stop the next morning was the Newport Aquarium, and despite his best efforts, Steve was still fixated on what Eddie had said the night before. It didn't help that Eddie had dragged Nancy off to do their own thing the second that they were inside. He told himself that he was only going with Chrissy because it would be rude to leave her to wander the aquarium alone when they could easily walk around together. That was the only reason.

But then he saw the way that her face lit up when they walked into the jellyfish gallery. The lighting in the room bathed her in this purple glow, and he had to stop himself from staring at her while he was supposed to be watching the jellyfish.

That's what Chrissy was doing anyway. She wasn't gawking at Steve like an idiot the way he felt like he was staring at her. He pulled out his phone and took a few sneaky candids of her without her noticing. He knew that he was supposed to show her every photo that he took of her immediately. That was the deal they'd made anyway. She had to approve of every photo, or they had to be deleted. Those were the rules.

But he didn't want her to decide those pictures weren't worthy of saving. Not right now when he was in awe of how one person could be so beautiful. So he pulled Mister Fibbley out of his pocket and took a picture of the tiny squirrel with the jellyfish, pretending that he'd never been focused on Chrissy at all.

When he stepped around the same jellyfish enclosure that she was looking at, Chrissy waved at Steve through the glass before sticking her tongue out at him. He feigned offense before mimicking her expression, and he felt something grip inside his chest when she started giggling and making more funny faces at him. Who knew that Chrissy Cunningham was such a dork, and who knew that that was exactly Steve's type? Both of these were revelations to Steve, and he was starting to think that maybe what Eddie had said the night before wasn't as ridiculous as he'd originally thought.

He didn't know how to deal with that though. The last thing he wanted to do was make a move on her if that wasn't what she wanted and Eddie was wrong about her being interested in him. That would lead to the most uncomfortable road trip of his life, and he'd had enough of those with his parents over the years.

But he could talk to her and joke around with her. He could let her pull him around to the different exhibits and go at her pace to keep her company. He could just enjoy getting to spend time with her on her terms. And, if Eddie was right, and she was interested in him? Well, that was just a bonus.

When they'd made it through the aquarium, they separated to look around the gift shop. Steve had pretty much determined that there was nothing he wanted to buy there when he looked over at Chrissy and saw that she had the biggest smile on her face as she was looking at a small gator plushie and wiggling its paws back and forth. He watched her play with it a moment before she left it abandoned on the shelf.

The next thing Steve knew, he was at the checkout counter buying the plushie for her. He wasn't entirely sure why, but he thought that maybe he could express his interest in her in subtle ways like that, and if she was open to what he was doing, she could make the first move.

When they got back in the car, Steve passed his souvenir bag over to Chrissy.

"For you."

He watched as she pulled out the plushie and her face lit up again.

"You didn't have to do that."

"I know, but I wanted to."

"Thank you. That was really sweet of you."

"Don't mention it."

He thought he could see a little bit of a blush starting to grow on her cheeks as she grinned down at the plush and wiggled its little paws again, and he smiled to himself. He thought that maybe he could be content with just being the one to make her look that happy. For now.

The next stop on Nancy's itinerary was Loveland Castle. She was hoping to explore a little, and Eddie figured he could use it as inspiration for a future campaign. Chrissy just wanted to find a shady spot to relax and enjoy how nice of a day it was, and Steve offered to keep her company. They planned on making the drive to West Virginia that night, and he figured he could take the time to relax since he'd be the one doing the late night drive.

The two found a tree to sit under, and Steve sprawled out in the grass with Chrissy sitting beside him. He just looked so peaceful laying there with his eyes closed and his arms back behind his head that she couldn't resist taking the opportunity to snap a couple candids for him.

As she was taking her last picture, Steve opened his eyes.

"Oh, are we taking candids now?" he asked.

"Just a couple. I hope that's okay."

"Doesn't bother me. It just means that I should probably take a couple of you."

"You don't have to do that. I don't need more pictures of myself."

"C'mon, Chrissy," he started as he sat up. "How are you ever gonna have a decent Bumble account if you don't have any pictures for it?"

"Fine. But I still get to choose which ones get deleted, okay?"

Steve nodded before pulling out his phone. He took his first picture a little too early and caught Chrissy mid-stretch.

"I wasn't ready yet!" Chrissy said as she moved her hands to cover her face. "You have to delete that one."

"They're not candids if you're posing for them though. Just trust the process. Relax and ignore the fact that I'm here."

So, that's what she did. She ignored Steve and played with her phone. She leaned back and looked off into the distance. She tried to be relaxed and calm and casual and cool and everything that she thought she should be in pictures. She let Steve work his magic.

But, with every picture that he took, Steve couldn't come up with a good reason why he was doing this. There was something special about Chrissy. She joked around with him and made goofy faces. She had the best smile, and she was so easy to talk to. She was beautiful, but she was so much more than that, and the idea of some other guy getting to experience all of that because of pictures he took made him sick. He wanted to be the one to make Chrissy blush, and with every picture he took, he felt a pang of jealousy echoing in his chest.

"Can I see them now?" Chrissy asked, biting down on her lower lip.

Steve hesitated. He hated that he did it, but he hesitated. Even in the photo where she was stretching, she was maybe the most beautiful person he'd ever seen. He didn't want some other guy seeing these. He knew it was selfish and wrong of him the second he did it, but he lied to her.

"I don't know," he replied. "I don't think they turned out very good. They're kind of blurry. I just dont think I'm very good at catching just the right moment, you know? But we can try again later if you want."

"That's okay," she said as she stared at her lap. "I understand."

And maybe if Steve wasn't feeling so guilty about lying to her, he would have seen the way her face fell.

He might have said that the pictures were unusable because they were blurry, but in Chrissy's mind, she knew the real reason. She just didn't photograph well. She could hear her mother's voice in the back of her mind telling her that she didn't have any good angles, so there was no point in trying. No picture of her would ever be good enough, and Steve was too nice to tell her the truth. He only said they were blurry to protect her feelings.

As much as she hated those thoughts, they stayed with her, and she stayed quiet. As her mind played tricks on her and attacked the very little self-confidence she had, she didn't speak much throughout dinner, and she spaced out in the car afterwards.

Nancy and Eddie had fallen asleep in the back seat, and Steve was focused on the road, so that left her to stare out the window alone with her thoughts and the musical theater playlist that she'd convinced Steve to let her put on playing softly in the background.

"You're really quiet over there. What's on your mind?" Steve eventually asked her.

"Nothing."

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

She had pulled out her phone and flipped through her camera roll. With every single picture of herself that she saw, the voice in her head got louder as it pointed out every single imperfection - real or imagined. The voice in her head didn't care. It just wanted her to feel as small and insignificant as it knew she was.

Steve glanced over at her and noticed what she was doing. He also noticed that she looked close to tears, and that nearly broke him. He didn't know what was going on in her head, but he knew it couldn't be good from the look on her face. He wasn't stupid. He noticed how quiet she got after he'd taken her picture earlier, and he noticed how quiet that she'd been since then. More quiet than she usually was. And he had a feeling that it was probably his fault. The guilt from earlier resurfaced, and he knew that he had to do something to keep her from crying. So, he did the only thing he could think of. He unlocked his phone and passed it over to her.

"Open my camera roll and then open the favorites tab," he told her without looking away from the road.

Chrissy was hesitant, but she followed his instructions and was surprised to find that all of his recent favorites were of her. There were a handful of the photos that he'd taken outside of the castle, but there were also a bunch of photos she hadn't realized he'd taken. Ones of her all throughout the aquarium. One of her laughing at one of Eddie's stupid jokes. Just a bunch of tiny moments that he'd wanted to preserve.

"If it isn't already obvious, I lied earlier," he told her. "There was nothing wrong with any of the photos I took of you, and I'm sorry for whatever my lies made you think. I just hated the idea of you asking me to delete them, and I really couldn't stand the idea of another guy seeing them. That doesn't justify what I did, but you deserved to know the truth. It was a dick move, and I'm really sorry. You can text whichever ones that you like to yourself and delete them off my phone if you want. And you don't have to save your number or anything if you think I'm a jerk. I'll understand if you don't really wanna talk to me anymore after that."

Chrissy stayed quiet as she flipped back through Steve's favorites folder again. She tried to see herself the way that he did, and while it didn't fully quiet her mother's voice, the fact that Steve liked the way she looked enough to consider pictures of her his favorites helped to make it a little quieter.

"So you don't think I look terrible?" she asked.

"Terrible? How could anyone ever think you look terrible?" he asked. "You're beautiful, Chrissy, and anyone who's ever made you feel otherwise is clearly blind."

"For the record, I don't think it was a dick move," she said after a moment. "It's actually kind of sweet."

"Oh yeah? Does that mean you've got a bunch of photos of me that you haven't shared yet?"

He glanced over at her and noticed that she'd started blushing again. He'd never get tired of having that effect on her.

"It's fine," he told her. "Keep them to yourself if you like. I'm starting to think that maybe dating apps aren't really my thing."

"It's the same for me. Who needs 'em?"

"Yeah, who needs 'em?"

The pair shared a smile before Steve turned his full attention back towards the road, and Chrissy went back to looking at Steve's camera roll. She sent herself every single picture that Steve had saved of her. Maybe if she looked at herself through Steve's eyes, it might be a little easier for her.

She was about to tell him that she was saving her number in his contacts when she realized he was softly singing along to the song that was playing - "Her Voice" from the Little Mermaid stage musical - and she whipped her head around to face him.

"How do you know this song?" she asked.

"Hmm?"

"You're singing. And maybe this is me making a silly assumption, but I really didn't think that the Steve Harrington was a musical theater guy. Especially a musical theater guy who knows a song that only appears in the stage adaptation of a Disney classic."

"I had this nanny as a kid who was really into musicals. I don't remember most of the stuff she played for me, but she was really into The Little Mermaid, and I guess this one song just kind of stuck? It just sounds nice." He shrugged. "Maybe a more important question, but why don't you ever sing along? Someone who's passionate enough about musicals to have created their own musical theater playlist definitely seems like the kind of person to sing along to said playlist in the car."

"Oh, I'm not much of a singer. I love musicals, but I'm not really the kind of person to be in them."

From the tone of her voice, he could tell there was something else going on there, but he didn't want to press her any further. He could ask her more about that another time.

When they finally made it to the hotel, they woke Nancy and Eddie up, and the group made their way into their separate rooms.

Nancy was back asleep almost as soon as she climbed into bed, but Chrissy stayed up for just a little bit longer. She found herself scrolling through the photos that Steve had taken of her again, and she couldn't help but smile. She picked her favorite of the ones that he'd taken at the castle earlier, and she posted it to her instagram account. No long and wordy captions. Just a single smiling emoji surrounded by hearts.

Just as she was about to set her phone down, her screen lit up with two notifications. The first let her know that she'd been followed by the account of one Steve Harrington, and the second let her know that he was the first to like her photo. She bit her lip in a smile as she sunk down into her pillows, and she fell asleep thinking that maybe the little voice in her head was wrong. Maybe she really was beautiful.

25 notes · View notes

26wh57 · 27 days

Note

Hello, would you mind doing a fic about Luke Dunphy x reader like if they where more into their relationship?

Dating Luke Dunphy would include...

just like Luke, your relationship would be chaotic

you didn't quite know when you started dating, it just happened

but you didn't question it because with luke it feels easy

You would spend a lot of time at his house because his parents seemed to approve of you a lot more than your parents approved of him

which means you are usually tied up in whatever Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker-Delgado nonsense is happening

outside of this though, Luke, although he has his moments, likes the calm

his favourite thing to do is to lie down and just talk about nothing and everything all at once.

he also likes to have his hair played with during this but he will deny it if asked

Movie nights are super common

You both try to find the worst movies to watch (velocopastor makes a frequent appearance)

Haley lets you borrow dresses when you go somewhere a bit nicer on dates

When Luke is working at the country club, he invites you down of an evening as he gets a discount on the food there

It’s one of the few places you are less likely to be disturbed so he favours here above most other places

He has also learnt not to leave you alone with Manny for too long

He kept going on about how “a fine temptress such as yourself shouldn’t be burdened with a creature like Luke”

Most of all though, dating Luke means that you have a second family who will always be there

Masterlist | Buy me a coffee?

838 notes · View notes

26wh57 · 27 days

Text

Baby plus Comments meets Horny Boyfriend

Pairing: Luke Dunphy x Girlfriend!reader

Characters: Luke Dunphy, Girlfriend!reader, Manny Delgado, Gloria Delgado-Pritchett, Jay Pritchett, Claire Dunphy, Phil Dunphy, Haley Dunphy, Alex Dunphy, Mitchell Pritchett, Cameron Tucker, Joe Pritchett

Warnings: Fluff, boys being boys, Manny and Luke being idiots, reader being a sweetheart, characters being potentially ooc, Luke gets jealous easily, Luke is a horny little shit, Phil is still the same nonchalant dad and we love him, mentions of Phil trying to do his magic

Word Count: 404

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alex exits the room, and their comments are idiotic per usual. You glance back at the two. "You're both idiots."

Manny nearly gasps, drawing his inner Gloria energy. "I'm offended you would put me in the same category as your boyfriend."

You nearly roll your eyes. "Did either of you notice Joe was in the car with us or outside the door messing with one of your plants?"

Manny and Luke turn to one another, the latter shrugs.

"No, right? That's why Alex was saying those things, not because she's sending mixed signals, it's because your little brother slash young uncle is adorable." You smile, holding your hand out for him. "Come on, baby Joe."

You turn back towards the two once you get the youngin in your arms. "Now, if you'll excuse me, someone needs to clean himself up before his mama comes up here and sees the dirt."

Your boyfriend pouts. "Why does he get your attention?"

You glance back at Luke, "get a baby and maybe you'll be cute."

He smirks, taking a step towards you. "Oh my- Luke no. I'm not going to have a baby with you."

You two turn and see everyone's attention on your conversation. "Oh, great."

"It's not like I made everyone look at us."

You narrow your eyes at him.

"Ay, what happened to Joe?" Gloria asks, seeing how dirty her son is.

"He decided to take a deep dive into one of the plants upstairs. So, I was going to see what I could clean up before determining if he needs a bath yet or not."

"That's so nice of you, thank you."

"Mr. Dunphy?"

"How many times have I told you to call me, Phil?"

"When I'm not mad at your son, we'll talk."

"But your never not mad at him."

You thin your lips, raise your brows, and tilt your head as if to say I told you so.

He sighs, looking up at his son. "Luke?"

The teen avoids making eye contact with anyone.

"He needs to go out and do something with himself."

"Ah, I got it. He needs to practice his magic."

An evil smirk dances across your lips. "Exactly. See you, baby."

"Wait- no." His shoulders slump as your figure disappears into the bathroom.

"Really, Luke? Here of all places?" Claire shakes her head.

He shrugs, "what can I say? She's hot."

Haley and Alex roll their eyes.

154 notes · View notes

26wh57 · 1 month

Text

𝓒ouple of idiots, walker scobell

request ⦂ anon - “ Could you write another Walker x reader fic? I'd read anything tbh ”

word count ⦂ 0.3k

content ⦂ fem reader , whole lotta fluff

a/n ⦂ headcanons!! , i loved making this

bf! walker scobell who sends random eminem memes to you throughout the day

walker : me when you don’t call me *insert sad eminem meme*

bf! walker scobell who doesn’t share his oreo’s and will eat a whole pack right in front of your face

“ walkerrrr , lemme have some! ”

“ erm, no ” *downs the whole pack*

bf! walker scobell who will literally call you over his house just to watch tiktoks with you

“ oh my god , n/n , look at this ”

bf! walker scobell who kisses you every time you put on lipgloss or lipstick

“ kiss me ”

“ but i just put my lipgloss on? ”

“ so? ”

bf! walker scobell who made you dress up as robin to his batman for halloween

“ i’m batman ”

“ ok , but why am i robin? ”

bf! walker scobell who shows you all the edits of him on tiktok and giggle the whole time

“ look at me , i’m so handsome ”

bf! walker scobell who tries makes a fort with you during a sleepover

“ walker , it’s gonna fall over ”

“ nu-uh ”

bf! walker scobell who calls you just to make a dad joke

“ what did the blanket say as it fell off the bed? ”

“ i don’t know, what? ”

“ oh sheet ” *hangs up*

bf! walker scobell who reluctantly lets you take 0.5 pics of him

“ what are you doing? ”

“ taking a picture of my boyfriend ”

“ from that angle? ”

“ yes ”

bf! walker scobell who lets you paint his back whenever

“ walker , can you stop moving? ”

“ sorry- it tickles ”

bf! walker scobell who just stares at you with heart eyes whenever you’re talking to him

“ why are you staring like that? ”

“ because you’re pretty. ”

“ awh, anyways like i was saying— ”

bf! walker scobell who listens to your rants even when he’s gaming

“ walker , are you even listening? ”

“ mhm , totally. ”

“ then what did i say? ”

“ something about— i don’t know. ”

bf! walker scobell who always walks behind you in public

“ y’know , you don’t always have to walk behind me ”

“ yeah , but i want to. ”

“ why? ”

“ .. to protect you? ”

bf! walker scobell who cuddles you after filming a scene with him (if you’re apart of the pjo cast)

“ y/nnn ”

“ hm? ”

“ we should cuddle right now ”

2K notes · View notes

26wh57 · 1 month

Text

steve is a protective lover boy

1984 hes blocking you from danger in the byers house , hes forcing you to stay in the bus with the kids and when the demodog is above max he shoves all of you outta the way so hard you get a bruise but he ices it and kisses it everytime he sees it reminding you that he did it to protect you.

1985 you guys somehow got separated you’re with eleven and hes in the russian base , when you guys all meet up again he runs to you almost knocking you over , grabbing your face your arms making sure you have few to no cuts , he shoves you into his chest his heart beating rapidly because he was so scared of losing you , his bruises hurting less because hes with you again. during the battle of starcourt he makes sure you’re standing behind him but still making sure you’re throwing fireworks as well , when everything is done he makes sure to take you to a doctor to check for hearing loss and ptsd and when the nightmares hit he holds you through them, you doing the same.

1986 you visit him everyday at family video , the day chrissy is on the news he immediately thinks of the worst because you’re not there , he drives straight to your apartment and finds you getting ready to leave because you already heard and once again he shoves you into his chest being so thankful it wasn’t you on the news, the entire time you’re with him, when he jumps into the water he makes sure to give you a bruising kiss and he scolds you to stay on the boat no matter what, you don’t listen diving in immediately when he gets pulled under the water , you end up in the upside down stabbing and stepping on bats , if one grabs you steve isn’t afraid to bite into it , hes the one bleeding and yet he tries to make sure you’re fine, getting through the gate back to real hawkins he makes sure you go first and he cushions you with whatever he can find in the trailer, he makes you stay back with max on the last day knowing you would want to be there anyway, when he gets back and your face is tear struck and youre unable to move yourself away from maxs mangled body he realizes bruises are littering your body and he pulls you into his arms softly to not hurt you more than you already are giving you his dirty jacket , when you can’t look away from max he realizes you don’t need him to hold you , he lifts max effortlessly and he assures both you and lucas she’ll be fine , that you guys need to be there for each other , he makes sure you and lucas are trailing him and when he gets into the car he lies max down onto the passenger seat , pushed and reclined all the way back so she isn’t hurt more , he covers her with a blanket to keep her warm then he seats you and lucas down in the backseat covering you both with the many blankets he keeps in there for when you get cold and when he finds out andy was the reason for you being hurt he has no problem making his life a living hell.

540 notes · View notes

26wh57 · 1 month

Text

Title: Sweet and Salty

Working at Scoops Ahoy had always been a dream come true for me, especially because it meant spending time with my crush, Steve Harrington. The days spent surrounded by ice cream and sailor hats were always made brighter by his presence, his charm cutting through the mundane tasks.

One seemingly ordinary day, as I served up scoops of mint chocolate chip, I noticed a familiar face in line. To my dismay, it was my ex-boyfriend, accompanied by his new girlfriend. A rush of mixed emotions flooded through me as I tried to maintain my composure.

As I glanced nervously at Steve, I noticed his expression shift ever so slightly. His keen gaze caught mine, and I saw a flicker of concern in his eyes. Sensing my discomfort, he smoothly stepped in, engaging our unexpected visitors in friendly banter, effortlessly diffusing the tension that hung in the air.

Throughout the encounter, Steve's easy charm and quick wit never faltered. He expertly navigated the situation, ensuring that I felt supported and at ease despite the awkward circumstances. I couldn't help but admire his kindness and thoughtfulness, his actions speaking volumes more than any words could convey.

By the time my ex and his girlfriend left, I felt a mix of relief and gratitude wash over me. As I turned to thank Steve, I found him smiling warmly, his eyes crinkling at the corners in a way that made my heart skip a beat. In that moment, amidst the swirl of emotions, I knew that working at Scoops Ahoy had just become even sweeter with Steve by my side.

#steve harrington x y/n fluff #steve stranger things #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington #steve harrington x you #fypforyou #fypツ #fypfypfypfypfypfypdypfypfypfypfypfypfyfpfyfpfyp #steve x reader #my fyp

20 notes · View notes

26wh57 · 1 month

Text

nobody’s daughter

steve harrington x hopper!reader / ex’s to lovers

tw: hurt/comfort. mentions of alcohol, vomiting and more vomiting. in love with steve I can’t do more. robin and steve being the best characters as always. scenarios based after the battle of the mall and the “death” of hopper.

let’s be honest... you weren’t able to forget every moment of your life, especially now, your ass sitting in a bar away from the town called Eddie’s Hideout, one of your friends used to work playing with his band. how could your body keep so much information?, you didn’t know how you had survived, not only the first time nor the last time.

it was your fourth round of tequila shots and several drinks, you wanted to forget everything, forget about the memories of Billy’s death, the nightmares you had, the pain in your chest just thinking that Max had been left completely alone and that as much as you and eleven had been left alone.

“i think it’s time to go home” the bartender, called tate, i watch you fall on the bar almost without being able to take your own weight on your body “do you have someone to call?”

that question broke you, you didn’t have anyone, Joyce couldn’t pick you up, much less eddie or nancy, Jonathan would be spending his last days with nancy...robin.

“robin, uhm, robin could come for me” you spoke dragging the words completely forgetting that robin was driving a second-hand bike and barely driving it correctly. when you dictated the number you didn’t exactly give his number, you gave that of steve harrington, better known as your ex-boyfriend.

for some reason the one who answered if it was Robin, who was staying at Steve’s house to accompany him since the battle of the shopping center had passed.

“hey, robin?, talk to the barista of the hideout... I have an older mini hopper here and I need them to come for her” the barista talked to the blonde making her get up from the guest room almost falling out of bed

“is she okay?” Robin walked with the big cable and the phone in his hand towards the worried room, he only received the obvious answer that you were very drunk and that you could hardly with your own body. “uhm, we will go there in 15 minutes maximum”

robin took his clothes and began to knock on the door of steve’s room forcefully until the tall boy with candy eyes appeared with scrambled hair, with a less swollen face and a scar on his cheekbone.

“robin, it’s two in the morning, now what?” Steve seemed annoyed, he had barely got the dream and when he was doing it Robin came to interrupt

“get dressed and let’s go to hideout” Robin spoke putting on his shirt and his red sneakers, looked for his glasses before turning to see steve again

“why?, i don’t feel like a night out for drinks robs” when steve was about to return to his room, Robin said your name and that you needed them, then don’t hesitate two seconds to take his shoes and his jacket to get to the door and take the keys to his car.

robin didn’t say anything on the trip, you could feel the anxiety of the two of you, you had sworn that you were fine, you just needed time alone to be able to mentalize everything you were going through, steve internally was very sorry for everything, especially if he had listened to you.

“here, i’ll go get her” robin spoke by taking off his belt before seeing steve do exactly the same thing as her, turn off the car and start unbuttoning his belt “what are you supposed to do?”

“what do i do? go with you, duh” he replied looking at the bar that he had gone a few times just to distract himself with robin or without her, he let out a sigh and thought of you. will you be okay?

as soon as they entered the bar they found everything, a couple at a table, a group of drunks on a corner and the bar almost empty but not the bar, you were with two shots in your hands taking them at the same time, I knew tate, I knew who tate was and I was in front of you taking out and drying glasses while I tried to talk to you.

“hey” steve greeted the barista while robin approached to see if you were missing any eyelashes or if you were fine, you were less because of the scar that the Russians had left on your forehead, an open wound. He did the same, with his heart in his hand watching you from his place.

you had a blue dress, his favorite color, your black boots, running makeup, implying that you had cried and gone through all your stages of drunkenness, you didn’t have a bag, you didn’t have anything, it was just you and that’s it.

“time to go home” Robin murmured to you looking at your three rounds of shots, you denied twice as you approached to hug her “it’s time to go home”

“i have no place to stay,” you replied by closing your eyes, “the cabin was destroyed and I don’t want to bother Joyce” and if it was true, you had nowhere to stay.

steve let out a sigh watching Robin help you get up to start walking staggering, in a curve to the door of the bar where you stopped as soon as you had reached the middle of the road to the car. I try not to touch you, or approach you I didn’t want to make you feel uncomfortable.

what you did feel was the vomit in your throat and you couldn’t help but vomit on the sidewalk, Robin was intolerant of vomiting and pushed away most of his body almost letting you fall making steve take his place, taking you by the sides off your hair away from your face, caressing your back and then taking off his jacket and putting it on your shoulders.

he didn’t avoid it and took you in his arms, giving the keys to Robin to open the back seat, Robin went up with you to the back seat to prevent you from being alone and Steve drove as fast as he could to his house.

you babbled a lot of things, Robin caressed your hair and saw your violet, green and scarred knuckles, he remembered when they saw you with your hand bleeding when trying to derive the metal wall to get steve out and be able to run from the Russian basements but you only hurt yourself.

“head up” Robin murmured taking your head to raise it gently, steve when parking, took his keys and approached you, watched Robin and was tired “i’ll go get a bottle of water for her”

they walked to the kitchen, he was with you in your arms and leaving you on the couch to start taking off your shoes, your legs had bruises but it was covered with your black socks.

“head up, cute” steve murmured seeing you almost fall on your own weight, before opening your mouth when Robin asked you to be able to give you water and hydrate “you can go to sleep if you want, i have it from here”

“i’ll look for something for-“ robin murmured taking the water bottle before seeing steve deny

“i’ll give him a t-shirt of mine, i just need you to help me open the door of my room and that’s it,” he asked again, carrying your arms again, your hands on his neck and his hands under your thighs.

robin looked at you on the couch and her heart became so small that she couldn’t feel it, she felt miserable with her life but... you? you had practically been orphaned, the only person I had seen for you since he met you had left

“claire called” you murmured as soon as steve sat you in his bed “i can’t stay at his house even in the apartment he has here and he doesn’t use” you laughed with your eyes closed “i just want to sleep and not wake up in days, she supposed to be my mom, not someone else, i’m not a niece, i’m her daughter.”

steve looked at your face and couldn’t help but smile again, he had never stopped thinking about you, even he was the one who refused to end the relationship but you insisted so much that he couldn’t fight, it had only been a week but there wasn’t a day that he didn’t pick up the phone to call Joyce and ask her how you were doing.

the only answer he had during that week had been “eddie said he doesn’t want to get out of bed”, everything remained the same in his bathroom, your side and his side, hopper never felt safe with anyone leaving his daughters alone, never but with Steve with him it was different just by seeing him take care of you when you were in danger.

steve took the makeup remover, a towel and walked towards you in silence, he didn’t need any more but if you wanted to talk, he would listen to you, take care of your face and gently remove the makeup before kissing your forehead and going back to his drawers to take out a t-shirt and small pants that you would have left here.

this was your last year before supposedly going to college but everything had changed, what are you supposed to do now?, I didn’t need to see you sunk again, not again, he saw you when both were just sad teenagers when your little sister passed away and she couldn’t afford to even leave you alone for more than a minute.

he gave you space to change and when he left he saw robin standing at the door of his room with a glass of water and a pill in his hand, aspirin for the headache, it was supposed to help with the hangover.

“you can go to sleep, robs, tomorrow you have to go to play at school” steve murmured and robin raised his shoulders

“i can ask sharon to replace me, i want to see how she is doing,” he murmured in response looking at the door ajar, steve denied before leaving what he had in his hands on his bedside table and I look at you on the edge of the bed before seeing him approach you and sit next to you.

she took a bucket from the guest bathroom and went back to her room to see you curled up on your side taking Robin’s hand while you spoke softly.

“when el came into my life i hated her and now i think i can’t live without her” you murmured on your pillow “i signed the notification to Joyce so that I can take her to Cali and if i can’t where to stay maybe i’ll go with them and share a room with John, i don’t know”

you voice was clear but at the same time broken and really dragged, you let out a sigh and yawned before going back to sleep without letting go of Robin’s hand.

“i- uhm, i’ll go to sleep” robin murmured kissing your cheek and leaving the room

your head hurt and you couldn’t regret it more than ever for having drunk in your entire life, you weren’t at home, that was obvious, the smell was so familiar, cozy and made you feel safe. it was a familiar smell, very masculine but at the same time comfortable

you looked around to find the place of steve’s bed, next to the door because you hated sleeping with your back to the door, with two pictures on his nightstand, one only where you were and another where you two were, with the faces glued together and you wearing the scoops hat today of steve on his head while steve was just smiling.

you took the aspirin and looked at steve’s side again, gently and correctly settled as if he had slept there, you took momentum and began to leave the room not without first drinking mouthwash to be able to look decent just a little.

“hey, good afternoon” robin was on the couch reading a magazine before you entered the living room and you will walk to the sofa and become a ball next to him “steve was for lunch, my treatment, and for a few more things”

you nodded softly before cuddling in your place “steve must be upset for having called them in the middle of the night”

“steve didn’t sleep all night or what was left just to see you sleep and avoid that while you were asleep you got into your own vomit” robin heard you laugh before hugging you by the shoulders “i made you breakfast but i don’t think you want to eat now”

you denied before reading with her or just sleep a little more on her shoulder until your headache goes down, taking advantage of how tall Robin was and curling up in her.

“i will go to help steve, have” robin support the cushion under your head before walking to steve and taking everything had in her hands, a box of pizza, better known to you as, hangover food, Chinese and Mexican food in bags before leaving them at the nearest table.

“y/n’s boxes are in my car, strangely there are not many and I think it’s because half of his things are here but it doesn’t matter” steve spoke softly approaching his car with robin before opening the trunk “joyce told me that she was genuinely surprised by the firm but because he didn’t want to leave but i hear them talk and told him that he would help Mike to travel to Cali because they currently they wouldn’t have a place to stay if they both stayed”

robin let out a sigh before helping steve all the boxes and leaving them in the hallway between the kitchen and the living room before looking at you curled up on the couch, showered and with wet hair but with the same pajamas.

“hey” you murmured when you saw steve approaching you to spread the pizza box “thank you” you smiled taking the box before seeing him sit next to you and just hug him tightly by the neck “i’m very sorry, i shouldn’t have finished in fact I didn’t want to finish with you but i had never felt so alone” you murmured over his ear letting out everything you felt, you opened your heart to steve and that’s what was worth it now.

steve nodded before kissing your cheeks and then placing your cheeks in his hands “it would have been much better if you were completely sincere to me and you had told me that you didn’t have things in control, being vulnerable is never wrong, in fact i think it’s the most normal thing in the world” steve whispered on your cheek leaving a kiss after sitting on his lap

when you sat down you couldn’t help but see the boxes in heaps behind you, that you knew they were yours not only because it was your letter or because there were random drawings of max and eleven in the boxes, but because there was a box called “the steve’s box” your box where you kept everything about steve just because you were hurt and angry with yourself.

“uhm, why? why are my boxes here?” you murmured to steve and he turned his face gently before raising his shoulders

“you’re moving in with me,” he reported watching Robin walk to the kitchen with two dishes and the bags in his arms. “you can unpack the boxes today or wait until tomorrow, i can help”

you closed your eyes before letting out a soft sigh and kissing steve’s cheek with a thank you and looking at your pizza.

“joyce says that you can come by tomorrow to say goodbye to the children before leaving for Cali,” you whisper before letting go to let you eat the whole pizza.

you ate, you saw your cameras, photos and your clothes, curled up on the couch looking at your books, about what else to leave eleven because you had given her several things that she had ever looked at.

you had done everything but you couldn’t help but think of your father. who, despite having had everything and at the same time nothing, did everything to give it to you. all this wasn’t fair, it didn’t seem fair to you

“have this” you murmured extending the cup of coffee to steve who was practically almost asleep on his side of the bed before watching you sit on the foot of the bed “thank you for going for me last night, I didn’t know where to go and I ended up at the bar”

“now you can come here” steve pat next to him drinking coffee before seeing you crawl to his side and resting your head on his shoulder “should I ask you again to be my girlfriend or...?”

you denied “i faithfully believe that when you finish for a week it doesn’t count” you laughed while kissing his cheek softly “thank you for making me feel like someone”

“for me you will always be my someone”

68 notes · View notes

26wh57 · 2 months

Text

Title: "Fractured Bonds"

Summary:

In the small town of Hawkins, a close bond exists between Steve Harrington and Reader, his best friend's younger sister. Their friendship is tested when a mysterious creature threatens the town, leading to a series of events that shake their lives to the core.

Outline:

1. **Establishing Normalcy**: Steve and Reader share a strong bond, filled with banter and a deep understanding of each other. They navigate high school together, finding solace in each other's company.

2. **The Threat Emerges**: A new threat looms over Hawkins, causing chaos and fear among its residents. Steve and Reader find themselves in the midst of the turmoil, trying to protect their loved ones.

3. **Near Loss**: In a climactic battle, Reader finds herself in grave danger, facing the creature alone to protect others. Steve arrives just in time to save her, but not without sustaining severe injuries himself.

4. **Facing Reality**: While Reader recovers, Steve's injuries prove to be more severe than anticipated. As she watches over him, guilt and sorrow consume her, realizing how close she came to losing him.

5. **A New Perspective**: Through this ordeal, both Steve and Reader confront their feelings for each other, realizing the depth of their bond. The near-loss strengthens their relationship, leading to a deeper understanding and affection between them.

6. **Moving Forward**: As Hawkins slowly recovers from the chaos, Steve and Reader stand together, ready to face whatever challenges come their way, their bond stronger than ever before.

Feel free to expand on this outline or modify it as you see fit!

#steve harrington x y/n fluff #steve stranger things #steve harrington #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington x you #fypforyou #fypツ #fypfypfypfypfypfypdypfypfypfypfypfypfyfpfyfpfyp #steve x reader #my fyp #steve harrington x reader enemies to lovers

10 notes · View notes

26wh57 · 2 months

Note

For the enemies the pregnancy Steve x reader fic you could to do the smut if you want

Oh I love me some good enemies to lovers trope. And I love the plot twist. Hot, angry sex with Steve? Hell yes 😏

You Aren’t So Bad

Steve Harrington x Reader

Warning: Smut

You didn’t exactly hate Steve Harrington, but you weren’t that fond of him either.

Ever since you’d first met him, you hadn’t managed to get along. Your personalities clashed and you just annoyed one another too much.

He was loud, annoying and just infuriating.

Steve couldn’t stand that you were a uptight, goody two shoes who didn’t seem to have a fun—nor kind—bone in your body.

He was just upset that your quips were better than his.

All in all, you just rubbed another the wrong way.

Much to your mutual friends’ exasperation.

“Can’t you two get along for a second?” Nancy huffed.

“It’s like hanging out with divorced parents,” Eddie mumbled, “It’s so annoying.”

“Well if he wasn’t such a slimy jerk, I’d consider it,” you shrugged.

“Slimy jerk? How in the world am I a slimy jerk?” Steve asked.

“This week alone you’ve had 5 dates, Harrington.”

“What can I say? The ladies love me,” he shrugged.

“Annnnd you just proved my point,” you said.

“Just because I like to keep my options open?”

“You’ve had five dates this week. It’s Wednesday.”

“That’s just a rare case. I had a few days where I was double booked, so what?” he shrugged.

You looked at him, exasperated.

“He’s impossible,” you shook your head, throwing your hands up in the air.

“When’s the last time you even had a date?” he challenged.

“Well, unlike you, I don’t make my dating life anyone’s business!”

“That long, huh?” he smirked.

“Alright guys, time out,” Eddie said, “You’re exhausting.”

“Honestly. Would it kill you two to get along for once?” Nancy asked.

“Yes,” you both deadpanned in unison, causing you to scowl at each other.

“Truly though,” you asked, turning to Robin, “How much does he pay these girls to go out with them?”

“How much do you bribe a guy for a fuck?” he shot back.

“ENOUGH!”

The table you four sat at shook as Eddie’s hands slapped down onto it. Everyone jumped at his shout.

Thankfully you were in Eddie’s trailer and not in public because you would’ve attracted attention of absolutely everyone.

“I swear to God, one of these days I’m locking you two in a closet until you can get along,” Eddie said, motioning back and forth between you and Steve.

“I’d rather lick a toilet,” you said flatly.

“Honestly, you two should just tear each other’s clothes off and fuck already. Everyone would be so much happier if you did,” Eddie said.

You spit the water out that you were drinking from a bottle you’d grabbed from Eddie’s fridge. Steve just grimaced.

“Now I’d rather lick a toilet,” Steve mumbled.

“I’d rather not catch an infectious disease,” you fired back.

“I know it’s a real shock to you, but I do know how to use protection,” he glared.

You glanced at the weary faces around you, your three friends just downright exhausted by you two.

“Oh, what does he want us to do? Applaud?”

Your sarcasm dripped like honey and he narrowed his eyes at you.

“I know you think you’re cute, but you really aren’t Y/L/N,” Steve said.

“Oh I know I’m cute, I don’t need your validation though, thanks.”

“Okay, we’re going,” Nancy said, getting up, grabbing her keys, “Let’s go, Y/N. Eddie, thanks for having us. I’d say it’s been fun, but well, you know.”

He waved and you said bye to him and Robin, shooting your middle finger Steve’s way before following Nancy out to her car.

“One of these days I’m going to shut her up for good,” Steve mumbled.

“As long as it’s with a kiss, that’s fine by us,” Robin said, not looking up as she perused the channels on the tv.

“Are you drunk? How many beers did Eddie give you?” Steve asked.

“One,” Eddie said, as Robin piped up with, “I’m not drunk.”

“Then what gives you the crazy idea that I’d want to kiss, Y/N?”

He folded his arms, gaze intent on hers, waiting for an answer.

“Because she drives you crazy,” she answered, as if it were obvious.

Which, it was, to Steve.

“Obviously,” Steve said, “It’s no secret.”

“I think she means drives you crazy to the point you just want to fuck with her because you can’t—or should I say, refuse—to fuck her,” Eddie deadpanned.

“You both have lost your damn minds,” Steve said, shaking his head, pacing.

“Oh come on, Steve,” Robin groaned, throwing her head back against the couch, “At this rate, throwing insults back and forth at one another is just your form of foreplay now.”

“She challenges you,” Eddie nodded, “She takes no shit from you, hands it right back and it drives you fucking insane.”

Steve paused his pacing, hands running through his hair, gaping at them. They both raised their brows at him, waiting for it to hit him.

‘Cause damnit, his friends just might be right.

•

You swore sometimes Steve made your blood boil.

You couldn’t even pinpoint what it was that made you so angry, you just knew half the time you were walking away with your heart racing, breathing heavy and a heated feeling encompassing your body.

You would never admit it, but it was fun messing with Steve, trying to get a rise out of him.

Some might think it was even a turn on.

But, you wouldn’t go that far as to say that.

He just got on your nerves, that’s all.

“So, there’s a party tonight,” Nancy began, breaking the silence.

“Will Steve be there?” you automatically asked.

She gave you a withering glance and you shrugged. You didn’t need a good party ruined because Hair Harrington was going to be there.

“No, he has a date tonight,” she said.

“Shocking,” you drawled.

“So, you wanna go? Eddie and Robin are coming too,” she asked.

“Sure. Sounds fun.”

•

The assholes you called your friends had tricked you. Steve absolutely did not have a date tonight.

He was the first person you’d spotted, the moment you and Nancy walked in.

“And, I’m out,” you said, turning on your heel.

Nancy caught your arm.

“Can’t you at least try to be civil for one night?” she asked.

You sighed, rolling your eyes.

“I’ll try.”

At least the house was big enough to try and avoid him.

It wasn’t a huge, out of control party like some you’d been to. There was still a good few dozen people, but with the house being rather large, it was easy to find some privacy.

People hung out in the living room, playing video games and eating slices of greasy pizza. There were more people out by the pool, swimming or sitting on the edge, feet dipping into the pool. More were gathered in the kitchen playing drinking games and cheering—loud enough for you to hear them from where you were sitting by yourself on the stairs.

You’d lost Nancy, Eddie and Robin earlier. Eddie and Robin playing video games and Nancy going to catch up with some old acquaintances. You had no idea where Steve was, although knowing him, he was trying to score his latest conquest. Not that you cared.

You drank the remnants of your warm soda, grimacing. It was a better option than the beer you refused to drink, besides, you weren’t in the mood to get drunk tonight.

“Mind if I crash your party of one?” you heard and you glanced up from your empty cup to see Steve at the foot of the stairs.

“Steve Harrington knows how to be polite, shocking,” you uttered, setting your empty cup aside, standing.

“No need to leave cause of me,” he said, climbing the steps two at a time until he was in front of you.

He leaned against the wall across from you, hands in his jeans pockets.

“I thought you’d be on the hunt for another date,” you mused.

“Decided to take the night off,” he shrugged.

“Is that code for you just got turned down numerous times? I bet your dick is thoroughly disappointed in you,” you scoffed.

“Nah. Decided to spend the night looking for a guy to fuck you. Maybe it’ll loosen you up,” he smirked.

Your eyes narrowed as you glared at him.

“Fuck off.”

“You make it too easy,” he smirked.

He only laughed when you flipped him off.

“It’s fun getting on your nerves, you just get all riled up. It’s just so easy,” he taunted.

Your heart raced, blood pounding in your eyes, words spilling out your mouth before you could stop it.

“You know, the clitoris has eight thousand nerves. If you’re gonna get on my nerves, at least get on one of those.”

His gaze was challenging, eyes sparkling with mischief and a part of you almost dared him to do it.

“Maybe I should,” he replied huskily.

“You won’t,” you threw back.

He moved faster than you processed and then next thing you knew, your back was pressed into the railing of the stairs, his mouth hot on yours.

His lips moved at a frenetic pace, tongue almost immediately joining yours. You definitely didn’t mean to, but you may have moaned slightly when his teeth scraped over your bottom lip, giving it a tug before your lips were connected again. He growled against your mouth, devouring you, like he couldn’t get enough of you. Frankly, you couldn’t get enough of this. He was quite the skilled kisser, knowing just how to kiss you to make you inevitably weak.

You wanted to protest when he broke the kiss, but his lips traveled down your jaw and neck, sucking with enough pressure in certain spots to make you mewl quietly.

“Still think I’m not up to the challenge?” he whispered hotly by your ear.

His hands held you close, sliding around to your back, pressing his hips into yours. You gasped, feeling the beginnings of his arousal in his pants.

Damn him.

Damn your own body’s reaction to him.

But your brain was foggy and when he suggested heading upstairs, you didn’t argue. You might’ve, if you’d been in your right mind.

You had plenty of time from the moment he grabbed your hand, leading you upstairs, to the moment you reached an empty bedroom, to protest. But you didn’t. You couldn’t stop this. It was a snowball rolling down the snowy bank getting bigger and bigger, unable to be stopped.

The moment the door was closed, he pushed you roughly against it, reviving the broken kiss from a few moments ago. Your hands found their way into his hair, his under your shirt. He had it up and over your head in an instant, leaving your heavy, aching breasts still confined by your bra.

Nimble fingers unfastened your pants, pulling them down your hips and you kicked them away, your mouth still all consumed by him. You’d barely managed to tug his shirt over his head before his grip was under your thighs, hoisting you up. Your back was pressed flush with the door, legs now wrapped around his waist as you rubbed your throbbing core against him.

“Fuck, you’re not going to make this easy on me,” he groaned, pressing his hips harder into yours.

Another gasp escaped, the feeling of him rubbing against you, driving you wild. The thoughts of him being inside you becoming an itch that you needed to scratch.

There was nothing gentle about this. You both were worked up and hot for one another. There was no time to waste. In fact, he hardly got his pants and underwear pushed down his hips before he pushed your underwear to the side, sliding into you.

For once, you were actually speechless as your head lolled against the door, not being able to believe that he was better than you could’ve imagined—not that you’d imagine it, though.

It was wild, rough and desperate sex from the beginning. One hand braced against the door, the other holding you up as he thrusted in you roughly, without any remorse.

“It’s about time you shut up,” he gritted out.

“Fuck you,” you moaned out, gripping and clawing at his back.

“You already are, sweetheart,” he muttered, smirking, angling his hips to thrust deeper into you.

You couldn’t believe you were actually against a door in a random person’s house with Steve Harrington buried to the hilt inside you. But, damnit, did you love it.

“If you don’t shut the fuck up, I’m walking away right now,” you growled, gripping his hair.

“I dare you,” he taunted.

But, you couldn’t. There was no way you had the willpower to disentangle yourself from him as his hips slammed into yours, body rocking into yours as he fucked you like you’ve never been fucked before.

Your answering moan was all you could offer as his fingers found your clit, rubbing it. At least he was finally getting on the right nerves.

“That’s what I thought,” he groaned.

Your walls were so tight around him and he wasn’t going to last much longer, but all he wanted to do is fuck you into this door, replacing all your snarky comments with moans.

“Fuck, Steve,” you gasped.

He about went feral hearing his name fall from your lips and worked double time to bring you crashing down along with him.

When it happened without warning for how intense it would be, you clutched him close to you, heels digging into his back, arms clutched tightly around his neck as you saw stars. You had no idea he would be this good and you had a bad feeling you’d exposed yourself to a hunger than only he would be able to satiate.

“Holy shit,” came Steve’s guttural groan as he did, “Y/N, fuck.”

It truly wasn’t until much later that you’d realized you’d both, lost in in the heat of the moment, had forgotten the condom.

As you got redressed, you were still in a daze—not enough to miss Steve’s gaze on you, though.

“Don’t get any ideas,” you said, eyeing him as he fetched his shirt, “This was a one time thing.”

Although you wished it wasn’t going to be.

“I just wanted to say that maybe you aren’t that bad after all,” he shrugged, pulling on his shirt.

“I guess I can admit you aren’t so bad, either.”

•

The dynamic definitely changed between you and Steve after that fateful night.

Everyone seemed to notice how you’d both mellowed out. Maybe not friends, exactly, but no longer at each other’s throats. If they’d figured out what’d transpired between you two, they didn’t let on.

They were suspicious though.

“What’s gotten into you two? Steve just picked a movie to watch and you didn’t even complain once,” Robin said, appalled.

“Don’t jinx it. They might start squabbling at any point,” he said, though he eyed the pair of you, warily.

“Did you guys come to a truce or something like that?” Nancy asked.

“Something like that,” you replied, not missing the amused smile that Steve tried to hide.

That seemed to satisfy them.

But, it left you in a limbo of your confusing feelings for Steve.

You wished your one time thing wasn’t going to be it, but he seemed to honor your wishes. He was actually quite the gentleman, now that the protective layer of snarky comments and displaced annoyance at him had been scrubbed away.

You might actually be developing feelings for him.

What’s also odd was that the endless, turnstile of beautiful girls that Steve always seemed to have came to an abrupt stop. He didn’t mention any girls he was seeing or any dates he had. It was odd.

While your mind swam with confusing feelings and thoughts, something else, much more serious was growing as well.

•

You’d realized later that you and Steve had forgotten a condom, but you weren’t too worried. You had been due for you period any day, anyways.

That being said, it was your horny brain that had managed to forget that that was a dangerous time for unprotected sex.

As you stared at the positive pregnancy test, you knew were in deep trouble. You had conflicting feelings for this man and here you were, pregnant with his baby.

You and Steve hadn’t talked about the night in question, but then suddenly you were forced to. You’d invited him out, not caring where you went, just knowing that you couldn’t keep this a secret from him—you didn’t want to.

He picked you up and you two ended up parking at Lover’s Lake—for the privacy, not for other things.

“So, are you going to tell me what’s up?” he asked, leaning back in the driver’s seat and looking at you.

“Well, you know that night we—” you motioned back and forth between the two of you, “At the party?”

“You mean had hot, angry, mind blowing sex? Yeah, I seem to remember that,” he smirked.

You felt a flush creep up your neck. So, the amazing part hadn’t just been on your end.

“Glad I’m not the only one who agreed on that,” you mumbled.

He let out a hearty laugh, then looked back at you, face slowly falling, eyebrows pinched when he saw the seriousness on your face.

“Is this not just us talking about where to go from here?” he questioned.

“Oh, it definitely involves that. There’s just a bit of a plot twist.”

He stared at you blankly, but then realization slowly dawned on him.

“You’re pregnant,” he whispered.

You nodded, biting your lip.

He exhaled, taking it in while you sat, waiting for him to process the news. After all, you’d had a few days to process it, he deserved all the time he needed.

He rubbed his jaw, shaking his head with a smile.

“Steve?” you promoted, curious to what was going through his mind.

“Is it bad that I’m thrilled?” he chuckled.

Your varying emotions took a moment to process, then you laughed.

“No, I mean I’m glad you’re not upset, but I assumed you just be…indifferent? I mean, not in an asshole way, just an “okay this is what’s happening and we will get through it” type of way,” you said, truthfully.

“I mean I’ve always dreamed of having kids, but it also gives us an excuse to figure things out…” he said, trailing off hesitantly, “Between us. If you want.”

“I’d like that,” you whispered.

It was like a weight off your shoulders, the confusion and dread of figuring out your feelings for Steve now blossoming into hope and promise. This baby you were carrying might’ve been conceived accidentally, but it might actually be a blessing in disguise.

He reached out tentatively, pinky touching your pinky of the hand you rested on your lap. Your hand found his, letting it be enveloped in his.

It was his random bout of laughter that had you turning to him in confusion.

“What?”

“Who would’ve thought a baby would be the thing that brought us together,” he chuckled.

It was something you’d definitely laughed at months ago, but this was your reality now and you weren’t mad about it.

“You know, you aren’t that bad after all,” he teased, repeating his same words he’d said to you that night.

“You aren’t so bad either, Steve.”

175 notes · View notes