#steve loves his nerds

[stevesbipanic]

If You Would Promise Me Your Heart

For my Eddie, @steveshairychest.

Every nerd in Steve’s life had their mythical creature niche.

Robin loved pixies. Channelling their mischievous energy into her everyday life, bouncing around the store while they were on shift, even joking she’d get a pixie cut one day.

Nancy, though she would deny it to anyone outside their circle, loved fairies. Soft but calculating, intelligent and beautiful, when they had visited the ren faire the year prior her cheeks matched her glittery wings.

Dustin loved hobbits and Steve loved to affectionately call him one even as the boy grew just as tall as him, the excitement that crossed his face when Steve agreed to watch the movies with him made the confusing deep lore worth it.

Lucas loved ents. Steve would often find him in the woods just listening to the trees, he was the only one of them that would still brave the forest at night, the trees would keep him safe.

Max loved harpies. If Steve were to give any proof that these creatures existed, he’d just tell you to look at Max’s face when some boy told her girls can’t skate.

Will loved merfolk. When they visited the beach last summer Steve could see the years of stress melt away from the young boy’s face as he listened to the waves, the water washing away the memories.

El loved elves. She loved the many forms they came in from fantasy to Christmas, that they could be fun or loud or quiet or brave, that they could be whatever they wanted to pointy ears just made them a little special.

Mike loved griffins. He knew that being both just made you stronger, that you can be strong and brave and protect the things you love, that being different doesn’t make you less whole.

Erica loved unicorns. She would hit you if she heard you saying they were anything less than metal.

Which of course leads us to Steve’s favourite nerd, Eddie.

Eddie loved dragons.

The first thing he did once his scars had healed enough was to get a beautiful dragon tattoo across them, the rough skin almost like scales through the dragon’s back.

One of his most prized possessions is a massive red dragon figure for his campaigns.

Steve thinks he’s seen the How to Train Your Dragon movies more than every seven-year-old in the world because it’s the only things that make Eddie feel better when he has nightmares. He has seen them so many times that he can recite his own favourite scene by heart.

They’re in the small clearing in the woods behind their house, it’s spring, the afternoon is warm and the wind is calming. The sun is setting, they are sharing a small picnic, it’s perfect. The sun is bathing them in a golden light, Steve thinks Eddie would be beautiful even if the world was pitch black.

It’s time.

He whistles out the first few notes.

“I’ll swim and sail on savage seas, with ne’er a fear of drowning. And gladly ride the waves of life, if you will marry me.”

Eddie has turned to Steve recognising the song, his eyes are as bright as the love between them.

“No scorching sun, nor freezing cold, will stop me on my journey.”

Eddie’s eyes are shining, he’ll blame them on allergies.

“If you will promise me your heart, and love,” Steve looks expectantly at Eddie.

Eddie face breaks into a smile at Steve’s pause.

“And love me for eternity,” he continues, “My dearest one, my darling dear, your mighty words astound me. But I’ve no need for mighty deeds when I feel your arms around me,” Eddie sings pulling Steve to his feet as he stands.

Steve laughs as he continues, “But I would bring you rings of gold, I’d even sing you poetry!”

“Oh would you?” Eddie giggles.

“And I would keep you from all harm, if you would stay beside me.”

“I have no use for rings of gold, I care not for your poetry; I only want your hand to hold,” Eddie sings lacing their fingers.

“I only want you near me.”

The boys begin to spin and dance to only the tune of their voices.

“To love and kiss, to sweetly hold, for the dancing and the dreaming. Through all life’s sorrows and delights, I’ll keep your laugh inside me.”

Eddie begins to spin from Steve the joy bubbling up inside him, not even noticing Steve’s voice has gotten softer.

“I’ll swim and sail a savage seas, with ne’er a fear of drowning. And gladly ride the waves of life if-” the last words catching in his throat as he looks at Steve, down on one knee.

“If you will marry me.” Steve finishes, a beautiful black ring in the shape of a dragon protecting a ruby in its centre laying in a black box in his hand. “For the dancing and the dreaming, Stevie, yes.”

[kennahjune]

Allow Me to Propose Something:

How about, instead of his parents forcing him, Steve actually just? Likes? Sports?

No parental forcing or peer pressure just— he like sports. He likes swimming and basketball and maybe soccer and track.

Steve just liking sports because he’s allowed to have his own interests outside of the Party and older kids.

I always see Steve changing how he dresses and changing his music interests and all this other bullshit in Steddie fics and you know what?

Fuck that.

Steve dragging Eddie to every one of Lucas’ basketball games. Steve watching football and soccer and basketball games with Lucas and Wayne and Eddie silently watching with them because Steve is happy and Wayne is happy and hell— Lucas is happy, so why the fuck not?

Dustin and Mike still being skeptical of Lucas joining the basketball team post-Vecna (especially with Jason now dead and what Andy did to Erica and Lucas’ new ties to Eddie and—) but both of them finally realizing that sports brings just as much joy to Lucas as DnD does. And that’s honestly more than enough.

Steve still wearing his polos and blue jeans and clean white sneakers because that’s his style and how he’s comfortable.

Steve still listening to Wham! and Queen and ABBA and all his other musical interests cause that’s what he likes to listen to and that’s what he finds pleasing to his ear.

Steve having his own interests because he’s his own person and he’s allowed to have his own personality.

Because frankly— fics where Steve changes entirely so he can date Eddie make me really sad.

[missingexaltation]

Steve and Eddie making fun of each other through each other's hobbies like:

"Aww what's wrong baby boy? You look a bit down, do you want me to take you to the park so you can run around outside in the fresh air and throw your ball around?"

Vs

"Aww babe, do you need me to get your dice so you can roleplay out your feelings instead of talking through them?"

[findafight]

Star Trek is never mentioned in Stranger things so headcanon that Steve grew up watching it (he has a youngish great-aunt who took care of him when he was baby Steve), utterly convinced Kirk and Spock are married, also convinced it's old lady tv. She took him to Star Trek: The Motion Picture and like. Fifty percent of the audience was older ladies. She had zines and later gave them to him.

Dustin finds out Steve is what one could consider a Trekkie when Steve offers to take them to see Star Trek IV The Voyage Home in theatres, and he flips because, Steve, you like something nerdy!!

And Steve's like 'no?? I like an old lady tv show? Kirk takes his top off like every episode and it was on during the day for housewives. My auntie was really into it and I watched with her and she gave me her little star trek fanclub newsletters. Basically everyone working on those were women. Idk man, maybe you like something mundane.

He attempts to recruit help but everyone agrees it's very nerdy to have fanzines from the sixties and seventies of star trek and Steve is like whatever I like the romance!! To which everyone is also confused because romance is never really a big part of it?? Kirk is a ladies man, sure, but it's not super romantic? And now it's Steve's turn to be confused because 'Kirk and Spock are Vulcan married!! They got married when Spock had Pon Farr! They do the weird Vulcan hand kissing thing!! Obviously they are soulmates and obviously I would scour the galaxy for you, Robin, but I also very much do not want to make out with you which is what Kirk and Spock do when they touch hands!'

Everyone is like what the fuck are you talking about? Because Steve is a Spirk truther lmao.

[infinite-orangepeel]

let’s get one thing clear: christmas is not about spending time with your family or spreading holiday cheer…it’s about admiring steve harrington in his dorky (probably passed down from his dad) wool reindeer sweater and that is all

[ayoooo3]

Carry Me Home

After the upside down it took Eddie months of physical therapy to be able to play his guitar again, and even when he physically could, his brain kept getting in his way. He just couldn’t play the same stuff he used to without his breath getting caught in his chest and his vision blurring. The panic simply attacked him, accompanied by a soundtrack of his once favorite songs. To get around it he starts playing Steve’s favorite songs, they are softer, the chords enough different to keep his mind from spiraling away.

And Steve is always there, listening quietly from the table, or the couch. Sometimes he’s tucked in by Eddie’s feet, head resting on his knee while Eddie plays. And Steve’s favorite songs start turning into something new as Eddie starts writing his own songs.

Days spin into weeks, spin into months, and eventually Eddie has an entire albums worth of acoustic songs. He doesn’t know what to do with them yet, if he wants to try to release them or if they are just for him, but either way he sneaks into the school one night and “borrows” the AV equipment to make a tape, carefully writing the song titles on the back of the case and to Steve on the front.

He leaves it by Steve’s coffee cup when he’s up late one night, Steve already knocked out in bed. In the morning Eddie holds himself still while Steve slips out of bed, wanting to let Steve find the tape and listen by himself. He’s somehow both excited for Steve to hear it and insanely nervous. Eddie is free with his touches and loud with his jokes, but sincere is hard for him, he loves Steve and he knows that Steve knows this, they say it all the time, but Eddie hasn’t been able to really tell Steve the depth of his feelings. But in song? In lyrics? This is Eddie’s playground.

It’s silent for a long time and Eddie’s curiosity gets the best of him, so he slides off the bed and pads quietly to the door and watches as Steve slips the tape into the tape deck, hits play, and then cradles the case while the first few notes echo through the speakers. There’s an audible gasp and Eddie knows Steve is putting it together, the songs, the album, their story… the whole thing is them. Eddie can’t help himself then, and he heads into the room and pulls Steve into his arms, almost like a dance, while the words Eddie wrote float over them, reminding them how lucky they are to be in this world together.

The title of the first song on the tape is Carry Me Home and as Steve holds Eddie tight all he can think about is how lucky he is that he was able to carry Eddie back from the edge and how he’ll continue to hold him for the rest of their lives.

[fizzigigsimmer]

Every time I remember that one video, I can't help but imagine theater student Steve explaining to Robin his idea for a new show.

Steve: It's called Barrel Aged Cock. It's a story about my dick as told by my dick.

Robin: What the hell Steve?!

Billy: No. I think he's on to something. Respect the process.

[soupinaboot]

I think it’s kind of an odd choice to make Steve bad at school. He would have to have decent grades to play sports. Maybe he isn’t the best student ever and he got more slack being a star player, but he wouldn’t be close to failing. At least before his senior year when he couldn’t get into college.

RIGHT!? I was literally going to add to my previous post about how he was in multiple sports, so he would have been kicked out if he was failing more than one class.

But anyway, I totally agree. I don't think he was amazing at school and definitely wasn't getting all A's throughout, but I also don't think he was failing. At the very least, I don't think he was failing at anything math related.

I've mentioned this before, but I absolutely love the headcanon that he's dyslexic, which was what led to my headcanon of him being great at math. The majority of ELA and history is passage after passage with not a lot of time to read them thoroughly, especially on test. So I understand why he wouldn't like those classes and have low grades in them. And as we all know, his dad gave him a lot of shit about school and grades and trying to get him into the best college he could. So in my mind, it would make total sense that instead of overworking and studying for ELA/History, he would spend the most time getting really good at his easiest subject. Which in this case would be math.

So he would study the most for math and science, leading to high grades. At the very least, he had a B+ in math.

I also think that after his first interaction with the Upside-down, it would then make more scenes that his grades would start dropping, due to trauma and head concussions. More of a gifted kid burnout situation rather than a bad student one.

Anyway, sorry for ranting about this. 😞 Just got really excited to talk about this cause I've been thinking about this headcannon for months and I really just need to make it its own post. 🤷‍♀️

[djo]

do you guys ever think about how genuinely fucked up it was to have eddie die in dustin’s arms

[amarriageoftrueminds]

I feel like Stucky fanon doesn't have enough of Steve populating his house with his own copies of famous paintings with Bucky embarrassingly painted into them with absolutely zero chill

[freetobeeyouandme]

I love Dustin’s My Little Pony Hypothesis so much!! He’s literally doing the opposite of gatekeeping nerd spaces with it! It’s so kind! To not go “actually you must prove your niche knowledge of my interests to prove you belong in my circle” and instead say “your interests, although not my interests exactly (even though he must have watched it to know all this lol bro), are similar enough to make us siblings whether you want to or not.” And in turn Erica realizes that that’s a good thing! That’s a connection and love!! That she is a nerd and that’s good. And it’s so emblematic of the show!! Which doesn’t just have nerds being bullied for being nerds but very deliberately makes its nerds Black, disabled, female and queer!! Making it this thing that people regardless of who they are can bond over! It’s a love letter to all this nerd stuff but it also says this stuff is for all! And that means all and not just white cishte dudebros on reddit! And that’s just so!!!! Hello! I love you!!!!!

[blagueofchaos]

Trick or Treat?

- From Steve The Skeleton

Oh hello Steve! What a delightful costume--er, body--er, skeleton you have there! ;)

You can have a picture of this other skeleton I met at a Halloween party I went to this weekend, plus a picture of the empty (but still well-decorated) dance floor once everyone but me and like three other weirdos (affectionate/humorous) had cleared out:

[momotonescreaming]

what if modern au Steve has a youtube channel like 'Tasting History with Max Miller' where he recreates all these historical recipes

[mikesbasementbeets]

can’t wait till eddie returns in s5 but only in the same capacity as b*lly did in s4 (a vector for vecna to torment the actual protagonists) and he has no interaction or shared plot relevancy w steve, who also is literally unaffected by his death and makes no reference to him whatsoever (outside of maybe dustin’s arc) bc in and of itself st*ddie’s “relationship” has absolutely no canon value

[harringtontmaa]

⚡ —  @munsontm​​​  continued from  this meme  :

        THEY ALMOST CRASH INTO EACH OTHER,  steve always just a little bit slow to course correct after eddie  —  edward  —  steps right in front of him.  &  though the space between them is minimal already, the other boy still leans in ever closer.  at this lack of distance, steve can’t help but stare.  &  he thinks for a mad moment that eddie is right :  he could definitely imagine those curls with a golden crown rested atop them, those clever hands grasping the hilt of a great sword. the image vanishes as eddie turns away all at once, only to spin right back again a moment later.  only this time, steve reaches out  &  grasps his wrist, not quite willing to let him pull away so quickly again.                                                      ❝ you know, i think you woulda made a great king in another lifetime. or maybe in your next campaign. ❞  his free hand rises, a fingertip tapping the very tip of eddie’s  unfairly adorable  scrunched nose,  his manic smile prompting a more fond one to spread across steve’s own face.  ❝ but you don’t have to worry about me  —  i know how to keep a secret.  &  your wish is my command, oh king edward. ❞

[indigobackfire]

But I wanna say the good things cause I need to keep my blood pressure in check

So big spoilers in the tags