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persage · 2 years

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I WILL FIND YOU-S. Harrington

PART 2: Sacrifices

Summary: Vecna knows he's losing the war, so he makes a trade. He agrees to stop the attacks, and asks for only one thing in return-You. Seven. By keeping you and Eleven apart, he will be safe forever.

In which you are one of the kids from the lab

Part 1 Masterlist

(Post S4! Steve Harrington x Reader)

Warnings: Whump, Heavy Angst, mentions of phycological abuse. It's long, very long, and sad (very very sad) so if it triggers you don't read, your mental health is important!

Words count: 7.5 k

Steve Harrington knows what he wants to be in life: the person who keeps his friends safe. A protector. It's a good way to live. It's a good way to die too. To be fair, he never doubted that he have would have died young.

One is here, in front of you.

"What did you do Seven? Why?" His tone is so calm it almost scares you more than usual. "Forgive me, I don't know what is happening to me I don't understand anything ..." You reply, letting yourself fall on the floor in a deep tiredness. How long have you not eaten? How long have you not slept? You just want to close your eyes and let yourself go. Suddenly you are dragged up by One, he holds you tightly in a grip with his powers and you feel every muscle and bone in your body tense, excruciating pain starts from within as something warm and liquid falls from your eyes. Blood. That's your blood, red tears runs on your cheeks and all you can think about is that you are dying and you don't even know how long you have lived.

It hurts so much you don't even realize you've started screaming as the house is shaking. You are resisting with your powers without being aware of this, otherwise you would probably be already dead and a small part of One is proud of you. Proud of himself. You are strong enough to resist him, strong enough to fight him but he has managed to hide it from you. He has made you weak.

You don't notice your name being shouted over and over, blood now spilling from you ears.

"Steve come back!" Nancy calls him but he doesn't care, he has a Molotov to throw at Vecna and all the reasons in the world to come back to you. Before Hopper and Nance can reach him at the lower level of the house everything collapses, Steve has time to climb up to you, then a flock of demobats reach them, followed by the demogorgons.

"We have to get away" Hopper shouts. "But Steve!" Nancy is against it, she can't leave him behind. She can't, not again. "Run Wheeler! Or three of us will be dead"

You fall suddenly on the ground, hurt and confused, only to end up in the warm arms of the boy, Steve. He grabs you before you can crash to the floor and holds you carefully, like you are glass ready to break. One burns before you, the flames consume his body. Steve Harrington smiles, cause he's not hero but he did a pretty good job trowing that bomb at Vecna. He has always been an excellent pitcher, if Robin was there she would be very proud of him. Good job dingus.

"NO!" You suddenly scream, freeing yourself from Steve's embrace, getting up, risking to fall on your knees from exhaustion. One has saved you and maybe, maybe he is scary and rude and violent sometimes but he... He's like you. He has protected you, he is all you've got in the world and now the boy has hurt him and it's all your fault. Humans do bad things.

You turn to the Steve, his chocolate eyes are filled with concern. "We have to escape!" He intimates you, grabbing your hand. "No!" You walk away from him. "Y/N, what the hell are you doing? I'm taking you home!"

You look at One, you don't know what to do. It's like being torn in two, your soul is splitten in half and you wanna be strong, you wanna be capable to decide, to understand. But aren't. You are so lost and confused it makes you sick.

"Home?" You ask.

"You ... Don't you remember? Don't ... Do you know who am I?" You shake your head as One's agonizing screams fill the room. The fire is dying out and Steve wants to throw up. Silly boy, did he really think he would defeat him with a Molotov and some good will?

"Y/n" He repeats caressing your face. You move away from him, angry, destroyed. And perhaps it is the thing that hurts the most - knowing the you are there, but are not at the sametime- even more than when with a sharp blow, shouting at him, you hit him, pushing him towards the wall with your powers.

"DON'T TOUCH ME!"

His back slams hard, a sharp, dull sound. You don't remeber him. You don't know who he is. You don't care about him anymore, that's all he can think of.

"Humans do bad things, Seven." Vecna is behind you now. The fire goes out and he comes back like a phoenix, stronger than before. Steve's body starts floating in the air, the invisible hold he has on the boy tightens every second and you just stay there, watching him as he is being suffocated by invisible threads, motionless suspended in the air. As long as his eyes remain open, as long as his gaze maintains a certain clarity, he does not take his eyes off you. If he has to die here and now, Steve Harrington wants you to be the last thing he sees, he wants to pretend for a moment that there is no Vecna or upsidedown, that it's just you and him: two people who love each other more than they've ever been able to say.

As you look at him it feels like you are not breathing too. Why? What the fuck is happening? One throwns Steve's body back to the wall with so much force that leaves a mark where his back hits. He falls unconscious on the ground as blood quickly stains his hair and face.

"I told you human are weak and pathetic. And I told you they will hurt us. Did you see? They will kill you, they will bring Eleven and they will kill you. Do you want this?" Even if you feel like he's screaming at you, Vecna is still calm and his voice is low like there isn't 'an horrorific scene consuming before your eyes.

"Kill him, Seven" He orders. This is the proof he needs. If you do, One will have his perfect weapon and the war will re-start, if you don't... he will need to change his plan again.

You turn to the unconscious boy who's slowly regaining his senses. He coughs violently and more blood comes out of his lips. "Y/n" he whispers, breathless, his voice trembling. He looks up at you and he should be afraid, he should fear you, yet there is something in his gaze, something that you can't identify. He is sad and tired and he's worried about you.

An intense pain goes through your head, so much so that you find yourself grabbing it with both hands, pulling at your hair, barely screaming in an attempt to erase it. For a moment you think you are One's victim again, that he is teaching you another lesson but he is not. And then there it is, a memory and this time it is as clear as the sun.

You're in the car, the hot summer wind moves your hair and dishevels Steve's. But the air is tense, Steve's face is once again covered in bruises and scratches and you are furious.

"You have to stop Steve! You're a fool, you have so much fun being a hero right? Look at me I'm Steve Harrington and I saved everyone once again. But what's the price mh?" He shakes his head, squeezes the steering wheel more in his hands.

"Stop talking bullshit!" He replicates

"Fuck you Steve. You could have been killed! All for what? Prove to the world that you have changed? That you are a hero? What the hell is going through your head? Why can't you think about protecting yourself every now and then?"

He stops the car and turns towards you. He is red in the face, the veins in his neck are swollen and you know he would like to yell at you more than he is doing because despite having known each other for a long time you always seem not to understand his actions and at the same time you are the person who understands him more than anyone else, maybe more of himself and that drives him out of his mind.

"What do you think? Do you think I got between you and the damn Mind Flayer because I want to be a hero? To redeem my sins? No fuck. I've been a jerk my all life and I probably still am, I can't do anything to erase it. I would not die for this, for stupid redemption, but for the people I love yes, I would! "

"Steve ..."

"No no no now let me speak. I don't care if you're a superhero or anything. I protect you. And not because I am good either selfless, it's because I don't want to live in a world where you don't exist. Get used to it y/n"

You breathe heavily, shaking your head to erase the images that overlap with those of One training you. "You have to fight"

"Kill him!" So, without even knowing why, you use your powers to push him away, out of the house, down the stairs where Jim Hopper, armed to the teeth, is coming back to save Steve Harrington. Too bad someone has already done it instead of him. "Let's go away boy." Steve is barely conscious when once again he falls to the ground, his body is so sore it doesn't even seem to belong to him and the blood covering his skin and face scares Hopper more than he shows. He is not ready to see a other of his kids die and he's not ready to leave you behind, but if Steve got out of that cursed house it must be beacause of you and so there must be hope. Jim grabs him, holding that boy who now looks so small and frail and ignoring his unnecessary protests.

"Y/n!" Steve seems to scream but what comes out of his lips is nothing more than a thin voice.

"We will bring her back to us I swear to you"

He had lost many things in his brief life. His favourite tape, his brush and the car keys once. When he was fourteen he had spent a whole month losing things until he found out that Tommy H. was taking them just to piss him off. Never in his life he thought he would lose anything more important.

Then he lost the love of his life, which is ironic because Steve Harrington didn't even believe he deserved "a love". But now he feels exactly like he's lost this: his partner, his soulmate and he doesn't even care that it wasn't a declared thing, he knows it. He knows what he has left behind, he knows what he wasn't able to protect and he hates himself for it. When he opens his eyes, the first thing he feels, even before the excruciating pain in his head and back, is a huge emptiness in his chest that forces him to remain silent for a long time, while the familiar faces of his friends quickly enter his view. Robin, Lucas and Dustin jostle each other, Hopper tells him something but Steve can't really hear him, Max, in the corner of the room in a wheelchair, with blind eyes lost in the void, just smiles.

All Steve can see is your face paler, skinnier, your confused gaze, the battle you where fighing in your mind. He can't help but imagine everything you must have been through. It's all their fault, it's his fault. They've left you in the hands of the enemy and now, now he has erased them from your mind. This was not how he expected things to turn out.

"Stevie." Robin's voice is the first that his ears agree to hear, her hand caressing his hair softly. Dustin has a hand resting on his bare chest, covered with clean bandages, while with the sleeve of the sweatshirt he tries to wipe away some tears that have escaped his control, Lucas does not touch him, he just looks at him with more awareness than one would have expected by a boy of his age. "You scared us so much." Joyce intervenes, grabbing the hot cup Will is handing her and carrying it to Steve while Hopper painstakingly helps him to sit down. "We have to go back." That's all Steve says, letting Joyce help him drink the hot liquid. She nods, maternal as always.

"We will, we will, and you know it." She replies.

"You have to recover first Steve, you scared the hell out of us!" Dustin exclaims, seeking reassurance in the major's boy gaze that softens a bit. "It is not for me that you have to be afraid for Dustin" Steve reaches out to him, a gesture so small that it requires immense effort.

"But we are, you idiot." Max intervenes. "You've slept for a week, you wouldn't fucking wake up. I don't wanna lose another brother Harrington. " Slowly the girl moves towards them and Lucas runs to her aid, she is not practice in her wheelchair yet but she will learn soon. She always makes it. "Oh who's the sermon from." She giggles at Steve teasing her. "I'm happy to see you He adds, his voice trembling with emotion, caressing her knee as she smiles and pretends the tears running down her cheeks don't exist. "I'm fine anyway, now we have to come up with a plan and get y/n back to us" Steve starts to get up, but Hopper is quick to block him and force him - again - to bed.

"What happened is not enough for you? Nancy broke her arm, you are almost dead, boy shouldn't that be enough for you as a lesson? We need a much better plan this time." Jim says. "Good! You should have already thought about it." It's Steve's arduous sentence.

"We did it Stevie." Robin intervenes, with her fingers she untangles his hair. Now Steve's dark eyes are full of attention and fixed on her. "But our secret weapon isn't ready yet."

"El?"

Buckley nods.

"Right now she's with Mike, Nance and Jonhatan in a safe place. She's trying to get the most out of herself. She's training hard." Dustin continues.

"Why aren't you with her?" Steve asks turning to Hopper, the question could also concern Joyce, but Will still weak half-lying in a bed not far from him is a more than convincing answer. Jim smiles.

"My daughter is big and strong she doesn't need me now, but here I have a gang of brats to nurse. One in particular that I feared would do something very crazy and very stupid as soon as he woke up. "

"Well, I understand why you're Sheriff Hopper, that's not such a bad deduction." Steve laughs, for a moment he lets something melt in his heart. For someone who has never had healthy or even loving parents, those words mean everything. For a moment he allows himself to be a kid, to forget what situation he is in and hardly resists the urge to hug the man in front of him.

"El... she'll make it, won't she?" Steve asks. Joyce Byers hugs him gently.

"Of course dear, she will make it 'cause she won't be alone. We will find y/n and we will save her. El will destroy Vecna and y/n will be all right, it is a promise." Steve nods, still wondering what that monster may have done to you during these days.

What price did you have to pay for helping him?

At the beginning there were just anger and fear, they consumed you along with your desire to escape that you vented with your powers, so small compared to those of One and never enough. No matter how hard you tried to get out, to break the walls, to move the vine. It was useless if not to tire you to the point of collapse. And then there were kicks and punches and again you were powerless until, at some point, you were taken by a strange pain in the chest that prevented you from breathing. Panic.

It never leaves, not even now, while you are anchored to the wall by One's vines, like a chain tied so tightly that your legs hurt. You try to breathe again. You can feel tears start to prickle your eyes.

Days go by slowly and to be honest time is so dilated and fast that confuses you. It feels like you're back in the early days with One, when everything was new and scary, but now there's something different, something that animates you. Your memories, they give you hope. They have came back slowly and then like a river they've overwhelmed you. Since you saw Steve almost every piece of the puzzle of your life seems to have returned to its rightful place and maybe you shouldn't be so happy because now you know.

You know what you've done, you know it's your mistake, you know you've hurt people you care about and lost someone along the way. You've complicated things further and you can't forgive yourself. Please let them be okay.

Thinking of Steve and the possibility of never seeing him again cause you to cry more. You gasps for air as you starts to see spots before his eyes. You start to hyperventilate. Where is Vecna? How much time has passed? I just wanna go home.

The spots increase, you feels dizzy and there's a tightness in you chest. As the darkness starts closing in on you a little light comes from a passage. Vecna is here again. "This wasn't supposed to happen" He says and at the sight of him you regain consciousness like a prey ready to run away from the hunter. His scary hands on your head are all you can feel. "We were supposed to be free, together. " He leans down his long fingers on your cheek "But then you had to ruin it all, didn't you?" You blink your eyes open, your head and your heart are pounding. He's gonna kill you and you don't wanna die. Not now. You want to say goodbye.

"I can feel your fear my Seven" He continues. "Don't be, I'm not gonna kill now. I've found a way to make you... useful."

Returning to the upside down is worse than they imagined. Steve feels his heart skip a beat as the gloomy lights of that place hits his eyes and the memories of everything they've been through come back to haunt him. He is ashemed of the small part of him that would like to go back, to run away but there is something more important, something he cannot lose, something he has to bring back and it is worth more than all the rest. He turns to Dustin and the other kids and thinks it's not fair that they're back here in danger once again. Henderson walks alongside Eleven, holding her hand. Steve knows them well enough to understand that she's not the one who needs reassurance, he doesn't need Dustin to tell him, in his eyes he reads his thoughts: Eddie. The last time Dustin was here he lost his friend and Steve would give anything to erase the memory of that night.

Mike and Jonathan walk close together, the eldest slightly on the sidelines, probably worried about his borther's fate as he is still stuck in bed, too weak to fight and to be honest Steve is glad Will isn't here. He has seen enough of the upside down.

This time Erika has remained safe with Max and despite some protests she accepted Lucas's decision. "You have to protect Max" He had said, but the truth is that Sinclair wanted to protect his sister as well.

To stop Nancy from coming, they had to give her tranquilizers. She was ready to fight even with a broken arm. This time, however, nothing could have stopped Robin who is now jumping around trying to avoid the vines with a gun in her hand that she unexpectedly uses better than Steve can.

Hopper next to Steve leads the group ready to give anything to take back the person he considers a daughter and hating himself every second for letting Vecna take you.

During the journey to the Creel's house they are attacked several times but the plan is well thought out and Mike Jonathan and Lucas stay behind to distract the demogorgons and demobats who attack them repeatedly. When the group splits up Steve is forced to grab Dustin and drag him away. Henderson is against this plan, he knows what happened last time and that's the main reason Steve has decided to take Dustin with him in the final battle against Vecna. Not that the thought of the boy in front of the monster makes him particularly happy, but for sure Steve will not allow Henderson to relive the nightmare of the last time and he knows that in the end he will be able to protect him. He trust the others, but the only other person to whom he would entrust Dustin's life sacrificed himself for them a long ago.

Eddie, this is for you too.

The old house looks poised to collapse, more unstable scarier than ever. He is afraid of what they will find, afraid of finding out what happened to you, knowing that all of this can be useless. In Hopper's eyes Steve reads the same awareness. When they open the door Robin holds Steve's hand and with the other one she grabs the gun tighter, ready to fight.

He tries to swing the axe again, ignoring his heart beating in his ears and the fear growing inside him. Within the haunted walls of the house, they find everything they didn't expect. "And our plan has failed. Good." Robin comments, while shooting at another demodog.

Hell has fallen on them without scruples, they are attacked on every front and Eleven is already exhausted in an attempt to protect them all. She shouts, pushing away the demobats who have lashed out at Dustin grabbing him in their death grip and Steve is grateful that she is there, ready to go where he can't, busy surviving the combined assault of those monsters shoulder to shoulder with Robin. "We would have needed the others here!" Dustin shouts, waving a nailed bat in the air. Steve would like to smile. It's his. But then something happens: one of the damn dogs jumps on him.

His axe falls to the floor.

Next thing he knows he is on the ground too, looking up at the face of the demogorgon that had been in his nightmares for the past years. Dustin is about to run to the older boy and Steve tries to scream and tell him to go hide but he can't get the words out of his mouth. Thankfully, Robin's grasp stops Dustin. The kid drops his own bat to the ground too. He can't see Steve die . Hopper starts shooting at the demogorgons as Steve is barely holding on, but then the corpe of the monster collapse on his side and he can breathe again.

" If we continue this way we will never be able to reach y/n" Hopper says, grabbing Robin's arm just before a demodog hurles at her, and hitting him hard. "We need to split up again," Steve suggests. Dustin shakes his head frightened. "No. No. Dont' even think about it. It is too dangerous." Steve looks at him for a moment, he would like to hug him and tell him that everything will be fine, but he has no time and hopes that in his eyes he can read all

"Protect him" He orders Robin before climbing those bumpy stairs again, ready to save you with Eleven.

Vines cover your mouth and you can hear the scary sounds of a battle below you. You are nervous, you body is tense and you are shaking while triyng to set yourslef free and the more you do it the more those brambles squeeze your body until they crush your bones. You try to scream but you cannot. You just want your family to run away and at this point you don't even care if they take you with them anymore, you just want them to be safe and for everything to end. When you see Steve cutting his way through the vines with his axe, part of you feels relieved, the other - the rational one - becomes more agitated in an attempt to capture his attention. Don't get close. Vines sqeezes your ankle until you can feel a crack, something must be broken but the pain doesn't stop you from continuing to move.

Please, please, please go away Steve.

Steve rushes towards you and you don't expect anything different. This is what heroes do, they throws themself into danger. And Steve Harrington has always been this: an impulsive, selfless, stupid hero who can't waste a second just to think about what he is about to do. Sometimes you hate him for that. Everything moves in slow motion, like in a movie, while he runs towards you you can catch El's expression changing, turning into something scary and resigned. It is too simple, there are no monsters guarding your tower, there is no Vecna, the road is clear but Steve doesn't see it. All he sees is you and all he wants is to hold you in his arms and take you away. When he begins to cut the vines out of your body, they immediately retreat under the guidance of a higher force. One.

"RUN!" You shout as soon as your mouth is free. But it's already too late. It's like a smack in your brain, a flash, something breaking in your bones. You feel One penetrating your mind with ease. Not again. You pray. But this time it is different, you are lucid, you are present and you are immobile, even though you are shouting at your legs to do something, your body does not respond. Steve looks worried at your empty eyes, Hopper comes from the lower floor and approaches to pull him away from you, Eleven is still standing at the door. She can feel that something is wrong, but she doesn't understand what.

Then it happens.

In an instant your body snaps like a spring but you are not driving it. You are just a puppet in the hands of the monster. Of a master.

"Y/n" Steve whispers before you hit him with a wave of your hand and with the maximum strength you have. You just see Steve's body go flying across the room and nothing else in the world matters. You stop thinking about fighting, about monsters, about escaping, instead you just want to run to him. Your try so hard and still you can't. Your body doesnt follow your instruction, it's like being prisoners, immobilized by a straitjacket.

Without moving your head, your turn your eyes.

You figured that when you will see him, he'd be like his normal self, getting up, cracking some joke ready to try again to save you. But there he is, with blood coming from his head, unmoving. No, no, no! This can't be happening. This can't be Steve, not your Steve, always so strong, so resilient.

You don't even try to fight anymore.

It all your fault, Seven.

Your entire mind just shut off and you can't even cry. You feel your heart skip a beat, your frightened gaze reaches Hopper. You can't stop.

I'm sorry Dad. You hit again, harder, and Hopper is thrown away too, collapsing to the ground.

Please stop. You scream, mouth still closed.

"It's your time, Eleven" Vecna's voice is in your head and from the way El's terrified gaze rests on you, you know she heard him too. No. Not her. She's just a child. You can't hurt her too, she's your sister. Your little sister who won't lift a finger against you.

"Y/n please" she begs. "React. I know you are there, you are stronger then him. We, togheter, we can beat him, please." And you would like to tell her that you are trying, that you don't want to keep hurting everyone, but all you do is throw another blow at El, who takes it hard, moving slightly, but without replying. "Please fight" She continues.

"Hit her Eleven" Vecna states. "Or she will do it" Another blow, then another one. El does not reciprocate, she cleans the wipes the blood that runs from her nose with her sweatshirt, until you are on her with your arm stretched over her head, ready to do what Vecna does best: kill, take part of his victims.

"I'm setting you free, Eleven." Slowly El's body floats in the air. She doesn't want to hurt you. Please I can't do this

The next five seconds feels like a good ten minutes to you. As life slowly slips away from El's body and her bones begin to assume a strange, unnatural position, you struggle with all your might to prevent that from happening and you feel One's grip grow less and less strong.

"I won't let you go Seven." He whispers.

It's a battle that takes place inside you, like a tug-of-war without a clear winner, one second he's in control the next it's up to you. Suddenly there's a silent feline movement by your side and you are on the ground, with Steve's still bleeding body pressed against yours. "I can't let you do it" He murmors faintly.

That's enough for El to recover, once again you. pull Steve's body away from you this time with less force, counterbalancing Vecna's cruel attack.

"Hit me" you think. And unexpectedly your voice comes out from your lips. You are speaking with your own voice. You can speak. For a moment you feel like you are defeating the monster. El looks at you uncertain, her gaze goes from and uncoscious Hopper to Steve still trying to get up again on his shaking arms.

"Don't waste time El! "

"I' can't." She cries.

"DO IT EL" Your voice echoes powerful in the room. And so El screams her pain while does what you've told her. She hits you with all the strength she has. Her power lashes out at you and is stronger than anything you have ever felt. More than One. More than you. You let yourself go to her. You trust her, you know she will be able to stop in time. You close your eyes as oblivion catches you.

"Y/N" Steve voice is the last thing you hear.

You always thought "the life flashing before your eyes" is cheesy and not true. Like in many things, you are mistaken.

Learning to play basketball with Steve.

You and Nancy fighthing, then hugging. You, Max and Eleven shopping at the mall.

Erica smiling sweetly when nobody sees her.

Seeing the demogorgon. Running back inside the Byers house. Jonathan throwing the lighter. Steve hugging you to keep you safe.

Steve driving you to school. .

Protecting the kids.

Robin coming out to you.

Singing with Robin in Steve's car. Hopper teaching you how to drive, then you teaching El.

When you regain consciousness you jolt awake, coughing and gasping. You notice you're still in the some room, your prison, which also mean they haven't saved you. You understand that you are not dead and perhaps that you are not even close to doing so, also you no longer feel One in your mind, which lifts you up, before realizing that if Vecna isn't using you as a weapon, if he's not in you, then he must be out, somewhere near ready to fight.

"Steve, watch out! " Robin's voice brings you back to alert immediately, Steve is in front of you, axe in his hands, jacket, hair and neck completely soaked in blood. He keeps away the demorgons who are now attacking you. They've gotten there and there's only one way out. You are screwed. You get up quickly, not caring about anything but the people who are next to you and who are now fighting hard to get out alive.

"He won't make us leave that easily." Dustin shouts. You rush on him, trying to protect him from another creature that attacks him and with your powers you drive it away. Being free from Vecna's hold means you being able to use your true powers, to be able to change the state of substances, their atoms, which, for some reason, he was unable to do. He's just a puppeteer who has yet to learn how to play with his doll. So with a gesture you transform the demodog in air and you immediately turn to the others, ready to destroy them with a single gesture but something is wrong and your powers do not work as they should, after each attack they are less and less effective.

"Vecna takes a piece of the victims from him." He took a piece of you.

"Now we're tied Seven, your fate is mine too." The truth of those words is thrown at you like a boulder. His fate is yours too. If Eleven kills Vecna, you will die. You decide not to say it outloud, you take the blow.

Vecna will let you escape, maybe with some difficulty but he will not move personally to prevent it, he has nothing to lose simply because he has put insurance on his own life. "Come on let's go away." Hopper grabs you by the arm and slashes vines while Robin and the others cover him. You just turn to your friends to check if they are all ok, Steve's gaze reassures you.

He nods, as if to tell you to continue, not to stop. You will have time to talk.

Robin is wounded, her hand covered in blood, Lucas wears the marks of a strangulation from demobat's, similar to Steve's, Jonathan has been hitten in the face and the cut will likely leave a scar, Eleven is exhausted and leans on Mike to continue walking towards the portal. Despite this you all seem to be fine. Except you're a doomed death. Sure.

"Hey buddy are you okay? "Lucas asks, turning to Steve. You turn and see him: he's left behind, legs shaking, hands on his side. His hands stained with blood move away revealing a blood stain on his belly, which continues to expand. Your limbs aches with each movement of your muscles as you run to him. All you can see is him as your vision becomes blurry while trying to get closer. You need to get to him. He looks up at you. "It's okay" He whispers before collapsing to the ground. He could feel the blood on his skin, soaking through his clothes, but he have tried to ignore it. He had to, there were bigger problems but now the adrenaline has slipped away and with it all his strength

"STEVE!" Dustin screams. "No, no, no!"

You fall on your knees trying to catch him, preventing him to hit the ground hard. You scoop him into your lap. There's blood in his hair too, it comes from his head. It is wet and sticky and continues to flow copiously. You wonder how he has managed to resist until now. You pull him closer. "Hi, Stevie" You call him sweetly as he coughs, blood dripping slightly down his mouth. "I'm here, okay? I-I'm here now." You brushes some blood off of his face. "We've got you." Robin adds, holding his hand.

All his life Steve Harrington has been looking for a place in the world, something to be, someone to become. Now he knows exactly what he wants to be. Not a policeman, like you've suggested a million time, not a successful person, as his parents would like, he doesn't care, not a jerk, not a cool guy: he just wants to be a protector, he always did and maybe in the end he has succeeded. He wants to be the person who keeps his friends safe. It's a good way to live. It's a good way to die too.

To be fair, he never doubted that he have would died young. Since monsters had appeared in his life, or maybe even before, he couldn't really see himself old, ever since he has started seeing the people he loves constantly in danger, he realized that this is the way he would die: by saving them. But until recently Stevd would never have believed that his motive would be a girl. Saving the princess from the tower like a reckless prince in a particularly sad tale. He still imagined a more heroic death than this, something that was noisy like an explosion, colored like in a terminator movie, but the truth is that death stinks, makes you nauseous and there's nothing epic about feeling your body slipping away slowly.

Also his hair is out of place and Steve hates this thing. In movies people die with their hair all right and Steve the hair Harrington, someone who has made his hair his trademark, is he really going to die like that?He calls himself stupid, because it is not really the time to think about his bad hairstyle. Still, he is. Copious losses of blood are strange, death is strange and maybe this is his way to exorcise fear or maybe he is really stupid like everyone else say, which in the end is not bad, because these idiotic thoughts can keep the truth at away: Steve Harrington won't see another day.

Here he is dying slowly on the floor for a girl to who he hasn't even had the courage to say I love you to. And in fact, oh my God, he hasn't said that even now. Sure actions speak louder than words sometimes, but anyway ... he haven't told her yet. Perhaps this will be his only regret.

You can still do it Steve.

Dying it's painful, but it's accompanied by a sense of peace and comfort. The peace is a little disturbed considering the chaos unraveling around him. People screaming, voices that won't let him sleep. Let me sleep, please. The temptation to close his eyes, to escape from the pain is irresistible, however he holds on as he hears your voice and your hands on his body.

"Hey." He manage to say. His throat burns like hell, speaking seems impossible. He wants to look at you one last time. "Hey." You repeat, glancing at Hopper. The man presses hard against Steve's wound to stop the bleeding. Harrington knows it should hurt like hell but it's nothing more than a warm pinch. Not good.

"Try to keep your eyes open for me, can you do that?" You ask. He nods as his eyelids slowly close. "No, no, no open your eyes dingus" It is Robin's voice this time, followed by a slap that succeeds in its intent. Steve's eyes widen as you gently grab his face in your hands, caressing the battle-scarred skin with your fingertips. There is no blood, there is no death, for a moment pretend not to feel his skin getting colder, there is only Steve, the man you love, and he is handsome and looks at you with the biggest eyes of the world and is not afraid, not even now. Steve is never afraid.

Jonathan and Lucas are checking his wounds, they are more numerous and deeper than they expected and as they tear off their clothes to block the blood, everyone knows it will be useless.

"We have to take him away." Eleven yells, hugging Mike. Hopper prepares to pick up the boy, but Steve shakes his head. "I just need ... for a moment ... I don't want to." He coughs."I don't want to risk... not doing a thing." You continue to caress him. "We have to go away Stevie."With his trembling hand he grabs your wrist and his grip is so weak that makes you want to cry. "Baby we've got to get you to a hospital... " He shakes his head softly, smiling against your touch. "Love... " As he calls you like this you are sure you are dying too. Panic is tightening your throat, words forcing themselves from you. "Don't! don't shake your head at me Harrington" Droplets slid from your cheeks, landing on his - mixing with the blood over his lips. Behind you a motionless Dustin has already started screaming and crying. "Please, Please not again" Steve eyes shine with a glimmer of peace. "Take care of him. He'll be fine one day, tell him I'm sorry."

"You will tell him. You will protect him yourself Steve." He doesn't listen to you. "I want you to know" his grip tightenes again, "Don't blame yourself y/n please" You shake your head, "I can't, I can't do it without you. please, please. Please"

"I want you to know," his voice strains against the words, "You were my dream ... more than I ever deserved and I... I."

"No" You sob. Your head fall, buried into the space between his neck and shoulder. "No, you, you are my dream. My future Steve. You are my future, please don't ..."

"Shhh, it's okay. Keep them safe for me" He replies as your body wrackes against his, slowly you feel the grip around your wrist loosen, then the sound of his hand falling against his chest. Steve is drowning. He closes his eyes, breath stuttering, he’s too tired to keep his eyes open anymore.

"Love... You"

And with your head against his chest you listen to Steve Harrington as exhale his last breath. Nodoby see it but in that moment, you die too.

You cry hard. You scream with all your voice, so much you can't hear the others doing the same. Robin has her face pressed on Steve's hair and she's whispering something you can't catch to him, Dustin is now pressed against your side and you clung onto him like he is the last thing keeping you alive. But Steve, he seems peaceful. For what he knows him dying means you can live. Means he has saved you and he would do it all over again.

"We need to get him out of here" Robin orders, her voice breaking. Hopper silently approaches, his shining eyes can barely hold back the tears. He caresses your shoulder, wordlessly asking you to step aside, but you shake your head, you cling to the cold, dead body of the man you love. The man you killed. You tighten to his clothes, you almost lie down on him, you place sweet kisses on his cold cheeks. "Come back to me" You cry, praying that he will listen to you. In a world of monsters, you can always hope that death isn't permanent.

"Y/n" Hopper calls your name sweetly, Eleven caresses your hair to calm you down but there is nothing for you anymore. "It'll be fine," She says softly. You turn in anger and with your face contorted into an expression of pure pain you yell at El. "It's not okay. It will never be okay!" It's not her fault, you know, but you can't handle a pain like that. You look back at Steve. He is surrounded by people who love him and whom he has loved unconditionally. Did he know how much he matters to people? To you?

You lean over his face, kiss his eyes, nose, his lips and cry in despair. It's your first kiss. And Steve Harrington is dead.

It's Robin who pulls you away, squeezing you in a hug that you initially reject but cannot escape from. You let yourself be lulled by her, weeping together. You both lost your soul mate after all. Hopper takes advantage of the moment, lets his arms slide under the boys knees and back, and there's so much blood he'd like to throw up or scream. He won't do it, not now, now he has to be strong for you, for the kids. He has to tell what happened to Nancy and Max. To Joyce. He grabs the kid's body and hugs him to his chest. What he can do is place a well-disguised kiss on his forehead.

He was so young. So brave.

What you can do instead, while trembling you follow that funeral procession, is swear revenge. Your fate is tied to Vecna's, now you have no more reason to worry about it. You will be the one to kill him. It's a promise

Taglist= @lokiofasgard616 @ihavebecomesomething

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