Chapter Text
Steve startles awake in his empty home with screams and fireworks echoing around in his mind. His chest heaves as he tries to regain his breath. It’s been like this almost every night since Starcourt. Right when he had gotten a handle on his nightmares and was used to them and not seeing a demon crawling through his ceiling when in reality it was shadows, it came back 10 times worse.
At first, Robin and Dustin had stayed with him in his too big of a house. They would all make a pallet of blankets on the floor of the living room and watch movies until they passed out. Steve and Robin would be on either side of Dustin and they would help each other out with nightmares. Sadly, that ended about a few days ago when Robin and Dustin had to return to their own homes to check in with their parents.
Steve finds himself awake in the early hours of the morning, 3:27 am is what the clock reads. He groans as he gets up off the couch where he passed out. He hasn’t slept in his own room in ages. The plain plaid walls would shift in his vision way too much.
Steve slowly makes his way toward the kitchen, rubbing his eyes from sleep as he walks. His hands are still shaking and his brain buzzing but the cold of the floor under his feet is grounding enough to get him to the fridge. He grabs a can of soda, holds the cold can in his hand, closes his eyes and takes a few deep breaths to calm himself down.
It’s been a month since Starcourt. And Steve is so tired. He doesn’t want to think of fireworks or russian bases or fucking monsters. He just wants to be calm and go somewhere else for a bit, but he doesn’t know how to do that. How could he? It’s not like there’s a way for him to just disappear from the world for a bit.
From where he’s stood with his head in the fridge, Steve turns and looks out across the kitchen and into the dining room. It’s still a mess from when Dustin had last commandeered it for his studying. His parents are coming home in a few days, so he should clean that up. He cracks open and downs the remainder of his soda. Discarding the empty can, he slowly gets up and makes his way toward the dining room.
There’s books and papers haphazardly thrown everywhere.
“Is this the character paper?” Steve asks himself as he picks up a stray sheet. He straightens it as best he can. He picks up a small book that was turned over and open on the table. Blinking some blurriness away from his eyes, he focuses down on the words, then turns the book over to read the title.
“Dragonlance? Dragons of Autumn Twilight. Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman," He turns the book this way and that, trying his best to figure out what the book is about, “‘Life-long friends, they went their separate ways. Now they are together again, though each holds secrets from the others in his heart. They speak of a world shadowed with rumors of war. They speak of tales of strange monsters, creatures of myth, creatures of legend. They do not speak of their secrets. Not then.’ Huh," He finishes reading the summary and turns it back around.
Despite what everyone thinks, Steve actually isn’t that unintelligent. He’s just surrounded by mini geniuses, and someone who is fluent in 4 languages, who also managed to learn another in a work shift. As best as he can, he finishes tidying up the dining room and ends up taking the book back with him to the living room.
Opening the book to the first chapter, he falls down into his fathers arm chair, sitting sideways and resting against the armrest as he begins to read.
“Tika Waylan straightened her back with a sigh. Flexing her shoulders to ease her cramped muscles. She tossed the soapy bar rag into the water pail and glanced around the empty room…”
—
Steve’s alarm rings loud beside his head. He falls off of his perch on the recliner and groans as he hits the floor, his book falling to the side of him.
“Shit!” Righting himself and quickly flipping through to find the page he was on. He had gotten through just about half of the book. Contrary to belief, Steve does know how to read and can read rather well. Sure, his vision goes blurry a few times, but he still reads.
Scrubbing at his face, Steve stands slowly. The alarm clock is still ringing throughout the entire house, declaring it's around 6:30 am. From what he can see out of his windows, the sun is rising. Steve holds the book with a finger between the pages to keep his spot. He makes his way upstairs to his bedroom and finally shuts the stupid fuckin’ alarm clock off.
He ends up holding the book up and reading a little bit more before grabbing a spare piece of paper to shove between the pages. He had gotten a solid chunk down, and could probably finish it tonight.
But what happens when he does finish it?
Does he just stop reading? Henderson has a bunch of books. Maybe-
No. Steve can’t say a word of it to Dustin. The kid is too smart for his own good. He’d figure out that Steve has been reading way too fast.
He sets his book down on the bedside table and gets ready to shower. Since Dustin wants to go to the arcade and he has the opening shift at their new job with Robin, he needs to pick both Robin and Dustin up. There’s only about a week until school starts back up and Steve does not know what he’s going to do with his time.
After his shower, Steve works on cooking himself something to eat. His mind wanders as he works on the book he’s been reading. He wonders what he would look like in the world of Dragonlance. Would he be an elf? A human? Probably a human, but he wouldn’t mind being an elf. That would be pretty cool.
The book was apparently based on that “Dungeons and Dragons” game Dustin and the other boys like. Maybe he should look more into it? As long as he doesn’t do anything to make the kid too suspicious of him. That kid has an attitude to him and will not let it go if Steve ends up liking some of the stuff he does.
Steve sighs to himself as he flutters around the kitchen, grabbing a few ingredients to make himself an egg sandwich. Something easy and light on his stomach.
His mind turns back to this imaginary character he had created in his head. What kind of armor would he wear? Would he be friends with Flint, the dwarf? What about Tanis? He likes Tas. Wild ride that one.
He ends up bringing the food back up to his room and sits back down at his desk after grabbing the book again. He’s got a few hours before he needs to leave; He should take this time to nap, but he kind of wants to continue the story. He likes it so far. It’s nice to just disappear in a story.
By the time 9am rolls around, Steve had finished the book and was staring at his wall as he ran over the story in his head. The book sits in his lap as he stares. Steve slowly turns toward his alarm clock, staring at the time before groaning.
“Fuck," He gets up out of his desk and makes his way downstairs. He sets the book down on the table near Dustin’s other stuff before grabbing his wallet and keys.
It doesn’t take Steve long to get to Dustin’s house. Knocking on the door, then smiling and greeting Mrs. Henderson with a hug.
“Dusty! Steve is here!” Claudia kisses Steve’s cheek, “Are you hungry, darling? I have some cinnamon rolls!”
“Oh, no thank you, Mrs. Henderson. I already ate.”
“Oh, Steve. How many times do I have to tell you? You can call me Claudia. I insist.”
Steve smiles at her as he passes to Dustin’s room, “Dustin. What are you doing?” He shoves his hands in the pockets of his jeans, watching as Dustin shoves random notebooks into a backpack.
“Max is coming with us," The kid turns this way and that, trying to find everything. It’s when Steve sees Dustin throw in a bag of dice that he sighs. Dustin has been trying to teach Max how to play dnd for quite some time now. He honestly doesn’t know if Max actually listens to him.
“Alright, well hurry up cause I gotta pick Robin up too. We have work.”
Steve waves to Claudia as he leaves, waiting for Dustin to put his seatbelt on before he starts to drive. The car is silent for only a minute before Steve speaks up.
“You left a bunch of shit on my dining table the last time you were over. Those weird ass, like, books with the people on the front. Dragons? Where did you get those? I didn’t think Hawkins Library would carry shit with dragons," Steve thinks he nailed it. He does, however, see Dustin slowly turn toward him with a strange look on his face. Steve is proud of himself as he keeps a neutral face.
“Hawkins Library has a horrible selection. Why would I go there for anything fantasy related? Why are you asking about my fantasy books?” Oops.
“I’m just curious! Is it a crime?” Steve slows the car to a stop at a red light, glancing over at the kid in his passenger seat.
“Bloomington. Mom took me to Bloomington last year. They had a huge fiction selection. Got most of my books out of there.”
Steve nods as the light turns green and he starts to drive again. Steve can feel Dustin’s eyes on him as he drives. Robin’s house comes up soon enough. Steve can already see she’s waiting on the porch for them.
“Alright, out, twerp. That’s my seat and you know it," Robin stands to the side as she opens the passenger side door, waiting for Dustin to get out and move before taking the seat herself.
Robin and Dustin fill the car with chatter as Steve drives. He pulls into the parking lot of Family Video, barely getting the car in park before Dustin is taking off toward the arcade. Steve can see Max waiting out front for him and he makes sure they both get in before turning back.
“Let’s get this day done as fast as possible.” Steve laughs as he holds the door open for Robin. He silently hopes for a fast day.
—
The day did not, in fact, go quickly. Steve and Robin were given their vests and set off to open the store. Keith had given them their training as fast as possible which meant that neither of them could fully follow it. Keith left them to their own devices an hour and a half into their shift and of course it was going to be busy.
A day of fumbling around was not the best way to spend their day. Thankfully, there was another person who worked the closing shift that took some time to properly teach them. Steve and Robin stayed after 15 minutes to learn the set up of the entire store and get some proper training before heading out.
Dustin and Max were waiting at Steve’s car when they got out. Steve was way too tired to do his normal bitching at the kids when they got into his car without wiping their feet.
When he finally arrives home, he ends up just falling onto the couch and burying himself in the blankets. He’s thankful that he keeps most blankets out downstairs. Easier to just pass out on the big expensive couch than his bed. He knew that he should get up and eat something, but the couch was comfortable and it was so easy to just close his eyes and sleep the rest of the day off.
—
The next day comes with Steve only waking up once in the night before managing to coax himself back to sleep 30 minutes later. He debates with himself while he makes himself some breakfast.
Bloomington isn’t that far from Hawkins. Just an hour drive out. Less if Steve sticks to the highway and guns it.
His thought process is cut off by the phone ringing. He stands up and makes his way over after setting his breakfast on the dining room table to eat after the call.
“Harrington residence, Steve speaking.”
“Steven.”
Steve’s body automatically straightens, “Mom.”
“I wanted to inform you that we will be returning today for a few hours. Between the times of 10 am and 4 pm before leaving for Florida. We will have someone with us. You must be out of the house between these times. And clean the house before you leave, Steven. We don’t want a bad impression.”
“Yes, ma’am," Steve isn’t even surprised at this point. They used to stay for days between business trips, but now it’s simply a pit stop so that they can slowly grab more of their items and leave for their vacation home in Florida. Steve’s surprised they haven’t just sold the house yet.
“Good," The dial tone is loud in Steve’s ear as he pulls away. Well he knows where he’s going today. And staying, as a matter of fact. He was not going to be anywhere near the house when his parents got home. He did not want to deal with that.
Steve ate his breakfast quickly, getting started on cleaning up the downstairs. Dustin still had a bunch of his stuff at his house. Steve was quick to move them to his bedroom in a box in his closet.
An hour later, Steve had let Robin know that he wasn't going to be home and gathered his wallet and keys to leave. He had managed to change out of his clothes from yesterday and was in just a simple sweater and jeans.
Steve takes the book with him as he leaves, setting it in his passenger seat before backing out of the driveway and leaving. He grabs the map from his glove box and throws in a random mixtape as he drives to the Bloomington Library.
When Steve finally arrived, he was nervous. He didn’t really know why, but it’s now or never. Steve takes a deep breath before deciding to leave the book in his car and make his way toward the library.
Steve moves through the shelves, finding his way toward the fiction and fantasy areas and looking at the books there. He runs his hand along the spines, trying to find something familiar. He ends up finding another Margaret Weis book.
“Dragons of Winter Night," Steve mumbles to himself, “Volume 2!” Steve smiles as he holds the book in his hands. He flips to the first page and absentmindedly starts reading.
“Excuse me," Steve looks away from his book as a short woman comes up to grab a book beside him. He quickly moves out of the way, mumbling an apology as he closes the book and looks at it once again.
“Oh, Dragonlance? That’s the second one, right? It just came out last month. I think they’re working on a third one as well," The woman smiles at Steve, holding quite a few books in her own arms. She has tan skin and short, scraggly hair. She has large glasses perched on her nose and she doesn’t look to be older than 17. Steve thinks Robin might like her.
“Huh? Oh yeah. My, uh, little brother had the first one and I really liked it. I wanted to see if I could find anything else," He lowers his head, weirdly feeling ashamed for admitting it. The woman beside him looks at the books in her arms, humming to herself before looking back up at him.
“Come with me. I have a table a little ways away. I’m Christina, by the way," She smiles at him before turning and walking away.
“Oh! I’m Steve," Steve slowly follows after the small woman. The top of her head comes up to his chest. Robin would love her. Steve shakes his head as he moves forward to help Christina put the books down. She spreads them out across the table and pushes Steve to sit down.
Over the course of the next few hours, Steve sits and reads with Christina. Neither of them really say anything. She shows him different books that she thinks he would like. She even put Lord of The Rings down in his ever growing pile.
Steve glances toward his watch to see that it’s 4:30 pm, meaning that his parents are out of the house and he can go back. He decides to wait a little longer. He wants to finish this chapter he’s on before leaving.
Just as he starts to get himself to leave, he looks over to see Christina handing him a folded up piece of paper.
“Just think about it. You don’t have to. It’s just a place for people like us to find more of us and hang out and have fun," Chrisitina smiles at him, her large glasses shift as her high cheekbones press against them. Steve smiles and takes the paper.
“Thank you for all of this. I gotta get going though. Have some things I need to do tonight," Steve stands, holding the pile of books in his arms as he says goodbye to Christina and goes to check the books out.
Steve puts the books in his passenger seat and goes to start the car. He pulls the paper out of his pocket and looks at it. He can’t help but smile as he reads it.
It’s an advertisement for something called a ‘renaissance faire’ in Tennessee. It advertises a bunch of stuff such as jousts, medieval booths, and just looks like an all around fun time. Steve puts the paper in his glove box and promises to think about it more. It seems fun. He’ll have to look more into it later.
Maybe he could meet someone there. Make more friends. Not that he doesn’t love the shithead gremlins, but it would be nice to make more friends around his age.
Steve begins his drive back home, thinking about what he would possibly wear to a festival like that.