Chapter Text
Steve's head hurts too much alcohol to many people but it's a Harrington party with drunk teens everywhere it distracts him from the dead girl sitting by the pool. He can't even remember her name, pretty shitty of him considering that he killed her I mean. What type of man makes a girl ‘go home’ by herself at night but Steve isn’t a man never will be not to the hot blond girl with big tits who keeps grinding on him or to the love of his life Nancy Wheeler.
“YOOO!! HARRINGTON!!” a loud voice shouts making his head clear up a little. Steve's beautiful eye lashes flutter a little from how drunk he is. “Huh? Oh! Hey! Man what's up!” Steve says with a smile that he's practiced because he's king Steve he rules Hawkins a king has a flawless smile he's not a Harrington if he’s not perfect even when his head is making his vision blurry. Tommy smiles and Steve feels sick looking at that smile knowing it's fake these days he's been trailing behind Billy Hargrover who most likely has his dick inside a girl right now. Oh wait Billy is dead. “Come join beer pong!” Tommy slurs his words and Steve follows him. He's dizzy and his eyes keep landing on Eddie Munson who's laughing with Chrissy Cunningham. They make a weird couple right?
“HaHAhah! Another win!” Steve laughs, flipping off the other team. Tommy, who was his teammate, was dragged away by Carol who was pissed and worried for Tommy because how drunk he is Steve's heart hurts. He wants someone to care about him like that.
Steve somehow is near the pool too drunk to understand how he got here. It's ok though because the dead girl is still here. She's just sitting waiting. Steve's also waiting for the clock to stop, did everyone leave? It's so quiet except for that clock. After a few seconds it stops and the sound of the party floods his ears.
Steve wakes up with his head pounding, he feels like throwing up, he looks and sees the house is a mess but empty beer bottles and cans everywhere. He fell asleep near the pool. The sun beaming down on him makes his head hurt so much more he stands and goes inside. He's so hung over he flops on his couch ignoring the used condom on the coffee table at least people are being safe.
The sound of the phone ringing wakes Steve up and he rolls his eyes but gets up and answers “Steve! Can you drive us to the arcade! I'm gonna beat Mad Max this time!” Dustin says and Steve grunts “whatever losers be ready in an hour.” Steve smirks hearing the cheers from Dustin sure it makes his headache worse but those are his happy kids. He gets up so he can get ready to take the kids he goes to the bathroom and takes Tylenol, then a shower he does his 10 step hair and skin care routine and puts on a yellow shirt and tight jeans and some
white shoes then he heads out to his car.
Steve goes to pick up all the kids, all six cram in his car they used to fit when they were younger. Now all freshmen in high school time goes by too fast. Dustin sits in the passenger side and Mike, Will and Lucas sit in the back seat and El and Max sit in the trunk sharing Max head phones as she shows El her favorite songs Mike is yapping to Will who is very clearly hopelessly in love with Mike. Lucas is purposely poking Dustin, making him annoyed and Steve can't help but think this is his favorite noise.
The kids are all playing games and Steve is desperately trying to win Max a red fox plushie because it reminds him of her. After 3 tries he’s ready to give up but on the 4th try he gets it and jumps in joy. When he hears someone snicker he looks back expecting Dustin or one of the kids. “Wow King Stevie really wanted that plushie.” Eddie Munson says with a grin Steve scowls at him. “Whatever freak Munson and it's not for me.” Steve hissed and Eddie raised an eyebrow “For a girl? Awe, am I interrupting your date?” Eddie questions that Steve rolls his eyes and before he can respond Eddie's friends call him over and he leaves.
Steve goes and looks for the kid and when he finds them a small smile forms on his pink lips. Dustin's on his knees bowing to Max who has her hands on her hips and is laughing like a manic. Mike has his arm wrapped around El waist as she laughs in his shoulder the little asshole mike is blushing while looking down at El. Will and Lucas are playing basketball. Will is losing horribly and Steve tosses the plushie to Max who looks at him confused “For winning.” Steve says with a shrug Max smiles and nods Dustin whines “mom! I thought I was your favorite!!” Dustin complains wrapping his arms around Steve's waist, Steve smacks his head gently. “Shut up you little shit I don't have favorites!" Steve says and they all instinctively raise their eyebrows in questioning Steve grumbles “I'm.. kind of hungry..” will peeped and Steve smiles “OK kids lets go eat!” Steve exclaimed and the party all cheered as they headed out to Wayne's dinner.
As they enter the dinner they get seated and the kids are looking for what they want and talking Steve pats his pockets and sighs “I forgot my wallet i will be back, get me a water!” Steve proclaimed as he headed out to the car he got his wallet and when he came back he saw Eddie laughing with the kids. He rolled his eyes knowing Eddie is their friend . Steve slides back into his seat and smiles at Eddie who looks at him confused. “Never knew king Steve hung out with the freaks.” Eddie nagged and Steve huffs and most definitely ‘didn’t’ pout “Freaks? Don't call ‘em that.” Steve challenges and Eddie laughs, the drinks come out and Wayne throws something at Eddie head “Leave my customers alone!” Wayne shouts and Eddie pouts. He turns back at the kids and grins “see you guys Friday!” Eddie chimes and the kids nod.
After milkshakes and lots of laughing Steve drives the kids' homes dropping one after another El is having a sleepover with Max it was only him and Will in the car. “You like him don't ya.” Steve interrupted the quiet Will tenses for a second then nods “yeah.. I'm gay , I'm sorry..” Will apologizes and Steve pulls over and looks at Will with an upset expression "don't you ever do that again. You have nothing to be sorry for.” Steve warns looking Will dead in the eyes and Will freezes then nods and Steve starts driving again.
“But really..” Steve starts and Will looks at him “Really that little asshole?” Steve chuckles and Will start to laugh. “ yeah sadly that asshole.. I'm trying to forget him but it's hard being in love with someone who will never love you back." Will says with tears in his eyes and Steve nods then smiles softly. “Yeah I know I'm still in love with Nancy but she's dating your brother.. What I'm trying to get at is it's ok to be in love with someone who's in a relationship but its not ok to try and hurt the relationship.” Steve says and nods “But it hurts seeing them together.” Will whimpers and Steve feels so bad when he gets to Will's house he parks and looks over at will. “Yeah that just means you still have a heart, you have to look at other options which is hard because you are in love and there are probably barely any gay people in our school but you have to get over Mike before your heart shatters and you lose it.” Steve says gently but bluntly, wanting to protect Will from any more heart break and stop him from trying to break Mike and El's relationship anymore than he has. Will nods and hugs Steve crying against him Steve hugs Will back and pats his head.
After Will goes home Steve drives home while blasting music so he doesn’t get lost in thought.
Max and El are currently dancing to ‘Running Up That Hill by Kate Bush.’ As they are laughing El freezes and Max looks at her confused El rushes out of Maxes camper “El!?! What's going on!!” Max shouts grabbing the walkie talkie and running after El who breaks into Eddie's camper. Eddie hears the noise and drops his bag of ‘baking powder’ and sees the kids and Chrissy “what are you!?- Chrissy!!?” El sits on the floor crisscrossed, eyes closed and Max calls the party, Chrissy starts floating and Eddie falls on his ass shaking in fear.
“Don’t cry Chrissy, it's time-” Vecna’s hand freezes Chrissy is against the wall crying looking away Vecna turns back and Eleven is glaring at Vecna. “Your powers.. get them back.” Vecna hisses and disappears. Eleven knows Vecna let her in because her powers are gone. The cops surround Eddie's camper and Eddie holds a crying Chrissy and El and Max stand up hearing the cops they both look at Eddie who was shaking. He called the police, the police knocked and Eddie stood up. “Don’t worry I'll say it was a false alarm and that Chrissy has low iron.” Eddie mutters not sure what happened but he knows El saved Chrissy, Chrissy looks at El and hugs her. Eddie opens the door and Dr. Owens stands there Eleven, sees him “um-” Eddie starts and El and pushes Eddie out the way. “We need to talk.” Dr. Owen says and El just nods and Max grabs her arm. “El..? what's going on?” Max is worried but El makes her own choices. “I have to go, I will be back.” El says and Max lets go and whimpers but nods El walks away with Dr.Owens. Eddie and Chrissy look at Max and El confused once Dr.Owens and El leave. Steve pulls in clearly zoomed over there and Max runs into Steve's arms sobbing.
After Max calmed down and the rest of the party came to eddies camper Chrissy explains what happened and the grandfathers clock max freezes and so does Steve Max tells the party she's heard it to and they all brain storm trying to understand why and who is next Steve keep quiet doesn’t tell the party. “Max, can we go talk in my car?” Steve says biting his lip the rest of the group looks at Steve and Max nods. When they get to his car Steve leans against the door and Max looks at him confused. “I saw it too the clock i don't want the rest of the party to know because both you and Chrissy have seen it. I don't want them to worry about me two. I'm here and I know why you're seeing the clock but Max you're strong and his death was not your fault.” Steve confessed and Max stands in shock then hugs Steve. “I know it's just hard to grasp. I hated him so much yet he apologized and.. I couldn’t say it back.. I was a shitty..shitty sister.” Max hiccups against Steve's chest and Steve rubs her back. Steve could feel his own eyes watering. “You tried Max, you tried to save him in the sauna. I'm sure he died knowing you tried Max Billy would be proud that you're not no troublemaker, that you're happy with Lucas and El they have your back.” Steve mutters he knows that there is no fix for this situation. He couldn't save Billy; he failed his girl.
When they go back in, Mike grabs Max's shoulders “Where is she Where's El!!” Mike shouts tears forming in his eyes Max looks away “I'm not sure she went with Dr.Owens..she said she’d be back and that she had to” Max says and Mike gets mad Steve pulls him in a hug “Not again! Not fucking again!” Mike shouts sobbing against Steve. Mike remembers when the Demogorgon took her. “She’ll be back, you have to trust her Mike, this is not goodbye.” Steve says rubbing mikes back and holding him tight Eddie and Chrissy look at each other in surprise because never in their life did they think they’d see this.
After talking for a while everyone goes home. Steve wakes up and cleans the house and makes some dough when all of the sudden someone pounding on his door. It's none other than Nancy Wheeler. She looks pissed and he looks at her confused only in his boxers hair still wet from the shower, Jonathan stands beside Nance. “What the Hell Steve! Why didn’t you call us over to Eddie's place Mike and Will told us you were there when the Chrissy thing happened!!” Nance yelled storming into Steve's house “You know you're not the only one who gives a damn about the kids!!” Nance continued glaring at Steve who immediately felt guilty. “I'm sorry Nancy.. A lot was going on.” Steve says and Nance flops on the couch Jonathan pats Steve's back. “That's not only why we here Nancy's friend Fred Benson was found dead..” Jonathan says sitting next to Nance. “Oh.. the reporter? Well I'm gonna change and I'll be back.” Steve remarked heading up stairs. “We called all the kids to come here, my moms hosting some women's meeting at our house.” Nance grumbles, still clearly pissed at Steve.
When Steve heads down stairs the kids are there and Mike looks like a mess clearly because of El leaving with Owen. Chrissy is there sitting with Robin, Robin's arm around her Nancy leaning into Jonathan's side Will has his hand on Mike's back. Lucas and Max were holding hands Dustin was pacing back and forth while Eddie was setting up DnD on Steve's coffee table. Dustin being Dustin uses the game as reference to Vecna then Nance stands up and takes Jonathan with her saying she’ll be back the rest of then keep brainstorming. “Where's your mom?” Steve asks, finally realizing neither Joyce or Jim were here Will looks down nervously. “I didn’t tell her.. Not yet I'm scared, she said if anything else happens we're gonna move and.. I don't wanna move.” Will stammer and Steve nods in understanding. “What will you say about El?” Steve questions “I told Mom El is mad at Jim so she's staying with Max for a bit.” Steve nods remembering Hopper and El had a stupid fight not that long ago.
After a few minutes robin grunts “hey dingus you got any food.” Robin whines everyone looks at Steve hungry and Steve rolls his eyes with a smile. “I'll make you shits some food.” Steve looks at Chrissy and Eddie “you guys ok with some potato soup?” Steve says Chrissy nods and Eddie raises an eyebrow. “The great king Stevie is gonna make us some foodie what an honor” Eddie teases getting an eyeroll from Steve. “Whatever, I'll be back.” Steve says going into the kitchen.
“You know Eddie, Steve's nothing like the rumors, he's actually a pretty cool dude.” Robin says with an raised eyebrow noticing how Eddie clearly doesn’t like Steve. “Yeah! Steve's a badass!!” Dustin chimes in and Max and Lucas nod in agreement. “Yeah.. um i don't know him that well but he seems like a good guy.” Chrissy agrees and Eddie rolls his eyes “Didn’t know I was talking to the Steve Harrington fan club.” Eddie huffs annoyed but he can’t deny that Steve isn't horrible. He saw Steve try so hard to get that fox plushy for Max, and the second Mike started tearing up Steve hugged him. Eddie was there and he saw the way the kids just relaxed when Steve was there like he can protect them from everything. Based on all the stories he’s heard from the kids all Steve has been doing is protecting them from everything. Eddie sighs and stands up “I'm a go see what Steve’s doing.” Eddie grumbles and Chrissy smiles and gives him a thumbs up.
When Eddie enters the kitchen he sees Steve cutting some potatoes Steve turns back and looks at Eddie in confusion “Is everything alright? the kids?” Steve says worry immediately seeping through his words. “Yeah the kids there are fine.. I was just wondering why make soup when you could have ordered something..” Eddie replied he didn’t really care, he just wanted to start a conversion with Steve. Steve smiled in relief and turned back to cutting potatoes “well emotions are high i don’t really talk to Chrissy but i can tell she's been tense cause of Vecna so I thought maybe soup would calm her nerves a little.” Steve hummed, Steve looked at Eddie and all of the sudden Eddie hearts started pumping. “Why do you not like soup? I can make you something else..” Steve assured him. Those brown eyes held that soft, earthly darkness that somehow made Eddie feel at home. “No! I mean no I do like soup just wondering.. Also um where's your bathroom.” Eddie stumbled on his words. Instead of making fun of Eddie like Eddie thought he would, Steve acted almost as if Eddie didn’t even stutter. “Up the stairs to the left!” Steve said with a soft smile and Eddie nodded before heading up to the bathroom.
“Robinnn!! Come test the soup!!” Steve shouts from the kitchen and Robin hops off the couch and enters the kitchen Steve holds a spoon towards her and she sips it. “Hmmm, I think it's missing some more salt.” Robin says honestly Steve nods and grabs the salt he sighs and looks at Robin. “I think I made Eddie mad.. I told him I made the soup to comfort Chrissy after everything she went through and then he started acting weird. Do you know if they're dating..?” Steve says mixing the salt in the soup, looking like a sad puppy. “No, they're not dating. I found out yesterday when Chrissy took me home. I asked her about it.” Robin says and her cheeks flush pink. “What do you mean by weird? I don’t know if ya noticed Eddie has always been weird.” Robin chuckles and Steve nods “Yeah.. but like it was different his face got red like he was mad and he started to stumble on his words.” Steve says and Robin starts howling with laughter Steve looks at her like she's crazy. “No I don't, he was mad, maybe more nervous.” Robin says, patting Steve's back. “Yeah that makes sense, we barely know each other.” Steve mutters and Robin looks at him like he’s stupid Steve gives Robin another spoon of the soup. “Perfect! What's in the oven?” robin questions “Oh early i made some dough!” Steve says happily and Robin groans “you're like the perfect house wife. I don't even know how to make ramen!!” robin complains and Steve laughs
Steve and Robin hand everyone bread and soup, and the kids dig in knowing that Steve's an amazing cook Chrissy tries some and squeals “This is so good!! Steve, you're such a great cook!!” Chrissy cheers and Eddie eyes widened “what the hell man this shits amazing!!” Eddie exclaims Steve blushes a little “thanks.”Steve mumbles while eating his soup.
Just then Jonathan and Nance come back.