#King Steve Dethroned Robin POV

[schrijverr]

A Terrible Summer?

Robin’s perspective on Steve during their time working together at Scoops Ahoy as she figures out that Steve isn’t really like the King Steve she saw in high school.

On AO3.

Ships: none

Warnings: referenced period typical homophobia

King Steve Dethroned: Jonathan's POV, Robin's POV & Eddie's POV

~~~~~~~~~~

Robin can’t believe her bad luck when she walks into Scoops Ahoy on only to come face to face with the one and only Steve Harrington. The great King Steve dressed in the same stupid sailor uniform as she is wearing, greeting her and awkwardly introducing himself as if she doesn’t know who the fuck he is.

This is going to be a terrible summer, she decides.

Curtly she replies: “Robin. Robin Buckley,” not wanting to interact with King Steve more than she has to.

“Cool,” he says. “I, uhm- I’m new, but they told me you’d show me the ropes and all the rules and stuff. Company policy.”

Great, she thinks, remembering all the stupid guys in band, who wanted her to ‘show me something,’ which always ended awkwardly. Fuck, if Steve Harrington tries to flirt with me just because I’m here and a girl, he’s getting punched.

Luckily, Steve seems to pick up on her vibe, because she just walks him through the rules Scoops Ahoy has for its employees. Then he keeps his distance from her as they scoop ice cream in silence for the rest of the day.

And for the few days of working together that is enough. They clock in, sling ice cream and don’t say much except to customers, then clock out.

As the senior worker of the two (albeit by a week or so), Robin delights in giving Steve the tasks she hates. She makes him carry the heavy ice cream, clean the counters and scoopers, as she takes her breaks at inopportune moments.

Steve never complains, something she hadn’t expected, but ignores. He’s thick, she tells herself, he probably hasn’t even noticed. Besides, why should I care? Let him be the lowest on the ladder for once.

Then she meets his kids.

It’s hard to describe what happened as anything else. They are working alongside each other in silence when a group of kids enter. Robin hates having to serve young teens, who think they’re so cool for being allowed in the mall by themselves. So, she is more than happy to dump the kids on Steve.

However, before she can call to Steve that she’s taking a break and he should attend to the customers, he’s at the register, leaning over and smiling. Robin’s eyebrows creep up, she’s only seen him lean for hot girls, but his smile is different. It’s softer somehow. Curiously, Robin stays.

Leading the group is a girl with bright red hair, she’s holding hands with a black boy, but dressed in a way that screams she’s too cool for him. Not to mention the two other brown haired boys with her, who are both dressed like nerds. Robin should know, she is one herself.

“You look stupid,” the girl greets Steve and Robin is ready to jump in, despite hating it, when Steve will inevitably snap back.

Only to be surprised as Steve snorts at the comment, rolling his eyes as he says: “Yeah, yeah, I know. Laugh it up.”

Apparently taking the permission seriously, the four kids start to laugh at Steve, who just takes it like he has taken Robin’s bullshit so far. Like he doesn’t mind that four middle schoolers are currently laughing at him. Like he isn’t King Steve.

Once Steve has deemed it long enough, he makes a hand movement that gets the kids to quit, though they all still have matching grins on their faces. Steve puts a hand on his hip, waving his scooper in the other and asks: “Alright, little shits, what do you want?”

And Robin suddenly realizes that Steve must know these kids. There is no other explanation for how comfortably he is with them laughing at him or how fond he sounds when he calls them ‘little shits,’ which has been the only in character thing he has done these days next to the flirting. And even that falls flat. He is horrible at flirting and the only bullying remark he has made is that too fond ‘little shits.’

So, she watches in surprise as Steve indulges the kids in way too many free samples (even if it is company policy both Steve and Robin try to cut off customers, hoping they’ll listen) and talking to the kids.

He seems to have very little clue what they are talking about, but nods along as he scoops them ice cream. The scoops are bigger than normal and Steve puts his own cash in the register instead of ringing them up.

The kids thank him with big smiles that Robin unintentionally mirrors alongside Steve, before skipping out of the store with a goodbye.

Steve keeps the smile for the rest of the day and Robin is just mystified by this person. Because this person looks like Steve Harrington, the King of Hawkins High, but he’s also dressed in the dorky sailor outfit with a stupid hat. He has been sucking at flirting and now he’s happier and smiling softly all because a group of kids came in, insulted him, laughed at him, then made him pay for their ice cream.

It just doesn’t make sense at all.

Robin hates that it doesn’t make sense, because her brain can whir fast enough for it to make sense, but that makes even less sense. Because if it made sense, then Steve would have to be an alright guy and that was stupid. Robin has seen him strutting around Hawkins High for too many years to believe that, all the girls trailing after him without him taking notice.

So, it doesn’t make sense. Steve doesn’t make sense. And Robin decides she hates him for it, right until they’re closing up and find the same group of kids still hanging around.

Immediately Steve frowns, looking concerned as he asks: “What are you all still doing here? Are you guys alright?”

“We’re fine, mom,” the girl from before rolls her eyes. “We just missed the last bus.”

“For the last time, I’m not your mom,” Steve complains, like it’s a common argument he’s had with the middle schoolers. “But I can drop you guys off no problems. Do your parents know that you’re okay and getting home late?” Kind of making his earlier argument that he isn’t their mom invalid in Robin’s opinion.

“We are having a sleep over at Will’s,” one of the brown haired boys informs Steve.

“And did you guys call, Ms. Byers?” Steve asks them, looking a bit stern, almost scolding.

The other boy speaks up, his voice is a little more timid, as he looks up from under the bangs of his bowl cut. “We did,” he says. “But she’s at work, so we mentioned that we got ice cream at your new job and she figured you would take us. Is that okay?”

Steve’s face has soften even more as the kid talked, while Robin wonders why the hell Joyce Byers, mother of Jonathan, whose camera Steve had broken and who has stolen Steve’s girlfriend in turn, would assume King Steve would bring her kid and his friends home.

Yet, as he has done all day, Steve surprises her by ruffling the kid’s hair in a brotherly manner, as he says: “Of course that’s okay. As long as she knows where you are, you know how important that is to her.”

“I know,” the boy confirms, and Robin suddenly recognizes him as the boy who went missing, Will Byers. Which honestly makes the trust his mom has in Steve even stranger.

Apparently satisfied that the kids were okay and their parents informed, Steve claps his hands gesturing for the kids to start walking. “Lets get out of here.”

He says it in such a tone that all instinctively listen to him, including Robin, something she hates and she wonders why she is even here. Why she stopped to listen. She tries to convince herself it was to step in should Steve turn into a massive dick, but part of her is willing to acknowledge that she is just curious about this strange Steve.

As they walk, the kids regale their adventures in the mall with dramatic voices, like it’s the most interesting thing ever. Robin has checked out of the conversation quickly, but Steve seems fully invested in the kids’ tales.

Once outside, Robin shivers, cursing herself for not putting on a jacket when she got on her bike that morning. She’s already halfway to her bike (she hasn’t bothered greeting Steve or waving goodbye since the first day), when she hears his voice call out: “Robin.”

She turns around, eyebrow raised and confused look, as she asks: “What?” Steve hasn’t bothered talking to her either, so why start now?

“Don’t you have a jacket?” he asks, giving her the same concerned look he had given the kids earlier and Robin wonders when this became a thing Steve does.

“Uhm, no,” she answers when the silence drags on. “Forgot it this morning.”

“It’s freezing! You can’t bike home without a jacket,” Steve says, like it personally offends him that she plans to get home. “You’ll catch a cold.”

“I’ll be fine,” she rolls her eyes.

“No,” Steve tells her and she feels her eyebrows raise. Steve seems to realize what he has just said, because he quickly amends: “I mean, uhm, you’re probably fine, but where would I be without my scooping buddy? I can drive you home.”

He says that like Robin hasn’t been a total dick to him. ‘Scooping buddy,’ what a dork. But then again, he is offering to drive her home. Her. She doesn’t know what to do with that. On one hand, a ride sounds nice, but on the other hand it’s Steve.

In the end she settles on the neutral: “You already have four children with you. And what are you gonna do about my bike?”

Steve looks at the children as if he’s calculating how much of a problem they are, before saying: “It will be fine. They can squeeze back there. Besides, I have had a bike rack in my trunk ever since Henderson kept calling me to pick him up when it rained.”

This whole night has already been fucking confusing, but Robin is nothing if not too curious for her own good. And she desperately wants to know how Steve is in the car with the group of kids, so she nods: “Sure. But I don’t live close to the Byers.”

“That’s fine,” Steve tells her. “I’ve become quite the chauffeur.” Then he turns to the kids. “Go, you dickheads, whoever gets there first is shotgun from Robin’s house.”

Immediately the kids take off, while Robin goes to grab her bike. She has goosebumps and is close to shivering. Screw interesting, she thinks, Steve is right about catching a cold, I don’t want to be biking right now.

When she gets to the car, Steve is installing a bike rack smiling at her and taking her bike as he tells her to go warm up in the car.

Awkwardly she sits shotgun, glad Steve ensured she wouldn't be stuck between the kids, who have indeed squeezed in the backseat, the red head in the lap of the boy, whose hand she was holding earlier. And the four of them are arguing about who got there first, the black boy claiming that using your skateboard was cheating, while the girl insisted that it counted.

Robin is relieved when Steve gets in the car and says: “Max is the winner, Lucas. Rules never stated means.”

“You just like Max best,” the sharper brown haired boy says, awkwardly crossing his arms in the cramped space.

“No, I like her music taste best,” Steve shrugs. “Now stop complaining and buckle up, I’m not driving until you twerps are at least making an attempt to be safe. Ms. Byers will have my head.”

The kids all roll their eyes, but comply, but Steve isn’t starting the car and it takes Robin a second to realize that is because he’s look at her expectantly. Hastily and a bit amused, she buckles her belt as Steve pulls out the parking lot.

He turns on the radio and tells her to pick a station and give him her address. The same boy from before complains: “But that’s nowhere near Will’s house.”

“Mike, please shut up or you’re walking from her place,” Steve tells him, the threat sounds empty, but the boy, Mike, shuts up anyway. Like a tired parent Steve goes: “Thank you,” when he does and Robin has to fight the urge to laugh.

The drive is comfortable, as far as Robin is able to feel comfortable in King Steve’s expensive car, that is. In the backseat the kids start arguing about what Robin thinks is DnD, which Steve shuts down with: “Oi, don’t get worked up about that nerd shit in my car,” which should sound rude, but it just makes all the kids turn against Steve, who tunes them out effortlessly.

It all feels domestic and Robin wonders how often Steve must give these kids rides for all of them to be this comfortable. The softer side making him way more likable than Robin ever though Steve Harrington would be.

The thought that this is a move he pulls to get into panties suddenly crosses her mind as she remember whose car she’s in. So, she ducks into herself, crossing her arms and willing herself to be home soon.

Steve easily navigates to her house, gets her bike down from the rack on the back and softly bids her a goodnight, not hanging around to get something out of her, like she had feared in the car. He doesn’t even seem occupied with her, already turned back to the car as he yells at Max to be careful with his tape as she replaces it with her own. Robin wonders if the girl had it with her or if it was in Steve’s car for this reason.

Before she can think about it, she hurries into her home, as if the distance will make all the thoughts and experiences disappear.

She promised herself after Mrs. Click’s class that she wouldn't obsess over Steve fucking Harrington again. She promised.

But she can’t help it.

The next day she studies Steve closely, like a frog in biology class. He holds himself confidently, but not with arrogance like he’d done before. He flirts with ladies, but he’s really bad at it, tragically so, like he hopes it’ll fail, but it will ruin his reputation if he doesn’t. And he’s not an asshole at all, like King Steve never existed.

He helps all customers with perfectly customer service, looking only mildly annoyed when people yell at him for things beyond his control. He’s especially attentive to kids, Robin now notices. He smiles at them and is more patient than Robin could ever be. If she were to guess, kids are his favorite customers. Robin gladly lets him take them.

She also realizes that while she has been nothing but rude to him, he has been nothing but nice back to her, taking her anger at him in stride.

It’s all confusing. She remembers him pushing over Tommy H., who is his friend (though she hasn’t seen the two together since Steve came to school with that giant bruise in Junior year), because he joked that Steve was a scard-y cat for not handing in unfinished homework. If he is willing to do that to a friend for something so minor, why hasn’t he snapped at Robin, very much not a friend, for doing much worse?

However, thinking back on her obsession with him (which was kinda creepy in hindsight, but her Steve knowledge comes in handy this time), she remembers him being a douche. But it was mostly ignoring people and standing behind them as they called names, laughing along.

Yeah, Steve used to be a dick, like many kids, but not a horrible person and he definitely isn’t anymore. But Robin is.

So, she watches Steve again. He’s serving, who she has dubbed, his kids again as they complain about not being able to see the movie they want. They’ve been coming by every day since Steve has given them a ride two days ago and he’s in a better mood whenever they’ve dropped by. He’s probably relieved about the bouts of peace from me, Robin thinks guiltily.

She’s nicer to Steve for the rest of the day and tries not to think of his surprised look when she offered to help clean up, before the suspected rush.

But she waits with speaking up until they’re closing together, then she says: “Hey, Steve, I- uhm, I wanted to say sorry for, you know, being a bit of a dick to you.”

He looks even more surprised at that, but recovers quickly to reply: “Oh, no, it’s okay, I get it. I was a dick in high school. Sorry, by the way, if I ever did anything to you. It’s fine to be angry with me, really.”

Okay, so Steve knows he used to be a dick. Steve apologized. Steve is trying to be a better person. It has truly been a few days of revelations.

“That was unexpected,” her mouth says, before her brain can agree on the course of action, setting off in a ramble to course correct. “Not that that’s a bad thing or anything. Personal growth is good and I appreciate you apologizing. Even if you don’t have to apologize, you never did anything to me specifically, you just had shitty friends, because when I think about it, you haven’t hung with them in forever and I should have realized you weren’t ‘King Steve’ and all that when you took me being a dick in stride, because lets be honest, I was a huge dick.”

When she’s done she has to catch her breath, finally looking at Steve, expecting to him thinking she’s the most annoying person ever.

Instead, he’s smiling softly. In an equally soft tone, he says: “Thank you, I’m glad you don’t think I’m that guy anymore. And you really don’t have to apologize again.”

“Still sorry,” Robin says, quickly adding, “and sorry for the word vomit.”

“It’s okay,” Steve smiles. “That’s the most relaxed I’ve seen you all week. Kind of reminds me of Henderson. He’s off at summer camp, some smart nerd stuff that I can’t understand. He has this massive ego, but he honestly earned it. Not important right now. What I’m trying to say is that it’s fine. You can ramble away. I like it better than the silence.”

For a second Robin suspiciously thinks he’s flirting with her, however, he compared her with Henderson, whoever that is, and it didn’t sound like a flirt. She has heard his flirting voice. It’s also the first time anyone has been nice about her rambling, so she just smiles.

With the understanding, the air around them feels less tense and they say goodbye like normal people for a change.

The next day, Robin comes in, deciding that if she’s giving Steve a chance and Steve is giving her a chance after her dick period, then he’s getting all of her.

So, she starts rambling about her horrid morning and how she nearly ran late as they set up. Then she moves on to talking about a book she has read. Throughout it all Steve nods along, smiling. He doesn’t look like he’s following it all, but he seems happy enough to listen.

When he fails at flirting again, she snorts and comments: “I thought you were supposed to be smooth, Harrington.”

He sighs and shrugs, grimacing: “I know. I swear, even since my dad figured out I was too stupid to get into college, it’s like my whole life has turned against me. Can’t even get laid in this stupid sailor outfit.”

“You couldn't get into college?” Robin asks, before she can stop herself, wanting to smack herself immediately. Way to go, Buckley, saying something stupid right after you apologized.

But Steve doesn’t get mad, he just laughs a sad laugh that makes it all much worse, before he shrugs: “I know. Not really date material, so shitty flirting it is. Honestly, at this point I’m beyond saving, I think.”

At the end of his sentence, his voice picks up into something more dramatic, making Robin laugh as she choked out: “God, you’re such a dingus.”

“…Dingus?” Steve repeats, barely keeping a confused yet amused smile, looking more cheered up than before.

“Yeah, Steve. Dingus, you are one,” Robin replies, but she can’t help but notice how funny Steve thought the playful insult was. Thus, she christens him dingus in her head.

After that time seems to fly. Slinging ice cream with Steve is fun and she gets to know Steve’s kids a bit better, though Steve always takes their orders or sneaks them into the movies. He acts annoyed about it, but Robin knows better.

All in all, working at Scoops Ahoy could have been much worse, Robin has decided by the time a kid walks in saying, “Hi,” as if he means anything to Robin.

“Hi?” she greets back.

“I’m Dustin,” the kid introduces himself expectantly, like Robin is going to magically know him now.

Unamused, she replies: “I’m Robin.”

“Pleasure to meet you,” the kid says, before asking: “Is he here?” in a tone that indicates he thinks she knows who he’s talking about.

“Is who here?” Robin asks, getting an inkling she knows who this child is here for.

Her suspicions are confirmed when Steve flies out of the break room, practically cheering: “Henderson! Henderson! He’s back!”

“I’m back,” Dustin, or Henderson (the name indeed familiar), confirms, before forcing Robin to watch the dorkiest greeting she has ever seen and she never expected on Steve, even while knowing about his dork side already. Even with the other kids, whom he babysits and mothers, he tries to keep an air of coolness about him, but not for Dustin apparently.

After that, her life goes down the drain so very fast. Well, not necessary down the drain, it just mostly devolves into chaos.

She cracks a Russian secret code, because she’s bored, goes to spy on said Russians, who have apparently infiltrated Hawkins, before bribing a ten-year-old with ice cream and getting stuck in an elevator to hell. This is her life now apparently.

However, the whole experience is teaching her so much more about Steve. About why he is the way he is. About why he decided to be better. To do better.

Because monster are real. There is an alternate hell dimension and Steve has been caught up in it for a long time already. And Steve is also a dingus, who doesn’t think before he acts and apparently his first instinct is to throw himself into danger, to save the others. Especially the kids.

But not just the kids, Robin finds as they’re captured together and despite her usual motormouth, Steve manages to be more annoying. Annoying enough to be dragged off first, coming back beaten so badly that Robin is convinced she’s tied to a corpse for a few moments.

And when they’re drugged and Steve is spilling things she knows he doesn’t want to, he keeps talking, because talking makes him the target.

After they get saved by Dustin and Erica, Robin has to admit it’s all a bit of blur until they’re sitting on the bathroom floor. The drugs are still in their system, making them a bit looser lipped, but she feels more in control.

She wonders if Steve feels in control of what he’s saying as he confesses to her. Then she immediately wonders if he has been nice to her only because he likes her. She knows that a few days ago, she might have, but she knows Steve better now.

It’s hard not to know stuff about someone after you’ve been tied to a chair and tortured together for a few hours and a part of her tells her that if Steve is willing to get beat up for her, maybe he’s willing to be her friend after fully knowing her. I mean, liking girls can’t be too crazy after invading Russians and other dimensions, right? But it’s just always a risk.

If she does fess up, she is going to break his heart and she hates that. He’s her best friend (and isn’t that just something, Robin the lesbian best friends with King Steve). But he isn’t like that, he’s sweet and caring and like so many times before Robin wishes she could be normal, wishes she could like Steve.

“Robin? Robin,” comes his concerned voice from the other stall as he knocks on the divider between them. When she stays quiet, he asks: “Robin did you just OD in there?” his own confession forgotten for worry, which only makes her heart ache more.

“No, I am… still alive,” she replies wanting to soothe that worry despite all that’s going on inside her head.

She sighs, before hearing movement and then Steve is sliding under the stalls over the dirty bathroom floor to check in on her. The action shouldn’t choke her up like it does, so she plays it off by saying: “This floor is disgusting.”

“Well, I’ve already got a bunch of blood and puke on my shirt, so…” he shrugs trailing off, before taking a breath and looking down. He seems uncertain, a bit shy and she can’t help but think the expression looks wrong on his face, but also like it’s been there too much, simmering right below the surface.

“What do you think?” he asks.

“About?” she replies, hoping that playing oblivious will make the whole thing disappear.

“This girl,” Steve tells her and Robin knows this is a conversation they’re going to have.

She just has to decide whether she tells Steve the truth or just tries to let him down gently, especially once her second deflection when Steve asks about the guy doesn’t work. Because she tells him he’s not thinking straight and he replies: “Really? ‘Cause I think he’s thinking a lot more clearly than usual.”

And in that moment Robin decides Steve needs the truth. She has seen enough to trust him, to give him a chance and she hears in his tone that if she rejects him, he’ll close up. She doesn’t want this Steve to close up. This Steve, who has been kind to her, protected her and the kids, who has thrown himself in danger without question and who is looking at her right now with such a vulnerable look on his face.

She selfishly wants this Steve to stay and be her friend, so she replies: “He's not. Look, he doesn't even know this girl. And if he did know her, like- like really know her, I don't think he'd even want to be her friend.”

“No, that's not true. No way is that true,” Steve immediately denies and her heart swells a bit at how fast Steve is assuring her. How offended he looks at the implication he might not like her.

Fuck, if only he knew.

And he’s going to know, because Robin braves on: “It's shocked me to my core, but I like you. I really like you. But I'm not like your other friends. And I'm not like Nancy Wheeler.”

Robin thinks she put enough emphasis on it to make it clear, but Steve has always been a bit slower on the uptake, so he just says: “Robin, that's exactly why I like you.”

“Do you remember what I said about Click's class? About me being jealous and, like, obsessed?” she asks, having to make it more clear. “Yeah, it isn’t because I had a crush on you. It’s because she wouldn't stop staring at you.”

There she said it, it’s out in the open. But Steve looks even more confused as he asks: “Mrs. Click?” and Robin isn’t sure if she wants to hit him or smile.

“Tammy Thompson,” she corrects softly, deciding to go for it, because if she keeps it in, it’s going to eat her up. “I wanted her to look at me, but she couldn't pull her eyes away from you and your stupid hair. And I didn't understand, because you would get bagel crumbs all over the floor. And you asked dumb questions. And you were a douchebag. And- And you didn't even like her and I would go home and just scream into my pillow.”

He looks hurt about the douchebag comment, but then just frowns as he says: “But Tammy Thompson is a girl.”

“Steve,” she says softly, hoping that it will click without her having to spell it out.

“Yeah,” he half smiles before his face falls and she has front row tickets to him figuring it out. His eyes widening as he goes: “Oh.”

“Oh,” she confirms.

“Holy shit,” he breathes more to himself as he falls quiet.

With beating heart Robin waits. At this point she isn’t sure what she’s waiting on, likely slurs and fists, but that’s usually immediate. She doesn’t know what to do with this silence. She has always been horrible at silences, Steve knows that, so why isn’t he saying something?

Unable to stand it any longer, she repeats his earlier question: “Did you OD over there?”

“No, I just- uh, just thinking,” he says and if it were any other day she would jokingly tell him not to hurt himself, but it isn’t any other day, so she just softly nods: “Okay.”

Then Steve starts speaking again and it takes Robin a moment to catch up to what he’s saying, because it’s nothing like she expected.

“I mean, yeah. Tammy Thompson, you know, she's cute and all, but, I mean, she's a total dud,” he shrugs, like telling her her lesbian crush is a dud is the normal response to someone telling you they’re gay in Bumfuck, Indiana.

“She’s not,” Robin defends anyway, because she likes Tammy Thompson and Steve’s reaction is miles better than she could have hoped for.

Even if he vehemently argues: “Yes, she is. She wants to be, like, a singer. She wants to move to, like, Nashville and shit.”

Robing pouts, “She has dreams!” but she can feel a smile starting.

“She can’t even hold a tune. She’s practically tone-deaf. Have you heard her? Like all the time,” he says, before doing the most horrid impression, telling Robin her crush sounds like a muppet giving birth.

But none of it matters, because Steve is here and they’re laughing. She has come out for the first time in her life and it was to King Steve of all people and he hasn’t called her slur and hasn’t tried to convince her she hasn’t found the right man yet, he just processed it for a second and then went right back to being her friend.

Later he assures her that he hasn’t been nice to her all this time because he likes her and Robin doesn't know how he knew of that fear. Then he assures her that he doesn’t like her. Well, he does, but not like that. Dustin just got to him, made him think he was striking out, because he actually liked Robin. Which he didn’t. Well, not like that.

And Robin will laugh at Steve rambling like he’s her, before calling him a dingus and telling him to help her look for a job for them, because she’s not going through all the work to find herself a new schmuck.

However, now they’re just laughing on that bathroom floor and life is good again for those few seconds before Dustin and Erica burst in and drag them into danger once more.

So, in a few days, she has cracked a Russian secret code, gotten trapped in a secret Russian base, gotten captured, been tortured and drugged, came out, crashed a car and fought a giant flesh monster with fireworks.

All she wants to do now is go home and collapse in her mother’s arms. However she’s been taken by men in suits alongside the others, who look as shell shocked as she is. Scared, she grabs onto Steve’s hand, the only familiar comfort in the situation.

Steve smiles at her reassuringly and squeezes her hand. He leans in and whispers: “It’s fine. This always happens. The government wants to make sure we don’t blab. We’re going to be taken to a room, they’re going to ask you a bunch of stuff and all you have to do is talk. You’re good at that, Robs, you’ll be fine.”

She smiles at him and asks: “And then I get to go home?”

“After they’ve given you the official story you have to stick to and you’ve signed the NDAs, yeah, you can go home,” he assures her.

“How many times have you done this already,” she asks softly.

“Two times,” he answers.

“Wow.”

“I know, full of mysteries that’s me,” he grins, the conspiratorially he whispers: “I’m just glad my thick brain remembers the cover stories.”

That makes her giggle, though she’s sure to say: “With the amount of hits you take, I’m amazed you can still be charming. I’m glad you’re okay, Stevie.”

“Me too, Robs,” he smiles and she swears there is a bit of moisture in there, as if he’s that touched by her words.

True to Steve’s words, the next few hours go exactly as he predicted and before she knows it, she’s leaning on Steve’s shoulder in the back of a government car as they drive to her house. His presence is reassuring and she feels settled for the first time in a long time.

Sure, she will have to learn and deal with what she knows, but Steve is there every second of the way. He drives to her house when she calls, holds her if she needs it, jokes and distracts her if that what she wants. He listens like no one has done before.

All in all, Steve Harrington is her best friend. When she was obsessed with him in Mrs. Click’s class she never would have guessed that she would befriend King Steve. Though, she knows now that King Steve never really existed and she has never been more relieved to know her dingus, Stevie.

So, Robin can’t believe her luck when she walks into Family Video, coming face to face with the one and only Steve Harrington. Her favorite dork dressed in the same stupid vest as her, greeting her happily and holding up a movie as he wiggles her brows and tells her it has boobies.

Yeah, Senior year is going to be great, she decides.

~~

A/N:

As a lesbian, it’s hard not to be suspicious of men being nice to you, idk

[schrijverr]

Your Name in Every Corner

Eddie’s perspective on Steve as he first learns about his good side from the Freshman he takes under his wing and then witnesses it when he gets dragged into the whole Upside Down business, learning that King Steve is no more and Steve is actually a good dude.

On AO3.

Ships: Steve x Eddie

Warnings: mentions of period typical homophobia

King Steve Dethroned: Jonathan's POV, Robin's POV & Eddie's POV.

~~~~~~~~~~

Eddie knows Steve Harrington. Of course, he does. He was only a year above him during his rise to popularity and douchbaggery, then shared his second time doing Senior Year with the man, before he was finally free of King Steve in every corner of the school.

Sure, he wasn’t terrible when they shared Senior Year, but Eddie knows his kind. Has watched him all the years before. He knows how to avoid, how not to engage.

Most likely, his survival avoidance tactics just worked well. Steve walked the podium, Eddie didn’t, but was glad to see him gone.

However, Steve isn’t gone.

He is physically, but somehow he surrounds Eddie more than ever now that he isn’t here. And all that is because of one kid only. Dustin Henderson. The kid worships Steve for some odd reason and while Eddie loves the kid, he is stuck with him, thus so with his talk about Steve.

Eddie spots them on the first day back at school. He’s in the cafeteria eating his lunch as usual when they enter. A group of nerds, obviously Freshmen, looking way out of their depths. So, Eddie saunters over and saves them.

They eagerly join their table and inquire after the shirts, soon signing up for the Hellfire Club. Yeah, this year is good. Eddie can feel it.

With three new members, their legacy as Hellfire will be secured as he finally walks that goddamn stage. So, he’s in a pretty good mood as they set up the campaign for this year. Eddie is naturally running it and he wonders how those kids will fit into the party dynamic.

Excitedly, he sits on his throne, looking over his victims, uhm, troops, and grins: “Everyone ready for the start of the most epic campaign known to man?”

“Hell yeah,” Jeff says and the new recruits nod.

Dustin then says: “But we do have to be done by ten, because Steve’s picking us up and he hates it if we make him wait.”

“He doesn’t hate us,” Mike rolls his eyes. “He just doesn’t let you pick the music until he breaks under your eyes, because he’s a massive looser.”

“Don’t say that, Mike,” Lucas buds in. “You literally based your character off him.”

“Wait, Steve Harrington?” Eddie asks, realizing who they’re talking about and wondering why the hell the human fighter with a spiked club and a heart of gold that Mike plays is in any way based on his sister’s ex boyfriend.

“Yeah?” Dustin confirms, like it’s weird that Eddie is asking, while the other members look at the three of them like they have extra heads. “He’s cool,” Dustin shrugs.

“Exactly,” Gareth says. “He’s cool. Why the fuck is he picking you up from school after your DnD night?”

“Oh,” Dustin says like that explanation makes more sense. Before showing he didn’t understand the comment at all as he explains: “He doesn’t want us biking out when it’s so late and he has a car and the time. So, he offered.”

“Steve. King Steve. Offered to drive you home, because he was what? Worried about you?” Eddie laughs disbelievingly.

“Yeah,” Lucas shrugs like that’s an explanation.

The four original Hellfire Club members share a look that tells each other that they’re all not buying it. But Eddie isn’t about to let his first DnD night of the year be ruined by Steve Harrington of all people, so he claps his hands to get the attention of everyone, deciding to drop it.

Maybe Nancy asked Steve, because she was worried about her brother. The rumor is that Steve is trying to get back into her pants now that her boyfriend moved to California and Eddie wouldn't think him above driving her little brother and his friends home to do it.

If those kids have a bit of a hero worship of the cooler older kid that they saw in passing, then that will fade quickly. Douchbags will always be revealed in time.

Soon, he forgets about Steve and gets into the story, leading the party to the first obstacle. He is impressed with the kids. They have a good strategic mind and play well together. A perfect addition to his campaign.

Still, when the night is over, he can’t help, but remember that King Steve is picking them up. He tries to tell himself he wants to see to make sure Steve isn’t a total dick to his Freshmen, but a part of him knows he’s just too curious not to go look.

As they said, Steve’s car is in the parking lot, the man in question leaning against the hood, wearing a strange vest.

“What the hell are you wearing,” Dustin calls out to Steve when he sees and Eddie raises his brows at the fact that Dustin dares to speak to Steve like that.

He half expects Steve to get angry, to snap back, but instead he looks on in surprise as Steve rolls his eyes and calls back: “It’s called a work uniform. You know, since I have a job, Henderson. Someone has to pay for all the gas I use up driving you lot around. Now get in the car, or I’m not driving you to the arcade this weekend.”

Quickly, the three of them scramble into the car and Eddie watches as Dustin puts a tape into the player like he’s done it a million times before. ABBA loudly blares from the speakers as the car pulls out of the lot, faintly Eddie thinks he hears Steve yell something about seat belts, but the whole picture is already too absurd, so Eddie pretends he imagines it.

Steve truly came to pick them up.

King Steve came out of work to pick up three nerdy Freshmen like it was a totally normal thing for him to do. Acting like he drove them around often. Often enough to have them all act comfortably in his car.

It just doesn’t seem like a thing Steve would do, Eddie thinks as he gets into his own van. Internally he tries to rationalize it. Maybe Steve is getting paid. The word is that his parents cut him off and he’s lucky he was allowed to stay in the house and keep his car. Maybe the kids’ parent pay him for it and he thinks it’s easy money.

The reason sounds a bit far fetched for Eddie’s taste, but it’s plausible (and he hasn’t forgotten about the getting into Nancy’s pants theory). Much more plausible than Steve wanting to do this, so he accepts it into his worldview and speeds off as he lets the whole interaction go.

And Eddie is sure he wouldn't have though twice about the whole thing if Steve didn’t become a frequent topic of conversation at his table.

Apparently, his newly adopted Freshmen adore Steve and think he is the coolest person to ever grace the earth. Even Mike thinks so, though he denies it vehemently. So, each session Eddie has to listen to how cool Steve is.

“Oh, this is like when Steve faced off against Dart and his friends!” Lucas says and Eddie wants to yell: ‘How is my cool monsters surrounding you from all sides unexpectedly anything like something Steve has done? And who the hell is Dart?’

He makes an awesome hidden base under this town and Dustin tells Mike next to him: “It’s kind of like what happened this summer. Is your Steve throwing himself in front of danger to save me?” and Mike says: “My character is not based off Steve!” while Eddie desperately wants to ask: ‘What the hell did you do this summer? And why the fuck were you hanging out with Steve?’

At some point Mike’s fighter dies so that the rest of the party can escape and Eddie feels great about the moment. It’s a beautiful end for the character and they’re all basking in it when Dustin comments: “Steve never did win a fight, did he?”

“He wasn’t based off Steve,” Mike complains, but he’s smiling at the comment.

“Oh, he so was, Mike,” Lucas pipes up.

“Uh-huh,” Dustin nods vigorously. “That self-sacrificing move you just pulled that got your character killed? Total Steve move.”

And Eddie is about to rip his hair out, because even his beautifully crafted moment in his story is tainted by fucking King Steve. So, he finally explodes: “In what way does this remind you of Steve? Like, for real. How?”

The three look surprised at his outburst, then share the look they sometimes share. Before they all shrug and Dustin says: “Uhm, last year Billy came after Max when Steve was watching us over at the Byers’ house. Billy was about to beat up Lucas, so Steve went out there to stop him.”

“Yeah, and he got the shit kicked out of him,” Mike rolls his eyes.

“But it was cool,” Lucas protests.

“Billy smashed a plate on his head and everything,” Dustin adds. “Come on. Even Max thought it was cool. She never thinks anything is cool.”

And Eddie wouldn't have believed them if he hadn’t watched Steve come in with his face all bruised up, ignoring Billy sending him smug looks. It just sounds absurd. Though, he does think the plate is an exaggeration, one doesn’t just walk away from that.

“Alright, alright,” he cuts in, before the discussion can get out of hand. “I get it. Whatever. Lets focus back on the game.”

Luckily that works and they all get back to it. Mike doesn’t have a new character yet, but he delight in meddling anyway, calling out suggestions.

Once they’re done. Dustin wants to ask a few more questions about the campaign. So, he hangs around while Eddie packs up and walks with Eddie when he locks up.

Outside, he can hear Mike’s voice going: “I died. We were fleeing and we couldn't get out on time, so I was a distraction, but my character died.”

“That sucks, man.” And is that Steve’s voice? “You were excited about playing a fighter for once, right? Making another one?”

“Nah, I’m better at playing magic users. Guess, I never was a fighter type,” Mike answers, though he sounds normal it seems like there’s more to that statement that Eddie is privy to.

“You are. You can make a sorcerer based of El, I’m sure she’d love that. And you can’t deny she’s a fighter,” Steve suggests and Eddie is still reeling over the fact that not only is Steve still picking the kids up, he is also talking DnD with them, like he actually cares about their game.

Dustin calls out a greeting and Eddie looks away like he wasn’t interested. Quickly waving goodbye to Dustin as he hurries to his car. He doesn’t want to interact with this Steve. This strange Steve, who is just not Steve-like at all.

Eddie is focusing on finally graduating, he doesn’t need to be thinking about weird Steve. A Steve, who dresses in comfortable soft looking clothes and talks about DnD. A Steve who is good with kids. Not mean.

And he is almost glad when Lucas joins the basketball team later, telling them how Steve is helping him run drills. Because, he can say to himself, see, Steve is pushing this kids towards being sheep jocks. He wants a little posse to carry along his name and found the perfect targets to do that for him.

Even if it makes no sense that Steve is being nice to a few Freshmen to keep his name in high school of all places, especially since all the Senior girls still giggle as they whisper his name. It fits in his views and he’s holding onto that.

In hindsight, it’s embarrassing how much he clings to the douche King Steve image.

Because he doesn’t let it go, the distaste at Steve growing when he sees him pull up into the trailer park a few weeks later, frowning. At first he thinks Steve must have a date here, however unlikely it is that he would want to come close to any of the girls here, but then Lucas gets out of the car and calls out: “Thanks, Steve.”

“No problem,” Steve smiles gently, that smile turning into a grin as he yells: “Don’t do anything I wouldn't do, Sinclair. And don’t do some of the thing I did do.”

“Shove off,” Lucas grimaces like it’s an older brother teasing him instead of the king of Hawkins High.

Max, the girl who lives across from Eddie, has come out of the trailer in time to catch the words Steve yelled. She flips him off, even if she’s smiling. She yells: “Fuck off, old man. We’re not doing anything. Not everyone is a pervert in high school.”

“I wasn’t a pervert,” Steve protest, through the opened window.

“Slut then,” Max shrugs, before dragging a laughing Lucas through the door.

Eddie watches as Steve pouts for a second. Yeah, he also can barely believe that he just watched King Steve drop off Lucas to hang out with his girlfriend, teasing the kids like an embarrassing brother. Not only that, but said girlfriend jokingly called him a slut and he let her. Hell, he’s only pouting in his car about it.

Then Steve drives off and Eddie tries to muster irritation at the peppy radio music he hears floating over, even if he never thought he’d hear Steve sing along to Madonna, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel.

And then again he ignores what his brain could put together, but refuses, because the notion is fucking ridiculous. He’s out in the city, having driven his van out there, because it’s where they have stores that actually sell stuff for DnD. He has some extra money left, and he needs a few more figurines for the next battle he’s planning.

Something that seems almost impossible is the fact that he hears Steve Harrington’s voice. “Yeah, uhm, it’s the dice, but not with six sides. I’m looking for sets? Dice sets, I think?”

The clerk must say something, because the Steve-soundalike laughs: “It’s not my thing, no. It’s a present for my kids, they love this nerd shit.”

Eddie relaxes at the sound. Whoever this guy is, he has kids and Steve decidedly doesn’t have kids (that anyone knows off, because honestly Eddie wouldn't be surprised if Steve had knocked up a girl at some point, but those wouldn’t be old enough to be playing DnD yet). The man at the counter just sounds like Steve, that’s all, and it’s weird to go looking at him just because he sounds like someone Eddie dislikes.

Still, he can’t help but think of the man when Dustin, Lucas and Mike show off their new dice sets at the next session (all picked to fit perfectly with them).

Like he said, it’s ridiculous to think Steve would drive all the way to the closest big city to buy dice sets for a few Freshmen he doesn’t like so that they can play a nerdy game. It’s just stupid coincidence. King Steve buying DnD dice just doesn’t happen.

Eddie doesn’t ask how they got the dice, however.

After that, it slips his mind. Sure, he still has to listen loudly proclaim that Steve is a badass whenever he can, but he manages to avoid the man himself. If he is still picking up the kids after DnD nights, Eddie is too busy packing away the stuff. If he drives them to the arcade, Eddie doesn’t know. And with Lucas and Max breaking up, he doesn’t see Steve at the trailer park much, except the few times he brought Max home (something Eddie ignores).

If asked, he will laugh about why he should be interested what Steve is doing. He’s too busy trying to finally graduate to be busy with the former Mister Popular. He has never cared about that sort of thing, why start?

Why would he want to know what Steve is doing? Why should his brain wonder about this new Steve that gives rides, buys dice and is actually nice? It’s stupid. Those kids just have a very bad case of hero worship and Eddie is desperate to not make it his problem.

Naturally, the universe has a funny way of turning against him, because a girl dies right in front of his eyes and before he knows it, he’s on the run.

He’s in hiding, but found.

He’s scared, feeling trapped.

He’s holding a broken glass bottle to the throat of Steve Harrington.

Because of fucking course Steve has decided to- to what? To help Dustin in his attempt to help Eddie? To believe that Eddie is innocent? To be nice?

Though, at the moment, he looks more scared than anything else. He flinches away from the sharp edge of the glasses and softly but frantically swears on Dustin’s mother, his hands raised in a deescalating and placating manner.

And no matter how unbelievable it is, it can’t be stranger than what he saw in his trailer. So, despite all his instincts he lets Steve go, believing that they’re truly there to help, and sinks to the floor, still clutching the broken bottle to his chest.

They ask him what happened. What happened is that a girl, Chrissy, kind Chrissy, suddenly levitated and broken all her bones right in front of him. Something that should not be able to happen. Something that no one would believe if they could also blame him.

“You wouldn't believe me,” he says.

But they assure him they will and then they actually do. They listen to him talk about a floating girl that broke right in front of his eyes and instead of calling him a freak or insane, they nod their heads. They share looks. Then explain the wildest shit to him, dragging him into a world that he would have loved to never know.

Yet here he is, learning more and more crazy facts about what has happened in Hawkins since ‘83 and how this group was involved every single time. And suddenly Steve and the hero worship the kids have of him makes a lot more sense.

Because, Steve is there for them. He’s not there to solve the mystery or get the glory, he’s just there to make sure none of the dipshits die. Eddie can see it in how he hovers behind them, ushering them through doors, backing up their stories in his own way and how he rests assuring hands on their shoulders.

It’s incredibly obvious that Steve is there for the kids and the kids only. Sure, he is protective over Nancy and Robin as well, but it’s nothing like how he is about the kids.

Eddie can hardly believe his eyes as he watches Steve, Steve Harrington, King Steve, that Steve, put his hands on his hips as he sternly tells the group: “No, those snacks are for Eddie. We can get you snacks on the drive back, he can’t. I asked if you wanted something when we bought them and you all said no.”

“You were eating chips on the way here,” Dustin protests.

“Yes, I bought those for myself,” Steve replies, raising a brow daring Dustin to say more about it, to which the kid wilts as he gives in. When he does, Steve nods satisfied as if he was waiting for that reaction, like the mom-tone (because there’s no use calling it anything else) usually works. Like this happens often.

Then he smiles at Eddie and his heart skips a beat. It’s a gentle, assuring smile, the kind that says ‘don’t worry, I have your back,’ and the weirdest part is that Eddie believes that smile, that it makes him feel safe and cared for.

So, he eats his snacks as they walk towards… a portal apparently, because a compass is wonky. This is his life now.

There Eddie witnesses that stubborn protectively self-sacrificing streak he has heard Dustin and Lucas mention during their game, always followed by Mike complaining his character wasn’t based off Steve (which Eddie was side-eyeing a lot more, having heard of the nail bat).

Because Steve offers to jump in the water, without taking no for an answer, like it’s obvious that he’s the one that is going to be put in danger. And with the way Robin and Nancy let him, maybe it is obvious to everyone that Steve is going to stand between them and danger. However, they also value him enough to follow him without hesitation after they’ve all watched in horror as he is dragged down into the deeps by god knows what.

And then Eddie confirms to himself once again that he is very, very gay as he watches Steve rip a bat in two.

Fucking hell, those kids just had to be right about Steve being a badass, didn’t they?

Thus, all that Eddie has clung to during this year comes crashing down. He has to confront that the reason he didn’t want to think that Steve is different – has become nice and caring – is because then he would have to face that not only is Steve very fucking hot, he also cares. Truly the full package.

Eddie isn’t ready for Steve to be the full package. Yet, here they are, and the aesthetic admiration of the boy he’s always had is turning into a full blown crush. And the last thing Eddie needs on top of an alternate dimension and murder charges is another crush on a straight boy.

So, he pushes it all down, telling Steve about how Nancy jumped after him in the hopes that them getting together would break his heart enough to snap him out of his crush.

However, as this week has already shown him, the universe hates him, so that doesn’t happen. No, instead Steve walks around in nothing but his vest for a long while, letting Eddie make comments he can’t keep behind his teeth even if they are bound to get them punched out at some point if he keeps this up.

But that doesn’t happen. Steve takes the teasing flirty remarks Eddie can’t keep contained with only mild confusion, which seems close to his normal state. It appears that Steve is there to do a job and nothing is throwing him off, not other dimensions, a gaggle of loud kids, the cops on their tail, Robin’s rambling or Eddie’s joking flirting that is close to not-joking.

Luckily (if you want to call it that), Eddie is stopped by the universe before he can make an embarrassing mistake. Albeit in the worst way possible, because Eddie is waking up in a hospital before he knows it.

Oh, no, the universe is not done with him.

Steve is sitting there next to his uncle, Dustin leaning against him, both asleep in an uncomfortable hospital chair when he wakes up.

So, it takes his uncle a moment to realize Eddie is awake, he’s so stunned by the sight. Logically, he knows that Steve is probably there to support Dustin, because if there’s one thing he has learned about Steve, it’s that he’ll do anything – anything – for those kids. Yet, for a few moments he tries to kid himself into thinking Steve is there for him.

Then he locks eyes with his uncle, who shoots out of his seat, hurrying to his bedside. Eddie has never been more happy to see his uncle. He’s missed Wayne so so much. Nancy told him how his uncle didn’t doubt his innocence for a moment and he has never been more happy with living with the man.

“Hey,” he croaks. “How long was I out for?”

“A week,” his uncle says. “Sorry, I wasn’t here the whole time, but I’m glad you made some good friends, kid. That one hasn’t left once.”

“Dustin?” Eddie asks, not sure who Wayne is indicating.

Wayne shakes his head and points to Steve. “No, the other one. Read you The Hobbit. Apologized to me for not keeping you safe. Bit of an idiot if he thinks I care about that when he brought you home to me.”

Eddie can’t believe what he’s hearing. He has already come to terms with the fact that Steve is actually a good dude, but it’s a bit surreal to learn that he’d do that for Eddie. He’s pretty sure he’s heard Dustin complain about how Steve never reads the books he recommends. Yet, Steve sat by Eddie’s sickbed and read him his favorite book.

In hindsight, Eddie isn’t sure if it’s lucky that Steve and Dustin wake to find him awake, before he can think about too much, or not.

However, there is something that makes his heart flip as he sees the subconscious blinding smile Steve gives him once he sees Eddie awake. A smile that is gone by the time Dustin stops hugging him, having jumped Eddie the moment he noticed.

They don’t have the time to talk much, because soon, the room is filled with nurses and a doctor that check him over and inform Eddie of his condition. With the amount of blood he has lost, he’s lucky to be alive. The bites will take time to heal and then he will have to rebuilt the muscle tissue that was shredded by the bats. It will be quite the recovery, but he’s going to be okay.

After the nurses leave, his uncle has to say goodbye, since he still has to go to work. Eddie is sad to see him gone, but he is glad Wayne managed to be there when he woke up.

Once his uncle is gone, Dustin fills him in about what has happened since he went under. How El came and stopped Venca, before Max could get seriously hurt (though she does have a broken leg and arm), how Nancy, Robin and Steve flambeed the shit out of Vecna, killing him, and how Steve carried Eddie out of the Upside Down like a damsel.

At the last one Eddie blushes and Steve looks away, not meeting his eyes as he mutters: “It was nothing, man. He’s overreacting.”

“No, I’m not,” Dustin protests. “He came running when he saw you, sliding down to his knees and feeling for your pulse. He gave you CPR and mouth to mouth, before sweeping you up in a bridal carry. Then he carried you up the new rope, like slung you over his shoulder and just climbed out of there. It was so cool!”

“Alright, alright, Dustin,” Steve stops him and Eddie is glad for it, because he sure can’t in his flustered state. “Eddie just woke up, I don’t think he wants to be annoyed with all that shit.”

Dustin pouts, but listens, switching topics to his now proven innocence in the media and how the government made sure to paint him as a hero, getting injured saving a few kids (Dustin, Erica, Max and Lucas) from serial killer Henry Creel.

Steve adds: “You’re probably going to get approached by men in suits soon now that you’re finally awake. They’ll make you sign a bunch on NDAs. Don’t worry too much about it. Happens every time.”

“Jesus, how many times did you sign those?” Eddie asks.

“This was the fourth time,” Steve shrugs. “Not as bad as last time when me and Robin were questioned about that Russian base for hours, before they let us go.”

“You’re gonna have to tell me that story in full sometime,” Eddie says.

“Course,” Steve promises with a small smile, which makes Eddie feel things.

God, he should really try to get over that stupid crush, because that shy smile and soft assurance is very comforting. And Eddie really wants to tell him that he looks beautiful like that.

Before he can embarrass himself, however, Dustin checks his watch and curses. He ignores Steve’s soft warning about language as he says: “I have to go home or my mom will freak.” He adds an explanation, “Nearly got murdered according to the news and all that.”

Eddie nods, expecting Steve to get up, jingling his car keys and saying goodbye, but that doesn’t happen. Instead, Dustin gives Steve a hug, before dragging out his goodbye to Eddie, then bounces out of the room.

Once he has left the room, Eddie gives Steve an inquiring look, raising a questioning brow.

Suddenly Steve seems to remember that Eddie is awake and he blushes brightly. Eddie didn’t even know that King Steve could blush. But this isn’t really King Steve, this is Steve, the babysitter and hero.

“I’m sorry,” Steve says. “I- uhm, I didn’t want you to be alone, so I stayed. Kinda habit now, but I can go if you want to be alone. No problem.”

His head is filled with the memory of being alone with Chrissy’s corpse, alone hiding out in the shed, alone and being swarmed by bats. Quickly he shakes his head, reaching out to Steve before he can get up as he says: “No. Stay.”

Steve lowers himself back into the chair without question and Eddie can almost kid himself into thinking he looks relieved about Eddie’s (highly embarrassing) request to stay.

It’s awkward for a second, then Steve says: “The Hobbit is actually a better book than I expected.”

Eddie lights up at the mention of his favorite book and launches into a rant about it, practically interrogating Steve about where he is and what part he likes best. Until they’re talking, conversation flowing easily between them.

Over the next few weeks, Eddie recovers. During the day Dustin often joins him and his uncle is there whenever he can. However, Steve is the constant. He only went home once to get more clothes and pick up some things for Eddie, but he is mostly there.

The two boys talk about everything and nothing, Steve continues reading The Hobbit and they listen to music together, Eddie claiming Steve needs to be educated and Steve letting him with only an eyeroll.

Slowly Eddie gets better. He sleeps less, walks more and every day his infatuation with Steve grows bigger.

It’s really fucking embarrassing if Eddie is honest with himself. For all his protests about not becoming a sheep, it only took a few weeks of hanging around Steve to feel like all the girls he has always seen buzzing around the man. To lay and think about Steve’s hair, charming smile, muscled arms etc.

But it’s also different, because he knows Steve. He knows that he is nothing like the guy Eddie used to see in the halls of Hawkins High.

This Steve read The Hobbit, talks to Eddie about DnD, trying to understand it for the kids and asking questions about the campaign Eddie is planning. He listens to Eddie’s music, not always liking it, but enough to bop his head and sing along from time to time. He worries for Eddie when he twinges in pain, makes sure he is okay, herds the kids away when they’re too loud and Eddie is tired.

All in all, he’s a great guy and Eddie blushes around him, trying to play it off by playfully flirting with the man more. Something Steve doesn’t seem to mind. Even like, if Eddie wants to fool himself into thinking the flush is about more than embarrassment from Eddie’s comments.

Then, a month and a half after waking up, Eddie walks out of the hospital on his own two legs (though he’s supported by Steve’s muscular arms, his brain busy with replaying Dustin’s recount of his saving).

His uncle couldn't be there, so Steve has offered to drive him home.

He helps Eddie into the car, buckling him in, before flushing and saying: “I’m so sorry that was a total mom-move. I mean, the kids already tease me about it, no need to around proving them right even more and-”

“It’s okay, sweetheart,” Eddie cuts off the apologetic rambles, before they can continue.

“Ah, oh, uhm, okay,” Steve splutters, quickly retreating and closing the door, before hurrying to the other side of the car and sliding in. He takes a deep breath, turning to Eddie, then bites his lip, before shaking his head and pointing to the dashboard. “I have tapes in there, pick whatever you like.”

Eddie feels a weird tension and wonders what happened. He opens the dashboard and laughs, pulling out tapes: “Really, Stevie? Madonna? Wham!? Whitney Houston? Cyndi Lauper? ABBA? No wonder those kids call you a mom.”

“Oh shut up,” Steve grins. “If I want to be a dancing queen, I can be, Munson.”

“Is that so, princess?” Eddie teases, wanting to hit himself when he does. Sure, sweetheart hasn’t been much better, but if he is going to get his ass kicked by Steve ‘princess’ would be the pet name to do it.

However, Steve doesn’t punch him, he just blushes again and grips the steering wheel tightly, not looking at Eddie.

The silence drags out.

It’s awkward. Eddie may not have gotten his teeth punched out, but he’s pretty sure he has finally made Steve uncomfortable. Because he’s a fucking idiot, who can’t keep words to himself and Steve doesn’t have to take that from Eddie. It’s likely harder to ignore without a huge threat hanging over them. So he has to fix this, before he ruins this friendship, which is already more than he could have hoped for.

“Steve…” he starts uncertainly, wanting to reach out.

“No, it’s fine,” Steve says tersely.

“It’s obviously not fine,” Eddie protests. “I made you uncomfortable, sorry.”

Steve gives him a shocked look. “What? No, you- you didn’t make me uncomfortable,” he objects, like it’s a given. Then he looks away, flush still coloring his cheeks and mutters: “You just keep giving me hope.”

“Hope?” Eddie repeats softly, not really able to believe what he’s hearing.

The blush brightens impossibly even more and Steve huffs: “I know. It’s stupid. Believe me, Robin has already made fun of my unrequited crush on you at lengths.”

At those words Eddie’s brain short-circuits. Steve- Steve has a crush. On him? Holy fuck, Steve Harrington just confessed to having a crush on him. Eddie Munson. He is sitting there blushing because Eddie called him princess and that apparently makes him flustered. Because he has a crush. On Eddie.

Then the words unrequited hit him and his brain catches up to the fact that Steve is still gripping the steering wheel tightly, obviously waiting for rejection. And Eddie is just sitting there, staring at him without saying a word.

Before he can rectify the mistake, Steve says: “If you’re going to call me slurs, please just do so, Eds.”

“What? No!” Eddie exclaims quickly. “No, no, no, of course not. Fuck, of course not, Steve. Gods, no, I wouldn't do that.”

“You won’t?” Steve asks tentatively, risking a glance at Eddie.

And fuck, his eyes are really fucking pretty. Eddie looks for a moment, then shakes his head, softly replying: “No, would be pretty hypocritical of me. You know, making fun of your sexuality and crush when I also have a crush on you.”

Steve was about to look away, but at the confession he whips his head around, eyes growing wide as he breathes: “You do?”

Eddie smiles, a giddy feeling taking over his body. He nods and confirms: “I do.”

At that Steve smiles back, his face splitting in two, eyes sparkling. He looks absolutely beautiful and Eddie now gets to say that without having to make a joke about it. So he does. And enjoys how Steve blushes, deciding it’s much prettier in combination with that soft smile.

In a moment of boldness, Eddie says: “So, does this mean you’ll say yes, if I ask you on a date with me, pretty boy?”

And Steve is nodding, before agreeing, an equally giddy smile on his face as he starts the car.

In that second, Eddie feels on top of the world. He has been cleared of murder charges, he has lived to tell the tale and now he has an amazing man on his side that has agreed to go on a date with him, along with many friends by their sides. ‘86 is truly shaping up to be his year.

So, yeah, Eddie knows Steve Harrington. Of course, he does. He is the best babysitter he has ever known with more mom-tendencies than a twenty-year-old should, along with the prettiest blush he has seen. He has taken up space in every corner of Eddie’s life and he can’t be happier that he’s there.

Eddie has witnessed his princess in every way and he has to say, he likes Steve Harrington a whole lot more than King Steve.

[schrijverr]

Nothing Will Be the Same

Jonathan’s perspective on Steve in season 1 and season 2, as he witnesses Steve go from King Steve to a pretty damn good babysitter.

On AO3.

Ships: first Steve x Nancy, then Nancy x Jonathan when they break up.

Warnings: bullying and hint of shitty parents

King Steve Dethroned: Jonathan's POV, Robin's POV & Eddie's POV.

~~~~~~~~~~

Jonathan is pulled into King Steve’s orbit by some cruel twist of faith in his Sophomore year. Steve may be a year above him, but he has taken a liking to Nancy. Now Jonathan isn’t close with Nancy, but Will is close with Mike, so they’re connected in a way. And with Steve as her boyfriend, he’s connected to him as well.

Not that Steve is in any way aware of that connection. He just goes on his merry douche-y way, brushing alongside Jonathan’s world more than Jonathan would like and taking his asshole friends with him.

Granted, Steve might not be so bad as Tommy H., who seems to take a sick pleasure out of kicking people when they’re down, but Steve… Well, Steve is King Steve. He is the man. He has it all. Nice house, rich parents, all the girls and popularity.

He’s the golden boy, who can’t do anything wrong and even if he throws parties every weekend and Jonathan has seen Tommy H. getting drugs from Munson.

It’s just fucking unfair that he gets to stand there and look pretty, while all the world bows down to his whims. Even Nancy, who Jonathan had always thought above that (hoped, maybe) is turning into a blushing mess around the boy.

Jonathan has already resigned himself to a tiring year of rude comments not directed at him, but loud enough to hear. A year of seeing Steve whenever he needs to pick up Will. A year of torment and if it all goes wrong another year extra before the douchebags graduated.

His year turns out to be nothing like that.

Will goes missing. His little brother. Gone. And Jonathan was supposed to be home when he disappeared. He was supposed to be there for Will. But when the kid truly needed him, he hadn’t been there.

Suddenly, King Steve and his crew don’t matter to him. Nancy doesn’t matter. What matters is finding Will. What matters is keeping his mom together through it all.

However, just because his world is falling apart doesn’t mean that anyone cares about it. Nancy made a pitiful attempt, but that’s it. He still has a target on his back. King Steve still doesn’t like him and therefore no one does.

He shouldn’t care about it. He doesn’t care about it. It’s just painful that his head is already so full of worries, guilt and all sorts of other confusing emotions that have him acting in ways he normally wouldn’t, and he has to deal with those dicks on top of it too. He was just so shocked by the idea that life is still normal for them, that they could party when Will is missing.

That’s quickly forgotten however, because why the fuck should he care about his camera when Will is dead? When he is looking at coffins. When Nancy is there again. When he has photographed something so horrible. When they nearly die themselves.

When Will has a chance of being alive.

He is working together with Nancy – and yeah he likes that, but he’s a bit occupied. Together they’re building an arsenal to take on a monster.

This is Hawkins, apparently. This is his life. Buying guns, gasoline and bear traps with Nancy Wheeler to take on a monster from another dimension that took his little brother. That killed Barbara. It’s fucking insane.

And from anyone who isn’t them it’s still insane, because Steve and his little gang have decided to interpret his interactions with Nancy very differently. Granted, Jonathan would have found it a little weird if they had guessed inter-dimensional monster, but immediately jumping to cheating and spray painting it for the town to see is a bit much.

He can see that Nancy is upset about the whole thing and he wants to pull her away from it all. They have other things to worry about than Steve and his stupid cronies.

The sad part is that he almost manages too. He’s already walking away, but Steve’s just there in his ear, hammering on: “You know what, Byers? I'm actually kind of impressed. I always took you for a queer, but I guess you're just a little screw-up like your father. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that house is full of screw-ups. You know, I guess I shouldn't really be surprised. A bunch of screw-ups in your family.”

He can feel his fist clench, Nancy saying: “Jonathan leave it.”

But it’s not about her family. Steve is not mentioning her as he says: “I mean, your mom... I'm not even surprised what happened to your brother.”

“Steve, shut up!” yells Nancy and Jonathan would be more glad for her help, if there weren’t so much rage already bubbling under the surface.

So when Steve says: “I'm sorry I have to be the one to tell you, but the Byers, their family, it's a disgrace to the entire-” Jonathan makes sure he can’t finish that sentence.

All the anger at Steve’s words, at the world, at his own actions comes pouring out of him. The fear that he has turned to anger comes out as he wails down on Steve, who goes down with such little a fight that Jonathan wonders why the fuck anyone is scared of him.

It feels good. Like he’s finally getting retribution for years of scorn, getting tripped over, called names.

Until the police arrive and golden boy King Steve gets away, while Jonathan gets arrested. The whole thing feels a bit like a metaphor for their lives.

He’s lucky the Chief is involved with it and lets him go to catch up with the kids, because of course Will’s friend have gotten involved with this. He isn’t close with the kids, has mostly seen them in passing, but he’s glad his brother has such good friends.

Though, if he’s honest, if he hadn’t been through the last 24 hours, he would have thought they had turned to fantasy to cope with the loss of their friend. But no, the girl has actually superpowers and they’re building a bath for her to find Will in another dimension.

But he can’t let his mom go into danger without trying to help. His little brother is missing and he needs to do something other than sit with a few middle schoolers in an abandoned gym at night. So, he convinces Nancy to go. To fight.

He has always known she has more spirit than most in Hawkins, which is confirmed by the stubborn set of her jaw as she agrees.

They set up all the Christmas lights, set out the bear trap and douse the floor in gasoline. Then they cut their hands, waiting for the lights to start flickering and a monster to come out of the wall. Just when he thinks his life can’t get weirder, Steve is on his doorstep wanting to apologize.

When he first knocks, both Nancy and Jonathan jump out of their skin, thinking it to be the demogorgon. However, then they hear Steve call: “Jonathan? Are you there, man? It's- it's Steve. Listen, I just want to talk.”

He’s banging on the door, but it doesn’t sound angry, just desperate. Still, Jonathan freezes and Nancy moves, opening the door. “Steve, listen to me,” she says.

“Hey,” Steve greets before he realizes that it’s Nancy. “Nancy what-”

“You need to leave,” she tells him firmly before he can finish the question.

“I’m not here to start anything, okay,” he promises and any other night Jonathan would have gladly let him in to see King Steve grovel. But not tonight.

“I don’t care about that. You need to leave,” Nancy repeats, desperate to get him away from the danger and a part of Jonathan wants to roll his eyes.

But Steve isn’t hearing her, not really – and isn’t that just typical – because he continues: “No, no, no. Listen, I messed up, okay? I messed- I messed up. Okay? Really. Please. I just want to make things right. Okay? Please. Please...”

And of course Nancy is weak for him, because she stammers, torn between wanting to give in and knowing how dangerous it is.

The action reveals her hand, now bandaged and Steve frowns: “Hey, what happened to your hand? Is that blood?”

“Nothing,” Nancy stutters, but it’s too late for the excuse. “It was an accident.”

“Yeah? What’s going on?” Steve demands.

“Nothing,” Nancy repeats.

But Steve is on a track and of course he’s jumping to the least flattering conclusion as he says: “Wait a sec, did he do this to you?”

“No.”

“Nancy, let me in,” Steve starts to try to get in, all his talk about wanting to make it right rendered obsolete.

“No. No! No, Steve!” Nancy yells as she tries in vain to stop him.

But Steve is already inside, coming face to face with the insanity that they have only just learned about. He must think we’re loonies, Jonathan thinks bitterly, all his little theories about my family confirmed.

Still, he hates Steve, but he doesn’t want him dead. So when the lights start to flicker, he joins Nancy’s attempts to get Steve away from their trap that he wasn’t meant to be caught in.

Nancy even points a gun at him and if Jonathan believed Steve was anything but a player, he would see heartbreak in Steve’s expressive eyes (that Jonathan has heard too much about from giggling girls).

Yet, Steve doesn’t go. He stands there, confused and hurt as Jonathan and Nancy are distracted by the arrival of the demogorgon.

After that it’s all chaos for a moment. They run for their lives dragging Steve along, their trap not enough as they hide in Will’s bedroom. Outside they hear it roam free, not falling in their trap as behind them Steve freaks out. “Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Jesus! Jesus! What the hell was that? What the hell was that?”

Both he and Nancy yell at the same time for him to shut up.

Outside the noises stop and the house is eerily quiet. When it drags on, they tentatively open the door, fully prepared to come face to face with a giant monster, ready to eat them. However, there is nothing there and when they go further into the house. It’s abandoned.

Behind them Steve is muttering: “This is crazy. This is crazy. This is crazy. This is crazy! This is crazy! This is crazy!”

He rushes to the phone, trying to dial 911, but Nancy just pulls the phone out of his hands and crushes it, Jonathan winces slightly. Steve cries: “What are you do- What are you doing? Are you insane?”

Jonathan continues messing with the trap, he’s done with King Steve, who can’t fight and is only in their way with nothing to add, since his brawn hasn’t done much yet. Mentally he cheers when Nancy straightens up, her shoulders squared as she sharply says: “It's going to come back! So you need to leave. Right now.”

And Steve leaves, like Jonathan has always expected he would. Steve is a lot of talk, but he has never stood for anything himself. He lets himself go with what everyone expects from him and doesn’t complain. He’s weak and he runs.

If Jonathan had more time, he would have probably reflected more on King Steve running like a coward. However, he’s quite occupied with attempting to fight of a demogorgon, who has pinned him down and is ready to eat his face.

Faintly he hears Nancy screaming and a gun going off, but it doesn’t seem to do more than irritate it. Even if it yells at her.

He is already accepting his faith as demogorgon chow, heart aching at his mother who will loose her other son, two if she doesn’t find Will, when the demogorgon suddenly backs off. Well, not backs off necessarily. It gets hit and falters.

Through bleary eyes Jonathan sees the familiar silhouette of Steve Harrington.

His shoulders are broad and he holds the nail bat that Jonathan had dropped with confidence as he strikes down. At some point Jonathan sees him twirl the bat before beating the demogorgon further into the house. The monster bending to his will as he fearlessly battles it back into the trap he has set with Nancy, one that Steve only glanced at moments before.

Jonathan wants to compare him to the picture perfect image of the High King Steve, but whoever is fighting off a demon from another dimension isn’t King Steve. He’s closer to a knight, running in to slay the beast and save the damsel.

But he shakes it off, since that would make him a damsel. Nancy too. And Nancy isn’t a damsel at all.

He’s torn out of his hazed thoughts by Steve loudly yelling: “He's in the trap! He's stuck!” followed by Nancy screaming: “Jonathan, now!”

Quickly he climbs to his feet running over, nearly tripping as he gets out the lighter and torches the motherfucker. They watch it burn for a few seconds, before Jonathan douses it. The last thing he wants to do is burn down his mother’s house.

When the smoke clears, there is nothing to be seen of the demogorgon. There is no smoldering corpse. No blood.

Nancy asks where it is, but Jonathan refuses to believe it’s anything but dead. Besides them Steve is panting, his eyes still wide and frantic as they zoom around the hallway looking for a trace of the demogorgon.

It hits Jonathan that Steve came back for them.

Steve ran back into the house, fully knowing how dangerous it was. He knew he could die – almost did die – and yet he did it anyway. He did it despite the fact that both Jonathan and Nancy told him to go and no one would hear of King Steve shamefully running or his heroic return. He just did it.

None of it makes sense to Jonathan, who has had years to study Steve. It’s not some weird obsessive thing as all the bullies seem to think, he just likes studying people and Steve is an easy to spot target to track.

And if Jonathan knows one thing about Steve, it’s that it is all about image. All about what people see, even if Jonathan has spotted cracks in his perfect picture.

Everyone knows the rumors about his parents. How they fight. How they cheat. How they drink. How they don’t care about little Stevie. But whenever they’re in town, you can bet they’re spotted in the finest restaurant, all dressed up, smiling like a family with no issues. So, the rumors remain just rumors, which only a handful of people believe.

But Jonathan has seen Steve sitting outside the school by himself, twiddling with his thumbs, hunched over, like he wanted nothing more than to disappear. It was the day after his parents’ return and Jonathan had watched in confusion as he straightened up and was all smiles and perfect charm when his friends rolled up.

The Steve in his living room is looking a lot like that Steve and Jonathan doesn’t know what to do with that. He has never seen him crack when he thought others could see him.

Then the lights start up again and they all tense up. Steve’s mask is forgotten as Jonathan’s eyes slide over the lights and walls, trying to spot the tear in reality before it’s too late. But he notes the lights are different. Too different to be the demogorgon.

A small hope lights up in his chest so when Nancy wonders where it’s going, he smiles: “I don't think that's the monster.”

After that, they finally breathe for a moment, all nearly collapsing. They drink some water and it is weird to exist in the same room as Steve Harrington amiably. Once the glasses are empty, Steve finally asks again: “So what the hell just happened?”

And Nancy tells him. She tells him about how Will went missing, Barb getting dragged from his pool due to the blood, how she and Jonathan hunted it, how her brother and his friends found a girl with psychic powers, the bathtub, the lab.

Throughout it all Steve looks more and more ill, though it already looked like he was going to throw up when Nancy told him about Barb in a broken voice.

When she’s done, he takes a deep breath and rubs his brow, flinching when he hits the black eye Jonathan gave him earlier. He says: “If I didn’t just see what I saw, I would think you’re absolutely crazy, Nance.”

The comment makes her laugh, because of course it does. Of course Steve ran back and saved the day, even if it wouldn't affect his popularity, because Nancy is right here and she’s laughing at his stupid not-funny joke.

To break the tension, he says: “I have to go to the hospital. If mom- if she has Will, that’s where she’ll go.”

“Of course, Jonathan,” Nancy says, her kind attention immediately on him. “I- I have to go find Mike again. See if he’s okay.”

“I can drive you,” Steve offers and Jonathan rolls his eyes as Nancy thanks him.

They awkwardly say their goodbyes, getting in their separate cars and driving away. The mess in the house can wait, he has a baby brother to find.

Arriving at the hospital and finding his mom there with Hopper and Will quickly dispels any thoughts of Steve. He’s still concerned, there is still so much to say, but Will is there. Will is alive and that is all that matters right now.

If he had taken the time, he would have thought he would see Steve again at school whenever he returned.

He hasn’t taken that time, however, that doesn’t mean he isn’t surprised when he sees Steve sitting alongside the others in the waiting room. The kids are now seeing Will, so it’s just the three of them again and Steve must notice his confused blinking because he explains: “I offered to drive the kids and Nancy home later.”

“Oh,” Jonathan says. “That’s nice.”

Then they’re quiet for a second, the three of them letting the awkward quiet settle about them. Until Nancy says: “I’m sure Will needs the rest. We’ll be out of your hair soon. I’m glad they found him and he’s alright.”

That gets a smile out of Jonathan, also relieved and elated at the return of his brother. It’s too great a news to bother himself with thoughts of Steve about, so he just thanks her softly and goes back the hospital room.

He’s not at school the next day, nor the day after that, however he walks back into high school on the third day after they’ve found Will. It is almost a surreal experience. Everyone moves like they’ve always done, like nothing is different, like everything is the same.

Well, not everything.

Whispers follow him down the hall, this is par of the course, but they’re also following Steve. And they’re different to the whispers that usually follow the man. They’re speculation about his bruises – which also follow Jonathan – about the rumors that have been spread about Nancy, then Steve, by Tommy H. and Carol. The whispers are mean. Questioning. Calculating.

But Steve still swaggers down the hall despite it. That same picture perfect image still there even if it’s marred by bruises. He is no longer flanked by his generals, but the walk of a man with people behind him is still there.

Jonathan notes that there is no Nancy under his arm, no girls twiddling about him.

And Jonathan knows it has been a few days since that first day, the day when the whispers must have been the loudest. When it was all new and exciting, the way his whispers are now. But two whole days have already passed. Most of the rumors have taken on their own lives and if it were normal, a few girls should already be there to ‘mend his broken heart’ or ‘hear of his heroic battle,’ but there are none.

So, that first day back at school Jonathan watches Steve carefully and curiously. He watches how he doesn’t sit with Tommy H. and the basket ball team, but with the swim team. Watches how his eyes track Nancy. How he talks less. Doesn’t flirt. Just goes about his day.

It’s really fucking weird and Jonathan is saying that as someone, whose brother was just lost in a different dimension, while Jonathan fought of a monster and met a girl with superpowers.

All of it feels a bit like something isn’t aligned correctly. As if the laws of the universe have slightly bend and everything is just a touch to the left.

He comes by the Wheeler house to drop of Will and it’s like it’s a year ago again, when Will wasn’t allowed to bike alone. He isn’t again.

However, it doesn’t take long for everything to snap back into place. A month after everything happened, it seems like the world moves on. Steve wins a swim tournament and a few days later Nancy is back under his arm.

Nancy gives him a camera to replace the one Steve broke for her honor. He still feels guilty about those pictures. About why he took them. But he can’t take them back, just like Nancy can’t take back her choosing Steve.

It shouldn't hurt. He should be used to it by now. All is returning to normal, people are moving on, or back, and this is just part of it.

Yet it still hurts and the only nice thing about it is that he gets to hate Steve again without feeling guilty, because Steve saved his life.

So, yeah, all in all, come 1984 things are normal again in Hawkins.

There are some minor changes of course. 1) Jonathan knows what’s out there now, 2) Will is more withdrawn and quiet, 3) Nancy has turned back to normal, relentless, headstrong, and 4) Steve has stopped hanging around Tommy H. and Carol and is actually acknowledging Jonathan’s existence like a person.

But overall, it’s like the Upside Down has never happened. They’re all trying to move on, even though they can’t.

Jonathan knows they can’t. He knows that he still flinches when the lights flicker, he has had Nancy call him in the middle of the night asking if he’s okay. Hell, he has even seen Steve in his car looking to the world with unseeing eyes as he takes shuddering breaths. It looked pathetic and Jonathan has tried to forget it.

Summer rolls by and changes into fall. With the new weather, change comes to town in the shape of Max and her brother Billy.

He doesn’t concern himself much with Max, but Billy is interesting. He is a potential new bully and Jonathan makes sure to steer clear, but he’s also the first person, who has posed a serious threat to Steve’s already wavering popularity.

It’s like he has come there to knock Steve down a peg, to own the school, and it is fascinating to observe.

Girls flock to Billy like it’s nobody’s business and he joins every sports team, automatically excelling with nothing but a smug smirk. He’s one of the worst bullies Hawkins High has seen in ages. Truly puts into perspective how little Steve did.

What’s most interesting, however. Is how Steve becomes a target. It’s not a big scale bullying campaign or anything, but Billy has put his eyes on him and Steve is no longer popular enough to have people rally behind him. It’s a true one vs. one. And Steve is very clearly loosing.

Billy is usurping Steve’s throne, but it’s like he doesn’t care at all. Jonathan expected him to fight tooth and nail for it, to try and hold on to his high school glory days, the only peak he is going to get and the only thing a guy like him cares about. Yet, that’s not what happens. Steve continues going to school, trying to ignore Billy’s taunts as he lives his life.

The whole thing is odd and Jonathan doesn’t know what to think.

Halloween is when it truly starts to change. Jonathan doesn’t know what has happened exactly, but he watched Nancy get very drunk, then disappear with Steve, only for the two to come down together moments later. Steve looks close to tears, Nancy still out of it, as he asks Jonathan to take her home.

A part of Jonathan wants to ask what happened, ask if Steve is alright, but he stomps that part down harshly. Steve is douche and never deserved Nancy. If they broke up, good riddance.

But it’s never good riddance with Steve, because even though Nancy has been with him the whole time. They tried to get revenge for Barb. They had sex. He has the girl. Steve never leaves him the fuck alone.

Jonathan wonders why he’s even surprised to find Steve at Hawkins lab, Dustin, Lucas and Max in tow with him. He wants to get mad. Wants to ask if he’s come crawling back to Nancy again after leaving her to suffer about Barb all by herself. But before he can do something stupid there are roars in the air and a chill goes down his spine. Will is in there.

Fuck, Will is in there. Again trapped in a horrible situation. And again Jonathan can’t reach him. Can’t protect him.

So, when those cars come driving and Will is there, his mom is there, both safe, he doesn’t care that Steve is there. Why should he care about a jock trying to impress Nancy when she knows better, when his family is safe?

Naturally he changes his tune about his family being safe when he hears about the being that has invaded Will’s mind. Fuck, his own baby brother held captive again, this time in his own head and Jonathan can’t go and hit something to keep him safe.

They have a plan, sure, but so much can go wrong. He wants the safety of Nancy with him, to hold onto during this. But he can’t ask her to leave Mike behind. God knows he of all people should understand wanting to keep you kid brother safe.

Then he hears his name. He doesn’t mean to overhear, he’s just stuffing some of the shit they need into the car when he hears Steve say: “With Jonathan.”

And for a second he assumes, Steve is really asking Nancy about what’s going on between them in these circumstances, until Nancy scoffs: “No, I'm- I'm not just gonna leave Mike,” and Jonathan realizes Steve is telling her to go with him.

“No one’s leaving anyone,” Steve assures her and Jonathan hates he’s gaining some sort respect for the jock when he jokes: “I may be a pretty shitty boyfriend, but turns out I'm actually a pretty damn good babysitter.”

“Steve…” Nancy starts, almost unsure.

And when Steve tells her it’s okay, it feels like it’s about more than just watching Mike. It’s like he’s giving something up. Accepting something. Giving permission. And it should be something that makes him scoff, because Nancy doesn’t need permission to dump Steve, but Jonathan can’t manage to scrounge up the anger.

Steve just sounds resigned and sad, like he’s gotten his heart broken, but accepts that he was never good enough for Nancy. Jonathan turns away before he can hear more. This isn’t meant for his ears to hear.

But despite all that is happening, he can’t stop thinking about it.

He knows it’s stupid, but his brain just keeps replaying the conversation. Keeps pulling up more and more images of Steve from the past year. How he has kept away from the bullies, let Billy walk over him, tried to be normal, let Nancy be normal. How he showed up with Dustin, Lucas and Max, as if they had turned to him for help and he had gone. How he was willing to let Nancy go despite how much it hurts.

None of it fits with what Jonathan has always thought he knew about the guy. However, he remembers how he has always seen a mask, makes him think how well he knows the guy in the first place.

A thought that repeats himself when they get to the hospital later to have Will checked out and find the other kids already there, all of them yelling about Steve. How cool he was. How he saved their lives. How he fought Billy for them. How he’s currently in surgery getting the bits of plate removed from his head.

It all makes his head spin. It makes him feel a bit like the day he returned to school last time they went through this. How the world feels off, everything a shade to the left. The Steve in his head isn’t like this, but he isn’t sure if that Steve still exists. If Steve will snap back to normal again when they get back to school, or if it’s going to stay like this.

He gets his answer a week later. Nancy has been by his side the whole time, but Steve hasn’t returned yet. Jonathan can’t help but feel on edge.

Then, after a week of recovering, Steve pulls into the school’s parking lot. It’s almost like a hush falls over the students, everyone has noticed his absence and the rumors about what has happened between him and Billy fly.

Steve gets out of the car and whispers start up about the bruises still littering his face, but then the other door opens and Dustin of all people gets out of the car, calling: “Thanks for driving me, Steve.”

“Yeah, yeah, just get to class, shithead,” Steve calls back. “And don’t make me wait or you’re walking home.”

Dustin nods, before taking off to school. The whole high school following him with their eyes, the boy oblivious to it. Though, Jonathan knows Steve isn’t, he’s just pretending.

Steve walks to the entrance, holding his head high, like he is still untouchable. Like he cannot see the looks or hear the whispers. He walks right by Billy and gives him a look. Billy looks away and whispers start getting louder. Steve has asserted his dominance there, enough to catch a break, but he isn’t doing anything to stay popular. It’s like he has stopped caring.

That day, he walks up to them during lunch. He doesn’t sit next to Nancy, but next to Jonathan, opposite of Nancy. He just says hello and continues on, like he isn’t feeding the rumor mill for months to come.

Still, Jonathan can’t help but notice he looks more at ease. His smile isn’t picture perfect, but looks more genuine and there is a tenseness missing from his shoulders. Jonathan decides he likes this Steve a lot better than the King Steve he used to know.

After school he watches Steve wait by the car with Dustin, letting himself be convinced to drive him alongside Lucas, Max, Will and Mike to the arcade. And Jonathan knows nothing is going to be the same again, but that might not be so bad in the end.

~~

A/N:

Tbh, I don’t like Jonathan that much, like the moment he took those pictures of Nancy, he was kind of done for me, but he does provide an interesting perspective since he has witnessed the full change and not just ‘re-met’ Steve after he dropped the crown and he’s important to the story, so here I am lol

Post-season 1 to end season 2 Steve is so interesting to me, because it’s clear that people still refer to him as King Steve and he has some sort of reputation from what we hear from Billy, but we know how he’s changing. So, it must be this slow fall of grace so to speak, where his name carries weight, but more like a thing of the past. Idk, I can spend hours thinking about it.

I have Robin’s and Eddie’s POV on the new Steve, no longer King Steve coming as well, so stay tuned for that!