#aro steve harrington

[artbean]

@averyfruityhalloween pinch hitter gift for @misspanicdead!

demiromantic steve and asexual eddie are something that can be so personal 💚🤍🖤💜 this was a delight for me to draw! (ID in alt text)

[thechaosdomain]

Just thinking about Aromantic Steve getting into romantic relationships cause he’s been told his entire life that he should want this and in theory he likes the idea of it, he thinks it sounds lovely but he’s never felt that way about anyone. He knows he’s expected to date and fall in love and settle down and everyone else around him seems so happy and fulfilled in relationships so why can’t he be.

He thinks for the longest time that he must be broken, he liked spending time with the people he’s dated but never felt a romantic connection. So he stops dating but pretends to be looking to keep up appearances because it’s what’s expected of him.

Then he meets Robin and feels a connection with her that he mistakes for romantic interest but later realises that it’s platonic love for her.

It takes him years to realise he doesn’t want to date and that he’ll never have romantic feelings for people but he’s happy with his friendships and feels satisfied with them.

He’s always a little worried that he’s going to be left behind and pushed to the side in favour of his friends' romantic relationships but he doesn’t voice these feelings.

He starts spending more time with Eddie and it’s fun and eventually they start hooking but Steve feels guilty not because Eddies a guy (he came to terms with his bisexuality years ago) but because Eddie starts acting like they’re a couple doing little things that Steve had only ever associated with romance.

He tries putting some space between them but that just makes him feel worse so he makes up his mind to talk to Eddie about it. The conversation is hard because Steve’s never tried to explain these feelings to anyone but Eddie is patient and listens reassuring Steve that he’s not broken. It also helps him realise that the things eddies doing aren’t inherently romantic and he could accept that knifed of affection with out the worry of accidentally leading Eddie on.

After they talk their relationship stays the same except they’re closer now and Steve doesn’t feel like he has to lie to or hide things from Eddie, they continue who hook up and it’s fun and yes Steve does still worry sometimes that one day Eddie will find himself a romantic partner and leave him behind but for the time being he’s happy.

I might write something based around this.

[mike-wheeler-faggotry]

Cause like. Steve's thing is that he has a "perfect" life but is ultimately dissatisfied. He has well-off parents but seems to have a strained relationship with his dad (unknown about mother). Popular in school but never had a real friend until he was a dork with Dustin and Robin. Adored by the ladies but he doesn't really seem to like any of them.

There's Robin, but his being like "I would be willing to date her but she doesn't like me like that" thing doesn't give off any pining notes. His being willing to date her is based off friendship. And there's Nancy, but he said it himself she changed him for the better and admires her a lot for it. So a case COULD be made for him not liking either romantically. I don't see him liking men either, though, so I think him being adored but not wanting a romantic relationship would fit well into his arc.

[carolperkinsexgirlfriend]

Steddie Upside-Down AU Part 117

Part 1 Part 116

Things should speed up after that, but they don't. Life drags, the way it always does when you're caught up on it—the minutiae of days slipping by in inches.

Eddie revels in it. Every day, at home, at school, in bed, at Steve's side. He revels even more when their school sentence is stayed for a few weeks of uninterrupted quality time. 

It should feel new. They’ve redefined the lines that lie between them, tied a red string of fate between both their hearts. 

It should feel new, but it doesn’t.

Not much changes, really. Steve was right. They were already everything, and this doesn't change that. The kisses are nice though, warm, and soft, and wanting in the morning light filtering in through the curtains.

They’re nice in the dark, too, fingers fumbling to try to find faces. Eddie likes all of it, everything, as long as it’s with Steve. 

Steve, who never takes the ring off. It makes something squirm in his stomach when he looks down and sees it there. He finds himself reaching out to touch it, spinning it around and around in quiet moments.

Steve always lets him, leaning into Eddie’s space like he likes it. Eddie’s always leaving spaces in his life for Steve and hoping he’ll fill them up. 

So, when Carol kidnaps Steve in the middle of a lazy afternoon spent twined around each other, Eddie waves a jaunty goodbye as Steve climbs into Barb’s backseat and gets to work. 

He starts with their nicest set of flannel sheets, some scissors, a sewing needle, and a dream. They won’t have money to replace them for a while, but needs must. 

It takes hours, long enough that he’s been periodically feeling for Steve’s location, checking he’s not on his way home. It takes so long that he’s starting to hate the red plaid of the sheets he’s transforming. 

He tacks them up, anyway, tucked back into what Eddie can loosely call a free corner of their bedroom, pressed up to the overflowing dresser. He tries to make it flow nicely, make the flaps he’d cut and sewn overlap just enough to make a hideaway, give them enough space to be entirely pinned back like curtains with the ties he’d sewn on. 

The Christmas lights are harder to pin down. He spirals them through the top of the curtain, liberally using safety pins to keep them in place, stretching the plug past sanity to get it to reach the closest outlet. 

For his final contribution, he rushes out to steal one of the cushions from the side of the couch, pushing it tightly into the small space. Hopefully it takes Wayne a while to notice its absence and come looking for it. 

The effect isn’t pretty. It’s misshapen, and wonky, and Eddie’s just glad the sheets are a dark enough red to hide the blood from his pricked finger. But when he turns off the light and climbs in, the lights are that same comforting white that bathed Steve in the Upside-Down. And they cradle him in their embrace, just the same as Steve’s closet used to when he’d had all his clothes hung neatly within it. 

Eddie’s bedroom isn’t big enough for a closet, but it’s big enough for this. 

Steve threw away his last Harrington key and in the process he’d lost the one bastion of safety he’d had in that house. If what happened on Halloween happens again, where will Steve run to?

He’d carve out a closet for him if he could, but he doesn’t have wood, or spackle, or whatever the hell he’d use to make one. He’d carve one in his heart if could, but Steve won’t be able to squeeze his way in. 

It’s ugly, and cheap, but he hopes it’s enough. He lets the sheet close around him, and settles in to wait for Steve to come home.

Eddie wakes up to Steve’s warm hand brushing his shoulder and gasps, momentarily breathless at the sight of his angel bathed in all that white light. Steve himself looks floored as he looks up at the lights safety-pinned to the roof of the little shapeless structure. 

“What is this?” he asks, reaching his hand out to brush the sheets delicately, as if afraid they’ll shatter.

Eddie pauses, suddenly terrified this is rude, somehow. Like pointing out Steve’s proclivities for small spaces  is a step too far. But then Steve smiles, the lights flickering against the gold in his eyes, and the gold in his hair, painting him with the holy light Eddie always sees in him.

“I don’t have any money,” is the first thing Eddie inexplicably blurts out. But, Steve’s still smiling, so he keeps digging. “So, sorry if it’s shitty. But my room’s not really big enough for a closet?”

Steve’s smiling, bright and angelic as he finally turns and meets Eddie’s eyes. “Did you cut up our warmest sheets to make me a fake closet?.”

Eddie grabs a curl to hide his lips as he nods, abashed when Steve paints what he’s done with such stark lines. “Merry Christmas?” he says, even though Christmas is still weeks away. 

Eddie’s hair gets caught between them when Steve leans in for a kiss. 

Steve spits it out of his mouth, and it lands wetly against Eddie’s own cheek, but he doesn’t care. He doesn’t care because Steve’s beaming as he says, “I love it,” and leans in to plant another one on him.

It turns out to be just big enough for two.

[rogueddie]

aromantic steve who is in denial for a long time bc he cares so deeply for his partners and has been taught that love like that has to be romantic. he's extremely comfortable with the romance / dating parts bc it makes the people he loves happy and doesn't realize that that doesn't mean he's happy.

enter eddie, who doesn't push him or anything, just asks if he'd be more comfortable if eddie called him his partnet instead of boyfriend (steve tells himself that he prefers that bc it makes them sound like a team), and other little things like that, making steve feel safe and comfortable in their relationship.

and when steve is finally ready to accept himself, to talk about it with eddie, he already knows that they'll be ok. that eddie will support him, the way he always has been. he even goes out of his way to find other aromantic people who can help steve in ways he can't.

[envyenvys]

The thing about stobin is that they only work as well as they do because Robin was originally supposed to be Steve’s love interest, rather than in spite of it.

Like, what do we love about them?

They’re each other’s best friend

They’re incredibly co-dependent

They can basically read each other’s minds

They’re together so often that you can essentially treat them as one entity

They have genuine moments of emotion

These are all things that are par for the course when it comes to writing romantic relationships. You see it with Jon and Nancy (though not quite to the same level, they don’t have the Stobin Mind Meld) where they’re also each other’s best and only friend, and they also do almost everything together, and most of their genuine moments of emotion are with each other or with family.

Stobin don’t have any family or friends, because Steve’s family just doesn’t exist for some reason, and Robin was introduced to fill his empty friend slot after the stoncy divorce. Robin doesn’t have any either, because why would they flesh out a backstory for Steve’s New Girlfriend when they need to spend all their screentime establishing a believable romance?

So what we end up with is the bones of a romance that they have to hastily cover with the skin of a friendship, and they’ve already laid all that groundwork so they can’t exactly start backpedaling now.

That’s why stobin are mostly comic relief when they’re allowed to be together in s4 btw, they genuinely don’t know what to do with them now bc they didn’t intend for their relationship to be platonic (surely there’s no interesting room for growth in a close platonic relationship, that would be silly). Steve still doesn’t have a love interest, which is catastrophic for a fan favourite main character (bc amatonormativity dictates that being single is a Bad Ending and they can’t give him a Bad Ending, he can’t be punished by the narrative when he’s supposed to be finished his redemption arc) which is why he was shoehorned back with Nancy (bc they didn’t have the space to add another character just to be his love interest). (Robin gets a hint of Vickie bc denying their only explicitly canon gay character a ‘happy ending’ (read: romantic relationship) is also Very Bad, both narratively and optics-wise)

Basically, if they’d started out with the intention of making Robin Steve’s friend rather than his girlfriend, well, for one she wouldn’t exist. But secondly they’d be a lot less close than they are now. They’d be more like what we see in s4: a comedy duo, except without the same level of emotion and intimacy behind all their interactions. They literally wouldn’t have been allowed to get that close, because the number one spot in Steve’s life would’ve been reserved for his girlfriend, because again: amatonormativity dictates your romantic partner is your first priority and your most important relationship. Robin got that spot through a miracle and some gay trickery, and I for one will always be grateful.

I’m probably not the first person to mention any of this, but I’ve been thinking a lot about platonic relationships in media recently, and a lot about stobin specifically. It’s kind of sad that one of the best examples of a close platonic relationship I can think of is just a romantic relationship in a wig, but I’ll take what I can get (and god I love them anyway).

[dwobbitfromtheshire]

I used to not like Nancy for a long time, and while I don't condone what she did in season 2. I understand losing yourself in your grief and feeling pressured to not want to stay inside the lines, to want to do everything for the best friend that you lost. I think her guilt over what happened to Barb pushed her away from her feelings for Steve, and I think Jonathan unintentionally pressured her away from Steve too because he thinks its conformity for Nancy to be with Steve and he was jealous of Steve. He doesn't even know Steve, but he's made plenty of assumptions about him because Steve’s a jock. Steve wasn't pressuring Nancy to have his dream or pressuring her to give up her career, but Jonathan did make assumptions, and he assumed that Nancy would give up everything? Or maybe he was hoping. He used that as an excuse because he wanted to end the relationship. (I also understand that Nancy and Jonathan are both victims of poor writing.) I am 100% sure that Steve would be more than okay with Nancy having her journalism career and be a stay at home dad. While I'm not even sure if I'm a Stancy shipper yet, I think it would be beautiful if they both showed maturity and found their way back to each other. There is something beautiful about right person, wrong time.

[wuffgang-ameowdeus-moozart]

btw the reason Mike "repression" Wheeler is so mean to Steve specifically is because he's actually got a big fat embarrassing crush on him.

[trensu]

I wish there was more steddie time travel fics. Where steddie travels back all the way to season one. Maybe both or one of them. Actually both because the comedic potential. Like Steve and Eddie trying to change things and save the day. And anyone who sees them sneaking around thinks they are in a secret gay relationship. Nancy has this whole theory that her boyfriend is gay and sneaking off with Eddie Munson. Reason why he's being distant and hiding things. And on one hand she's not wrong, because steddie has so much unresolved sexual tension that one is oblivious to and the other is to afriad to admit to. But on the other hand is she way way off.

okay tbh, as great as that would be, i don't think everyone would immediately jump to the gay thing. if this is during steve's kingly days, he's got enough sway and popularity that people would bend over backwards to prove he's a Normal Straight American Boy.

what i think would be more likely, considering he throws those parties and is a good athlete, people would assume he's either developing an addiction on something OR taking steroids. nancy would be SO worried about it because omg steve, do you know what drugs do to your brain? how are you going to get into college if you keep doing that stuff??

meanwhile, steve is touched by her concern and also like...just going along with it? What is he supposed to do? That explanation makes WAY more sense than the whole Upside Down nonsense that they're trying to prevent. So now you've got Steve--who can do a mean kegstand but has literally never even considered doing anything harder than that because DUH the hard stuff would fuck up his body and he's an ATHLETE--trying to pretend he's got to get his Drugs so he has to cancel his plans with Nancy and go see Eddie RIGHT NOW. Because of Drugs. No other reason.

But we all know Nancy is a stubborn bastard (affectionate), so she'd definitely use her investigative skills to find out more. She'd track down this Eddie Munson guy and give him a piece of her mind. Now, this Nancy is still pretty mild and is lacking guns because the UD stuff hasn't hit her yet, but Eddie remembers with crystal clarity his Nancy and her weapons proficiency and reacts to past Nancy accordingly. As in, he immediately apologizes for anything and everything and promises not to do it again, please don't hurt him.

Now Nancy is confused as to why this big bad leather and chain wearing drug dealer is practically cowering before her. She starts to suspect other stuff is going on because the pieces aren't adding up. Eventually she figures out what's happening and joins Steve and Eddie because while they're both creative and skilled in their own ways, they're not really that great at the actual investigating bit of the plan-making process.

It's only then, when she's spending more time with the two of them together, does she start to catch on to the way Eddie looks at Steve. She remembers the rumors that go around about Eddie, so she's not too surprised because Steve is stupid hot and really good in bed, like, so good, the things that boy could do with his tongue will stay with her always. What does catch her off guard is the way Steve reacts whenever Eddie does something that edges around flirty (but still has plausible deniability). He doesn't get disgusted, he gets confused and ruminates over it. It's curious (though if nancy were honest to herself, she'd admit that she's never really understood all the romance stuff and it's never particularly appealed to her). If there were more time, she'd probably study them more.

But there are more important things happening, so she's going to leave them to deal with that mess on their own.

[museumgiftshoperaser]

Steve never loves someone as much as he does right before he kisses them for the first time. It’s overwhelming, painful almost. It’s the kindest thing he has inside of him.

So he waits just a little bit longer. He lets Eddie’s breathing even out as he falls asleep curled up against him. Steve holds him through the night. Smiles in the morning. Makes them breakfast.

It’s the first of many nights. And mornings. Afternoons and evenings.

Eddie slots into his life like the best friend he’s been missing. He fits under his arm when they watch movies until three AM because one of them can’t sleep. He suits the empty passenger seat of the beemer when Steve drives all the way across town to pick Eddie up before school. Suits it even better when they skip together and drive to the quarry to throw rocks in the water and complain about their parents.

He doesn’t kiss Eddie when they wake up together on the couch at the trailer, with crooked necks and linked hands. Doesn’t kiss him after their eyes find each other at every joke Dustin makes when the kids come over to play board games. Doesn’t kiss him when they’re in the back of his van, metal blasting through the speakers and Eddie says sometimes you make me feel like I’m losing my fucking mind.

Outside, fall stumbles head over heels into winter and he can already tell this is the part he’s going to miss most once it’s all over. *** Do you lie awake at night thinking about Steve's god awful romantic advice to Dustin in S2 wondering what the fuck the Duffers even thought they were doing? Well, you're in luck! I have a deeply aromantic explanation for all of your questions <3

A retelling of seasons 2 and 3 where Steve and Eddie meet at the Halloween party with a stupidly sappy (but non-romantic) happy ending <3

[adventures-of-frog]

Aro Steve Harrington because sometimes I hate romantic media. And sometimes I need something to relate to. And sometimes I wish I could love romantically. And sometimes I'm just so tired man.

And this is the title.

For as long as he can remember Steve has always been obsessed with love.

From movies, to songs, to playing house as a kid whenever his parents had gatherings. ‘Networking’ they used to call it, a fancy excuse to get wine drunk and show off their children. Firm hands, and manicured nails on shoulders and passive aggressive remarks. “Well our Steve just learned how to play a new song on the piano.” Nevermind the fact it was twinkle twinkle little star.

Nevermind the fact they were all shoved away until some reason arose to parade them around again. Fleeting glances and “not now honey, mommy's busy,” turning into firm hissed “Steve, stop.” Turning into nothing as he eventually stopped bothering them.

Maybe that's why he's so obsessed with the concept of love. His parents don't get it the same way he does. They don't act like the movies where love is ethereal. Maybe its divinity is just out of their grasp.

Maybe that's why he can't reach it either: he doesn't know how.

He's supposed to be watching the movie screen but Steve can't get his eyes to focus. His legs are tense, twitching like he's just run laps around the basketball court and not sat on a date with a cute girl. A girl who has her hand entwined with his running a thumb idly over his skin.

It makes his gut itch. Butterflies. Or maybe the stale salty popcorn they've both stopped pretending to eat. He doesn't know which he prefers.

Whatever it is, it's not supposed to be like this. He's supposed to throw an arm around her and let her snuggle into him. Maybe whisper a joke or two in her ear. But she's gone and grabbed his hand without warning and he doesn't know what to do with that now.

When the movie ends Steve leads her outside of the theater so they can part ways. She lingers, hand wrapped around his upper arm even though he can see her dad's car idly behind them.

“I had a good time,” she says, brushing her hair to the side as the cold November wind ruffles them. She squeezes his arm and that feeling returns making his stomach clench uncomfortably.

“Yeah.” Steve agrees. He doesn't add me too because he can't seem to bring the words out. Like saying that would reveal something. He tugs his jacket zipper higher and fights off a shiver.

“Can we…can I get a kiss goodnight at least?” She blinks up at him, biting her lip. She's sweet. Pretty. It'd be easy. Just lean in and touch her lips with his.

The thought makes him recoil. He pulls away from her, doesn't miss the way she lets go immediately, face flushing.

“Oh.”

“Um no—shit,” Steve scrambles. He runs a hand through his hair despite the fact he spent so long getting it perfect for this date. “This was nice, okay? I just—I just can't. I don't think this will work, sorry. You deserve someone more.” More what he doesn't know. Doesn't matter either because she's looking away now, stepping back, hands tucking into her pockets.

“Yeah,” she laughs but it sounds different then it had earlier. Guarded. She rocks on her heels. “Guess so. Thanks anyway Steve.” She gives him a tight lipped smile he's sure he mirrors back and turns away pulling her coat tight around her as she walks towards her car.

Steve watches the car disappear. He heads for his car with a groan. Stupid. He berates himself. It isn't like she'd ask him to shove his tongue down her throat. Just a peck. Just his lips on hers for a fraction of a second. So then why couldn't he?

He used to kiss Nancy all the time back when they were dating. Risk missing class just to kiss her. Maybe he still isn't over her. Maybe he’s trying to move on too fast the way she seemed to be able to with Jonathan. It was only a couple weeks ago after all that they had still been together. A proper couple, at least he'd thought so.

But no. They'd been bullshit. Playing pretend.

He doesn't want to kiss Nancy either. So that can't be it, right? Unless he’s still unknowingly in love with her? He thinks back to his recent interactions with her, which aren't many. Now that they aren't together anymore he doesn't have a reason to seek her out.

She is not in any of his classes. She doesn't go to the games. He only ever in the halls. Or when he picks up Dustin from the Wheeler's because none of them are jumping at the chance to be out when it's dark.

He doesn't recall wanting to kiss her then when she had opened the door, her face contorted into a grimace before smoothing into an awkward smile. Her stilted words officially breaking things off between them as if he'd shown up with flowers in his hands trying to win her back. It had been awkward when Dustin came barreling out and Nancy had realized he was only there to pick the kid up. It made Steve think maybe he should've tried winning her back just so she wouldn't look embarrassed.

But he meant what he said that night at the Byers, collecting old radiators to save Will: he had been a shitty boyfriend. Just pretending everything was normal.

But that was love right?

Molding yourself into the perfect catch. Being romantic and sweet, and handsome. Doing what your girlfriend expects you to do. Because Nancy had expected him to kiss her in the hallways, expected him to drive her to school in the mornings, expected him to try and win her back. And he'd failed at that. Hadn't even thought of it until she was halfway through her rejection and Steve clued into what she was saying. Made him think of the dead roses he had to throw out after the whole Dart and Dustin fiasco. Crushed on the floor of the passenger seat side of his car.

And he's failed again tonight, not kissing his date. Not doing what she expected of him. He feels like those flowers wilted and so wrong as he gets in his car and turns the heater to the max. Because flowers are perfect and Steve, well as he drives home to an empty house, can't help feeling he's never been close.

[weepinghyacinth]

Aro flag coulorpicked from Steve Harrington

[carolperkinsexgirlfriend]

Aro4Aro Stancy Break-up AU Part 2

Part 1

As his fingers clutch Steve Harrington’s steering wheel hard enough that his knuckles turn white, Jonathan wishes he’d stayed at the party. The music was loud and vapid, the punch was rancid, but at least then he wouldn’t be alone in a car with a boy he barely knows past saving each other’s lives that one time in his living room.

He can still almost feel Steve’s hand in his, the way his fingernails raked over Jonathan’s still-bleeding palm until his colossus caught and held onto the bandage. Even when they’re sitting across from each other at lunch, pretending that they’re three normal teenagers, Jonathan swears they’re still in that living room. Nancy’s shooting and Steve’s still swinging the bat.

He takes a deep breath, letting it out slow.

“She said it’s bullshit,” Steve says.

Jonathan clears his throat. “What is?”

“We’re bullshit.”

“We?”

“Me and her,” Steve says. Jonathan can feel him looking at him. He keeps his eyes on the road as Steve laughs. It sounds wet. “Maybe just me.”

Silence falls in the car like a fog. Suffocating. Steve lingers in it the way he usually doesn’t. At lunch, in the halls, even when there’s nothing to say, he’s saying it anyway. Sports, schoolwork, what they’re having for lunch. It’s like silence strangles him. It’s strangling Jonathan now.

“You’re not bullshit.”

He risks a glance in Steve’s direction. He’s crying. Jonathan feels his throat close up.

“You don’t get it,” he says, voice cracking in the middle. They both pretend not to hear it, don’t question the long pause before he continues, “there’s something wrong with me.”

“What do–”

“I love Nancy,” Steve says. It hits Jonathan, suddenly, that he’s in no way equipped to be Steve Harrington’s couples counselor. His only working example of a relationship growing up had Lonnie Byers as half of it. Steve continues unimpeded. “She’s literally perfect, Byers.”

Jonathan nods, waits for Steve to continue. When he doesn’t, Jonathan says, “that doesn’t mean she’s perfect for you.”

Steve sobs. Just once, before getting himself back together. It sounds raw and wounded in his throat. Jonathan’s hand twitches.

“There’s something wrong with me,” he says again, sounding frantic. “I should love her, right?”

“Steve–”

“So, why does saying I love her make me feel nauseous?” he asks, steamrolling over any response Jonathan could even think of giving. That’s okay. He’s got nothing. “Why do the fucking date nights and the fucking parties and all the fucking gestures make me want to run?”

“I don’t–”

“I love Nancy,” he says, slamming his open palm on the glove compartment for it to open, sending CD’s spilling onto the floor. Steve barely seems to notice. “It’s good sometimes, right? Like, when we’re all sitting at our lunch table, and I say something stupid and you both laugh at me, but Nancy does it behind her hand because she at least pretends to be nice to me. That’s good, right Byers?”

Jonathan feels choked up, keeps his eyes on the road, wonders how a night could spiral so quickly, wonders where he’s going to sit at lunch tomorrow. “Yeah,” he says, swallowing the knot in his throat. “It’s good.”

“But why do I feel the same about hanging out with you as I do her?” he asks.

Jonathan doesn’t say anything, waits until they’re at a stop sign with his foot firmly on the break to glance over at Steve. He’s curled in on himself, hands shaking in his lap. It reminds Jonathan alarmingly of that night, when he’d seen Nancy and Steve unravel in the face of monsters that crawl from the walls.

“Tell me what you mean,” Jonathan says, but he thinks he knows.

“What’s the difference,” Steve asks, like he’s picking each word out of his brain with care. “Between a girlfriend and a friend?”

Jonathan thinks of Will, how sometimes he looks at Mike like he’s so bright it hurts. He thinks of the way Steve’s eyes had looked almost afraid as he’d slung slurs in Jonathan’s direction in the heat of the moment.

There’s a pit sinking in his stomach. He swallows it down. “Do you–” he stops.

“Do I what?”

The air feels charged as Jonathan takes his foot off the break, continuing his drive to Steve’s house.

“Do you even want a girlfriend?” he asks.

Steve breaths in like he’s been punched. Jonathan feels sick.

No more words are exchanged. The silence hangs like a noose. Jonathan settles into it.

When he pulls up to the empty, encompassing Harrington house, he thinks he gets why silence is something to be feared for Steve Harrington. There’s no lights on in the Harrington house, no cars in the driveway. It doesn’t feel right to drive away, Steve silhouetted in the light of the moon, the shadow of his own front door hanging over him.

When Jonathan pulls into his own driveway, his Mom’s left the porch light on, welcoming him home.

[thatonesongyouretryingtoremember]

The next time someone asks me why boys can't be friends anymore, I'm pulling out my aromantic Steve Harrington analysis. They persist, we move on to Leo Valdez and Fitz Vacker. They ask again, I punch them.

[sissytobitch10seconds]

Her Husband

Fandom: Stranger Things Summary: Robin's a nervous person, everyone knows that. First dates are also a nerve-wracking ordeal for everyone, but more so for her. Warnings: Mentions of period typical homophobia Word Count: 782 Ship(s): Steve Harrington&/Robin Buckley

Archive link!

A/N: So this is the first half of a two-part (or maybe more if I decide there's a need for it) series and it may not make a ton of sense alone. I hope that you all enjoy this part and are prepared for the next one! Stay sissy and bitchy everyone <3

Robin shifted uncomfortably on her chair. This was probably her least favorite part of having a first date with a new romantic interest. She had done it over a dozen times at this point,a ll the way through college and even into her adult career. She thought that it would get easier after a little while but it almost seemed like the world was specifically against her to make her just as anxious about it every single time she did it.

“I have something that I have to confess if we’re going to keep going down this path,” she cleared her throat awkwardly.

“Oh yeah?” her date asked.

Ashley was pretty and kind. She had long red hair that she kept in a braided bun on the back of her head because she worked with animals. Her hands were calloused on her right middle finger and along the base of her thumb. She had fair skin that refused to freckle no matter how long she stayed in the sun. Tonight she had worn a pretty blue dress that kept slipping off of her shoulder to reveal the lacy black bra that she was wearing. The fact that she was kind, worked with animals, and had obviously come to their date with the expectation of the night ending in sex was what was making it so much worse for Robin.

She wiped her hands on her pants and reminded herself that she had faced way worse than this. She would much rather have to tell pretty women who wanted to have sex with her the little secret that she kept tucked into another part of her life than fight Vecna or be tortured by Russians. But it didn’t always feel like it.

“I have a husband,” she explained.

Ashley immediately wrinkled her nose and leaned back in her chair like Robin had just told her that she had the Black Death. “You mean that you led me on to help you cheat on someone?”

“No,” she shook her head. “He knows that I’m here and he supports it wholeheartedly-”

Robin had a whole spiel in her head that she always tried to use when she was telling dates this, but she almost never got it out all the way when they began to freak out. It turned out that it was going to be the same this time as it was every other time. Ashley leaned forward and spoke in a hushed voice so that none of the other patrons in the surrounding tables would be able to hear her as she said, “You know that lesbianism isn’t some gross kink for men, right? Some of us, such as myself, think that we can only be with women. I’m not going to sleep with you so that your husband can watch through your blinds or in your closet or something. That’s fucking disgusting.”

“You don’t understand,” Robin whimpered. She usually dropped it when the person she was talking to obviously wanted the conversation to end, but she had been really invested in the potential relationship she could have with Ashley. “It-it’s not like that. We’re not together romantically or sexually. We’re married and we love each other but he-he’s more like my platonic soulmate. It was like when the gods were making us or whatever he decided that I was going to love my best friend with my entire chest but only be interested in women and-”

Ashley cut her off again, “So he’s a beard? I’ve dated women like that before but it didn’t really work out.”

“No, he’s not a beard! He’s my husband,” Robin objected, frustrated. The idea of her husband only being her beard or something that was totally disposable once she found the right woman made her want to vomit. He was far more important to her than any romantic foray, so she decided that she was just going to take the hit and try again some other time. “I don’t think that this is going to work out. Thanks for trying, sorry for wasting your time.”

She fished out the proper amount of money and then set it on the table before she slung her purse over her shoulder and walked away. It was frustrating to have that happen over and over again, but she would always place her husband above any romantic or sexual encounters that she would have. It was hard to explain to people, especially with the limited vocabulary that still existed for queer people even in the mid-nineties, but it was very important to her that whatever future romantic partner she may have recognize that first and foremost, Steve was her husband.

[envyenvys]

7.3k | gen | one-shot

Summary:

Two unknowingly closeted aromantics try to explain crushes to each other, it goes about as well as can be expected.

(Aka the aroace oneshot I wrote for stobin month day 8: confession!)