#berrystiles blurbs

[berrystiles]

hi I’m not sure if your request are open so if not I’m very sorry!!

but I saw this TikTok https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMYhkrvc8/

and now I can’t stop thinking ab if it was Steve and reader 😭 so I was wondering if you could write something like it! 🫶🏻

Hello Anon! Honestly, I don't have requests on or off because you're the first person that's ever sent me one! I loved this TikTok. It made me very emotional thinking of it for Steve and reader so I wrote a little something something. I hope you like this and I hope this is kinda what you were picturing! Thanks so much for sending this to me, and if anyone else wants to send me stuff I'm happy to do requests if it sparks inspiration!

Word count is around 1.4k, no real warnings other than just talk of nightmares and reactions to nightmares. This could be considered gender neutral I think, I didn't use any pronouns for reader. (If I'm wrong about this please let me know 🤗)

It’s only been about four days since that final day, only four days since all of Hawkins cracked open as the Upside Down attempted to merge with the real world. Four days isn’t much time, and yet it feels like an eternity since Steve got to see you for longer than ten minutes. You’ve both been pulled in different directions. You’ve been glued to hospital seats with the Sinclair’s just waiting for Max to wake up. Everyone is still holding on to hope that despite the lack of activity Max’s stubborn side will pull through and have her awake in no time. Then there’s Steve, who has been pouring himself into ensuring that Dustin is okay. Eddie’s death has been like a permanent dark cloud hanging over a normally cheery Dustin. It isn't a shock that Dustin is struggling right now, Steve just wants to make sure the kid isn't alone for too long. Steve knows what being alone too much after something like this can do for a person, and he doesn't want that for Dustin.

This is the first night the two of you are together. It’s the first night Steve hasn’t laid awake watching over and over as those vines from the Upside Down wrap themselves around you and dragged you away. It's the first night his side doesn’t ache as he relives those stupid bats tearing into his flesh. Tonight, Steve can roll over and see your sleeping face, he can reach out and instead of a cold space next to him, his hand will find you. Steve gets to fall asleep tonight surrounded by your perfume. The smell of your shampoo floods his nose, as he buries his face in your hair. The warmth of your skin feels like the soothing blanket he’s been searching for since all of this started. When Steve finally drifts off to sleep his last thought is how he finally feels like he’s at peace.

That sleep is disrupted though, your scream cuts through the night. The sound of it blood-curdling in a way Steve can’t ever remember hearing. It pierces him through the heart, and has him feeling like a bucket of cold water has just been dumped onto him. Steve’s scrambling out of bed faster than he thinks he has ever moved, hands already reaching for that bat that’s been propped beside his nightstand for the last few days. He feels on high alert, heart racing as his eyes quickly glance around the room looking for the source of your fear. It takes a minute for him to adjust to the dark, but Steve is ready to wage war against whatever has decided to come into his home and hurt you.

All he can see is his room, devoid of any evil, and yet he still feels sick. Because if nothing is physically there what if it’s Vecna again? Come to take you in your sleep like that Freddie guy Dustin once mentioned to him. Steve can fight a Demogorgon, but he can’t fight whatever creature Vecna has sent to haunt your dreams. He wonders if he should be looking for his Walkman, trying to find a tape with your favorite song to help ward away whatever is coming next.

When Steve turns to face you, he finds you sitting up. The covers have fallen into a pool around your legs. They twisted and turned in a way that looks like you were fighting them off yourself long before Steve even woke up. You’re hunched over, body shaking, and Steve watches in fear as you take in deep heaving breaths like the air just isn’t filling up your lungs. Steve feels like he won’t be able to relax until he hears you speak. So, he calls your name. His voice comes out more panicked than soft. Steve watches as you flinch, and he feels bad like maybe he is the monster here not something from the Upside Down.

It takes you a minute, or maybe it’s just a second, it all feels like time is just dragging on to Steve. Steve feels powerless again. He feels like yet again everything is just outside of his control. He hates that feeling, and he hates that it’s drifting in right now when the last thing Steve needs to worry about is how he feels. You finally find your voice, the sound of it low and hoarse in a way Steve knows your throat is just aching.

“I’m okay,” you say but Steve can’t find an ounce in himself that believes it. “It’s just a dream, I’m sorry.” Your apology is rushed at the end, and your voice cracks halfway through it. Steve worries that you’re going to start crying. Steve can’t figure out what you’re apologizing for, and he says as much.

Steve moves in closer to you, he thinks about grabbing your hand and thinks of holding you. “It’s okay,” he speaks softer this time, putting all his energy into making sure you know he’s not upset. He doesn’t reach out to you though like he wants. Like he yearns to do. You’re scared enough as it is, you don’t need him clinging to you like he’s the one that just had the nightmare.

“I- I, uh, get them too, sometimes.” Steve feels like he’s tripping over his words. He feels so unsure of what to do. He’s never had to comfort someone in this way before and has never been on the receiving end of this kind of comfort. No one has ever been here for his moments of vulnerability, not like he’s here with you now. Steve feels an immense responsibility to say the right things and make the right choices. Anything to let you know that he’s here, that he loves you. But this is just another thing that his parents failed to teach him.

You finally turn to look at him, and even though the only light in his room comes from the moonlight slipping in through the crack of his curtains he can see every inch of you. There are wet spots on your face, tracks from tears you were probably crying as he slept peacefully beside you. Steve feels like he adds another weight, this time labeled guilt to everything else he has internally gone on. Your face is paler than he’s ever seen it, but your eyes have him struggling to catch his breath.

You hold his gaze, never blinking, eyes wide as you look over him in a way that makes him feel more vulnerable than what he’s just shared with you.

“You do?” You finally say, and it sounds a little disbelieving.

“Yeah,” he matches your quiet tone, heading nodding just a bit to further confirm that despite it all Steve is just as human as you are, and sometimes just as scared.

Steve doesn’t dive into the things that haunt him at night though, instead chooses to focus on you. You whose breathing has finally slowed, and the shake that you had has gone away. Steve watches as you shiver, unsure if the room is too cold or if it’s a lingering after-effect of your nightmare.

Steve reaches out, he’s so close to you but his arm feels like it’s stretching over some great divide. His hand hovers just for a moment near your face before it moves to tuck some hair behind your ear. Just as quickly his hand is falling down and into the blankets shared between you. Steve clears his throat, thinking you probably want a minute where he’s not there hovering, and your throat he reminds himself is probably still aching.

“Let me get you some water,” Steve quickly goes to stand and shuffle out of the room.

“Steve,” you call, and your voice sounds stronger than it was at the start of all this.

When Steve turns back to you, you’ve moved slightly, like you were trying to follow him. “Will you - I mean, could you just stay with me?” Your tone drifts off at the end and Steve doesn’t even have to look to know that you’re shifting because you feel like you’ve asked too much of him. Which is impossible, there’s nothing you couldn’t ask him.

Steve doesn’t hesitate, quickly walking back to the bed. His “yeah” of confirmation coming out after he’s already taken two steps towards you.

Steve climbs back in, arms already opening up before he’s even settled in as you start to crawl into his hold. Your head rests right over his chest and Steve wonders if you can hear how loud his heart is beating. He wraps you up, one hand rubbing soothing circles on your back as the other just holds you tightly. He tips his head down just a smidge and kisses the top of your head.

“I got you,” he whispers into your hair. The two of you stay like that, silence engulfing all the space around the two of you. You don’t tell Steve how this is the safest you’ve felt in days, and Steve focuses on making sure you know he’s not letting you go until you tell him to.