#steve is slowly feeling safer

[zerokrox-blog]

The first few times it happens, Eddie doesn't think much of it. Steve had a long day at work, plus he had been feeling pretty down lately so upon coming home and finding his boy on the couch, face and body lax in a deep restful sleep, Eddie tugged a blanket over him, kissed his forehead, flicked off a light and slipped out of the room.

But by the fifth time where he found Steve asleep in the laundry room curled up on the cold floor, he began to worry. It wasn't like Steve too sleep this much but more worryingly, even if he had seemingly slept well the night before he was sleeping wherever and whenever. Eddie was concerned.

When he brought it up with their Doctor all he got was "it doesn't have to be anything. I can assure you, Steve is in great health..but since you're so worried I'll set it up for him to get some blood tests and we will go from there."

Eddie felt off about it. He brought it up to Wayne, Nancy, Robin, Joyce and Hopper but nobody had any idea why or what was causing Steve to fall asleep every where. But one thing they all noticed was that Steve only seemed to sleep like that around the apartment Eddie and he shared or when Eddie was home or coming home.

Eventually even the bloodwork came back clean with nothing to explain what was happening. So Eddie in concern brought it up o their couple's therapist, Dr Angela Bradley.

"I am worried about Steve," he started, "he keeps falling asleep every where and nobody seems to know why, the bloodwork and other test results came back with nothing to explain why he keeps falling asleep."

Dr Bradley paused her note taking, Steve was sipping his tea, but had stopped to listen to what Eddie was saying when his name had been mentioned.

"Steve? do you know why you are falling asleep constantly?" she kept her voice soft.

Steve shook his head for a minute before pausing to think. "I feel safe around Eddie. I feel safe in the home and space we built," he was speaking slowly working out his thought process, "I also don't usually sleep well in my parents house, but I don't really know why I'm sleeping so much. "

"Well, Steve let me ask you a question, when you're with your parents or at their house how do you feel?"

"Small and unsafe. I have to be on guard because inevitably one or both of them will get mad."

"Ok, and with Eddie at your home you said you feel safe? Around the people you've chosen as family as well you feel secure?"

Steve nodded, then suddenly he sat up straighter, "Eddie! I think I'm sleeping more because I can. My body isn't survival mode or flight or fright anymore. Like I can breathe again." Eddie blinked, "I make you feel safe? So you feel comfortable sleeping more around me?" Steve nodded, "so it's not a medical emergency? You're ok?"

Steve nodded again, feeling like he had hit the nail on the head. He was feeling safe and comfortable that his body was catching up on what it needed for years. He felt tears filling his eyes but tried desperately to keep them in, he didn't want to cry right now.

But later on, when they got home, Eddie dropped him off at their place and went to pick up their dinner from their favourite deli shop. Eddie also grabbed some flowers, drinks and snacks from the grocery store and drove home.

When he saw Steve sitting up and dozing on the recliner, he smiled, "hi babylove. Dinner is ready."

He made his boy feel safe and comfortable. He knew it was important for Steve to feel secure and he made him feel that way.

[cherienymphe]

Basic Training VII (Peter Parker x Reader)

Warnings: NON-CON acts, DUB-CON acts, MURDER, violence, kidnapping, captivity, public sex, degradation, forced pregnancy, forced marriage, stockholm syndrome, ptsd, housewife kink, cop!Peter

➥ banner by @vase-of-lilies​ | divider by @whimsicalrogers​

➥ series masterlist

summary: A pit stop during a road trip ends tragically when a small town cop sets his sights on you. You’re the newest addition in a long standing fucked up family tradition.

~

Keeping track of the days wasn’t hard. Night and day announced themselves with the setting of the sun and the rising of the moon. It was strange how it failed to feel monotonous, each day so different from the one before despite doing so many of the same tasks. You helped with breakfast in the morning, yes, and you ate dinner with the entire house every evening, but the activities in between weren’t always the same.

It was only just the other day that you’d been shown the nursery, a modest room that had been decorated by the wives and would serve as a classroom from what you’d been told.

Faced with another visualization of how permanent this all was made you lightheaded. You knew why you were being shown these things, why you were slowly being exposed to more and more of what your life here was expected to be. It felt depressing, but not as much as it should’ve been.

After all, at least you knew what the rest of your life would look like…even if it was some sick man’s fantasy.

You hadn’t had another incident with Steve since the vase debacle. You hadn’t been able to do your household tasks for a week, and even when you rejoined the other wives, you found yourself wincing here and there. You got the feeling that Steve had long wanted to punish you, ever since that incident in the kitchen, and while you still felt heavily watched, like you’d try to make a run for it any minute…

Peter was around more, now.

You didn’t like Peter. You were sure you never would, but you couldn’t deny the security you felt in his presence. You couldn’t ignore how much safer you felt all the while knowing that he was just a few rooms away. Sometimes when you were cooking or cleaning or even just attending to some vegetables in the greenhouse, you’d look over your shoulder and make eye contact with a familiar brown pair.

The relief you’d feel was something you didn’t want to focus on.

Sometimes he’d even take over for Jane or Margaret and would take it upon himself to show you how something was done instead. He was the one to show you the nursery/playroom, following close behind him as he prattled on about it. Maybe he’d seen the slight fear in your eyes, the combination of defeat and nervousness as you stared your future in the face.

…because Peter had reached out to take your hand, squeezing it.

Something about his presence had become like a shield. Like protection against Steve and anything else you feared in the house, so dependent upon it that when you woke up for the first time in a while, and Peter wasn’t there, you felt your heart drop. You were fully awake in seconds, sitting up in a slight panic and taking in his empty side of the bed. It wasn’t made, and it was still warm, telling you he wasn’t gone long.

The bathroom light was off, and you didn’t know where he could’ve gone, but when you looked outside the window, you were rewarded with the sight of him. You felt your shoulders relax, but your heart did pause at the sight of Steve and Bucky with him. All three were talking in the yard. About what, you didn’t know, but you didn’t think you were able to go back to sleep until it was time to get up again.

It was too early to get started on breakfast, so you weren’t surprised by the silence of the house when you left your room. You could even faintly hear the cry of an infant coming from somewhere on the other side of the household. It felt surreal to be up so early. With the sun just barely peeking over the horizon, the calm atmosphere, and the faint sound of a child, the place almost seemed like…a home.

You weren’t really thinking much when you approached the backdoor, not even questioning if it would even be unlocked. You guessed you just assumed it would be seeing as Peter and the other two were outside. When you opened the door, it was clear that the sound had caught their attention, all three halting in what they were saying.

You shuddered when your gaze briefly met Steve’s, quickly looking away when it fell on Bucky instead. You gave Peter your attention as you unsurely stood in the doorway, not quite certain on how to voice your need for Peter to come back. You didn’t want to be alone. You didn’t like being alone, and as Peter quickly made his way to you, as if afraid you’d take off at any moment, you felt your eyes water at how ridiculous you were being.

“You know you can’t be out here-.”

“I’m not,” you hurried to say, keen to point out that you hadn’t even stepped outside lest Steve try to use the technicality as a reason for punishment. “I woke up, and you were…”

You trailed off, taking a step back, eyes finding the floor. You felt Peter’s hands on your shoulders as he tried to look into your eyes, and you swallowed, shrugging.

“You weren’t there.”

Peter seemed to understand what you were saying, and you heard him softly exhale. He stepped inside with you, embarrassment filling you for so many reasons, quickly looking away when your gaze caught Bucky’s as Peter shut the door behind him.

“I’m sorry-.”

“Don’t be sorry,” he assured you, guiding you back upstairs. “You just scared me, is all. You’re not allowed outside yet, so you were the last person I was expecting to see.”

You hadn’t even been able to focus on the feel of air and sunlight on your skin for the first time in months. It was something you should’ve been soaking up, cherishing before you were forced inside again, but instead, you’d only been able to focus on how much you didn’t want to be alone.

“Is Steve…? Will he…punish me for that?” you quietly asked as Peter closed the bedroom door behind you both.

“No, no,” he said with a shake of his head. “I’ll talk to him.”

He rubbed your arms before leading you towards the bed, and you made yourself comfortable. You felt the need to apologize again, feeling like you’d still done something wrong by basically dragging Peter back to bed. You frowned at your word choice, something twisting uncomfortably in your gut.

“What were you talking about?”

The question came out before you could really think about it, and Peter paused at the sound of it, looking at you with a look you couldn’t name, and you swore you saw the hint of a smile on his lips before it disappeared.

“Just something Thor did the other day,” Peter eventually told you. “He’s a very unserious guy.”

Peter chuckled at a memory you weren’t privy to, and you nodded.

It wasn’t lost on you that everyone in the house seemed to have the kind of relationships with each other that you hadn’t quite mastered yet. Truthfully, you didn’t know how any of the men knew each other, but they all seemed as thick as thieves. Not even just that, but you noticed how at ease Laura seemed around Sam or Nat around Stephen or Sharon around Clint. They all seemed so familiar and comfortable with each other.

Like a family.

It was hard for you to view this place as anything close to that. After all, these women were here the same way you were, but Margaret had been here for years and seemed to find genuine enjoyment in her relationship with Steve despite how cruel he was. Peter wasn’t half as cruel as him, so that only made you wonder what would become of you in three years’ time. Sometimes you didn’t want to think about that too hard, afraid of what answer you’d come up with.

You knew that you were weak, and you were genuinely scared that you might not be able to even recognize yourself.

It was sometime after breakfast had been made, when you were hidden away in the greenhouse, when Peter called for you. Afraid that you’d gotten into trouble for something, you’d quickly risen to your feet. You could feel Nat’s eyes on you as you stumbled into the house, voice shaky.

“Yes?”

Despite your nervousness, your voice had carried, and it wasn’t long before Peter rounded the corner.

He wasn’t alone.

The man with him had dark hair, but it was greying ever so slightly, and simple glasses framed his face. He and Peter were about the same height, and you warily eyed the strange man as they both approached you. You brushed some dirt off of you, swallowing.

“Am I in trouble?”

Peter seemed slightly taken aback by your question before quickly shaking his head, gaze softening.

“No,” he told you, reaching for you. “Bruce is our call-in doctor. He helps with all the births and health visits. We just figured it was time for a physical. Make sure you’re healthy and all…”

You were looking between them as Peter relayed this all to you, and you found yourself wondering if the doctor���knew. You wanted to believe that he didn’t, but then again, you never thought so many horrible men could congregate in one place and cohabitate with one another and their sick ideals. What was one more horrible man?

“It’s okay,” Peter softly assured you with a hand on your back as he guided you upstairs. “He’s just going to take some urine and blood samples.”

“Blood?”

You had questioned that before Peter even finished, eyes wide as you remembered your last…run-in with blood. The mention of the red substance had you feeling spacey, and for the first time in what felt like too long, you had a brief recollection of your friends…and the sight of their bloody bodies.

“Woah, woah, woah,” Peter murmured as he grabbed hold of you, quick to do so when you started swaying. “It’s okay…”

He helped you sit on the bed, and you eyed the other man as he came into the room.

“Dr. Banner will be quick. He’s efficient like that. Isn’t that right, Bruce?”

His agreement didn’t make you feel better, and you frowned when Peter spoke about getting the blood out of the way first. You couldn’t take your eyes off of the other man as he approached, heart racing at the sight of the needle. Your lips trembled, but before you could see him do anything, Peter took it upon himself to cup your chin, turning you to face him instead.

“Don’t look at him,” he murmured, brown eyes studying yours. “Just keep your eyes on me.”

Peter’s fingers brushed along your skin when you felt the pinch, and you struggled to swallow.

“Did the others have to do this?”

Peter hummed an affirmative, softly smiling at you. His other hand came up to stroke your cheek, and when you felt relief in your arm, his smile grew.

“You did so good,” he praised before looking at Dr. Banner.

You felt Peter’s hand trailing to your neck, massaging the crook of it where it met your shoulder as the other man searched for the cup you were meant to pee into, murmuring about needing to check up on Jane too.

“Thor used to come into my job, sometimes…”

Jane’s voice was very low in the greenhouse, her careful eyes on the door as she recounted her history with the God-like blond. Talking about your previous lives or anything close to it wasn’t encouraged, but after Jane had told you her ‘good news’, a hand on her stomach with a smile, you hadn’t been able to stop yourself from asking.

“I always thought he was handsome…funny…a little too optimistic, at times, but very sweet…”

There was something in her eyes you couldn’t quite place, something in her memories that made her smile dim some. If you had to guess, you’d say it was the memories and feelings of a time before she knew what Thor was really like. A time where she was just an innocent woman with a crush on a seemingly innocent man, unable to imagine the hell he’d put her through.

“He finally asked me out, and of course, I said yes.”

Her face fell some, and she sighed.

“As he was driving me home…I got lightheaded…drowsy…and then I woke up downstairs.”

You frowned at that, somewhat horrified that Jane had known Thor prior to this. Peter was a complete stranger, someone you had never even seen before, and you couldn’t imagine being subjected to this by someone you knew. Someone you trusted, your eyes burned with tears as you looked at Jane, but either out of genuineness or a practiced way of coping, a smile was already on her face again.

“That was… Well, it feels like a lifetime ago,” she slowly said, shaking her head. “…but, now we’re married, and I’m pregnant.”

She rubbed her stomach again, and you felt your own turn.

“Don’t you ever think about leaving?”

Your question was barely audible, fearful of anyone overhearing, but Jane heard you all the same.

“Not anymore,” she honestly told you. “It seemed…pointless. Masochistic to torture myself like that.”

You took a deep breath, heavily exhaling.

“Did you ever…?”

“Try?” she finished with a smile. “Oh, yeah. Twice, I think. After Thor had to sink to Steve’s level of punishment for the whole house to see, I never tried again.”

Your eyes met hers at that, and something seemed to pass through you both at the reminder of how Steve punished Margaret, sometimes. You didn’t even know that any of the other wives knew, and you wondered if it was something like an open secret. Again, you found yourself hurting for the new mom, unable to fathom how your humiliation at the hands of your so-called husband was just a known fact amongst the household.

“You shouldn’t…you shouldn’t try,” she eventually told you, making you look up. “When I was finally able to go outside, it was the first thing I did…and you’ll get caught…and it’s just not worth it.”

She sounded sad for you, but you felt sadder for yourself. You didn’t know how to tell her that you hadn’t even considered the thought in what felt like ages. It was just the other morning that you’d opened the door, and the thought of taking off, the thought of dashing right by the three men in the hopes that you could make it, hadn’t even crossed your mind.

You just hadn’t wanted to be alone.

You looked down as her words marinated within you. Jane had tried to escape twice, and there was no telling how many times Natasha had tried. You’d tried once, and it was barely an attempt, caught by Peter before you could even get your room door open. You didn’t need anymore confirmation of how weak you were, and even at dinner, you found yourself entertaining Jane’s advice and how masochistic it was to entertain thoughts that would never come true.

You weren’t half as strong as she was, and if she’d eventually given in, then what were you holding out for?

Peter could tell that you seemed distracted, touching your hand here and there, grabbing your attention. You gave him small smiles, unable to do much else, until he took another bite of the casserole.

“Pepper said you made this…”

You glanced over at the strawberry blonde, watching as she was engaged in a conversation with Steve and Tony.

“I did,” you told Peter, your eyes meeting his again.

“Really?” he quietly wondered, smile widening as his brows rose. “You did a good job.”

His hand came up to touch your cheek, and something like relief filled you. It was your first time cooking it without having to dump it afterwards, and while Pepper had assured you it looked and smelled great, Pepper was also known for placating you.

“I did…?”

Peter chuckled at how unsure you seemed.

“It tastes great.”

When he turned back to his food, you didn’t mirror him, keeping your eyes on him instead. You thought about when he’d eventually go back to work regularly like he used to before…and you didn’t like how it made you feel. Your chest tightened, and you blinked, finally turning towards your plate.

Without Peter, you really didn’t know how you’d function. After your punishment, you were even more afraid of Steve than you had been before, and you knew how much your slow adjustment irritated him. You knew that if it were up to Steve, you’d be punished every time you ruined a dish or burned some bread or messed up a load of laundry.

You didn’t even want to think about how many talks Peter had with the blond on your behalf.

It was something that weighed on your mind deep in the night, tears in your eyes at having to tiptoe around everyone again. Sure, you were adjusting much better, now, but that was exactly why Peter would have to go back to work again. You were better, now…so, he no longer needed to be here so much and neglect his job.

The thought had you shaking, holding in tears, and Peter must’ve felt it.

“Hey,” he said, turning on the lamp. “What’s wrong? Was it another nightmare?”

You shook your head.

Even those had become less frequent as of late.

“What is it?” Peter worriedly wondered, reaching for you.

You sat up, moving out of reach and wrapping your arms around yourself.

“I don’t want you to go back to work,” you eventually admitted. “I don’t like it when you’re not here. Steve…”

“He’s a lot, I know,” Peter softly said, touching your back. “…but I’ll have to eventually. This was only temporary…to help you adjust without the threat of severe punishment hanging over your head.”

You squeezed your eyes shut, hating that, and Peter made soothing sounds as your head drooped.

“You’ve been doing so well…”

You didn’t say anything to that, unable to voice the mindfuck this entire ordeal was. Peter was the reason you were even here, and so he should be the last person you want around. On the other hand though, he felt like the only thing standing between you and Steve’s ire, the memory of how the blond almost seemed to spit the word ‘weak’ out that day in the basement. He thought you were pitiful.

Pathetic.

…and he was right…but Peter didn’t make you feel that way.

Peter didn’t make you feel dumb for messing things up. He didn’t look at you like a bug he scraped off the bottom of his shoe, like a nuisance. Peter never looked at you like he was just waiting for you to screw up, but instead like he believed it wasn’t possible for you to. You wiped your face, hating that some tears had escaped.

“Why me?” you murmured.

He didn’t hear you, at first, a soft hum escaping him as he moved closer, fingers brushing your neck.

“Why me…? You didn’t even know me…not like Thor knew Jane,” you forced out, voice shaky. “So, I don’t get it.”

You looked at Peter, gaze almost pleading.

“Why did you choose me?”

Why did he choose you and change your life forever? Why did he choose you and get your friends killed? Why did he choose you and force you to leave your mom all alone? Why did Peter choose you and ruin your life?

Peter reached up to wipe your face, moving closer and grabbing your arm. You couldn’t read the look on his face as he pulled you against him, his other hand coming up to rest on your head. You could hear his heartbeat beneath your ears, and your lashes fluttered at the sound.

“I just…knew. “

Your brows furrowed.

“I watched you smile and laugh, and get that little knit in your brow when you hear something that confuses you…”

Your frown deepened at Peter’s words.

“You do it all the time here, like you’re always confused…and you probably are, but I think it’s too cute.”

You could feel Peter’s lips against your hair.

“I just knew it had to be you.”

You didn’t know what you were expecting to be honest. It’s not like you and Peter had ever been anything more than stranger who almost ran into each other at the bathroom entrance once. What else could you have possibly expected him to say? Peter hadn’t known a thing about you then, and it could be argued that he still didn’t, and you suddenly found the bedding interesting.

“I knew I had to have you…and I’d regret it for the rest of my life if I didn’t take you.”

You pressed your lips together, sniffing.

“…that wasn’t your decision to make,” you tearfully mumbled.

Peter heard you though if the way his hold on you tightened was anything to go by. His fingers briefly pressed into your skin, hard enough to make you wince, before he eventually loosened his hold. He let out a sigh, chest dramatically rising and falling beneath your head.

“I disagree.”

He pulled away, forcing you to do the same, but his hands remained on you, pressing into your shoulders as his eyes met yours. You had never seen Peter look so serious, lips pressed together and face even as he looked at you. You didn’t think you liked it, and you got the feeling that you said something you shouldn’t have. He suddenly took your chin, his grip tight.

“I wanted you…and so I chose you,” he slowly began. “…and that’s never going to change.”

Your lips trembled.

“You’re mine, now, and you’re never getting away. Do you understand?”

You started to nod before his hand slid down your neck, thumb lightly pressing against the front of your throat. The corner of his lips curved upwards into a small smile.

“I need to hear you say it,” he softly encouraged, and you took a deep breath.

“I understand…”

Peter’s gaze was expectant.

“I’m yours, now,” you whispered.

Satisfied, Peter pulled you against him again, burying his face into your hair.

It was the first really bad nightmare that you’d had in a while. A whole month actually. You woke up out of your sleep gasping for breath, clawing at your throat like something was choking you. You barely registered Peter beside you, waking up with you and reaching for you. He was faintly calling your name, that you could make out, but once you could breathe again, you paid him no mind.

You were too preoccupied with screaming.

It hurt your throat, rubbing against it like sandpaper and making it raw. It came from deep within your chest, the faces of your friends staring at you in the darkness, and you flailed on the bed. Your face felt colder than usual, and you realized it was the cool air hitting your wet cheeks. Every time Peter tried to grab your arms, you pushed at him, sobs festering in your chest.

“Y/N, you have to be quiet,” you heard him tell you. “You’ll wake up the whole house…”

You couldn’t really find it in you to care all that much. Your chest was so tight that it hurt, agony paralyzing you at the memory MJ’s final bloody act to push you away. You sobbed as you remembered Wanda’s heartbroken scream at the sight of her dead brother before she too was treated like nothing more than a wild animal. The disbelief you’d felt at Pietro’s murder was so vivid despite the fact that it had long happened, and you’d had months to accept it.

Peter finally wrapped his arms around you as you cried into his chest, the dark-haired man shushing you. Something about waking the whole house again. Something about Steve, and the mention of the blond had you crying harder. You pushed against Peter, nails digging into his skin as you tried to get away, but he only pushed back.

“Y/N…Y/N, stop,” he softly hissed. “Stop it.”

You’d never heard him sound so stern, and that too made you cry.

A choked wail escaped your lips…and then it wasn’t.

…because it was swallowed by Peter.

His lips on yours had you gasping, heart skipping a beat and chest clenching. His hands were still on your arms, trying to settle them as he moved his mouth over yours. When he let one of them go to rest his hand on the back of your neck, you used your free hand to push against his chest, but it was futile. You only realized it was so dark because your eyes were closed, but when you opened them, Peter was so close that you really couldn’t make him out.

Moonlight cast a pale glow in the room, shining light onto Peter holding you against him, tasting the inside of your mouth as he laid you down. His other hand was on your face, now, holding it in place as he kissed you. You could feel his heart beating against yours, his body completely pinning you down.

“You’re okay,” he murmured against your lips. “You’re okay…”

That’s what he always said, but it never felt true.

When you tried to push him away again, he took your wrists, pinning them on either side of your head. Peter was still kissing you, mouth molding almost perfectly against yours, a hum escaping him when your lips parted. He kissed your bottom lip and then your top one, his own finally trailing to the corner of your mouth as he kissed that too.

When he lifted his head, his nose brushed against yours, and under the glow of the moon, you could see his eyes boring into your own.

“There’s my pretty girl,” he softly said when you blinked at him, sniffling. “You’re okay.”

He let one of your hands go to run a finger down your lips, brushing it along your chin as he briefly pressed his lips to yours again.

“You’re safe, alright…?”

Your heart was still beating wildly in your chest, but remnants of your nightmare were slowly fading away, and you gave him a shaky nod. Peter kissed your cheek a few times before sitting up and pulling you with him. When he had you fully leaning on him as he laid back down, his arm curled around your waist, keeping you against him. You were still shaking, breathing still uneven and tears still in your eyes. Your lashes fluttered as you could feel Peter wiping them away, and you closed them completely when you felt his lips brush over yours one more time.

[theladybarnes]

CRIMSON AND CLOVER: CHAPTER TEN

“Could try sticking together at a different house for a change?”

▸ summary: in another time in another place, there’s time for one more night ▸ characters: steve harrington 🩷, ft. Robin Buckley & Dustin Henderson ▸ word count: 9.5k ▸ warnings: angst, fluff, SMUT MINORS DNI(18+) ▸ series masterlist

The hot water flowed slowly down your back. Washing away all the stress and worries that came from today’s recent search. As you leaned against the cool tile, your mind drifted back to the Creel house. At this point it felt like no matter how hard all of you worked to piece together this puzzle, more questions would be left unanswered.

 Pushing your head under the water, you tried to let your mind have a moment’s rest. But the very second you shut down that worry, the look of Steve smiling down at you with cobwebs in his hair came into your head.

 This was stupid. 

 You guys were supposed to be on pause. Thoughts about Steve and his dumb, cute, face could come around later on. When you aren’t trying to evade death by the hands of Vecna. But even if you gave yourself that small break, there was another lingering thought in your head; How was Eddie doing? 

 It’s been days since any of you have properly spoken to him and a big part of you felt guilty for not thinking about him until now. He was your friend! The one who helped lift your spirits after all the heartbreak from last winter. How could you be such a bad friend? Yes, you were working to help solve this and clear his name, but how could you let yourself get this distracted to not have him cross your mind once all day?

 With a sigh, you turned off the shower and stepped out, wrapping yourself in a towel. The steam clung to your skin. A temporary warmth against the cold air that seemed to follow you around all day. You caught a glimpse of yourself in the mirror, shuddering at the sight.

 You were exhausted, both mentally and physically. The worst part was that your body seemed to be taking the major weight of it all. Emerging from the steamy bathroom, the cool air of Steve's house hit you, bringing a slight shiver to coat your body. Lost in your thoughts, you almost didn't see that Steve had been standing there until you nearly collided with him at his bedroom door.

 "Whoa, careful there,” he said, a playful smile on his face as he caught your arms. "I hope you left some hot water for me. I know you like to have the water burning your skin practically.”

 "It’s not that hot.” you chuckled. His eyes darted over your figure, lingering in a few expected spots until he remembered where his main focus was. You felt as your face grew hot. Cheeks flushed as you adjusted the towel around you tighter. “Thanks again, for letting all of us crash here. I know all of us together can be a lot."

 Steve's expression softened, and he leaned against the doorframe, looking at you with those familiar, warm eyes that had your knees nearly buckling under his gaze. "I figured that the Wheeler residence could use a break from the chaos we bring.” he shrugged. “No one’s here anyway. We all could use a good rest for one night. Plus it beats sleeping on the basement floor again.”

 “You’re right about that.” you agreed, knowing your back is desperate for some comfort. 

 “Besides,” he continued, voice a low murmur. “I feel a lot safer having you here in my house. Where I know you’ll be safe.” 

 His words tugged at your heart. They were both comforting and painful. Mostly because you wanted to dive into the meaning behind them and hear his reasons. But you knew better. It was just hard to suppress the feelings you still had for him, but you pushed them down for now, managing a small smile instead. 

 "I always feel safe with you around. Doesn’t matter where.”

 Something about your reply had him inhaling deeply. For a moment he looked like he was going to say something else, but he didn’t. “Goodnight, Trouble.” He eventually got out with a smile of his own.

 “Goodnight, Steve."

 You turned to leave, heading towards the hall to his parent’s room, where you’d be sharing with Robin. But as you walked away, you couldn't help but steal one last glance back at him, catching him as he watched you with an unreadable expression. 

 Once you were inside the spare bedroom and away from his gaze, you wasted no time in getting into fresh clothes. Thankfully, your Aunt did not catch you sneaking in through your bedroom window earlier. If she had, you, Dustin, and probably the others, would surely have been under house arrest. With her paranoia, she’d have cuffed you all together to keep watch of everyone closely.

 The previously occupied bathroom popped open suddenly. Robin, who had gotten dibs in the master bath first, was freshly changed and ready for bed. She waltzed into the room with a content smile on her face as she plopped down on the other side of the bed. You noticed right away that her eyes were glinting with a familiar playful mischief as she caught your gaze.

 “So,” she started, drawing out the word, “How was your little run-in with Steve?” Her smirk was unmistakable, and you couldn’t help but roll your eyes, holding back the smile that wanted to fight its way onto your lips. 

 “Robin,” you warned lightly, but she only grinned wider.

 “Oh come on, don’t ‘Robin’ me. I was there in the Creel house. I saw how you two were talking.” she reasoned. “There were sparks flying and all that.” She mimicked an explosion with her hands for emphasis, bringing out a small chuckle from you. 

 “I can’t do this with you..”

 “Why do you think I got dibs on the bathroom first?”

 “Because you’re dirty?”

 She gave you a small slap to your arm before pointing over towards the door. “I did it on the chance that you two might run into each other in his room and get to talking again!”

 “Robin, we’re not together,” you reminded her, shaking your head as you finished drying your hair. “I’m not sure he’s told you yet but we’re pausing even discussing that situation until we get this Vecna stuff sorted out. It’s all very complicated.”

 “Yeah, complicated my ass.” Robin snorted. “All week I’ve caught you two a dozen times being a little too close for being just friends. I give it until tomorrow before the two of you are making out in some corner like you’re in the back room of Family Video all over again.”

 Your mouth flopped open as you attempted to think of a comeback. For some reason you were unable to conjure up a clever response. Instead, you threw a pillow at her, which she deftly dodged laughing. “We’re not gonna do... ugh, I’m done. I’m going to bed.”

 Thankfully, she moved with you to climb under the sheets. Giving you a couple of seconds of silence while you both adjusted under the sheets before Robin turned around to face you again.

 Her expression had softened up from the previous smug look she had as she looked down. “I know you’re both sort of stuck on talking things out. But seriously, I think with everything going on... I just don’t want either of you to have any regrets. Or waste time not taking just one second to work something out. Things are getting pretty crazy and I just want to help you both be happy in case something happens..”

 Her words instantly hit home. It was one thing for you to be self aware of the possibility of a limited amount of time. But for your friend to see it too just made the whole situation feel even more real. That wasn’t something you wanted Robin or any of them to have to go through. Especially when they were already worried about this whole Vecna mess already. Swallowing the lump in your throat, you gave her a quick nod, hoping it gave off some sort of relief to her.

  “Thanks, Robin. We’ll work on it soon.” Your words felt forced, but you smiled at her anyway. “Just give us a chance to work things out before you feel you need to ‘help’ again, okay?”

 She gave your shoulder reassuring pat before she flopped onto her back. “Alright, I’ll back off for now, but I’d be more worried about Nancy. She’s more fed up with this weird dance you two are doing than I am.”

 “Thanks for that heads up.” You chuckled softly, reaching out from the covers to turn off the lamp. The room fell into darkness, but the warmth of the conversation still lingered in the air.

 “Goodnight, Robin,” you whispered.

 “Goodnight,” she replied, her voice already drowsy.

 As you closed your eyes, your mind drifted back to previous thoughts. There were some things you couldn’t change right away, but Robin was right. Time was precious, and with the threat looming over you all, there’s no room for regret. Something had to change between you and Steve. 

 But for now, you settled on attempting to get some sleep first. 

 You huffed again, removing the earbuds from your ears.

 It had been two hours since you said goodnight to your friend, and here you were as you listened to the soft sound of Robin’s light snoring. Sleep was not coming for you. No matter how relaxed you attempted to be, your mind was not able to shut off whatsoever. 

 Looking at the clock on the bedside table, you use the little bit of moonlight that peeked through the room from the curtains to read the time. It was nearing two in the morning. You should be sound asleep like all the others in the house. And yet, you were wide awake.

 This wasn’t even a bed you could feel comfortable in. It was too hard and the pillow had a lingering scent aftershave. You glanced at Robin, her face serene and untroubled as she slept. The sight of her peacefulness made your restlessness more unbearable. What you needed was comfort, a sense of safety that only one place could offer.

 Biting your lip, you glanced over towards the clock again. Screw complicated.

 Slipping out of bed, you gathered your cassette player and headphones as you padded silently to the door, careful not to wake her. The floorboards creaked under your weight, a sound that echoed through the quiet house. Steve’s room was just down the hall, and the thought of being near him sent a shiver down your spine—not from fear, but from the cold that only he seemed to be able to take away.

 Pushing the door open a fraction, you peeked inside, hoping to slip into his room without waking him. Over on his bed, he laid on his side, facing towards the door. His chest rising and falling in the rhythm of sleep.

 Taking a deep breath, you pushed the door open enough to step inside. The familiar scent of his cologne mixed with the faint smell of the cotton sheets hit you. Hitting you with a wave of nostalgia. The summer nights where you crept in to spend the night for sleepovers that weren’t allowed. It was the time in both your lives where you guys thought everything would be okay. That all the troubles were over. 

 You wanted to feel that way again, if just for one night.

 Stepping into the room, you were careful not to let the door creak as you closed it behind you. The floor was thankfully covered in carpet, but you still shivered as you approached the side of his bed. 

 You moved to the empty side about to lift the blanket when you noticed a small photo frame. Picking it up, you used the small light coming from the window to look at it carefully. 

 It was the half torn photo strip you guys took at the mall last summer. You remember the night he stole this half, leaving you to the one back home. It was still taped to your mirror. But this one, you haven’t seen in such a long time. The smile on Steve’s face still made your heart leap and you couldn’t help but smile at how happy you looked then. “I can’t believe you still have this.” you said softly. 

 Steve stirred at the sound of your voice and you held your breath. Hoping you didn’t just wake him up. But nothing happened other than him settling back comfortably. 

 Gently, you lifted the edge of the blanket and slipped underneath, moving slowly so as not to disturb him further. The mattress dipped slightly under your weight as you turned on your side, wanting to face him. The warmth of his body was immediate, comforting in a way you had become desperate for lately.

 As you got comfortable, Steve's eyes fluttered open, making you freeze in place. But instead of accidentally scaring him like you thought you might have, he only blinked, sleepily focusing on you. 

 "Hey," he murmured, his voice thick with sleep. There was no surprise in his tone, just a quiet acceptance that made your heart flutter.

 "Hi," you whispered back, barely able to keep the small quiver from your voice. "I couldn't sleep."

 He shifted slightly, making room for you to slide closer, his arm coming around you instinctively. It was such a natural, familiar gesture, shared between the two of you. 

 "Bad dream?" he asked, his voice a soft rumble.

 "I’d have to have fallen asleep in the first place to dream," you muttered, nestled closer to him now. His presence was like a soothing balm. The knot that had been building up in your chest loosened up at just the sound of his voice. “Is it okay, I’m here?”

 His fingers brushed against your arm, a light touch that sent shivers down your spine. "You’re always welcomed here," he said quietly, keeping up with his soothing touch. 

 You closed your eyes, letting yourself relax for the first time in days. You couldn’t pinpoint as to why. Maybe it was the bed, or the smell of his cotton sheets, or maybe it was just Steve. All you knew was that you felt safe, away from the world, in this bed, in his arms. 

 "I missed this," you admitted into the darkness, voice barely audible under the sudden emotions swirling. 

 His arm tightened around you, and you felt as his breath hitched in reaction to your words. "Me too," he whispered back eventually, his voice low and rough. It was only a little concerning, considering that all day he’s acted so confidently around everyone. 

 "Steve," you begin, your voice barely above a whisper, "Am I hurting you by being here?"

 He sighed, shifting closer. "No, you’re not hurting me. If anything, this is comforting me. I like having you close to me..where I can feel you.”

 You reached out, your fingers brushing against his. "I just don’t want to confuse you anymore than I already have.."

 His hand closed around yours, warm and reassuring. "You haven’t. Besides, I know we’ll eventually get to talk things out. I’m okay with waiting until then.” 

 The conviction in his voice is comforting, and for a moment, you almost believed that everything would be okay. But your mind was quick to become frustrated all over again. Not only were you so physically tired from everything, but mentally too. It was as if you were some sappy soap character who couldn’t figure her life out. Everyday was a new brand of guilt and fear and you were sick of it. 

 A finger brushing against your cheek pulled you out of your rant and focused back on Steve who was watching you carefully. “Your thinking face is on.” he mused softly, “Wanna let me in?”

 You moved closer, resting your head on his shoulder. "What if... what if this was just a normal night? No monsters, no curses, just spring break. What would we have done?"

 Steve sucked in a sharp breath. Probably not expecting that sort of question. “Well,” he huffed, blowing all the air out of his mouth. “I’d have probably convinced you to hang out with me. Even if it was just friends. Put on some movie you picked from work.”

 You smiled at the thought, liking the simplicity of the scenario. "Something you’d pretend to be annoyed by, but secretly love every minute of, right?”

 He smiled back, looking at you with such a tenderness that lured you in close. "Yeah, something like that."

 The moment stretched out, leaving the air thick with heavy lingering feelings. You leaned in, keeping faces only inches apart. The urge to kiss him was so overwhelming. But you stopped, your eyes searching his face for more answers. "And after that? When the night was done and it was time for me to go home? What would happen?”

 For a moment, he didn’t respond, his gaze locked on yours. Then, without a word, he leaned in, closing the distance between you, and kissed you. It was soft and hesitant, but it held some feelings that you were sure he had been holding back. Like always, you melted into the kiss. His hand reached up to cup the side of your face, keeping you close as he finally spoke up.

 “That,” he whispered against your lips. “I’d do that.”

 You moved to rest your forehead against his, both of you breathing heavily now. “I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow,” you whispered, “But right now, I just..I just want to forget about everything. Even if it’s only tonight.”

 He slowly nodded, his eyes glancing down to your lips as you spoke. “Yeah,” he said, gently murmuring his agreement in a quiet tone. “We can forget everything else..."

 With his approval, you placed a hand on his shoulder and gently pushed him so that he was flat on his back. His eyes widened a bit and you carefully threw a leg over his waist until you were able to sit on his lap. 

 Your heart raced as you reached for the hem of your pajama shirt, carefully pulling it over your head until you were revealing your bare chest to Steve. 

 His breathing hitched as his eyes roamed over your breasts before it all seemed to click for him what you were doing. “Am I dreaming right now?” he asked as he brought his hands up to rest at your hips. 

 You placed your hands over his, giving him a shy smile as you shook your head to his question. 

 “This is real.”

 He gave your hips a gentle squeeze as a small shy smile pulled at the corner of his lips. “Thank God.” he breathed, shaking his head as he leaned up towards you. 

 You met him in the middle and pressed your lips onto his, feeling the familiar fire start to ignite inside again. His hands released your hips, grazing up the expanse of your sides until he cupped at your breasts, using the tip of his thumbs to brush over the sensitive pebble.

 A wave of heat dropped down between your legs at his touch. Not even a week has passed since you’ve last had sex with Steve but the carnal desire to have every inch of him inside you started to take over. Your hands roamed beneath his shirt. First, only grazing in from his waistline before you broke the kiss to push up the ends, silently urging him to lose the shirt.

 You could hear him chuckle as he reached down to tug the material off, tossing it onto the floor before he laid back against the bed, looking up at you expectantly. 

The pool lights reflected in through his window, creating spots of blue hues to seep in the room. 

 It reminded you of all the summer nights you spent here in the house, and how much they used to ease you during your secret sleepovers. 

 Leaning over, you pressed your lips back onto his as your hands explored. Your nails scratched against his chest, admiring the feel of the hairs that peppered over his pecs. The sensation caused Steve to groan out loud, making the kiss turn hot and opened mouth as you both touched each other.

 He pressed you closer to his body, making your chest flushed to his now. That’s when you felt the cold necklace press against your clavicle and you sat back to press a hand to your neck. 

 You had almost forgotten that you had stolen the necklace from his car the other day. It kept you sane during your trip to Pennhurst. Something you had planned on sneaking back into Steve’s car. But your impatience and needs seemed to ruin that plan now. 

 He broke his focus from your face, doing a double take as he looked down at your hand, leaning close to inspect what you were holding. “You-..you’re wearing it..” he stated, slightly taken back as his gaze flickered back to your eyes.

 “I just wanted to feel right again.” You professed softly, looking down at the gold ‘S’ that sat perfectly over your chest. “I know I should have asked but..” your voice trailed off, unsure how to answer without diving into feelings.

 A small smile pulled at the corner of his lips when he slowly reached up to gently touch the necklace. His fingertips gently ran along the chain while you waited patiently to hear what he had to say. “No, you’d never have to ask..” he assured you. “It’s yours. It’s always been yours.” 

 The tender reassurance caused an ache to spread into your heart. The memory of the night you received the gift bringing in emotions you needed to pause on. Reaching for his hand, you brought his fingertips up to your lips. Placing kisses on each finger lovingly until you pressed it to cup at your cheek. “Are you sure?”

 Steve held his breath for a moment, only staring at your face in his hand before he suddenly leaned up towards you. The look in his eyes had turned dark and familiar. Stirring something in the pit of your belly. Then, he slowly began to nod his head, letting his hand slide down to wrap around your neck. 

 “More than anything.”

 You shuddered a bit, finding yourself being flustered by not only Steve’s reassurance, but also from the slight change of hand. Not sure how long you can handle his touch or heated gaze, you took charge and leaned in to press your lips against his again.

 Feeling a new confidence in you that made you start to roll your hips on his waist. 

 A small moan built in your throat as his groin began to press through your pajama pants. Hitting at the spot you were starting to become needy for him to touch. Beneath you, Steve gently groaned into the kiss, moving his body to roll against yours when he felt the direction you were taking things.

 Your mind was becoming more hazy at that. More feral. The familiar desperation to reach your orgasm started to spur inside of you. And from the way he began to stiffen up underneath his clothes, you were pretty sure he was starting to feel the same.

 “Steve..I need you.”

 Your simple whimpered request seemed to encourage Steve as he groaned quietly again, reaching for your hips as he rolled up. “Need you too, Honey. Need you so badly.” he said in short shallow gasps. 

 Carefully, he wrapped an arm around your side and he pressed you close to his body before he flipped you over so that he was able to hover over you now. You held tightly, staring up in shock as he used his knees to push at your legs and allow him to sit between them. 

 Reaching your hands down, you rubbed up his sides until they met in the middle of his waist, where you quickly made do with his pajamas. Pushing the waist of his pants and boxers down while you picked your head up to press a kiss to his lips. 

 He shivered in your hands, only pulling his lips back to hiss down once the palm of your hand made contact with his hardened cock. “Fuck,” he said, licking over his lips. “Keep going.” he begged, hands rubbing up the inner part of your thighs soothingly. 

 The sight of his stiff cock brought a burning desire to pool between your legs. You thought back to earlier in the week when you last had him and how much you wanted to feel that good again and again and–

 “You with me?” 

 The warm touch to the side of your face pulled you from your dirty thoughts and you gave Steve a small smile. He rubbed the tip of his thumb over your lip, which naturally you pressed a kiss to, knowing how much he always liked it.

 And like always, he took charge after that.

 Moving his hands to the sides of your waist, he tugged down your bottoms. Exposing the rest of your body to his pleasure as he still hovered above you. The action sparked something inside and you felt yourself losing your composition in order to give into your needs. “I need you, please.”

 He shifted before you, making the tip of his cock brush against your thigh. Causing him to groan while he adjusted once more to bring his hand between your inner thighs. “Let me have my fun first, Trouble.” He replied back. Voice husky and low with desire. 

 It was one just one finger that brushed through your folds and you were already feeling out of your mind. Your body jolted and turned tense as you reached out to grip at his free arm. He used his thumb to circle over your clit, brushing the sensitive bud softly.

 “Fuck.” you hissed, feeling both frustrated and turned on by his slow pace. You let go of his arm to go for his neck. Letting your fingers get tangled in the ends of his hair, tugging lightly as he rolled over the sensitive bud again. Oddly, the small ministrations were slowly working you up.

 Steve’s eyes looked up at you. He watched you slowly the more you got heated, needing more but still keeping at his pace. He swiped a finger over your clit again, chuckling softly to himself as he bent his head down to you. “Already so close for me? You’re so needy, so perfect, all for me.”

 His whisper nearly made you come right there. It was so dirty and so familiar to how things used to be. You didn’t know how much you needed this until now. “Baby, please,” you whimpered, not even sure how desperate you sounded. “More.”

 You brought your leg up to wrap around his hip, allowing him better actress between your legs as you slowly began to roll again his touch. Needing to do something to create the friction you wanted.

 He cooed amusedly at your impatience. ”I’ll give you anything you want, baby.” he promised, pressing more pressure to your clit with his thumb. “Just keep making pretty noises for me.” he teased, moving his hand down your folds, teasing you slightly until you felt the tip of his fingers at your core. 

 Your eyes snapped open, looking up at the ceiling as you anticipated his next move.

 Little by little he pushed his fingers in, getting you to let out small panting breaths to calm you down until you felt him stop. “Doing so good for me, Honey.” he said, leaning forward to get his face closer to yours. “You’re so wet, just from my hand, it’s so hot.” he said as he pressed a soft kiss to warm your chest.

 “So good,” you whispered, loving how you felt his fingers give into some of the desires you wanted. He pumped his fingers in and out rhythmically as you writhed on the bed, becoming so unbearably desperate for more. God, you couldn’t believe how long it’s been since you’ve felt this way. “Fuck, Steve..” you whimpered as your hands found purchase in his hair. 

 He was being so attentive to you. It was so sweet, sexy, so addicting.

 Steve continued to listen to all of your sounds and whines, giving you quiet praises while his fingers curled, hitting at just the right spot as he increased his pace. Trying to get you to the edge you were teetering on. “C’mon,” he grunted, “Come for me, honey..”

 Your fingers gripped tighter to Steve’s hair, pulling him close to you. “Baby,” you gasped, sucking in air that was leaving too quickly. “I’m gonna— I’m gonna—ah!” 

 In one final push of his hand, your body froze and you felt your wave of pleasure hit over you instantly. It was so hot and so quick, you didn’t even have time to keep yourself in check. Only grinding your hips against his hand to ride out the rest of the orgasm. 

 He had leaned down during your euphoric haze to press kissing against the nape of your neck, Slowly pushing in and out until he gently slipped his fingers out from you “That’s it..just like that..that’s my good girl..” he said, holding onto you until he fell to your side. He reached around to have you closer to him. 

 You were still trying to catch your breath. Feeling so hot and heavy that you felt your head spin for a moment. “God,” you whispered, turning your head to plant kisses on his chest. “I’ll never get over that.”

 Steve hummed happily, seemingly content with having gotten you off. He pressed a kiss to the top of your head, sounding pleased by your reaction. “I won’t either..” he said before he reached down for your chin, tilting you up so you were looking at him as he whispered quietly. “You’ve never been so perfect and so sexy for me.”

 The whisper of his genuine words only took your breath away again. 

 Without saying anything, you moved your legs so that you could straddle on top of him. The slight pressure of his still so hard member was pressing lightly against your thighs. You gave a small roll of your hips before looking at him carefully.

 He stared up at you once you straddled his waist. Eyes wide before you rolled over him and caused him to groan loudly. “Honey,” he breathed out in a deep whisper. “You don’t have to–”

 Bending forward, you pressed your lips against his, letting your kiss distract him from saying anything else as you slowly lifted your hips, kneeling at his sides and reached down between you two. Grabbing hold of his member, you carefully lined him up to your core and slowly eased down.

 He pulled away from the kiss as he gasped for air. “God, you’re perfect.”

You’d chuckle at his sweet response if you weren’t too busy feeling the sensation of having him inside of you again. It was like you’ve been waiting all night to feel this full again and you couldn’t help but sigh in contentment from it. 

 Leaning yourself back, you slowly bottom his member out. Feeling as the tip brushed right at the right spot. A soft moan spilled past your lips and you placed a hand down to rest at his stomach, digging your nails into the skin as you slowly started to roll your hips.

 “Fuck, baby, takin’ all of me.” he whimpered. “Like my good girl.”

 A smile broke out on your face, loving his attempt to talk dirty through his whimpers. Beneath you, Steve’s whole body started to tense up. Turning as needy as yours did minutes ago for release. His hands up and down your thighs, trying to find something to hold onto before he gently wrapped hands around your hips. 

 One of your hands reached out to grip at your breast, feeling as the sensitivity ventured all over your body. Steve, who couldn’t help himself, reached out to replace yours. Squeezing and cupping up your breast as he bucked upward into you. 

 “God damn, honey.” he grunted, thrusting upward again. He pulled himself up to reach your mouth with his. He hungrily kissed you, sucking on your bottom lip before he pulled away for a moment. “You don’t know what you do to me..” he whispered, eyes dark as he looked over your features. 

 You used his new closeness as a chance to wrap your arms around his neck. Keeping him in place so that you could pick up the pace in your rolls. Hitting that delicious spot every time. The kiss had already taken your breath away, but you ignored it in favor of attacking his neck next. 

 Pressing loving kisses on all the spots that freckled his skin. “I could say the same.” You said panting against the line of his jaw. “I can’t get you out of my head.”

 Steve gasped out in between your kisses on his neck, holding you close as he moved his hand back to your lower back. Holding you steady as he began to buck his hips up to meet your rolls. Thrusting upwards so fast now that you were practically bouncing on top of him.

 ”I’ve been trying so hard to stick to this whole friend, pausing thing—fuck. But I can’t stop thinking about you like this.” he grunted between short, shallow breaths. “Want you like this all the time.” 

 His thrusts started to hit directly into all the right places, making your next climax approach faster now. You felt yourself shuddering at his words, holding tightly to him as his confession brought butterflies to your stomach.

 “God, Steve.” You whimpered, “All the time?”

 “Every, damn, day.” he answered, thrusting up to match each word he managed to get out.  You could feel your body react to him, clenching tighter around his cock. Needing to hold onto the feeling of him inside of you before he’d hit you again and have you gasping in pleasure. “God, I could do this all night if you’ll have me.” 

 His words made you shudder, and you dug your nails into his shoulders. Pushing against him lightly to lie on his back again while you looked down in his eyes. “You’re all mine?” You asked breath ragged as you rolled your hips again. The brink of your climax just nearly there. “Say it.”

 “Fuck,” he moaned, staring up at you with wide eyes. You’ve never been this possessive with him before but from his slight grin, you started to think he liked it. “I’m yours.” he nodded quickly, licking over his lips. “You have me, Trouble. All of me.” 

 Taking his chance, he gripped tightly to your hips, giving you a slight wincing pain but followed with another wave of pleasure as he used all his energy to buck his hips up to yours, going at a much more brutal pace.

 From the mix of his responses plus the way his hips kept snapping up in the right places, you could barely roll correctly as you felt your edge coming. “I’m so—God, I’m so close.” You gasped, reaching a hand down between you, rubbing your clit in a quick circle to drive you just enough. 

 “Come for me,” he hissed, sweat was beading down his forehead but he kept up his speed, not stopping until he got you there. “Come for me, honey..”

 Your back arched, curling at his command as a sudden wave of pleasure hit you. Every roll caused your core to tighten around him, giving you that blindingly hot sensation that only your orgasm could give you. Specks of white blurred your vision again and you let out a cry of ecstasy.

 Below, Steve held you close, riding out the rest of your orgasm by helping you continue to roll your hips. “Oh God, oh Go–fuck.” he moaned, his body tensing up before finally reaching his release. The sensation of Steve’s cum shooting in you had you shuddering slightly but not as much as the sinful sounds of his moans fought against your whimpers.

 There was a solid minute where the two of you were just there, both taking the chance to roll against each other until finally you started to calm your bodies down. You glanced down to look at him, smiling a little at his face. He was still softly moaning, most likely sensitive as you were right now before he felt your gaze on him. 

 “Hi.” you said softly, just staring at him until you leaned down to place another kiss on his lips.

 “Hey.” he whispered back, now sporting a goofy grin. Though you had the power of being on top, it didn’t stop you from feeling shy from his gaze. Looking away, you peeked over your shoulder to stare at the door before down again.  

 “Do you think the others heard us?”

 He glanced over toward the door, face scrunching up a bit before he shook his head. “Doubt it.” he chuckled, returning back to his former position. “Those little shits aren’t afraid to barge in and bother us if we’re disturbing them, so I think I think we’re in the clear.”

 Nodding your head, you held onto his arms. Using them as leverage to keep you up as you reached between you two so that you could pull him out. A small hiss escaped at the change of pressure before you carefully climbed off his lap and laid down beside him. “That was intense.” you said softly, placing a hand on your still racing heart.

 Steve, who had quickly managed to catch his breath, laid his head down on the pillow. You glanced up to see he was grinning as he stared up at the ceiling. “Intense isn’t the word I’d use..” he shrugged with an amused chuckle. “Now incredible..”

 You couldn’t help but laugh at that, gaining his attention. He slowly rolled to rest his head down against your shoulder, gently brushing his fingers up and down your side. You turned over to face him instead. “You’re incredibly cheesy, Harrington.” you smirked, still feeling like you’re on cloud nine from everything.

 He gave a fake look of shock, nearly clutching his pearls before he reached out to you. Tucking you against him so he could gently nudge your side with his hand. “Me? Chee—what about you, using cheesy lines on me like ‘you’re all mine’?”

 You felt your face heat up. 

 “Yeah, well, I was just taking a page right out from your book of lines.” You shrugged, trying to keep up with a faux bit of confidence.

 That seemed to only amuse him further. Making him let out a light laugh as he leaned down to press a gentle kiss to your lips. “Now you’re suddenly keeping note of my go to lines?” he asked with a light, playful, voice as he moved onto peppering small kisses over your face. “Thought you wanted to be a lawyer, not a stenographer.”

 “Uhh..” You had a hard time thinking of any clever response as Steve continued his kissing, making you incredibly distracted. He literally just fucked you stupid and thought adding drunkly sweet kisses on top of that would do any good. “..Shut up.” You eventually answered, not even able to combat it at this point.

 Again, he laughed at you. Giving you at least a break from his lips as he pulled back to look over at you. “Gotta admit, I kinda liked hearing you talk so possessively to me. Makes me feel all sorts of special.” he whispered teasingly.

 You sighed in defeat, figuring that while he was annoying in teasing now, he was kind of right. A small part of you felt alive to be holding such a claim on him. Sappy or not, he felt like he really was yours. But you hated the idea of Steve holding that over you right now with his shit eating grin.

 “Shut up.” You said again, slightly teasing, but mostly pouting. The blanket, while a little too warm, helped cover up your slightly sweaty body from the cold that would inevitably take over. You turned yourself to rest on his chest a little, needing to hear his heart while lightly brushing your fingers over his side.

 All this was so beautifully domestic. Reminding you of the calmer nights of the early summer you two had where you were actually allowed to be silly teens who didn’t have school worries or problems from the upside down. Just two people enjoying each other’s company.

 The thoughts of all tomorrow’s worries instantly came into mind. No matter how much you wished it, and how much Steve gave to you, the doubts would always come back to creep in, and the world would find ways to keep you from getting that happiness back.

 Steve adjusted himself to pull you closer to his body, keeping you pressed tight against his chest. Gently letting his hand move to pet over your hair as he softly whispered to you. “I can hear you thinking.”

 A small sad smile couldn’t help but tug at your lips. Steve’s familiar intuition kicked in once again and your body reacted so instinctively to him as you curled more into his side. Seeking comfort against him. You gently drew patterns over the sides of his ribs as you fought to get your words out. 

 “I’m thinking how I’ve messed up my life again..”

 He didn’t say anything at first. Only keeping his hold on you before he finally spoke up again. “Why would you think that?” he asked slowly.

 “I’ve lied to you guys, I’ve kept things that were important..and all for it to come back and nearly get me killed.”

 The reminder of the other day’s events unfortunately seemed to cause a dip in the vibe around the room. Beside you Steve stiffened up, possibly remembering his own emotions from that day. But you couldn’t stop yourself from going on, feeling more guilt pour out of you.

 “I’ve been such a bad friend. I’ve neglected Eddie who’s just stuck waiting for us to help him..he doesn’t even know what’s going on and I’ve just been wasting our time keeping things from all of you. I’m sorr–”

 “You were scared.” he cut in, not allowing you to finish your apology. “You just wanted to keep us safe and keep us focused on what you thought was important, baby. I know you. Not only are you a good friend, but you’re a good person..I’m so tired of having you put yourself down.” he argued, pressing a kiss to the top of your head. “I don’t know what that asshole is making you hear or see in your head..but you aren’t messing up your life.”

 You closed your eyes, wanting to believe everything he was saying. But all the months of Vecna feeding pain and hurt into you were still lingering. Even if you used your anger to fight back against him, the weight of his words still hung heavily onto you.

 “I can’t unhear his words, Steve. I can’t stop seeing the vision he showed me..”

 “Tell me about it.” he said softly, another kiss now to the side of your cheek as he tried to bring you back down from your spiraling. “Let me in..”

 Sighing, you reached over to grab for his free hand, bringing it close to your chest as you recalled the events of the past few months. Mentioning the times Vecna had attempted to make you feel alone and guilty over things. Whether it was from Billy’s death, the break up, or even the struggle to maintain the relationships you had with others.

 “..it wasn’t until the day he tried to take me..I just knew it was all wrong. Like everything he had been feeding me was just to get me to this point but it wasn’t enough. No one but me got hurt that night. Even as I tried to remember it in detail the only one around was me and the police until my Dad came. But he wanted to use that guilt and feed it into something worse.”

 “But he still has a hold over you..” he pointed out, letting his fingers lace with yours. 

 “I guess, even now it feels sometimes like I’m being lulled into a dream. Which must be a reason why sleep is hard for me tonight.” You moved to place your hand around his waist, feeling the need to hold him again. “What if this is the last night we get to do this? What if I’m pulled in again and can’t get out?..”

 It was scary to think about death easily taking over you. The worst part of it, is that you’d know you were about to die and know that it was your loved ones who would see the horrors of what happens when Vecna finally got his claw into you. 

 Without looking, you could hear as Steve let out a small sigh. He gently kept his hand brushing over your hair, seemingly attempting to soothe you. “Well, I’m not going anywhere,” he said, sounding determined. “Not unless you want me to..and even then, I’m not leaving your side.”

 “I know you’ll be here, Steve. My worry though is will I be?” You picked up your head and peered up at him, trying to focus on the features of his face. As if you suddenly needed to keep them in your memory to remember him in the future.

 “I’m not letting you go.” he frowned, his grip tightening on you. “I know you’re scared, we all are, but there's a fight within us. Okay? We’re not gonna stop until you and Max are safe again. And as far as things between us..they’re far from being done yet. So you can bet I’m not letting anything happen to you.” He let go to reach his hand back to softly cup your face. His thumb gently over your cheek as he kept his eyes locked on yours. “I promise, we’re going to have many nights like this again..” 

 “Yeah? After we’re done pausing our problems?” You said, feeling a little overwhelmed with reality again. There was just always going to be one problem over the other. 

 He turned silent, not saying anything for a moment as he leaned down to press a soft kiss to your lips.  “You wanted to pretend tonight was different, right?” he said, locking his serious gaze into yours. “Tonight we’re just two teens, both with feelings for each other, both in this bed after having amazing sex. Let’s keep it like that and worry about tomorrow..tomorrow.”

 Would there even be a chance tomorrow for all this? Or would the two of you just continue to dance around this subject? You wanted to argue against that, remind him of the truth. But you quickly swallowed that thought down when you saw the slight pain in Steve’s eyes. This was not easy for him either. 

 “Okay, tomorrow then.”

 Though he seemed a little skeptical of your answer, he still smiled at you as he laid his head back down on the pillow. His arm wrapped around you now as he gently brushed his fingers lightly up and down your back. “You want to stay like this for the rest of the night?” he asked softly.

 I could stay like this for the rest of my life. You thought. “Yes.”

 There was a soft, relieving, sigh as he leaned down to press a kiss to the top of your head. ”Then I won’t move till morning.” he whispered, words sounding more like a promise than just reassurance. 

 Your body relaxed under him and you found that you were now wishing to fight the sleep you were so desperate for in the beginning. Wanting to bask more in the short amount of time you and Steve had together alone. 

 “..and maybe a little bit after that?” you asked, more so wished out loud.

 Steve listened intently, letting you finish your sleepy words as he reached over behind you to grab the cassette player. Seemingly the only one between the two of you to actually remember the problems outside of your little promise earlier. 

 Soon enough the soft sounds of Joan Jett began to play in your ear again and he cuddled you closer into his arms. Tugging at the blanket so it covered you better. The last thing you saw before your eyes closed was the smile that crept back on his face. 

 “..and after that.”

 The small click of the tape ending was the first thing that stirred you awake.

 It would seem that partaking in the rigorous activities the night before was just what you needed for sleep to eventually come its way to you. Something you were thankful for considering this past week so far, you’ve slept roughly around two to three hours a night. 

 Unfortunately, that precious sleep time was over now and soon enough, you’d be forced to get out of bed eventually. A task you found to be harder once you felt Steve stir behind you. Without needing to turn around, you could feel that his eyes were on you. He quietly called out your name, trying to find if you were awake or not. When you didn’t answer back, he leaned in to press a kiss to the back of your shoulder. 

 The tip of hands caressed over the length of your bare leg, admiring the softness before it wrapped around your hips, dragging you back a bit in order to get you closer. After, his hand explored up the expanse of your stomach, curves, and chest until he cupped gently at your face. Again, he pressed kisses to you, only this time to your cheek. That’s when he stiffened up, noticing something, and let you go to reach for the cassette. 

 There was a click again and it quickly started to rewind. He set it back down as he resumed tending to you. Just as you were about to turn around and give into his affections, the sound of his door bursting open interrupted. 

 “Steve! Please tell me she’s in–oh God!”

 “Whoa! Shh!” Steve hissed. “Jesus Christ, Buckley, you ever heard of knocking?”

 “Have you ever heard of wearing clothes?!”

 The sound of Robin gagging followed along as Steve attempted to pull the blanket higher over the two of you. The door closed softly, but you could still feel the presence of your friend. You could only assume she had turned around now, keeping her eyes off of the two of you. 

 "Seriously? Here I was feeling like a bad friend for telling her I’d find you two kissing. But this?” Her voice had that unmistakable mix of exasperation and disgust that reminded you of the summer back in Starcourt. “I nearly had a heart attack, like, five minutes ago and now I think I’m gonna have a bigger one. I almost saw your butt, Steve!”

 “Please stop talking.”

 “Why is she here? You guys are on break.”

 “She couldn’t sleep, okay? She came in, woke me up and–”

 “And you took off your clothes?!”

 “Shh!” he hissed again. “Can you stop? You'll wake her up." His hold around you tightened, almost as if he were shielding you from the interruption.  

 Though you couldn’t see it, you could practically feel the eye roll from Robin. “Look, as happy as I am to see you guys making some sort of move in your relationship, we’re gonna have to cut the honeymoon short. The kids are up and we gotta get a move on. Nancy wanted us to meet her back at her house after breakfast. So, you two need to get dressed.”

 “Five minutes.” Steve reasoned, not daring to move you anymore. “Give us that and we’ll meet you downstairs.”

 “Fine,” she huffed, “Five minutes. That’s all you guys have before I’m sending one of the others. Let you two traumatize someone else for once.”

 Steve sighed, his voice tired as he quickly agreed. "I'll wake her up, I promise."

 You heard Robin grumble a bit as she opened the door. “God, Steve, you are so hairy!” she said in a hushed tone as she closed the door gently behind her. The sounds of her stomps slowly faded away as she finally left to go downstairs. 

 With the room now quiet again, you finally turned in Steve’s arms to face him. His eyes met yours, and a lazy, contented smile spread across his face. His hair was adorably unruly and you couldn’t help but reach out to run your fingers through it before you brought your hand to rest on his shoulder.  

 “Morning.” he whispered softly, leaning down to press a kiss against your lips. It was cut too short and he slowly pulled back to look down at you again. 

 “I see my late night visit got us in trouble.” you whispered back, feeling a little guilty for Robin’s unfortunate timing. 

 “Sort of.” He chuckled a bit, shaking his head at the interaction. “But, she’ll cool off. I think she was just worried when she didn’t find you in the other room.”

 Staring at the door, you hoped that you didn’t worry Robin too much. After her little speech, all she seemed to want was for you and Steve to make up in some sort of way. But after the sex, and confessing to him about your Vecna struggles, you were a little worried you might have pushed that progress even further. “Do you think I’ve just..complicated things with us after last night?”

 Steve inhaled deeply, looking at you with the same concerned gaze before he shook his head. “The only thing I feel after last night is amazing.” He pressed a kiss to your cheek, gentle but loving. “Besides, it’s not like you and I aren’t used to complicated, right?”

 You nestled closer to Steve, adjusting so that you could rest on top of him while he moved to lie on his back. The warmth from his body and steady rhythm of his breathing helped soothe you. He wrapped his arms around you again, keeping you close to his side as he savored the moment. 

 As the former silence settled, you focused slowly on Steve’s familiar quick heartbeat. One of his hands moved up to rub up and down your back. Almost as if he were coaxing you back to a peaceful sleep again. 

 "You know we really should get up," you murmured, though there was no real conviction in your voice. The comforting moment was too tempting to let go of so easily. “She’ll probably try to get us back by sending Dustin.”

 He chuckled, the sound vibrating through his chest a bit. “God, probably. He’ll never let us hear the end of it.” he agreed, pressing a soft kiss to the top of your head. “I’m sort of just..struggling to let you go right now.”

 “Me too.” you whispered, moving a hand up to gently comb through the curls that nestled over his pecs. He brought his other hand up to place over yours, holding it to press against him. From the look in his eyes, you could only see a glint of mischief as he looked down at you. 

 “Maybe we should stay..”

 “We’re supposed to be pausing things again.”

 “True.”

 It’s quiet again and it’s you this time who feels a spark of mischief come through you. “We do have four more minutes..”

 He hummed for a moment and you glanced up again to find that his eyes were closed. He had a small, content, smile on his face, nearly making you reach up to pinch at his cheek. “I know what we could do in four minutes..” he said in a very low, tempting purr. 

 “You are absolutely ridiculous.” you laughed as you tried to scoot out of his arms before you got caught up in his alluring notions. But he was quick, and held on tighter, turning his gaze back to you so he could press more kisses to your head.

 “I’m not hearing a no..” 

 “No!”

 “Make out instead?”

 “The night is over, we’re supposed to be just friends again, remember?”

 “Friends who occasionally make out?”

 You gave him a look, recalling the way you guys got together in the first place. But again, he’s looking at you in such a way, you can’t help but feel your lip turn upright, feeling that spark of desire built up in your stomach. 

 “..Fine. But now we only have three minutes.”

TEN MINUTES LATER

 “Hey Steve, Robin sent me up here to make sure you wer–OH GOD!”

 “DUDE, GET OUT!” 

 “GET OFF MY COUSIN!”

 “DUSTIN, GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!”

 “OH GOD, I’M GONNA THROW UP!”

A/N: So sorry the middle was so long. But!!! I hope you guys like this update. I had to kinda split it up. I just feel like I wanted to give them a chapter dedicated to just them. Sort of like in my season three chapters. They need one night to bone it out, talk feelings, and then have crazy shit to deal with the next day lol. 

Thanks for all the nice messages and I hope you guys enjoy it. If not, I’m sorry, another update will be hopefully soon.🩷

TAGGING LIST: @cluz1babe, @starofavolonea, @primroseluna, @siriuslysmoking , @bobo-bush, @summerellaz,  @hollandweather​ - Thank you guys for your patience! (also tried to tag some of you I feel are regulars and might want an update.🩷

[srgntjamesbuckybarnes]

The List (2)

Summary: When a hit list spreads around New York, Bucky’s ex-wife is the only one with any information.

Rating: Mature

Pairing: Mafia Bucky Barnes x Ex-Wife Reader

Warnings: Violence

Word Count: 2.8k

A/N: Not Beta’d. Thank you all for expressing interest in this one-shot and turning it into a mini-series. I wasn’t expecting this much excitement over mafia Bucky. I have read and appreciate each of your comments. I am happy to continue this fic as long as people are interested. (I have tagged anyone who left a comment. Please message me or leave a comment to be added or removed from the taglist.)

Series Masterlist

Previous Chapter

Chapter 2

Every minute spent in Tony’s office felt like hours. Unlike the rest of the building, his office lacked windows. The perfect place to conduct business or in this case, hide. Y/N wrapped her hands around her bare arms, her heels echoing against the marble floor as she paced back and forth. She was sure Bucky would keep her trapped here, safe. It was the logical thing to do.

Bucky’s suit jacket was slumped over the back of Tony’s chair. Discarded in his haste to prepare to fight. Tony had been rambling on about this being a bad idea, but Bucky drowned him out. Feeding his cufflinks into the pockets of his dress pants, he then rolled each black sleeve up his forearm.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Everyone in the room froze, eyeing one another. In one motion, Bucky reached behind him into the waistband of his pants pulling a gun on Tony. The billionaire leaped out of his seat with his hands raised in surrender. The chair clattered to the ground behind him. Without a word, Bucky tilted the tip of the gun towards the door in a silent command; open it.

Tony straightened his bow tie, slowly approaching the door. Bucky followed him, using his free hand to pull Y/N behind him. With Tony’s hand on the handle, Bucky and Y/N waited with their backs pressed against the wall. A slight nod from Bucky and Tony was opening the door.

Hinges creaked, the door shielding Tony from the other two. Bucky remained glued to the crack between the door and the wall. His finger twitched over the trigger of the gun, waiting for the pin to drop, for anything to go wrong.

“Peter? What the hell are you doing here kid?” Tony barked.

Before Peter could respond, Bucky slammed the door all the way open tucking his gun back into his pants.

Like a deer in headlights, Peter stared wide-eyed at both men. Behind him stood Steve and Sam, each with their eyes trained on the hall. Not wasting another second, Bucky grabbed the kid by the shoulder, dragging him into the room. Steve and Sam entered, shutting the door behind them.

“Mr. Stark, Mr. Barnes-” Peter stammered.

Bucky ran a hand down his face. Now was not the time for this. “The kid is with me,” Bucky offered, turning to his other men.

“Kid,” Tony eyed the gun dangling from Peter’s hand. “I’m disappointed in you. If you wanted to turn to a life of violence, I could have at least gotten you into a safer mob.” Feeling several intense glares on him. Tony cleared his throat brushing his palms down the front of his suit. “I didn’t want to be a part of this but I’ll help, for the kid’s sake.” Tony addressed Bucky. “He’s like a son to me.”

Bucky sent him a single nod. “How are we looking on the outside?”

“Perimeter is secure. We have men stationed at every exit. Few men a couple of miles out,” Sam answered, shifting a machine gun in his hands.

“How did you get that in here?” Y/N gawked from behind Bucky.

Sam smirked.

“We’re all on the list. Y/N and I are active but if any of you are caught, they won't hesitate to take you out earlier.” Bucky paced around the room, pulling his handgun out of his pants once again. “We don’t know how many people are coming for us, but nobody leaves until it's over. Only rule,” he smirked, “don’t die.” He came to a halt in front of Y/N, the handle of the gun extended toward her.

Y/N’s eyes widened. This is not what she had in mind when she asked Bucky for protection. “Absolutely not.” She pushed his hand away lightly. “I don’t know how-”

“To use a gun?” Bucky smirked. “I know you do doll. Don’t tell me now that you didn’t know what you were doing when you pulled a gun on me.” He shoved the gun into her chest. “Better to be caught with a gun than defenseless, even if you don’t use it.”

Y/N growled, her manicured nails wrapping around the gun. “I should have shot you.”

The corners of Bucky’s eyes wrinkled, amusement dancing in his cerulean eyes. “You should have.” Stepping up to Steve, Bucky was handed a much larger gun. “Sam, Steve. You two head West. Tony and Peter, you go East.” He didn’t need to tell Tony to look after Peter, he knew Tony would. Turning to Y/N Bucky announced, “Y/N, you’re with me. We’ll go North.”

“What? You mean I’m not going to be staying here where it’s safe?” Her voice grew higher with each word.

“I’m needed out there. I can’t keep my eyes on you here and out there. You’re safer with me.”

“Buck?” Steve questioned. It was a simple question. One Bucky was familiar with.

Bucky waved his hand over his shoulder. “Go. We're wasting time. We’ll be alright.”

The men filtered out of the room, the door clicking behind them. Bucky dropped his gun on Tony’s desk before stalking toward Y/N. He crouched down in front of her, his hands skimming the skirt of her dress.

“Bucky, what are you-” Rip. “Hey!”

Bucky ignored her, continuing to tear her dress just above her knee. In a matter of seconds, her gown had become a cocktail dress. Rip. The silk now had a slit running up her thigh. Y/N braced her hand without the gun on Bucky’s shoulder to steady herself in her heels.

“I really liked this dress,” Y/N whined.

Bucky grinned at her, “I really liked it too but a dress like this was designed to slow beautiful women like you down.” He tapped the outside of her heel. “These too. Lose ‘em.”

Y/N’s jaw dropped. “These shoes cost a small fortune and besides I’ll be barefoot if I take them off.”

Shaking his head, Bucky placed his palm on her stomach, shoving her back until she stumbled onto Tony’s desk. Y/N’s hand left his shoulder to grasp at the desk. In that small amount of time. Bucky had slipped the heels from her feet chucking them blindly behind him. He could see the irritation cross her face, a smart comment on the tip of her tongue.

Bucky stood up, his callous fingers curling around her knees. Any comment that was threatening to spill from her lips was caught in her throat. Bucky leaned forward, capturing her lips on his own. She had been lost in the kiss much like he had been earlier, chasing his lips when he pulled away. Bucky’s hand cradled the side of her face, keeping her at a distance.

“You asked me to protect you. This is life or death, Y/N.” His eyes darted between hers. “You step out of this room with me and you’re in my world. Not whatever game of house we were playing before. When we leave this room, you listen to me. You don’t argue with me, you do as you’re told. Understand?”

Y/N’s heart hammered in her chest as she stared back at Bucky. This was real. The severity of the situation crept back into the foreground of her mind. She wished the two of them could stay hidden in Tony’s office forever. In their brief moment alone, she had forgotten about the hit list, about the people coming to assassinate them, even her fiancé.

Y/N nodded but Bucky shook his head. “I need you to say it.”

Sucking in a deep breath, Y/N whispered, “I understand.” 

“Good girl,” Bucky muttered, his lips pressed to her forehead. “Let's go.” He pulled her left hand, yanking her off of the desk.

The light caught on Y/N’s ring making her hesitate. “Wait,” Y/N croaked, snatching her hand back. Bucky picked his machine gun up, eyeing his ex-wife as she slid the engagement ring from her finger, placing it on Tony’s desk.

“You sure?”

Y/N had to suppress a laugh at the question. One man was trying to kill her, the other trying to protect her. She liked her options better with the man trying to save her life. “Yeah,” she intertwined their fingers. “I’m sure.”

The couple walked out; guns raised. The faint sound of music and chatter could be heard the second Bucky opened the door. Innocent lives temporarily, living ignorantly in bliss. Inching along the hall with their backs against the wall, Bucky led the two straight into the lion’s den.

CRACK.

A stray bullet pierced one of the glass windows, lodging itself into the wall inches beside Bucky’s head. With a roar, Bucky shoved Y/N back behind the wall. Finger on the trigger, he sent a round in the direction the bullet came from, effectively shattering the glass. Bodies dropped like flies, seeking cover from the glass. It wasn’t until one of the guests pulled a gun, firing it in Bucky’s direction, that chaos erupted. A bullet from the west hit the guest before anyone could blink. Screams pierced the night sky at the sight of the dead body. Everyone began pushing and shoving one another in an attempt to escape.

With a hand on her shoulder, Bucky shoved Y/N into a crouched position. “Stay here. Don’t move.” He glared down at her, daring her to disobey him. While she had given him her word that she would listen to him, he knew better. He knew her better. She would do what she thought was best when it came down to it. When she didn’t move, Bucky cocked his gun. “I’ll be right back.”

Y/N watched Bucky’s back disappear into the stampede of people. Clutching the gun to her chest, Y/N prayed she wouldn’t have to use it. Bucky was involved in a lot of illegal activity but despite his sinful lifestyle, he remained a man of his word. If he said he would be right back, Y/N would believe him. Bucky would be right back.

As the crowd dispersed, it became easier to find Bucky. Y/N had caught his figure several times, averting her gaze every time he pulled the trigger of his gun. If it was becoming easier for her to spot Bucky, then surely others were able to spot him just as easily. He was a giant target standing in the middle of an empty room. Y/N’s fingers twitched around the cool metal in her hand. Two targets would be harder to follow.

Y/N braced a hand along the wall, pushing herself to stand as close as possible to it to remain hidden. That was as far as she got before Bucky was stomping back in her direction, shoving her back behind the wall. “No!” He snarled. He towered over her obstructing her view beyond the hall. Though she couldn’t see the chaos, she could still hear the guns firing along with the wail of sirens in the distance. The police were on their way. “When I said don’t move, I meant it Y/N,” he growled. He also meant it when he said she was safe with him. He had known the exact moment she moved. The sirens grew louder.

“Bucky, we have to go,” Y/N pleaded.

Click.

Bucky’s shoulders tensed. He didn’t need to turn around to know what that sound was. It was one he was familiar with and in another scenario, it would have been his gun making that noise.

“Don’t move,” a voice grumbled. Y/N’s eyes shifted behind Bucky landing on a man with his gun pointed at the back of Bucky’s head. Bucky watched as the color drained from her face. “Drop your gun.” Bucky kept his eyes trained on Y/N’s as he raised his hands. Just because he was about to die didn’t mean she had to. He promised to protect her and as a man of his word, he would do just that. Turning the safety on, Bucky bent over placing the gun gently on the floor by his feet. “Kick it away,” the voice grew louder. Bucky could feel the barrel of the gun nudge the back of his skull.

Y/N’s heart thrashed against her chest like a trapped wild animal. She could hear the metal scrape along the tile the second Bucky’s shoe kicked it. He was defenseless.

“Good. Now you, princess.”

Y/N snarled at the name, but the man just shoved the gun further into the back of Bucky’s head. Bucky grunted; his head shoved forward from the pressure. Y/N glanced at Bucky for help. He told her to listen to him, that he would protect her. She wanted nothing more than for him to tell her what to do right now, to tell her how to get them out of it. She would do it. Instead, she was greeted with his pleading eyes. He wanted her to comply. He’d be dead in seconds if she did that. Y/N bit her lip, shaking her head slightly. A silent apology for disobeying him.

“Drop the gun,” the man hissed.

With shaky hands, Y/N raised the gun aiming it at the man. She never shot a man before and she wasn’t planning on starting today. Bucky’s words danced around in her head, better to be caught with a gun than defenseless, even if you don’t use it.

Bucky’s eyebrows furrowed. “Doll, what are you doing?”

Y/N ignored him, keeping her focus on the man behind Bucky. The sirens grew louder. If she could keep the man in a standoff until the police arrived, they would live but they would all be arrested. Her ex-fiancé was still out there, they couldn’t be trapped. He would just hire someone to take them out from the inside.

The man grew impatient, wrapping his arm around Bucky’s neck and shouting for her to lower her weapon. Y/N hesitated hearing Bucky grunt once again. His eyes pleaded once more but for what, Y/N didn’t know. “Do it,” Bucky mouthed. His right arm crossed his chest shielding his vital organs. Y/N eyes widened in horror. There was no way he was asking her to shoot him, but his arm formed a target just by his shoulder. Her eyes traced his lips as he mouthed, I trust you.

The dual sirens blaring directly outside sealed their fate. The police and ambulance arrived. Medical assistance was just outside. She hadn’t planned on shooting a man, but plans were made to be scrapped. Pinching her eyes shut, Y/N pulled the trigger. She stumbled from the kickback of the gun, her ears ringing.

A hand gripped her shoulder, pulling the gun from her grasp. Y/N eyes snapped open, breathing a sigh of relief when steel blue eyes met her own. She did it, Bucky was alive. Her eyes floated to the hand pressed to his shoulder, crimson pooling between his fingers. Oh god.

“Y/N, are you with me?” Bucky questioned, waving the gun in front of her face.

Y/N glanced at the man on the ground behind him. A bullet wound in the middle of his chest. He was dead. She killed a man. Her hands began trembling. “Hey, look at me,” Bucky grunted, his bloodied hand cradling her head. Bucky crashed his lips against hers before nestling his forehead against her own. “You did good, Y/N. I need you to listen to me. Exit out the South wing. Find Steve and get the hell out of here.”

“What about you?” Y/N wrapped her hand around his wrist. “I’m not leaving without you.”

Bucky kissed her once again before pushing her in the opposite direction. “If I don’t go now, they'll just show up on my doorstep. I’ll be out soon, promise. Now go.”

“I’ll visit you.”

Bucky smirked. “I’m counting on it.”

When Y/N was gone, Bucky groaned, plunging to his knees. He used his shirt to wipe her fingerprints from the gun before chucking it. They weren’t out of the woods yet. Y/N’s ex-fiancé was still out there. Bucky still had a job to do, he still had to protect Y/N. At the sound of footsteps rushing toward him, Bucky clasped his hands behind his head.

Flickering lights blinded Y/N as she fled the building. It had been Steve who found her first. He had whistled from the bushes the second Y/N stepped foot out of the building. Y/N winced as twigs and rocks pierced her bare feet. The second she met the threshold of bushes, Steve pulled her down, hiding her from the police.

“Where’s Bucky?”

Y/N eyed the front door as men began hollering. Guns raised, pointing at a figure exiting the building in handcuffs. Bucky. “He turned himself in,” Y/N whispered, watching as Bucky was led over to the ambulance followed by a series of cameras tracking his every move. A hand on her shoulder startled her. It was just Tony. “Don’t worry. We’ll get him out.”

Y/N nodded facing Steve. “In the meantime, we need to find Loki before he finds Bucky.”

Next Chapter

Taglist:

@vicmc624 @winterslove1917 @unaxv @hangmanscoming @globetrotter28 @athenabarnes @shara-ne @mal-adaptive-dreams @jvanilly @d3m0n8ch1ld @ppbhquinn @alysianc @firstcashheroathlete @malum-forev @missvelvetsstuff @animegirlgeeky @blue786sworld @blackwood-bodecker-housewife @alessandraavengers @ozwriterchick @nerdgirljen @emily-roberts @pandabearrrrrrr @venting402 @barewithme02 @introverbatim @buckybarnessimpp @mega-kittyglitter-1 @a-poor-gryffindork @toriluvsfics @samahenoyrhye @motivation-idontknowher @pics-and-fanfics @po55um @devil1112 @keeperofsecrets6411 @natasha-died-4-our-sins @marvel-marauder16 @sugamilkteaxkookiesxcream @mcu21lover19 @imgaybutimstraight @buckysbarne @playboystark @sarge-and-caps-princess @eviltinkerbell14 @quethekillerqueen @barewithme02 @buuuuuuucky @reader-without-a-story

[georgeweasleyslostearhq]

HELP YOU

Pairings: Eddie Munson x Fem!reader Summary: finding Eddie in the shed and trying to comfort him after what happened Warnings: mention of Chrissy's death.

you searched around the shed, pointing your flashlight everywhere you looked, under the table stacked with beer, behind boxes, under the tarp, anywhere, in hopes to find Eddie.

"what are you doing?" you heard Dustin say across the shed, looking back, you frowned when you shined light on Steve poking the tarp in the boat with an oar, ignoring Dustin as he kept stabbing at the boat

"what are you doing?" the Henderson boy repeated, more hushed and confused at the older boy as he kept jabbing harshly

"he might be in here" Steve said with a slight shrug before moving, shuffling down the boat

"so take the tarp off!" Dustin replied

"if you're so brave you take the tarp off!" Steve fought, pausing his movements to look at Dustin briefly before going back

you shook your head at the boys before turning back to where you were looking

you haven't seen your poor boyfriend in what felt like forever and it scared you to know he was out there all alone, probably scared out of his mind. all you could think about since you heard is him, and how worried you are.

so when the boys started bickering again, you tuned them out and kept looking until you heard a few crashed, making you slightly jump and look back, seeing Eddie jump up from inside the boat and launch at Steve, pinning him up against the wall

you made eye contact with Robin and Max before rushing over, wincing at the sound of Dustin yelling out Eddie's name in protest

"EDDIE..STOP!" Dustin screamed, holding his hands out and pushing you all back so you didn't go closer and freak the poor Munson boy into stabbing Steve in the neck as he held a broken beer bottle to his throat

the look of your boyfriend trembling as he looked over made you want to cry, you'd never seen him so..vulnerable before

in all the 9 months you had dated, or the 8 years you've known him, you've never seen him like this, and it broke your heart to think he was scared of you all trying to hurt him or turn him in- or whatever he might of thought

you made eye contact with him but before you could give him a reassuring smile, he looked away, seeming to almost flinch when he saw you

"Eddie! it's me...It's Dustin" the young boy sighed "this is Steve, he's not going to hurt you..right Steve?"

Eddie looked back at Steve, his nostrils flared as Steve slightly nodded his head as he mumbled along

"Steve, how about you drop the oar?" you spoke up finally, wanting nothing more but to make Eddie feel..safer, in any way

Steve dropped the oar before Eddie pressed him harder against the wall, pressing the glass closer to his neck as Steve looked up, groaning

"Hey! he's cool!..he's cool!" Dustin held his hand out cautiously, Steve mumbling in agreement

"what are doing here?" Eddie asked through gritted teeth, almost coming out as a whimper

"we're looking for you, Eddie" you answered, finally finding the courage to speak

"we're here to help" Robin spoke up, stepping slightly forward to stand beside you

"Eddie, these are my Friends, you know Robin..from band" Dustin started

Robin imitated playing an instrument with her torch awkwardly while Dustin introduced Max

"the one who never wants to play D&D"

Max waved with a forced smile

"and you know..Y/n" Dustin pointed to you, but you only kept your eyes on the long haired boy as he looked at you again, the frown never leaving his face.

you opened your mouth to say something, anything, before the boy in front of you spoke again

"Eddie...we're on your side" Dustin pleaded "i swear on my mother! right, guys?"

the room filled with mumbles in agreement before falling silent, watching intently as Eddie stared at Steve, still unsure

a moment goes by before Eddie huffs and lets Steve go, turning away

you all let out a deep sigh in relief before you slowly stepped forward, stopping Dustin and nodded to him as a sign of saying 'let me'

you carefully walked closer to Eddie as he slowly slid down the wall, broken bottle still in his grasp as he looks forward, his bottom lip quivering

"Eddie.." you kneeled down in front of him as he avoided eye contact

"sweetheart.." you whispered as you reached up, wanting to comfort him in any way "we just want to talk"

just as you were just about to touch his hand, he flinches away

to see him shy away from you like that makes your heart ache, it made your stomach drop knowing he doesn't trust you enough to just comfort him in this situation, that he can't find your comfort and leads to shudder at the thought of you touching him.

it was an understatement to say that you cared for the boy- you loved him more than anything.. you would do anything for him, anything for him to understand you were there, by his side, to cherish him. there was no doubt in your mind that he didn't do it. all in all the years you've known him, since 7th grade, he hasn't had a single aggressive bone in his body, and it hurt to see that he didn't know you knew that.

"hey, it's alright. it's ok..." you murmured as you saw Robin approach in the corner of your eye

she kneeled down beside you before speaking up "we wanna know what happened"

Eddie sniffled before turning to the others, shaking his head "you won't believe me"

the room fell silent for a beat before Maz shrugged "try us"

"sweetheart..Eddie..you can trust us...you can trust me" you whispered to him

his eyes fluttered to you as his body began to calm down, the shaking slowing down

"take your time, Eds.." you cooed, trying to be as gentle as you could be with him

-⋆-

"I..I didn't know what to do, so I.." Eddie stuttered

you and the others have sat and heard his story for about 10 minutes now, being patient with him as he paused and took breaths, whimpered in fright, or stuttered to find the words

the others sat about a meter away but refused to Leave Eddie's side when he finally let you touch him, resting a soft hand rest on his knee before you took the broken bottle away from him

"I ran away" he finished, his eyes glassy as he stares at the ground "i left here there"

you gave his knee a gentle reassuring squeeze, making him glance down at you for a glimpse of a second before he shook his head and looked away, his body leaning away from your touch before he reached up and rubbing his forehead before scoffing

"you all think i'm crazy, right?"

over to the others, Dustin shook his head

"no, we don't think you're crazy at a-" the boy started before Eddie cut him off

"don't bullshit me man!, i know how this sounds!" Eddie replied harshly, letting his hand drop and hit his thigh

"we're not bullshitting you" Max butted in

"we believe you, Eds" you stated, slowly reaching up and touching his hand, his fingers slightly shaking as your skin touched his

as much as he was scared, deep down, your warm touch calmed in ever so slightly, it always soothed him, even when you guys were just friends, your touch had always calmed him down when he had a bad day. all he did to feel better was to have you hold him in away way, let him know you were there and he was going to be ok.

you held his hand carefully as you looked up at him from where you sat near his feet, his wide glossy eyes looking down at you

"look, what we're about to tell you might be a little...difficult to take" Dustin started

your boyfriend nodded, blinking his eyes "okay.." he muttered

"you know how people say Hawkins is...cursed?" Dustin asked rhetorically "they aren't...way off"

so the story began, Dustin telling Eddie about the upside down and all the monsters coming back

-⋆-

after a while, Eddie had eased up a bit, finding the feeling of support knowing you had all faced what he had before, although that didn't mean he wasn't scared out of his mind

so as the others decided to give the metalhead a little break from all the information, he sat still, looking down at you as you knelt between his legs, he was still shaken up, too cautious as you found out where he was ok with you touching him

"s-so..you've seen all this..shit before" he said- his breath hitching as his adams apple bobbled

"yeah.." you sighed, looking up at him as you held his hand "a few times.."

"why'd you never tell me?" he scrunched his nose, his eye twitching as you reached up to touch his hair, wanting to run your hands through it like you always did

"well it's nothing we can really openly share, Eds" you smiled sadly at him as you leant up, on your knees, your eye level now at his chest instead of his knee

"you have no idea how worried i've been, Eddie... and I know you're scared, I know you're still confused...but I'm here, ok? we're all here to help you, Sweetheart" you whispered to him as you stroked his cheek, him, surprisingly leaning in to your touch

"I'm sorry...I'm so sorry you had to go through this..but you're not alone, Eddie.. ok?" you placed your other hand on his knee as he nodded, looking down at you with a frown, his bottom lip still quivering

you took a moment, taking a deep breath before letting him go. not wanting to overstay your welcome when it came to touching him

"so...y-you don't hate me?" he stammered, his eyes closing and he licked his very dy lips

"oh Eddie...Sweetheart no..no god no, how could I ever hate you?" you leaned up again, softly cupping his cheeks, looking at him as he kept his eyes closed

when he didn't answer you, you carefully leaned closer and placed a light, feathery kiss to his cheek, pulling away when you heard a broken hum escape from his lips

"sorry" you mumbled

he let his eyes flutter open at look at you when you began to lean away from him but he reaching up and let his hand connect to your side ever so slightly, keeping you from moving away from him

"hey, it's ok..i'm right here, I'm not going" you shook your head, keeping still enough from you to let his hand subtly guide you in closer to his body

you watched as his jaw tightened and loosened in your grasp

"it this ok, eds?"

you smiled when you saw a slight nod in response

"I love you, Ed, please don't think i could ever not love you" you placed another light kiss to his forehead, feeling better when you heard the sigh he let out.

-----------------------------------------

[imyourbratzdoll]

𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒍 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒌𝒏𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕

this is part two of you aren't nat

summary - after everything that happened with bucky, you found comfort in steve, slowly falling for him as he becomes your knight in shining armour. when you finally become his, it's the best day of your life.

warning - angst, swearing, bucky is an asshole.

the gif I use isn't mine, the divider is by @firefly-graphics and @newlips

It had been a couple of weeks since everything happened with Bucky. Steve welcomed you with open arms, letting you know he was here whenever and you could stay in his room as long as you wanted. You took him up on that offer, not wanting to be alone, and he was the only one who seemed to stop the nightmares.

You were in the kitchen, waiting for your coffee to finish brewing. Your arms wrapped around yourself, feeling a shell of yourself when Steve’s not around, you feel safer and more loved when he’s close by. But he’s currently in a meeting. He rushed out in the morning, leaving an unexpected kiss on your forehead.

You felt your body tense when familiar footsteps entered the room. You didn’t dare turn around, and you could hear Bucky sneaking around as if he were the one unsafe. You jumped as the coffee machine beeped, indicating it was done, and you quickly made your coffee. When you turned to get out of the room, your eyes widened at how close he was to you.

You begin to shrink into yourself, “So… You fucking my best friend now?” You blink, shocked at the words that leave his lips. “Can’t say I’m surprised. You have always been super easy.” He smirks when he sees the tears, moving closer to you until you're backed against the counter. His arms trap you where you are as he leans close to your face. “I bet he wishes it was Natasha or maybe even Sharon. Do you really think anyone would want you as their first choice?”

You have a tight grip on your cup as you stare into the devil’s eyes. You feel relieved when a throat clears and your eyes meet Steve’s. He stands there, taking up most of the room with his giant stance, his arms crossed over his chest as his face is set into a stern glare. “Back away from Y/n, Bucky.”

Bucky looks back at him, a smirk on his face. “Why should I? It’s not like you like her, and she’s just your rebound because you can’t have who you really want.” He entirely turns to his once best friend, his back to you. “Go on, Stevie. Tell her the truth, c’mon. Doesn’t she deserve to know that you aren’t better than me?” His back straightens, shoulders squaring back as Steve stalks forward, a dark glint in his eyes. Bucky clenches and unclenches his vibranium hand, his brow rising. “You can’t take me, Steve. You’re weaker than I am.” 

Steve growls, closing the gap between the two of them. His hands grip the collar of Bucky’s shirt as he lifts him, causing you to duck away quickly, and he pushes Bucky into the area you just were. “You shut the fuck up. You’re not the man I grew up with, you ever speak to Y/n like that or me ever again, or I will make your life a living hell.” He blocks Bucky’s hand, somehow gaining more strength. “I mean it. Stay the fuck away from her, or I won’t be the only one you deal with.”

He drops him, and without warning. Swiftly lifts you whilst securing your cup and walking off to his room. You begin to relax into his hold slowly, feeling your mind start to fill with insecurities and wondering if maybe Bucky was right, perhaps you weren’t ever going to be anyone’s first choice, and you’ll have to get used to always being second.

“Don’t do that.” The sound of Steve’s voice snaps you out of your thoughts. You lift your head from his shoulder and look at him, and your brows furrow as you wonder what he means. “Don’t doubt yourself or me, don’t let Bucky’s words make you feel like someone won’t love you. Because it doesn’t matter what he thinks, you are my first choice. You are the most beautiful woman in the world, and I wouldn’t want any other woman when you are in my life.” Your eyes tear up as you stare into his eyes. All you see is adoration and the truth, your head resting back onto his shoulder as he continues his journey to his room.

Steve sets you down on his bed, wrapping the blanket around you before he places your coffee down. He crawls into the space next to you, holding you close to him as he grabs the remote and turns the tv on. “I’ve been practising how to use this new-age technology just for you.” You look up at him in awe, but he’s facing the tv, trying to find a movie for the two of you to watch. “Do you want to watch some horror?” Steve turns his head, his breath hitching as your eyes connect, his brows slightly furrowing as you stare at him. “What?” 

“I love you….” Your eyes widen as you realise the words that slipped out. Your hands come up to cover your face. “Oh, shit! I’m so sorry!” 

Steve felt as though his heart was going to give out. He had been dreaming of this day since the first day you joined the team. The moment his eyes met yours was when Steve felt his whole world come alive, but Steve didn’t want to cross being professional with you, and he couldn’t let it ruin his relationship with you. So Steve stayed away, kept everything professional with you, and watched you fall for his best friend. But you let him be your knight in shining armour, and then to hear you utter those three words he’s always dreamt of hearing. It felt like a dream come true.

Steve realised he must’ve taken too long to respond when you began to untangle yourself from the blankets. He quickly reaches out and pulls you back into him, and his arms wrap tightly around you as he buries his face into your neck. “I’ve been waiting so long for you to see me finally, and it feels like heaven now that you’ve noticed me.” He lifts his head, looking you deep into the eyes. “I have loved you since the moment I met you. If it’s not too much to ask… Will you let me take you out?”

For the first time in forever, you smiled a smile of happiness, lunging forward, and wrapping your arms around Steve, as you pressed your lips into his. Your lips move against one another before you slowly pull back and look into his bright blue eyes. “I’d love that.”

You and Steve had gone on many laughter-filled dates. On your first date, Steve had taken you out to dinner at a diner that resembled his time and then to an arcade where he won you many stuffed animals. On your second date, he had taken you to the movies, and afterwards, the two of you got ice cream. Your third date was probably the best date out of them all. He had planned a picnic in a flower-filled field, watching the sunset as the two of you talked about everything. That was the date when he asked you to be his.

The two of you sat in the lounge, cuddled up with each other as you watched a movie. Nat and Sam are doing the same on the other side, and Steve felt proud of you when Bucky walked into the room, and you didn’t tense. He kept his eyes on him, though, ready to jump at the chance if he tried to say anything to you. 

You snuggled into Steve, pressing your lips onto his neck, cheek and lips, feeling happy with how your life turned out. Not even commenting on Bucky's bruises, especially when Sam and Nat winked in your direction. 

You were in the arms of a man who adored you, sitting with your friends, watching a movie. The man who broke you couldn’t do that anymore because now he was the one who was broken.

You got everything, and he got nothing. A giggle escapes you as Steve smothers your face in kisses. “I love you, baby girl.”

“I love you too, Steve.”

thank you for reading!

feedback and reblogs are greatly appreciated.

taglist - @fanfictioniseverything @crystallizedth0t @haruvalentine4321 @queerqueenlynn @vicmc624 @elizabethmidnight2017 @missvelvetsstuff @redbloodedgurl @cjand10 @eclecticpatrolroadlawyer @iheartsebstan @smplymrvl @bradfordmyworld @sleepy27 @themorningsunshine @spookyparadisesheep @billyhargrovedemoness1987 @winters1917 @siriusjohnpotter @irishhappiness @ig-you-idiot @dexter99 @loveisallyouneed1125 @blackwood-bodecker-housewife @chemtrails-club @moonstruckbirdie - couldn't tag some of you.

[in1-nutshell]

This isn't really a request, it's more of an observation of sorts.  In later writing between Ophelia and Megatron he has largely taken the role of heartless crazy bastard who beats his daughter because he can.  But at the very least before he started taking space drugs, his abuse of Ophelia was actually rather complex.  Orion betrayed him and the more Ophelia was slowly turning more and more into him the worse it felt, scared that he was going to go through that same betrayal and breach of trust only with his own daughter this time.  He’s not only trying to prevent Ophelia from becoming another Orion, only for her to betray him, but he also seems to be taking out his frustrations with Optimus on her, probably without him even realizing it.  And then he takes space drugs, which turned him into the heartless abuser who beat his daughter for no real reason, or maybe with his unicron addled mind he was simply getting high off the adrenaline and violence of it all.  I could probably even make the argument that him preparing Ophelia to take over as the leader of the Decepticons originally was an act of love.  A parent wanting to leave something for his child.  In this case, a warship and an army ready to fight and die at her beck and call.  Power, something he was denied over and over again until he took it by force, he’s handing it to his daughter on a silver platter.  But that's largely speculation and an exploration into that kinda concept.  It's not exactly made clear if he wants to give Ophelia an empire, or if he wants to give Ophelia to the empire, as a means of making sure his life's work doesn't end with his death.  Which oddly enough, kinda worked.  Most of the Decepticons are more loyal to her than they are to Megatron.  Sidenote, Ophelia and Steve are slowly eating away at my brain

I.

Love.

This.

Analysis's!

You have hit each point with extreme precision!

True, before the space crack dark energon, Megatron did have a problem with Ophelia becoming more and more like the Orion he once knew. It hurt him more than he would like to admit it.

All those comments of Ophelia being Orion's sparkling were also starting to get to his helm. In a way he also felt unfit to be Ophelia's father, but it was overshadowed by Megatron telling himself that he was the perfect father for her.

He does see greater pieces of Orion the older Ophelia gets and he starts to loathe it, loathe her.

Unicron only further enhanced those loathing feelings while clouding his mind with things like 'Its for her own good' or 'To have her prepared for a brighter, safer future'.

He wanted to make sure that she had the power, the rights he was denied and a little bit more. Megatron took things to another level in the WRONG direction.

Ophelia won the loyalty of the crew by being herself and not by being the daughter of Megatron.

It was her, not him.

Bonus!

I will be writing more about Ophelia and Steve in the future don't you worry!

[highonmarvel]

Restless Heart [1] | Tricks

♩Steve Kemp

You thought you were dark, and you are, but the charming surgeon you’re becoming addicted to is testing the extents of your morality.

content warning: this is a dark fic, and this series explores taboo topics such as abuse and assault, abduction, deteriorating mental health and mental illness, graphic depictions of gore. Think of a trigger warning: it applies to my work.

addition content warnings here!

“I just don’t eat animals.”

People are generally vegetarian for two main reasons: health or ethics. Steve is a doctor, and evidently in very good shape, so maybe it was to do with that, but you guessed it was probably some moral reasoning. You nearly make a comment, want to ask, “So you don’t eat men?” but you manage to bite that back as you swallow down some chicken.

You nod, and he seems to anticipate your apology as he quickly assures you he doesn’t mind you. You had tried to be vegetarian once, when you were younger and so much more golden, and sweet, and never wanting to hurt a fly, but you abandoned that in less than two weeks, and grew out of that sunshine view. You aren’t super edgy or the “fuck everything” type, no, you just understand that a person can not be good 100 percent of the time, and you have grown to accept that. You know you aren’t holy, and that’s freeing, in a sense, makes you feel safer exploring darker thoughts, only on your own, though. It’s amazing to be at terms with oneself, it’s the ultimate peace.

“Hey, so, I was thinking…” Steve starts, setting down his fork, “If you’re up for it, we should go on, like, a trip or something.”

How long had you known him? Long enough to not think twice about hopping in his car. Or maybe it hadn’t been that long and he’s just the most addictive drug in the world. Steve is heroin personified—not even, actually, it’s so much stronger than that; the desire to be as close to him as physically possible is so overwhelming you have no idea how by any miracle you have managed to stay seated across from him at the table.

“What did you have in mind?” you try as a casual question, maybe a little playful, but even you can tell it’s not convincing. You’re not necessarily shy, maybe a little awkward, but not cowering at the thought of social interactions, but with Steve, there’s just something. Fuck, his defined jawline, smart sense of humour (despite a little awkward charm—in fact, that nerdy attractiveness may benefit him), and his high-inducing touches. He melts down your stubborn persona to a blushing schoolgirl with just a half smile. He knows, he has to, but he’s never mocked you for it. Is that something you would be into?

“A surprise, if you’re up for it.”

You’re up for anything.

The next evening, you’re at his home; it’s huge and gorgeous. You remember wondering if he had a wife and kids when you first started seeing him, but now a little more so—why would he have such a big home just for himself?

“You really don’t have a wife?” you ask, peering down one of the long corridors.

He laughs from another room, and you follow the comforting sound over to a sunken living area. He gestures to your glass on the end table of the couch opposite of him. You settle down and lift the glass to him before bringing it to your lips.

“I don’t,” he insists with a smile, taking a sip of his drink.

You don’t even remember what you asked for, but you drink it anyway, because it’s from Steve. It’s a little tangy, but not too strong, lingers on your tongue and coats your throat.

You hear your name called in a familiar voice. You lift your suddenly incredibly heavy head to look up at Steve; he has his left arm draped over the back of the couch, and his right forearm laying on his thigh, holding the glass seated on his knee.

“Why’re you sitting so far away?”

What a good question. You stand, and even though you attempt to do so slowly, you still rise way to fast, and the fancy wooden floor sways underneath you as you grip your head to stop it from falling forward. You take a step, and you’re out.

♡

You stir to consciousness but keep your eyes shut, turning over and pulling a thin blanket over your shoulder. But something doesn’t feel right. The light shining on you is too warm a colour, the sheet over you is as crisp as a hospital blanket, and it feels like you’re laying on the floor.

Your eyes rip open and you try to sit up with shaking arms providing little support. The wall opposite you is painted with blue and purple and yellow as a beach sunset despite the air of despair about the room.

Your attention is drawn at the sound of ice clinking against glass, finding Steve taking a sip of a drink, seated in a chair by a door.

“Steve?” you ask, trying to stay as calm as possible, “What’s happening?”

He lets out a breath, and says, “I’m gonna tell you but you’re gonna freak out.”

He looks down at you with a glint that could be slight boredom or amusement, and you struggle to properly read the situation.

You look down to your right, where a thick leather bracelet covers your skin, connected to a chain of silver looped through a hook in the ground.

“Take this off, please,” you ask between uneven breaths.

“I can’t do that.”

“Take. It. Off.”

“I. Can’t. Do that.”

He sets his glass down and stands up, causing you to immediately retreat into the corner.

“Don’t!” you shriek, kicking the sheets towards him in your attempt to cower, “Don’t touch me!”

“I’m standing right here,” he responds, holding his hands like he’s unarmed.

“Oh my God, oh my God,” you begin hyperventilating, your body tensing and chest restricting as he crouches before you, “… Are you going to rape me?”

He tilts his head in disappointment and drops his voice, “Why would you ask me something so ugly?”

“Oh my God, oh my God…” you begin again, over and over like a prayer to heaven as he tries to speak to you.

“I like you, and I’m not going to rape you. Listen to me, very carefully,” he says, calm but authoritative, but you continue with your panicked three words over and over again before he yells your name.

“There she is,” he gives a tight-lipped half-smile, like he’s trying to be comforting but doesn’t have the patience for it, “I’m gonna sell your meat, and your hair, and get a lot of money for it. I’m not gonna kill you… right away… because the fresher the meat, the better. I’m not gonna kill you… unless you act up.”

His words are hardly registering in your mind as your eyes dart around the room, looking for any escape points.

“It’s great here, and I’ll cook for you! I’m a great cook,” he steps back and gestures around him, turning to look at the mural on the wall, giving you time to prepare to stand, “And by the way, look at the sunset—”

You yell as your charge towards him, clawing at him with your left hand and trying desperately (and in vain) to pull your right free. He easily steps back from your attack and you swipe at air, leaping further to try to get to him but being tugged back by your restraint.

He manoeuvres himself around you and sweeps you off your feet by gripping your waist, either ignoring your thrashing or used to this response, expertly managing to lay you down as if he’s done it many times before.

His breathing is slightly heavier when he steps over you and makes his way to the door, but you can’t tell if that’s because he’s angry or if your tantrum took him a little more effort (still barely anything, though).

“Behave.”

He leaves you with that. The cage-like wooden door slides shut and an electronic noise from a keypad let’s you know it’s locked.

♡

There are two other women in the basement, Penny, and someone else, resigned to their fate, and you fear you’ll soon become like her, giving up once you’ve had enough taken from you. You can’t have been in the basement for more than a few days, only managing to keep track of time by the three meals Steve delivers you a day. At first you tried to lunge at him, but he didn’t even drop the bowl of cereal he brought down, promising he’d make you a better breakfast the next morning because he had something to take care of; you soon found out that something was the nameless woman whose cell was furthest from you seeing as she was taken away screaming and never returned.

You refused to eat the next meal he delivered, and he encouraged you for a bit but didn’t press too hard before leaving. When dinner rolled around, your temper had been building all day but you had tried to bite your tongue out of fear; you had learnt Steve was a man of his word, and even if you believed he liked you, you just as well believed he wouldn’t hesitate to kill you. Part of you was curious, however, as to how he had managed to keep this up for what you presumed to be years given his expertise without getting caught or even suspected, and the thought made you choke on a sob that you played off as a cough, remaining careful under his gaze. You had learnt Penny didn’t have many friends and family that she had become distant to, similar to yourself, and the thought of all the women who disappeared into thin air without so much as a news call made your stomach twist: you would be one of those women now.

When he set the tray down, you knocked the food aside and tried to scratch at his torso but his thick sweater kept you from it.

“You know,” he said as he sat crossed-legged on the floor only a little bit away from you after you had effectively tired yourself out with trying to get a single hit at him for what felt like an hour, “I knew you were batshit crazy pretty early on.” Your eyes snapped up to him as he casually admitted what you’d been trying so hard to hide for the few weeks you had been dating him. Admittedly, your erratic nature was something you’d eventually stopped trying to hide as you grew up finding the harder you tried, the more explosive you would become when the secret was inevitably revealed, but you really wanted to try keep some sanity about you, at least until you got to know him a little better and were secure in the knowledge it would be at least a little harder for him to leave you than it was in the early days.

��Like, bite-your-dick-off insane. It made me wonder how you’d react to this, if you’d be as violent as I see you are now, or maybe you’d see the appeal.”

“I’d mind it less if you were doing this to men, but you said you ‘don’t eat animals,’ so I guess that rules your kind out.”

He let out an amused exhale through his nose and bit his lip to keep himself from smiling too wide.

That had to have been a few days ago, though you can’t really be sure seeing as he had stopped bringing meals down for a bit after your tantrum, and you were left to scream out your frustrations on your own until you fell asleep. You didn’t hear him come down for Penny either and eventually the conversation between you two had fizzled out. You wanted to leave the mess to spite him but it started smelling rancid and you had to clean up the cell to stop yourself from vomiting even more than you already wanted to.

Finally, the basement door creaks open, and your heart starts beating fast, but you can’t tell if you’re excited to see him or dreading the reason he’s coming down. You’re prepared to swing at him again despite your many failed attempts, but you’re also so hungry you’re not willing to risk going without another meal.

“I need a shower,” you say the second he appears in the cell doorway.

“Hello to you too,” he responds dryly, but his demeanour is cooler than you want considering your emotions are running so high you feel you’ll die if you don’t lash out. Maybe it’s because you’ve missed a few doses of your medicine, but you swear you must have hallucinated his response as being positive when he leans down to unclasp your wrist and you flex your hand to get some feeling back into it.

You rise unsteadily to your feet, unsure if this is a dream or a test, but step out the cell when he motions you ahead of him. He closes the door and grips your bicep as he urges you forward, his hold not hard but firm enough to let you know he is still in control. You feel like a newborn deer and you walk down the corridor, seeing daylight for the first time and wobbly on your legs. Running is not an option, he’d catch you instantly and maybe kill you on the spot, but maybe you can distract him.

You turn suddenly and slash at his face with a roar, trying to claw his eye out. You manage to scratch his face and he’s startled enough to drop your arm in favour of cupping his injured cheek. Maybe the smarter thing to do would have been to run to the kitchen and grab a knife, snatch a lamp from the side table, a vase on the mantle, find a weapon of any kind, but in your fury you lunge at him, managing to jump onto his back and continue trying to rip his eyes out, screaming as your nails scrape against his forehead, but he catches your wrists to stop you. You wrap your legs around his waist repeatedly kicking your heel into his thigh as you try to land a kick at his crotch, but he suddenly falls backwards and you hit the ground with a cry as your back collides with the hard wooden floorboards. Pain shoots down your spine and you try to prop yourself up onto your forearms but are forced to fall backwards with a cry when what feels like white hot searing fire shoots across your nerves.

Steve stands with a foot on either side of your body, blocking the sunlight which you were just getting used to as he towers over you. Despite the few red marks across his face and a little blood running down some of them, he seems too calm for the situation, quickly able to regain a normal breathing pace after your attack. He leans down and grips your neck, pulling your face a little closer to his.

“Bad girl,” he whispers, the last thing you hear before your head is slammed into the floor and you blackout.

♡

Your limbs feel unnaturally heavy when you slowly stir to consciousness, struggling to open your eyes and feeling your lashes stick together every time you manage to part your lids just a little. The sound of ‘80’s pop music vaguely runs through your clouded mind, along with Steve’s humming. You recognise the song, Restless Heart, that you and Steve had danced to, and now he played the same special moment while you were… on his operating table? You groan as you finally manage to pry your eyes open, almost blinded by the bright white lights shining down on you.

“Steve…” you mumble, trying to shift a little from laying on your belly. You register a thin blanket covering only the upper half of your body and somehow manage to feel self conscious despite the horrifying implication of what he’s doing to you.

“What…” you want to ask ‘What are you doing?’ but you’re unable to get your tongue to move as it sticks to the roof of your dry mouth.

Steve seems to understand when he comes into your sightline and answers, “I’m taking your ass.”

It takes a moment for you to comprehend his words before you hear soft metal clattering, undoubtedly the sound of surgical tools as he moves around the room behind you, singing along with Peter Cetera to the song that was once a reminder of the happiest you’ve ever been, and now a macabre ballad to the worst moment of your life—at least thus far.

“No… no…” you mumble as your eyes well with tears.

“You broke my trust, honey. There’s got to be consequences. I wouldn’t quite say you did a number on me, but you certainly could have, and I can’t have that happening again, now, can I?”

“Steve, stop,” you manage to mutter, your throat dry.

“You see, I don’t mind you, I nearly admire the fight you put up when I come visit you, but it’s not so fun when you try to trick me when I’m doing something nice for you.”

Does he really think letting his captive have a shower is something nice?

“I’m not taking much,” he continues, and if you could think straight you would hate that this more talkative side of him comes out when he’s at his most evil. “You’ll be fine, and you’ll be lucky. And I’m a doctor, remember? But listen,” he sets his tools down and walks over to you, blocking the light as he lowers his voice, “If you ever try something like this again, you’ll lose a limb.”

You sobs slowly die out as you feel yourself slipping into unconsciousness again, the last words you hear being Steve yelling in time with the music, “Don’t leave me here with my restless heart!”

♡

When you wake up on the thin mattress back in hell, you sigh deeply as you consider how to even handle yourself. Now that the shock and anaesthesia has worn off, your back hurts more than ever, and not knowing the condition your ass is in, you wonder if you could use the toilet, even if you managed to pull yourself up. You feel frustrated and defeated, now knowing that when Steve comes around, you won’t even be able to try to assault him, futile as your attempt may be. Though you know your hotheaded decisions are more than unlikely to ever be successful, trying at least gave you some sort of power, or at least the illusion of it.

As you lay on your stomach, feeling your heartbeat through your ribs and against the floor, you can’t help but feel like you’ve a restless heart of your own. You want to kill Steve, you genuinely want to murder him, and painfully at that, you even want to torture him; you want to take one of his butcher knives and slash his dick off, shove it into his mouth and hack at his throat over and over again until his head lolls down the stairs. Or maybe you should repeatedly stab him, make sure he feels every tear until you land a dagger in his restless heart.

And… you almost like it. You almost like being able to get years of anger out and having a valid excuse as to why, you like the idea of being able to murder someone and it being justified. If you can survive this, you’ll have the chance to play out all your sick fantasies with the cover of self defence, you can finally unleash your darkest desires, on someone who deserves it.

♩

} next chapter: Painkiller

my beloved taglist: @cowboysnbugs, @buckys-wintersoldier, @cjand10

[catharrington]

Link to read on AO3

Steve’s inside a tiny pop up bar, hastily designed and constructed in a warehouse as if that made it more dangerous than anyother bar. They were becoming a thing in the 90’s he supposed, like oversized suit jackets or spiked-collars. And he liked them just fine. It was even deeper underground than most seedy gay clubs.

The people who drink here don’t mind that he's a hybrid.

They don’t mind his triangle-shaped ears atop his messy, brown hair, or the long fur-covered tail that relays every emotion he’s feeling out loud for the world to see. Even the bad ones.

Like right now— seeing a ghost from his past again out of the blue, just a few seats down the bar, has got his tail flicking against his stool legs. A ringing metallic flick-flick-flick.

Steve digs his claw into the bar top, leaving a deep crescent mark.

Since Steve’s seen him last, he’s doing well. He’s smiling and glowing and he’s put on a few healthy pounds. He looks like he could lift Steve up over his head if he wanted to.

The ice in Steve’s drink melts and breaks apart with a soft noise. Another man at the bar tries to flirt with him, a hot, whispered breath right into the sensitive fur of his ears, but… Steve makes no moves to actually listen.

Because Steve isn’t at the bar anymore. He’s sinking into golden quicksand— California beach scalding.

Steve doesn’t even realize he’s staring until his pretty ghost turns around.

“Harrington?” His breathy voice asks. Just as boyish and melodic as ever.

“Harrington,” he repeats in a hiss, “back to last names? Should I be insulted, Hargrove?”

“Sorry, Stevie.” Billy chuckles as he leans over the bar. Up close, Steve can see he’s got a strawberry blond beard defining his jawline.

“I’ve got to say, I’m surprised to see you in a place like this.” He sings.

Steve can’t say he disagrees. His lips quirk up. Playful, it’s in his nature. “I come to these all the time, Billy. I like the atmosphere. And the art. It’s very new-age-industrial.”

Billy watches him for a moment with curious eyes, scanning over his expression. And, like so many years ago, Billy’s sea foam green eyes can read Steve’s face line for line like a damn book: “Bullshit.”

“I’m here to try and get laid!” Steve gives up the ruse with a laugh. It makes Billy’s own laughter come out, just as pretty as the rest of him. Steve takes a long swig of his drink while he allows Billy to laugh at him. Then slowly licks the sour taste from his lips.

Can’t help but notice Billy’s eyes track that movement as well.

“Is that what you want to hear?” Steve pushes.

Billy shrugs. He swipes back a lock of hair that had fallen across his forehead. “Yeah, sure. I believe that before Steve Harrington: indie art scene groupie.”

Steve rolls his eyes at being called a groupie. It’s not the worst thing, by far. “Sort of unfair you asked me what I was doing here, when I should ask the same. I thought you were splitting town? Running away from your old man?”

Billy watches Steve, his eyes widening as their last conversation resurfaces. As it floats to the top of Steve’s crappy mixed drink as buoyant as an olive.

“Figured you’d be sunburnt in Santa Carla by now?” Steve asks.

He asks and really means it.

That daydream had helped him repair his broken heart, his bruised and bloody ego, his tail between his legs. He told himself it wasn’t really about him, it was Billy’s father who ran him out of town. It was Billy’s father who planted and watered all the anger. The fact Steve was a hybrid was just a convenient excuse. Low hanging fruit. Even if the words never left his mind.

Even if the words sat on the edge of his bed every night to remind him of his unwantedness.

Steve imagines it was worth it, in some way, to get Billy to a safer place. Yet, he’s turned up here. Only a day’s drive from Steve’s hometown. In a pretentious pop-up bar. Glowing, and radiant, and blushing.

Billy lifts one hand to scrub at his beard. He’s got an open beer bottle pinched between his fingers. Effortlessly calm and suave. He takes a long swig before answering.

“Funny thing about Santa Carla… it’s a long drive out there for nowhere to stay.”

Billy’s searching his face, his body, as if it holds the answers. His electric-blue eyes settled finally on his tail.

Steve’s got to turn and order another drink. His fur starts standing on end from all the wonderful attention, preening from it.

“So you gave up?” Steve asks, uncaring.

“Something like that. I got a job here, an apartment. It was temporary ‘till I got some money, but you know. I just. Never left.”

Billy swallows thickly next to him. Shuffling as he gets closer. His hand is right beside Steve’s own as it lays on the bar.

Billy’s got ink all up and down his arms, on his chest and neck. He’s even got pretty things on the back of his hand. A red rose with brilliant green leaves curling over the edges of his palm.

Steve’s own hand itches to touch. To feel the tattoo’s raised scars, and Billy’s hot pulse under them. He wants to trace each one as if he were playing with lines of sunlight across the carpet on a sunny afternoon.

Steve reaches for his new drink, instead. He shivers as he drinks it down.

“Chicago’s not like Hawkins, then, huh? Where you just had to get out, just had to run—or, what?” Steve can taste the hatred in his own words. Stuck in his throat like a hair ball.

He was simply ‘Harrington’ to him across the bar now, only that. Billy’s hands were red, alright, but it wasn’t from his fucking tattoo. It was from Steve’s heart still beating inside of them.

“Steve,” Billy insists, “you know why I had to—.”

“I know.” Steve’s voice shakes with a whimper. His tail finally stops and curls closer to his feet, hiding away.

Steve blinks his swelling eyes down to Billy’s neck. The ink there is pretty too. Under the collar of the soft band t-shirt Billy’s wearing, Steve can see the wings of a flying sparrow.

“It was nice to see you again, Billy.”

Steve stands from the bar, finishing his drink before dropping a bill in one swift move, expecting to run away. He’s expecting to leave, to try and forget. Again. Just like last time.

But he doesn’t expect the hand that reaches for his elbow.

He doesn’t mean to shake the hand and keep walking. He’s on autopilot, he thinks. Blackout.

Feeling injured and lonely, Steve’s ears flatten to the top of his head and his tail hides between his legs. It had started raining while he was in the bar. The sidewalks are darker now, louder, from the onslaught.

And that’s just fine. The raindrops are fat and slow and they remind him of himself. He gasps for breath in the rain, and gets a mouthful.

“Oh, great, I’m drunk.” He mutters to himself.

Steve closes his eyes though a wave of nausea, stumbling further into the night, and when he opens them it’s like opening them up to a dream.

Blond curls turning dark in the rain, flattening to lay around Billy’s face in a pretty frame. His skin, pink and flushed from the cold, illuminates the freckles on his face like stars in the sky.

“Trying to make us even?” Billy yells over the rainfall.

Steve eyes him wary at first, hesitant he’s real at all.

“Making us even would be me calling you a freak!” He hissed.

Billy’s face falls. “Suppose so,” he calls. “You have every right to.”

Then he opens his arms. Holding them out as if waiting for a hug. Or a bullet. His shirts totally lost in the rain, turning the well loved gray to a solid black color that clings to Billy’s every curve. His abdomen is very welcoming, cozy, Steve wishes it could be his to run into.

He wished he could be the bullet. That he could hit Billy’s chest right there. Right there. In the same place his wound still bleeds.

But Steve was drunk. And cold. And wet. And his tail and ears hung so very heavy on his body.

He stayed quiet, watching blissfully as Billy got wetter and wetter. Until he wasn’t angry anymore.

“I was so mad at you for so long.” Forcing the words one by one, Steve’s voice trembles.

He closes his eyes and lets his silly, love-sick heart surge up into his throat.

“After us, I’ve spent my whole life trying to find someone that fits just like you, but… you’re different, Billy. You made me feel safe. Content. Warm.”

Billy scoffs, his hands dropping to his sides with a wet slap. “Bullshit.”

“Is it?” Steve meows a laugh.

Billy’s face creases in disgust, in confusion. Water falls from his long lashes as he blinks them rapidly.

“Cool it, kitty. I’m not some damn PRINCE CHARMING! I break everything I touch!” He yells over the rain. Over the base of the music they could still hear from the bar. Billy’s louder than any of that.

“Then why don’t you try fixing me!” Steve yells back. He’s desperate and mostly drunk as he steps closer.

And suddenly, Steve notices how Billy still radiates heat. The years of time between them tick down to nothingness. Steve shakes his head, pointed ears flicking water, his eyes a mix of tears and rain, and Billy opens his mouth like he’s about to ruin it.

But then, Steve’s pawing at that strawberry blond beard growth that wasn’t there years ago. And he pulls Billy’s head down with a light gasp that gets captured by Steve’s eager lips.

It’s a sad excuse for a kiss, it’s messy and it tastes like chilled beer. But Billy’s lips are hot, familiar, it makes Steve let out a whimpering, shameful moan.

Steve’s hands grip Billy’s shirt. Now he’s the one holding on— now he’s the one chasing. His claws rip the fabric with the want he has for Billy to stay so terribly bad.

“I never meant to hurt you.” Billy admits in a whisper.

He reaches down to cradle Steve’s arms. Slowly lifting the claws from his chest. Steve would let him do whatever he pleased, he’s already a trained house cat for Billy.

Their fingers laced together, as if pieces slotting back into place. With their hands like this, it brings back happy memories. On Steve’s teenage bed, in the early hours of the mornings before the world around them woke up. When Steve’s tail would wrap euphorically around Billy’s legs. When his ears were flattened by the force of his happy purring.

Then, Billy’s moving. Pulling him through the rain until Billy leads them to, truly, a tiny and shitty apartment. The red brick building was painted but beginning to flake off. Billy held his hand as they took the steps, and into the hallway, before begrudgingly letting go to fish his keys.

He turns over his shoulder to watch Steve. Key in the door. Steve is shivering, hugging his skinny frame, his sopping sweater. He doesn’t know what Billy could be looking at, but he smiles.

Billy opens the door and leads Steve inside. They settle in their underpants with towels around their heads on the couch. Their shoes and outer-clothes drip drying by the radiator.

Steve feels so content and warm he doesn’t even realize he’s purring.

“Woah, I really, really missed that.” Billy drawls. His hand finally reaches Steve’s tail, gently petting the tussled fur as if he spent years longing for this exact moment.

Steve can’t help but to kiss him again.

((My entry into the @harringrovezine Kings of Nowhere. I loved making Harringrove older and slightly down on their luck and lonely, so when I heard the prompt I jumped at making some sappy reunion scene. Of course I’ve got to make this pretty kitty Steven go through it a little bit before he becomes the King of Billy’s shitty apartment. And his whole life, I’m sure 😽😽. Thank you so much for letting me write on this amazing zine, make sure to check them out for other fic and art. Harringrove always and forever!!!))

[aceing-is-writing]

rating: T

cw: non detailed panic attack

tags: preslash, cuddling

prompt: Love is feeling safe (@novacorpsrecruit)

God no. No no no no no, Eddie needed it to stop. He wasn't there anymore and he knew that. He knew that, he knew that, so this was so stupid of him, but he couldn't stop himself.

He couldn't stop himself from skidding back and bashing his skull against the wall either when he saw something appear in front of him.

"Hey, hey, it's alright," he heard through the panic.

Eddie didn't know who the voice belonged to yet but one thing he did know is that it was safe.

Suddenly Steve had an armful of nervous shaking metalhead. He tried not to, but when Eddie collided with his still healing wounds on his chest he hissed. Eddie started to skid backward again and so Steve did the only thing he could think of.

He held on.

"Hey, hey, no Eddie, it's ok," he repeated, "I'm ok Eds."

Slowly Eddie untensed as the nonsensical sounds continued to wash over him. Before he knew it he had fallen forward with his head resting in the crook of Steve's neck.

Steve continued to murmur out his reassurances as he felt Eddie loosen up fully, until eventually he felt Eddie's breath tickling his neck at an even rate. Controlling the shiver trying to make it's way down his spine Steve slowly reached a hand upwards, hoping to keep the frightened metalhead calm. Taking a risk he put his hand on top of surprisingly soft curls.

Eddie sighed and burrowed farther into Steve's neck. Smiling in response Steve started slowly scratching Eddie's head through his curls while telling him about the latest shenanigans the kids they somehow had shared custody over had gotten into.

Eventually Eddie became aware of a hand playing with his hair the way he hadn't had since his mom had up and left. Unsure whether he wanted to give into the soothing motion it provided or pay attention to the soothing voice that was still speaking he hummed in contentment.

Steve paused waiting to see if he would continue but Eddie was content as he was and so he merely continued farther into his story of trying to shove three bikes in his car with three overgrown at this point teenagers.

An unknowable amount of time later Eddie started to pick up key words from the voice. Henderson was mentioned several times and Eddie smiled rubbing his nose into the neck he was ducked into. As he did so he picked up the leathery scent of the hair products Steve always used.

Feeling Eddie tense Steve stopped his tale and glanced down as far as he could to try and read his friend.

"Eds?" he tried, "You back with me?"

"….Steve?"

"The one and only big boy," Steve replied hoping to get a laugh out of throwing Eddie's commonly used phrase for Steve back at himself.

Not receiving one in reply Steve waited for Eddie to untense or pull away but when neither happened he chose to take a risk and started up with scratching at Eddie's hair again.

Eddie's eyes widened for a second before he huffed in amusement.

"You know you could've left me man," he mumbled into Steve's neck. Steve merely laughed in reply.

"I know."

For a minute Eddie thought that was all he was going to get before Steve opened his mouth once more.

"But I mean," he continued, "I don't mind. You know, sometimes…"

Steve peetered out and clenched his hand in Eddie's hair for a second.

Humming inquisitively Eddie tapped his hand twice against Steve's side where he'd had his hand clenched in the shirt.

"Come on big boy," he said, "don't hold out on me now."

Unclenching his hair Steve huffed in amusement but continued.

"Sometimes it makes me feel safer to be able to do something. You were," he paused before choosing to continue, "there was so much blood by the time we got to you Eddie. At least if I'm doing something you're not…"

He removed his hand from Eddie's hair to gesture nonsensically hoping Eddie would get the point.

"Ok Steve," Eddie said in reply.

Surrendering the rest of his weight he flopped fully down on Steve making him stumble backwards and ended with them both laying on the ground.

"But I hope you know if you get me used to this treatment I feel like we have to swap nicknames at this point. It's required, sorry, the reign of King Steve is over."

Laughing fully Steve moved his hand from Eddie's arms to wrap both his arms fully around his back.

"It was an overrated title anyways," he chuckled.

Eddie finally removed his face from where he had it hidden in Steve's neck and pushed up to stare down at Steve, causing Steve to move his arms from around his back lower down to his waist. This of course meant that Eddie blushed and started the process of trying to untangle his limbs from Steve's.

"Your safety is my highest concern," Steve continued smirking when he finally caught Eddie's eyes, "my liege."

Eddie's eyes widened and he blushed harder as he continued trying to remove his arms from where they held himself up. Fumbling he only ended up falling once again, this time smack on Steve's chest.

Steve laughed once again and rolled them over so he was leaning over top of Eddie instead.

"My king," he said poking Eddie's side. Covering his face fully now Eddie tried to slap Steve's hand away ineffectually.

"My most honorable."

"Steve-"

"My most kingly of kings."

"Steve man, you gotta-"

"My most courageous of-"

"Steve!" Eddie said as he slapped both hands on Steve's face. "You've gotta stop saying my man."

"But you are mine," Steve replied. Eddie opened his mouth several times before finally managing to make it work.

"Uh, what?"

"You're my friend. At least," he said looking concerned at what he was saying finally, "I mean, that whole talk in the woods, I thought we'd become, you know-"

Eddie scruffed up Steve's hair cutting him off.

"Yeah, yeah, you're mine too Harrington."

Steve smiled back down at Eddie and Eddie knew he was fucked. Groaning he let his hand flop back down onto his face.

"Can you let me up now that we've declared our everlasting bond of friendship like weirdos?"

"Whatever you'd like my king," Steve fired off one last time before getting off of Eddie to let him up.

God, so fucked.

-----------------

I will probably continue and flesh this one out more as well eventually in a larger fic with several other scenes but for now I'm just posting this scene.

@steddielovemonth I'm sorry this is coming so late in the day

[corrodedseraphine]

perfectly wrong | #5 you are not alone

pairing: steve harrington x fem!reader

chapter summary: Although you are annoyed by Steve's attitude, you feel safer with him than in your own home. Unexpectedly, a concerned Robin appears, which makes you decide to reveal the truth.

TW: mentions of: pregnancy, domestic violence, bruises, blood (let me know if I forgot about something!)

The story is also avaliable on ao3

previous chapter | masterlist | steve harrington masterlist | general masterlist

What can I say... It's been a while. I am sorry and thank you for still being here and reading this chapter.

The Harrington residence was huge and filled with luxury, but this could not mask the feeling of cold and emptiness you faced as soon as you entered. You didn't have much time to look around though, Steve immediately led you to one of the guest bedrooms saying that from now on this was your room.

"Here are your clothes for change." he said looking into the dresser. "Robin left her things here because she often stays overnight, I think she won't mind if you borrow something for tonight. Tomorrow we'll go and get your stuff."

"How do you imagine that Steve? I'm just going to walk in there, pack up and leave?"

"Exactly like that." he replied dryly.

"What if he won't let me?"

"We'll go when he's not home."

"It's not that simple…" his attitude irritated you.

"Of course it's simple. We go in, get our stuff and leave. Just like that." saying this he snapped his fingers.

"Steve-"

"I swear if I hear my name pronounced like that again I'll go crazy!" He didn't let you finish. "You can always go back there, but expect Hopper to be at your door later tonight.

"This is called blackmail!"

"I don't care!"

"You can't just make me stay here!"

"Watch me!" he looked you straight in the eyes. Aside from the irritation on his face, you could see something else. Something the sight of which was extremely rare and confusing. Worry.

After a moment of angry silence, he spoke up in a softer tone. "Are you hungry?"

"No." You answered.

"That's where the bathroom is, and you also know where the kitchen is. I'm going to sleep, and you do what you want." he said quickly and left closing the door.

With that, you were left alone in the big bedroom. Resigned, you walked over to the bed, and slowly sat on it, holding your stomach.

When did it all become so complicated?

There were many conflicting emotions in you, on the one hand, just a few days ago you were sure that getting rid of the baby would be the best decision, but now, when you almost lost it, you felt that you had to do everything to protect it. That's why deep down you felt grateful, for Steve's attitude. Here you were safe. Despite the fact that you considered each other enemies by his side you felt safer than in your own home.

Slowly, you felt your emotions leaving you and being replaced by fatigue. Wanting to take advantage of the comfort offered to you, you simply laid down wanting to fall asleep, hoping that at least in your dreams you will be able to feel calm for a while.

It's been more than a dozen hours since Steve left you alone in your room. He knew you needed a rest, which is why he didn't even knock on the door to check if you were okay, since he guessed you were probably asleep. That didn't change the fact that he still felt anxious and worried. The darkest scenarios came to his mind.

What if you lost consciousness? What if the bleeding occurs again and this time it's too late?

Every now and then he passed by the room listening, but all he was met with was deafening silence. Finally, unable to stand it, he quickly prepared some sandwiches, put them on a tray, and next to them the medicines they prescribed at the hospital. Using that as an excuse, he knocked on the door.

"y/n? can I come in?" he asked.

"Yeah." he heard from behind the door. Your sleepy voice was a relief to him.

When he opened the door, the sight of you in the big bed in his house made him feel a strange sting in his chest. However, it was not the sting of hatred that very often accompanied him when he saw you. This time it was something that made him feel…emotional.

"I brought you something to eat and medicine. Don't forget to drink water, it's important." He said and put the tray next to you on the bed.

"Thank you." you replied quietly.

"How are you feeling?" he asked. "Do you need anything?"

"How long did I sleep?" you asked.

"Several hours."

"Oh my God…"

"What?"

"I didn't go to work! Robin is going to kill me!" you abruptly jumped out of bed.

"Hey!" he grabbed your hand and stopped you before you reached the door. "Are you crazy? You're supposed to rest not work! Robin can handle it, I'm sure she's already come up with at least five excuses on how to cover for you from the manager."

"But-"

"No. No buts or what ifs, go back to bed and eat." he said before you had time to say anything.

"Who are you to tell me what to do?" you asked feeling irritated.

"Are you really going to argue now?" he crossed his arms over his chest without taking his eyes off you.

"I need money, Steve. To have money I have to work! Is that so hard to understand?"

Before he answered anything he looked at his watch and then at you. "It doesn't matter anymore anyway." he said.

"What?" you asked confused.

"Look behind you." He pointed to the clock on the wall. "Your shift ended fifteen minutes ago."

"Damn it!" you cursed and resignedly sat back down on the bed.

"Listen, if you don't want to do it for yourself… do it for the baby. Eat the sandwiches and take your medicine, in the living room I've put some clothes for you, and towels if you want to take a shower." He said and walked out of the room leaving the door open.

Only now did you realize how hungry you were. Looking at the food you once again felt like refusing his help and telling him that he could go to hell, that you could manage on your own. Unfortunately, deep in your heart you knew this would be a lie. With difficulty you had to admit that you were grateful for his care and help.

Pushing your stubbornness aside, you began to eat. Although they were simple ham and tomato sandwiches, they tasted incredibly good. You couldn't remember when was the last time someone prepared something for you to eat.

Just as you were finishing eating, a loud knock sounded at the door in the house, and a second later someone opened it and walked in.

"Steve!" shouted Robin. "Steve, this is important!"

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"It's about y/n." you could hear nervousness in her voice.

Hearing your name, you walked closer to the door so that you could hear everything. Your first thought was that she came here to start complaining that you didn't show up for work and didn't even let her know. She had a right to be mad at you.

"She didn't come to work today."

"So?" Steve tried to pretend to be unconcerned about the situation.

"She didn't even let it be known that she wasn't coming!"

"So what?"

"Listen, I know you don't like her, but I'm really worried and I have no idea what to do about it. She's been behaving really weird lately. She's late for work, she locks herself in the bathroom during breaks, I've had a feeling for a long time that something was wrong, but today I got confirmation."

You felt your heart go up to the hail with every word she said. You really tried to hide everything from her, unfortunately it was Robin. Robin who will catch every detail and nothing can be hidden from her.

"Can you finally say what happened?"

"Travis came looking for her. He was drunk started a brawl and threatened that if he found her she would regret not being home when he returned. Fortunately, Mr. Munson was there and helped me get rid of him before he forcibly got into the back room. I'm telling you Steve, this man is unpredictable, what if he hurts her one day? What if he is already hurting her! What if all those bruises on her body are his fault?"

"Robin…"

"That's not all! Before we got rid of him he said something about the baby. About how she won't be able to raise a child on her own…"

"Ah, fuck."

"You think it's true, you think y/n is pregnant?"

Your heart was beating like crazy, almost drowning out the words that were coming from the other room. Each successive sentence from Robin sounded like a hammer blow, shattering your hopes of keeping everything a secret. You felt a cold shiver run down your back, and your hands began to tremble.

You had to face the truth. You couldn't expect Steve to lie to Robin and take responsibility for your secret. It was time to face the reality you had tried to ignore for so long.

Taking a deep breath you went into the living room holding your hand on your stomach, which very quickly turned into a fist clenching on your shirt. At the sight of you, Robin stood up as if she had been stunned, but Steve looked even more shocked by your appearance there. You opened your mouth to say anything however the only sound that came out of you was a pathetic whine. A second later you were already in your friend's arms crying like a baby.

"Oh my God, y/n, it will be all right. You are not alone."

All you could do was start crying even harder. There was a storm of emotions inside you, sadness, fear but also relief that the truth had come out.

Watching from the sidelines, Steve himself felt like he was about to cry. No matter how unpleasant the relationship between the two of you was, your situation and the sight of you in such a state was crushing his heart. He also tried to ignore the thought, somewhere in the back of his mind, that he wished he were in Robin's place right now. He would also like you to trust him enough to accept his presence and support in these hard times.

"Are you okay? Did he hurt you?" she asked when you had calmed down a bit.

"We need to talk," you said heading toward the couch.

Robin sat next to you, holding your hand while you slowly told everything that had happened. Steve sat across from you, uncertainly looking at both of you. Although his face was full of worry, you sensed something more in his gaze - something that suggested he understood you better now than ever before. However, every time your eyes met, you quickly looked away.

"Why didn't you tell me? We could have done something about it, found help." she said quietly. Her eyes became glassy with tears.

"I was so scared, Robin, I still am, I am so sorry."

"It's okay." she said and hugged you. "You're safe now. You will stay here with Steven and me. I still think you need to let Hopper know as soon as possible, but it's your decision…Remember that no matter what, I'm here for you."

"I can't stay here."

"You can and you will stay." interjected Steve. "That's not up for discussion."

"Steve-"

"Y/n, no." interrupted Robin. "You know very well that you're safer here. It wouldn't even occur to Travis to look for you here."

"Finally someone agrees with me!"

"I swear to God, Harrington, not now!" Robin roared. "Where are your house keys?" she turned to you in a softer tone.

"I don't have… we didn't lock the door."

"Shit."

"We're both free tomorrow, we'll go get your stuff. We'll wait until he's not home."

"I can't just run away from home!"

"Why not?"

"He'll be looking for me, he'll come to work, he won't give us any peace knowing that you're protecting me."

"I'm not afraid of him, I've fought worse monsters than him."

"Robin…"

"Can you please trust us?"

You could have trusted both of them with your life. Even Steve, who treated you as an enemy saved it more than once. You knew that the only harm he could do to you was in the verbal way. Although he was often hard and harsh on you, over the past few days he had shown that he was able and willing to help you, willing to protect you. Why, you had no idea however, you slowly felt tired of rejecting him over and over again. Robin, as always, was your rock, ready to stand up to anyone who might hurt you.

"Can you please trust us?" Robin repeated, her voice was soft but firm.

You remembered all the moments when Steve saved you, when, against all his faults, he stood by your side. You remembered Robin, always loyal, always ready to make sacrifices.

"I trust you. Both of you." you sighed.

"You are not alone." she whispered in response.

When Robin left, leaving you with a sense of relief, you decided to get some fresh air and go out into the garden. The sun was slowly going down towards the horizon, coloring the sky with shades of orange and pink. You sat down on a wooden bench, and Steve took the seat next to you, somewhat uncertainly. For a while you were both silent, immersed in the silence and beauty of the sunset. Finally, he broke the silence.

"I'm glad you told Robin the truth," he began, looking ahead. "You can't imagine how hard it would have been for me to lie to her."

You looked at him sideways, seeing the sincerity in his eyes. Did he really want to lie to her to protect you? "I know, I'm sorry I put you in this situation. It is all so…complicated."

He sighed, combing his hand through his hair. "You don't have to apologize. I understand why you didn't want to tell anyone. But now that Robin knows…it might be a little easier. We're in this together."

"Thank you."

"Just to make things clear… I don't hate you, okay? Let's start over, the more I think about it the more I get the feeling that all this hate between us was somehow one big misunderstanding, I don't even remember why it was all like that."

When you heard his proposal, you felt surprised. You did not expect such a turn of events, but at the same time you felt that this could be a chance for a new beginning. "Let's have a fresh start. It may not be easy, but I think we both need it." He added and extended his hand toward you, as if to seal your new agreement. After a moment of hesitation you took his hand, feeling the warmth and strength in his embrace.

When you got home you immediately went to bed. You felt your heart beating faster at the thought of what the future would bring. Your situation was complicated, and living life with Travis had left deep wounds in you. You didn't know if you would ever be able to completely free yourself from them.

Steve, on the other hand, the last thing he thought about before falling asleep was that he was glad that for the first time in a long time he wasn't falling asleep alone in that big house.

taglist: @i-me-mine @phantypurple @tlclick73 @sheisjoeschateau @hollandweather @lma1986 @scarletwitchwhore @freezaz123 @ihatepeanutss @joekeerysmoles

[aloneinthehellfire]

Chapter Ten: Part One: The Lab

Gates Of Hell Masterlist

Word Count: 7921

Warnings: swearing, mentions of death, blood/gore, horror

[A/N: I went a little crazy, threw in a buttload of angst, and then proceeded to eat 3 packs of oreos so... we're in for a wild one. I also haven't proofread this properly so it could be the single worst piece of writing you've ever read. Enjoy :)]

Part One: The Lab

“Ow! My arm doesn’t bend that way, idiot!”

“Sorry, your highness, but there’s not much I can do when you’re caught in metal wire.”

“I actually hate you both.”

When you finally manage to snag your arm free, you send a glare to the boy hiding a laugh and take your shotgun from him.

The ride to the lab had been quick, immediately finding a safe place to park and scope out the area. It was pure chance you had managed to notice the tear in the surrounding fence, a quick and quiet entry.

Robin steps through next, holding her arms to her chest like she would lose them, and meeting you on the other side. She blinks, relaxing her shoulders.

“Wow, that wasn’t nearly as hard as you made it look.” She chuckles and you purse your lips in irritation.

“Can we just get into this lab?” You say, looking back at the white building in the distance. There was still a stretch of field ahead, no guarantee that it would be monster-free.

“We keep our weapons ready, stay alert, take it easy.” Steve comments, suddenly appearing next to you.

Noticing the closed distance, you shuffle away from him and look to Robin, ignoring the frown on his face.

“You good?” You ask your friend, her eyes wide as she slowly nods.

“Oh, yeah.” She sighs, looking defeated. “I am perfectly fine with crossing an open space to a lab with some kind of interdimensional gate that these apocalypse monsters are crawling out of. What could go wrong?”

“Just stay close.” You sympathise with a hand on her shoulder.

Steve took lead while you covered behind, leaving Robin safer in the middle. She was weapon-less, and you all needed to make it through this.

The occasional distant sound of a snap echoed across the grass and the walk across the field barely lasted six seconds before Robin shakes her head in refusal.

“Okay, someone’s gotta talk to me or I’m gonna freak out.” Robin gasps, jumping at another sound of a snapped twig.

“About what?” Steve frowns, eyes darting around the clearing with his bat wielded for battle.

“Anything.” She pleads, finally looking to you. “Y/n?”

“Uh… sure, Robs, just ask a question or something.” You say, not really paying much attention. You’d rather keep your sight on the space behind you all, ensuring there were no blind spots for a surprise arrival.

“Okay.” She sighs, taking deep breaths. “Um, what, uh… oh, how was detention?”

You almost laugh, shaking your head. “It was detention, Robs, not a vacation.”

“I know but the last time I saw you, you were heading there and then, like, half an hour later the world blew up.” Robin reminds you as she bites her lip.

“Well,” You continue, knowing that if you stop, she’ll only panic more. “It was okay. Holloway was being his usual self, I was trying to get work done. Harrington decided to crash the party.”

“You were a delightful host as always.” Steve comments and you scoff.

You roll your eyes, glancing over your shoulder every now and then to make sure you didn’t accidentally step on Robin’s heel.

“Were you there when everything started?” She asks and you almost freeze, breath hitching.

“Yeah… yeah, we were.” You swallow that fear.

“What happened?”

You were silent, a little too silent. Steve usually revelled in making you agitated and uncomfortable, but he had that churning feeling in his gut when he saw the startled look on your face.

“Look, Robin, it wasn’t really something we wanna talk about.” He tries but you clear your throat.

“No, no, it’s fine.” You say, gripping the shotgun tighter. “We were in the classroom when we, uh, heard something. Outside. Holloway…”

“Wait here, please. I’ll be back as soon as I find out what’s going on.” He announces, collecting his keys and leaving the room, the door clicking shut behind him.

“Holloway went to investigate.” You gulp, already regretting this decision. “He, uh, he was gone for a while. There was a scream and I… I thought it was just some other kids being assholes, you know? So I left to find him and…”

“And?” Robin prompts, but you’ve slowed your steps.

He’s snarling as he claws at your jumper, pulling you down to the ground with him. In haste you try and push him off of you, but this man was a lot bigger than you, wrapping his hands around your throat and smashing your head into the cold ground.

Struggling against his weight, he rears his head closer to you.

“Stop!” You try, his tightening grip on your neck releasing the word as a strained whisper.

Steve glances back to see you’ve stopped completely, gently holding out his hand before Robin crashed into him. She turns, wide eyed.

“Y/n?” She moves closer.

“He attacked me.” You say quietly, hearing your friend’s breath hitch in her throat. “He… was different. His mouth just… opened. And he was strong. A lot stronger than me. I thought he was gonna kill me. He was going to kill me.”

Steve finds his fist curling at his side, eyes wide as you finally tell the full story.

“What happened?” Robin questions with a whisper, almost like she was too scared to know the truth.

“I stopped him.” You sigh, turning to see they were both looking at you with mournful eyes. “I killed him, okay? I grabbed a fire extinguisher, and I swung it as hard as I could into his head.”

Steve felt sick. You had both been through so much since detention that it had barely crossed his mind.

His feet rounded the corner so quickly he almost slipped on the slick floor. He glanced down, heart racing until it burned his throat with bile. Blood.

‘I’m too late.’ he thought, dodging a body laying against the wall. It wasn’t you, the build all too different to have him second guess.

He hadn’t connected the dots, barely even glanced at the body, the face. In fact, Steve hadn’t thought about what happened to Mr Holloway at all until just now. And he made himself sick realising that maybe you were right. Maybe he only ever focused on himself.

“Y/n-” Robin reaches out.

“It’s fine.” You interrupt, shrugging. “It’s the freaking apocalypse, right? All sorts of messed up shit is gonna happen. I killed Holloway. And I killed Steve’s neighbour.”

You laugh awkwardly, Robin’s features growing in concern.

“But they were… mutants. Part Demogorgon.”

“Part what?” Robin blinks and Steve tunes back into reality, looking at her.

“It’s a DnD thing.” He replies and Robin raises an eyebrow.

“Yeah, I know that, dingus, but why the hell are we saying part Demogorgon?” She stresses, looking back to you. “Is there a real-life Demogorgon?”

“How do you know this nerd stuff?” Steve questions.

“I happen to like some of that nerd stuff.” She challenges with squinted eyes and he simply raises his hands in surrender.

“We’ll explain everything to you later, okay?” You say, giving her a gentle nudge to keep moving. “Let’s just get in the lab, find Hopper, and we’ll deal with it all then.”

“Yeah, the lab.” She repeats, looking up at the building. “Uh… how does one get into the lab?”

“Isn’t there a front door?” Steve asks.

“No, Harrington, it’s a building without-” You say immediately before biting your tongue. “Uh… yeah, I assume there is.”

Steve narrows his eyes with pointed curiosity. That was weird. “Uh-huh.”

Another twig snaps and Robin jumps yet again. You bite your lip, trying not to roll your eyes.

“Robs, stop, it’s literally just a-” You say, flailing your arm out in the direction of the sound before focusing, your stomach dropping.

Robin watches your face fall and gulps. “Um… by any chance is that terrified look on your face because you are secretly scared of butterflies and there’s a butterfly behind us?”

Steve frowns, slowly craning his neck and his eyes widen. His whole body felt stiff.

“Are you by any chance also afraid of our beautiful little insect friends?” Robin’s voice squeaks, lowered to a whisper.

“I think you know the answer.” You finally breathe, locking eyes with something even your imagination couldn’t possibly think of.

It was big in build, charred black like it had caught fire. It had round and bulbous eyes, just staring at you with dangerous heat. None of its bones looked as if they were in the right place, a twitching in its bald head as something like black tar trickled from its mouth.

Its veins protruded around its eyes, a black space filling the void beneath eyelids. It was looking at you. It looked like it was… grinning.

“Y/n.” Steve hisses, growing more and more uncomfortable the longer that thing stared at you. “Y/n, we’re gonna run.”

“Run where?” Robin asks with a small voice, “We don’t even know where the front door is.”

“It’s gotta be on the other side.” Steve states, trying not to move. “Last year, there was a giant gate out front that led there. And I’m pretty sure we’re behind the building right now, just trust me.”

“Trust you?” Robin says as if it was unimaginable. “I don’t even know-”

“Trust him, Robs.” You plea, not taking your eyes off of the creature, its smile growing wider by the second. “Do whatever he says, and don’t look back.”

“We’re all gonna run on the count of three, okay?” Steve whispers, eyes darting to the corner of his eye to locate the quickest path around the lab.

“Okay.” Robin agrees, looking towards you when you don’t answer. “Y/n?”

Every part of your body felt like it was alight with anxiety, a tremble in your arms as you stare back at this beast. Running was the only option. But as you look at it, something churns in your stomach.

It should have attacked you by now, immediately when it saw you. But it wasn’t moving, just grinning. It was obviously waiting for you to make the first move which, truthfully, was the scariest part of all.

It liked the chase. Which meant realistically, none of you would out-run it.

Or, as you realise, one of you.

“On the count of three.” You breathe out, biting the inside of your cheek. The plan in your head was merely unfinished. Maybe it was for the best, better not expect the ending when you know it won’t be a happy one.

Steve frowns, hearing the strain in your voice. Something was off. But he needed to get into that lab.

“One.” Steve starts, shifting his body as slowly as he could.

“Two.” Robin squeaks out, licking her lips.

You take a moment to reconsider, trying to sense if there was another option. But as it smiled at you with those dead, endless eyes, you were out of time.

“Three.” You finally gasp out and you push your arm out to get Robin going.

Steve watches you shift towards them and pulls Robin along gently, letting his legs take over his body. His heart felt like it was pounding out of his chest, hearing Robin’s ragged breaths of panic behind him. But she was keeping up, thankfully.

He was gripping the bat until his knuckles turned white, praying that your shotgun wasn’t weighing you down, that you would all out-run it.

It wasn’t until he reached the corner of the building that he realised he only heard one set of footsteps behind him and a chill ran up his spine.

He spins around just as Robin catches up, bat held out ready. You weren’t behind them. And neither was the creature.

Steve turns his head to see your retreating figure, shotgun grasped tightly in your hands as you sprint to the other side of the building.

“Shit.” He curses. It wanted you, and you took that opportunity to set them free.

“What do we do?” Robin cries, seeing the thing hot on your tail.

“We meet them at the other side.” Steve nods quickly, grabbing her arm and tugging her along. He didn’t want to be brutal with his handling, but he had to make sure there were no delays.

He felt sick, running around this giant building with no idea if you would be there or not. And it stabbed at his chest even more knowing that he had no control. Your life wasn’t in his hands, not determined by how fast he was running. It was up to you.

When he locates the edge, he’s practically stumbling around the corner, his heart dropping when you’re not there waiting.

“Wha-” Robin’s panted breaths start just as something rounds the other side.

They both feel that relief wash over them when you run into the open, very much alive.

And then you’re on the floor before their eyes could even decipher what was happening.

The heavy weight of something tackling you down had knocked the air out of your lungs, sending the gun flying from your hands. It tries to pull you back, grabbing onto the backpack for leverage. You’re quick, retracting your arms from the straps and it falls away from you as you try to stand.

But just as quickly as you’re free, it grabs hold of your leg, pulling you back down and you barely catch yourself. It’s trying to drag you back and you’re reaching for the shotgun laying in front of you, your fingers clawing against the grass, the green now a startling black.

You could feel its hand wrapping around your right ankle, sharp nails digging in and you cry out. It had cut through the bandages you had forgotten about, making you relive that aching pain as it shot up your leg.

A loud shot rings out and the grip loosens, allowing you to pull your leg away and scramble back.

Steve cocks the shotgun again, watching as it continues to stand even as its back bled out. It was unnatural, turning to face him with a blood-curdling smile. This time, the shells pierce directly through its head, sending it backwards onto the blackened grass. He stares at it for a moment, the grinning face now a pile of mush in the dirt. It definitely wasn’t getting back up, but it didn’t make Steve any less afraid.

“Holy shit.” Robin gasps out, running towards you. “Y/n, your leg, are you-”

“I’m fine.” You say, quickly tugging your jean leg back down. Its nails hadn’t drawn blood, only leaving a dull ache against the wound you already had. “Barely a scratch.”

“What is wrong with you?”

You stand up and turn to see Steve holding your shotgun in his left hand, dangling at his side. His lips were tight, a look in his eye you hadn’t seen before.

“What?” You frown and his eyes widen.

“What is wrong with you?!” He repeats, louder this time. Robin blinks, holding out her hands.

“Okay, let’s-”

“You didn’t stick to the plan!” He continues, ignoring Robin’s attempts at peace.

“You said we run, so I ran!” You point out and he lets out an unintelligible groan.

“Guys-”

“No. No, you had to make it all about yourself and go in the opposite direction.” He huffs, dropping the shotgun in front of him, the contact with the weapon too much for him to handle right now.

“Wha-” You scoff, shaking your head. “I led that thing away from you, so, you’re welcome!”

“We would have been fine!”

“No, we wouldn’t have!” You yell back and Robin places her hands on her head, slowly turning in a circle as she looked around the path you found yourselves on. “Didn’t you see the way it was looking at me?! If I hadn’t taken the long way ‘round, it would have caught up and killed all of us!”

“How did you know that?” He points, chest rising heavily.

“I-” You bite your lip, brows furrowed. “I didn’t, I just had to take the chance.”

“Exactly.” He breaths, looking at you in concern. “You didn’t know. You never know.”

You shake your head.

“That day in detention.” Steve starts, taking a step forward. “You heard a scream and you ran to it, not knowing. I found you being dragged across the floor by a demodog!”

“Demo-dog?” Robin questions with a scrunched face, still circling.

Steve chooses to ignore her, eyes focused on you. “You were gonna head to the cabin with just a knife, not knowing. And- and you blew up a freaking car! Not knowing if that was gonna work. And now, just now, you thought ‘hey, this thing looks like it wants to kill me so I’m sure running away from the only person that could help me is the right decision’, huh?! Why?! Why do you do that?!”

“Why do you care?!” You’re almost screaming at him now, fists clenched at your sides so tight, your nails began to cut crescent shapes beneath their fury.

“Because I can’t go through this apocalypse with someone who clearly has a death wish!”

“Well, congratulations, you’ve made it to the lab, you don’t have to put up with me anymore!”

“Fine!”

“Fine!”

You both give one last shout, before turning away from eachother, arms folded. There was a stinging in your eyes, a hot rage that was about to bring tears any second. You didn’t need that, especially knowing that Steve would probably do the right thing and apologise. You didn’t want his pity.

“Okay.” Robin sighs, turning back to you both with her hands placed on her hips. “How are we feeling? Feeling good, like we just got it all out of our systems, yeah?”

Neither of you answer, avoiding eyes.

“Great, now that we’re finally being quiet,” Robin steps forward, nodding to the building. “The front door glass has been smashed so getting in is gonna be easy, and I took the time to actually take in our surroundings and if you look to your left, you will find a Hawkins Police car that I assume our beloved chief drives.”

You both immediately turn to your left and see that there was, in fact, a Chevrolet parked by the gate, the police station logo stamped along the side. You had to admit, seeing it there lifted a weight off your chest.

“So let’s untwist our panties and get in there.” Robin waves her hand, arm extended to the door. “Andale!”

Without another word, you fasten the straps of your backpack and swipe the shotgun from the ground at Steve’s feet, never acknowledging him. You’re already leading the way by the time Steve recollects his bat, taking a moment to compose himself.

He wouldn’t have been so angry if he didn’t care so much.

The crunch of glass was deafening as you all stepped into the lab, your shotgun raised and ready. It felt too quiet.

“You think they’re in here?” Robin looks to you and you hold your breath, hoping some remnants of a voice would pull you to them.

“The car was out front, right?” You suggest, walking forward. You were taking the lead, much to Steve’s silent objection, peering in the small windows of each door you passed. Everything was empty.

“And we’re sure they’re uh…” She couldn’t finish and you chose not to answer, just leading them forward.

When you reach the end of the hallway, you realise you’re faced with two options. You either go left. Or you go right.

Closing your eyes, you take a breath and turn around, locating Steve’s hazel eyes in the dimmed light.

“Do you know where this gate is?” You ask and when he realises you’re talking to him, he clears his throat.

“I’ve never been in here before. Just a few of the others.”

“Right.” You sigh, biting your lip. “So… left?”

“Yeah.” Steve nods, “Yeah, sounds good.”

“Aw.” Robin comments, smiling sarcastically. “We’re like a happy family.”

“You got me detention.” You deadpan and her smile drops.

“You know how sensitive I get about that, I said I’m sorry.” She complained as you smirked, steering her left and heading down yet another corridor.

It was eerie, how quiet it was. Only the soft echo of your footsteps, the occasional breath of relief when something wasn’t lurking around the corner. It looked empty, abandoned. But Hopper’s car was right outside. They had to be here.

“Guys.” Robin calls out and you both turn to see her peering through another door. “I see some screens in there. Maybe cameras?”

Steve looked hopeful, nodding and trying the door. It wasn’t locked, but something was jammed behind it. He hands the bat over to Robin – she held it like it was a bomb about to go off – and tries to force open the door, ramming his shoulder into the wooden blockade.

One last push, and the door eventually slides open, still feeling heavy. He steps inside, doing a very quick scan of the area, before holding his arm out and allowing you and Robin to duck under before the door closed.

Robin was right. The room was small, holding a computer with multiple screens attached like a security system. It looked like a map of the lab, some cameras still working.

You each glance between them, trying to spot some friendly faces in this desolate building.

Steve thought he saw something moving, a mere blur. But then again, the camera feed was already looking busted, fuzzy images were bound to occur.

“Where are they?” You mutter, eyes flickering between the screens. You had never felt so anxious in your life. It was like your body was fighting against wanting to find them and praying they weren’t here. Because if they were… you’d have to face what you did. And you weren’t sure you were going to be forgiven.

“Wait, there.” Robin sounds, pointing to the top right corner. You all whip your heads up, eyes widening. Someone was in the lab with you.

“Do we… know them?” Steve squints. His eyesight had been poor lately but he had refused to get them checked. Glasses just felt like another burden.

“I can’t tell.” You sigh, staring at the shape.

They were walking down a hallway, holding what you assumed to be a shotgun. They didn’t seem particularly tall but then again you weren’t sure how tall the walls were meant to be.

“Turn around.” You whisper like they would hear you, begging to see a face you knew.

“It’s a girl.” Robin comments and you raise an eyebrow. “What? Look at the movement. That’s a girl.”

You look back at the screen and you had to agree with Robin. There was something more feminine about their posture. And you could just make out the ponytail concealed in the shadow of the camera feed.

“Wait.” You lean forward, getting a closer look. Just in time for your mysterious friend to turn around, and your eyes widen.

“You know who it is?” Steve asks, peering over your shoulder with a frown.

“Um.” You nod, leaning back and looking up at him. “They’re definitely here.”

Steve tries to get a look at the screen, but the figure is gone. “Who was it?”

You simply give a strange smile, almost one that looked painful, and he pulls a face.

“Don’t do that, it’s creepy.”

“It’s Nancy.” You finally say, noticing Robin’s confusion. “Nancy Wheeler.”

“Yeah, I know who Nancy is.” She says, still frowning. “But why is she here?”

“Oh.” You realise, noticing Steve’s expression. It was like all of his emotions were hitting him at once, unsure of how he should be feeling. “Long story short, these guys have known about the freaky stuff for like, two years? Don’t ask me though, I wasn’t cool enough to be apart of it.”

Your last comment flew right over Steve’s head as he straightens, collecting his bat from Robin’s hands and clearing his throat. It was fine. He was cool. Everything was… chill. It was just that he hadn’t seen Nancy since their break-up. And even seeing her on a tired tape of camera feed was enough to have him feeling hurt all over again, reliving that same nightmare where he knew Nancy had chosen Jonathan long before she ever admitted it. But other than that… he was fine. Totally.

“Did you have a stroke?” Your voice snaps him back into reality and he grimaces.

“No. Let’s go. Now we know they’re here.” He says, turning back around before abruptly stopping, staring down at the floor.

“Oh god.” Robin covers her mouth and you step forward, brows furrowed.

“Now we know why the door was so hard to open.” You comment, staring at a dead body.

The chest had been ripped into, covering the lab coat in blood. It looked like they had bled out, escaping whatever had attacked in the first place.

“Let’s find them and get out of here.” Steve finally breaks the deafening silence, gently grabbing Robin’s shoulder and leading her out o the room.

You stare for a moment longer. It didn’t look like an old wound, maybe a day or so. That wasn’t the part that was captivating you, however. It was the man’s face. The skin had been cut around the nose and mouth in the same way you had seen so many times before, the people turned monsters. He had already been one of those things when something killed him. Which meant…

“Y/n.” Steve pats your arm and you adjust the shotgun in your hands, nodding.

One problem at a time.

“So because Nancy is here, we are just assuming the rest of them are also?” Robin inquires. You were used to her voicing her questions, not necessarily because she wanted to know or wasn’t aware of the answer. She had just seen a dead body. This was her way of protecting herself.

Steve hums a response, nodding. “We always stick together.”

“They’re the real happy family.” You say, a little more venom on your tongue than you intended and he sends you a look.

“Can we just… call out to her?” Robin peers around a corner, sighing relief when something wasn’t staring back.

“She looked like she was getting ready to shoot something.” You recall, remembering her stance, the way the gun had moved in her hands. “We can’t risk being any louder than this.”

“Y/n’s right.” Steve agrees and you raise your eyebrows. “I know. Even I’m surprised you can make good decisions sometimes.”

“On second thought, we shout out and let it chase Steve.” You narrow your eyes at him and he feigns fear.

“Oh no.” He mocks, rolling his eyes.

“You two just solidify the fact that I am never having kids.” Robin comments as you pass through another set of double doors, carefully slipping through. “Are we even sure we’re going the right way? This place is huge.”

“I’m just following the door numbers, I think Nancy was by-”

Your thought process derailed and you come to a complete stop, staring down the hallway.

“Y/n?” Robin frowns, following your gaze. “Did you see something?”

It’s a long stretch of hallway, lights illuminating the path down to a single door at the end. Just like in your dream.

Except the walls weren’t smeared with blood, and there was no beast banging against the wood.

“Y/n.”

Steve’s hand rests against your shoulder and you take a breath, looking up at him. He searches your eyes for some kind of answer. You must look petrified.

“Sorry.” You shake your head. “Must’ve had some weird wave of deja vu.”

“You’re sure you’re good?” Robin asks and before you can reassure her, she’s pressing her hand against your forehead, pouting.

“What are you doing?” Steve looks on in amusement, his own hand now resting back at his side.

“I don’t really know.” She shrugs and Steve almost laughs at the confused look on your face. “I see people do it in movies.”

“I’m not sick, Robin.” You bat her hand away, eye catching on the reflecting light of her charm, tightening your throat. “I think we took a wrong turn, we needed the other double doors.”

“You sure?” Steve raises a brow, taking a few steps down the hallway. Your heart reacts before your brain.

“Stop!” You yell before covering your mouth, eyes wide.

Steve freezes, turning around to look at you. “What the hell?”

“Sorry.” Your voice is muffled against your hand.

Robin’s lips are thin, a nervous expression staining her features as she takes in the silence.

“Do you thinking something heard us?” She asks with a whisper and you squeeze your eyes shut.

Of course you had to shout after telling everyone to be quiet. Of course it had to be you to break the one and only rule, yet again. The nightmare was just a nightmare. Every lab probably looks like this one. You’re being dramatic and paranoid and you’re only putting your friends in danger.

And judging by the looks on their faces, they agreed.

“Let’s find the others before something finds us.” Steve’s voice is low and you can’t even argue. You can barely apologise. He walks back the way he came, striding straight past you and peering out behind the double doors.

“Come on.” He orders, stepping around and holding it open. He barely glances at you as you walk past and you can feel some wave of embarrassment rush to your cheeks.

But even so, you felt calmer already. Like avoiding that door had settled the uncertainty in your stomach.

“Are you feeling okay?” Robin asks, hushed voice close to your ear as Steve leads ahead, checking the corners.

“I’m fine.” You nod with a tight smile. “Really. I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me.”

“Guys, we need to be quiet.” Steve hisses with a glance over his shoulder and Robin raises an eyebrow.

“Somebody’s grumpy.” She comments, trying to make light of the situation. She really hated it when people fought.

“Only because somebody can’t follow a simple rule.” He mutters under his breath. But the walls in this lab were acoustic, and it bounced right off his tongue and into your ear.

The regret already seeps in as he hears your footsteps falter, turning around with a silent curse to see your glaring eyes.

“I said I was sorry.” You say with gritted teeth. Not like you were angry, no. A different kind of upset.

His shoulders drop with defeat, the bat hanging down from his hand. “We just… we need to be more careful.”

“I know that.” You say, biting your lip as you try and relax. Your eyes catch the doors beside him, looking like another security room just before the corner turns. Maybe it would be useful to track Nancy with again.

“We can’t-” Steve takes in a breath, studying you. There was something you weren’t telling him. And usually he would be fine; you can have secrets. But not when it was risking everything. “Is something… something going on? That you’re not telling us?”

“What? No. No, I’m fine.”

Robin looks at you with suspicion, tilting her head. “Something happened back there, Y/n. You looked terrified.”

You observe the way her features furrow, a concern woven into her eyes. It was the same look Steve bore, one that tore into your soul as you struggled with the truth of it. They would think you were crazy, tell you it was just some dream and you’re being dramatic. Just like you feared.

“It’s been hell.” You finally sigh, a quiet laugh slipping from your mouth. “I’m just on edge and… and I didn’t really sleep last night so I guess I’m getting kind of delirious. But I’m fine.”

At least for now, you weren’t lying. Just omitting the truth. That had to count, right?

“So no more shouting randomly and making your best friend crap her pants?” Robin questions and you smile, nodding.

“You’re lying.” Steve frowns and your breath hitches.

The apocalypse may not have been long physically, but it felt like he has gotten to know you better than this. The way you constantly repeated ‘fine’ like it was a chant you were trying to convince yourself, the vague descriptions that held no meaning, even the way you bit your lip when you felt uncomfortable. He knows you now better than he had before. Something wasn’t adding up.

“Steve, we need to keep moving.” You warn, like you were giving him a second chance to reconsider his next actions. You were right. He never wanted to stay in the same place for very long, especially not in this nightmare asylum. But he had to know.

“What are you hiding?” He asks and your expression falters. He takes a step forward, noticing his casted shadow disappearing from the next hallway as he steps away from it. “You don’t have to pretend like you’re fine. You know something and we need to-”

Whatever convincing remark was going to leave his lips had been taken away with his breath as he feels something hard strike his back, knocking him down.

You push Robin behind you as you raise your shotgun, immediately moving towards Steve and aiming at the figure stood behind him, a cricket bat in their hands.

They looked human, nose and mouth covered by a mask while the eyes are hidden beneath wild hair. You couldn’t risk it. They attacked Steve. You weren’t even sure if they were human anymore.

You’re about to pull the trigger when you hear Robin’s squeak behind you, pausing.

“Put the shotgun down or I shoot.”

It wasn’t Robin’s voice. And you didn’t have to turn around to understand that threat. With a frown, you slowly place the shotgun at your feet, close to where Steve was trying to push himself to his feet. He catches your eye as you stand back up, and you prayed he understood.

“Now who the hell-”

Steve grabs the gun and spins around, pointing it directly at the masked attacker and you almost smile. You hadn’t expected that to work.

“You put down your gun, and we’ll-” You turn to face whoever had Robin in their grips and feel the breath leave your body. “Nancy?”

Steve almost dropped the shotgun, raising an eyebrow as he risked a glance. Yep. Yep, it was Nancy.

Her hair was pulled back into a short ponytail, some marks across her face that he could assume were dirt. She had a pistol in her hand, pointed at Robin’s head. Her mascara coated eyes widen in disbelief as she flickers between you and Steve, stuttering her words.

“How- what… what the hell are you guys doing here?” She gawks and you stare at her gun.

“I’m not answering that until you stop pointing a gun at my best friend’s head.” You comment and she steps away, letting Robin walk over to you after sending a glare over her shoulder.

“Nice to meet you, too.” She mumbles, nodding when you brush her shoulder.

“Nancy.” Steve says like was testing if she was really there or not. She gives an awkward smile and Steve blinks. “Uh…”

Steve turns back to the eyes currently glaring at him from the barrel of the shotgun and he frowns in confusion.

“Who the hell is this?”

The mask is pulled down with a tug and Steve lowers the shotgun, rolling his eyes.

“Oh, you.”

“Hi.” Jonathan nods and you raise your eyebrows at the tension between them, sharing a look with Robin.

“Where’s Hopper?” You get straight to the point, studying them both as they look surprised yet again. “I assume you came here with him.”

“Yeah.” Nancy answers, Jonathan nodding with her. “Yeah, he picked us up like an hour after everything happened. We’ve kind of been at the lab since.”

“Hm.” You sound, trying to ignore how that stung. He went and collected the kids he wanted and left you to fend for yourself. Lovely.

“So he’s here?” Steve questions and she nods again.

“He’s with the gate.” She relays.

“They’ve been trying to get it shut for ages.” Jonathan says, but his eyes are still on you, barely hanging onto his own words. “Where were you guys?”

Steve frowns, and looks at you. “Uh… surviving the apocalypse. Which, by the way, not as easy as it looks in movies.”

“Amen.” Robin breathes out.

“Why are you both looking at us like that?” You finally ask, the shocked eyes of people you barely knew staring at you and Steve like you weren’t even real.

“Sorry.” Nancy rushes, blinking. She pockets her gun into her belt and steps forward, sharing looks with Jonathan. “It’s not you. It’s just…”

“Just what?” Steve tenses, closer to you now.

“We…” Jonathan tries and you force yourself not to let out a groan. Luckily, Robin does it for you.

“Come on, spill it.” She begs, smiling when they frown at her. “Hi. I’m Robin, by the way.”

“Did you guys not expect us to make it this far?” You ask and Steve furrows his brows, questioning it himself. “Look, if Hopper doesn’t want to see me, that’s fine, just say so-”

“No. No, it’s not-” Nancy takes a deep breath, looking very uncomfortable.

“Then what?” You stress, getting fed up of the mystery.

Another step closer and she suppresses whatever emotion threatened to jump out, looking too sympathetic for your liking.

“We thought you were dead.”

Stunned silence cut across the room like the swift swipe of a blade, cutting deep. Of all you had expected when coming here, the news of your demise was not one of them.

“What do you mean, dead?” Steve asks and Nancy looks at him with a twisted expression of concern and relief. “You thought- why did you think that?”

As if it pained her to say, she looks away and wraps her arms around herself. Jonathan rests a hand on her shoulder and speaks instead.

“When everything started… it was all so fast.” He explains, head low. “We were lucky. Nancy and I had managed to get to mine without a run-in. Met our brothers there and Hopper found us within the hour. Got us all away from there before anything worse could happen.”

“We drove through the town.” Nancy clears her throat, meeting Steve’s eye. “Went looking for any survivors. There was already so much smoke and demodogs running around. We finally found someone, warning us not to go any further. They told us… they told us it started at the school. And that everyone there was dead.”

You and Steve look at eachother automatically.

“We knew…” Nancy gulps, shaking her head. “We knew you were both there. I saw Steve heading to detention and Hopper had gotten a call you were in there, too.”

You lower your head. It was stupid to feel ashamed when there were worse things to worry about now.

“Hopper didn’t want to believe them. He went there anyway and… and we saw it. Bodies. The demodogs… it was like a massacre. And then we saw your car-”

Her voice broke for a second and Steve shakes his head in silent disdain.

“He managed to get into the building.” Jonathan continues, eyes on you this time. “He tried looking for you. He found your backpack. He barely spoke when he got back to the car. Just… drove.”

“He’s barely spoken to us since we got here.” Nancy shrugs. “When he finally had enough of the kids asking, he told us you were both dead. That there wasn’t a single survivor and… and now you’re here, and we have no idea how to even process that so…”

“Well,” Robin breaks the air, sucking it in before awkwardly clapping her hands. “That’s intense. But, you know, they’re alive. Ta-da. And we made it here. And I don’t really know how to act right now because I’m uncomfortable. I usually talk until someone stops me-”

“Robs.” You breathe softly and she nods, pointing.

“Like that.” She whispers out and you straighten the hoodie currently clung to your skin, trying to get some air.

This whole time you thought Hopper hadn’t cared, hadn’t tried looking. But he had thought you were dead. You and Steve were both KIA until you showed up against all odds. And you should be proud of that. But all you could think was that Hopper was trying to save Hawkins right now, thinking that he lost another child, all because you were too stubborn to admit you were wrong. If you had never stormed out of the house, decided to take detention to avoid an apology…

“Who else is here?” Steve asks as he notices that fallen look upon your face, staring at your sneakers like they were the saddest things.

“The kids, Joyce.” Nancy nods with a tight smile. “Like two people from school but not that many compared to… to how many people are out there.”

By that, she meant the sea of dead bodies that flooded Hawkins’ streets. Steve tried not to let it get to his head.

“So why are you guys out here?” Robin pouts, ogling the gun strapped to Nancy’s waist.

“On look-out.” Jonathan sighs, running a hand down his face as he peers down the hallway. “We keep thinking we can hear something out here. Haven’t found anything yet but… that doesn’t prove anything.”

“Well, the building was being guarded by a creepy asshole when we got here.” Steve nods slowly and you try not to show any emotion. “Took care of that but who knows how many there are.”

“We’re way past Demogorgons now.” Nancy says, face fallen to a serious look.

“Right.” Robin raises her brows. “Now, can someone tell me about this Demogorgon thing because the last time I checked, they were just monsters in a board game.”

You had zoned out by the time Robin asked that question, leaving it to the other three to talk about their experiences. Not that you could really put in your own thoughts considering as you were sort of in the same boat as her; you hadn’t known about any of this nightmare until a few days ago. Part of you still hoped it was only a nightmare. That way you could be sure it would be over eventually.

You should feel safer. Hopper was merely a few doors away, El, the kids. But that churning feeling in your gut that lit a wave of nerves was fire on your skin. Nothing felt like it was getting better. No. No, it felt like this was just the beginning.

Lights flicker out the corner of your eye, only catching your attention. The others were still deep in their exchange of scary stories, not noticing the flickering bulb locked behind a door just further down.

And then you watch as it dims completely, almost in a snap. You shouldn’t think anything of it. The world was literally ending, electricity was easily one of the first resources to go. Except… don’t these places usually run on a generator?

The light in the next room starts flickering. And when that bursts, it moves to the next, and you feel your hairs stand on end. You can see the bulb lose its spark, your breath foggy against the glass.

Since when were you this close to the door?

“So, yeah, if you see a big scary spider in the sky, just assume you need to run.” Steve shrugs at Robin’s appalled face.

“Like I was gonna stay and say hi?!” She exasperates and shakes her head. “Okay, officially information overload.”

“It’s a lot.” Nancy sympathises, “But at least we’re all together through this.”

“Yeah.” Steve sighs. “You have no idea how happy we are to see you guys. Right?”

Steve glances to his left to see that you weren’t there. He looks to his right. Nothing.

“Y/n?” He spins around, frowns on everyone’s faces. They hadn’t even realised you had walked away. “Y/n?”

“How is she so sneaky?” Robin mutters, peering around the corner. “Y/n?”

They all started calling out, confusion setting in. You were just with them. How could you have possibly disappeared when you were right next to them only a moment ago?

“Does she do this often?” Jonathan suggests, but Steve silently shakes his head, the panic in his chest setting in.

“Only when something is really wrong.”

Nancy turns her head to him, brows furrowed. “Like what-”

A scream rips out into the silence, echoing down the hallway like some kind of omen. Steve swears his heart stops, his own scream already building in his throat, choking on it.

“Oh my god.” Nancy breathes, grabbing her gun and moving towards the noise. But an arm stops her.

“No, wait.” Steve says and when she goes to protest, he raises his finger to his lips.

Reluctantly, she stays quiet, ears straining to catch even a pin drop of what he was trying to assess.

The scream echoes out again, and this time he knew.

“It’s not her.” He whispers and Nancy’s eyes widen.

“How do you know that?”

Steve looks down at her in seriousness, gripping tightly onto the bat in his hand. “I just do.”

“So, there’s someone else screaming bloody murder at the same time Y/n goes missing?” Robin questions, panic in her voice as she stares at Steve, silently pleading.

“When Y/n and I were trying to get to the cabin, we saw one of those monster people things.” Steve starts and Jonathan raises a brow.

“Monster people?”

“Half demogorgon, half human.” He replies, gulping. “It was making these sounds of pain, made them seem more human. But it’s a trap. Whatever it is, it’s trying to lure us. Make us think that there’s someone out there that needs help.”

“And you’re sure. Like, 100% sure?” Nancy voices her concern, looking back down the hallway as another scream travels to her ear. “Steve-”

“Trust me.” He pleads, moving away from her eyes that clouded his senses, placing a hand on Robin’s shoulder. “Someone needs to take Robin away from here, to where the others are. You don’t have a weapon, I can’t risk-”

“Hey, I’m not objecting.” She laughs awkwardly, clearly nervous. “Just… please find her.”

Steve gives a nod while Nancy and Jonathan whisper to eachother, coming to an agreement that made Jonathan’s face twist with hesitancy. But he knew he couldn’t stop Nancy.

“Jonathan’s going to lead her back to everyone else, I’ll go with you.” Nancy nods, watching the protest build on Steve’s tongue. “You need back up. I’m going.”

“Fine.” He finally huffs. “You guys head off, we’re gonna-”

“Steve!”

He feels his body flash cold, the hair on his arms prickling from the trail of goosebumps along his skin. That was your voice. That was definitely your voice.

“You guys need to go now.” He orders at Robin and Jonathan. The other boy doesn’t argue, cricket bat held tight as he nods to Robin and leads her in the opposite direction of the cries.

But they don’t make it out of the double doors.

It’s already swinging open before Jonathan can reach for the handle.

Robin covers her mouth with both hands, suppressing a cry. Steve feels frozen.

Dead eyes crinkle from the stretch of a blood-curdling grin.

Charred hands holding a familiar shotgun, bent at the barrel.

Its smile… blood-red.

Chapter Ten: Part Two: An Ode To The Complicated ->

taglist: @manyfandomsfanvergent . @sheisjoeschateau . @kthomps914 . @curled-hair-red-lips . @nix-rose . @palmtreesx3 . @kryztalglear. @sattlersquarry . @hey-barnes-stole-a-jeep . @sadslasher13 . @80saestheticismyfav

[aurumacadicus]

Yes TikTok is rotting my brain again. For background purposes, Steve is Peter’s biological father, he came out of the ice way earlier and SHIELD couldn’t catch him after he ran off so he was Nomad for like... twenty years. And during those years he does fuck around. Lo and behold, Mary Parker is one of his one night stands. He only learns about it once he goes back to SHIELD and finds out that they eventually caught up with him but decided it was best to just observe rather than try to bring him in when he didn’t want to be. He decides it’s safer for Peter to stay with his Uncle Ben and Aunt May. Only when Ben dies does he reluctantly step in. Luckily, Peter is very forgiving and loves his dad even though they both know he’d much rather have his Uncle Ben still around.

Also Steve thinks pranks are funny as long as they’re the “confuse, don’t abuse” type. He thinks the abusive pranks of today are absolutely heinous.

--

“Mr. Stark, you know what would be so funny?” Peter asked, sitting at the kitchen counter.

“Tony,” Tony said, then sighed, setting his coffee cup down and tipping his head back. “I’m scared. This sounds like a trick.”

Peter began kicking his feet back and forth. “It’s nothing to be scared of. Just a TikTok prank.”

Tony sighed again and turned to face him, raising an eyebrow. “You know how your dad feels about TikTok. And pranks. And TikTok pranks.”

“It’s not anything bad,” Peter rushed to assure him. “It’s actually really sweet!”

Tony remained skeptical, picking his cup back up and taking a long, slow sip of coffee. Finally, he lowered his mug and asked, “Okay. I suppose I’ll let you tell me what the prank is before I shoot you down.”

“It’s only fair,” Peter agreed, placing his feet on the stool again. “So, basically, it’s to see how dads react when kids are rude to their moms.”

Tony blinked at him slowly, then carefully said, “If you think I’m going to let you sass Aunt May--”

“No!” Peter yelped, horrified. “Do you think I’m crazy? Steve wouldn’t have to do anything because Aunt May will kill me!”

Tony blinked again. “...Then I’m not entirely sure where this is going.”

Peter beamed at him, horror forgotten now that he knew that he and Tony were on the same page about sassing May. “I was thinking I could sass you!”

“Peter,” Tony sighed, rubbing a hand over his face.

“No, you see, it’s perfect! Low stakes,” Peter explained, enthused. “You and Steve are basically married--”

“What,” Tony said.

Peter plowed over him. “And as soon as you realized I was a package deal with Steve, you really stepped up to make me feel welcome without spoiling me, too. Or, well,” he added, squinting. “You do spoil me, but not like in a way that makes me feel icky or turned me into an entitled brat.”

“Huh,” Tony tried again.

“Anyway!” Peter continued, ignoring him. “I just think it would be funny to see Steve’s reaction if I gave you attitude and told you to shut up after you asked me to do something. He gets super protective of you at the weirdest times. Besides, it’s been getting a little chummy around here and as a teenage boy I thrive on chaos.”

Tony tilted his head to squint at him skeptically. “I don’t think you have the emotional constitution to tell me to shut up with attitude.”

“It’ll be the hardest thing I’ll ever have to do,” Peter told him solemnly.

“I think this is a terrible idea,” Tony began.

“That’s not a no, I’ll get everything set up,” Peter said quickly, then bolted from the kitchen.

Tony stared after him, mouth still dropped open in shock.

.-.

Tony still thought this was a supremely bad idea, because he knew Steve’s opinions on TikTok pranks (and TikTok. And pranks in general.) and it just felt like he was going to be yelled at for being a co-conspirator. But! Peter had been right. Tony liked to spoil him. And apparently that included being a con-conspirator in a stupid TikTok prank that would probably backfire anyway because while the team joked about him and Steve being Team Mom and Dad (and even then, who was Mom and who was Dad depended on who was most apoplectic).

Tony sat down beside Steve, handing him a can of coke as he settled in with his Stark Pad. “Here you go.”

“Thanks, Tony,” Steve said, cracking it open without looking up from the baseball game. It must have been the Dodgers, Tony figured. Steve was still bitter about them moving to LA, but he was also nostalgic for the old days, so sometimes he’d overlook it.

Peter poked his head into the living room. “I’m headed over to Ned’s to work on our physics project! Bye Steve! Bye Tony!”

Tony sat up a little. “Oh, wait, Peter, did you get your model from the lab?”

Peter sighed and rolled his eyes. “I’ll get it later.”

Tony noticed Steve carefully going very, very stiff beside him and chose to ignore it. “I need you to grab it before you leave. I’m doing a project that requires no clutter.”

“Sure, when I get back,” Peter huffed, heading toward the elevator.

“I need you to do it before you leave,” Tony called after him. “Otherwise I won’t be able to start--”

“God, okay, shut up!” Peter sighed loudly.

Tony opened his mouth to continue, but was cut off by Steve slamming his soda on the coffee table and surging to his feet with a snarled, “What the fuck did you just say?” He stared up at Steve, mouth continuing to hang open in shock.

Peter turned to face him, apparently just as surprised. “Uh...”

“No, you were real confident saying when you thought it was just Tony answering,” Steve said, taking a step toward him. “Say it again.”

Peter was quiet for a moment, considering, before finally, with bravado only a teenager could have, he said, “Shut up.”

“Okay,” Steve answered, voice shockingly calm, and then took a very deliberate step forward.

“It’s a prank it’s a prank it’s a prank!” Tony yelped, throwing himself off the couch to wrap his arms around Steve’s waist and stop him. “Stop Steve it’s a prank you cannot commit murder I will not be cleaning blood out of this carpet again!”

Steve swiveled his blank stare to him. “What do you mean a prank?”

Tony chewed on the inside of his cheek, considering whether he wanted to draw Steve’s ire onto himself in the face of his blank expression. “I did object,” he tried weakly.

Peter appeared between them, planting himself in front of Tony protectively. “He did! He’s just a pushover when it comes to me because I’m your kid. So! This is really your fault.”

Steve’s mouth dropped open, but luckily the blank stare turned to an outraged glare. “What did you just say?!”

“Okay let’s go,” Tony said hastily, grabbing Peter’s shoulders and steering him toward the elevator. He heard Steve move and started shoving him instead. “Peter he’s coming hurry up oh my god.”

“I’LL TELL AUNT MAY YOU TRIED TO KILL ME!” Peter shouted defensively over his shoulder.

“I’LL TELL AUNT MAY YOU DESERVED IT!” Steve bellowed back.

Peter swerved around Tony so he could meet Steve face to face. Tony threw his hands up and just left.

[steviebbboi]

Red (Chapter 03)

Pairings: Steve Rogers x Original Female Character (OFC)

Summary:

Eleana Harlow (Ellie) is an Enhanced Individual turned Avenger. She's also Steve's everything. She just doesn't really know it yet.

Warnings: non-canon, slight canon divergence, sorta established relationship, OFC has powers and is POWERful, enhanced!reader, protectiveSteve!, softDom!Steve, steve and OFC are intimate, angst, eventual smut, friend(ish) to lovers, mentions of mental health issues and PTSD, mentions of dissociative episodes, mentions of violence/death but its not too explicit. (* indicates chapters containing smut)

Would love some feedback, and any reblogs and comments are appreciated! MINORS DNI - DO NOT read unless you're 18+ thank you!

DISCLAIMER NOTE:

I don't give permission for anyone to post this work on any other platform. This only exists on Ao3 AND now Tumblr (5/29/24), so pls don't copy/paste. Also, I don't own any of the Marvel universe (I wish). All of my works are also unbeta'd so please be kind, and apologies for any edit mishaps.

Chapter 03. She Needed Him

Six months ago…

“Phoenix, we need you over here!” Natasha rasped into her ear piece. There was a fire in one of the office buildings due to a bomb explosion. Tasked with evacuating any survivors, Ellie dove straight to the scene. 

“On my way, Romanoff.” Ellie affirmed. A suicide bomber that was hired by Hydra decided to interfere with their mission by literally setting off a bomb in an area further away from where the real action was. Where Steve was fighting Brock Rumlow, Sam and Wanda dealing with his bandits were going after biochemical warfare. Tony flying towards what seemed to be Hydra’s new base location. The team being split into three completely different sections, Ellie and Natasha had to do what they could on this side. 

Finally reaching the outskirts of the burning building, Ellie was breathing heavily while she saw Natasha coughing and looking rough for wear – but was still holding up a severely injured civilian. “Nat, stay back. I got this.” 

Natasha let out a muffled ‘copy’ while Ellie held out her hands with every intention of putting out these fires. She focused all of her energy on absorbing the fire’s vitality and the raging flames started slowly dissipating into steam, gradually evaporating in the air. Smoke still could be smelt heavily although the fires were no longer a pressing issue. 

The hardest part of Ellie’s powers were that as she took away the fire externally, she was also inviting it in internally. She brought it back into herself. Her forearms shined a bright blazing orange all the way up to her shoulders, as she breathed slowly through the heat. Her veins glowing something bright. Concentrating on enmeshing the fire back into her always required more effort when she took it away. The fire had to go somewhere and she could take it. That’s what her powers were meant to do. 

Shuddering at the pressure and weight of the flames, she felt the familiar sensation of an intense heat sinking into her skin. Ellie couldn’t help but let out a pained grunt. Feeling her body envelop fire was always the most painful part. But she was well-versed at handling it. 

Still processing and embracing the current heat flowing in her body, she faintly heard Steve’s aggressive questioning, “What did you just say?!” She frowned and looked towards his direction where she could faintly see his outline and his grip on Rumlow tight, pulling him close. 

“Your precious Bucky asked for you. Before they put his head back in the blender.” Rumlow revealed with a distorted grin on his face. 

Ellie was just coming back into herself when she felt her heart drop. She quickly gave a glance to Natasha who glanced back. She was still directing civilians to a safer area across the way but even the Russian spy was pausing slightly and moving slower at hearing the revelation. 

“Where is he?” Steve demanded threateningly. Rumlow merely let out a gruffled laugh and tore open his vest to further reveal grenades strapped to his chest. “Well, I guess you’ll never find out.” He pulled a pin. 

“STEVE!” Ellie bellowed. Horror filled her entire being. It was like time just slowed down, and suddenly she found herself running. Not away from the explosion. But towards it…towards Steve. 

A distance away, Steve reacted too late and was about to suffer the consequences until Rumlow was enveloped with a red glow. Steve sharply glanced over at Wanda to see her attempting to control the explosion with a grimace on her face.

“Wanda, push him up and away from us!” Ellie suddenly shouted into the ear piece and was halfway to reaching them. Wanda listened to her command and tried to wait for her to reach them but she couldn’t hold onto the power of the Rumlow’s explosion any longer. Wanda struggled and suddenly thrusted her hands upwards with a shout, catapulting Rumlow 50 feet into the air. 

Ellie’s eyes widened in panic as she knew that she wouldn’t make it in time. Stopping in place, she thrust out her own hands in Rumlow’s direction to consume the flames. Absorbing fire into her body was a practiced skill, but that still didn’t make it easy. Ellie acted on pure instinct in trying to call back the flames that were aggressively waiting to be released from Rumlow’s burned body. However, trying to absorb instantaneous flames that were in the air that came from this far of a distance was not something that she has ever done before. Ellie had also never attempted to enmesh flames for a long amount of time. Any attempt in the past has landed her either in a severe, dissociative state, or had caused her to pass out. 

At that moment though, Ellie didn’t think about what would happen to her. Loud grunts were all she could let out as she grit her teeth against the massive pressure overriding her body. Ellie’s arms were straining as she invited the flames inside. The explosive fire caught down to her shoulders and chest. She could feel her yearning for the fire to flow through her. Desperate to move the element away from Steve. Almost like trying to seduce it into a new container. 

Her eyes widened as the fire looked never-ending. The flames were complying but not fast enough. Ellie’s aptitude suddenly shifted in her pain, her eyes squinting determinedly. “Whatever it takes.” she thought. A transformative force swept through her entire body and suddenly, something else was driving her call now. It was evident that it didn't care for Ellie’s life. It was unafraid, callous, fierce, and alive.

Steve’s eyes widened in fear as he saw Ellie fall hard onto her knees, half of her body was now on fire. 

“RED, LET IT GO!” Steve shouted into his com-piece. Ellie either didn’t listen to or hear the Captain’s command as her arms shook violently. Her once hazel eyes now glowed a wild and rageful orange. Red flames were erupting all over her body. She couldn’t hold it in anymore, and let out a blood curling, pained scream. Her back bowed, her arms now outstretched away from her body, the rush of the explosion now completely enveloping her body. Flames poured out of her body simultaneously, almost flaying like wings. Her stature resembled her namesake, the Phoenix.

“Move your ass, Cap! She’s going to go into a hyper-pressurized supernova if she doesn’t let it go!” Tony warned. During Ellie’s power testing, they found that her powers allowed her to withstand intense heat. As hot as the power of the Sun…but while she can manipulate the fire, holding onto it and retaining it was something that could still kill others around her, and even herself in the process. Especially if she took on too much at one time. 

Steve’s feet moved before Tony could even finish his urgent warning. Speeding towards Ellie, still begging her to let it go in their comms, Steve also shouted at Wanda to contain her. “Wanda, can you stop her?” 

Wanda’s bright glow can be seen wrapping around Ellie’s “body.” At this point, her entire body was just a harsh emblem of fire. Her face was barely palpable. 

Struggling to contain her teammate’s power, Wanda responded through gritted teeth, “She’s starting to absorb flames from other parts of the city. I don’t think she even realizes that she’s doing it! I’m trying to reach her - she’s too strong!” Ellie was hard to see amidst the blaze, but they could all see that her body was still working on embracing the inferno of flames. Her “face” turned towards the sky and her back arched with flames entering her body without permission. 

Steve felt the ache in his legs as he pushed harder. “Cap! You need to frost her. NOW!” Tony yelled through the coms. Steve panted and slowed down his pace. He realized that even if he could reach her in time, he would be useless in stopping her. Her powers were now in control, the flames now glowing into something ethereal. The fire emoted passion and seemed threateningly lively.

His eyes sunk and filled with despair as he placed one hand to his ear and lowly said, “Wanda, slow down the fire intake as best as you can.” The StarkWatch’s interface on his cuff now glowing blue, Steve made a motion to extend the watch over his own hand. The device now resembled Iron Man’s notorious repulsor gauntlet.

Wanda’s eyes cut to him in a panic as she desperately pulled at Ellie’s prone body, doing her best to either slow down or extract the flames. “It’s no use…her powers are killing her.” she thought. Wanda knew that this was inevitable. Ellie was dying, and they had to try to save her.

An emergency‘frost’ was a last minute resort should Ellie ever be found in a compromising position where her powers were uncontrollable. The repulsors would emit nano-tech driven particles that attached to her biometric signature to shut down Ellie’s entire body, even ‘pausing’ her life functions for a period of time. 

When they all heard about the device for the first time, Steve was the first to react. “What do you mean, ‘pause’?” Steve interrupted Tony’s nonchalant explanation. Silence grew as Tony glanced at Steve with reluctance in his eyes. Steve slowly glowered in fury, no longer needing the explanation. He knew what it meant and he wanted to destroy the device at that very moment. Usually Tony was able to respond with a humored quip, or tailspin it to be not such a big deal. 

But even he couldn’t mask the fact that ‘pause’ really meant ‘to end’. 

With her body shut down, her powers would therefore become inactive. But that also translated into her being lifeless and at that moment, dead . Being vehemently met with angry protests, Tony quickly explained that the very device that could end her life also had the potential to bring her back. The nanobots would still be active in her system from the repulsor charge and would give enough time for them to activate her life functions once more and bring her back. Even after the team found out about the power of this device, they were revolted by the real, dreadful possibility of being the person to end their friend’s life. To also be the one responsible to try to bring her back.

While her friends agreed to only use it in true emergencies only, Ellie emphatically encouraged her team to use the contraption should the Phoenix ever take control. Steve stared darkly and intensely at Ellie. A wild look in his eyes ignited further once he heard her encouraging words. 

She understood that she may lose her life, but to her that didn’t matter as much, because she knew that using it would also save theirs. Steve stormed out of the room at that point. It took a while for him to even acknowledge, much more agree, to use the device in the field. Because even though Ellie felt differently about her life, Steve knew what it was like to have the power of sacrifice. He knew the regret that was left behind once a decision was made. 

To Steve, he didn’t care if the world burned. Her life was, and is, always the priority. 

But now as he outstretched his trembling arm, Steve unsteadily felt the gravity of this decision once more as he turned the repulsor in Ellie’s direction. His world slowed down and he tuned out everything else. He could barely hear Wanda and Sam’s panic, Tony shouting to activate the gauntlet, nor could he hear Nat’s calm voice reassuring him of his choice. 

All he could think of at that moment was Ellie’s smiling face, her laugh. Her stubbornness. Her endearing warmth and compassionate nature. Her soft skin grazing the back of his hand, the flushed red in her cheeks. Secret and unspoken gazes that they would share in moments where they were able to be authentic and together. Their bond. 

Steve’s eyes suddenly squinted in determination. She wasn’t going to die. He won’t let her. She’s always the priority. His arm steadied, and he fired.

“Guys, I already told you that I’m fine. You can stop hovering.” Ellie suppressed a shudder that ran through her body. She glanced up and gave her team a reassuring smile as if her body wasn’t completely on fire. Minus the pun. 

It’s been about 24 hours since they had to bring Ellie back from the brink of death. Dr. Cho and her team were at the ready and had her placed into the healing cradle straight from the quinjet. She woke up with a sharp gasp only 7 hours ago. Hearing only quiet exclamations from Wanda that she was alright and that they were now back on base. 

The cradle was able to repair any injuries that she sustained from the fight, and from the use of her powers. For the first time since she had discovered her powers, Ellie had a burn sustained on both of her shoulder blades. Dr. Cho was in noticeable disbelief when she told her that the cradle did what it could to help the burns- but what it left behind is something that the cradle couldn’t fix. 

Looking at the bathroom mirror, Ellie turned around and saw two outlines of wings on the back of her shoulders and going along the length of her spine. The marks weren’t very noticeable, but the faint lines of the wings did glisten with a red-rainbow aurora every time and again. When the subtle shine lifted around the edges of her right wing, she gasped. 

“They’re beautiful…” she wondered out loud as she lightly traced the outlines of the markings. Ellie couldn’t really comprehend nor could she wrap her mind around the fact that she had quite literally died in the past 24 hours, came back to life, found literal glowing tattoos branded onto her body, and most importantly… that Steve hadn’t once come by to check on her since they put her into the cradle. 

When she woke up from her “slumber of death” (Tony was already cracking jokes that the rest of the team were not laughing at, but she knew it was his way of caring and coping), Wanda was already sitting next to her, reassuring her, and letting her know that she and everyone else is safe. When she left to go get the others, it was Tony, Bruce and Natasha coming by to check in. Bruce naturally went into doctor mode to check on her stabilizing vitals and asked her how she was feeling. Meanwhile, Tony clapped her on the shoulder awkwardly while giving a short smile. Natasha welcomed her back and gave her forearm an affectionate squeeze with her signature smirk on her face. 

But no Steve. 

When Ellie muttered his name quietly, the team went eerily silent. A glance between Nat and Tony, and a wavering, guilty sigh from Wanda, Nat took the lead. With her classic nonchalant tone, she replied, “He’s debriefing with Sam to Fury and the council. Some things happened while you were out that have to be parsed through.” 

Now back in bed, Ellie blinked sleepily. Her eyes felt so tired. “What things?” 

The rest of the room’s occupants were still quiet. Ellie felt awake once more at the team’s silence. Her brain was slower than usual, but it didn’t take Sherlock Holmes to deduce what must have happened. 

“...I died, didn’t I?” Ellie warily asked. 

Wanda and Tony were quiet but fidgety, looking down at the floor with angst. Bruce was pretending to look at her chart but his eyes perked up every now and then. Natasha’s expression was unwavering and she moved to squeeze her shoulder. “You were gone for longer than we would have appreciated. But, we brought you back with Stark’s nanotech.”

Ellie merely blinked once, “How long?” 

Natasha’s expression did change this time, only slightly, coming from her place of nonchalance to forming a mild frown. “You were clinically considered dead for 7 minutes. By the time that we got back to base, you were down for another 5 until we got you into the cradle. Once you were in, you were already starting to stabilize.” 

Ellie couldn’t hold back her panic. “11 minutes?!” her thoughts went wild. It wasn’t even completely because of the fact that she had died and needed to be resuscitated. Her thoughts went wild because she knew that during those 11 minutes, Steve thought that she was dead. 

Steve, strong, charismatic, and powerful Steve, had thought that he had lost her forever for those 11 minutes. For 11 minutes, she didn’t have the opportunity to tell him that she was going to be okay. Or tell him that even if she did die, he would be okay. She cared about him…she loved him. Faintly, she could hear an increased ‘beeping’ noise but thought nothing of it. She could only think about seeing Steve. And yet, she came back, and he wasn’t there. 

Ellie felt another hand on her shoulder, “Sestra, you need to calm down. Relax.” Wanda gave her an affectionate rub while pouring calm into her thoughts. At Wanda’s words, she took a deep breath and exhaled. The beeping that she heard was slowing steadily. She couldn’t see it but Bruce was on standby with a sedative just in case. If her heart rate increased, her core temperature would heighten and they couldn’t risk her body being placed into that position again so soon. 

Ellie took another breath and on her exhale said, “Does he know that I’m back?” 

It was Tony who responded this time, “FRIDAY just let him know two minutes ago, Dante.” 

Before she could ask another question, Natasha interrupted her, “We’ll let you know when he gets here, okay? Until then, you need to rest, ptichka.” She gestured to Bruce and all of a sudden, Ellie felt a small prick on her arm. She frowned and let out an exhausted sigh. Everything floated back to black.

With Ellie now out for the count, Wanda looked back at her two mentors with a contemplative look. “Should we have told her that it was him that activated the repulsor?” 

“No,” Natasha said resolutely. Her voice carried into a soft whisper, “We all saw him on the jet. Let them talk it through when he gets here.” 

“I’ll have FRIDAY redirect Cap to the lab. I’m sure they’ll need all the space that they can get.” Tony mentioned out loud. “Us too, when you think about it.” Tony’s quip had the two women direct annoyed glances over his way. 

“I think what you meant to say, Stark, was that you’ll need space away from Rogers.” Natasha repurposed with a smirk on her face. Bruce, who was still looking at Ellie’s charts, let out a small chuckle, “It was that bad, huh?”

Tony rolled his eyes at that, “Yeah, well, I can’t fault him too much for it, can I? I, technically, was the one who told him to use it on his dear little ‘Red.’ But look at her now, all spry, a little pale, but alive!” He sprung out his arms in accomplishment. 

Natasha ignored his comments and replied to Bruce, “Let’s just say that Stark was lucky that he was in the suit.” One last glance over at Ellie’s resting form, she turned to walk back to the conference room that she was in with Steve and Sam. Hearing from afar, Tony was still ranting about how he saved Ellie’s life, and Wanda’s admonishment for the creation of the device – Natasha went onto the elevator. When the doors closed, she allowed her mask to fall and her eyes to close in her own exhaustion. 

They also didn’t manage to tell Ellie that Steve already knew that she was awake by the time that they got to the lab. They didn’t tell her that Steve merely glanced down with his jaw clenched. A dreaded look in his eyes. Recognizing the look of inner turmoil when she saw it, Nat offered to go check in on her in place of him. 

Exiting the elevator, she could see that their debrief was wrapping up. She entered the glass room and sneaked a glance at Steve. Sam looked at her curiously as she entered while Steve visibly froze and slowly turned his head to acknowledge her presence. One look into his eyes confirmed a sense of worry and desperation. Although his stiff body looked ready to run out of the room, Natasha knew that his brooding moment was over since she had left. If he had to run, he would run to her.

Fury’s holographic figure was seen in front of them, the world security council directly behind him. Their expressions tense, Fury directed his question at Natasha, “Status report on Harlow?” 

Natasha’s face didn’t expose any vulnerabilities. “Agent Harlow is now stable but sedated. She was notified of the mission debrief during her moment of consciousness, and had expressed that she would report in to debrief personally as soon as she was able.”

Fury knew that more had happened than she was letting on. Of course he does, he’s Fury. But everyone in that room understood that the World Security Council didn’t need to know anything other than the fact that she’s alive. Last thing that they need is to send Ellie to the Raft and claim her to be government property. For them to use as they please.

Steve wasn’t quelled by her response. He initially chose to debrief for the team because he just couldn’t see Ellie, look at her still and quiet body any longer. His eyes briefly closed as he reflected on what he witnessed in the jet. Ellie was just lying there. Her face devoid of any emotion, any expressiveness of her being alive. No pain, nothing. The nanotech was meant to instantly revive her once they called back the ‘frost’ command, but after what felt like hours (which was more like a long two minutes), she still wouldn’t wake up.

On his knees, all he could do was stare at her limp hand that dangled across the table while the others frantically started to do what they could to revive her. He briefly recalled Stark talking to FRIDAY about the repulsors’ status of the nanotech now existing in her lifeless body, and could see Sam hurriedly administering CPR. Wanda silently cried and held her other hand with a red glow, trying to reach into some level of her consciousness. Natasha had one hand on his shoulder that he could barely feel, asking him if he was okay. 

Steve was silent, growing more and more despondent. All he thought was, “Was he okay? He just killed Ellie, his Red. His best friend. The person that he swore to protect. A person that he loved and didn’t get the chance to tell her before she died. She wasn’t waking up. No. he was not okay.”

At that point, he did remember something feral overcoming his shock as he noticed Tony struggling with his holographic interface. All he could think of was that Stark and his stupid gadgets had just jeopardized everything that he held dear to him. He wasn't able to stop himself from throwing Tony to the side of the quinjet. He could still barely feel Natasha's and Wanda's hands trying to get him off of Stark's metal frame.

“The Phoenix was a trial period for the Avengers Initiative. Our concern still stands. What if another incident like this happens again?” A voice filled with suspicion and fear filled the space, suddenly snapping Steve out of his disturbing reverie. 

“Agent Harlow is an experienced, classified SHIELD agent and has demonstrated her place with the Avengers. She has helped save the world and the seats that you are currently sitting on. Are you going to keep insisting that she is still apart of a “trial period”, Councilwoman?” Fury directed back to the council member. 

“Her efforts in preserving the world are not going unnoticed, Director. Nor is it under-appreciated. It doesn’t change the fact that The Phoenix is an enhanced individual that is still progressing in power as we know it. As we have evidently seen today, she is dangerous. Her powers grow, and your team has yet to uncover the maximum potential that she holds. Much more, a level of containment. How can we have faith in your capabilities to determine the world’s safety upon a high-risked enhanced?” Another councilman shot back.

From behind Fury, a scoff can be heard by Sam. “This is ridiculous. That ‘enhanced’ had saved our lives. Without her, we would all be fried meat by now with a lot more casualties reported in Lagos.” Sam expressed his anger unashamedly.

The same councilman huffed in response, “That may be so, Mr. Wilson. It again doesn’t change the fact that she may better serve the people under more… structured systems. Systems in place that will enable a safer environment for the AI team to move freely. Without hazardous material on board.”

Steve could feel his ire raging hearing the council member’s words. How dehumanizing they are in treating Ellie’s life as dispensable.

“Perhaps we need to re-evaluate the AI team in accordance with the Accords once more. If the UN finds that the Phoenix was non compliant with the agreements, we will need to revisit this conversation.” Underneath these thin words was the threat of dividing the team. Laced with the exposure of the Phoenix being arrested and determined government property in a floating base in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The image of Ellie disposed away, away from the team, and from him broke him.

“That’s enough.” The room went quiet under the command from the otherwise silent Captain America. 

Steve glared at the holographic forms with a rage that even the council members could palpably see. “The Avengers Initiative is still upholding the agreements with the Accords. Under any investigation, you would be violating the safeguards set in place to protect our team. As you know, we are still free agents and are in our rights to protect the wellbeing of any and all members of the initiative. If there were any suspicions of our effectiveness, you can bring them to Director Fury or to me with the appropriate ethical standings within your limitations. Not during a debriefing meeting in which we recap how a member of our team has saved a significant amount of lives. We don’t trade lives, Councilman. You’ll do well to remember your own place in your own sector.” 

“Is that a threat, Captain?” A council member prompted. 

“Yes, it is.” Steve immediately answered with an unapologetic tilt to his head. Nothing more could be spoken after the captain’s blunt honesty. The council members shifted angrily, the other Avengers in the room failed to hide their growing smirks. Even Fury couldn’t hold his slight smile.

“We appreciate your cooperation, Council. At this time, we will proceed with all debriefing processes and have them evaluated through AI.” With a wave, Fury dismissed the council members and the holograms disappeared.

Fury turned towards the three Avengers silently. Steve still held his belt resolutely, holding absolutely no regrets. The power in his stance was unwavering. Fury merely smirked, “Well said, Captain.”

Steve allowed a small smirk to form on his face and gave a dismissive nod, “Director.”

Fury nodded back and glanced at them. “Romanoff, I expect a full internal report.” Natasha echoed Steve’s sentiment, and the man’s image disappeared. 

Sam turned to Steve with a full grin, “Captain America saves the girl. Saves the day.” Steve allowed a full grin too at that, and Sam clapped him on the shoulder before leaving the room. He knew that this didn’t change the fact that the said ‘saved girl’ was downstairs recovering from a harrowing day. He understood that Steve still needed time to prepare himself for that visit. 

At Sam’s departure, Steve’s face fell into a grim expression once more. “How is she, really, Nat?”

Natasha sighed and granted a small smile, “She’s okay. She was tired. Confused. But she understood what had happened during the mission.”

Steve let out a small sigh, “What else does she remember?”

Natasha crossed her arms and ducked down to capture his conflicted gaze. “She doesn’t seem to recall specifics about the mission, as far as we know. She doesn’t know that it was you.”

At his exhale, Natasha knew that this was the answer that Steve needed to hear. Ellie didn’t know that it was Steve who pulled out the device. That it was him who ended her life. 

“Are you going to tell her?” she asked. Steve looked to the floor, “I don’t know. I’m not sure if it's best that she does know.”

Natasha let out a disbelieving scoff, “Steve, El asked for you when she woke up.” Steve looked up quickly with a yearning glance. His eyes softened at the image of Ellie asking for him, and the confusion of why he wasn’t there. 

“You underestimate her too often. Harlow knows the risks. We all do. I think it's about time that you respect her enough to do the same.” Natasha laid out. Steve looked to the side at that. He would never be comfortable with this option, ever. 

She continued, “The Council wasn’t wrong about her powers growing. The Phoenix is expanding in strength, and it isn’t going unnoticed by the team.” 

Steve interrupted, “So you think that she deserves to be pathologized? Clinically exposed to scientists drunk on power and greed of taking away her will to choose? To exist in the Raft?” His eyes now hardened, expecting to hear an affirmative response.

“What? No– ” Natasha visibly frowned and shook her head. She felt offended by the accusation. “Steve, I’m just…reading the terrain. We know how much you care about Ellie. We care about Ellie. That’s why we keep one hand on the steering wheel, and the other working to earn their trust back. You’re not the only one who wants to protect her. Each other.”

Steve heard her but still shook his head. “What I do know is that I’m not going to let anything else happen to her. We keep her close. While Stark and Banner reconfigure another way to help Red manage her powers, we do whatever it takes to protect her. Their eyes were always on her, and you know that. Now, agendas are shifting.” 

Natasha could only nod in agreement, “We’ll protect her, Steve. You’re not alone.” She did her best to convey the sincerity behind her words, and Steve heard it. An exhausted sigh was released as Natasha squeezed his arm affectionately.

Steve turned to leave, determined now to see Ellie. Before he could go, Natasha called out to him once more. “What about Barnes, Steve?” 

He stiffened at the door and stopped in place. After some silence, he turned to her and replied, “I don’t know. Rumlow could have been lying. Last time that I saw Bucky, he was pulling me out of the river. Sam’s leads are all cold.”

Natasha looked down and suggested, “At this point, we can assume to not know anything, that’s for sure. I can look into Sam’s leads again and see if there are any merits worth pursuing.”

Steve frowned, “I thought you didn’t want to pull on that thread.”

She smirked back at him and said, “You focus on our ptichka. She needs you right now more than us.” 

Steve smirked in response too and nodded a quiet thanks. Exiting the room, Steve put all thoughts of Bucky, the panic of hearing his name in that moment, and his own morbid feelings about the repulsors to the side. 

Red needed him.

*sestra= sister in the Russian language (I couldn’t find any sense of Sokovian language. I know it’s fictional but but if anyone knows how to find that fictional language lore, feel free to lmk)!

*ptichka= little bird in the Russian language

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[half-oz-eddie]

I know so many of my mutuals love cam boy Billy who gets all sexy for the camera but can I just say…

I love broke and desperate cam boy Billy who becomes a performer to make ends meet, but he’s so insecure about his body in comparison to others on the website, he won’t do any nudity streams, so he just does chat-with-me streams to make just enough to cover rent.

He has an audience average of 10, 30 on a good day. Most just have a thing for blue eyed bottoms with long blonde hair.

He’s so poorly ranked on the site that Steve found him by chance by filtering his search and reordering the results from bottom to top. Steve becomes a fan because Billy is honest and authentic (and hot), and makes him feel less awkward about looking for something interesting on a website a porn pop up led him to.

Steve pays for private shows, just so he can talk to Billy and get to know him better. Billy does it because he needs the money, and Steve does it because he’s terribly lonely.

And, well, Billy is terribly lonely too.

They keep it “professional.” At first. No real names are used, and they only know each other as performer CamaroBoy29 and user KS003.

Eventually, Billy becomes more confident and the private shows with Steve gradually escalate from “what’s up” to “my name is Billy, my name is Steve,” to Billy helping Steve with his midterm paper.

Then, they're doing late night shows after work, where Billy is venting about how much he hates his dad, and Steve is agreeing, revealing how his dad is an asshole too.

"Are you sure you wanna pay $12 a minute for this? I feel like you should be charging me." Billy joked.

"No, don't be silly. I like this a lot."

Not only is Billy more confident, he's smiling more, he's feeling safer, he has a friend that he's really fond of. The private shows start to become friendlier. Sometimes they're drunk nights, both of them letting loose, playing 21 questions and flirting. Billy takes a risk and lets Steve see his dick, Steve tells Billy all his sexual fantasies, and not long after, they agree to meet up.

They exchange numbers, and the private shows stop, but the photo exchanges and Apple Pays commence.

Whenever Steve has time off from school, he flies out to California to take Billy on dates. They enjoy their time together, slowly falling in love.

For awhile, Billy continues to do his no nudity shows, and Steve continues to be a supportive fan. Billy doesn’t want to rely on Steve like he’s some sugar daddy.

Steve still wants Billy’s attention—and he wants it bad. He sends $10 or more every show, just so Billy will thank him by username, and buys every outfit on Billy’s Amazon wishlist.

When Steve finally graduates from university, he tells Billy he’s going to turn down his father’s job offer and find his own way, but in California.

“I just wanna be near you.” Steve tells him.

Billy doesn't get it. He can’t understand why. He’s nobody. He’s ranked like—4,700 on a cam website because he’s too pussy to show his cock. He lives in a tiny ass, sorry excuse for apartment where his water is always cold, and he thinks he’s just a piss poor excuse for a human who can’t find enough hours to even go to the college of his dreams because he needs to work. He’d be damned if he ever had to go back to his abusive home.

Steve didn’t see Billy as a pussy or 4,700th. He saw Billy as brave, amazing, adventurous, his #1, and the best sex he’s ever had in his life.

Steve gets a really nice apartment where the water is always hot, and there’s always space for Billy, so he can do the things he loves, and be with the person who loves him.

[loveroffictionalmen]

Scars and All

Pairing: Steve Harrington x fem!reader

Description: Things get hot when reader and Steve work through some past trauma together.

Warnings: mention of scars, mention of panic attacks, cursing, smut, 18+ pls and thank you, oral, praise kink on both ends kinda, sub-ish!steve, dom-ish!reader, pet names (hun, love, baby), aftercare

Words: 1.4k

Prompt: “Can I touch you?”

A/N: YAS STEVE MY LOVE!!! @ilyyharrington this one’s for you bae mwah

“C’mon, I wanna show you something,” Steve murmured into y/n’s ear as she was dozing off in his arms on the couch. Eddie and Nancy were sleeping on the floor and Robin was curled up in an Mr. Wheeler’s armchair. All the kids were asleep in the basement, and Steve would get up periodically to check on them, waking y/n up in the process.

After the events of Vecna were over, no one really wanted to sleep alone. Sure, they weren’t really alone, but being with the group that protected each other just made everyone feel safer.

“What is it? Just show me now,” Y/n muttered, using an immense amount of effort just to keep her eyes open.

“No, let’s go upstairs,” Steve said. He took y/n’s hand and pulled her up off the couch. Feeling more awake, y/n followed Steve up the stairs and into a guest bedroom.

“What is it, Steve?” Y/n asked again. He led her to the bed, still not answering her. She sat, looking up at him with half closed eyes.

“I, um, god this was stupid.” He said, pacing back and forth in front of her.

“No, hun, what is it? I promise it’s not stupid,” y/n said, cocking her head slightly. She didn’t know why Steve was acting so weird and cryptic. She watched as he bit his lip so hard he nearly drew blood. “Steve stop!” Y/n was definitely more awake now. She took his face in her hands and made him look her in the eyes. “What is it love? You’re scaring me.”

“It’s nothing, I shouldn’t have woken you. I’m just gonna go-” Y/n grabbed Steve’s hand, accidentally grazing his torso in the process. He flinched so hard he nearly jumped out of his skin. Y/n never would have touched his stomach on purpose. She knew it was a sensitive spot for him; since the demobats left their mark, he didn’t let y/n touch him there, especially when he wasn’t prepared for it.

At first, y/n didn’t know. Hell, even Steve didn’t realize it at first. That was until it happened. This was when his scars were still fresh. Y/n was on top of Steve, kissing every bit of skin that was accessible to her when she reached down and fiddled with the hem of his shirt. Her fingers had barely touched the scars, but it threw Steve into a full fledged panic attack. From then on, she knew his scars were off limits.

“Steve?” Y/n said after a moment. He was turned away from her, so she had no idea what he was feeling. “Stevie?” Y/n repeated. She noticed the lack of movement in his chest, and the silence surrounding him.

Shit. Was he having another panic attack?

“I’m okay.” It sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than y/n. “I’m okay.” He turned back to her. Tears threatened to fall from his pretty brown eyes.

“Oh hun,” Y/n said, resisting every part of her that wanted to hug him.

“I just, I thought that this time, if I prepared myself it would be okay. I mean like, I want you to be able to touch me and it feel good. Like it used to be.” His words made y/n’s heart break. She wouldn’t admit it, but she missed that too. To be intimate with him again. To be able to hug him. To be able to go for piggyback rides. To swim with him without him feeling scared of taking his shirt off. She missed how it was. But it didn’t make her love him any less.

“What if we tried again?” Y/n asked, looking up at him. He scrunched his brows. “Can I touch you?” She watched as he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and nodded.

Also having to prepare herself, she breathed in through her nose, and out through her mouth. Then she slowly and delicately ran her fingertips over his stomach. His shirt was still a barrier to the scars, but she still felt him tense up. When she had reached his back, she pulled him in for a hug.

It took him a moment, but he soon wrapped his arms around her too. He rested his chin on the top of y/n’s head, and sank into the hug.

“Not so bad?” Y/n asked. Steve stayed silent. “Hey, talk to me big guy. We’re in this together.”

Steve cleared his throat. “Not so bad.” They pulled away from each other. Y/n cupped Steve’s cheek. “You want to keep going?” Steve nodded.

Y/n dropped her hands back to his waist and fluttered her fingers across where she assumed the scars were. “Can I take this off?” Steve’s breath hitched at the thought of her seeing him, all of him. But he trusted her.

With a nod, y/n began to lift his shirt. He helped her take it off, and she gasped when she saw him. It was more than she thought it would be, she was certain of that. Jagged lines littered his chest, and a particularly large scar was found on the side of his stomach.

“You think it’s gross, don’t you? I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have-” Steve started to say, but cut himself off with y/n’s next move.

She kissed them. She kissed every scar she could find, even the ones that weren’t the demobat’s work. Steve’s heart swelled with love, maybe showing her wasn’t a bad idea. When she was finished kissing his scars, she moved to his lips.

Their lips moved together in sync as Steve’s hand’s fell to her hips. He guided her back to the bed and sat, while she stood in between his legs. She broke from the kiss to speak.

“I don’t think it’s fair that you have your shirt off and I don’t,” She smiled. Steve hummed and rose his hands to the bottom of her shirt. He helped her take it off. “Now, I wanna make you feel good tonight. Is that okay, love?”

“Yeah,” Steve breathed out. The last few times they were intimate, Steve was in charge. Y/n had never been in that role before, but she was enjoying it. She truly wanted now to be all about him. He deserved it.

She knelt down between his legs and pulled his sweats down along with his boxers. She pumped him a few times before taking him in her mouth. Steve let out a sigh, letting one of his hands gently rest on her head. He didn’t push, just let it stay there. Y/n bobbed her head up and down, faster and faster, relishing the moans that were falling from Steve’s mouth. They weren’t loud, they were more like whimpers.

“Please more, please please please,” he breathed. “You feel so good.”

She went faster and faster until she felt him twitch in her mouth. He shot his load into the back of her throat and she scrunched up her face, but swallowed. She rose to her feet and looked down at Steve, who was still panting. He had a slight sheen of sweat on his forehead, god he looked so pretty.

“Did that feel good?” She asked.

“So good, I missed that,” He said, through heavy breaths.

“Next time, it’s my turn.” She laughed. He nodded, though she wasn’t even sure he was listening.

“Can I hold you?” He asked quietly.

“Of course, baby,” Y/n said, her heart swelling. It had been so long since he had asked that. He adjusted himself against the headboard, putting his pants back on. He held his arms open and allowed y/n to straddle him. She tucked her face into the crook of his neck and wrapped her arms around his chest.

“I love you.” She said.

“I love you too.”

“No, I mean, I love all of you, scars and all.”