Steve Harrington OneShots

Splintered

Steve Harrington x Reader
for a sadder ending, check out Shattered (up next)
Warnings: a whole lotta angst, brief mention of painkillers, nightmares, fear, mentions of past relationship trauma, current relationship stress, injury, near-death experience (happy ending, i promise)
WC: 5k
Note: a not-so-happy ending version of this same concept/backstory can be found right after this one. Shattered, the alternate ending to this fic (which will be for my angsty pals who don't mind a painful ending)

Originally posted at https://thisismynerdyself.tumblr.com/post/690699477531656192/splintered

*****
Who does he think he is? Who does he take me for? A fool?
Steve Harrington has been lying to you for years and you're sick of it. For so long you've put up with the suspicions and the sneaking around, always excusing your "best friend" for every canceled plan because you didn't want to believe he would hide things from you.
Steve Harrington has been your best friend and boyfriend for years, your family moving in next to his just before the midway point of your freshman year of high school. It was Steve's sophomore year, so he took you under his wing and you forged the most tempered of bonds. He became the king of the school and in his eyes you were royalty yourself. So he made it official. You were king and queen of Hawkins High.
He conjured the courage within you to reveal your weaknesses and tell the tales of the hurts you faced in your previous school. You shared everything with each other, or so you thought. He was your safe space and you were his. There was never reason to doubt until about two years ago. Then the slivers of doubt slithered in and took root, building a little more with each cancelled date or avoided meeting. You could tell something was going on but Steve didn't let you in as much anymore. Instead, you ignored the warning signs, you put up with his odd behavior and mysterious injuries - "boxing lessons", he would say - and lived a pitiful life of forcing yourself to enjoy the moments you could have with him. He was still your boyfriend and you still cared for him more deeply than you wanted to admit.

Yet here you are now, pacing angrily across your bedroom, wearing a circle into the carpet where your feet pass repeatedly. Thoughts of the fight you had with Steve not even two hours ago are still swirling around your brain, replaying conversations over and again.
Are you overreacting? Maybe you would be if this was the first time you'd faced desertion.

You had been looking forward to the long-overdue date night with Steve, the chance to finally catch up on all of life's crazy twists and turns and to be - just the two of you. But now two high schoolers had recently been killed in the most disturbing of ways and Steve called you to cancel your plans - again. You weren't the clingy, dependent type, but for the fifth time this month, you were stranded at home alone again, Steve fully aware of the effect this kind of thing had on you. Steve, more than anyone, knew what you had been through in your past friendships, past relationships, and he knew how important truth and trust were. Not to mention the fear that bubbled at the thought of who might be the next victim of whatever evil was taking place in town.
So lying to you was out of the question, or so you thought.
When you questioned your boyfriend, begging him for the truth, he blew you off again with vague excuses of "there's something I need to take care of" and "it's Henderson again, he got himself into trouble". It was always something with him. Once or twice was believable, but by now the lies finally reached a tipping point.

"If you don't want to be around me anymore, can you just spare me the pity and tell me already?"
"That's not what this is, you're not listening-"
"Oh I'm listening, you've just got nothing to say, Steve! Empty excuses and avoiding me like the plague?! I don't deserve this! I'm tired of chasing after this relationship when you're clearly chasing... anything and everything else!"

You were a dormant volcano on the verge of emotional eruption, but you refused to let Steve see you like that. So you stormed away without looking back.
You held onto your confident convictions until you reached the safety of your bedroom, where you broke the dam and let the tears fall freely. Bringing you to now, your tear-stained face staring back at you from the mirror over your dresser.
As you stand stock still in the middle of your room, you close your eyes as a searing headache invades your senses. It's mind-numbing pain stabbing away at your temples and not even the strongest of medications can dissolve the pain fully. This was the fifth day in a row. If these nagging pains pick up again tomorrow you swear you'll take yourself straight to the doctor, but you hope it doesn't come to that. It's just the buildup of emotions over the course of the days, that's all, right?
Knocking back a few pills, you collapse onto your bed and cover your face with your arms in an attempt to shut out the world and drift into sleep. Eventually, you fade into oblivion, sleep being your only respite from the headaches knocking at your skull.