Assorted Character Oneshots

Old Acquaintances - Steve Harrington

Summary: YN is searching the Vecna house as their hobby at the same time the party is searching the house for clues. They run into their old classmate King Harrington and feelings neither had felt in a while start to stir.

Triggers: violence, mentions of blood, fighting

Word Count: 2,716

The gang started to unpack their flashlights and coordinate who would go where, Steve reminiscing on the old scooby doo movies he used to watch. He would definitely be Fred. His thoughts continued to wander as to who best matched every character in the gang, being interrupted when Dustin cleared his throat.

He snapped his attention to the small boy, following his gaze to find another person, unfamiliar at first glance. They were wearing Walkman headphones, catching the tail end of the song they played if you were quiet enough. They seemed preoccupied, searching the room in every crevice and nook for something. They were too busy to notice the party standing in the hallway adjacent.

Dustin whispered, as if afraid to spook the intruder, "Who is that?"

The rest of the party looked just as lost as him, sharing looks amongst themselves. The stranger turned around and saw the group staring them down. They froze, scanning over the crowd before lifting one of the ears of their headphones. "Uh... hey?"

The party all tried to avert their gaze but Steve kept his eyes trained on them, squinting to try and see them better in the dark. "Wait, do we know you?"

The figure shrugged before joining them in the hall. "I don't know if you know me, but I know you. King Steve."

As they stepped closer, the light from their flashlights illuminated their features just slightly. The memories came rushing back to Steve. The two had had most of their senior classes together. They never really interacted, but they had worked on a few projects together, he.d class discussions, even helped each other on questions they were stuck on or with notes they didn't quite finish before the teacher had moved on. They had spent just enough time together for Steve to grow fond of them, being teased relentlessly by his friends when he would watch them walk by a little too long. He remembered the summer after their graduation, how they would come in every Saturday night just before closing to get the same order of ice cream. They sited that it finished their weekend off since they worked Sunday mornings. Though, truth be told, they were always there just to see Steve. A sort of distant friendship blossomed from there, but it never went far. After the 'fire' at the mall, they stopped seeing each other for a good long while.

It saddened Steve, when the days at the video store passed and they hadn't shown up. He'd always enjoyed their company, even if their senses of humor differed. He liked that about them, they were different from the popular kids he'd always hung out with. They were more like Robin. Robin was cool in her own way, she didn't really care about popularity or what kids at school thought about her. Maybe that's why he liked the two so much, having developed, albeit short, crushed on both. His feelings disappeared when Robin came out to him and he'd thought his feelings for ___ had faded overtime as well, but seeing them standing there now, the feelings swelled back into his chest with a force great enough to knock him to his feet.

He braced himself against the wall behind him, just in case that did happen. He finally noticed the silence hanging around them, finding that the others had introduced themselves and were waiting on an explanation as to how the two knew each other. "Oh, uh, we went to school together." He stammered out as best he could, knowing glances shared between Nancy and Robin.

___ chuckled at his shake in confidence, smirking up at him. "Yea. We had most of our classes together. We were actually pretty good friends. Wouldn't you say?"