Black Beauty- Steve HarringtonxOC

Chapter 6

A/N: Sorry for the wait I got totally caught up reading Nellis fanfics :D Shout out to Grimmy88 on AO3 for writing one of my fave Nellis fanfics, Retread! Go read it if you're into the pair, it's honestly a great read even though it's a WIP.

They hadn't sat alone for long. Nancy and Jonathan returned very shortly, Filly waving off their apologies as they set out.

"It's okay. I was trying to hide it," she says, but she can't relinquish the apology gift.

"Just take the jerky." Jonathan gives her no time to object, shutting the driver's door of his corroded Ford Galaxie. He'd foisted it upon her, thanking her for all she'd done. He and Nancy would lead Steve back to the middle school parking lot where their young family awaited.

The jam colored four door was the same one she'd watched before. Though her first instict was danger when she saw it through the Byers' house, she now looks upon it fondly. The adolescent standing by the maroon BMW speaks, tearing her from her examination.

"I usually have a strict rule about food in the car, but just this once, I think I can make an exception." The grin pulling on his lips clues her in that he's teasing her. How long had it been since someone treated her so... normally?

Filly smiles again. She's started doing that a lot after the sudden entrance of the kids in her scrapyard. She likes the new direction her life has taken since then, monsters notwithstanding. The fight and the arrival of Steve had been harrowing, but she feels like a light is shining on her. The positive influence of the people she'd met today had given her back what excitement for life she had been close to losing.

"Can I sit in the front?" Filly feels safer in the front seat, if only because the view is different than it was that day in '77. The backseat isn't her favorite place to be.

He regards her amiably. "Sure."

Filly grasps the handle of the front seat, making sure to remove her hope from the waistband of her jeans before she sits. Steve starts up the car silently, though the engine itself grumbles under the hood. Steve is mum for a few ticks before his nervousness and curiosity gets the better of him. "Do you know anything about what happened back there? What that thing was, maybe?" He glances briefly at her disheveled profile.

"No. I just... I wanted to help." She's staring at the book in her lap, the cover all dark shades with a bit of sparkle.

Steve could say the same thing about himself. He's disappointed at the lack of insight, but he supposes it can wait just a bit longer.

"Okay. Well, you saw my debut into monster hunting... How about yourself?" Steve eases the car out of its spot once the Galaxie does the same. "How did you get tangled up in this?"

Filly has to ask. The new word intrigues her. "Day-byew?"

"Uh, debut. It's like the first time you fill a role, I think. I'm not really the best person to ask. Try Nancy." The driver follows the oxbows of the road ahead smoothly. Steve knows every road in Hawkins. He quite enjoys a nice drive around town when he has the time.

Steve is quiet for a while, trying to comprehend what he'd been told. He peeks at the girl, looking so fragile and small in his passenger's seat. He's not too surprised by the characters in her tale. Hawkins is a small town, it's not inconcievable that Mike Wheeler and his friends were the ones to find her, but a pair of superpowered sisters? Agents from Hawkin's lab?

Though he has a hard time coming to grips with it, he can't deny what he'd seen. His world had changed vastly since the morning.

"Okay, wow. That's a lot. I mean... " He stares ahead, focusing on the car ahead. Filly can see the dent in his brow illuminated by the passing streetlights. She dreads that she's said too much. "Shit, you live there?"