Surrender // Steve Harrington x Reader

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍

Groggy eyes peel back with reserved intent, your mind awake but your body not quite cooperating with it just yet. Lashes fan over your cheeks, tickling the delicate skin as they flutter open. 

You almost jump back as eyes fall upon the slumbering form in front of you, but you settle before you get the chance as you realise it's just Steve. Not remembering having fallen asleep in the first place, your mind was dazed and dumbfounded but since he was still out cold, you take a moment to simply take in his visage in private curiosity. 

Fingers itch to reach out and touch him, to push the silky locks from his eyes that dangled like a personal veil, covering what your eyes were suddenly so desperate to study. 

His breaths were shallow and his lips propped open to expel them, eyes moving steadily back and forth beneath his lids with whatever dream he was in. Unable to resist the urge after what feels like an eternity, a tentative hand slides across the covers, lifting as it stops a few inches from him.

Hesitant fingertips begin to brush away brunette tendrils, draping them back over his head until they remain in place out of his eyes. 

Steve doesn't move once, doesn't even begin to stir and the lack of response fuels the courage you were displaying. Especially since now your curiosity had piqued, tired eyes studying his objectively handsome features. You didn't think he was, of course. But. Objectively speaking, he could be considered handsome.. you guessed..

Angular cheekbones and jaw, thick brows and eyes so kind it almost hurt you to look into them sometimes. Lips a soft swell of pink, plush and open with huffed breaths. There was a small glisten of drool peaking from the corner of his mouth that was pressed against the pillow beside your own and you scrunch your nose up at it. Gross.

But it wasn't gross enough to cease your investigative hands as gentle fingertips settle over the heights of his cheekbones, just brushing against it until he doesn't move under the touch. The pads of your fingers run absently over his cheek, tracing the delicate lines of them and circling down to his jaw where they do the same, a hint of stubble just starting to pierce the flesh and scratch at your skin in protest.

You watch closely as the skin dips beneath your touch as it moves back up to the hollows of his cheek and in his sleepy daze he ever so slightly leans against the cup of your palm, mumbling something you couldn't decipher. Despite knowing better, you allow your thumb to drift over his cheekbone, a ghost of a smile tipping up just the corners of your lips.

It had already been too long that you'd allowed your private moment of study to linger, and he was beginning to stir so you drop your hand to your side, cheeks beginning to heat with the embarrassment of potentially being caught.

With seemingly no other option, you close your eyes once more and pretend nothing had ever happened. Nope. You were still asleep, as you had been before, or so the feigned shallow breaths you expel would tell him. 

Eyes closed, you could feel the way the bed rises a fraction beside you, a soft grumble filling the air as he rolls onto his back. "Shit," He whispers to himself, wiping the saliva from the corner of his mouth and shifting to flip the pillow so you didn't see it. He allowed himself a brief moment for his own study, admiring how peaceful you looked when you slept before deciding better of it, not wanting you to freak out when you woke up to him still there.

Ah, if only he knew.

The mattress plumps out fully as he stands and stretches out, the muscles in his back and shoulders flexing before he makes his hasty escape. You listen the whole time, waiting for the telltale sound of the door closing behind him before you even dare to open your eyes, pushing to sit in an instant and staring at the bleak wood that posed as entrance to the room.