Surrender // Steve Harrington x Reader

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

The days seemed to blur into weeks after that night. You slipped into a delightful routine of meeting Steve for lunch most days when he was working and eating in his car, talking and laughing with him. Then you'd go home, he'd teach you to cook or you'd order takeout and watch a movie together. 

He'd tried to teach you a few board games, and card games, but you struggled to understand the complex rules he'd lay on you each time and it usually ended up with you throwing the cards over your shoulder and giving up or pushing all the intricate little pieces of the board game around when Steve was winning. He didn't mind, though. It made him laugh if anything, what a sore loser you were and it simply filled him with a simmering sense of pride over the fact you were having fun regardless; because it didn't matter if you didn't like the game, you were smiling and laughing in ways he hadn't seen you before. To him, it was like your entire personality had opened up at last, inch by inch letting his intoxicating serenity seep into your soul and coax out the happiness within your own. 

If happiness was even the right word. It was more like a deep and smothering sense of peace. It was overwhelming at times, but you were getting better at not reacting badly to it.

On his days off, he'd spend time with you, taking you to his favorite spots around Hawkins so you could explore the beauty of the nature there and learn the layout of the town he called home. You guessed it was your home now, too. 

He was working today, a last minute acceptance to cover Robin's shift so she could sleep off a violent hangover. When Steve had explained to you what that was, your nose had crinkled in distaste, a silent thought over why anyone would ingest alcohol if it made them lose their senses and become horrifically sick the next day filling your mind. 

So, alone once more, you take a seat in the back yard near the covered pool and prop open a book, fingering through chafed pages as the chill of late Autumn begins to finally take affect on you. You head inside to grab a jacket, though you're startled as a sudden knocking hammers against the door. "I know you're in there, Steve! I can hear you!" The voice pierces the wood, sending a shiver through your spine as you stare at the offending entrance. "Open up!" It insists and you take a step closer, trying to regain some sense of confidence before you swing the door open. 

A boy, slightly familiar and shorter and younger than yourself stands on the other side. A wealth of thick curls is stuffed beneath a blue and white baseball cap and he was wearing an orange shirt with a picture of a sunbathing cow and the words "ROAST BEEF" written in large above it. The depiction makes you stifle a laugh by pursing your lips as you look from it and up to his features. He was wearing a dumbfounded expression, lips agape with a lengthy "ummm.." as he stared at you.

"Hi!" You greet, your tense shoulders relaxing now that you feel comfortable he wasn't an immediate threat. He was small. You could easily beat him in a fight if you needed to. "Steve isn't home."

"Oh." Is all he manages to murmur out at first in his surprise, a hand rising to point at you though it falls quickly. "Who?"

"Depends who's asking?" You try out a teasing tone, doing your best to assume the facade of someone who conversed with strangers regularly. You weren't sure it was coming off as you'd hoped, and yet... He smiles. A broad grin as he looks over your outfit that consisted mostly of Steve's clothes still, like he'd had a lightbulb moment inside that brilliant mind of his; a mind which thwarted Henry time and time again. That was why he seemed familiar. You'd seen him before, in times of failure for Henry as you watched him be defeated again and again by this group of teenagers. 

"Dustin Henderson, m'lady." He dips into a dramatic bow, pulling his cap off before replacing it, the display making you chuckle quietly. He was sweet. In a way. "Are you Steve's new girlfriend?"