Surrender // Steve Harrington x Reader

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐘-𝐓𝐖𝐎

You were silent the whole drive over. In the backseat sat Robin behind you, Max in the middle and Dustin behind Steve, who was driving. Dustin and Steve were rambling on, arguing about something you weren't paying any attention to. 

Robin had tapped your arm at one point, leaning in to ask if you were okay to which you simply nodded. You weren't. Not at all. 

But you deserved to not be okay.

You deserved whatever grotesque, horrific things that came at you in life from this point forward.

The remnants of your tears made your cheeks feel taut, dried to the sensitive flesh and left alone to exist since there would likely be more before the night was through. Since realising her fate, caused by yourself, you'd been reflexively cold to Max. Not that the two of you had many chances to be otherwise, but you couldn't even look her in the eye let alone address her questions or attempts to find out more about you. 

"So, (Y/N), how long have you and Steve been together?" She'd asked on the way over. "A while," you'd responded, short and clipped and tone strained for reasons nobody in the damn car could know. "Oh. Well it's nice to see him not pining over Nancy Wheeler anymore." She'd joked and you remained silent. Atop everything else, the last thing you needed was to think about human girls far better suited to him than you were. It was a slippery slope; once you started to despise yourself, it was like your mind turned completely against you. 

Steve deserved better. They all deserved better. You were a worthless, empty husk of cruelty who belonged with the monsters she feared so much in that other place.

Steve had tried to turn the conversation after that and you'd simply stared numbly out of the windscreen at the world going by, shoulders rigid and lips pursed in a hard line. As he pulls up to your destination, everyone piles out except for you and him, who linger a moment longer as his fingers cross over to swoop up your own, hoping to gain your attentions. It works.

"You don't have to be a part of this. You know that, right? I can take you home. Get you safe." Soft hazel hues search your impassive expression for a crack in the ice you weren't willing to give. Your mask had been placed on, figuratively speaking, and any emotion was void from your delicate features. 

"Come on, lovebirds! We have shit to do!" Dustin complains, slamming a closed fist down on the roof of the car. "He's right," Is all you tell Steve, slipping free of his gentle grip and getting out of the car. He looks crestfallen at your lack of any real response but says nothing else as he gets out and follows the group to the large house nestled at the side of the lake. 

Dustin rings the doorbell. Once. Twice. No answer. So he repeatedly rings it and then begins shouting for his friend, still to no avail. 

You wander around the side of the house, away from the group, wondering if you might perhaps be able to privately use your powers on a locked back entrance. More than anything though, you just wanted a moment to breathe. Away from them.

But it's interrupted almost instantly by the redhead you'd been avoiding. She comes to stand beside you as the others continue their assault of the front door and you don't acknowledge her at first.

"Look, I don't know why you don't like me..." She begins, clearing her throat. "But we kinda have to work together right now. So whatever I did, can we maybe just... I don't know, forget about it? For now?"

It chips away at the ice. You turn your face to look at her, big blue pools of sadness staring right back at you. She didn't need your validation, you could tell she was stronger than that and far too independent to care  about it, but there was something there beneath the surface. Beneath the mask she wore that pushed everyone away. She was just a kid. A kid wanting to be happy. To be liked.