Beyond the Battle: Action & Consequence (Steddie, Stranger Things)

Chapter 4: Home

Hawkins was once again open for business. It had been three days and the army had cleared all traces of Vecna and the Upside Down from the streets of the town. The rifts had closed, leaving weird scars on the landscape, but it all looked healed. Bits were badly damaged, but other parts had barely been touched and the population who hadn't just upped the first time and had been evacuated when the Upside Down started to properly invade, were being allowed back to their homes.

Steve was dropped off by an army van outside his house on a sunny spring afternoon. It looked just the same, having been completely untouched by Vecna's machinations either the first or the second time. Given where Barb had died, he had thought it might have been damaged, but Vecna's sacrifices seemed to have changed all that. Even his car was sitting where he had parked it before they had gone incognito to deal with Vecna.

Robin's house had been unscathed as well and her parents had welcomed her back, having just returned themselves. Dustin had been picked up by his mom. Lucas and Erica had been taken home as well, as had Nancy and Mike, and the Byers plus Argyle, Hoppe and El had all been in the same place anyway. They all had a cover story for why they hadn't been part of the evacuation like everyone else, but there was no one at home for Steve to tell. He'd managed to get a couple of very short phone calls through to his parents' machine, where he'd let them know he was fine and not to worry, but communication with the rest of the planet was up and down at the moment.

All he wanted was a long hot shower with all the fancy products in his own bathroom, to climb into his softest, most comfortable clothes, to lounge around doing nothing for a while, and to forget that the Upside Down existed.

It felt like a lifetime since he had last been home, even though it had been only seven days. When the evacuation order had come through and the army had started moving everyone out whether they liked it or not, they had grabbed everything they might need and regrouped at Hopper's cabin. In Steve's head it seemed like a different time.

Pulling his keys from his pocket, he walked up to the front door and let himself in. Inside it smelled a little stale from having no one in it for a week, but, other than that, it was weirdly normal. To look at his house no one would ever know Hawkins had been at war with another dimension. He had the sudden urge to fill the place with people, but that would have to wait. Everyone needed time to settle back into their lives.

Heading upstairs to his own room, he threw the few things he had onto the bed and headed into the bathroom. He was on autopilot as he stripped off the army fatigues he was wearing and turned on the hot water. The bat bites and road rash that littered his skin were healing well, so he was pretty sure he didn't have to worry about them as he climbed under the spray.

The labs had had decent showers, but the comfortable familiarity of his own space helped the tension flow out of him. Refusing to feel guilty, he luxuriated in the hot water and the expensive products on the little shelf. It felt a little like finally washing away what was left of the terror and danger of the last few weeks. The loss was still there, but he was refusing to think about that.

Once he was clean and dry, he pulled on an old pair of sweats, a shirt that was so well worn it was almost see-through and was done with it. Padding downstairs with bare feet, he walked over to the phone. However, when he picked it up, all he got was a beeping. The phone lines were low priority compared to other amenities that a lot of the town didn't have back yet, and every time they went to fix something the phone company seemed to break something else. It was hit or miss if calls were possible or not.

Abandoning the idea of trying to call his parents again, he wandered into the kitchen. Some of the fruit in the bowl on the counter had turned while he was gone, so he got rid of that, but almost everything else was fine. He was going to have to stock up at some point, but that could wait a day. Other people would probably need to do the same and they'd have to go out of town to do it, so he'd call around in the morning to check.