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

Chapter 37: Hiccups

Steve had only woken once thanks to his own brain's dark meanderings and Eddie had had a nightmare, but they'd returned to sleep quickly both times, so after a mostly peaceful night's sleep, Steve decided he wanted to get at least partially back to normal. Before everything had gone to hell, he had tried to go for a run at least three times a week. It always cleared his head and set him up for the day.

He crawled out of bed still pretty early, leaving Eddie snoring with a quick kiss. After using the bathroom, he pulled on his old gym shorts and a shirt and headed downstairs. No one else was about yet, so he picked up his keys and let himself out.

The morning air was fresh with a slight bite, perfect running weather.

After doing a few stretches, he set off down the drive. He was just getting into a rhythm ready to turn along the road on his usual route, when a man stepped into his path and a flash went off. The stranger was lucky he didn't deck him as his fight or flight instincts kicked in, and after the last few weeks they were highly primed.

"Steven Harrington?" a voice asked.

He turned to see a woman holding a microphone and a tape recorder. Just a reporter his logical brain provided, but his illogical one refused to trust his eyes. One look at her had him spinning on the spot and running right back the way he had come at about double the pace ignoring anything she shouted after him.

The front door slammed as he leaned on it, heart going a mile a minute, once he was inside. He could feel himself shaking with the adrenaline. All thoughts of a nice calming run were so much dust.

"Steve?" his mom said, appearing on the landing in her dressing gown. "Good lord, you're a white as a sheet. What happened?"

She came down the stairs towards him quickly.

"Reporters," he said, willing his heartrate back to normal as best he could. "They must have been hiding in the bushes. I was going for a run, and they jumped out in front of me. I ... God, I nearly hit him, Mom."

"Which would have been perfectly understandable," his mom said, gently placing her arm around his shoulders. "Come on, I think you need to sit down. You're shaking like a leaf."

"What's going on?" came from the landing and he looked up to see Eddie standing there.

"Reporters," his mom said for him. "The cretinous morons thought it was a good idea to leap out of the bushes."

Eddie came quickly down the stairs.

"This is what you get for trying to be all healthy and all that crap," Eddie said.

It was a nice try, but Steve's heart was still going far too fast for him to really smile. He could tell Eddie wanted to reach out and pull him into an embrace, but with his mom there, couldn't.

"Your friend, Argyle, was extolling the virtues of hot chocolate to me the other day," his mom said, guiding him towards the kitchen. "A wise young man. I think we should test out his theories, don't you. At least the ones about chocolate, not the ones about weed."

"And never his ones about pineapple on pizza," Eddie added. "Fruit on pizza is just wrong."

"Tomatoes are fruit," Steve said as the titbit of information popped into his brain.

"They're sauce, they don't count," Eddie replied.

"So are olives," he added.

Eddie gave him a narrow-eyed look.

"Robin educated me when I made the same argument during a really boring shift at Family Video," he confessed.

"Of course, she did," was Eddie's reaction to that. "I stand by pineapple on pizza being a sin, and I should know, the whole town thinks I worship Satan."