Surrender : Book Two // Steve Harrington X Reader

𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐔𝐄 𝟐

His family surround his bed. 

He's aware of it, but lacks the energy to tell them all of the thoughts circling around his head right now. Steve lays there, his body failing him, his lids barely open as his loved ones weep for him. He knows why. His illness has won, despite Matt's best efforts. He had the best doctors check Steve over, but in the end... It's fated. 

Steve was meant to die this way.

Pathetic, isn't it? All he fought and the battles he won, and he dies to something so mundane as illness. He'd laugh if he had the will anymore. But he's so very tired, his limbs leaden and his heart a weak thump-thump in his chest. "Don't leave us, daddy." Stephanie says. Poor, sweet, Stephanie. She grew up so beautiful, with her mothers tenacious attitude to match. He's so proud of all of them.

But there's two people missing here. One of which is the person that his heart has been aching for since the moment she was lost to him. 

You.

Your name is the sweetest melody of his life, the flow of it from his mouth the favorite taste on his tongue, the thought on his mind the most blissful notion. His lips shift, opening, and the head of his eldest child perks up, awaiting his words eagerly. Well... Not his eldest child. No, that was also lost to him. 

Matt leans closer, "What is it, dad?" He asks, his voice rough from the tears he'd shed these past few weeks as his father's sickness took over at last. He presses his ear to his fathers mouth to catch the broken rasp of your name leaving them. Matt's body slumps and then shudders as he turns his face to hide his shattering sobs. Stephanie consoles him, comforting him in a way Steve is no longer able to, but as his body moves from Steve's vision... 

God. 

You appear to him just as he remembered you. Your beautiful face, that sly little smile you gave him when you were feeling particularly mischievous, the teal sundress he loved so much on you. "Hey, baby." You say to him and his body wracks with a sob of his own that makes a shoot of pain course through him. A hand clasps around his own - Phoebe, his youngest. "It's time, Steve." You tell him, your soft voice in his ears after such a long time without it providing the balm he needed for his wounded soul. He doesn't want to leave his children, but they're all grown up now. They don't need him anymore. They have their loved ones, jobs their mother would be proud of, and some kids of their own. He can let go. He doesn't need to protect them anymore, as you begged and pleaded of him in your last wishes.

He can come home to you at last.

"Ben?" He croaks and Matt cries harder, his entire body shaking. Phoebe edges closer, unable to share Matt's grief since she never had the chance to know her oldest brother. "Ben's not here, dad. He's.. He's dead, remember?" She says as if consoling a child, but it wasn't her that he was asking, so he simply squeezes her hand as best he can as he stares at your ghostly form.

"He's here too." You tell him and watch the smile grow weakly on his face, that handsome face that pulled you from the depths of hell and restored humanity in you. That face that is grey in pallor now, deathly pale and sunken from illness. "Would you like to come see him?"

He nods and turns to Matt, who has puffy eyes and takes the weak hand he offers him. "Look after them, Matt." He rasps. "I love you all so much. So much." Sobs sound in the air from his children and you look around at all of them, your heart swelling and smile growing in joy over how grown up they all are. They cuddle in close to their father, faces wet and hearts broken. 

But as you near Steve, he smiles in contentment alone. He's not afraid anymore. He's been reunited with you. There's nothing more he could want from this life.

When you lean in to him, he closes his eyes and a tear of his own rolls down his cheeks as you kiss him at last. It's just as he remembers and something in his chest stops as if to cherish this moment with you. When he opens his eyes, it takes him a moment to recognise his surroundings.

He's standing in a wildflower meadow. The sun is beaming down, bright and fat and yellow, radiating a warmth he hasn't felt in so many years. The bleakness that shrouded his life has shifted and he's restored to his youthful body with you stood right in his grasp. "Sweetheart?" He breathes out with ease and you grin up at him, a wild and carefree grin that you never thought you'd feel again.

"It's me, Steve. I'm right here." You assure him and he lets out a loud, incredulous laugh as he lifts you up into his arms and spins you so fast that you elicit a delightful giggle. "Steve! Put me down!" You laugh, slapping his shoulder, until your feet are on the ground once more. He dips, peppering your face in a wealth of kisses as his hands squeeze your cheeks.

"I. Missed. You. So. Much." He mumbles hastily between frantic kisses and you can't help but just stand there and accept it. "I tried to save you, I tried to come back, but-" He chokes on the words and keeps touching you as if he's afraid you'll fade away into whatever beautiful dream he's living in right now. You don't have the heart to remind him that this isn't a dream.

"Mom?" A small voice calls from between the trees skirting the edge of the meadow and Steve's head whips up to look in that direction. You watch as his smile drops and he gasps in shock, his eyes lining with silvery tears as Ben steps out with his hands full of oddly-shaped rocks. He spots Steve and breaks out into a run, dropping what he'd been carrying. "Dad!" He shouts, leaping into his fathers awaiting arms.

You watch as Steve falls to his knees, sobbing as he clutches his son tightly against him. A tear of your own breaks free and you join them, getting onto your knees and coiling them both up in a taut embrace. At one point in your life, before Matty was born, it was just the three of you. Now, for some time, it will be that way again. You hope the rest of your children can live long and happy lives, with the three of you waiting here for them until the end.

"Ben." Steve cries, sniffling as he pulls back to look at both you and your son. He wraps you both up in strong arms, his cheeks reddened and his lower lip quivering. "I ne--" He swallows thickly. "I never thought I'd see you again." 

"We were right here waiting for you, Steve." You tell him, stroking stray hairs back from his face. God, you missed his hair. "We waited this whole time. Thank you for taking care of the kids as I asked. But you can rest now. It's okay, baby. It's okay." You console him as he slumps over, sobbing into your shoulder as Ben cuddles in beside the two of you. His little hand strokes over Steve's back in attempt to comfort him too. "We've got you. We're here."

≖

"Sleep well, dad." Matt purses his lips to stifle the threatening cries. His dad was still slightly smiling, content and at peace even in death, and it's more than Matt could have ever asked for. After everything he went through, it's the least of what he deserves. To die in peace, surrounded by those who loved him most.

He only hopes that his mom, dad and brother managed to find each other in the afterlife. That he's not alone, as he has so often felt without you these past years.

Phoebe brings up the blankets to tuck around Steve and Stephanie lights a candle in his honor, pressing a kiss to her fingers and then placing it over the picture of her parents that rests on the nightstand beside his bed. He loved you so much, the kind of love that they always searched for themselves, but could never hope to really find.

It was the kind of love that changed the world. 

And now, you'd found each other again, leaving behind a legacy that could take on anything thrown at them, just as their parents had. 

The children leave the room to call the coroner, the room lit only by the small candle beside the bed. 

And in his eternal rest, Steve is finally happy again. 

With you and Ben, just as things should be. 

≖

(A/N: I needed to feel something srry. 

Also @hargrovesswifee insisted a while ago that I let them have a reunion so here we are. This is your Christmas present. Love u <3 )