Stranger Things - Imagines (Book 2)

Steve Harrington X Reader - Who's Afraid Of Little Old Me?

A/N - We're jumping back on the Swiftie train for this one with one of my personal favourites from The Tortured Poets Department: Who's Afraid Of Little Old Me? For this one, reader is one of the individuals who escaped from experimenting at the Hawkins Laboratory with Eleven and ended up living with Hopper. It's sort of set in an alternate end of the entire series, where Reader manages to kill Vecna and close all of the portals, right before this chapter starts. I hope you all enjoy it.

You were panting as you fell to your knees, your head spinning and a familiar warm trickle of blood making a track from your nose to your top lip. Hell, it felt like you'd been through the wars, probably because you had been. 

"Y/N?" the voice slipped through the dull ringing in your ears, cutting through just enough to make you lift your head, seeing Steve hurrying towards you, his eyes wide as he moved to kneel in front of you. "You with me?" he pressed, lifting his hands to cup your face only for you to pull back slightly, watching the pain flash across his features. 

It had taken a long time for you to become accustomed to physical affection. The tight hugs, the arms thrown around shoulders, and the hand holding that seemed so natural to everyone else you had met since freeing yourself had just felt wrong to you. But Steve had helped; he'd let you move at your own pace like you were some stray cat he'd found at the side of the road. And eventually, you'd allowed him to love you. You would lean into his side whilst you were watching movies together and tuck yourself under his arm when you were out in public, all at your own pace. 

But now, it seemed that all of that work had gone down the drain as you pulled away from his affection yet again, lifting your arms to push his hands away when he reached for you again. 

Steve hesitated for a moment, his tongue darting out to wet his lips as he considered his next move. Clearly, you didn't want to be touched, but you looked terrified, and he didn't know exactly how to comfort you without touching you. 

"Okay," he pressed. "Can you speak?"

You swallowed around the lump in your throat. "You can't touch me," you croaked, your voice hoarse from the effort. 

"I'm not going to touch you, Sweetheart," he told you. "Not until you tell me I can," he pressed on. "But I need you to talk to me, alright? Need you to tell me you're okay."

"I don't know," you uttered, choking back a sob. "I've not been able to use my powers since I left the lab, and now-"

Shit. There it was. Now that you'd tapped into your powers, you weren't sure whether you would be able to control them. You'd told him hundreds of stories about the methods that had been used to help you keep the powers at bay before you'd gotten free, but you didn't have any of that now. It was just you and El. 

"I can still feel it," you pressed on. "It's like static electricity sitting under my skin."

"Okay," Steve started again, digging his nails into his palms to stop himself from reaching for you. "We should get back to the cabin. Once we've got everyone together we can brainstorm, right? We can figure something out to help you." 

You nodded, managing to push yourself up onto shaking legs, stumbling slightly but taking a step backwards when Steve reached to steady you. "Please," you breathed softly. "I don't want to hurt you, Stevie."

"You aren't going to hurt me-"

"We don't know that," you interrupted. "I've never touched anyone with my powers like this. I don't know what'll happen and I can't risk it."

"Baby-"

"Promise me, Steve."

He hesitated for a moment. "I promise."

*Time Skip*

"Sweetheart," Steve hummed, pushing the door of your bedroom open ever so slightly to poke his head around it. The second you'd arrived back at the cabin, you'd made a bee-line for the other room, avoiding any contact with the rest of your friends and pressing the door shut behind you, leaving Steve to explain what had happened. "The guys went and got pizza; you hungry?" he pressed, stilling when pushed the door open a little further, his eyes surveying the room in search of you. 

"Please go away," your voice murmured, drawing his attention to where you were sitting on the floor in the corner of the room, huddled under a blanket.

"Oh, Baby-"

"Please, Steve," you pressed on. "You need to go."

Instead, he stepped further into the room, pressing the door shut. 

"If you don't go, I'm going to call Hopper in here. I'll tell him to kick you out-"

"Sweetheart, I can't leave you alone like this," Steve interjected. "It's killing me sitting out there with those guys thinking about how much pain you're in back here."

You hesitated for a moment, looking totally lost. "What if it happens again?"

"That's a risk I'm willing to take," he confessed quietly. "I'm not scared of you, Y/N."

You took in a shaking breath. "You should be," you murmured. "There's something wrong with me," you pressed. "I'm wrong."

"You're not wrong," Steve bit, looking more mad than you had ever seen him. "You're different, but you've never been wrong," he added, his voice softening as he moved a little closer to you. 

"Steve, don't."

"Sweetheart, you aren't going to hurt me," he started again, shifting to kneel in front of you as your eyes dropped closed, thick tears forming on your lashline. "I love you, and I trust you, Baby, and I'm not going to lose you because you're scared of yourself. I just need you to trust me too."

You nodded, your eyes still pressed shut. "I do-"

His hand shifted to rest on your knee, feeling the way you tensed under his touch. "See," he hummed softly, using his free hand to link his fingers with yours. "We're okay," he pressed. "I've got you."

You were launching forward to wrap your arms around Steve a moment later, burying your face into his neck as you sobbed.

"That's it," he hummed softly, lifting his hand to cup the back of your head. "Let it out, Sweetheart; I can handle it."

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