fireworks - steve harrington

1.03

BAD BOY

Ren wasn't entirely sure when he started liking Steve. Although he had a theory.

When he was 14, he and Tammy were starting high school while Nancy and Barb were still in middle. They had almost no friends, mostly because they never had free time when they were younger. Ren's mom had put him in multiple sports before she realised he sucked at every single one, so she gave up on trying to get him to be excessively masculine. And Tammy spent time with her family, because she actually liked them. So they mostly stuck together for the first year of high school.

About halfway through the year, right before winter break, they met Steve. Steve was so cool. He had perfect hair, perfect skin, the perfect life, and everyone was jealous of him. It's cliche, but all the girls wanted to be with him and all the guys wanted to be him. Even some of the upperclassmen wanted to be him. And Ren Bautz wanted to be with him, though he didn't know it just yet.

Tammy thought Steve was a self-centered, stuck-up bastard, and she made that known. Three months later, Steve had finally woven his way into their two-person group. It took them forever to figure out why he wanted to be friends with him. No one wants to be friends with the outcasts. Except Steve Harrington apparently.

It was the middle of the night on a Saturday, and Ren and Tammy were having one of their monthly sleepovers. They'd made a pact to continue to do that so that they wouldn't drift apart. Nancy and Barb were there too, but they weren't super close to the older pair yet. That would come a year later.

A quiet knock was heard from the window. Tammy whipped her head around and saw the outline of Steve and his already iconic hair. She sighed and walked towards it as Ren finally turned to see what was happening. Tammy still wasn't Steve's biggest fan, but she could admit that he definitely had some good qualities.

When she opened the window, she noticed that Steve was covering his face with one hand as he whispered, "Hey, uh, can I come in?"

Tammy nodded, mostly involuntary. It seemed like there was something wrong, and there was no way she was leaving him out in the rain under that circumstance. He stumbled in, still covering his face, and that worried them. Ren walked over and sat down again, motioning for Steve to join him.

"What's going on?"

"Um," he coughed, "I kind of need some help."

When both of them gave him confused looks, he lifted his hand off his face and revealed that half of it was covered in blood that seemed to be coming from his eye.

"Oh my god!" Tammy's hands flew to her face.

Ren leaned in closer and examined his cheek, hoping that was the actual origin of the blood. "Tam? Can you get your first aid kit?" She nodded and rushed out. He knew that she couldn't handle blood very well, and there was a lot of it. "I'm hoping this is the only part of you that's injured?"

Steve shook his head. He lifted his shirt up just a bit and revealed some bruises that were forming and a spot on his ribs that looked like someone had taken a switchblade to him.

"Steve, what happened?"

"My, uh, my dad." He gulped. "I borrowed five bucks without asking."

Ren's eyes went wide. "Are you serious? So he decided to do this?"

Steve nodded.

Ren's tone was laced with an anger Steve had never witnessed before. "I'll fucking murder him."

"No, don't do that. It's fine. It's not like it's the first time," he mumbled.

Ren raised his voice, "That's even worse!" Steve flinched in response, and Ren felt horrible. "Sorry, sorry, I'm not mad at you. You didn't do anything. I'm mad at your sad excuse of a father." Steve just nodded again.

Tammy opened the bedroom door with the large kit in her hand, dropped it next to Ren and turned around with her nose and mouth covered so she wouldn't breathe in the smell of blood and throw up.

"Thanks, Tam." Ren immediately got to work on cleaning up Steve's face, something he had no idea he'd be doing a lot of over the next few years. Steve grunted in pain a few times, and even yelped once or twice, but for the most part, he was a cooperative patient and just let Ren do his work.

Once he was done, Steve said, "You know, you should be a nurse someday. Or a doctor. You'd do a good job with this part."

Ren just laughed once and put a large bandage over his cheek, which was, as he hoped, where the blood was dripping from. He then moved to Steve's stomach and cleaned the cut on his ribs. And he may or may not have gotten distracted for a bit because of his abs. Steve on the other hand was feeling extremely vulnerable and embarrassed. He never let anyone see him like this, so it was new territory for him.

"Steve, do you wanna stay here tonight?" Tammy asked, still looking away from them.

He glanced to Ren like he was asking for approval. And he kind of was. He didn't want to ruin their night even more than he already did. But Ren just smiled at him.

"Yeah, sure, if you guys don't mind."

"Of course not."

Ren stood up with that stupid smile still on his face and Steve was totally not melting on the inside because of it, which he brushed off as pain from the cuts and bruises. Tammy left the room to get an extra blanket while Ren helped Steve move to sit on the bed.

"Oh, no I can take the floor. I'll be fine."

"Are you sure?" Tammy asked with a raised eyebrow.

He nodded. "Yeah." Ren helped him back up and down onto the floor again. This time it was accompanied with a few grunts of pain from Steve, to which Ren apologised for each time.

"I guess I'll take the bed then. Night, guys." And with that, Tammy jumped on her bed and pulled the cord on her lamp so it was pitch black in the room.

The two boys sat in silence for a while, just laying on the floor right next to each other, when Ren finally spoke up. "So I'm probably not supposed to ask about this, but I really want to. Has it ever been this bad before?"

Steve sighed and reluctantly said, "Yeah. Not usually my face, but yeah."

"Has it ever been worse?"

There was a long beat of silence. And then Steve whispered, "Yeah."

Ren rolled onto his side, facing Steve, and asked more questions. "Why did it get worse?"

"He couldn't find his alcohol a few months ago, and he thought I took it. So he attacked me."

"And does your mom know about this?"

Ren saw Steve shake his head as he said, "No, she's out at night. Has an extra job to pay the bills. And then when she sees the bruises I just tell her that I get bullied a lot or that I'm clumsy. It's worked so far."

"Why did you come to us?"

"I know I can trust you. Both of you. Even if Tammy doesn't like me much."

"It's not that she doesn't like you. She's just wary of you. You know, you're very attractive and it's a bit intimidating." Shit, why did I just say that? Is he attractive?

Thankfully, the darkness of the room hid the very prominent blush on Steve's cheeks. "Attractive?"

"Yeah. You're pretty and tall and you've got nice hair." Well, that answers it. He's definitely attractive.

"Oh. Thanks."

After that, Steve sneaking into Tammy's room became a more common occurrence. They became the best of friends. And then Steve met Tommy and Carol. They were the downfall of everything.