fireworks - steve harrington

1.04

STALKER

"Here you go, perv." Steve held the camera out to Jonathan. And then he dropped it on the pavement.

"Dude, what the hell?" Ren shouted. He stepped toward Steve and yelled in his face. "You can't just fucking do that! It's not okay!"

"Ren, stay out of it. If you knew what he did, you'd understand."

"I'm not gonna fucking stay out of it! You need to be taught a fucking lesson if you think that's okay. What the hell did he do to deserve that?"

"Ren, shut up! You don't know what happened!"

"No, you shut up."

"Ren, seriously. Just calm down, it's fine."

"Don't fucking tell me to calm down." And a punch was thrown. Steve was knocked backwards and Tommy lunged forward at Ren.

"Tommy, don't," Steve said as he held his face in his hands.

Ren immediately regretted punching him. "Steve, I, I'm sorry," he muttered. He felt horrible.

"It's fine." He walked off toward the school while Ren stood there in shock. Tommy and Carol were shooting him death glares while Jonathan, Nancy, and Tammy were picking up the pieces of the camera. So Ren went after Steve.

He knew that it wasn't actually fine, and he shouldn't have done that. And there was really no excuse. He only caught up to Steve when they both reached the men's restroom.

"Steve. Steve, I really am sorry. I didn't mean to punch you, I just got really mad. I don't normally do that. And I--"

"Ren, just stop." He shut up immediately. "It's fine. I deserved it."

"No, you probably didn't. You were right, I don't know why he deserved that."

"He took creepy stalker pictures of Nancy while you guys were at my house."

"He what?" Ren's eyes widened.

"Yeah." Steve leaned over the sink and splashed some water on his face, only just then noticing the blood dripping out of his nose.

When he moved to get a paper towel, Ren stopped him. "I'll get it. It's the least I can do."

Steve leaned back against the wall while Ren wet the towel and reached up to wipe the blood away carefully. "This girl told me she saw him with pictures of Nancy in the dark room, so I took them out of his bag and, sure enough, pictures of her. There's even one of her taking off her shirt." Ren stopped cleaning Steve's face for a beat. "It's so messed up."

"You were definitely right to be upset. I'm pretty pissed off now, too."

"More than you were when you punched me?" he smiled.

"I feel awful. I'm so sorry."

Steve chuckled a bit. "Ren, it's really okay. You didn't know the whole story, and I was probably a bit harsh on him. Cameras are expensive, but I do think it taught him a lesson."

"Yeah, hopefully he won't be taking any more pictures of people in various states of undress."

"Well, hello Mister English Teacher."

"Shut up." He was too busy scrubbing off a particularly tough spot to notice Steve's lingering gaze. "You know, you're not so bad when you're not around those idiot friends of yours."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. So don't mess up what you have with Nance. You seem to be really good for her when it's just you two." Steve's heart dropped a bit at that statement. He liked Nancy, he really did. But there was something about Ren that had suddenly caught his interest. Is it possible to like both of them at once? Steve quickly pushed that thought out of his head. He at least wanted to try to be friends with Ren again, before he really thought of him in any other way.

Ren had gotten all the blood off by then, but he was too distracted by Steve's lips to stop wiping the towel across his face.

"How's it look?"

"Not horrible. Could be covered up with some makeup. It's just a bruise on your nose, so you'll be all good within a few days."

"Thanks, Doctor Bautz."

"I didn't think you remembered my last name," Ren said, shocked.

Steve just grinned. "You're pretty hard to forget, Ren. Endless collection of sweaters, loud opinions. I could pick you out of a crowd anytime, anywhere."

Ren blushed. "I'm hoping that's a good thing."

"It is. I'm not a huge fan of people who don't stick out."

"So why are you friends with Tommy and Carol? I mean, they stick out, but not in a good way."

He sucked in a breath. "Honestly, I don't know. Becoming friends with them was an accident and then I just never cut ties with them."

"Well, I think you should."

Steve nodded slowly. "Yeah."

"Yeah."

They stood there for a moment just staring at each other until Steve took a breath and said, "What are you doing tonight?"

Ren's heart was beating fast. "Uh, um, I don't know. Probably not anything but homework."

"Do you wanna study at my place?" Thump, thump, "I promise I won't just invite Nancy. I'm serious. I like you." Thump, thump, thump, thump. "I don't want you to hate me. I wanna be friends."

Ren nodded slowly. "Okay."

"Okay?"

"Yeah, okay, you idiot."

~•~

"Tam, I promise I don't know where she is. Let's just look back by the pool and see if we see anything that tells us where she is."

Tammy scoffed. "This isn't a fucking Scooby-Doo episode, Nance. My little sister is missing."

They walked through the gate to Steve's backyard and heard a rustling. Nancy took the first step toward the forest behind the house with Ren and Tammy following behind her. They searched for a few minutes when something ran out in front of them. The shock of it, especially how fast the creature was, knocked Nancy off of her feet. Tammy helped her up while Ren started to walk after it.

"Ren! Don't!"

"I just wanna see what it is!" he yelled back at the girls.

"Come on, let's just keep looking this way."

Ren sighed. "Fine." He looked down at his watch quickly and scolded himself internally. "Shit. Guys, I have to go. My mom wants me home in just a few minutes. I'm gonna go past curfew if I don't hightail it back."

"That's fine. We'll keep looking and call you tonight if we find anything," Tammy said as he ran by.

"Thanks."

He ran around the corner to throw them off the trail and then ran back as quietly as he could to Steve's front door. He was the kind of guy who usually knocked because doorbells were annoying, but this time he opted for the quieter choice, at least from the outside.

Steve opened the door seconds later, and Ren immediately walked in. There was no going back. He was just going to do this. "Hey, ready to study?"

"Yeah? Is something wrong?"

"Nope, not at all."

"Ren." He stopped. Steve saw through his bullshit immediately. "What's going on?"

"Okay, so don't be mad, but Nance and Tammy are in your backyard right now looking for clues as to where Barb is," he said in one breath.

"Oh. Okay. And why weren't you going to tell me that?" There was absolutely no anger in his tone, so Ren answered with the truth.

"I didn't want you to be upset. I told Nancy that she should run it by you first considering it's your house, but she didn't listen."

"I'm not upset."

Ren nodded. "That's good. I'm sorry."

"It's fine. Did you guys find anything yet?"

"Nope," he lied. "Study time?"

"Sure."