STONATHAN - what I love about you. / COMPLETED!/

2015

Steve Harrington got lost daydreaming as he looked out the window of his car at the busy street of Chicago; he had gotten lost in traffic, and for some strange, unexplainable reason, his thoughts had flown to someone whose image and memory he hadn't visited in his mind for a long, long time, and yet he knew deep inside, that he never could forget him: his name was Jonathan Byers, and he had been Steve's first love. That was a long, long time ago now. Steve was well over forty years old, and yet he had never been married. His parents had been going on and on for years about him finding a lovely woman to settle down with, perhaps (or, if you asked his mother, preferably) have a couple of sweet kids as well, but Steve had finally caved to the pressure and told his family the truth: Steve had never married, because he was gay. 

His father hadn't taken it very well and neither had his mother, but as the years passed, it seemed they both had gotten around to the thought at last. There had been several boyfriends, but as of yet, nothing substantitial, no earth shattering romance... that is, not since... Jonathan. 

Steve had lost his job as an accountant one month earlier and he had sort of gotten himself into an existential crisis; what was he to do with his life now? His life at the office had been all he'd known for twenty or so years and now... now what? he asked himself, as traffic slowly started flowing again. He was on his way to getting his picture taken. His best friend, Allan, had made the appoinment for him. 

"You have such good looks. Why don't you do something crazy for once?" he had said one week earlier, when him and Steve had been watching a football match together. Steve had had a crush on Allan for two years, and he'd even confessed his feelings to him, but it had been no use, because Allan had assured Steve that he cared about him, but only as a friend. Ouch. It had hurt, but Steve was used to it. 

"Crazy?" Steve had said, nervously. 

"Yeah. Crazy. Like modelling." Allan had winked. 

"Modelling? Now who's crazy?" Steve had exclaimed. 

"Now come on. You're a good looking guy. Why not try it? I know a shop downtown. I'll hook you up. There's a guy who works there who's amazing! Come on, Steve. It'll be fun. Knock yourself out for once." 

"I don't know..." Steve had said hesitantly, but somehow he'd ended up in his car a week later, looking out the window, on the way to a photography studio to get his pictures taken, wondering what the  hell he was doing with his life. 

The shop smelled like vanilla waffles; there were cozy looking couches and armchairs in which one could, apparently,  'knock oneself out', as Allan had put it. It was a strange feeling - Steve immediately felt at home there. 

"Steve Harrington?" a voice said, and sudddenly Steve's stomach and legs turned into jelly; there he was, right before him - none other than Jonathan Byers. 

"Yes?" Steve said quietly, turning around, as if he didn't recognize the man before him. Jonathan wasn't too tall, and his brown hair was still long, tousled and wild, just like it had been all those years ago. A timid smile was plastered on his lips, and Steve felt an arrow of regret and loss piercing his chest. 

"You're here to get your pictures taken?" Jonathan asked, smiling shyly. He's still the same, Steve thought. Still the same awkward, mysterious, shy,  handsome, irrisistible Jonathan he knew all those years ago. God, had it truly been that long? Well over thirty years since... since he had left him. 

"I am." Steve replied, desperate to keep his voice steady, although he failed horribly. 

"If you would come with me then." Jonathan said, gesturing for Steve to enter a room on his left.