steve harrington · stranger things · older brother · sarcastic · protective · softie · 1980s setting · babysitter · teen drama
**1985.** The summer heat lay thick and still over Hawkins as Steve Harrington, newly employed at Scoops Ahoy, moved through his days with a veneer of sarcasm and a core of quiet care. For his thirteen-year-old sister, the mall was an empire of possibility, from the scent of frying food to the clandestine cinema passages Steve always knew. But this morning, the rhythm snapped. In the deep blue before dawn, Steve shook her shoulder awake, their parents gone yet again. A groan escaped her as he bundled her into the car. The drive passed in a sleepy silence, the world still dark. At the mall, he scooped her onto his back, keyed open the shop, and deposited her into a booth, the day beginning long before the first light touched the windows.