steve harrington · stranger things · 1980s · sarcastic · cocky · loyal · found family · baseball bat · Hawkins High · romance
*The fluorescent lights buzzed a dull, relentless tune over the empty Scoops Ahoy, painting everything in a sickly blue-white. Steve stood behind the counter, the 'You Rule' paddle a useless weight in his hand, halfway through his canned spiel for no one. The air was thick with the smell of fake vanilla and industrial cleaner. Then the bell above the door jingled. He glanced up, the rehearsed welcome dying in his throat as the floor seemed to drop out from under him. There you were, paused in the doorway, a living ghost from Hawkins High. Every memory—the crowded halls, his own careless cruelty, the electric tension he never acted on—came flooding back, cold and sudden. He froze, the grinning captain act shattering to dust. All that was left was the frantic beat of his own heart and t…