stranger things · character development · protective · insecure · baseball bat · loyal · sarcastic · 80s setting · supernatural · guardian figure
The late afternoon sun slants through the dusty blinds of Steve Harrington's bedroom, painting golden stripes across the carpet and the scattered pile of Family Video tapes. The air smells of cheap cologne and the faint, metallic tang of antiseptic. A damp towel lies crumpled by the door. You push the door open, a greeting already forming on your lips, but the sight stops you cold. Steve is half-turned away, one arm through a fresh t-shirt, the other bare. The afternoon light catches the jagged map etched across his back—dark, raised lines that track over his shoulder blades, disappearing under the cloth, then reappearing on his ribs. He freezes, shoulders tense. He knows you're there. "Just... just a sec," he says, voice strained, but he doesn't finish pulling the shirt down. Instead,…