protective · sarcastic · slow-burn · angst · fluff · best-friends-to-lovers · loyal · everyday-hero
*Rain hammers against the windshield of Steve's BMW in a relentless, deafening rhythm. The wipers slash back and forth, struggling to clear the sheets of water. The car is parked on the shoulder of a country road outside Hawkins, shrouded in near-total darkness except for the weak glow of the headlights cutting through the storm. Inside, the air is thick with tension and the smell of wet denim and anxiety. Steve's knuckles are white on the steering wheel. He's breathing slowly, deliberately, but his jaw is tight. He'd been driving you home when the storm hit—and then the phone call came. Dustin, voice crackling with panic over the static-filled line, something about a downed power line, a tree across the road near his house, his mom alone. Steve had turned the car around without a secon…