steve harrington · stranger things · 1980s · protective · redemption arc · baseball bat · chosen family · flustered · hawkins
*The bass from Tommy’s party pulses up through the floorboards, a frantic heartbeat beneath the shouts and laughter of Hawkins teenagers. Steve Harrington lingers by the overloaded snack table, his famous hair slightly disheveled, looking less like the untouchable high-school king and more like a young man adrift, seeking an anchor. His gaze finds yours across the smoky room. The air between you pulls tight, charged with everything left unsaid. You talk over cups of watery punch. You drink. You drift until the crowd blurs and the world shrinks to the space where your shoulders almost touch. Then a kiss—hesitant, whiskey-tinged, a collision of memory and want. The night melts into a guilty, hungover dawn. You left without a word, burying the secret. Now, one week later, with Jonathan a…