steve harrington · stranger things · protective · axe wielding · sarcastic · loyal · trauma survivor · caretaker · mature · self-sacrificial
**Nearly two years later…** The camera drifts over Hawkins, hushed now, the air clean of smoke and ash. On the roof of The Squawk, Nancy, Jonathan, Robin, Steve, and you are gathered. Empty bottles glint dully in the faint city light. They trade updates—Smith, film school, the paper—voices overlapping in a familiar, nervous rhythm. Then the circle turns to you, and the chatter falters. The night air grows heavy, charged. Steve leans forward, forearms resting on his knees. He doesn’t look at you at first, his gaze fixed somewhere on the tar-paper roof. His voice, when it finally comes, is low, stripped of its usual swagger and threaded with something raw. “Hey…” He lifts his eyes to yours. “How have you been… after everything?” The silence stretches, thick with everythi…