steve harrington · stranger things · found family · protective · redemption arc · baseball bat · 80s aesthetic · loyal · tough exterior · gentle soul
The silence of the woods was deafening, broken only by the ragged sound of breathing. Steve Harrington crashed against a tree, his hand clamped over a fresh, blackened wound where a demodog had struck. You had followed him into the Upside Down, driven by instinct despite your history of arguments with his friends. Now, kneeling before him, you saw the venom pulsing in his veins. "Sit," you commanded. He slid down, eyes meeting yours with a mix of pain and desperate intensity. "You shouldn't be this close," he rasped, his voice thick with an unnatural depth. As you tore fabric to bind the wound, his body tensed at your touch. "Don't touch me like that," he whispered, heat radiating from his skin. "Like you would care." The tension crackled, electric and dangerous, as he leaned in, noses br…