you can’t sleep so you phone your brothers bestfriend - oneshot
steve harrington x reader
notes: i write in all lowercase, fluff, more fluff, and more fluff
this is my first oneshot!
everytime you look at the clock it’s like the minutes multiply.
you’ve always had trouble sleeping, and staying asleep. but tonight’s one of the worse nights, no matter what you do you can’t seem to keep your eyes closed.
it doesn’t help that every night you get that feeling of impending doom, the feeling of anxiety that’s etched so deep into your bones that no amount of therapy could ever rid of it.
you play song after song to try and take your mind off the fact that you can’t sleep, and to try and push back all the other thoughts racing around.
as you’re about to grab your phone to switch songs you get an idea.
steve’s your brother dustin’s best friend, he has been for years now, and due to the amount of times steve’s come over you’ve gotten quite close with him too.
you even join them and the others on their little adventures, which are quite fun.
steve’s a lovely guy, you feel safe around him, like you can actually talk to him, and you really don’t feel that way around many people, and although he may bitch and moan about it, when it comes to his friends he doesn’t mind helping them.
you open the phone app and scroll to steve’s number, you debate for a few moments before deciding to click ring.
it rings a couple times and you wonder if he’ll actually answer.
just as you’re about to give up a voice cute through the ringing.
“hey henderson, you okay?” steve’s groggy voice comes through the phone.
you can’t help but notice the way your heart clenches at how he sounds.
”uh yeah, good, i’m good.” you say, your mind going blank now that you actually have to ask him to come over.
“no offence, but you called at half two in the morning… as much as i hate to say it, i do hope there’s a reason.” he mumbles.
you chuckle slightly at his words as you sit up in your bed. “yeah.. uh, i can’t sleep.”
you bite at your lip a bit, this shouldn’t be so nerve racking but unfortunately it really is.
“oh..” steve mumbles. “do you want me to come over?”
you feel a sense at relief in the fact that you no longer have to ask the question because he already asked it himself.
“yeah please.” you mumble quietly, your tone tainted with vulnerability.
“see you soon.” he says before hanging up the phone.
you put your music back on as you wait for steve and attempt to make your room a little less messy, but honestly it’s not worth it, it’s the type of mess you have to commit to cleaning or it just gets worse.
after about fifteen minutes you hear a tap at your window, although you’re 90% sure it’s steve, you can’t help but feel increased anxiety, the doubts in your mind.
you shake your head. it’s him. now’s not the time to overthink, the poor guys probably trying not to fall down.
you walk over to the window and draw the curtains back before being met with steve’s face. you give him a small smile before opening the window.
he climbs through muttering something about almost falling. he’s still in his pyjamas.
“hey.” he says as he takes off his shoes.
“hey steve, thanks for coming, i really appreciate it.” you say quietly.
he nods, his eyes landing onto your face. “yeah of course.”
you can’t ignore the way your heart feels like it’s gonna break through your chest, you look away from him and look at the floor.
“so uh.. how are you?” you mumble quietly.
steve’s never been in your room alone, god you’ve never had a guy in your room alone before, it’s quite scary.
he nods. “i’m good.” his gaze stays on you. “why can’t you sleep then, huh?”
you shuffle around on your feet before deciding to sit on the edge of your bed. “i honestly don’t know, i just can’t, no matter what i try.”
you let out a slightly defeated sigh and look over at him for a few moments.
steve says silent for a moment. “hm, okay.”
you look up at him after his short response. “what?” you question.
he shakes his head. “nothing.”
you furrow your eyebrows slightly.
“you’re being weird.” you tell him.
“let’s not forget you’re the one who called me at half past two.” he teases slightly.
“that’s not weird.” you shake your head.
he just raises his eyebrows slightly and wanders over to your bed, looking at your bedside table.
you quietly watch him as he inspects everything on there, occasionally picking up a few things and showing you them like you haven’t seen them before.
“is this your tactic to help me sleep? to show me the stuff i own.” you comment.
you see the smile tug at his lips at your comment. “funny henderson, funny.”
you smile slightly as he walks over to where you’re sat and sits next to you.
“are you sure nothings going on? you rang me at the early hours of the morning because you couldn’t sleep.” steve comments.
he sighs slightly and looks at you, properly looks at you like he’s trying to see if there’s anything else.
“m’okay.” he says quietly. “do you wanna go on a drive?”
you look at him and consider it for a moment before nodding. “we can go out the front door, we don’t need to climb through the window.”
“wow, so you made me do that for nothing?” he says.
you shrug and laugh a little before heading downstairs and out the front door, you go into his car.
“you want music?” he asks as he starts his car.
you nod and he hands you the aux cable, you plug it into your phone and put on your car drive playlist.
“bruce springsteen, good choice.” he says as he pulls away from your house.
you smile as you look over at him. “i love bruce.”
you can’t ignore the feeling in your chest, there’s something about being around steve tonight, he’s softer than usual, quieter.
you and steve make casual conversation for a while as you mindlessly drive around the town, the music becoming background noise.
the casual conversation seems to morph into a deeper conversation without either of you realising.
“i can never sleep well, i don’t remember the last night i got a good night sleep, it’s like i cant shut my brain off.” you tell him.
he nods. “that sounds awful.” he pauses for a moment and pulls a face. “sorry, that’s probably not what you want to hear.”
you laugh slightly and shake your head. “it’s okay.”
he looks over at you for a moment as if to say ‘keep talking.’
“i always feel like something bads gonna happen at night time, it’s just this weird feeling of impending doom, and it won’t go away, it never goes away.” you say.
“is that why you always have music on? to try and block it out?” he asks.
you stay on this topic for a while, opening up to steve about your sleeping problems and your anxiety.
you feel slightly uncomfortable because you’re normally the listener not the talker, but it feels okay with steve, you don’t feel pressure to get what you want to say out exactly right.
steve pulls into a mcdonald’s 24 hour drive through and you both give your orders, he parks up in the car park.
“thank you.” you say quietly as he hands you your food.
he nods and begins to eat.
“there’s nothing wrong with you, you know what right?” he suddenly says.
you look up from your food and furrow your eyebrows.
“the way you talk about your anxiety, you talk about it as if there’s something wrong with you, there’s not.” he clarifies.
you look back down at your food, your chest feeling tight, you try and think of something to say but nothing comes to mind so you just nod.
a comfortable silence takes over as you both eat, after a few moments you speak up again.
“thank you for coming to see me.” you say quietly.
he nods. “don’t worry about it.”
you give him a small smile and he gives you one in return, aw that stupid smile.
once you both finish your food, steve starts the car again and begins to drive, this time steve’s just talking about random stuff, like dustin, the groups adventures, and whatever else.
you feel your eyes begin to grow heavy and his voice becomes harder and harder to focus on, after a few minutes you fall to sleep, your head against the window.
after about half an hour, your eyes begin to open.
“hey, sorry.” he mumbles quietly, he had you wrapped up in his arms as he unlocks your front door.
“go back to sleep honey.” he whispers quietly.
you stomach immediately feels like it’s doing a million flips.
you keep replaying the way he said it, so soft, so gentle.
god you could get used to that.
steve carries you up to your room, taking off your shoes before laying you down on your bed.
he pulls the blanket up over you.
you’re awake but sleepy, just quietly watching him.
“goodnight henderson.” he says quietly as he steps back from the bed.
you shake your head and he looks slightly confused. “steve please stay.”
you don’t know why you said it, you didn’t really think it through, it just came out.
when he doesn’t say anything you speak again. “i don’t want you to go.”
he looks slightly taken aback, he nods and take his shoes off.
you pat the space on the bed next to you and he carefully gets in.
“it’s late anyways.” you say quickly, wanting to hide the way you just asked him to stay.
you both lay quietly, laying on the edge of each side to create distance between one another.
you clear your throat. “uh thank you for staying steve.”
“yeah of course, it’s no problem.” he says and you can feel his gaze on you as you look up at the ceiling.
you look over at the clock to distract yourself.
after a couple minutes you both say your goodnights and try to sleep.
you lay with your back facing steve, but when you fail to sleep that way you go back onto your back, before finally facing steve’s way.
no matter what you do tonight, you just can’t fall asleep, god you kinda wish steve had just left you to sleep in his car.
your head is just filled with thought after thought, it’s like there’s no off button, and that feeling of impending doom is always there.
you can’t tell if he’s actually asleep or just trying to fall asleep.
you keep looking at him trying to tell before he opens his eyes and you quickly keep your eyes on the pillow.
“you’re still awake?” he mumbles.
“yeah.” you reply quietly.
you look back at him and see the small frown on his face.
“you need to sleep, what’s going on in that head, huh?” he asks as he sits up slightly.
you eyes stay on him as he sits ups. “nothing.”
you see the way he raised his eyebrows in disbelief, i mean you know it’s a stupid lie especially after you told him about your anxiety earlier.
“henderson, come on.” he says.
his voice sounds so soft, so genuine, like he actually wants to know what’s going on.
you feel your chest tighten slightly and your eyes start to feel a little teary, you blink a couple times to try and get them to go.
luckily it’s dark, except the faint light coming through the window as the sun begins to rise.
“i’m fine steve.” you say again, you don’t mean for your words to come hour harshly.
“you’re clearly not, you phoned me at two in the morning because you couldn’t sleep, and now it’s almost five and you’re still not asleep.” he says as he fully sits up now.
“are you leaving?” you quickly ask, you don’t know why but when he sat up you felt a pang of anxiety, maybe he’s getting up to leave?
he looks slightly thrown off by your question and shakes his head.
you clear your throat slightly, embarrassed. “sorry.”
he sighs and you sit up slightly.
“please talk to me.” he says quietly.
the tight feeling in your chest grows stronger at his words, and the tears in your eyes reappear.
“i just-“ as you begin to speak you feel your mouth tugging into a frown.
you’ve always had this problem, when you’re upset you can’t talk about it because if you do, you just cry.
“i’m fine.” you mumble quietly trying to stop the tears but your words coming out all shaky, you quickly look away from steve because you don’t want to see his reaction.
“hey, are you crying?” he asks and you feel his hand on your shoulder and that’s the last straw.
you feel the tears start to spill from your eyes and a small sound escapes your lips, you take a quick glance at steve and see his panicked expression, before his arms loop around you and your face reaches his chest.
one of his hands cradle your head to his chest and the others placed in the middle of your back.
the shock of his actions is almost enough to stop the tears, but the feeling of warmth pushes them on.
you and steve have hugged before but just small side hugs and hugs goodbye. this is different.
after a few moments you grab onto his arm and let your legs curl up next to his.
“talk to me please.” he says quietly, his tone gentle and patient.
you sniffle a few times before speaking. “i don’t-“ you pause again, because your words are coming out shaky and your voice keeps wavering.
you decide to push your pride aside, you’re already crying in his arms, it doesn’t matter how stupid you sound anymore.
“i don’t know what’s wrong with me, no matter what i do i can’t, i can’t stop the thoughts in my head, i can’t go to sleep.” you say, your words coming out broken.
you feel the way his arms tighten around you, his lips placing a small, gentle kiss on the top of your head.
the kiss only adds to your emotions, you feel like you could genuinely explode but at the same time you feel like you could bash your head against the wall, because even though you’re so tired, you can’t sleep.
“hey, stop that, there’s nothing wrong with you.” steve says taking a small pause before getting to his point. “talk to me okay? tell me the thoughts.”
you can barley gather the exact thoughts yourself, let alone tell steve what they are.
“it feels like something bads gonna happen all the time, i don’t know what but it’s such a horrible feeling.” you tell him.
you begin to open up to steve and all of his responses are more then perfect, god you’d think he was trained at this.
“it’s okay to feel like that, you can’t help what goes on in your head, it’s just important that you share it with someone, don’t keep it to yourself.”
“you’re the sweetest girl i know.”
steve’s now telling a story, from when he was a kid to try and take your mind off things, as he tells the story his hand is rubbing soothing circles onto your back and the other is playing with your hair.
the more he speaks the less you understand as you can no longer keep your eyes open and his voice is slowly fading into the background.
as steve realises you’re almost asleep he begins to talk in a quiet tone, his hands moving slower and more gentle and he carefully readjusts the both of you so he’s laying down too.
once he’s sure you’re asleep he places another gentle kiss onto you’re head.
“goodnight sweetheart.” he whispers quietly, before closing his eyes.
fortunately for steve, sleep is something he doesn’t really have trouble with and he’s out within minutes.
