Now You Know (That I Love You)
Part 2 to this Steve Harrington x Reader fic!
Theme song(s): This Song by Conan Gray, Sailor Song by Gigi Perez, and Back to Friends by Sombr
Word count: 4,072
Warnings: none that I can think of, just fluff!
A/n: Another shout out to @multifandombliss for being my beta reader and my #1 Steve fic fan lol I thought about doing more parts to this but I think I like ending it where its at with this part. And I've been consumed with another Steve x reader series idea that will be multiple parts. Buut let me know what you think, I love feedback and could be persuaded to do more if its what the people want lol Enjoy! :)
October 1985
“Look, I’m just saying you gotta read the room, Steve. Not everyone is gonna be automatically receptive to your charm,” Robin sighs, giving Steve a patronizing pat on the back to which he rolls his eyes.
“How was I supposed to know her dog just died! I was just going for some friendly conversation,” Steve shoots back defensively.
“Well, maybe let me do the talking next time, okay? I know getting a job is more just like, character building for you, but some of us actually need to make money,” Robin teases, earning another eye roll from Steve.
Since Starcourt mall was shut down permanently and the closest scoops ahoy was not in commuting distance, they had been looking for a job for weeks. They didn’t talk about it but with everything they went through over the Summer, they wanted to stick together, trauma bond and all. Being a package deal made job hunting a little trickier, though, and Hawkins didn’t exactly offer a booming job market to begin with.
They had just come from the local grocery store, which was a promising prospect, right up until Steve had to invoke the hiring manager's beloved and recently deceased dog. They were downtown now, walking up the steps of the library for probably the third time in as many weeks to check if they had any job postings. Third time's the charm, right?
“Maybe we used up all of our collective luck surviving the Russians and interdimensional monsters,” Robin muses as she and Steve stand glumly in front of the unhelpful posting board in the library. Before Steve can agree, a new voice is calling Robin’s name.
“Robin, hey! What are you doing here?” Steve and Robin turn toward the voice almost in unison, both confused about who was approaching Robin in public seeing as they were practically each other's only friend. Unlike Steve, Robin’s face lights up in recognition when she sees who the voice belongs to.
“Oh, hi, y/n! Me and Steve were just checking out the ol’ postings board, still on the job hunt. Oh, right, this is Steve Harrington but you probably already knew that. Steve, this is y/n. We have most of our classes together, including skipping gym.” Robin introduces you to Steve and you look at him like you’re processing the sight of him and Robin together. You shake your head a little before giving him a small wave and a nervous smile before focusing back on Robin.
Steve smiles back but you don’t seem to notice and he wonders if his high-school reputation preceded him to the point of you not being interested in speaking to him. For some reason, the thought makes him a little disappointed. He didn’t even know you and he didn’t know why, but he wanted you to look at him again. It totally didn’t have anything to do with the fact that you were gorgeous and he didn’t think he’d ever seen eyes the same shade as yours before. He just hated that so many people still only saw the person he was in high-school.
“You should talk to Keith at Family Video! He might still be looking to replace me since I quit when school started back up. I mean, I would have quit either way because he’s a creep but I had a good enough excuse since I work here too and there’s no way I could do two jobs on top of school. Anyways, you can tell him I sent you,” you offer a little more explanation than necessary but Steve doesn’t mind listening to you ramble. He finds the way you scrunch your nose and roll your eyes as you call Keith a creep, pretty adorable. He agrees that Keith is a creep and despite having just met you, immediately hates the thought of you having to work with him.
“Yeah, Keith is definitely a creep,” Steve blurts out before Robin can respond. You and Robin exchange a look before looking at Steve with raised eyebrows. “But maybe I can keep him in line,” Steve nods, trying to look confident even though you and Robin both look like you’re trying not to laugh at him.
“Wow, my hero, Stevie,” Robin quips with a snort, rolling her eyes. There’s laughter in your eyes but you at least attempt a modicum of politeness.
“Uh yeah, someone probably should,” you say with a shrug, pressing your lips together to keep a straight face. Then, suddenly you look worried. “Oh, I don’t know if there’s more than one position open, though. I’m sorry, I guess I didn’t think of that.” You bite your lip and look between Steve and Robin with concerned eyes, like you’re afraid you might have caused a problem.
“Maybe Steve can fight Keith for his job,” Robin offers with a smirk, causing the laughter to return to your eyes, and escape your lips before you can stop it. Steve shoots Robin an unimpressed side eye but your laugh is contagious and he’s got a reputation to repair so he plays along.
“I’ll take it easy on him,” Steve says with a smile directed at you. You shake your head but reciprocate with a real smile this time, not the small, polite smile you gave him when Robin introduced you.
“I might pay to see that fight,” you quip back with another small laugh. Steve notices the small dimples in your cheeks when you smile with your whole face and wonders briefly what it would be like to kiss them before mentally kicking himself. He's got to stop jumping to wanting to kiss every pretty girl he meets. Robin coughs and you break eye contact with Steve to look at her with wide eyes.
“Oh um, well, I should probably get back to work. The books won’t shelve themselves.” You hook a thumb over your shoulder and take a step back with a nervous smile.
“Oh, right I keep forgetting you work here!” Robin exclaims with a grimace and earns an eye roll from you.
“Robin, I’ve told you like fifty times. And I was here working when you came in last weekend!” You shoot back, crossing your arms but you don’t actually look angry. Steve can’t imagine you looking angry, from the five minutes he’s known you. God, he really needs to pull it together, you’re Robin’s friend.
“Don’t take it personally, I think she’d forget what I look like if I didn’t drive her to school every time she misses the bus. Which is basically everyday,” Steve teases Robin with a smug look. She shoves his shoulder and you pile on.
“You didn’t tell me you had your own personal chauffeur, Robbie! Must be nice, can’t believe you’ve been holding out on me,” You say in mock annoyance, shaking your head at her but your eyes never lose their lightness.
“Yeah, Robbie, holding out on your friends.” Steve shakes his head, stressing the new nickname you’d used and giving Robin a pointed look.
“Well, he’s very exclusive, by invitation or bullying only,” Robin replies, ignoring Steve’s look and bumping his shoulder with her own.
“Well, I guess since I don’t believe in bullying, I’m out of luck,” you say with a good natured smile and shrug. “I really probably should-“ you start to say, already going to take another step back when Steve interrupts with an invitation.
“I could give you a ride too,” Steve says in a rush, successfully stopping your retreat. Your eyes flick between Steve and Robin, your mouth still half open from being interrupted. “I- I mean if you ever needed one. My car is basically already a small school bus with how much I take her to school or pick up Henderson.” Steve rubs the back of his neck and tries to force out a laugh that doesn’t sound forced or nervous.
“Steve, you don’t even know where she lives,” Robin speaks up, trying to offer you an out.
“Yeah, no I couldn’t ask you to do that,” you shake your head with a nervous chuckle of your own, but you don’t look like you hate the idea.
“Right, true. But uh, Hawkins isn’t that big, I’m sure I could make it work. Um, not that you have to, of course, but uh, invitation’s open… if you ever need it,” Steve shrugs with a lopsided smile, hoping it comes off more nonchalant than he feels.
“Yeah, o-okay, thanks! I’ll keep it in mind.” You smile and nod, tucking some hair behind your ear absentmindedly. “Well, I guess I’ll see you guys around. I mean, I’ll definitely see you in class, Robbie, let me know how it goes with Keith!” you say, pointing at Robin then giving Steve a little wave before turning and heading back to your cart of books.
“Dude.” Robin smacks Steve on the arm once your back is turned, before dragging him towards the door. Steve pulls out of Robin’s grip once they’re out of the library, rubbing the spot on his arm she had assaulted.
“Ow! What?” He shoots back indignantly, following her down the steps.
“You better not run off my only other friend. Trauma bond or not, if I had to choose between you and her, I’d probably choose her. She’s not nearly as obnoxious as you,” Robin stops at the bottom of the stairs to fix Steve with an accusatory look.
“I’m not obnoxious, you’re obnoxious! And what do you mean, scare her off? Why would I scare her? I was being nice!” Steve scoffs, crossing his arms defensively.
“Okay, fine, we’re both obnoxious. And you were flirting!” Robin shoots back, pointing a finger in his face, which he subsequently swats away. “I just mean, if you wanna date her, fine. But you better think it through and don’t screw it up, okay?” Robin finishes with a question but her face brooks no argument. She crosses her arms now, waiting for him to agree to her terms.
Steve’s instinct is to argue, he wants to defend himself and say she’s wrong. It’s not like he just goes around mindlessly dating every girl he meets, maybe some harmless flirting-and okay, yeah he was flirting with y/n-but he doesn’t have to date every girl he flirts with! But Steve can’t deny that he doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to his love life. Some would probably classify him as a serial-dater, not that he wants to be. He wants to find someone to settle down with, to have a family, it just… never seems to work out.
And if he went for it, if he dated y/n and it didn’t work out with her or she didn’t even want to date him and got weirded out… It wouldn’t just be another date gone wrong or rejection that Robin would tease him about and he’d pretend not to care. This time, someone could get hurt and Robin could lose her friend. Not just any friend, the only friend of hers he’d met or even heard about. Maybe her only other friend besides him.
“Yeah. Yeah, okay, I get,” Steve relents with a sigh. Robin is right, he can’t screw this up.
2 years later (1987)
You’re on the roof of the WSQK, closing your eyes against the September breeze, letting it cool your cheeks and rustle your hair. Summer overstayed its welcome but fall is finally starting to make itself at home again. You take a minute and let yourself breathe now that you feel like you can properly access your lungs again. Apart from stumbling upon the supernatural threats your friends had been fighting last year, the last hour was probably the most eventful of your life.
You can still feel Steve’s eyes on you, like a sixth sense. You open your eyes to return Steve’s gaze, to thank him for knowing you needed some air and rescuing you from the suddenly overcrowded room; but as soon as your eyes find his, he steals your breath away again, pulling you into another kiss.
This kiss is slower than your first, more tender, his lips moving softly over yours, making you go weak in the knees as you melt into him. He wrap his arm around your waist, pulling you flush to his chest. You grip his bicep with one hand, resting the other at the nape of his neck before sliding it up into his hair. He shudders at the sensation, nipping lightly at your bottom lip before breaking the kiss to rest his forehead to yours.
“I’m sorry it took me so long to do that. I’m sorry it took me eavesdropping and I’m sor-“ you cut him off with a kiss before he can ramble off another pointless apology. You try to convey with your lips how much you don’t care how long it took to get here, what matters is you’re here now, together.
“Steve?” You breathe his name into his lips and he hums in response. “I think we can just agree we’ve both been idiots,” you say with a small smile, the movement causing your lips to brush his again.
“Alright sure, but I’ve definitely been the bigger idiot, you have to give me that.” You huff a laugh, shaking your head at him. “You heard Nancy, her and Robin were so sick of hearing me go on about it, about…how I felt about you but not doing anything about it.” You pull back to be able to see the full picture of Steve’s face, he’s not looking you in the eye but at your shoulder and you can feel him fiddling with the fabric of your shirt.
“Well, not like I can hold it against you, because I didn't do anything about it either, but why didn't you?” You ask softly, wishing he would look at you and see that you’re not upset, you just want to understand. He sighs, glancing at you then taking a step back and looking away again, running a hand through his hair nervously.
“I guess… Well, I’ve always just gone after anyone I was interested in and not really worried if it didn’t work out. I mean, sure it sucks getting turned down, more times than I’d like to admit, but most of the time I was never really invested. I just saw a pretty face and took a shot. Then with Nancy, it was different, I actually cared. But we clearly didn’t work, and it took me a while to work my shit out and then I thought I was crushing on Robin for a second but she… well you know.”
He shrugged, gesturing a hand at you and you nod. Robin had come out to you last summer after Hawkins split open and you had become privy to the world underneath. Near death experiences and the possible end of the world really bring people together. Steve continues.
“And I realized I’ve never really had a girl as just a friend and I don’t think I really knew the difference between just liking a girl as a person and liking someone and wanting to date them. And then I met you and…” he lets out a breath and looks around like he’s trying to find the right words. You smile, eyes soft and encouraging.
“Well, I met you and of course I thought you were gorgeous. But you were already friends with Robin and she told me not to run you off and I was trying not to be that guy who just hit on anything with legs anymore and I didn’t wanna screw it up. So, I tried to just be your friend, which worked well enough, I guess. I mean, I loved being around you and so did the kids like, as soon as they met you. And the more I got to know you the more it felt like everything made sense. Like, I got it, why it never worked out with anyone I dated.”
He stops to catch his breath and look at you, maybe to gauge your reaction and you have to bite your lip to keep from gaping at him because what do you mean he’s always thought you were gorgeous and liked you since you met? You didn’t even have time to think through the implications of him saying you made him understand why it never worked out with any other girl, before he surged on.
“I guess it’s like you said to Robin, I cared about you too much to risk messing things up and losing you. I mean, Robin always knew and she told me from day one to think it through so I didn’t screw it up, but when I wouldn’t shut up about you and Nancy caught on, they kept telling me to just go for it, that you might feel the same way. I just, didn’t wanna assume anything and it- you were too important to get it wrong this time,” he finishes quietly, eyes softening when he looks at you.
You look at him, looking at you, and your smile grows. Much to Steve’s confusion, it doesn’t stop and you can’t help the laugh that bubbles up and out of you. As sweet as the sentiment of everything Steve said was, it was also funny. And you get it now, what Robin and Steve had found funny about it earlier. You shake your head at Steve’s concerned face, his eyes wide.
“I’m sorry I-“ you try to explain but more laughter interrupts and you have to cover your mouth to try and bottle it up. “I'm sorry, I’m not laughing at you, I’m laughing at both of us. I mean, how were we both so oblivious this whole time?” You ask incredulously with another huff of laughter. It’s Steve’s turn to shake his head and laugh, relieved that you weren’t laughing at him basically spilling his guts to you.
“Well, you said it, we were idiots,” Steve answers with an amused smile, stepping back into your orbit and grabbing you by the waist. Your cheeks are starting to hurt from smiling so hard and your chest swells with everything you’ve ever felt for Steve. Knowing now that he feels the same way makes you want to cry happy tears in the midst of laughing.
You wrap your arms around his middle and pull him into a hug. You breathe him in and enjoy not having to be embarrassed by how much you love the way he smells. Steve reciprocates, wrapping his arms around you just as tightly, he presses a light kiss into your hair before resting his head atop yours. You’ve hugged Steve plenty of times, but not like this, nothing came close to this. You held onto him like he was gravity, the only thing keeping you tethered to the earth, and he held you like he knew it and wouldn’t want to let you go.
“I’m kind of glad I had a dream about you most likely dying,” you mumble into his chest which rumbles when he laughs at you.
“So you were dreaming about me, huh?” He asks, and you roll your eyes, imagining the smug smirk on his stupid, beautiful face that kind of had a right to be smug. The face you get to kiss anytime you want now. You would definitely be taking advantage of that privilege.
“Wait, what about me dying?” Steve asks, suddenly pulling back with concern on his face. You pull your bottom lip between your teeth, debating if you want to tell him.
“Hey, it’s okay, it was just a dream. But you don't have to talk about it, if you don’t want to,” Steve reassures you, brushing a strand of hair from your face.
“It’s stupid, it wasn’t even that bad. It’s just- we were in the upside-down and there were gunshots and somebody in trouble. Obviously you wanted to help and you wanted me to hide but I didn’t want you to leave me so you kind of had to lock me in one of the old buses in the junkyard and… and then… well, I- I think you said you loved me, before walking away and I didn’t think I was gonna ever see you again but then I woke up, thank God,” You finish in a rush and have to reclaim your breathing.
You realize your hands are bunched into fists and you’re gripping onto Steve’s shirt. You unclench your hands and busy yourself with smoothing his shirt back out, looking anywhere but his eyes. Then he does the thing, with his hand under your chin, and you let him, looking him in the eye.
“I’m sorry, that sounds… awful. But hey, it’s not real, okay? I’m okay and you’re okay and I promise not to lock you in a bus and run off to be a hero,” He says softly with a half smile, bringing a hand to your cheek. You nod and huff a laugh.
“Yeah, okay. I know, you’re right. It just felt…so real, you know? It just freaked me out,” You say with a shrug, trying to focus on Steve in front of you now and not your nightmare. Steve was right in front of you, holding you, not saying he loved you and walking away.
“Yeah, I get it, I’ve had dreams like that before. But… you know, there is one part that was real,” Steve says almost hesitantly, like he’s not sure if he should say it. You lower your eyebrows, searching his face for answers. He swallows hard, licking his lips.
“I uh, I do.. Love you,” he breathes the words out like it’s a relief to say them and smiles like he feels lighter with them out in the open. Your eyebrows shoot back up and your lips form an ‘o’ in light of his confession. His smile falters slightly and he rushes on. “I-I know it’s kind of maybe too soon, I mean, we literally just kissed for the first time like twenty minutes ago but I-”
“Steve!” You call his name sharply, cutting off his rambling. “Steve,” you say his name again, softer now that you have his attention and don’t have to talk over him. “We’ve been pining after each other for basically two years, I don’t think it’s too soon. I think… we took our time getting here, we don’t have to take our time with anything else. I love you too.”
As soon as the words are out of your mouth, Steve wastes no time covering it with his. Lips and tongue hungry for more, like he wants to taste the words you’d just said. You tilt your chin up, giving him all the access he wants.
He tangles his hand in your hair, pulling you as close as possible. You have to lift up on your tiptoes, grabbing his arms to steady yourself before wrapping them around his neck and holding on for dear life. He doesn’t slow down and you don’t want him to, you’re just as desperate for every touch he supplies as he is to supply them.
“Hey, they finally made out! Dustin, you owe me five bucks.” A voice that sounds suspiciously like Michael Wheeler floats up to you and you break away from Steve with a gasp. You look over the side of the building and see Mike, Will, Dustin, and Lucas dismounting from their bikes and setting them in the gravel below. Will has the grace to duck his head and keep walking but Mike and Lucas just grin up at you and Dustin gives you two thumbs-up.
“Oh my god.” You say under your breath, giving them a small wave before letting your head fall onto Steve’s shoulder with a sigh.
“We’re never gonna hear the end of this,” Steve groans, but he can’t keep the laughter completely out of his voice. You can hear the boys laughing too before they presumably disappear into the station.
You think about what Mike had said, ‘Dustin, you owe me five bucks’. They had bet on you and Steve kissing. Suddenly, you were laughing too which makes Steve laugh and you love the way it sounds and how the afternoon light makes his brown eyes glow golden. And you love Steve Harrington, your golden boy, through and through.
