Steve Harrington x Male Reader: obligatory "helping steve find himself" oneshot, AU where you both work at the video store together with rob, Steve also may or may not know he likes you before making this discovery...👀
Notes: I'm not in the mood to proofread this so I'm sorry for that but... here!
The tall male beside you pressed his hands to his temples and breathed a labored sigh.
"I'm just saying Harrington, maybe these supposed "babes and non-babes" are all babes!" you nudged his side with your elbow, which he did not seem to appreciate.
He took another deep breath, contemplating the former relationships he had with his close male friends and the thoughts that clouded his mind in the locker rooms at practice, he hated to admit that it seemed like maybe it was all adding up.
"Alright bozos," Robin interrupted, "as much as I'm sure I'd love to be included in whatever torture we are putting Steve through today, we have a whole stack of new shit to put out and I am not doing that by myself again!" as she spoke she wheeled over a cart full of new releases that needed to be priced and placed into their correct sections.
As much as no one in Home Video liked dealing with new releases, staring at the heap of tapes gave you an idea, "Hey Rob, you think you can keep up front running by yourself?"
"If you are even minutely implying that you and Steve are going to tackle these babies and leave me to run this peice-of-shit, cash-wrap, than I am absolutely capable Sir L/N," Robin bowed sarcastically as she concluded her strange response, but it meant your plan would go accordingly so you didnt take much time to ponder on it
"Thanks Buckley!" you planted a quick peck on her cheek that she quickly wiped off with her vest once you were out of sight, before tugging Steve away by his vest to the back to label tapes and unpack whatever was going on in that mess of a Harrington brain.
An agonizing 5 whole minutes passed in silence as the two of you quietly placed stickers on the tapes before placing them back on the cart and picking up a new one to repeat the process.
"Look, I don't want to force you to talk about this yknow? Especially cause yknow, I'm not the best with feelings and shit just cause I like dick but-"
Steve looked up from his tape, almost dropping it as the words left your mouth, "Waitwait, so you like guys?"
You looked at him inquisitively for a moment before going back to stickering tapes and speaking again, "Stevie, you are totally oblivious aren't you?" you chuckled to yourself.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing really, I think I just kind of assume everyone knows by now I guess. But to answer your question yes, I like guys. To put it your way, 'babes and non-babes alike'," this time you let yourself have a full, good laugh.
Steve followed suit and seemed to chuckled as well, seemingly relieved that the tension of the conversation had been broken up a bit.
He spoke up as he placed his tape back in the cart and rose to his feet, "I think that's the last one to label Y/N, wanna go set these out?"
You stayed sitting, leaving an uncomfortable space and height difference between the two of you that neither of you were used to, "Can I just ask you one... tiny, little, uncomfy question first, Harrington?"
Steve's body tensed a bit but he tried to act nonchalant, "Sure, today seems to be that kinda day already so, why not?"
He was getting uncomfortable in his own skin now, being given more time to think about the space between you and how much he wanted to be close to you, how much he yearned to fill the space, how much he struggled to pull himself back to reality, "Yea man, go for it."
"Did you really never know? I mean, that I like dudes?"
Steve was frustrated that this was the question that you built up so much. Maybe he should have known sooner, but was it really such a huge deal? He fought to collect himself and managed to give a calmer response, "I mean, No. I just never thought about it I guess, yknow? Does that bother you?"
"I just- um. Well..." you struggled to find your footing in the words you wanted to say, so you settled on just blurting it out, giving up all elegance and grace, "I had a huge crush on you," your eyes stayed glued to the floor, waiting for his reaction.
Steve felt his heart melt. The boy he had been hiding his feelings from this whole time had actually liked him? Unbelievable.
He found himself approaching you slowly, like a scared animal he had found in an alley, "Y/N?"
You felt your leg start anxiously bouncing out of your control, but you decided to look up at him anyway, "Yea, Steve?"
"I'm gonna ask you to do something and I just need you to trust me ok? Is that ok?" You could see the subtle shake in his hands, hear the tremble in his voice, he was anxious in a way you'd never seen before and you had no idea what to expect.
"Okay. I trust you," and with that, your eyelids met and you were left in darkness to wonder what in God's name was going on.
You felt a gently trembling hand meet your cheek and before you could even think about what it meant for Steve to be cupping you like this, you felt his lips gently meet your own.
The kiss was nothing like you had expected from former King of Hawkins High. It was soft and gentle, the slightly chapped pillows of his lips were sweet on your tongue. He cupped his hand on your cheek and snaked his other around your waist and held you like you were fragile, like he was scared he could break you if he wasn't careful. And just as suddenly as it had started, it was over. His lips parted from yours and his hand slithered away from your waist, but his other remained on your cheek.
"I um... I'm sorry, I hope that was ok," he stammered, "You can open your eyes now."
When your eyelids separated from each other you realized that Steve was barely a couple inches away from your face, and his warm hand was still on your cheek, "That was more than okay, Harrington," you leaned in to place a quick kiss on his lips, showing him that you still wanted him with your eyes open.
"Cool... good to know," he sighed, this time relieved as he brushed his thumb over your cheek before readjusting his perfect hair.
You chuckled to yourself as he turned back to the cart and moved to the Documentary section, "Hey, wait up!"
"Well I wasn't planning on doing this by myself," he chuckled as you speedily walked to catch up to him.
"Hey, Harrington?" you whispered, almost like you were playing spies.
"Hey, what?" he whispered back, playing along as he placed the movies in alphabetical order.
"So... maybe you're bi?" you whispered, following suit in placing movies where they belonged.
"Yea probably," he paused for a beat, "I definetly like you though," he shot you a cocky smirk as he concluded.
"Yea yea whatever," you rolled your eyes, placing more movies in their rightful homes, "How is it that King Steve always gets what he wants?" you asked sarcastically.
He played coy, snaking behind you to place a movie just above your head as he placed a kiss to your neck, "I'm told I'm rather persuasive."
Robin walked to the back in hopes of letting you know is was closing time but had instead found the scene in front of her, "Oh jesus guys, get a room! You know Keith has cameras in here right!! Good god, I don't even get paid for this!"
"Oh shush Rob, just be glad he actually admitted it," you giggled from under Steve's arm as the three of you walked to clock-out.
Steve stopped in his tracks, "She knew before I did?!"
"Stevie... baby... we all did," you chuckled.
