kiss her and don’t tells; steve harrington
summary: after losing a bet which lands you on the cheer squad for hawkins highs final basketball game of the season, steve finally manages to find the courage to ask you out
pairing: steve harrington x henderson!fem!reader
requested: yes
warnings: none
notes: you can find my masterlist here
"don't tell me this little outfit is for me? you here to be my own personal cheerleader, henderson?" steve appeared behind you, all teasing smiles and mischievous eyes, his fingers tugging playfully at the end of your ponytail. the tips of them brushed your bare neck and neither of you missed the shudder it pulled from you, goosebumps trailing in their wake. you tipped your head to meet his gaze, tried not to glance down at his thighs in those ridiculously short shorts and sent him a matching teasing smile.
"you wish, harrington, i bet this is like a wet dream come true for you." you knocked your shoulder into his, giggled when he bumped you with his hip in turn and sent you a mock serious look. his hair was messy, falling into his eyes and you hated how good he looked, hated that he'd chosen now to flirt with you because his taunting words and devilish smiles were guaranteed to distract you. you were about to get thrown into the air by a group of girls who didn't really like you for a routine you didn't really know because you weren't really a cheerleader.
"how did you know?"
"you're a simple guy." steve hummed softly, let his eyes wander your figure and lifted his finger to trace over the green "s" embroidered into your cheer top. the positioning had him grazing over the swell of your boob and even through the woollen material it sent a spark through you, heat flooding your body. his lashes kissed the tops of his cheeks when he blinked, eyes dark and just a little clouded and you wondered what he was thinking, especially when the tops of his cheeks turned a faint pink. he shook his head suddenly, sent you a sheepish smile and dropped his hand.
it was no secret that there was something between you and steve, you’d spent the last few months since he’d befriended your younger brother sharing longing glances and fleeting touches. just barely there brushes of your fingers against his, or the brief graze of his hand over your waist as he passed by you in the kitchen. steve spent most of his time flirting with you, throwing you teasing smiles and playful winks whenever dustin wasn’t looking, driving you to and from school with the pretence of “well i’m already going that way” when he totally wasn’t.
that something however had never made it passed the flirting stage because neither of you were too sure about making a move. you were far too nervous to make a move on steve harrington because yeah he might have fallen a little down the social ladder now that his best friend was a child and sure you were comfortable around him and you more than trusted him but he was still kind of king steve to you. before his unlikely friendship with dustin, steve never even looked twice in your direction, you’d never had a single conversation despite being in most of the same classes. in your head, friendship or not, steve was still too far out of reach.
little did you know, steve felt exactly the same way. he knew you were too good for him, knew you were so far out of his league that it was pathetic for him to like you so much. because you were smart and pretty and frustratingly sarcastic and probably the funniest person he’d ever met and he was, well, him. he didn’t want to ask you out for you to reject him because you knew you could do better, didn’t want to ruin the new friendship you’d formed so he pined in silence. he flirted a ridiculous amount and hoped he didn’t screw things up because he’d decided months back that he wanted to keep both henderson’s around, in whatever way he could.
"seriously though, why're you dressed like this?" you huffed a sigh, turned a glare on your best friend sitting on the bleacher and jessica on seeing your glance, waved enthusiastically. with an eye roll you flipped her your middle finger, only turning back to steve when she blew you an over the top kiss.
“i lost a bet.”
“you lost a bet?”
“hmm. i put a little too much faith in adam and it didn’t go in my favour. should’ve known he couldn’t last longer than a minute.” you muttered the last part but steve still caught your words, his brows shooting up, a startled cough sputtering from his chest. he blinked at you.
“sorry?”
“becky finally slept with adam at melissa’s party, right?”
“uh? i don’t know, did she?”
“yes, it’s like talk of the school, harrington, keep up.” you whacked his stomach lightly with your pompom. “so anyway, he’d been talking himself up to her for weeks, like real big talk about how he’d show her what a real man was like and how she’d never want anyone else once she’d had him and boys who talk themselves up that much are never really any good, y’know?” steve narrowed his eyes, cocked his head to one side and tried not to smile at your little rambled explanation.
“sure.”
“exactly, so we had a bet, me and jessica, about how good he’d be, y’know, how long he’d last? i was nice and thought he’d at least make it five minutes because he’s slept around he shouldn’t be that bad. jessica had little faith and said he’d last no more than a minute and turns out he really is absolutely awful. he finished in a minute and fell asleep.” you drew in a breath, shook out your pompoms and shrugged. steve was highly amused, one side of his mouth tilted a little higher than the other and fleetingly he thought about kissing you, thought about how he so badly wanted the chance to cut off those cute little rambles with his lips.
“so you lost that bet.”
“mhm and now i have to take jessica’s place on the cheer squad because i’m certain she wants me to break my neck.” steve snorted, reached out to brush his hand down your arm.
“you’ll kill it out there, you’re good at everything.”
“i had like a weeks practice.”
“and you’re probably gonna do better than everyone who’s been practicing for years.” his fingers found yours, warm and soft and he gave them a light and encouraging squeeze. “you’ll be great.” the smile that slid onto your lips was blinding but shy, flutters kicking up in your stomach and you had to drop your gaze, instead staring over his shoulder to where his team was warming up. you nodded towards them, coughed a little to clear your throat.
"should probably get over there, talk tactics or whatever, work on your dribble." steve nodded slowly and dropped your hand. he smiled at you in a way that turned your insides to liquid, your skin prickling from his attention. you should hate the effect he had on you, should hate how he made you nervous and flustered with just one glance but you couldn’t, each new glance only had your heart tripping faster, your silly little crush blooming wider.
“work on your dribble,” he mocked in a poor imitation of your voice and as a result you once again clipped him with your pompon, trying to hide your smile. “i love it when you talk sports to me.” he pushed a hand through his hair, shook out a strands a little and rocked back on his heels. he opened his mouth again as though to speak, his gaze intent on yours but was interrupted by the shout of your name.
“duty calls,” you sent him a soft smile and the way he was looking at you sent a sudden surge of confidence up your spine, your body shifting on to your tip toes almost subconsciously. your hand settled against his bicep, head tilting so you could press a soft kiss to steve’s cheek. his skin was warm, almost smooth and being this close you could smell he’s cologne, the scent making you just a little dizzy. “good luck.” the blush that rose on his face was almost immediate and for a few seconds when you pulled back the two of you simply stared at each other, matching stupid grins bright enough to see from space.
steve recovered quickly, blinked a little harshly as though to clear his head. "for what it's worth, i'm glad you lost your bet." he tapped beneath your chin with his finger before starting to walk backwards, that taunting grin once again adorning his face. "you look hot in that outfit, henderson."
hawkins high had won and steve had played a major part in that win, playing better than he had all year it seemed but when the game ended the win wasn’t the first thing on his mind. it was finding you. his teammates clapped him on the back, hooted in his ear, made lewd jokes about how much attention he was going to get at tonight’s party and when that would usually sound nice, steve didn’t care. as the other guys bundled into the waiting arms of the cheer squad, immediately basking in their attention, lost in their fluttery lashes and salacious smiles, he finally found you out.
he spotted you just off to the sidelines, smile bright and seemingly all for him because as you waved your pompoms, as people weaved in and out between you, you never once broke his gaze. steve’s heart gave an unsteady thump, seemed to stop and start again and those traitorous butterflies had taken up residency in his stomach, his palms a little damp. despite how well he’d played, his attention hadn’t exactly been on the game, he’d been too focused on you, on the way you looked so effortlessly at lead during your routine, how your lips still burned against his cheek and how your floral perfume was still stuck to his nose. he’d wanted to impress you, wanted one last chance to show off just a little and so he’d pushed himself, found your eyes in the crowd after every hoop and melted at your cheesy thumbs up.
he was getting closer to you, nerves bubbling at the base of his spine as he anticipated his first move. he took a second to ponder just how angry dustin would be if he kissed you, especially when he’d specifically been warned off but the pros of feeling you against him outweighed your little brothers threats. he could deal with dustin later but right now he was desperate to know what your lips tasted like. your smile only got bigger as he got closer, a giddy energy surrounding you as you rocked a little on your heels, pompoms fluttering at your sides and you were beautiful.
“you, steve harrington, are pretty amazing, y’know that?” you made him laugh, made his chest feel tight when you cocked your head a little, eyes bright and glistening. he didn’t reply, couldn’t really because he was afraid he’d babble a load of nonsense and ruin everything so he finally found his nerve and the second he was close enough his hand was sliding along your jaw.
his other caught your waist, warm against your bare skin, comforting almost, his grip on your jaw tilting your head back as he dipped his own and then he was kissing you. actually fully kissing you and the second his lips met yours his mind went blank. a peaceful silence drifted over him, the noise of the room fading into nothing until everything and all was you. the way you felt, the way you tasted, the soft surprised sound you let out when he first kissed you that stirred something deep inside him. the kiss started off tentative, a barely there brush of his lips to test the waters. he wanted to give you the chance to pull away if you wanted but you didn’t, only wrapped one arm around his neck and pressed your lips more completely to his.
you kissed him hard, almost bruising and it was as if all those weeks of flirting, of teasing glances and half there touches when people weren’t looking had been poured into it. it was a little messy and desperate and steve hummed softly, brushed his thumb over your cheek when he pulled you closer. his tongue stroked yours, mouth open and eager, melding perfectly together until he was unsure where he ended and you began, a tangle of heated emotions. his heart was pounding and he was worried you’d be able to feel it when you slid your palm up his stomach and over his chest, his shirt catching in your fingers.
a laugh suddenly bubbled from you, tickled against his lips and brought the kiss to a slightly uncoordinated stop, much to his disappointment. your nose bumped his cheek and when you pulled back he watched it crinkle almost teasingly.
“you’re all sweaty.” your fingers were wrapped in the hair at the back of his head, nails scratching comfortingly over his scalp and steve’s chest ached with how normal it felt to be like this with you. he gave his own breathless laugh, brushed his thumb over your bottom lip and watched the way you reacted, smile growing until there were little crinkles but your eyes.
“s’what hard work does to you.” you rolled your eyes, dropped both your arms from around him and sent him a somewhat shy look, fiddled with your pompoms. steve swallowed thickly, gently squeezed your side in a comforting manner. “that kiss was extremely out of nowhere and this is kind of backward because i probably should have asked you out and then kissed you but y’know i’m kind of an idiot. but do you wanna go out tonight? i can pick you up and we can see a movie and go for dinner? everyone keeps saying enzos is really nice so we could try that out? or anywhere else, we can do what you want, i just- i really wanna take you out.” he paused, lip quirking. “without your brother.”
you gave a light laugh and nodded, reaching up to curl your fingers around steve’s wrist, his hand still cupping your jaw lightly. you turned and kissed his palm, let your lips linger for a few seconds. “dinner and a movie without dustin sounds nice, steve, just maybe we shouldn’t tell him? about the kiss, i mean.” your smile was elated, teeth flashing and he wanted to kiss you again, knew tonight was going to be torture in the best way.
“yeah, i’m not sure i wanna die today.”
“harrington! showers!” steve huffed a sigh and rolled his eyes, finally let his hands slip from your body.
“i’ll pick you up at eight?”
“eight’s good. dustin’s at will’s all night anyway.” he nodded and you nodded, both of you still grinning and he was about to leave, “see you later” on the tip of his tongue but you shifted up and caught his lips in another kiss. coaches yell drifted from his mind and again, he cradled your face, knowing deep down he was done for. two kisses and he was already whipped.
