steve harrington x fem!reader ✶ steve is a sucker for smart girls
One thing Steve has realised about his type in women is that he prefers them smart.
Sure, he's dated plenty of lipstick-wearing, empty-headed girls in his time but the ones who actually catch his attention, the ones who make his heart race and his palms sweat, are the smart ones.
Take Nancy and Robin, for example.
Nancy was the first girl Steve truly loved, the one who showed him what it meant to care about someone beyond surface-level attraction. Robin was the second girl Steve thought he could love, though that situation turned out differently than he'd expected. But what they had in common was that they were both incredibly smart. Like, way smarter than him. They were both sharp-witted, quick-thinking, and always three steps ahead.
Which wouldn't be something he thought he would like — especially not if you were asking him about it a few years ago when he was still King Steve, more concerned with his hair than anything substantive — but he's evolved since then. Or at least, he's evolving. Growing into someone he actually likes being.
He guesses that's why he fell so hard and fast for you.
He met you a few months ago through Robin, who met you through Vickie. You were Vickie's best friend, and have been since you two were kids, practically inseparable. And by gosh, were you smart. Intimidatingly so, at first. At the beginning, he had a complicated love-hate relationship with you constantly correcting him. “It's ‘you and I’, Steve. ‘Not me and you,’" Or "Actually, it's ‘could have’, not 'could of,'" delivered so sweetly that he couldn't even be annoyed about it because he knew you were just being nice in your own weird way.
But over time — and as he got to know you much, much better, as you opened up and let him see the person behind all that intelligence — well, he began to love it. Love the way you cared about words and their meanings, the way you lit up when explaining something you were passionate about.
It was stupid.
So fucking stupid, really.
He would mess up his grammar occasionally on purpose, just so you would give him a single second of your undivided attention. Just so you would glance in his direction with those gorgeous eyes of yours, maybe roll them affectionately, maybe touch his arm as you corrected him.
Robin noticed it almost immediately (of course she did). Called him a dingus for acting that way, for playing dumb when he knew better. Told him that if he just asked you out like a normal person, you would probably say yes. She seemed pretty confident about it, actually, which should have given him hope considering she was dating your best friend. But despite all the encouragement from Robin, despite her (and Vickie’s) increasingly obvious attempts to push you two together, he didn't want to risk a friendship again. He couldn't bear to
He's already messed things up with Nancy, let that relationship crumble because he didn't know how to be what she needed. Half-messed things up with Robin too, though in a different way — and honestly, if they had ended up dating like he'd briefly imagined, he was sure he would have messed things up with her as well.
It seemed to be his specialty, ruining good things. So he didn't want to put your relationship in jeopardy just because he couldn't keep his feelings in check, couldn't stop himself from wanting more than you were offering.
He would much rather just sit and listen to you ramble about a book you'd read, watching the way your hands moved as you talked, the way your whole face became animated. Or let you explain some complicated science concept to him in a way that made him 99% sure you were speaking in another language, even though he knew you were deliberately simplifying it for him.
He loved those moments, treasured them, even if they sometimes felt like sweet torture
So what if he wants to lean over and give you a kiss to stop your rambling, to see if your lips are as soft as they look? So what if he wants to hold you in his arms as he falls asleep, to wake up next to you and see you first thing in the morning? So what if he lies awake at night imagining a future where you're his and he's yours? He's yearned before and he can do it again. He's gotten good at it, actually, at wanting things he can't have.
Because quite frankly, Steve Harrington is a sucker for smart girls. And you might just be the smartest, most captivating one of all.













