Count your blessings ౨ৎ
Steve Harrington x pregnant!reader
Masterlist here.
Summary: 18 months after they kill vecna and destroy the upside down, you are your 4 best friends reminisce after a year and a half. You share with the group you and Steve are expecting.
Warning: SEASON 5 EPISODE 8 SPOILERS: pure fluff. Reader just found out she’s pregnant, happy tears🫶 not proof read.
wc: 1.8k
—౨ৎ—
The roof of the WSQK is still warm. Hawkins below is distant, quiet. Birds and chirping. It’s for the first time in years, peaceful.
Steve is sat next to you on a deck hair. He sunk low into the deck chair, one ankle hooked casually over the other, a beer resting loose in his hand like it belongs there. He’s dressed nicer than he used to be, but not like he’s trying, a soft, slightly rumpled suit jacket thrown over a white button down, collar open just enough to say the night is warm and he’s done pretending he’s tense.
There’s an ease to him now. The sharp edges are gone. In fact, there’s an ease with everyone.
Sat around you is your 4 best friends. Friends you’ve been through things with that anyone else couldn’t comprehend.
Nancy and Jonathan sit across from you while Robin the other side of you. They seem happy, genuinely happy.
You never thought you’d see the day, your all grown up. With their own lives, relationships. It was bittersweet when you left, you always thought you’d run at the opportunity to leave Hawkins the second you could.
But when Steve got the job offer for a coach position in Hawkins, it was a no brainer. It’s what he was destined to do, care for people, help them grow to their fullest potential.
And then, you got an offer at the elementary school just down the road from where you and Steve’s small, but comfortable home is. You took the opportunity.
And that’s what life has been like for the last 18 months. Just you and Steve settled. Finally, living a normal life.
Everyone is chatting, reminiscing. You just soak it all in.
“There’s actually a rad place in Forest Hill’s, we can’t quite afford it yet but we’re close,” Steve offers as he drops back into his deck chair. His hand finds your thigh immediately, thumb brushing slow, comforting circles like it’s second nature now. “And that’s on a coach & elementary teacher salary.”
“Don’t forget sex ed teacher,” Robin adds, tipping her chair back with a grin.
“That’s true,” Steve admits easily.
“They have you teacher sex ed?” Nancy asks, eyebrows lifting as she looks over at him.
“It’s a part of the gig,” Steve shrugs.
Laughter ripples through the group, easy and warm, carried off by the breeze rolling over the rooftop.
“If I had a question about an STD, you’d be the first person I’d come to,” Robin says without missing a beat.
“Thank you?” Steve blinks.
“no I love it. I love teaching these kids, you know? I get to teach them about the miracle of life, and how to not start it, accidentally.”
There’s something earnest in his voice now, pride creeping in beneath the humor. His hand presses a little more firmly against your thigh, grounding himself, or maybe grounding you.
“And I teach three year olds how to keep their shoes on the correct feet and why biting is not an acceptable form of communication.”
“So emotional regulation?” Robin tilts her head.
“Oh very basic emotional regulation,” you laugh. “I mean I also teach them how to share, and that crayons are for coloring and not eating.”
“These kids don’t know how good they got it having you as their teacher.” Steve turns toward you when he says it, expression softening completely. The sunset catches in his eyes, and the way he looks at you makes your chest warm.
“You’ve gotten very earnest.”
“What can I say? I’ve changed. I got a whistle now. That does things to a guy.” He says. I cheeky grin on his face.
“You’ve always liked helping the little ones, even when you pretended like you didn’t.” Your voice softens when you say it.
“Turns out I’m good at it, we both are.” He leans closer as he says it, shoulder brushing yours, like he wants the words to land only with you. The smell of his cologne, citrus and warm woods mixes with the fading heat of the day.
“There actually is something I miss about this place. I miss this.”
Robin’s voice drops, softer now.
“Just…us, hanging out.”
The quiet stretches. The sky deepens into gold and pink, and suddenly the moment feels heavier.
“I miss you guys.”
Steve’s jaw tightens. You feel it before you see it, the slight hitch in his breathing. You lace your fingers through his, squeezing gently, grounding him the way he always grounds you.
“I really like my new friends, but it’s—”
“Not the same.” Nancy says finishing her sentence.
“I don’t think it ever will be.” Jonathan follows.
The words stack on top of each other until everyone’s eyes are glassy.
“Okay Jesus. You’re killing me, man.” Steve stands up and faces his back to the group. Facing the sunset. “Let’s do something about it.” He exhales, swiping under his eyes before straightening a little.
“I don’t know, we could meet up once a month, here, you can even stay at our place, there’s enough room.” His thumb rubs over your knuckles when he says our, like the word matters.
“Yeah or, maybe somewhere else more neutral like…what’s a city between Hawkins and Massachusetts… New York?”
“Louisville.” Jonathan suggests.
The looks that follow say everything.
“Philly?” Steve offers.
“Philly! I have an uncle who lives in Philly, he’s weird but he’s got a really big house.” Robin explains.
“Does it have a basement?” Jonathan asks.
“Yeah.” Robin replies. Slightly confused. Slightly concerned.
“And a boiler room?”
“Yeah?” Now she’s even more confused and concerned.
“Oh my god, it’s perfect. You know… for the hideout. You know where she traps all the men and then burns their bodies.”
“The Consumer.” Nancy says, sharing Jonathan’s excitement.
“I thought you were trying to kill us,” you joke, leaning into Steve as you laugh.
He grins, tipping his head toward yours.
“Okay okay yeah, so we’ll meet at Robin’s weird uncle’s house and we’ll drink and we’ll reminisce and make Jonathan’s anti-capitalist cannibal movie, starting next month.” Nancy explains.
“Yeah, I’m in.” Robin says.
“Yeah, I’m in.” You say, your eyes burning, for the happiest reason.
“To nothing keeping us apart.” Steve lifts his glass, but his eyes flick to you first.
“Including overbearing significant others.” There’s a playfulness in robins voice.
“School.” Nancy adds.
“Mortgages.” Jonathan says.
“Sticky fingers, lost lunchboxes, and explaining for the hundredth time why glue is not food.” You finish.
Steve smiles like he’s already imagining it, the chaos, the love, the life.
“And kids.” She’s joking, half joking.
“Cheers.”
The glasses clink softly, and Steve’s hand stays in yours as the sun finally dips below the horizon.
Everyone clink glasses. Steve takes a drink. You lift yours too, Steve is the only one who notices you don’t take a sip. understanding quietly. His free hand finds yours thumb brushing gently over her knuckles. “I’m so proud of you” he whispers into your ear before kissing your forehead.
“Yeah, you guys… kids?” Nancy says, glancing between them. “Like, are we talking hypothetically, or…?”
You and Steve exchange a look. It’s quick, instinctive. The kind of look that already means we.
“Well,” Steve says gently, lacing your fingers together. “We were gonna wait. Y’know, it’s still early days.”
You squeeze his hand. “We didn’t want to make a big announcement yet.”
“But,” Steve adds, his voice thick with emotion, “we’re really happy.”
Nancy’s eyes widen. “Oh my god.”
“We’re pregnant,” you say, softly.
The reaction is immediate and chaotic.
Nancy is crying already, crossing the roof to pull you into a careful, loving hug. “I’m so happy for you.”
Robin lets out a noise somewhere between a laugh and a sob. “No. No. Absolutely not. Steve Harrington as a dad? You a mom? I’m emotionally unprepared.”
Jonathan grins, shaking his head. “That kid is gonna be so loved.”
Steve can’t stop smiling. He pulls you closer, pressing a kiss to her temple without thinking. “We already love them,” he says quietly. “So much.”
“He’s been talking to my stomach for, like, a week.”
Robin gasps. “You’re that guy?”
Steve shrugs, unapologetic. “What if they can hear me?”
Nancy laughs through her tears. “You two are disgusting. In the best way.”
Steve rests his forehead against yours for just a second, private and tender in the middle of the noise. “We’re really doing this,” he whispers.
You smile, brushing your nose against his. “Yeah. We are.”
Robin wipes at her face aggressively, sniffling. “Okay, hold on. I need a minute. Because I just watched Steve Harrington go from King of Hawkins High to full blown dad mode”.
Steve’s arm is fully around you now. His thumb tracing slow circles aroukd your side “Hey,” he says, smiling. “We’ve been through a lot. Monsters, portals, it changes you.”
Nancy lets out a soft laugh, eyes shining as she looks around the room at the same people who once stood bleeding and terrified in the dark. “When did this happen?”
Steve straightens immediately. “Oh, uh. Okay, so,” he starts, already gesturing. “It’s actually pretty simple. When two people really care about each other, and the world almost ends a couple times, and you’re pretty sure a vine monster is gonna eat you”
Robin freezes. “Steve.”
“And there’s hugging for comfort,” he continues, nodding like a teacher, “and then kissing for comfort, and then sometimes-”
“STEVE,” Robin yells.
Jonathan is laughing so hard he has to lean forward. “Dude. That’s not what she meant.”
Nancy’s face turns pink. “Oh my god, no. Definitely not what I meant. I meant when did we all grow up?”
Steve stops mid-sentence. There’s a pause.
“Oh,” he says. Then he looks down at you, who’s laughing quietly, eyes warm and bright.
Robin collapses into the couch. “I cannot listen to a sex ed talk about how you guys survived vecna”
Yo lean into Steve, still smiling. “To be fair,” you say gently, “we did skip a lot of normal life stages.”
Steve exhales a laugh and presses a kiss onto your temple. “Yeah. We went straight from fighting monsters to… this.”
Nancy’s voice softens. “We faced the Upside Down. We lost people. We thought we might not make it out.” She gestures around. “Yet here we are.”
Steve tightens his arm aroundb you. “When you’ve held someone’s hand thinking it might be the last time,” he says quietly, “you stop waiting to live.”
You squeeze his hand, your other hand resting instinctively on your stomach. “We kept choosing each other,” she says. “Even when everything was falling apart.”
The room goes quiet. not sad, just full of reminders of what almost was.
Robin lifts her glass, voice softer now. “To not dying horribly in another dimension.”
They laugh.
“And,” Robin adds, smiling at you and Steve. “to building something good after surviving something awful.”
Glasses clink.
Steve looks down at you, his forehead resting against tour for a brief and private moment. “I used to think the scariest thing was the Upside Down,” he murmurs. “Turns out it’s just loving something this much.”
You smile back at him. “You’re not scared?.”
He shakes his head. “Not anymore.”
Nancy wipes at her eyes. “I mean, can that kid get parents anymore badass? They’ll never hear the end of how their parents killed monsters and saved the world, more than once.”
Steve grins. “Yeah. But mostly they’re gonna hear how much they were wanted.”
You lean into him, safe. Even after the Demogorgons, after Vecna, after everything, this is what feels like winning.
For once, the world is quiet, and for once, the future doesn’t feel scary.
—౨ৎ—
