Canon in the Savior Complex Universe, these drabbles are little parts of Steve Harrington and Dove Jones' story that didn't quite fit into the narrative of the main storyline.
Summary: What Steve thinks about after getting to know Dove more and spending time at her house with her mom.
Warnings: talks of bad parents and mild parental abuse.
Authors note: I love this universe and how down bad Steve is for Dove even though he doesn't really know it yet. Also I love these little drabbles.
Read the on going series here on tumblr & here on ao3!!
January 22nd, 1985
When Steve Harrington would sneak into a girls house through her window, it usually was because something was going to happen. Making out, heavy petting, or if he was lucky he’d get to go all the way.
But now, ten days after his eighteenth birthday, he finds himself sneaking into Dove’s room not to do those things (though the desire to do them with her is there but he’s trying to shove those feelings deep, deep down). His parents are still home, they’ve been home since his eighteenth birthday and this is the longest stretch they’ve been home since last spring. It’s killing him.
After the fight with his dad last week, just days after his eighteenth birthday, Steve has been finding himself spending as much time away from his house as possible. He’s taken Dustin home everyday after school, stayed late after basketball practice to shoot around (and then taken Max home after that because Billy found himself too busy to care for her), and then wound up at Dove’s house.
The Jones home sits not too far from Melvalds, in a little quaint neighborhood that’s a little nicer than most but nothing like the one Steve lives in. Steve will park down the street, close to the park and walk to her house. Like anyone would care if his car was parked outside her house.
He doesn’t always sneak in her window, if it’s earlier in the night he comes in through the front door. Veronica, Dove’s mom, will smile warmly at him, rub his shoulder gently and make him a snack. Dove and him will sit in the kitchen, work on homework, or just chat with her mom.
If he’s lucky, Veronica will cook, and when she does it’s amazing. And then he gets to stick around and play cards or dice or whatever game they decide fits the evening best. It’s nice. Steve finds himself looking forward to the days he can arrive at Dove’s house before 9 PM. He also looks forward to being at her house after 9 though, when it’s just him and Dove.
It always starts with something his dad says, a comment that is so passive aggressive that Steve wants to throw something. Then Steve quips back and then his dads voice raises and then they’re arguing. Sometimes it gets a little physical, nothing more than a shove or his dad tightly gripping his wrist. And it always ends the same, “You’re such a disappointment.”
The words hiss out of Danny Harrington’s mouth and every time, it hurts. At some point it stopped hurting as much but your father looking you dead in the eyes telling you how much of a disappointment you are can never really stop hurting. Not for Steve at least.
So that’s how he finds himself laying on Dove’s bed, sometimes his head will end up in her lap if the fight is really bad, like it was tonight. She will hesitantly play with his hair, a little unsure if she should be doing it, but when he melts more into the plush of her mattress she allows herself to continue.
She never pushes him to talk. He knows it’s because she wouldn’t want to talk either, but sometimes he wishes she would just say something so he’s not left with his own thoughts. Usually his voice just fills the silence when it gets too much.
He yammers about sports, the next basketball game they have coming up, NFL playoffs, the upcoming baseball season. Dove will throw in surprising comments about how she thinks the Knicks will be good this year (Steve argues with that usually) and then will just continue to mess with his hair.
She’s the only girl he’s ever let touch his hair like this but he won’t admit that to anyone.
And then things will start to shift in tone. Usually from him.
“Do you think those things are gone forever?” He asks, eyes peering up to Dove who is looking down at him. “Things” refers to the creatures that have haunted both their dreams. The dead thing Dustin continuously talks about and wishes the Joyce and Hopper let him keep for a science experiment.
Her lips purse, head lifting in thought. “I hope so, Hopper seemed to think so.”
Steve settles back against her mattress again, humming out a “yeah”.
Then he’ll talk about his dad. That’s when he gets something out of Dove usually. She gets very upset on his behalf when it comes to discussing his father. Daniel Harrington might be the vain of her existence now with how she speaks of loathing him so much.
“He’s just an asshole, Steve,” Dove says, voice laced with disdain. “I seriously don’t know how you deal with it, and I’m sorry you have to.”
Steve feels something flutter in his chest. It’s the first time anyone has said that to him. Because yeah, he knows he is privileged, he lives in a big house with two parents and doesn’t have to worry about money. But that doesn’t change the fact that those parents don’t do anything besides provide for him. They don’t love him, cherish him, cook him meals, play cards with him, or…do anything like Veronica does for Dove.
In the days he’s started haunting the Jones house he’s seen more love poured out from her mother than he has ever seen from his. Veronica and Dove not only love each other, but they seem to actually enjoy each other’s company. He’s never known what that’s like, his family dinners are filled with stiff, forced conversation and tight lipped smiles. This relationship between a mother and her child is almost abnormal to him, and he’s not sure how it could ever happen. It pangs a spot of jealousy in him and he never wants to not see it.
He sees how that love has reflected into Dove. The way she cares for people and talks about them and is loyal. She is a good person and it looks like her mom has made sure of that. And…she might be the nicest thing that’s happened to Steve in recent years. He doesn’t want to lose that. He doesn't want to ruin it with these growing feelings. He’s trying to swallow them down because he knows she doesn’t want anything. She doesn’t need anything. Not after Billy and everything she’s endured the past couple of years from boys at Hawkins High. He can’t spring ‘hey, the way you care about people and care about me has started to make me realize I’ve never loved anyone or been loved by anyone like this before’ on her. That’s not fair.
So he keeps quiet on that end, just talks about anything else that comes to mind until they fall asleep in her bed. And that’s how most nights end from January until early March of that year. Sometimes they’re tangled together for warmth, other times just passed out next to each other.
And neither of them talks about it. Not when they wake up the next morning to go to school, not when her mom throws them knowing looks over the breakfast table, and especially not when someone makes a passing comment about them in the halls at school.
Cause she’s just a friend! A really good friend, who listens and holds him and never expects anything from him. A friend who Steve is definitely not falling for. Not now, he can’t. Not when he just got something this good.
Canon in the Savior Complex Universe, these drabbles are little parts of Steve Harrington and Dove Jones' story that didn't quite fit into the narrative of the main storyline.
Summary: Dove and Steve go and see The Breakfast Club and run into some people who like to torment Dove
Warnings: illusions to sexual assault/men being men, self deprecating feelings, feelings of lost, not really proof read but idc (lmk if I missed anything!)
Authors note: I am really excited about this one because I love showing the side of Dove that actually is so lovey dovey hehehehe
Read the on going series here on tumblr & here on ao3!!
The Breakfast Club was a movie Dove had been looking forward to seeing for weeks now. She had heard so much about it from her Aunt in New York who called after seeing an early screening for her publishing firm. So she was ecstatic to see it because she knows her aunt has good taste.
So, when the Hawk announced the showing for it on Sunday, February 10th, Dove did not hesitate to buy two tickets. The Friday before the showing, Dove was practically buzzing with excitement walking up to her friend Nicole to go with her.
“Molly Ringwald? Ugh, no thanks,” Nicole scoffed as she opened her locker.
Dove furrowed her brows together, “What do you mean? I thought you liked her in Sixteen Candles?”
Nicole stays facing her locker, lips pulled together like she’s trying not to say something.
“Hello? Earth to Nicole?” Dove said, waving the two tickets at her friend's face. “What’s going on with you? You’ve been acting so weird since Christmas?”
“Gee, I wonder why?” Nicole grumbled, cutting her eyes slightly at the blonde.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Dove asked, face pulling into even further confusion.
Nicole was someone Dove had been hanging out with since middle school. She was a dark haired girl with an attitude to match. She had no problem telling people of or saying how she felt, unless it came to Dove.
Nicole had been distant from Dove since Christmas. And at first, Dove wrote it off as her getting prepped for sending in her final college applications or her new boyfriend who went to Ball State but…she was starting to notice how much Nicole was writing her off more.
But before Dove could find out why Nicole was saying no to seeing a movie Dove knew she’d enjoy, she felt an overly warm presence on her right side.
“Hey Wonder Woman,” Steve said as he knocked his shoulder into hers. “Hey Nicole.”
“Hey Steve,” Dove smiled warmly before looking back at Nicole, catching her eye roll at its tail end.
“I’m gonna be late for class,” Nicole grumbled, slamming her locker shut and stalking off, pushing Steve’s shoulder in the process with hers.
“Oof,” Steve huffed, rolling with the shove to watch Nicole walk away. “What’s her deal?”
Dove sucked in her bottom lip. She had an idea of what her deal was now but she hoped it wasn’t. To save Steve of the guilt she knew he’d feel, she pulls a smile on her lips and brushes it off showing him the two tickets.
“Wanna go to The Hawk this Sunday?”
-
It wasn’t a date. Dove knew that. Still, she took the time to blow dry and put her hair in rollers. She also took a little extra time on her makeup, even sporting the new Black Honey lipstick she got the day before. But it wasn’t a date. It was just her and Steve hanging out. Like normal.
She didn’t want anything, she didn't need anything more than a friend. No, not after what happened in the fall and everything she’d experienced with guys the past couple of years. With senior years coming to a close, college is fast approaching (though she still has no idea what she’s going to do) and she's still trying to figure out who she is, it's just not the time.
And she still has that sense of…losteness in her. It comes in tandem with the thoughts of her dad and trying to figure out what she’s going to do next. Then all of it gets tangled in with her feelings of being used while just trying to find love. The stupid Dick-Biting Dove Jones bet that runs around Hawkin’s High tormenting the poor girl who just wants a love story and not to feel lost.
Still, she swallows all those emotions like she always does and puts a smile on her face when she opens the door to Steve. His hair is perfect as ever, sporting his nice winter coat and a red and blue long sleeve polo underneath.
Stupid, that’s stupid. His polo tucked into his jeans makes her stomach do flips. That’s so stupid Dove, get a grip.
He smiles, genuinely and so Steve and…oh God she’s doomed.
“Ready? If we hurry we can probably beat the huge line for popcorn,” Steve said, pointing with his thumb to the still running burgundy beamer on the curb.
“Yeah, let’s do it,” Dove said, closing the front door behind her and slipping on her own winter coat.
They do, in fact, beat the line. One large popcorn, two large Cokes, and a M&M’s for each of them. The theater is packed, filled with young adults and other high schoolers from Hawkins High. Dove tries to ignore the group of guys who were on the football team and would try to hit on her.
Steve finds them a spot towards the left but still close to the middle of the theater. Not bad. And the movie is great, her aunt did not lie. So when they leave, Dove is still buzzing with excitement and Steve is laughing at her recounting her favorite parts.
“I just don’t understand how the principal never heard them running in the halls,” Steve asks as he pushes open the exit door.
“Well Pretty Boy, it is a movie, they have to have something be whimsical to move the plot,” Dove laughs, spinning on her heels to look at him as they walk out.
Just as Steve is about to quip something back, a car comes racing up to the curb behind Dove, making him shoot his hand out and pull her towards him so she doesn’t get hit.
“Watch out,” Steve exhales as he pulls her into his side.
The black sedan comes to a screeching halt, a one of boys Dove recognizes as the football team she was trying to avoid hollering inside of it.
“Easy there Jones, if you wanted me so bad you don’t have to jump in front of my car, you could just ask,” Jason Teegs says with a laugh, his eyes moving to Steve beside her after a second. “Harrington.”
“Jason,” Steve replies back with a curt nod.
Dove rolls her eyes, beginning to move around the car when another whistle stops her dead in her tracks.
“Wow Dove, didn’t expect to see you out on a Sunday,” another football player, Chris Redding, says after letting out a low wolf whistle.
He circles Dove like a shark as he goes to enter the back seat of the car. His eyes are dark and heavy with a hunger Dove recognizes and does not want. He presses in a little closer to her, breath reeking of alcohol that him and the other snuck into the theater.
“Wanna get in with us, we can all have some fun together?” He slurs, face way to close to hers.
Dove’s face contorts into discussion, pushing him away from her quickly. “Get lost, Chris, you’re a pig.”
Chris’s hand catches Dove’s wrist, pulling her back into him quickly. His teeth are clenched together in anger and determination, not wanting to take no.
“I said, get—”
Before she can even finish the sentence, she’s pulled back entirely from Christ, that same overly warm body stepping in front of her.
“You heard her, Redding, she said get lost.”
Steve’s voice is low and if Dove was on the other end of it, she’d definitely find it scary. His broad shoulders take up most of her vision, her eyes barely coming over the top of them unless she presses up on her toes. Which she does, watching as Chris’s face contorts into a laugh.
“Alright Harrington, suit yourself, if you wanna get you dick bit—”
“Oh just shut the hell up Chris, no one wants you anyway, not after what Tina told everyone about your bedroom skills.”
Dove snorts way too loudly and watches as Chris’s face gets angrier. God, she forgets how bitchy Steve can be. It’s awesome.
“Listen here, Harrington—”
“No you listen, Redding, no one wants your drunk ass coming up on them when they’re just trying to get home. Now get in the car with your friends and get. Lost.”
Chris has no response other than a scoff and a muttering of something unintelligible. Steve and Dove stand and watch as Chris, Jason, and their two other friends tear off from The Hawk and down Main Street into the night.
“You okay?” Steve asks, turning to look at Dove concerningly.
She can’t help but notice the way his eyes trace over her, like he’s assessing for any damage to have been done. She tries not to read into that too much but she can’t help the way it makes her stomach flutter. Or how the whole situation has set a fire inside her.
No, no, no, Dove we are not doing this, She thinks to herself.
“Yeah, I’m good, uh thanks for that,” She says with a smile, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Oh, that? It’s no problem just you know, doing my civic duty I guess,” Steve laughs awkwardly.
Dove chuckles as well, watching as he shoves his hands into the pockets of his jeans and he starts to ramble about the movie again.
And that’s it. He doesn’t bring that situation up again that night or ever again. She’s not sure if he’s aware of how much that means to her or how much it meant to her that he stuck up for her like that. No one, not even Nicole, had done that to the guys that tried to come onto her like that before. She always fought those battles herself. And it's not like she needed Steve to fight that battle for her but having him there…she’s not sure what to do with that feeling.
Because a knight coming to save her is not an unknown dream to her. She read stories of knights and princesses, maidens being saved by their prince’s, even stories of Greek gods going to save their mortal desires. But that’s what it all was to her before, stories and dreams. She had been saving herself for so long she had forgotten how badly she had wanted that. Yet it still doesn’t feel right, like it wasn’t for her…no matter how bad she wants it.
But there’s one thing she knows for sure now, Steve Harrington is nothing like the boys who have tormented her all of high school.
-
a/n: I could go on forever with her internal monologue
