synopsis: steve harrington falls in love with the girl next door when he's fourteen and never quite grows out of it. you're older, cooler, and already halfway to a life beyond hawkins. to you, he's stevie, the kid next door: never really an option. but by the time he's finally grown into himself, he realises that wanting you was never the problem. timing was.
tags: steve's pov, coming-of-age story, slowburn romance, unrequited childhood crush/angsty pining, age difference (only 2 years but feels more drastic when they're teens), period-accurate misogynistic language/slut-shaming (not endorsed!!), hurt/comfort, mutual pining further down the line, lots of right person wrong time, no use of y/n, eventual smut so mdni pls
notes: ok this is daunting bc all i do is get horny on here and i've never actually sat down and posted anything multi-part on this account. BUT i have enjoyed writing this thus far so hopefully i'll commit to finishing it. there'll be several chapters that span over several years. & there Will be smut eventually but the first part largely spans over steve/reader's high school years so it's more of a build up to the actual plot than anything else. lots of sad teenage yearning. the tags included in this post are vague & specific warnings are available per chapter. aiming for 3-4 parts to fit the current outline i have but we'll see where it goes. anyways dedicated to my lovely wikipedia @whimsital thank u for watching me get ragebaited by google docs and for answering all my (dumb) questions about the american school system and synonyms for trainers <3
