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stranger-marauders · 8 months

Text

i could never let you go

chapter seven: i do, i do, i do, i do, i do mamma mia! au

chapter summary: The wedding is finally here, but you have something you need to tell Lena before you send her off.

chapter warnings: language probably, use of y/n probably, single mom things, alcohol consumption, marriage, daddy issues if you squint

word count: 1.8k

series masterlist | masterlist

As you and Lena entered the chapel, you felt everyone’s eyes on you and your daughter.

You couldn’t remember the last time you’d actually gone to a wedding. It was most likely one of Robin’s, all of them taking place at the villa so you and Lena could be part of them somehow. You didn’t like walking down the aisle, everyone standing and watching you as you did so. By the time you got to the front of the altar, you stood with your daughter for a moment, kissing her on the cheek before taking your seat next to Robin and Nancy on the front pew.

The priest cleared his throat. “Please be seated. Welcome to Leo and Lena and to all of your friends who are gathered here on this day. And welcome especially to Y/N, who represents your family. Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today, in the sight of God—”

“And welcome to Lena’s dad,” you said, standing up. You looked to your daughter whenever she looked to you in fear. “I have to tell you. It isn’t fair to keep it from you any longer. He’s here.”

Whenever Steve, Jonathan, and Eddie all stood, everyone in the chapel gasped as Lena said, “I know.”

“What?”

“I invited him,” Lena explained nervously.

“But you can’t have! I don’t know which one of them it is.”

“Oh my God!” Nancy shouted.

Steve, Jonathan, and Eddie all sat back down, all looking to be somewhat embarrassed.

“That’s why they’re all here!” you said, everything starting to click together.

“Mom, I’m really, really sorry. Will you ever forgive me?”

“Oh, I don’t know, Lena,” you said, somewhat flustered. “Will you ever forgive me?”

“I don’t care if you’ve slept with hundreds of men!”

With that, the priest gave you a funny look.

“You’re my mom!”

You almost sat back down in your seat without any further argument, but you stood back up. “Just for clarification, I have not slept with hundreds of men.”

The crowd laughed, and the priest prepared himself to begin again whenever Steve stood up, then walked toward the front of the altar, seeing somewhat pissed.

“All right, hold up a sec. Are you saying that I might be Lena’s dad, but it might be Jonathan, or even Eddie?”

“Exactly right, and you’ve only got yourself to blame,” you replied, standing back up.

“I what?”

“Yeah,” Lena said. “If you hadn’t dumped my mom and gone off and married someone else, none of this would’ve happened.”

“No, no, no, it wasn’t like that,” Steve said, defending himself. “I was engaged. I had to go home. I thought it was the right thing to do.”

Whenever he saw the confusion on your face, he knew that he finally had to come clean about what he’d done. He had to tell you about what he should have told you a long, long time ago.

“But I came back.”

“What?” you asked, incredulously.

“Yeah. I told Amy I couldn’t marry her, and I came straight back.”

“Well, why didn’t you call me?” you asked, somewhat annoyed.

“Because I was stupid enough to think that you might be sitting in your room still hung up on me,” he answered. “By the time I got here, people told me that you’d gone off with some other guy.”

Whenever Steve looked to Jonathan and Eddie, everyone in the chapel looked at both of them, which made both of them look away.

“So I went back to Amy, who told me what an idiot I was… and married me to prove it.”

With that, Eddie stood up. “I’m sorry. If… If I might just insert myself into this for a moment, there’s something—”

“Oh, Eddie, the check. I’m so sorry—”

“Oh, no. Keep that for a rainy day. It’s yours. I just wanted to say it’s great to even have a third of Lena. I never thought I’d ever get that much of a kid, you know?”

“Oh, Eddie,” you said softly. He was always one for kind words.

He took a deep breath. “Sweetheart, you were the first girl I ever loved. But you were, uh… you were also the last girl I ever loved.”

It didn’t take long for you to understand what he meant.

“It’s been kinda difficult for Joe and me to have kids for obvious reasons, so I would consider myself lucky to even be a third of a father to Lena.”

“He’s right,” Steve said. “We can find out if we want to, but I’m with Eddie. Being a third of your dad is enough for me.”

“Me too!”

With that, Steve, Jonathan, and Eddie all stood behind Leo, almost as if they were waiting for yours or Lena’s next move.

Robin turned to Nancy, almost amused. “Typical, isn’t it? Wait twenty years for a dad, and then three come along all at once.”

Lena looked at all three of her potential fathers fondly. “I don’t know which one of you is my dad, but I don’t mind.”

Never in her life did she ever think she would get to meet her father, but at this moment, she now had three men that would love her, no matter if she was truly theirs or not.

That was why she finally looked to Leo with her mind made. “I’ve learned something about myself, Leo. Let’s not get married.”

Everyone in the chapel gasped in response.

“I know you never wanted any of this, okay? I’ve got my entire life ahead of me. Let’s just get off this island and explore the world, just like you’ve always wanted.”

Leo smiled, almost as if he didn’t know what to say. “I love you.”

“I take it the wedding’s canceled?” the priest asked, looking at you.

You threw your hands up in surrender. “I have no idea what’s going on.”

“Wait, wait, wait, hold up a sec. Why waste a good wedding?” Steve asked, standing in front of you.

“What are you doing?” you asked, looking at him somewhat nervously.

“How about it, L/N? You’re gonna need somebody to boss around on this island of yours now that Lena’s gone.”

“Are you insane? I’m not a bigamist!”

“Neither am I,” Steve said, smiling. “Last time I checked, I’ve actually been divorced for—” he stopped to count the years out on his fingers— “about ten years ago now. I’ve loved you for just about half my life, Y/N, and ever since I got on this island, I’ve been dying to tell you how much I do.”

Everyone gasped once again whenever Steve got down on one knee, spreading his arms wide.

“Come on, Y/N! It’s only the rest of your life!” You didn’t quite know what to say to him.

Just before you’d come inside for the wedding, you had both, in so many words, told each other that you loved one another. You thought he was crazy for suggesting something like this, mostly because up until yesterday you didn’t have any intent to ever see him again. Something about the gesture, though, made your heart flutter. You didn’t know if you would be able to survive turning him down.

“Come on, Y/N! You know you love me. Don’t deny it. Let’s just try it out, all right?”

“Say I do!” Robin said, shaking you slightly.

Whenever you finally came to, you blurted out, “I do!”

Steve took your hand, standing back up from the ground. Whenever he grasped your other hand, he pulled you into a kiss.

Kissing him was almost the same as it was twenty-one years ago, but something about it now felt different. Even though you now, apparently, did have the rest of your lives, it was like something within him was absolutely horrified that he would never get to kiss you again. It was almost like it was all those nights ago: he didn’t want to let you go.

With that, the wedding resumed, except instead of your daughter getting married, you were now marrying the love of your life.

The decorations around the reception area still had Leo and Lena’s names all over them.

Even if the decorations didn’t quite seem to match the new bride and groom, you and Steve didn’t mind. The reception was still a joyous occasion.

“To the woman I’ve always loved,” Steve said, holding up his glass of champagne as he made a toast. “I thank her for finally taking a real chance on me.”

You smiled, shaking your head. “Sit down, Harrington. You’re making a fool out of yourself.”

Whenever he sat back down next to you, he said, “I made a fool out of myself whenever I got down on one knee in that chapel.”

“Yeah, you did.”

On the other side of the reception, Nancy and Jonathan sat next to one another.

“I’ve gotta be honest with you, weddings make me sick,” Jonathan said, taking a sip of his drink. “Even whenever Lena asked me to walk her down the aisle, I thought I was gonna pass out.”

Nancy giggled. “Tell me about it.”

“All of it just seems too… too much, you know? I’m a photographer. I’ve worked on my own schedule for over twenty years. I don’t have any intent to stop that now.”

Nancy laughed nervously. “You know, if you ever, uh… change your mind, I’d be there.”

“Yeah?” Jonathan asked, almost not believing what he was hearing.

“Yeah. I’m a writer, too, so I get being on your own schedule. Maybe we could, uh… Maybe we could make something work.”

He nodded, smiling. “I think I’d like that.”

Love seemed to hang around on the island, even whenever the night began to come to an end. Leo and Lena’s bags were already packed, but now that they weren’t getting married, you had no idea when you would see your daughter next. As you watched them put their luggage on the boat now, ready to arrive on the mainland to start their journey through life together, you thought it was all bittersweet.

“I’d never let anything happen to her,” he replied, letting go of you so he could continue putting their bags on the boat.

“And you keep him out of trouble,” you said, looking at your daughter somewhat sternly.

Without another word, Lena quickly pulled you into the tightest hug you thought you’d ever experienced, then she let go to look at you again.

“I’m gonna miss you, Mom.”

“No, you won’t. You’re going to have the time of your life, my love,” you said softly as you smiled. “It’s a big world out there. Go experience it.”

She nodded, waving to everyone as Leo helped her into the boat. As they sailed away to shore, everyone cheered for them, only watching them as they disappeared into the night.

#steve harrington #steve harrington x reader #stranger things #steve harrington headcanon #steve harrington series #steve harrington stranger things #mamma mia! au

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stranger-marauders · 8 months

Text

i could never let you go

chapter six: the winner takes it all mamma mia! au

chapter summary: As Lena's wedding rapidly encroaches, she realizes there is only one person that she needs help from. Steve tries to talk to you about his feelings, but it's come much too late.

chapter warnings: language probably, use of y/n, single mom things,

word count: 3.1k

series masterlist | masterlist

Lena had been looking around the island for Leo for an hour.

Considering she currently had three separate men walking her down the aisle at their wedding later that day, she decided it was more than time to try to get Leo’s help. Even if she thought that he might not have been too happy with her, Leo would try to help her still, right? Anything was worth trying at this point.

Whenever she finally found him in the bar cleaning up the place, she felt a breath of fresh air.

“Leo!” she called, running to him as quickly as she could.

“Lena, what are you doing?” he asked concernedly. “It’s bad luck to see each other before the wedding!”

“It’s all gone wrong!” Lena said, obviously in distress. “Leo, you’ve got to help me. Please.”

“What’s going on?”

“This is a complete disaster, and it’s all my fault I know I shouldn’t have, okay, but I read my mom’s diary, and I’ve got three possible dads. I invited them all to the wedding, and I thought I’d know who my father was as soon as I saw him, but I didn’t. Now I’m waiting for my dad to give me away.”

“Woah, woah, woah, slow down. Go back a bit. You did what?”

“I invited my dads to our wedding. It was three months ago. I–I didn’t even think they would all come.”

“Three months?”

“Leo, you have to help me. Please, I’m begging you.”

He, however, had questions that needed answering first. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I knew you wouldn’t like it.”

“Damn right, I wouldn’t like it. I don’t like it.” He sighed, running his hand through his hair. “I–I thought we talked about this. About everything. I thought we trusted each other. You went behind my back for someone you’ve never even met. For three of them, actually.”

Lena felt lightheaded. “It wasn’t like that.”

“Is that what this big white wedding’s for? It’s all just so you can find your dad?”

“No! It’s not!”

“I wanted to take a boat out to the mainland. Just get married with a couple of witnesses. You insisted on this fantasy wedding just so you could play family with some random guy!”

“It’s about knowing who I am, Leo!” Lena argued. “I wanted to get married knowing who—”

“It doesn’t come from knowing who your dad is, lena. It comes from you. I mean, Jesus, Lena, how would you feel if I lied to you about something like this? I’m marrying you because I love you, not because I need to understand myself.” Leo paused, wiping his face as his voice became brittle. “I thought that was what you wanted. I just don’t know anymore.”

Lena’s eyes began to water. “You don’t know if you love me?”

“I don’t know if that’s what you really want.”

Before Lena could reply, Steve came into the room. When both Leo and Lena turned to him, he averted his gaze.

“I’m so sorry, I, uh… I’m obviously interrupting something. I’ll go.”

“No. No, we were just finished,” Leo said, somewhat bitterly. He turned to Lena once again. “Listen. Just think about it.”

Whenever he left the room, Lena started to follow him. “Leo, wait!”

“Lena, just leave him alone,” Steve said, blocking the way towards him. “He’s right. You have to be sure this is what you really want.”

“This has got nothing to do with you!” Lena argued.

Steve didn’t finish his sentence. He found himself right back to where he was that summer of 1990, not sure of what he truly wanted. He married his ex-wife simply because he wasn’t sure, because he didn’t want to cause waves on a whim, and now he regretted that more than anything. Now that he was older, the only thing he knew for sure is that it should have been you. It should have been you every night after he’d met you.

With that in mind, he wasn’t going to let Lena make that same mistake.

He cleared his throat. “I can’t give you away unless I know you’re really going to be happy.”

“I’ve already had this conversation with my mother, and she knows me a lot better than you do.”

“Yeah? What does your mom know about marriage and divorce?” Steve asked, chuckling. “Look, Lena, I’ve got twenty years of good advice to cram into you in about two minutes, so just hear me out, okay? You’re so young. You’ve got your whole life ahead of you—”

“Not now, Steve, please—”

“But I’ve been there, Lena. I’ve done the whole big white wedding, and the cake, and the… you know. It doesn’t always turn out happily ever after. I can still hear my ex-wife screaming at me, even now.”

“That’s not me, though,” she replied. “I love Leo more than anything else in the world. Did you feel that when you got married?”

Steve hesitated. He’d never felt that with anyone but you. “No, I didn’t.”

“Well, it sounds like I’ll be okay, then.”

When Lena left the room, Steve sighed. They truly were different.

Eddie had come to visit you while you were trying to get your outfit together.

You hadn’t seen anyone since that morning really, maybe except for the occasional small conversation with either Robin or Nancy. That didn’t include the orders that you’d seemingly barked at your staff as you tried desperately to make this wedding perfect for Lena. The last thing you needed was for her to accuse you of trying to ruin her wedding on purpose.

Because of your limited availability that day, you were surprised to see Eddie out of anyone that afternoon.

“Y/N, sweetheart, you available?” he asked, holding something in his hands.

“Eddie!” you said, somewhat flustered. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, I wanted to give you this.”

Eddie gave you the piece of paper in his hands, which happened to be a check. You didn’t truly look at it before you got even more flustered.

“No, I don’t mean here right now, I mean… I mean on this island. What are you doing here?”

“Just take this. Please.”

Whenever you finally looked at the check, you thought you were going to have a stroke. You didn’t think you’d ever had this much money in your life, and now you were simply holding it in your hands.

“Jesus Christ, Eddie! What is this?”

“I thought you must have had to tighten your belt after so many years. You’ve been looking after Lena for so long on your own. I just… I jsut wanted to contribute a little something to the wedding. Consider it a gift to the bride’s mother.”

“Eddie, I can’t take this. This is too much.”

“It’s nothing. That doesn’t even cover what the band makes on tour.”

You had almost forgotten about that. The last time you’d gotten the opportunity to see Eddie’s band play, they were only playing for small crowds. The last you’d heard, Corroded Coffin had been selling out venues across the world, still after all these years. It wasn’t a surprise that Eddie was able to cough up that much money and it still seem like a small amount. He was quite literally a famous rockstar.

You pressed your lips together, trying to make yourself smile. “This would cover four weddings and a funeral. It’s a lovely gesture, but…”

“Do you remember the last time you said that to me, sweetheart?”

You shook your head. “No.”

He smiled fondly. “It was the night I gave you my first guitar. I can remember thinking, those are the last words I’ll ever hear from you, and I’ll always treasure them. ‘Oh, Eddie, it’s a lovely gesture, but…’”

You laughed. “You’re full of shit. I’m sure I just said ‘Thank you’ like the nice school girl I was raised to be.”

“There she is,” Eddie said, smiling again. “You know that’s the first time I’ve seen you laugh since I got here?”

“What did you expect?” you asked. “I’m a bit stressed around here, as you can see.”

“A bit more of the old you, I think,” he replied. “A bit less of that nice schoolgirl you were apparently raised to be. First I’ve heard of that, I think.”

“Eddie…”

“You remember that summer? I do,” he said. “We had a real nice time if I remember correctly. Consider it damages for any pain I’ve caused you.”

You sighed softly. “I can’t take this from you, Eddie. I don’t know why you think I should.”

“I just want you to have it.”

Whenever there was a knock at the door, Eddie sighed. “We can talk about this later. I’ll see you at the wedding.”

“The wedding?” you asked, confused.

Eddie gave a grin. “Yeah. I’ve been invited.”

By the time Eddie left, you weren’t given any time to think about his final statement before Lena walked in, holding her wedding dress in her hands.

Part of you was surprised to see her. You didn’t think she would want to see you before the wedding after the conversation that you’d had that morning. Another part of you was glad: you didn’t think you could handle your daughter still being angry with you by the time she walked down the aisle. Now, though, your daughter was standing in front of you, half-ready and holding her wedding dress.

“Is that the dress, then?” you asked.

“Yeah,” Lena answered sheepishly.

“You look beautiful, baby.” You wiped your face, trying to hide the tears that started to brew in your eyes. “Okay, and are Jenny and Sarah helping you?”

“No,” she answered. You turned to her sharply in concern only to find her with tears in her eyes. “Will you help me, Mom?”

You nodded, moving her to sit down on the bed.

As you helped her get into her wedding dress, do her nails, do her hair her makeup, and quite possibly anything that she needed to get done before she walked down the aisle that evening, you couldn’t help but reminisce about the past. Your little girl was all grown up. That was the real reason you didn’t want her to get married yet. Yeah, you thought it would have been nice for her to explore the world, but she didn’t have to do it on her own like you did. For so long, it had just been you and Lena against the world. Now, though, you and Lena would face the world separately, but together.

You couldn’t wait to hear about her adventures.

While you were helping her into her wedding dress, Lena said, “Do you think I’m letting you down?”

“What?” you asked. “No, why?”

“Because everyone always tells me ‘Your Mom’s so cool, bringing up a kid, running a business all on her own.’ I just feel like I’m letting you down.”

“Well, I didn’t really have much of a choice, now did I? My mother disowned me whenever I got pregnant. I didn’t even go back home after I found out.”

Lena’s head jerked toward you, her face painted in utter horror. “What? I didn’t know that?”

“I didn’t want you to get upset. Our relationship was already bad, anyway. You had nothing to do with ruining that.” You paused. “I wouldn’t have it any other way, though. Even if my life is hard sometimes, or maybe I seem angry at the world, I wouldn’t change a thing if it meant I got to have you.”

That was true. Your mother, some rich aristocrat singer in Upstate New York, was someone you hadn’t talked to since you’d found out you were pregnant all those years ago. You didn’t have any plans of ever seeing her again after the way she’d treated you that night and throughout your entire life. Now, though, you were thankful she wasn’t in your or Lena’s lives. The rich girl lifestyle hadn’t ever been for you, anyway. You were much better roughing it the way you were now with no one in the world but Lena to worry about.

Without another moment’s hesitation, Lena turned to you with a glimmer in her eyes. “Will you give me away, Mom?”

You were taken aback. You could only nod, your eyes swelling with tears. “Of course, baby.”

“I love you, Mom.”

You quickly took her into a hug before Lena went off, making the last preparations with Sarah and Jenny before the wedding began.

Whenever the sun finally began to set on the horizon of Lake Michigan, you knew it was time to start walking toward the chapel.

The walk wasn’t too far from your villa. While the decision to build your villa near the chapel certainly hadn’t been on purpose, it had been nice considering people would stay at your villa and have small receptions for their own weddings at your place. If anything, those weddings were almost like practice for Lena’s own wedding.

As you began your walk to the chapel, Steve stopped you, calling your name.

“Not now, Steve.”

“Lena told me you’re the one that’s giving her away tonight,” he said, still standing in front of you.

“Yes, I am. Who else would do it?” you asked, somewhat confused.

“What about her father?”

“Her father isn’t here,” you said firmly.

“It’s what she wants. She told me she wants her father here. Maybe her father wants her as well.”

“What?”

You didn’t understand what he was saying. While you knew that Lena had always had a desire to know who her father was, it wasn’t like she had any idea of who he truly was. Steve, on the other hand, surely couldn’t have had any suspicions. You weren’t even sure that he’d truly talked to your daughter.

“Please don’t do this to me right now, Steve. I don’t wanna hear this right now.”

“Y/N. Y/N, just listen. This is about us, okay? Not anyone else.”

“Steve.”

“Listen to me. Please, just listen. I still love you. Even after all this time, I still love you. And Lena—”

“No.”

Steve hesitated. “What?”

“We’re not doing this right now. I don’t wanna talk about it, okay?” you said, finally snapping. “What’s happened between us is done. It’s over. It ended twenty years ago when you left me here to go home and get married. You let me love you whenever you knew you were getting married, and then you left. You left me alone here and you’ve made me feel like an absolute idiot since then!”

“Y/N, please—”

“No!” you said, cutting him off again. “You don’t understand what I’ve gone through, okay? I’ve had to live with the fact every single day since you’ve left that I was just a game for you. I was your last good time before you had to settle down with some nice girl from home. And you know what? It isn’t fair. Any of it. You’re not allowed to still love me. You’re not allowed to care about my daughter.”

“If you would please just let me explain everything—”

“There’s nothing to explain! You wanted to have the last greatest summer of your life before you had to grow up. I get it. But guess what? I had to grow up. I’m not letting you do this to me. Not after all this time.”

You paused, trying to gather yourself. You’d been waiting to say all of these things to him since the moment you’d watched him leave the island. As you lay into him now, though, your heart skipped a beat. You thought Steve was going to tear at the seams as he listened to your words. You’d always imagined that he would simply not take what you were saying to him and he’d just leave again.

Steve, however, had made it very clear that he wasn’t leaving.

“I get it, okay? You’re trying to make it up to me,” you finally said, your voice calm. “There’s nothing for you to apologize over anymore. It’s done. It’s in the past, and we can just forget about it. After tonight, there’s no reason for me to ever see you again. I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

“Please let me make it up to you.”

“There’s nothing you can do to make it better.”

“Just let me try.”

You hesitated to respond. Even if you wanted there to be, you didn’t think there was much he could try and make better at this point. It had been much too long to fix anything between the two of you, you thought. All Steve was doing now was making things worse. It was almost like he refused to let you move on from him, even after all these years.

“You remember this morning?” he asked anxiously. “You said you thought about if things were different between us. Let me make them different, okay? I want to be with you. I don’t want anything else in this world except for you and Lena.”

“Steve—”

“Please. Please, just give me a chance.”

You didn’t quite know what to say. It ached your heart to see him like this, begging for you to give him another chance. If he would have done this twenty-one years ago whenever you told him to leave, it might have been a different story. Even if you tried telling yourself that, you still wanted to hear him out. In a way, you wanted to give him a chance to make it better. You knew, however, that you couldn’t have done that, even if that was your last unfinished desire on this earth. You had Lena to worry about. You had the villa to worry about. You didn’t have time to rekindle a relationship that had lay dormant for twenty-one years. Even if you wanted to tell Steve yes, you knew you couldn’t.

“I hate that I still love you.”

With those seven words, Steve’s entire body almost exploded. You still loved him? After everything he had done to you, you still had feelings for him? Other than thinking, just for a moment, that you were absolutely insane after everything he’d done, his heart almost gave out. That meant that he could have still had a chance.

He couldn’t figure out something to say before you walked away from him, leaving him alone on the path to the chapel. Steve could only sigh as he walked toward the chapel, too, only hoping that Lena’s wedding went smoothly.

next chapter

#steve harrington #steve harrington x reader #stranger things #steve harrington headcanon #steve harrington series #steve harrington stranger things #mamma mia! au

30 notes · View notes

stranger-marauders · 8 months

Text

i could never let you go

chapter five: one of us mamma mia! au

chapter summary: After Lena's bachelorette party, you face a sobering realization. Lena becomes overwhelmed by the three of her fathers.

chapter warnings: smut, language, general angst, mother-daughter argument, use of y/n

word count: 3.5k

series masterlist | masterlist

You couldn’t begin to explain it, but you were back in his arms again.

At first, you couldn’t remember where you were. It only took you a second to realize you were in your bed, late at night after one of your shows.

The bedroom floor was an absolute mess. After your show that night, Steve had been trying his best to keep his hands off of you, mostly because he thought that he might burst just at the sensation of your skin. The second you’d gotten inside the old farmhouse, Steve had carried you right upstairs to bed, not even stopping to take his shoes off.

All of your clothes made a straight line for the bed where Steve currently had you underneath him. One hand was gripping your waist, the other interlaced with your fingers as he worked his way inside of you. The way that you squeezed at the sensation of him pushing in and pulling out of your body only made him go more insane. The moans and whimpers that you were giving him made him thrust harder, your body starting to jiggle simply from the force of it all.

“You were so pretty up there tonight, baby,” he said softly, his voice strained. “I can’t believe I get to have you all to myself.”

You didn’t think you’d ever get used to how big he was. Even if he tried his best to be gentle with you, he couldn’t help it. Chest to chest, hand in hand, an arm of yours around his shoulders—you weren’t sure if becoming closer to him was an option. You didn’t even mind the thin layer of sweat that almost seemed to make both of your bodies stick together.

Out of everything, you always thought the feeling of his hand in yours made all of him even more overwhelming. There was something about him holding your hand while he fucked you that made everything even more intimate. It was like he had to have you in every single way possible—in a way, it seemed like his life depended on it.

“God, Steve,” you said, gasping at the sensation.

“I know, baby, I know.”

You moaned, your hand snaking its way to the base of his neck and touching his little baby hairs, pulling at them slightly. You loved the way his hair shagged, how he was so sensitive to the touch of it. As expected, he groaned, pushing even deeper into you. Your name was like a prayer on his lips, whimpering it over and over again almost like you were the only thing he believed in anymore.

Steve was under the impression that you had been made for each other. Everything about you completed him in a way that no one else ever had before.

You could hardly focus now. His free hand was roaming every bare inch of your skin now, and his lips were moving up and down your neck and chest, your tits swelling at the sensation.

He looked down at you, his brown eyes full of love and yet lust all at the same time. “You okay? Do I need to stop?”

You could hardly get words out it felt so good—you didn’t want it to end. “Keep going.”

When his hand returned to your hip, he thought you might have bruises tomorrow morning from how tight he was currently holding onto you. It was like he feared he’d never get to hold you again, that or you’d simply disappear if he let you go. You never minded, even if it meant that you had to work around the marks he left you for your gigs at the bar—that just meant more of you could just be for him to see.

You felt pleasure wash over you in waves, making it where you could hardly keep your eyes open. He always became so intoxicating that you finally couldn’t keep your eyes open. Tonight, for whatever reason, you couldn’t help it, even more so than usual. The friction of your clit and nipples against his hair and skin certainly were a contributing factor.

There hadn’t been a night that the sex wasn’t good, but it hadn’t ever been like this. In fact, you’d never experienced anything like this in your entire life, and part of you was scared you’d never feel something like this with anyone ever again.

“You’re so beautiful,” he said, nearly panting. His lips were so close to your ear now, burying his face into your neck. It was like he knew you were close. His hand against your waist was slick, just like the both of your bodies were. “Just let go, baby.”

With that, you cried out, gasping and digging your nails into his back and hand. As he whispered encouragements into your ear, you felt lightheaded, dizzy even. The journey to the edge was quick, and the heat in your lower abdomen ignited a fire that caused you to scream.

“That’s it, baby, that’s it.”

Steve gripped onto your hip for dear life, burying his face tightly into your neck to muffle his own cries. You could feel every pulse of him and his cock inside of you, covering your insides with his—

You jolted awake quickly whenever you heard a familiar scream from outside.

Lena.

Without hesitation, you ran downstairs to the courtyard to find her, even though the sky was still dark blue. The sun hadn’t even had a chance to come up yet. Whenever you saw her, you thought it was odd that she looked so confused, standing in the courtyard still in her pajamas.

She’d been sleepwalking again.

You knew your daughter better than anyone else: whenever she sleptwalk, something was taxing her mind. Of course, that didn’t surprise you. This wedding had been enough to even stress you out, not to mention the last twenty-four hours. You hadn’t ever imagined you would see Eddie, Jonathan, or Steve again, and they’d all shown up at the same time. What were you supposed to think about that?

Of course, that immediately made you think of the dream that you’d just had, which almost made you throw up.

You had to worry about Lena first.

“Lena, what’s going on?” you asked, holding her by the arms. “It’s six o’clock in the morning. What are you doing?”

“I… I don’t know,” she said, sounding almost as confused as she looked.

“Well, wait right here.”

“I’m all right, Mom.”

“No, you’re not either,” you said, touching her face. No fever, thank God. “You’re sleepwalking again.”

“Again?” Lena asked. “When do I ever sleepwalk?”

You, of course, had answers prepared. “Hm, let’s think: the night you couldn’t figure out your algebra homework, the night you went down with the flu—”

“Knock it off,” Lena said. “I’m not a baby.”

“Well, I know that, Lena, but you’re still my daughter. I know when something’s wrong with you.”

Whenever she didn’t saw anything, you sighed. You couldn’t tell what was taxing her mind, but you could only correlate one event going on currently. With that in mind, you started to rub her back and you continued to speak.

“What do we have to do? It’s not too late, if it’s about the wedding. We can call it off right now—”

“Wait, what?” Lena asked, even more confused by your statement. “No, that’s not what this is about, okay!”

“I’m not saying it is—”

“Yes, you are!” Lena shouted. “It’s not a secret you think I’m stupid to get married. You’ve made that clear multiple times without saying it. It’s just a label and—”

“I’ve never pretended that I understand, Lena—”

“No! Of course you don’t!” she said, beginning to get even angrier. “You did it just fine without a man, didn’t you? You didn’t do the marriage and babies thing. You just did the baby. Well, good for you, okay! Not everyone’s like you!”

You didn’t quite understand what she was saying. While, yes, you had never gotten married, and never had a true relationship since she was born, you certainly didn’t think your daughter was stupid for marrying someone she loved. You simply thought she was too young to settle down already.

“I don’t see why you’re taking this out on me—”

“I’m gonna do it right, Mom. I love Leo, and I want to be with him, and I’m not gonna let my kids grow up and not know who their Dad is, because it’s bullshit! It’s absolutely terrible and you have no idea what it’s like!”

“Lena, wait—”

Before you could reason with her, however, she stomped off, leaving to go back inside. You sighed, not knowing what to think.

It was wrong of you to assume that it was about the wedding. You knew that. But what else could this have been about? Was she hiding something from you? The more you thought about it, you didn’t think Lena was quite capable of that: she’d told you absolutely everything since she’d gained the ability to talk.

You didn’t think it was fair for her to tell you what it was like to not have a father in your life. Your own mother had never truly told you who your own father was, either. All you knew about him was that he was a former lover of your mother’s, someone from a fling that would have no desire to have ever met you. With that, you pushed it behind you. You didn’t need a father, nor had you truly needed a mother.

It was the first time that you’d ever thought that maybe it hadn’t been fair to raise Lena in that same mindset.

Before you could go inside to apologize to her, you found Leo, Eric, and Pepper with a guitar and a corresponding amplifier, one that’s sound was all too familiar to you.

“All right! Eric! What the hell are you doing with that thing!” you shouted, quickly unplugging the amplifier so as to not wake up any of the guests in the villa.

“We found it in the basement. Just what we need for a wedding.”

“Is this yours? It’s nice!”

“No, it’s…” You didn’t want to think about whose guitar it was. “It doesn’t matter. What did you three even do last night? You look terrible!”

You were completely right about that. The three boys, unsurprisingly, had looked as if they had partied much too hard last night. You weren’t entirely sure that they had taken showers or had even slept since they’d come back from the lake, mostly because they still smelled horrendous. That also could’ve been the booze, though, you thought. Probably a bit of both? It didn’t matter. What did matter, however, was that it was fixed before Lena saw them.

“Go take showers. Now.”

Leo went inside sheepishly, almost like an eight-year-old that had just been scolded by his mother; you watched as Pepper followed closely behind him.

“And where do you think you’re going?” you asked him.

“To scrub the groom’s back!” he said drunkenly.

“Oh, no, you’re not.” You cleared your throat, ready to give the boys instructions. “I want the champagne on ice, the juice in the punch bowls, and I want you to lay out the tablecloths, cutlery, and the best glasses, and you better wash and polish them first or else.”

“Yeah! And don’t just blow at them and rub them on your pants!” Eric said in jest.

“Eric!” you shouted, almost as if you were scolding him. “Get your boat out!”

“What? Hey!”

“ERIC!” “Why?”

“Because my guests want to dive down to the old wreck to look for more necklaces.”

“Aw, come on!” Eric said. “We planted the ones that Leo found last night.”

“Then I suggest you plant more of them,” you replied. “It’s a genius distraction tool you’ve created. It’ll keep guests happy until the wedding starts. So, please, for Christ’s sake, just do it!”

Of course, the boys listened to you in order to not lose their jobs or their heads, only leaving you alone in the courtyard. You sighed as you finally sat down.

While you never got to actually sit down in your courtyard, you did think it was a lovely sight. You liked all of the flowers that were sitting within it, the reds and purples and pinks that made the place feel much more alive. You had always taken pride in your courtyard, mostly because Lena had always loved it so much.

You buried your head in your hands. All of this was a disaster and it was your fault. Your daughter was furious with you because you’d jumped to conclusions about her relationship, the three men that could have possibly been the father of that very daughter were all staying in your villa, and on top of that, you were confused about all of it.

Seeing Steve again last night had made you feel a lot of things, especially whenever you’d had a couple of shots as liquid courage before you’d gone on with Nancy and Robin. That was the only way you could explain the dream you’d had that night. It was all because you’d had way too much to drink.

It hadn’t been a dream, exactly. No, it was actually a memory. As much as you would have liked to forget all of that time you’d spent with him, after twenty-one years, you still had never been able to forget a single night with him. That’s what made seeing him again hurt even more.

You didn’t know whether to be angry with him or yourself. While he was completely at fault for making you fall in love with him whenever he was getting married, you had been stupid for letting him absorb your every thought and being for all that time, even now. You’d had more than enough time to get over him, so why hadn’t you? That wasn’t something you could blame on him and you knew it.

Whenever he stopped into the courtyard with a sketchpad and glasses, though, your heart fluttered. You hated how handsome he still was, how even more attractive he was now that he was older. The glasses were new, and so was the sketchpad. You didn’t ever really think that he would step up to lead his father’s contracting company, but here he was, planning projects in your courtyard.

Without speaking to him, you quickly tried to leave. You weren’t in the mental state to try and have a civil conversation with him. Of course, he stood in front of you, trying his best to stop you as he called your name.

“Wait, hold on!” he said, keeping a hand out in surrender. “Where’re you goin’? I just got here.”

“Oh, it’s, uh… it’s for the wedding. Small thing.”

“Look, about this wedding, I—”

Steve cut himself off whenever he realized how beautiful the courtyard was. As much as he would’ve liked to, he hadn’t truly had time to explore the grounds of the villa. The courtyard, for example, was something he hadn’t gotten to see yet. He was almost overwhelmed with the apparent beauty of your villa, the very same one that you’d dreamed up together. If he hadn’t been as stupid as he was, maybe he could have been as lucky as to run the place with you.

“This place really is beautiful.”

“Yeah.” You sighed softly. “It’s too bad it doesn’t frighten off unwanted visitors.”

“You don’t need a garden to do that.”

“I wouldn’t. My bite is worse than my bark.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I remember.” Steve chuckled. “I’ve still got the scars. I’ll show you.”

For a moment, you almost felt yourself slip back into that banter you two used to share. It was like nothing had ever happened between the two of you. You, however, quickly remembered why you weren’t allowed to love him, and you shouldn’t have been allowed to in the first place: Steve Harrington was a married man.

“What do you want, Steve?”

“Look.” He opened his sketchpad, showing you a drawing he’d made of your inn but with some modifications. “I have an idea for an extension—”

“I don’t want your goddamn extension!” you said, annoyed. “What are you doing here?”

“You’re living my dream!” Steve replied, not truly answering your question. “Don’t you remember it? It’s everything I told you about. The island, the villa… This was my dream. Our dream, if I remember correctly.”

“Yeah?” you asked bitterly. “Well, this is my life. Hard work and a crippling mortgage. I don’t think that’s the dream you quite remember it to be.”

“At least let me take a look at that roof for you. It’s not going to last you through the winter, and we both know the winter here’s brutal. Just… Just let me check it for you, okay?”

“I will look at my own roof, thank you.”

“Okay, fine! Jesus, be a fucking martyr if you want to.”

You sighed, not saying anything. For whatever reason, you still hadn’t walked away from him nor the courtyard. You knew you had more than enough things to do around the island before you actually got ready for the wedding, but something was holding you back from getting on with that very work. You couldn’t explain it, but you couldn’t leave. Not yet.

“You know, we had a good run,” he said softly. “A really good run if you ask me. I think about that summer all the time.”

Even if you hated to admit it, you thought about it, too. While it didn’t help that Steve might have been the actual father of your child, that was the last time you’d truly felt loved unconditionally. Steve had done that, not anyone else. Even if you wanted to hate him, you couldn’t. You knew that. The dream you’d had last night and seemingly the rest you had almost every night since he’d left told you that much. You simply hated to even admit it, especially now that he was sitting right in front of you.

“Yeah. Yeah, we did,” you replied. “Do you ever… think about how it could’ve gone differently?”

Steve chuckled. “All the time. I should’ve never done that to you. If I knew what I know now, would’ve done things a lot differently than I did. Jesus, I was such a stupid kid. Sometimes, I feel like I still am a kid, you know? Just constantly making stupid decisions.”

You didn’t know what to say. As much as you thought about that summer and the outcome of it, you hadn’t really thought about if he harbored any regret over the situation. In a way, it made your opinion of him go up a tad—you hadn’t ever given the thought that he would change everything that happened. The thought only confused you more, and that was something you didn’t want.

“But we’re not kids anymore. I have a kid now, and she’s… she’s what matters to me.”

“I have kids, too, you know,” Steve said softly, almost like he was trying to diffuse the tension between the two of you so you wouldn’t leave. “I know it’s gotta be hard for you, you know, doing it on your own.”

“Don’t patronize me,” you said sharply in response. “I like doing it on my own. Every morning I wake up and I thank every god above I don’t have some middle-aged menopausal man to bother me. I’m single, I’m free, and it’s great! I’m happy, okay?”

Steve, however, didn’t seem convinced.

“I’m happy. More than that, actually. I don’t need you telling me what’s hard for me and what’s not.”

“Y/N, please, just stop and listen to me for just a minute, okay?” he asked. “I’m not trying to piss you off. That’s… That’s the opposite of what I want, okay?”

With the interactions that the two of you had shared in the past twenty-four hours, you didn’t quite know what to think of that statement. If he didn’t want to piss you off, why had he let you be his mistress unknowingly until just a few days before he got married, only to not see him for twenty-one years? If that was what he wanted, he wouldn’t have made you fall in love with him in the first place.

“Why didn’t you ever tell me about Lena?”

His statement took you by surprise, quickly making you become defensive. “She is absolutely none of your business—”

“And what’s this Leo guy like? Is he good enough for her?”

“And that is none of your business, either,” you said, exasperated. “You don’t get to just show up and start asking questions.”

“Okay, wait, It’s not like that—”

“You need to mind your own business, okay, Steve?” you said sharply. “I’m serious. You stay out of this.”

Steve hesitated, almost like he was thinking through his options. He decided, however, that it wasn’t worth pissing you off further. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Got it.”

“Great.”

Without another question, Steve let you leave the courtyard and let you get back to planning the wedding festivities.

next chapter

#steve harrington #steve harrington x reader #stranger things #steve harrington headcanon #steve harrington series #steve harrington stranger things #steve harrington smut #mamma mia! au

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stranger-marauders · 8 months

Text

i could never let you go

chapter four: voulez-vous mamma mia! au

chapter summary: You, Robin, and Nancy come together and perform for your daughter's bachelorette party. Lena's potential fathers all make a realization.

chapter warnings: language probably, daddy issues ig, use of y/n probably, single mom things, alcohol consumption

word count: 3.1k

series masterlist | masterlist

You had worked your ass off to make the bar look as good as it did, and it had certainly paid off.

Because the bar was outside, you had made a great effort in making sure that the area was fully lit and decorated. There were lantern lights around the place, and you’d even had your boys make a makeshift dancefloor before they left. You’d also secretly had Leo make sure the stage was functional, just because it had been forever since you’d had live music.

Robin and Nancy also helped you decorate the bar area, even though you had told them that you didn’t need any help. Of course, since that conversation took place after your mental breakdown in your room about Steve, Eddie, and Jonathan, they didn’t want to leave you decorating alone. While you appreciated the help, you still wanted them to feel like guests.

That was part of the reason why you were surprised whenever they’d talked you into becoming the entertainment of the night.

“Ladies! Are there any here tonight?” Robin asked, speaking into her mic offstage.

The cheers of Lena’s bachelorette party attendants screamed in response.

“Well, for one night, and for one night only, the Pinestead Inn is proud to present the one, the only, the world’s first Girl Power band in all its grown-up wrinkly glory—”

“Speak for yourself, Rob,” Nancy muttered.

“One night! One number! ‘Cause that’s all we’ve got the breath for. Give it up for Y/N & the Dynamos!”

The girls in the audience screamed as you, Robin, and Nancy walked out in outrageous 70s outfits in honor of the selection that night. You were surprised that your outfits still fit all of you. While Nancy and Robin had hardly changed in terms of physique, you thought that having a baby twenty years ago would’ve made a difference for you.

As the curtains rose and the lights hit the three of you, you began to sing.

You, Nancy, and Robin had decided to pull out one of your strongest hits from back in the day: “Super Trouper.” It had always been one of your most popular hits, mostly because there probably wasn’t a person alive that disliked ABBA. While you three had many, many songs to choose from, especially if you pulled from your solo catalog, “Super Trouper” was without a doubt the best pick.

Now that you were singing again, you thought that it was odd that Steve wasn’t out in the crowd. The last time you had been that happy singing was whenever you could sing specifically to him, acting as if every other person wasn’t there. You remembered that part of your life almost like it had happened yesterday.

Back in those days, Steve would watch your set the entire night, then he would take you home, wine and dine you before he took you to bed. He would tell you how pretty you were up there, singing for him like he was the only man in the room. He would touch you like he would never touch a woman again, touch you again. Steve would love you like it was the last time he’d ever get the opportunity to do such a thing and he wanted you to know that no matter what, that love would never go away.

Even after everything he’d done to you, you really did miss him. Something about him was so simply irresistible, even all these years later. You hated to admit that he still had a place in your heart. Just seeing him earlier that day made your heart hurt, just as it had whenever you’d sent him away all those years ago.

Whenever you’d seen Steve standing at the very opposite end of the bar, out of the line of sight with Jonathan and Eddie, your heart nearly skipped a beat.

While Steve knew that it was a bachelorette party for your daughter that he was technically crashing, he couldn’t help but eavesdrop whenever he heard you were going to be singing that night. Being back on the island made him think back to the summer of 1990, the best summer of his life. Even after all those years, he still couldn’t get your voice out of his head, nor could he forget the smell of your perfume or the feel of your body under his. You had never been able to leave him, even after his marriage with Amy.

Steve had married the girl back home that he’d said he would whenever he left you on Pinestead Island. If he could do it all over again, he wouldn’t have married her, no matter what happened with you. That decision was something he regretted even after all this time. He should’ve thought about a way to get you back rather than just settle and marry Amy.

He’d been stupid to waste his life the way he had. While he had money, more money than he could ever want, he wasn’t happy. Not really.

Unsurprisingly, Amy had served him with divorce papers almost ten years ago now, telling him that now that the boys were old enough for them to co-parent from separate homes, it was time for their relationship to end. In Steve’s eyes, their relationship had ended the day that he met you.

His sons were sixteen and eighteen now, but at the time, they had been much too young to understand why their parents didn’t love each other anymore. Steve had always told them that he would them what he’d done to their mother whenever they got older. Whenever they turned thirteen and fifteen, respectively, Steve told his sons about you and about that summer (of course, the less explicit version). He’d also told them that if they ever cheated on their partners the way that he’d done that he would disown them, but they promised that they wouldn’t.

Even so, Steve didn’t regret all of what he’d done. While he regretted not going home after he’d met you to tell Amy that it was over, he didn’t regret a single thing he did with you. That single month with you had been the most right his life had ever been, and he would do anything to have one night with you again.

That was the real reason why Steve had accepted what he’d thought was your invitation back to the island.

Steve had thought about coming back to Pinestead to see you for years. He’d dreamed of seeing you again since the moment he’d left the island to get married. He had your website for the villa tabbed on his computer back home, checking on it every once in a while to make sure that the place didn’t close before he got to see it in person. He had never gone to see you because part of him was scared that you would throw him back off the island the second you saw him. He didn’t want to risk seeing you so angry and upset with him again—he couldn’t take it. His heart broke at the thought of making you feel like that ever again.

Because of that, he knew that he loved you. He still loved you, really. He knew that he’d said it to you in passing maybe once or twice whenever you’d been sleeping together, but if he ever got to say it to you now, he would make sure you knew he meant it because, even now, he still felt that way about you. You were still beautiful, even after all these years. You were bold, sharp even if he had still been, deservedly, at the other end of that anger you had. You had even built the villa you two had designed that summer, making your and his dreams a reality.

Steve knew, however, knew that he would never get so lucky to have you again and that he would have to live with the decision he’d made to leave you behind all those years ago for the rest of his life. For that, he would always live in regret.

Whenever the song was done, you, as well as Nancy and Robin, had immediately walked over to the three men across the bar. While you talked, music blared through the area, leaving the young girls to fill the dance floor.

“What are you doing here?” you asked them, somewhat irritated.

“This is a bachelorette party,” Nancy said.

“Meaning no boys allowed,” Robin added, making sure that she was really selling the point home.

“Well, you know, we thought that we would wander around the property, enjoy the hotel as guests, you know?” Steve said, trying to act calm. Internally, however, his heart was beating rapidly. He thought you were going to tear him to shreds.

“Hm. Too bad this area’s being rented out for a private party. Emphasis on private.”

“Yeah, well—”

“They can stay if they want to!” Lena shouted, smiling as she danced with Sarah and Jenny.

Steve shrugged, giving a tightlipped smile. “I don’t know if you know, but, uh… we have permission from the bride.”

He, as well as Jonathan and Eddie, disappeared into the crowd as you rolled your eyes.

It was almost like he hadn’t aged. Even though he was forty-something years old, he still blended in with these young twenty-something young girls. There was something youthful about him, something so spontaneously interesting and simultaneously fun that it started to make your heart melt for him.

“You okay?” Robin asked, putting a hand on your shoulder.

“Me?” you responded. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m okay.”

Without asking you, Nancy walked up to the bar, not even looking at the drink menu. “Three shots, please. Vodka.”

“Oh my God, Nance, are you trying to kill us?”

“No. No, this is good,” you said. “I need to start drinking, like, right now.”

All of this was too much for you. Why had Lena told them it was okay to stay? Your daughter couldn’t have known what she had just done. With Lena, Steve, Eddie, and Jonathan all in the same place, it wouldn’t be long until they realized that your daughter very well could have been one of theirs, too, and you wanted to be far from sober if you could to handle that conversation.

Once you and Robin had gotten so drunk that you were hardly able to stand, Nancy decided to bring you two up to your room for the night.

Of course, the bachelorette party still went on without you and the Dynamos.

After you had been forced to go to bed, Lena had decided it was as good a time as any to finally try to investigate who her father truly was. Her current plan was to talk to each of them individually to see if she could figure out the father that way.

The first person she could find was Steve.

Whenever Lena dragged Steve to the edge of the bar, which was away from most of the party, he didn’t mind. He knew he had to go with her, even if it was just to talk.

Lena truly did look just like you. She was such a beautiful girl, just like her mother. He couldn’t help but to love your daughter too.

“I’m sorry to drag you away from the party,” she said somewhat sheepishly.

“No, I’m glad you did,” Steve replied. “It’s, uh… It’s crazy seeing the island the way that it is now. It used to be so quiet, you know? Now it’s so different.”

Lena nodded. “So do you regret staying away for so long, then?”

“No,” Steve said. “I regret that I didn’t know what was here.”

“What?”

“This place. The Inn,” he replied. “Your mom and I talked about building this place here a long time ago, but, uh… you know, she obviously beat me to it.”

She hesitated to respond to him. “Tell me something about my mom.”

“Your mom?”

Steve didn’t know what to say to her. What could he tell this girl about her own mother that she didn’t already know? He had only spent a month with you twenty-one years ago, but this girl had her whole life with you. There probably wasn’t a thing she didn’t know about you after all the time that your daughter had spent with you.

“Okay, I think I got something. I was, uh… I was actually the one that brought her here.”

“And that wasn’t the only thing you did, was it?”

Steve’s eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. “What’d she tell you?”

“Nothing!” Lena answered quickly. “She–She’s never mentioned you before.”

Something about that answer didn’t sit right with him. “No, no, no. You told me earlier that your mom never stops talking about her friends from the old days, okay? Something’s not adding up.” He paused whenever he saw the look of worry on her face. “What’s going on, Lena? Why am I here/”

Instead of answering him, however, Lena reentered the dance floor.

“Wait, Lena!” Steve shouted, trying to follow her. Of course, he was pulled right back into dancing with the young girls at the party.

The next person Lena spotted was Eddie. She pulled him to the very edge of the dance party, talking to him as she’d just talked to Steve.

“It’s crazy that Y/N has a grown-up daughter,” he said.

“Have you got any children, Eddie?” Lena asked.

“No, I’ve chosen to not put myself into the path of paternity.”

“It’s never too late.”

“Oh, I don’t think my other half would agree,” Eddie said, almost laughing.

“Do you not want children?” Lena asked, somewhat worried.

“Nah, it’s not that. We’re just old. Too old for a baby, anyway. Besides, it would’ve been hard to have kids on the road,” he said. “You know, I would’ve loved to have a daughter.”

With that, Lena’s heart skipped a beat. “Really?”

“I don’t know, something about it. I would’ve spoiled that little girl completely rotten if I got the chance.”

“Must be your lucky day…,” Lena mumbled.

“Is your dad here?” Eddie asked. “I wanna meet the guy that made your mom settle down.”

“I don’t know.”

“What?”

“I don’t know who my dad is,” Lena said, now speaking much more clearly.

Before Eddie could ask any more questions, he was brought right back into the dance circle. When Lena tried to find him, she was instead pulled to the side by Jonathan.

“Can I ask you a question?” Jonathan asked. “It may sound like I’m being nosey, but I’m trying to figure out how all of this is possible.”

“Go ahead.”

“How did your mother get this place? When I knew her, she was singing in a bar on the mainland.”

Lena shrugged. “I was really little when it happened. She was left some money in a will, I think. I know we lived with an older lady when I was younger. Her name was Darlene.”

“Darlene? Like my great aunt Darlene?” Jonathan asked.

“I think it must be.”

“I always heard her money went to family,” he said, trailing off. That was when he realized something. “Wait a minute. How old are you?”

“I’m twenty.”

With that, Jonathan went to go stand on the edge of the balcony, almost as if he was going to be sick.

“Jonathan!” Lena shouted, running after him.

“Sorry. I had to get some air,” he said, leaning on the edge of the railing.

“Why did your great aunt leave my mother that money?” she asked.

“I don’t know.”

“You do. Please, just tell me.”

Jonathan hesitated, turning to look at your daughter for only a moment. “Well, what did your mother tell you?”

“She won’t talk about the past. She doesn’t understand how much I need to know.”

“Well, you’ll have to talk to her about it.”

“This doesn’t have anything to do with her,” Lena finally said. “My whole life has been one big unanswered question, and I don’t want any more secrecy.”

“Lena, this isn’t my secret.”

She finally sighed. There wasn’t any point in sugarcoating it anymore. “Jonathan, are you my father?”

He hesitated. “I think I might be.”

“Well, you know what comes next.”

“Don’t tell me you have a win,” Jonathan said, his face going pale.

“No, no. It’s just me,” Lena said, trying to alleviate his worry. “No, I wanted to ask if you would give me away tomorrow?”

“Give you away?” he asked, not seeming to understand.

“I’ll feel like a real bride if I can walk down the aisle with my father.”

Before Jonathan could give her an answer, Jenny turned to tell Sophie something before quickly walking away, rejoining the dance circle. “The boys are back!”

“I’ll find your mother,” Jonathan said. “I need to talk to her about this.”

“No!” Lena replied. “Not tonight. We’ll keep this our secret until the wedding tomorrow, okay?”

“She’s gonna lose her mind, Lena.”

“She’ll be relieved. She’ll see us together and see that I’m happy.”

Jonathan pondered over the thought. “Oh, all right. I’ll do it.”

As he walked back into the crowd, Eddie came up to Lena again.

“Lena, I won’t beat around the bush, kid. I know why I’m here,” he said. “And let me tell you, I think it’s great. I’ve always wanted a little girl, and a big one’s even better.”

“No, Eddie! It’s—”

“I know I’m rushing things, but please tell me, does your mother know that I know?”

“No, she—”

“Okay, that’s good. Listen, I gotta know, who’s giving you away?”

“No one!” Lena said quickly.

“Wrong! I am!” he said, almost too excitedly.

“You?”

“Yes!”

“Oh!”

“And don’t worry about your mom. She doesn’t scare me too much!” Eddie shouted, getting sucked right back into the crowd.

“Wait, Eddie!”

Before Lena could catch him, however, Steve pulled her to the side once again.

“Oh my God! Talk about slow on the uptake. I’m your dad!”

“Steve!” Lena said, almost begging him to forget his realization.

“I get it now, okay? That’s why you sent me an invitation. You want your ol’ dad here to walk you down the aisle. I’m not gonna let you down, okay? I’ll be there!”

Before she could catch him, as well as Jonathan and Eddie, Lena could only stand in the middle of the crowd and the loud music, regretting her decision to try and find her father in the first place.

next chapter

#steve harrington #steve harrington x reader #stranger things #steve harrington headcanon #steve harrington series #steve harrington stranger things #mamma mia! au #eddie munson #jonathan byers

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stranger-marauders · 8 months

Text

i could never let you go

three: lay all your love on me mamma mia! au

chapter summary: After meeting Steve, Eddie, and Jonathan, Lena seeks help from her fiancé.

chapter warnings: language probably, absent father things, use of y/n probably, making out

word count: 2.1k

series masterlist | masterlist

After getting Steve, Eddie, and Jonathan situated in a room, Lena had gone to the beach to tell Leo what she’d done before his bachelorette party.

She knew how selfish that logic sounded. She wanted to tell her fiancé about what she’d done before he went to his own bachelorette party because of her own screw-up. She didn’t know what to do about her three potential fathers, especially now that they’d told her that you knew of their arrival on the island. She was horrified about what you were going to say to her about the three men whenever she saw you next, especially if she figured out that you were the reason why her potential fathers were here. Lena had always wanted to meet her father, but now that she was facing the repercussions of trying to find him, she couldn’t do it on her own. Because of that, she knew she had to find her fiancé before he left for his bachelor party.

Leo had been her rock for a long, long time. Whenever anything bad had happened, Leo had been the first one to fix it. Over the past couple of years, he had even been able to help you out some around your property, alleviating your stress about the villa. It had been the first time that Lena had ever seen you destress, or at least stop stressing as much as you did before whenever you didn’t have any help.

That was one of the reasons why Lena loved him so much. Since she had met him, he had done everything in his power since she’d met him to make things better for you and her. In a way, you and Lena had become his family much before there was ever talk of a wedding, and Leo hadn’t ever denied such a claim. He had done so much in the three years that she’d known him and that was something she couldn’t look over.

That also meant, however, that Leo was extremely protective over Lena and her well-being.

Lena knew that Leo was going to be upset with her no matter what she said, and that was something she’d accepted about a month ago. She’d talked about the desire to find her father with him multiple times in the last three years, but every single time, Leo had tried to talk her out of it. Very similarly to you, Leo simply wanted the best for Lena, and she knew that. Leo, however, had a father, and that was a man that he had no desire to ever see again. Lena hadn’t ever been given the opportunity to make that decision about her father.

She knew deep down, though, that no matter how she explained the situation to Leo that he wouldn’t like it. Deep down, she knew that was the reason why she hadn’t talked to him about it yet. Lena had been pushing it off as long as possible because she didn’t want him to talk her out of inviting them, that or risk the possibility of him getting upset with her because she’d done such a thing.

Instead, she now ran the risk of not knowing what his response would be only a day before the wedding, risking everything that she’d worked for in the last three years with him.

“Wait, don’t go!” Lena said, trying to stop him as she ran down to him on the beach.

“What? And miss out on my last night of freedom?” Leo asked.

“I don’t mean ‘don’t go’ completely, I mean…” Lena then realized what her fiancé said. “Is that how you really see it?”

“Uh… See it?” he asked, seeming confused. “I see it as the last night… before the biggest adventure of my life.”

“Nice save.”

“Oh, come here,” Leo said, pulling her into his embrace.

For the first time since she’d met her fathers, Lena felt her body and mind physically relax again. It was almost like the stress of everything going on went away for just a moment, just long enough where she could catch her breath. For just a moment, she just wanted to run away with him, leave all of the white wedding nonsense behind and just run away and elope like he’d always wanted to do. Lena knew, however, that she would never forgive herself if she did such a thing. She had to go through with this wedding, especially after all the time, money, and planning that had gone into it.

“You okay? You seem off.”

Even though she knew she had to come clean, Lena didn’t know exactly how to tell him what she’d done. It made her stomach just thinking about how he was going to respond to her. She regretted not telling him about it first, or at least warning him about her plan. Not only did she have to worry about you finding out about how the three men on the island got there in the first place, but she had to worry about what Leo thought, too. If she told him now, at least he might be willing to help her out of this mess.

“You know how I’ve always said I wanted to find my dad?”

He sighed. “We’ve been through this a thousand times, Lena. You don’t need your dad. I’m right here, okay?”

“Yeah.”

While she hadn’t thought too thoroughly about what he would say whenever he found out what she’d done, she knew that it wasn’t going to be the answer she wanted to hear. If anything, his words would be the exact opposite of that. He had always told her about how having a father wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, especially with having a mom like you. That was something that he hadn’t had in his youth growing up in Chicago. Neither of his parents cared about him in the slightest, and that was something that he’d known almost his entire life. He hadn’t even spoken to them since he’d left for Pinestead Island about three years ago now. Leo hadn’t even bothered inviting any of his family to the wedding, all because he didn’t care about any of them anymore. They weren’t his family, and they hadn’t been for a long time. The only people that he cared about were Lena and you.

Lena figured that was why he didn’t think she needed to find out who her father was. Sometimes learning who your parents were was much more damaging than exciting. What if her father hadn’t ever come around because he wanted nothing to do with you and Lena? What if he was actually a deadbeat that you hadn’t ever told her about because it was better for her to not know rather than to break her heart? The possibilities were endless, and most of the scenarios ended with Lena’s heartbroken and a shithead for a dad.

With that in mind, Leo thought there was no room for a father in Lena’s life after twenty years of not having one. That was why she had no idea how to tell him what she’d done.

In all fairness, it did turn out that Lena’s potential fathers weren’t actually that bad. The worst thing that any of them had done, of course, was when Steve used you as a mistress that summer. While Lena thought that was terrible, it wasn’t like he actively chose to forget about you and his daughter. That was actually the case for all three potential fathers that Lena had: none of them had had the opportunity to know that she existed.

That mindset was the only reason Lena hadn’t given up on trying to tell Leo yet and she managed to stay hopeful that he would actually help her.

“Leo?”

“Yeah?”

“Whatever happens, you’ll never leave me, will you?” she asked.

“Are you crazy?” Leo asked, pulling away to look at her. “You’ve turned my world upside down.”

Lena smiled. “Really? Upside down?”

“Yeah. Why do you think I’m going through this whole wedding thing for you?”

That was something she knew that he wasn’t too fond of, either. Whenever they’d gotten engaged, Leo hadn’t wanted the traditional white wedding that she had wanted to have. He hadn’t ever made it a secret, especially whenever talking to you, his future mother-in-law about it, and she knew that, but that was all Lena wanted. Not only would it let her prove her love to him, but she thought it would give her an opportunity to find her father.

“I just thought that was because you loved me.”

“That I do, Darlene,” Leo said, emphasizing the name as he took her into his embrace once again.

“Oh, so you’re government naming me, now?”

“I think it’s deserved.”

Before Lena could reply, he pulled her into a kiss, making her relax a bit. Kissing Leo always made her head fuzzy, even after all these years. That was why she couldn’t help but forget to tell him about her three potential fathers and instead let him lay her down on the sand deepening the kiss as he kept his weight off of her.

God, she loved him. She was so intoxicated with him that she didn’t mind the sand that was going to be all in her hair now, meaning she’d have to wash it again before her bachelorette party tonight. She didn’t mind that it was still light outside because the sun hadn’t set yet, that quite literally anyone could have seen them if they came down to the beach. She didn’t mind that he was currently pulling down her shorts, almost like he was ready to take her on that beach right then and there.

It wouldn’t have been the first time.

Before Leo could do anything substantial, he could hear Eric and Pepper in the distance, making him quickly pull Lena’s shorts back up and rebutton them, then pull her out of the sand. By the time the two groomsmen reached the two of them, it was almost like nothing had happened between Leo and Lena. Almost.

Instead of acknowledging whatever their best friend had been doing, Eric and Pepper instead started to try putting him into his wetsuit. Of course, Leo immediately started to try and fight them off, laughing as he did so.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Sorry, dude, but it’s an island tradition. You see, the night before the wedding, the groom dives down to the old shipwreck just off the shore and tries to find something of value for the wedding,” Eric said.

“Then, a charmed union for he who discovers something fancy enough for the bride,” Pepper added. “I think Lena won’t be too difficult to please.”

“Hope not,” Leo said. “If it’s a tradition, then there’s probably not much on that ship left. I’d have to bring back bones or something.”

“Yeah, I’m sure she won’t mind,” Pepper replied. “I mean, why marry the first guy that comes along if she wouldn’t be easy to please?”

Lena laughed in disbelief as Leo shoved Pepper in response. “Okay, ouch. I’ve been in a couple relationships, okay? Those guys just weren’t anything compared to my Leo.”

Even if she meant it more as a comeback, she wasn’t wrong. Lena had dated a few of the boys on the island in her youth, but none of them were good. Most of the time, all they wanted to do was go out on their boats and or fuck, and Lena was interested in much more than that. Leo had been the much-needed change in her life. She never thought she’d ever meet someone that completed her as perfectly as he did.

“You’re both so disgusting it’s almost cute,” Eric replied. “All right, come on, dude, we gotta get going. The rest of the guys are already on the boat.”

“Love you,” Leo said, taking her into his embrace once again and kissing her.

“Be safe,” Lena replied, only watching him as he went on the dock with the rest of his groomsmen.

As she watched him join his bachelor party with the rest of his groomsmen, she could only hope that you and Leo would forgive her for Steve, Eddie, and Jonathan staying on that very island for the wedding, that and that anything that happened in the next day would be completely her fault.

next chapter

#steve harrington #steve harrington x reader #stranger things #steve harrington headcanon #steve harrington series #steve harrington stranger things #mamma mia! au

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stranger-marauders · 9 months

Text

i could never let you go

two: dancing queen mamma mia! au

chapter summary: Lena finds quite a surprise while covering the check-in desk. After a drink with Robin and Nancy, you make a discovery you never wanted to make.

chapter warnings: language probably, use of y/n, single-mom struggles, mentions of cheating, mentions of previous pregnancy, absent father

word count: 5.2k

series masterlist | masterlist

Whenever she heard three men in the courtyard, Lena had immediately gone to go and investigate.

At the sight of the three men and their bags, she knew that they must have been looking for the check-in desk. With that, she immediately snapped herself into her customer service persona.

“Good afternoon,” she started. “Can I help you three out?”

When they turned around, her heart stopped. She could’ve recognized their faces any sooner.

“Sure, we’re here for the wedding.”

“I’m Jonathan Byers,” one of them said. “You have a room for me?”

Lena swallowed the lump in her throat, flustered. “Jonathan Byers?”

“I’m Munson. Eddie Munson.”

Lena, of course, quickly became even more flustered. “Eddie!” She looked over to the last man. “So you must be…”

“Steve Harrington, yeah,” he said.

Lena didn’t know what to think. Her three potential fathers were all standing right in front of her with no clue in the world of who she was.

The first man, Jonathan Byers, had shorter brown hair. While he was somewhat handsome, he certainly also looked professional. With the research she’d done on him, Lena had been able to determine that Jonathan was now a successful photographer who had taken jobs with all types of newspapers, magazines, and practically any company that needed a picture of some kind.

The second man, Eddie Munson, had been much easier to find on the internet. Eddie Munson, the lead guitarist of the band Corroded Coffin, which, as of last year, was Grammy award-winning, was very popular. Not only was he an amazing guitarist, as she’d seen via Twitter, but he had also been rumored to be in a relationship with their lead singer. He was an absolute heartbreaker, even after all these years, as he’d never been in a confirmed relationship. Nonetheless, in all of the pictures she’d found of him over the years, he somehow looked almost exactly the same, having the same long hair and leather jacket that he’d had before.

Steve, however, had been the most difficult to find anything about. While he wasn’t a famous photographer or an even more famous musician, he was, without question, a millionaire. His father and his father before him had owned a contracting company that had been passed down to him, also leaving him with the millions that it had generated over the years. She hadn’t been able to find a picture of him, so she hadn’t known what to imagine about him. Lena wasn’t quite expecting him to be so handsome with his medium-length hair and his dark brown eyes, his slightly tanned skin. He, just like the other two men, was attractive.

It seemed her mother had had a type in her youth: rich brunet boys.

“Were you, uh… expecting us?” Steve asked, seeming confused.

“Yes,” Lena said, trying to pull herself together. “Yes, of course!”

“You’re not Y/N’s daughter, are you?” he asked. “You look just like her.”

“I thought you looked familiar.”

“Darlene, is it, sweetheart?” Eddie suggested, almost like he’d heard of her before.

“Oh, everyone calls me Lena,” she said quickly. “I am named after a Darlene, though.”

“Lena’s pretty,” Jonathan said. “I had a great aunt Darlene who lived right off the mainland here.”

“Would you mind taking us to our rooms so we could freshen up, maybe?”

“Yes, yes, of course,” Lena said. “Uh… right this way!”

Lena didn’t know what she was doing, exactly. She didn’t know how she was supposed to hide them in the hotel from you. Now that she was thinking about it, she definitely should have thought that out before she had invited the three of your former lovers to her wedding. For now, putting them in the old and abandoned barn on the property would be good enough. At least that way you’d be able to buy some time and get another room put together for them, hopefully one that your mother wouldn’t be able to find out about.

Whenever they reached the old structure, Lena opened the door for them. “All right, just in here.”

“Where’s your mom?” Steve asked, almost anxious. “I wanna see her. I wanna thank her for the invitation.”

“It’s very kind of her to remember us after all this time,” Jonathan said.

“Can I see my room now?”

“Don’t hold your breath, Eddie, but I think this is your room.”

“Can we see Y/N, please?”

Lena had very quickly found herself extremely overwhelmed. She now understood why her mother had always gotten onto her for asking a thousand questions at once whenever she was younger. It was too much to handle.

Because of her overstimulation, Lena spat out the first thing that came into her head. “I sent the invites. My mom doesn’t know anything.”

Immediately, all three men seemed alarmed.

“She’s done so much for me, and she’s always talking about you guys and the good old days, and I thought… I just thought it would be such an amazing surprise for her that you’re all gonna be at my wedding.”

“Hang on, Lena,” Steve said, putting his hand against his head like he was having a million thoughts at once. “I–I can’t be here, okay? The last time I saw your mother, she said she never wanted to see me again.”

“That was years ago!” Lena exclaimed. “Please stay. It would mean so much if you did.”

She didn’t want to think about the three of them leaving yet. Lena had just met them. She couldn’t tolerate her potential fathers leaving and then possibly never hearing from them again. Lena couldn’t do it.

“Listen, I can see that you’ve been through a great deal of trouble,” Jonathan said, trying to ease the tension. “Might I suggest that we all reconvene on the boat?”

“Good idea.”

“Nope,” Eddie said.

Both Steve and Jonathan looked at him like he was crazy.

“Why not?”

“It’s an adventure, Jonny boy! It’s good for you!”

“Ah.”

Lena sighed. She didn’t know what she was going to do, but she had to think of something quick to get them to stay. That was when it hit her.

“Okay, when I sent the invites, it was a long shot that you’d even reply, and now you’ve come all this way for a wedding. Surely there must have been some special reason for you to be here.”

“You’re just like your mother,” Steve said, shaking his head. “I’m glad my boys haven’t met you. They’d never recover.”

“You have sons?” Lena asked. Could she have siblings?

“Yeah, two,” he replied, not thinking much of the question. “Someday, I’d like to bring them here.”

“Like you used to bring my mother?”

Steve sighed. “No, not like—”

“Wait, do you hear that?” Jonathan said, listening closely. “That sounds like her right outside.”

Whenever everyone stopped arguing and your faint hum could be heard from outside, they all three tried to leave the structure. Lena, of course, blocked the entrance.

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Listen, listen, she can’t know. Okay? I’m going to go. Please stay.” She paused. “Promise me that you won't tell anybody that I invited you.” Whenever the three men didn’t answer her, she restated herself. “Okay? Promise?”

“You got it, sweetheart,” Eddie said, flashing a grin at her.

“It’s a promise.”

“Fine.”

Lena, for the first time since she’d met her three possible fathers, sighed with relief. “Okay.”

Whenever she left the barn, climbing out of a window in order to avoid being spotted by you, Lena knew it was only a matter of time before you found out that your former three lovers were on Pinestead Island.

For the past few hours, you had been running around the island to try and at least make the place look put together. Of course, that was after the hour that you’d wasted drinking wine coolers with Nancy and Robin in their room.

You didn’t know why they had talked you into drinking with them. Quite frankly, you didn’t know how they had either. You hadn’t intended on drinking during the day, maybe that night whenever the three of you were alone, but you now hated the decision you’d made. It was only supposed to be one drink. One drink, apparently, was all it took to feel the effects of alcohol anymore.

Getting older sucked.

Running around tipsily on Pinestead Island wasn’t something you ever would have thought you would do. Now, though, you felt even more emotional than you had earlier that day.

While you loved Leo and you knew that your daughter was in good hands, you felt like she was much too young to get married. You wished that she would’ve gotten to experience more of the world before she got settled down and married, especially to the first serious boyfriend that she’d ever had.

Lena had very quickly fallen for Leo when he’d come to Pinestead Island about three years ago. Even though he was a year older than her, it didn’t matter. They had very quickly fallen in love, ready to leave everything behind for one another.

You were glad that Lena had found someone to take care of her if something ever happened to you. That didn’t mean, however, that you were ready to see your baby get married. In your opinion, twenty was much too young to be a bride. Twenty-two had been much too young to become a mother on your own. You didn’t want Lena to have to grow up too quickly, similarly to what you had had to do.

That thought, however, came to an abrupt halt whenever she heard something come from the barn.

You immediately thought that was odd. There wasn’t supposed to be anything inside of that barn, nor had there been anything in the structure that was of value for a long time. You assumed something must have finally fallen over, or maybe an old shelf had finally rotted away and had given out with the weight of the objects resting on top of it. You also wouldn’t have put it past any of the kids that currently worked for you, however, to be inside of the barn smoking or drinking and trying to avoid doing any more work for the day.

With your mind running at a thousand miles an hour, you decided that you wouldn’t be able to focus until you checked the inside of the barn.

It couldn’t have been anything too bad, you thought. Whenever you walked inside the barn, however, nothing could have prepared you for the sight of Steve Harrington, Jonathan Byers, and Eddie Munson standing together in front of you.

Your head started to hurt: it had been nearly twenty-one years since the last time you’d seen any of them.

Truthfully, you hadn’t left things so terribly with Eddie. Even though you’d been a well-sought-after groupie, and that was the glorified version, that was all there truly was to that relationship. It was a short-lived fling, and both of you knew that. There weren’t any hard feelings or anything. You and Eddie were simply a one-night thing, and what a night it was. That didn’t exactly mean that you wanted him in your barn, though.

Jonathan wasn’t so bad, either. The only reason you had the hotel on the island was because of him and his great aunt, to be honest, and you never would’ve been happy again without him. If it wasn’t for him, your life would’ve been completely different, and while that reality might have been nice to dream about, you knew that that wasn’t what you wanted. Once again, that didn’t mean that you wanted him in that hotel or anywhere near the property.

Steve, however, was a different story. He had completely enamored you all those years ago. You had never felt anything quite like what you had during that month with him in the old house on the island, and you still didn’t think you would ever quite feel anything like that again. Steve Harrington had shown you the world and then had completely shattered it at your feet. You didn’t know if you would ever quite feel love like that again. That was why, out of the three men, you definitely didn’t want him anywhere near you, your property, and the entire island if you could help it.

The three men could only stare at you, and you back at them. All of them had aged somewhat well. While Eddie looked exactly the same, other than a few wrinkles here and there, Jonathan and Steve looked different. Jonathan looked much more put together than he did the last time you saw him, his hair much shorter and his skill less pale. Steve, however, almost looked like a different man entirely. While he, of course, still looked like himself, he still looked older. Steve, much to your dismay, was one of those guys that only got more attractive with age. While his hair wasn’t the same as it was the last time you saw him, it was still a medium length, still similar enough that he still resembled his younger self. All three of them looked good. Probably great compared to how you looked right now.

You didn’t need to look at yourself in a mirror to know that you looked terrible. Not only were you a bit tipsy, but you’d been working around the island and the hotel all day, meaning your hair was probably messy and you smelled gross. You weren’t even wearing a cute outfit. Besides, the last time they’d seen you, that was before you’d had Lena.

Lena.

The three of them couldn’t be on Pinestead. You didn’t know what you would do if they happened to run into your daughter and talked to her for just a few moments. Steve, Jonathan, and Eddie weren’t stupid. It wouldn’t take long for at least one of them to realize that Lena had to be one of theirs.

You didn’t want to think about all of the things that had happened with the three of those boys that were now men. Now, though, as you stood in front of them, almost as if you were frozen to stone, you didn’t quite know what to do.

“I’m dreaming, aren’t I?” you finally asked. “You’re not really here.”

“Would you like me to pinch you or something?” Steve asked.

“You keep your hands to yourself.”

“That’s not what you said last time.”

You didn’t quite know how to respond to him. The audacity he had to joke about their relationship after everything he’d done.

“What the hell are you doing here, Steve? Why are any of you here, actually?”

“I’m taking pictures for an article in a magazine,” Jonathan replied.

“And I’m here on a spontaneous trip,” Eddie said.

“And I thought I’d just drop in. Say hi,” Steve added.

“And that’s why you’re in my old barn?” you asked, somewhat annoyed with the three of them.

All three men clamored to explain why they were there, but, unsurprisingly, were not actually able to come up with a reason for their presence. Shocker.

“Hm. It’s a shame we don’t have any rooms right now,” you lied, knowing damn good and well that you definitely still had more than enough space. “It’s that time of year, you know?”

“That’s why I made the decision to book ahead,” Steve said as-a-matter-of-factly. “You know, for your convenience.”

Of course he did. You hated him. You hated that he’d planned a spontaneous visit twenty-one years after you’d seen him at such a time as this. It was like he knew that today and tomorrow were the most inconvenient times for you to deal with the repercussions of him being on the island.

“It’s… not a good time.”

“Why?” Jonathan asked.

“Because…”

You didn’t know how to tell them about Lena’s wedding tomorrow without telling them about Lena’s existence. They couldn’t know about her. Then they would want to stay even more.

“One of the local girls is getting married here tomorrow, and I… I just don’t have the staff to take care of everyone. You’d be so much more comfortable on the mainland. All three of you.”

“Oh, no. Not at all. Jonathan’s used to roughing it, and Eddie likes staying in places that are much, much worse.”

“And what about you?” you asked him, somewhat bitterly. “Seems like you left that part out.”

“Uh, me?” Steve asked, somewhat taken by surprise. “I, uh… I–I just came back to see the island, you know, and I, uh—”

“Listen, I’d love to stop and chat to, uh… reminisce about the good old days, but I have to go, uh… go clean one of the rooms, or something like that.”

Whenever you left the room, the three men all exchanged glances: even though you had aged twenty years, you still had not learned the subtle art of lying.

“Age has certainly done her well,” Jonathan finally said, breaking the silence.

“To be honest, I was expecting her to be stout and scary,” Eddie replied. “Like a crazy mom or something.”

“Nope,” Steve said, shaking his head. “She’s, uh… She’s still Y/N.”

With that, Jonathan, Steve, and Eddie made the decision to finally enter the villa and hopefully get sent to a real room.

As you walked back to the villa, you thought you were going to have a mental breakdown.

Nothing could have ever prepared you to ever see any of them again. Especially Steve. You hadn’t thought about seeing them in twenty years, so why would they—

That was a lie. You knew that. Even if you never wanted to talk to your daughter about it, you thought about that summer all the time.

It had started with Steve. You remembered meeting him clear as day, even now. That was back in your performing days, back when you secretly wanted to be just like your mother. You were singing in one of the bars back on the mainland and Steve was sitting at the bar. You finally noticed him after he didn’t leave for hours, only watching you as you sang a mix of covers and originals with your acoustic guitar. That night, Steve had taken you back to Pinestead Island, showing you the big and abandoned farmhouse where he’d been staying.

He’d given you the most thrilling month of your life. Steve had made sure that you felt loved every single night, and that you did. You didn’t think you would ever experience something so magical ever again. He had loved every single part of you and supported you every night at the bar, making sure you went back to your place with some type of money. He’d shown you that he could have had you anywhere: your bed, the kitchen table, the beach… it didn’t matter as long as he had you.

That was until Steve had gone home to get married. You remembered whenever he told you he had to go back home to Indiana and you had told him that you needed him to stay. You remembered that you didn’t understand. That was when he had told you that he had a fiancée, Amy, and he was supposed to marry her in four days. With that, you promptly told him with tears in your eyes to leave the island and that you never wanted to see him again, so long as you still lived.

You didn’t know if you would ever experience such heartbreak again. Steve Harrington had been enough to scare you out of ever truly loving anyone again for the rest of your life, and you were certain of that.

Shortly after that, you’d met Jonathan. He had come to the mainland to take pictures of the area for some travel magazine and had stopped by the bar for a drink. Of course, just like most of the men that walked into the bar, he was completely enamored with you and the Dynamos. The next day, you and Jonathan rented a motorboat and took it out to the island, mostly so you could show him what the place was like. Maybe he could have used it for your magazine, you told yourself. Whenever it had started raining and you had both gone inside the big house, the same one that you and Steve had shared together, something within you sank. Because of that, Jonathan had tried to make it all better for you, showing you that someone could love you again. After a night together, however, Jonathan’s contract was up—he had to go home, too.

That was when Eddie came into the picture. He and the band had a couple of gigs booked at the same bar you’d been working at all summer, but now you were opening for them. Eddie had talked to you before you’d gone on stage, making sure you were okay before you performed. After your set and Corroded Coffin’s set were over, Eddie offered to get you a couple of drinks, and you both got drunk enough that you brought him back to your place on the island. After having one of the craziest nights of your life sex-wise, Eddie hadn’t had any choice but to leave you on Pinestead Island so he could continue touring with his band.

With that, you had been left all alone.

You found out around three weeks after Eddie had left that you were pregnant. You had been about two weeks late on your period, so you took a test to confirm what you’d already known to be true. Your jeans and bras had already started to fit tighter, and you’d already started getting sick in the mornings, which you had just attributed to eating bar food every night.

After panicking because you were currently carrying a child in your stomach, you panicked even more. You couldn’t begin to think about who the father was. You hadn’t been thinking about it, mostly because you’d been partying all summer, but you couldn’t remember when your last period was. It had to have been some time before Steve had left, meaning that it could have been any of them.

Whenever you told your mother what had happened, she told you not to come home. She said that you had been stupid enough to run away to Michigan and to get knocked up, and even dumber for not even knowing who the father was. Because of that, she wanted nothing to do with you or the baby that you were still planning to keep.

That was when you had met Darlene. She had actually owned the abandoned farmhouse that you had been staying in, and she asked you if you wanted to stay with her. Of course, you had obliged. You didn’t really have a home to go back to now that your mother had disowned you, and you certainly didn’t want to be alone. In your opinion, that woman had saved your’s and Lena’s life. That was the reason you’d named your daughter after her, even if you didn’t truly know if Jonathan was the father or not.

Even if you’d had some wonderful times that summer, that didn’t mean that you ever wanted to see them again. Truly, you hadn’t ever prepared to see them again. You’d imagined for a long time what you would say to each of them if you did see them again, but most of it was for Steve. For the longest time, you’d thought that if you ever saw him again that you wouldn’t have been able to stop yourself from yelling at him, telling him how unfair it had been that he had spent that summer with you only to leave you alone on Pinestead to get married to some girl he was engaged to back home.

It was cruel. All of it. Whatever had brought them back to Pinstead now the day before Lena’s wedding was cruel, and you didn’t know what you had done to deserve such treatment from the world.

Your stress didn’t let up whenever you walked into your room and Robin and Nancy were trying on your old Y/N & the Dynamos costumes. At first, you chose to ignore them, simply asking the first question you needed to know. You would assess the Dynamos situation whenever you had the mental ability to do such a thing.

“Where’s Lena?” you asked, your voice tense.

“I haven’t seen her. Why?” Nancy asked.

“I have to find her right now—”

“Here it is!” Robin shouted, holding a large object in hand.

Whenever you saw what Robin was holding, you thought you were going to lose your mind. Under normal circumstances, seeing one of the old posters you three had made back in your partying days would’ve made you happy. Right now, though, it only made your head hurt.

“Now why was this piece of art hiding in that trunk?” Robin asked.

“That is the last thing I wanna see right now.”

“You should hang it in the bar,” Nancy said jokingly. “Show Lena what a cool mom she has.”

“Absolutely not! Give that here.” Whenever Robin handed it to you, you crumpled up the paper, throwing it on the ground. “I never wanna see that damn thing again.”

“What’s going on?” Nancy asked, her voice immediately lacing with concern.

“Yeah, what happened?”

“This has to be a joke,” you said, not even beginning to explain yourself. “Any minute I’m gonna wake up from this nightmare and they’ll all be gone.”

Before Nancy or Robin could say another word, you dove into your bed and buried your face into your pillow. It was the only thing that was stopping you from crying.

“What’s wrong?” “Nothing. Just leave me alone.” You took a shaky breath. “I knew this would happen one day. Of course it had to happen right now. Why was I such an idiot?”

“Come on,” Nancy said, moving to sit next to you on the bed. “Just tell us what’s wrong.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this torn up over anything,” Robin said. “It’s just depressing.”

“Just… Just tell us what’s going on,” Nancy said, putting her hand on your back.

You tried to think about what your options currently were. You could’ve simply told them that they didn’t need to know what was wrong, but that wouldn’t have ended well. Nancy and Robin wouldn’t have left you alone until you told them something. You could also lie, but you knew that they knew you were a bad liar. No matter what, you still ended up looking like an idiot: you might as well have just been honest with your two best friends.

You finally sighed, your voice broken as you sat up. “It’s her dad.”

“Whose dad?” Nancy asked, her eyes wide with concern.

“Lena’s!” you said, but your daughter’s name in your voice was much harsher than you intended it to sound. You sighed again. “You know how I always said it was Steve? Steve, the millionaire who ran home to get married?”

“Typical man,” Robin said, somewhat spitefully.

“Here’s the problem with that. I’m not quite sure it’s really him.”

Nancy and Robin both gave you confused looks. “What do you mean?”

You hesitated. “There might’ve been… a couple others.”

Robin shouted your name in response, almost as if she was about to scold you. “You’re telling us that you weren’t completely sure of who Lena’s dad was and you didn’t tell us!”

“I… I didn’t think I’d ever have to, to be honest with you. I didn’t think all three of them would be hiding out in my old barn the day before their potential daughter’s wedding.”

“They’re here?” Robin asked, rushing to the window. “Where’s the barn?”

Nancy shook her head. “Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure!” you said. “What, do you think I’d forget my daughter’s possible fathers or something?”

Nancy nor Robin truly knew what to say. It was too bad that there wasn’t an instruction manual about how to comfort one of your best friends about their three possible baby daddies accidentally showing up to their daughter’s wedding, except they don’t actually know that she’s potentially a daughter of one of them. Such a shame.

“Who are the other two?”

“Jonathan and Eddie,” you explained. “I just don’t understand why they’ve all three turned up now. It’s like some horrible curse or something.”

“Very Greek if you ask me,” Robin said. “Dare I say Shakespearean?”

“No. I can’t take any more drama this weekend.”

“Do they know?” Nancy asked.

“No, I never told anyone. That’s why I’m confused about why they’re here. It can’t just be a coincidence that Lena’s getting married tomorrow.”

“I thought you didn’t want this wedding to happen,” Robin asked, somewhat confused.

“Even if I don’t agree with it, she’s my daughter. They have no right to turn up like this. I mean, what have they done for Lena?”

“Be more fair than that. They don’t even know she exists!” Nancy said.

“They don’t need to know. I’ve done a good job at raising Lena all by myself and now… I–I’m not gonna let them ruin her day. I won’t.”

“Okay, then let’s make a plan. Tonight’s already a male-free zone at the bachelorette party, and then tomorrow Robin and I’ll, uh… t–take them fishing, or something. I don’t know. We’ll figure it out.”

“Fishing? Gross,” Robin replied, turning her nose up in disgust.

“I said or something.” Nancy sighed, shaking her head. “You should’ve told us. We could’ve helped more if we would’ve known.”

“No, you couldn’t have.”

“We could’ve tried.”

“I guess this serves me right after everything I’ve done,” you said, shaking your head. “I deserve this.”

“Oh my God, you sound just like your mother,” Nancy said.

You gasped, offended at the thought. “I do not!”

“You do!” Nancy replied, trying not to laugh. “Whatever happened to Y/N: the life and soul of the party?”

“Rock chick and sex symbol for all?” Robin added.

“Oh, she grew up, that’s all.”

You knew the real answer to that question. The old you was stupid is what she was. She had been stupid enough to get with all of those men, then not even do it with protection. You didn’t even think you now and your past self was near the same person anymore.

“Grow back down again, then. You’ve done nothing to be ashamed of,” Robin said. “We wanna see you have the time of your life again.”

“And maybe finally find someone,” Nancy said, smirking.

You sighed.

After everything you’d gone through in your life, you knew that a happy ending wasn’t in the cards for you. The only hope you had was that Lena and Leo would find their happy ending and that this marriage would be a huge waste of money and time.

For the sake of Nancy, though, you knew that you had to play along.

next chapter

#steve harrington #steve harrington x reader #stranger things #steve harrington headcanon #steve harrington series #steve harrington stranger things #mamma mia! au #eddie munson #jonathan byers

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stranger-marauders · 9 months

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hello! i've returned from the dead! so you know the drill. if anyone has any recommendations on what to write (because this new fic i'm releasing is complete it's just automatically updating!) please feel free to hop into my inbox :)

#steve harrington #steve harrington x reader #stranger things #steve harrington headcanon #steve harrington series #steve harrington stranger things

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stranger-marauders · 9 months

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i could never let you go

one: honey, honey mamma mia! au

chapter summary: One day before Lena's wedding, you begin helping your daughter make preparations as guests arrive on the island.

chapter warnings: use of y/n, language, absent father, single-mom struggles

word count: 3.7k

series masterlist | masterlist

Before anyone knew it, the day before Lena’s wedding was here.

Lena hadn’t imagined that the time between her sending out invitations and her wedding date would have passed by so quickly. It hadn’t quite hit her how quickly those three months had gone by until her best friends Jenny and Sarah arrived at Pinestead Island that afternoon, just a day before her wedding. Everything about her wedding had all very quickly become real, and for Lena, the thought of marrying Leo forever became more and more exciting with every passing moment.

Whenever Lena finally saw her two friends, after hours of delay, both girls took her into a hug quickly, nearly squeezing her to death.

“Jenny! Sarah! Where have you been?” she asked, finally letting go of them both. “I thought you’d get here hours ago.”

“What a journey!” Jenny said. “Guess who left their ticket on the kitchen table.”

“We said, ‘We have to get on this plane. It’s our best friend’s wedding tomorrow,’” Sarah explained, trying to make herself look better.

“Sarah!”

“Lena!” she argued back. “If you would’ve been as stressed out as we were, you would’ve left your plane ticket on the kitchen table, too!”

“I’m sure,” Lena replied, not wanting to fight her on the subject.

“We made such a fuss,” Jenny further explained. “We had to get on that plane! It’s not like we were going to actually miss your wedding over something so stupid.”

“I actually told the lady that we would fly in the luggage compartment if necessary and she let us go.”

Lena shook her head. “Wow. All for Leo and I’s wedding. Amazing.”

“Speaking of him, where is he? Your Leo? We are dying to meet him.”

“How’s your mom? I bet she’s going nuts over this wedding.”

Lena almost laughed—Jenny didn’t even know the half of it.

While she loved you, you certainly had been doing everything you could and more for this wedding. Part of your daughter was scared that you would absolutely lose your mind before tomorrow night because of everything going on, and that was without you knowing what she’d done.

“Yeah, well, listen,” Lena started, “I’ve got a secret and I can’t tell anyone else.”

“Oh my God!” Sarah shouted. “You’re pregnant!”

“No!” she exclaimed in response.

At least, Lena hoped she wasn’t pregnant. She was not ready to be a mother at twenty, and she certainly didn’t think you would be ready to be a grandmother at forty-two. That, of course, provided that you 1) didn’t have a stroke or 2) didn’t kill her first.

“No, Jesus, I’m inviting my dad to the wedding.”

“Your dad?”

“You mean you’ve found him at last?” Sarah asked.

“Kind of? Not exactly?”

Whenever Jenny and Sarah gave her both confused looks, she sighed. Lena had come prepared to explain everything to them.

“Every time I’ve ever asked about my father, all my mom has ever said about it was that it was a summer romance, and that he was long gone before she realized that she was pregnant with me. Whenever she finally told me that I wasn’t allowed to ask about it anymore, I’d always kind of accepted the fact that that was all I’d ever really get to know about him.”

Jenny and Sarah’s attention was quickly snagged to her hands, specifically the diary that she was holding in her hands.

“But then I found this in my mom’s desk.”

Jenny gasped. “Lena! You’re not supposed to go around reading your Mom’s diary, especially if it’s about her summer romance!”

“If anything, she should be snooping in your desk and reading your diary,” Sarah said.

“But look!”

Lena showed the inside jacket of the diary to the two girls where your name and a year were located in your handwriting.

“See what that says? 1990. The same year she fell pregnant with me. Don’t you see?”

“I don’t know, this still seems like snooping.”

“Oh, it totally is, and I don’t regret a second of it. You know how she won’t talk about my dad, says she can’t remember any of that night? She’s full of it!” Lena, of course, began to read passages of the diary out loud to her friends. “July seventeenth. What a night! After the show, Steve rode me over to the little island not too far from the mainland. We danced on the beach, and kissed on the beach, and… dot, dot, dot.”

“What?” Jenny asked, confused.

“Dot, dot, dot,” Sarah repeated. “It’s what they did in the olden days when they had sex.”

“Steve’s the one,” Lena said, wanting to ignore Sarah’s comment about her mom having sex. “I know he is. I’ve never felt like this before about anyone.”

“So this guy Steve’s your dad?” Sarah asked.

“The plot thickens,” Lena countered. “Steve told my mom he was going home to get married.”

“Ugh! Dick!” Jenny exclaimed. “Typical shitty man! No wonder your mom didn’t want to talk about him. He broke her heart.”

“I know,” she said. “He sounds like a dick, but he still could be my dad.”

Without any more comments on Potential Father Candidate Number One, Lena continued to read your diary, and Jenny and Sarah huddled closer around her, almost as if to double-check everything that their friend read from your diary from long ago.

“August fourth. What a night! I was still feeling depressed about Steve, but after the show, Jonathan rented a motorboat, and I took him over to the little island. One thing led to another and… dot, dot, dot.”

“Jonathan!” the other two girls shouted. “So could it be him, too? What happened to him?”

“I don’t know, but the plot thickens even further,” Lena said, flipping to another page in the diary. “August fifteenth. What a night! Eddie turns up out of the blue, so I said I’d show him the little island. I must need my head examined after this summer. But he was so sweet, I couldn’t help it, and…”

“Dot, dot, dot!” all three girls shouted, nearly squealing and giggling at the thought.

“So, to answer your question, yes! After all these years, the sperm donor has a name,” Lena said, somewhat pleased with herself. “Well, three names. Steve, Jonathan, or Eddie.”

“And they’re all coming for the wedding?” Jenny asked.

“Yes!”

“Jesus Christ, Lena,” Sarah said, seemingly anxious over this situation her best friend had put herself into. “Do they know?”

“What do you write a total stranger?” Lena asked. “Come to my wedding, you might be my dad?”

“I mean, you could have written that.”

“Jesus Christ, no! They think my mom sent the invitations. And after what’s in here, I’m not surprised they all said yes.”

“Oh my God, Lena,” Jenny said. “Are you sure about this?”

“Yes! I want the perfect wedding, and I want my dad to give me away,” she replied without hesitation. “It’s what I’ve always wanted.”

“Well, let’s hope it’s a wide aisle,” Sarah said. “I can’t believe your mom was able to get all that in just one summer.”

“Are you really surprised?” Jenny asked.

“Actually, no, not really. Lena’s mom is pretty cool.”

“Yeah, well, speaking of my mom, we’ve got to keep her out of the way. She can’t know what I’m doing or else she’ll kill me.”

“She’s bound to find out sooner or later,” Jenny stated.

Lena, however, wasn’t having it. Considering how things ended between you and these men, especially Steve, she didn’t want to imagine what would happen to her if you found out about their presence on the island. She had to figure out who her father was before you spotted any of the three men on the island. With that thought process, that also meant she had to find a place for them to stay and get them to stay without seeing you, all before her wedding. Shouldn’t have been too difficult, right?

“There’s a part of me missing, and when I meet my dad, everything will fall into place. I’m not going to give my mom the chance to scare them off before I’ve even gotten to know them. And with any luck, I’ll know my dad straight away.”

“Yeah, and what if you don’t?”

“Then I’ve got twenty-four hours to figure it out, right?”

Jenny and Sarah could only sigh as they followed their friend back to your villa. They both could only think how terrible of an idea Lena had come up with, and now there wasn’t anything they could do about it.

You had been sitting on the dock of your villa for hours.

Realistically, you knew it hadn’t really been that long, but you felt like you’d been standing on that dock forever, only waiting for your friends to arrive. You could only explain your impatience by your typical lack of downtime. While you loved sitting on the dock, looking out onto Lake Michigan, you normally didn’t have any time to do so. There was always so much to do around the villa that you didn’t really have time to relax, unlike the other people on Pinestead Island.

The boat that you were waiting on to arrive carried your two best friends in the entire world: Nancy Wheeler and Robin Buckley. The two of them had gone to college with you years ago, graduating in the year 1990. Even though they were both your best friends, you never got to see the two of them, mostly because they had both become so successful over the course of twenty years while you were stuck on Pinestead running a shitty villa. You truly were living the dream.

Robin was extremely rich. While she had come into much of that money by herself, as she spoke four languages and translation services were, apparently, greatly appreciated all over the world, she had also married rich three separate times to three extremely wealthy women. You weren’t quite sure that she’d ever get married again unless another woman did something to truly woo her. Until then, you didn’t think there was any chance of Robin Buckley ever being a bride again.

Nancy, on the other hand, hadn’t ever been one for love. Other than the occasional fling here and there, she had remained extremely focused on her journalism career, which had taken her all across the world. Because of that, she had always remained successful, and Nancy had even managed to release a few books over the years with her own findings. As far as you were concerned, you didn’t ever expect Nancy to find a person she liked enough to settle down with, never mind to marry. You didn’t think Nancy would ever find love—in a way, maybe the two of you were the same.

Whenever a boat finally docked in front of you, leaving two women trying their best to pull their luggage out of the vehicle, you began to run from the other side of the dock.

“Well look what the tide’s washed in!”

“Hey, for one night!” Nancy shouted back.

“And one night only!” Robin added.

As you reached them, all three of you shouted, “It’s Y/N and the Dynamos!”

Robin and Nancy hugged you tightly, almost as if it was the last time they’d ever get to see you. In a way, you liked it. You never got to see them, and it was nice to feel loved by someone other than your daughter and her fiancé.

Whenever Nancy pulled away from the group hug, she chuckled. “So, how’s the mother of the bride?”

“Oh, great now,” you replied. “God, Robin! Eight years!”

“I know, I know,” she said sheepishly. “Blame it on a penchant for jet-setting millionaires.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not your fault you’ve been busy.” You sighed. “While you’ve been off exploring the world, I’ve been chained to this place. I feel like I’m constantly fighting with our stupid fucking bank manager.”

“I pity the poor bank manager,” Nancy replied.

Before you could say anything else, Lena ran down the dock. “Aunt Nance!”

“Oh my God, Lena, I swear you get more beautiful every time I see you. Do I get a hug for coming all this way?”

Lena, of course, didn’t make Nancy fight her for a hug. Instead, she threw her arms around her surrogate aunt and took her in tight. Whenever she finally let her go, Robin stood across from her sheepishly.

“I bet you don’t remember me,” she said softly, not knowing what to say.

“Of course, I do, Aunt Rob!” Lena exclaimed, quickly pulling her into a hug.

“Aw!” you said, getting somewhat emotional as you four began walking to the villa. “Look at my baby, her whole life ahead of her.”

Lena laughed. “Mom, I’m getting married, not joining a convent.”

“Well, in my day, they didn’t get married at twenty,” you replied.

“No, in our day, they didn’t get married at all,” Robin added. “Unless you were marrying for money or something.”

Neither of you was wrong. Even still now, neither you nor Nancy had ever gotten married, nor had there truly ever been any attempts to. Robin, on the other hand, had gotten married three times, each time to a “crazy rich bitch,” as you and Nancy liked to call her former wives. Nonetheless, there hadn’t ever been a beautiful love story for the three of you, nor did you think there would be for a long time.

That was why you couldn’t figure out for the life of you why your daughter wanted this wedding.

“A white wedding! I don’t know where she gets it from.”

“Don’t blame me, Y/N! It wasn’t my idea,” Leo said as he walked up the deck.

You knew it wasn’t Leo’s idea either, which was why you hadn’t ever blamed him, nor would you start to now. You knew that if he was given the opportunity, he would skip the ceremony, go to a courthouse on the mainland, and backpack with your daughter across the world without a second thought. In fact, he’d expressed that exact scenario to you many times as he helped you do work around the villa. His future with Lena, in his eyes, didn’t require her in a white dress. All he wanted was her, and he was okay with that.

Lena was a lucky girl. Maybe she didn’t have everything in the world, which you had always wished you could have given her, but she had a mother and a fiancé that loved her more than life itself. As far as you were concerned, Lena had her entire life ahead of her.

You knew that you and Leo both would move mountains to make sure that Lena could have exactly what she wanted. That was the only reason you were both going through with such a big wedding in the first place.

“Girls, meet the leading man for tomorrow evening,” you said, stepping out of Leo’s way. “Leo, this is Nancy and Robin, my best friends in the entire world.”

“Hi!” Leo greeted. “I’ve heard lots about you both from Lena and her mom.”

“I’m assuming it was the bad stuff,” Robin said, somewhat jokingly. “I hope it was. It makes us sound much more interesting.”

Before Leo could answer, two of his groomsmen joined them.

“Where’s the 2–4s, eh, Leo?” one of the young men asked, who always seemed like such young boys compared to you.

“Sorry, what was that?” Robin asked, confused.

“He’s from Toronto,” the other boy explained.

“My name’s Pepper,” he explained.

“Because… you’re burning my mouth and destroying my intestines?” Robin asked, still confused.

“No, because he gets up your nose and is a pain in the ass.”

“Pepper and Eric are supposed to be my bar staff, waiters, boatsmen. You know, the general help. Except generally, they’re absolutely no help at all,” you said, somewhat bitterly. “Speaking of that, don’t you have any work to do considering, I don’t know, there’s a wedding here tomorrow?”

“Sir, yes, sir!” Eric and Pepper shouted in sync, quickly scurrying off the front lawn before they could truly feel your wrath.

You smiled once they had left your line of vision. “They always think I’m gonna fire them. I like it. It keeps them lively.”

“I see that,” Nancy said. “Glad to see you haven’t changed much.”

Before anyone could make any comments about how you treated your staff, Robin exclaimed, “This place is beautiful!”

“Leo is the only reason it looks half as good as it does.”

“Why? What have you been up to?” Robin asked him.

“You haven’t been here too long, have you?” Nancy asked.

“No,” Leo started, “I came here from Chicago during my gap year to escape my parents. I loved it here so much with Y/N and Lena that I’ve never gone back.”

“Why?”

“I was tired of dealing with them. Abusive assholes, you know. I was tired of being in their world.”

“But you should see what he’s done to my world,” you explained. “He’s gotten me online!”

“You?” Nancy shouted, almost as if she couldn’t believe it.

“Email, wired up, buckled down.”

“You’ve got to move with the times, Y/N. No more dollar stacks under the mattress,” Leo said, somewhat teasingly.

“Yeah?” you asked. “Just invest me a machine that’ll make beds. Then I’ll be happy.”

“Oh, stop, I know you,” Lena argued, smiling brightly. “You’d still run behind it and do it all again.”

“Are you joking? I’d be more than happy to put my feet up when the boat comes in.”

“Speaking of boats,” Nancy started, “I’d sink that old wreck you’ve got hung up on the dock.”

“Sink it?” Leo asked, somewhat confused.

“I mean, it doesn’t look like it’s in too great of condition,” she explained.

“Well, that eyesore’s gonna be my floating casino,” you replied.

“What?”

“Leo and Eric are transforming it into a millionaire’s paradise.”

“Just imagine it: sailing around the islands, gambling under the stars. Sounds great, doesn’t it?” Leo said.

“Gambling millionaires?” Nancy asked. “There might be a few of your ex-wives aboard, Robin.”

“Don’t think so,” Robin explained. “Last time I checked, none of them are millionaires anymore.”

“Well, millionaires or not, it’s our next project. I’m hoping it’ll put me up in the millions with you both,” you said. You then looked at your daughter, speaking to her. “I’m taking them out to the house. You and Leo gonna be all right by yourselves?”

Lena giggled. “I think we’ll be okay, Mom.”

As the three of you entered the villa, leaving the two of them behind you, you sighed as you took Robin and Nancy up to your room.

“I thought you didn’t want tons of tourists here,” Nancy finally said.

“Not tons, definitely not,” you replied, “but, you know, a few more, at least, would be nice.” You quickly changed the subject. “Okay, now, the thing about the toilet, if it doesn’t flush right away, just go and come back in a while, and it should…”

You sighed again. You couldn’t even believe what you were saying. Your millionaire best friends were here and the toilets didn’t work. Of course, nothing in this place really worked, but guests still came nonetheless.

“Nothing works around here, except for me. I’ve been running this hotel for fifteen years, and I’ve never had a day off.”

Whenever you opened the window for some fresh air, the shutter fell off of it, presumably rotten to the hinges. You told yourself internally to add that window to the list of repairs that needed to be made around the place. The shutter itself, though, nearly missed one of your employees.

“Oh my God! Sorry!”

Whenever they waived, not truly caring because, at this point, things falling off the side of the place wasn’t even a surprise, you sighed again.

“What’s wrong?” Robin asked.

“Oh, it’s nothing.”

“No, what is it?” she repeated, almost as if she was going to make you talk about your feelings.

You knew better than to fight Nancy or Robin on such a thing. They both knew you better than anyone, and they certainly weren’t going to let you suffer internally. At the very least you could tell them what was going on and they would make you drink the problem away.

“It’s stupid.”

Nancy shrugged. “Okay? Let’s hear it.”

“I don’t know, it’s just… It’s too bad I couldn’t have married rich or something,” you said, somewhat regretfully. “I mean, I know that that’s, like, borderline sexism and just overall really shitty of me to say, but I mean it. It would be nice to have a nice guy with a bunch of money that could take care of this place for me, just so I can have just a minute of peace.”

“Sounds nice, actually,” Nancy said.

“Yeah, except for the man part,” Robin retorted. “If you need money, Y/N, you know that I’m more than willing to help you.”

“Oh, Rob, you know I’m not gonna take your money.”

“You wouldn’t be taking it, it would be a donation. I could even use it as a tax write-off!”

“Donation or not, I’m not taking it,” you replied. “No, I… I’m just whining. You know me. Complaining just like always.”

Robin only sighed in response.

She and Nancy both wished that you would have let them help you. Part of them wanted to simply force you to let them help out around the place, but they both knew that you would be miserably embarrassed if they did that to you. You had never been one to take handouts, and you wouldn't start now.

Because of that, they thought that they would both leave the thought alone.

“Let’s not think about that right now,” Nancy said. “I mean, come on, your daughter’s getting married tomorrow! Let’s go have fun.”

Even though you hesitated, you knew, more than anything, that you wouldn’t be able to handle the next few hours sober.

next chapter

#steve harrington #steve harrington x reader #stranger things #steve harrington headcanon #steve harrington series #steve harrington stranger things #mamma mia! au #eddie munson #jonathan byers

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stranger-marauders · 9 months

Text

i could never let you go

prologue: i have a dream mamma mia! au

chapter summary: Lena sends out invitations to her potential fathers.

chapter warnings: absent father, use of y/n

word count: 564

series masterlist | masterlist

Lena had a dream.

It wasn’t much, but it was a dream, dammit, and she didn’t think it was too much to ask for, either. She felt that her mother and her fiancé, however, might have supposed otherwise.

She loved her mother, and she certainly loved her fiancé Leo. In fact, they were supposed to get married in just under three months now. She’d been looking forward to it ever since he had proposed to her not so long ago, and the big day was rapidly encroaching. Lena thought, though, that it couldn’t come quick enough.

Most people thought she was a bit too young to get married. Her mother, Y/N, had expressed that sentiment ever since she had gotten engaged. Even though everyone had told her that twenty was much too young to get married and that she should go experience the world, she didn’t care. The only thing she did truly care about now, other than you and Leo, was finding her father.

Lena had wanted to know who her father was since she could remember. She thought about all the times she’d asked her mother about who her father was since she was a little girl, but none of it had mattered. In her twenty years of life, she’d never gotten an opportunity to meet him. Actually, she didn’t have any idea who he was. She’d been begging you for a name ever since she had been old enough to know what a father was, but you had always grown cold and made her drop the subject.

Of course, Lena knew you had always meant well. While she had never asked, she could only assume, as she got older, that something terrible had happened between you and her father, which made him leave and never want to talk to you ever again. Even if you’d always told her to stop asking, and she had stopped asking, that didn’t mean that she had ever stopped wondering.

That was why she couldn’t help herself but look through your diary whenever she’d found it cleaning out your desk for you. She’d gotten sidetracked just trying to find that caterer’s contact information for you, but instead, she’d struck gold. Lena, even if she knew better, couldn’t resist the temptation whenever she saw the year at the top of the journal: 1990. It was the same year you’d gotten pregnant with her, and the diary might have had everything she needed to know about who her father was and more. She wasn’t just going to throw away that opportunity now that she had it.

From reading about your extensively documented endeavors through the summer of 1990, Lena was able to gather three names. Three names of three men that could have very well have been her father.

With that, Lena had formed a plan. She figured these three men would simply jump at the opportunity to come to Pinestead Island considering what she’d read in your old diary, which was why she had decided to send an invitation to each man. Even if they didn’t come, Lena figured it would become even simpler to figure out who her father was.

As she stood in front of her mailbox, letters in hand, she kissed each envelope before putting each one inside.

“Steve Harrington, Jonathan Byers, and Eddie Munson,” she said softly, closing the mailbox. “Good luck.”

next chapter

#steve harrington #steve harrington x reader #stranger things #steve harrington headcanon #steve harrington series #steve harrington stranger things #mamma mia! au #eddie munson #jonathan byers

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stranger-marauders · 9 months

Text

i could never let you go

pairing: steve harrington x reader

summary: Lena had a dream. It wasn't much, but it was a dream, dammit. And she didn't think it was too much to ask for, either. She thought that her mother and her fiancé, however, might have thought otherwise. Lena had wanted to know who her father was since she was a little girl. She’d never known who her father was. She’d been begging you for a name ever since she could remember just so she could know something about him. In fact, every single time she’d asked about him, but you had always grown cold and made her drop the subject. Lena knew you meant well, but it didn’t ever stop her from wondering. That was why she had invited the three men that could have potentially been her father to her wedding: Steve Harrington, Jonathan Byers, and Eddie Munson. She would stop at nothing to figure out who her father was, even if it almost drives you, her mother, crazy in the process.

warnings: heavily inspired by mamma mia!, literally it's a mamma mia! au if you don't like mamma mia! just scroll, use of y/n, language, smut, single-mom struggles, she/her pronouns, cheating, alcohol, having no dad struggles, steve is sam carmichael so iykyk, minor jancy

word count: 23.1k

masterlist

prologue: i have a dream chapter one: honey, honey chapter two: dancing queen chapter three: lay all your love on me chapter four: voulez-vous chapter five: one of us chapter six: the winner takes it all chapter seven: i do, i do, i do, i do, i do (9/2)

#steve harrington #steve harrington x reader #stranger things #steve harrington headcanon #steve harrington series #steve harrington stranger things #steve harrington smut #mamma mia! au #eddie munson #jonathan byers

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stranger-marauders · 2 years

Text

hey y’all, i did not die! it’s midterms week at my university so i’m really busy, but i promise i’m gonna post some stuff very soon as i’ve been working on a few things😌✨ feel free to leave requests in my inbox🥰

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stranger-marauders · 2 years

Note

Hi hi hii!! I am already missing Kathy and Steven fksjdkjskdjdjskd! Can you pretty please bless us with some pre-season 1 dynamic between them! ANYTHING! LITERALLY ANYTHING WILL WORK😭😭😭

the link is here :) feel free to leave more requests as wanted or needed!

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stranger-marauders · 2 years

Text

the kate hopper collection

steve and kate's friendship in high school

summary: the initial dynamic between Steve Harrington and Kate Hopper before November 1983.

chapter warnings: language, mention of a deceased sibling, cheating

word count: 4.7k

collection masterlist | masterlist

KATE AND STEVE had been best friends since the first day of preschool. Whenever she moved to New York, of course, they became a bit more distant, but once Kate had moved back to Hawkins, they'd become even closer than they were before.

Middle school, while proving to be difficult for Kate with balancing grief and living in a new town, seemed to breeze by. By the time freshman year had rolled around for them, they had become completely inseparable, even if they took some different classes and Steve had two separate sports to deal with on top of that.

At that point, Kate went home with Steve every day after school if she didn't have work.

It was a normal thing for her, really. If she did have work, she could only hope that she could hitch a ride with Jamie somehow if Steve's mom couldn't drop her off. Today, though, she could do her math homework in a timely manner.

Steve, however, was struggling. Though he was in a much lower class than Kate, he didn't want to ask her for help. He didn't want to seem dumb, and that was how everyone treated him: dumb. It wasn't like she treated him that way, but he didn't want to potentially screw that up, too.

She was so smart. Even as he watched her now, her pencil seemingly dancing over the paper as she finished her factoring questions, he was partially amazed. He didn't hate her for it, but he certainly wished he was as smart as she was. Kate liked to read, and she liked doing math, even if she didn't like to admit it. School had always made sense to her, and he was glad that it did, but he wished he had the same luxury.

"You okay?" Kate finally asked after she'd caught him staring at her. "You're, like, kinda freaking me out."

Whenever she said that he realized how creepy he must've looked. "Sorry."

She scooted closer to him, looking at the hardly attempted first question. "What's up?"

He shrugged, stifling a laugh. "It's, uh... it's nothing. Seriously."

She gave him an unconvinced look, turning his book and paper toward her. "Yeah, okay, what question are we looking at?"

He sighed in defeat. "Number two."

"Okay." Kate looked over the question and immediately saw where the issue was: 3(x+1) = –6. He'd written it back out on his own piece of notebook paper, but he hadn't started on the actual problem yet. She pressed her lips together, trying to think of what to do.

"I'm sorry, I'm stupid. I should've—-"

"Hey, no, don't say that," Kate said, turning back to him. "No, this is just new stuff, and you got stuck with Mundy who is a chronic over-explainer."

He stifled a laugh, trying to remain serious. If he couldn't even do his homework, how was he supposed to pass the class? He already felt done for.

Kate grabbed a piece of notebook paper from out of her supplies and closed her textbook to write on the back of it. "I'm gonna show you how to do this, okay? Step-by-step. I'll even write instructions on it so you can keep it forever."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, seriously. It'll help, I promise."

He shrugged, watching her write down numbers as quickly as she could. Whenever she got finished solving it, she pushed the hair out of her face, holding up the piece of paper. "See?"

Steve squinted, trying to read over it as he held it in his hands. "Still doesn't make too much sense."

She pointed to the lines she'd drawn from each of the numbers inside the parentheses connecting to the three on the outside. "Okay, so see this three? It's gonna multiply out to everything inside of that right there."

"Why?"

"The simple answer is 'because I said so,' but it's just because it's pressed up against that parenthesis there. The only exception is if there's some type of symbol there, like an addition or a subtraction sign."

He nodded, kind of getting what she was saying. He pointed to the next line of the equation after the distributive property had been used. "Okay, and why can't I add that together?"

"One's got an x and the other one doesn't," Kate said simply. "The three's gonna be subtracted, because we gotta move it to the other side, and that's how it ends up being negative-nine."

"And that's why you divided the rest?" Steve asked, pointing to the next to last line. "Because you're getting rid of all that stuff?"

"Yeah, exactly," she said, boxing the x-equals-negative-three answer. "You think you can do the next one?"

He shrugged. "I hope so."

She looked at the book, smiling slightly. "I'll do it with you and we'll compare?"

He nodded, almost smiling. "Sounds good."

And Steve, much to his surprise, had the same answer as Kate.

Sometimes she would even stay for dinner if Steve or his mother begged her hard enough, and most of the time, she absolutely adored it, but there had only ever been one time where dinner at the Harrington house had proven to be much more awkward than usual.

For starters, Steve's mom was absolutely wasted. She'd drunk an entire bottle of wine in the time it had taken her to cook dinner, and that was evident by the empty bottle on the kitchen counter. Kate wasn't exactly sure that Steve had noticed, but she could sense the drunkenness from a mile away: she hadn't even been able to spoon lasagna onto a plate without struggling not to cry.

That was another thing that had stuck out to Kate. She couldn't think of a time where she'd ever seen Laura Harrington even close to crying, never mind wiping the occasional tear that had leaked from her eye. She thought it was odd—she didn't know that she could even show emotion.

Kate figured something terrible had happened. She tried to cue Steve in on it, but he wasn't paying attention. Currently, he was much too focused on his mother's lasagna.

"Are you enjoying your dinner?" she asked softly, watching the two kids eat.

While Kate nodded simply and gave a tightlipped smile, Steve tried to quickly swallow his mouthful of lasagna. "Yeah, Mom, it's really good."

She laughed hollowly, looking at her near-empty wine glass as she traced the rim of it. "I'm glad someone appreciates what I do for you." She took a shaky breath. "I have you, at least, right?"

Steve's eyebrows furrowed together instinctively. "Yeah?"

She took another sip of her wine, taking it all in one chug and slamming it a bit too harshly on the table, making both Steve and Kate jump. "Steven, I want you to listen to me."

"Yeah?" he asked, growing increasingly worried.

"I don't ever wanna see you marry a woman that you won't commit to."

Steve hesitated, not knowing what to think. "What?"

She sighed, tracing her empty wine glass with her finger again. "Don't marry a girl just because she comes from a good Catholic family with money, or because she's a... a pretty twenty-year-old, or because she..." Laura paused, swallowing the lump in her throat. "Don't... ever treat a woman that way. You hear me?"

"Mom, what are you talking about?" Steve asked, but Kate kicked his ankle, almost as if she were trying to be discreet.

She'd already figured out that Mr. Harrington had had an affair with his wife.

Kate hadn't been surprised, really. He'd never truly been affectionate with his wife. Even in the family photos they had posted around the house the man had always seemed stiff, standoffish. Now, though, the perfect family portrait Laura had worked so hard to paint was now being burned to a crisp within a matter of seconds.

Laura chuckled solemnly. "You father's decided his secretary's a much more suitable lover than I ever was." Whenever Steve's lips parted slightly, his eyes being the only part of his face that showed how absolutely crushed he was, she sighed softly. "I'm sorry to be the one to tell you about that, Steven, but I... you needed to know what type of man your father is."

Steve shook his head, running a hand through his hair. "No. No... No way. Dad wouldn't... He wouldn't do that."

"I'm afraid he already has, sweetie."

He stood up from the table. "No, you're... you're lying! Stop lying to me!" Before Laura could say anything else to him, he looked at Kate for only a second, his eyes watering. Without another word, he shook his head and ran to go upstairs.

"Steven!" Laura called, but it was no use. She sighed whenever she heard his door slam. "Kate, dear, are you not hungry?"

Kate looked down at her plate worriedly. She'd barely even picked at her meal. "N–No ma'am, this is good. I... I love lasagna."

She smiled softly, standing up from the table. "You have a nice night, Kate."

She only watched as Laura walked into the kitchen again, presumably opening another bottle of wine. Whenever the coast was clear, she grabbed Steve and her plates, quickly taking them up the stairs and to Steve's room. She hesitated to knock on the door, but eventually caved—the plates were getting heavy and she was much too scared to see what Steve's mother would say about her taking the lasagna upstairs.

"Hey, Steve? Please open the door," she said softly, knocking again whenever he didn't answer. "I brought your lasagna."

Without another moment's hesitation, he opened the door, quickly grabbing the plates from her and pulling her inside. He locked the door, putting the two plates on the desk without a moment's hesitation, pointing to it. "What the hell's that?"

"You didn't get to finish it before..." Kate trailed off, shaking her head. "Are you okay?"

Steve buried his face in his hands, running his hands through his hair. "Nope. No. Absolutely not. This is not happening right now. Nope."

"Steve..."

"No! You don't... You don't get it, okay? My mom... My dad, they..." He groaned, rubbing his face again. His eyes began to water as his voice cracked. "He wouldn't do that. He... He wouldn't, he—"

"Steve, hey," Kate said, grabbing him by the arms. "Listen to me. It's okay."

He tried to fight his tears, but instead, he squeezed his eyes shut, trying not to cave in. Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry—

"Sit down, okay?" she said softly, pulling him to his bed. "Lay down and you'll feel better. Promise."

"Okay," he said softly, wiping his eyes once as he laid down.

Kate sat down next to him, scratching his arm softly the way he liked. She held his hand, let him lean against her, and she didn't judge him whenever the occasional tear slipped out. That was a horrible way to find out that your father didn't love your mother anymore, if he ever had at all, and it wasn't any fun to see your mother that way, either. Everything had all come crashing down at once, and that certainly wasn't the way that he deserved to find out about that.

"Kathy?" he finally asked.

"Yeah?"

Steve swallowed the lump in his throat, turning to look at her. "When did you realize your parents didn't love each other anymore?"

She sighed. What a loaded question. Kate didn't know when they had stopped loving each other exactly, but she knew when she'd realized it. It had been the first day of sixth grade and, usually, her family went out to dinner together to celebrate the new school year, but Diane had opted for take-out instead, and everyone had eaten alone. It wasn't the same without Sara, and that was a fact. Or maybe it had been that Christmas when her mother and father could barely stand to be in the same room as each other because Sara was gone. She didn't think her parents had ever truly stopped loving each other: things got hard, and it wasn't any fun to love someone whenever it was hard.

Kate, however, wasn't going to tell Steve all of that.

"I don't know," she said softly, squeezing his hand for a moment. "After Sara... After she was gone, I guess."

He took a shaky breath, squeezing her hand back. "Why doesn't my dad love my mom?"

"I... I don't think that's it," Kate said, frowning slightly. "People are shitty. They do shitty things to people they love sometimes." She paused, almost thinking of what to say. "He's still an asshole, though. I just... I just don't think he simply stopped loving your mom. I think he's just an asshole."

"Really?"

"Yeah. For sure."

He choked on a sob, burying his face even further into her shoulder as she pulled him in tighter to her. They sat like that for a long time, and it wasn't until the slam of his front door that Steve immediately stopped his crying, pulling himself off of Kate and wiping his face. Whenever he looked over to his desk again and at the plates of half-eaten lasagna, his stomach started doing somersaults.

"We have to get that out, like, right now. My parents, they... they'll freak out if they see that in here."

"Let's finish it real quick and then we can bring the plates down later so they can't hear us," Kate offered. "We can stack them in your chair and tuck them in underneath the desk until then."

He nodded once, and they quickly feasted on what was left of their dinner as Steve's parents began to argue about the affair.

Kate always went to his basketball games, too. She didn't ever work whenever he had a game, always making sure to schedule off two weeks in advance or slip Jamie a few dollars just to swap shifts with her.

It wasn't that Steve was good at basketball, but he wasn't the worst either. Kate didn't even like the game that much. She just knew it meant a lot to him there to just have someone there supporting him, even if it was just her.

The game today was getting close, much too close for comfort. The only reason why Steve was even playing right now was only because Chris Novak had gotten the flu and Steve was the only replacement available. Kate didn't know if he was more excited or horrified that he was off of the bench at first, but he very quickly proved that he knew what he was doing. In fact, he was better than Novak.

He still wasn't the best, though, and that was something that Kate was actively ignoring.

"Come on, Steve!" she shouted, pretending she could hear him. "Come on, you've got this!"

"He can't hear you, sweetie," Jessica said, somewhat annoyedly. She looked to the scoreboard whenever the opposing team landed the basketball inside the hoop again. "Jesus Christ, it's sixty-one and sixty and we've got twenty seconds left. We're losing."

"Jess, quit, no we're not," Kate said, trying to find Steve again. "We've got this."

Whenever her eyes landed on Steve again, she found he didn't look so hot. His hair was pressed to his forehead, and his uniform was completely soaked with sweat. She didn't know who exactly would be doing his laundry, but she would hate to be that person. He looked over to her, almost as if he could feel her gaze on him, and he smiled, shrugging once. He was doing it.

Kate was so proud of him. She knew how hard he'd worked to even get onto the Varsity team at all, being the only freshman that even dare grace the bench with his ass. He trained hard every day for this moment, no matter whether he had practice or not. She couldn't believe it, but he'd done it.

That moment was quickly short-lived, however, whenever Steve accidentally caught the ball.

Five seconds left.

"Holy shit, Steve, go!"

He didn't think twice about it as he ran across the court, dribbling the ball as he heard the opposing team trailing behind him. The guy following him might've been taller than him, but Steve was faster.

Two seconds left.

Steve was as close as he could possibly be to the net, quickly throwing it into the hoop before the guy pulled at him from the other team, he could only watch in horror as it circled around the rim. Right as the clock turned to zero, though, the ball fell through the hoop, and the score became sixty-two-sixty-one.

Hawkins had won.

Steve had made the winning shot.

Kate couldn't stop herself from rushing to the court with everyone else, immediately running to Steve. "Holy shit, dude! Talk about a damn play!"

"You saw that shit?" Steve asked excitedly, still trying to catch his breath. "I—"

"Harrington!" one of the seniors shouted, clapping him on the shoulder. "Good play, man! Come here!"

He shrugged whenever they walked away. "Jesus Christ, this is actually happening."

Kate laughed, swatting his arm. "Dude, go! Jankovic's, like, very obviously trying to get you to go with you."

He frowned for half a second. "You aren't coming?"

"Nah, don't worry about me, I'll be with Jess," she said simply. Whenever he didn't move, she laughed, shoving him in the direction of the seniors. "Dude, just go."

As he walked off with a dopey smile on his face, Kate had no idea just how hard he would party that night.

By the time summer would roll around, though, Kate would be absolutely miserable, and Steve would be absolutely thrilled. Summer, of course, was Kate's least favorite season.

For her, it brought another birthday, too much time spent with her father, and too many days spent by the pool. Kate had opened up her availability at work, mostly because she didn't know if she could handle spending any more time with Steve, Tommy, and Carol. She'd started working much more, and whenever she wasn't at work, she was at Steve's house, or maybe the public pool to bring him lunch.

Kate hadn't gone back to the public pool since Chris Jacobs stood her up on what would've been their third date. She was embarrassed, and she felt used. She didn't want to see him ever again if it meant she never went back to that place, never visited Steve at his place of work again.

It was days like this, though, where Kate questioned what she was doing. It was the middle of July, nearly a hundred degrees outside, and she was sitting at the pool with Steve. Tommy and Carol hadn't shown up yet, and that was evident by the music that played on the radio: he'd let her pick a station rather than just pick the pop music station he played when Tommy and Carol were around.

Currently, Kate and Steve were both sitting in pool chairs, both slathered in sunscreen and wearing sunglasses and bathing suits. She was reading a book, and Steve was smoking a cigarette.

"Jacobs is an idiot," Steve finally said after taking a drag on his cigarette. "You're way too good for him."

"No, but I appreciate the sentiment," Kate replied, flipping to the next page of her book. "I'm, uh... it's cool."

"No, it's not, okay?" He put the cigarette out in the ashtray next to his chair. "I should kill him for what that asshole did—"

"Steven, dude, chill," she said, scratching the back of her neck. "I'm fine. He graduated this year anyway. I'll probably never have to see him again after August."

"Still a piece of shit."

Kate stifled a laugh. "Okay. If that makes you feel better."

He looked over at her, trying to read her body language: she truly did seem unbothered by it all. Whenever he saw her face, though, he took in a sharp breath. "Kathy, your nose is getting red."

"Okay?"

"No, so are your shoulders. You're gonna complain about sunburn if you don't put on more sunscreen."

"Oh my God, I'll be fine—"

"Nope," he said, standing up out of his chair. "Come on. Sit up. I don't wanna hear your whining tomorrow about how everything hurts because you didn't want to listen to me."

She sighed, moving forward in her seat and tying her hair into a high bun. Kate felt him put his hands on her shoulders as he sat down, his legs splitting the pool chair. He rubbed the squeezed-out sunscreen in his hands, rubbing it together to warm it up. Whenever he started to massage it into her shoulders, she tensed up.

"I tried to not make it so cold."

"Still freezing, thank you."

He scoffed. "I tried, okay?"

"Not good enough."

Steve stifled a laugh, working to rub it in. Whenever the sunscreen was rubbed in enough, he stood up and dabbed the rest on her nose, leaving a white streak on her nose.

"Oh my God, Steve, what the hell!"

He giggled whenever she threw her book down impulsively, losing her page. Whenever she rubbed it in all over her face, using both of her hands to do so, then rubbed them annoyedly against her legs. Whenever he saw the look in her eyes, the glint of anger, he widened his eyes slightly, sticking his hands out to her in surrender. "Okay, you're not actually mad, are you?"

"You could've gotten it on my book."

"I could've just got you another one?"

She squeezed sunscreen onto her fingers, walking toward him and looking above his head for only a second. "I think you need to reapply, Steven."

"Jesus, please, no," he said, holding a hand out to her in surrender and the other shielding his hair. He took a few steps back, inching toward the pool. "Not the hair."

"Come here."

He looked at her in horror for a second, nearing the edge of the pool. Whenever she was no more than a foot away from him, he panicked and grabbed her by the waist, jumping into the pool with her in tow. She screamed whenever she got picked up off her feet, the glob of sunscreen flying off of her fingers. When she came up for air, Steve had already been floating at the top, laughing at her, and she pushed his head back under the water, cutting off his giggling.

Kate swam over to the ladder, starting to pull herself out of the pool whenever she looked back at him in the water. He still hadn't come back up, and the bubbles that he'd presumably been blowing out had stopped coming to the surface.

Her eyebrows furrowed together, a pit starting to grow in her stomach. "Steve?"

Nothing.

"Steve, cut it out!"

Whenever he didn't answer again, still not coming up, she dove back into the pool from the ladder. She grabbed him by the shoulders under the water, pulling him to the surface. Before she could try to drag him out of the pool, however, he started wheezing he was laughing so hard.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Kate said, slapping him on the shoulder. "I hate you."

He only laughed in response.

Lounging by the pool wasn't the only thing they ever did over the summer. They also liked to go see movies, even though their taste was almost completely different from each other. Whenever Kate and Steve walked out of the movie theatre, they both had completely different reactions to the movie they'd decided to go see this time, that movie being Risky Business.

"Dude, that was awesome!" Steve said, holding the door open for her as she walked out. "I'm so glad you made me go see that. Genius idea, that guy had."

"Yeah, and I definitely regret it," she replied, shaking her head slightly. "That shit was terrible."

"What? Are you crazy? That was one of the best movies we've seen in a long time!"

"No, Steven, you only enjoyed the movie because Rebecca De Mornay took her top off, like, multiple times," she said bitterly.

"Yeah, and?" Steve said, almost like there wasn't a problem in the world with agreeing with her.

"It's like your Fast Times argument all over again. A movie is not good just because there are boobs in it, Steven."

"She's hot, Kathy. That's, like, a completely normal reason to like the movie. Besides, if I didn't know any better, I'm pretty sure you enjoyed looking at that one guy the whole movie."

Even though she knew exactly who he was talking about, she would not give him the benefit of knowing that she knew exactly who he was talking about. Tom Cruise, even though he had never been in a movie before, had certainly caught Kate's eye as she attempted to absorb any of the plot that might've been there. He was no Harrison Ford, but he certainly did make the movie viewing experience better than it would've been without him. That was the only reason why she was putting Risky Business above Fast Times: at least the guy was hot, too.

"That is such a bullshit argument," she said, keeping her face turned from him.

Steve, however, walked in front of her. "No way. I was just being funny, but you actually liked that guy? No way!"

"I'm... not having this conversation with you."

"Kathy, dude, you cannot just cut the conversation off there. I gotta know more here. Are you just saying the movie was bad because you weren't the one that was—"

"Oh my God, you're disgusting!" she shouted, her face completely red as Steve chuckled. "Please, for the love of God, just shut up."

He tried stopping his laughter, pressing his lips together. "Okay."

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Okay. Got it. Don't want to talk about it."

"And even if I did, it's none of your business which guys I find attractive, especially not in movies."

He rolled his eyes as he opened his car door. "Oh, come on, that's so not fair. You know all the girls I like in movies."

"Yeah, that's because you like just about all of them," Kate argued as she got in his car. "Phoebe Cates, Farrah Fawcett, Carrie Fisher, Kathleen Turner... I mean, I could just keep going—"

Whenever Steve sat down in the driver's seat, he stuck up his hands in surrender, moving to start the car. "All right, I get it, I like girls. Your point?"

"You're vocal about it. I, however, am not."

"Says you. I see the way you look at Harrison Ford," he said, cranking the engine. "Your eyes get little hearts in them. It's gross."

Kate rolled her eyes as the music started to play. "Shut up."

As they drove off from the movie theater, Kate had no idea how much Steve really did love that movie. That movie, as well as the pretty girl in it, would never hold a flame to her.

#steve harrington #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington x hopper!reader #stranger things #steve harrington headcanon #steve harrington x oc #steve harrington series #steve harrington stranger things

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stranger-marauders · 2 years

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the kate hopper collection

sequel to shattered

pairing: steve harrington x hopper!oc

summary: A continuation of the Kate Hopper series through a collection of short stories revolving around Kate, Steve, and other supporting characters. Each chapter can be read as a standalone piece. Requests for segments can be made via comments or direct requests on Tumblr.

warnings: pre/post-canon, drabbles; check per chapter! because this is a short story collection I'm sure there are a thousand but just assume the same general warnings apply :)

masterlist

kate and steve's friendship in high school

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stranger-marauders · 2 years

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okay so apparently people are interested in what happened between kate and steve outside of the canon timeline and i have LOTS i am able to write about and share so feel free to send in asks!

also if anyone has any requests generally (aka not ms kate related) send them my way! i need motivation to write lol

#steve harrington #steve harrington series #steve harrington x hopper!reader #kate hopper #steve harrington stranger things #steve harrington x oc

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stranger-marauders · 2 years

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author's note

hi. I didn't want to just leave the series off on the cliffhanger even though that's canon (haha I hate it here), so I did just want to share my thoughts with you as we move forward.

I have upcoming projects! it's taking me a while to work on them so bare with me I am a double major in college

requests are always open, and yes that does include stuff about kathy and steven!

as always, thank you thank you thank you. I've loved all the support and I can't wait to continue writing stuff for you guys.

much love,

macy <3

#steve harrington #steve harrington series #steve harrington x hopper!reader #steve harrington x oc #steve harrington stranger things #stranger things

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stranger-marauders · 2 years

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shattered

twenty-seven: the aftermath

chapter summary: Kate and Steve do their best to help the town of Hawkins after the devastating attack upon the town.

chapter warnings: language, major character death (i'm sorry), canon-typical violence, canon-typical everything, cliffhanger (i'm so sorry)

word count: 4.2k

series masterlist | masterlist

MOST EVERYONE WAS leaving Hawkins at least for the time being, and Kate couldn't blame them.

Even less than forty-eight hours after the gates had opened across town, black smoke still billowed all over Hawkins. The government had already come in, telling everyone that it was an earthquake: a seven-point-four magnitude one, just to sell it home. As of right now, the official death toll was twenty-two, even though Kate knew it was twenty-three, and that wasn't even counting the people that hadn't been found yet.

Eddie Munson had died that night, too. The bats had gotten inside of the trailer, and Eddie had sacrificed himself so they wouldn't get through the gate so that they wouldn't attack Dustin. He had saved his life, and by that extension, Steve's, Kate's, Robin's, and Nancy's, too. Eddie Munson had died a hero, and they were the only ones who would ever know.

Kate didn't know exactly how to feel about that. Not even an hour before he'd died, they'd been joking around on the Winnebago, even though things were serious. She didn't like to think that Eddie had died for nothing, so she tried not to think about it that way. If Eddie wouldn't have sacrificed himself, they wouldn't even have had a chance at killing Vecna, and they wouldn't waste the second life they'd been given by him.

Kate wouldn't waste that opportunity.

Hundreds of people were injured now, filling every Roane County hospital there was. People were still missing, presumably swallowed by the massive cracks that now almost section Hawkins into quadrants. They had already said that the number of people dead was going to get bigger, the statistics even worse. This tragedy somehow made the Starcourt Mall nightmare look like child's play. So far, Kate had been exactly right in what she'd seen: mass mayhem and destruction had torn Hawkins to pieces, now for the entire town to see.

No one was safe anymore.

Currently, Steve, Kate, Robin, Dustin, and Nancy were sorting through boxes to take to the high school, loading Steve's car up with things to take. The city had canceled school for time being and repurposed it as a shelter until further notice for people who had lost their homes.

"Hey, Nance!" Karen, Nancy's mom, said, walking to her with a box of toys. "I found some more of your old stuff in the attic."

Nancy took one look inside the box, gasping at one of the stuffed animals inside. "Mr. Rabbit."

"It's okay if you wanna save him, you know."

She put the stuffed animal back inside the box, taking it in her hands. "No, he'll be more loved in a new home."

As the kids continued loading the car, Karen took a step closer to them. "Someone order a pizza?"

"Pizza?" Dustin asked.

Everyone turned to look at the pizza van at the end of the driveway, which honked at them before parking. From inside the van stepped Jonathan, Will, Mike, Argyle, and Eleven, who all should have been in California.

Kate couldn't believe it. There all of them were standing in front of them, completely unharmed. Of course, Joyce wasn't there, but she could only assume she was still on her business trip or something. They were here. Even Argyle had somehow found himself wrapped up in all of this. The only thing she cared about, though, was the girl with a shaved head in front of her.

Kate immediately ran to her sister, taking her tight in her grasp. "Holy shit, Ellie, I thought something terrible happened to you."

"I am okay," she said, letting her older sister squeeze her tight. "I'm sorry you didn't get to come to California."

She stifled a laugh, tears swelling in her eyes. "You're sorry? Jesus Christ, you didn't do anything." Kate ran her hand over the back of her freshly shaved head. "What the hell'd they do to you?"

"Papa," she said softly. It almost seemed as if Kate were more upset about her hair right now than she was.

"I'm going to kill that son of a bitch—"

"He's... already dead," El said, taking her sister into a hug. "But thank you. I... I missed you."

Kate squeezed her tighter, finally letting out a sigh of relief. "You're never leaving my sight again, dammit, you hear me?"

"What about school?" El asked, tilting her head.

She shook her head as they walked toward Steve's car. "That is the only exception. Got it?"

El nodded in response. Whenever she went to go hug Dustin and catch up with him, Kate leaned up against the trunk of Steve's car.

Steve moved to stand beside her, wrapping an arm around her back and putting his hand on her waist. "I have never seen you mom out on her so hard."

Kate scoffed. "You are not allowed to say anything about 'mom-ing out' on people. Ever. Also, I was 'older-sistering' out. There's a difference."

He stifled a laugh, readjusting his hand on her waist. "You don't have to come with us if you wanna stay with her. I get it."

She shook her head. "No, I... I'm still coming. El, she's... she's gonna wanna see her, you know? I–I don't think I can do it again right now. Not when we just got back."

"Okay, yeah, that's fine," Steve said, nodding his head, pulling her in tighter to him. "That's... I get it. You don't have to. We can go together tonight if you want, okay?"

Kate nodded, turning to face him again. "Okay."

Max had died the night that the gates had opened across Hawkins, too. Her heart had stopped for about a minute before it started again, as Lucas had told them, giving her the faintest ounce of life before the ambulance came. The doctors had said it was a miracle that she was even alive. Her limbs had been snapped, and her eyes had started bleeding, but somehow, Max hadn't died yet. She had now only been reduced to a coma, unsure of when or if she would ever wake up again.

Kate had given Lucas some book recommendations so he could read Max something while she was in her coma. It broke her heart that he had sat at Max's beside every waking moment since she'd been admitted, waiting for her just in case she did wake up. Lucas didn't want to leave her alone, and for that, she was grateful.

Whenever Kate had first heard the news, she'd blamed herself for letting them go alone. She'd known that one of them should have stayed with Max, Lucas, and Erica just in case something happened. Maybe one of them should've stayed with Dustin and Eddie, too. Maybe if she had been the one to do it, they wouldn't have lost Eddie, wouldn't have lost Max. Now, though, Kate knew that it wasn't her fault. It wasn't any of their fault. They were strong, but the Upside Down had been stronger. Vecna had been stronger.

Once the kids, Argyle, Jonathan, and Nancy had left to go to the hospital to visit Lucas, Max, and Erica, the remaining group had gone to the high school, bringing in their boxes of supplies. Steve and Kate had already agreed to go with Robin and Dustin for a couple of hours to help volunteer, then meet everyone else at the old cabin later in the day.

It had been Robin's idea to help out at the high school. She figured since she, Steve, and Kate had gotten away with manageable damage (things that Kate had been able to fix in what she called L'Hôpital de la Kate whenever they'd gotten back to his house that night), they could at least come and help out where it was needed. Dustin, even though he had messed up his leg, still wanted to come with them to help. How could they turn him away?

As they walked through the school's gym, it had been somewhat overwhelming. They had set up all types of donation centers, as well as a medical area and a living area with cots and such for those who lost their homes. They all tried not to let their eyes wander too far, mostly because they didn't know how much they would find.

Whenever they got to the donation desk, Robin had been the one to greet the lady first. "Hi, uh, so these are blankets and sheets. And some... some clothes and... and some kids' toys."

"Wow. It's already so organized," the woman said, looking at the box Robin had carried inside. "We appreciate that. Do you want a tax receipt for it?"

"Um..." Robin looked at Steve and Kate for help—they were definitely the adults in this situation. Whenever they both shook their heads, she continued. "No. I don't think that we need one. Thank you, though." Robin looked behind her. "But... is there anything else that we can do to help?"

Steve and Kate had been brought to another table with clothes on it, being put in charge of sorting things that came from boxes.

"And then we sort by age," a woman named Maude told them, bringing them to the table. "We've got infants, girls, boys, men, women—Oh, if anything is in too bad shape, we really don't want that. Other than that, if you guys have any questions, I'll just be down there."

"Thank you," Steve said, nodding once at her as she walked away. "All right, ready?"

"Yeah," Kate said, moving a box to sit in between them so they could start sorting clothes.

Even though she was busy sorting, she, for the first time seemingly in days, had time to think.

She and Steve had still yet to talk about the conversation that they'd had in the Upside Down. Realistically, there hadn't been any time for a follow-up conversation yet. Of course, that hadn't stopped the hand-holding, the arms around her shoulder, the sneaky kisses that always seemed to end too quickly. At this point, Kate almost thought that they didn't even need to talk about it. She had made a stupid, stupid mistake to break things off with him, and he felt the same way. Kate, however, knew that in order for things to work between them, she had to actually communicate her thoughts to him, even if she felt like they were obvious.

"Hey," she finally said, trying to grab his attention. Whenever he looked at her, folding a men's sweater over his shoulder, she scrunched her face for half a second. "So, we're... we're good, right?"

"Oh, yeah," he said, nodding as he put another kid's sweatshirt in its correct place. "Yeah, I hope so."

"So you don't, uh... I mean, you're sure you don't care about the long-distance or anything?"

"If that's what's holding you back, I will move to New York right now, okay?"

She chuckled. "No, no, that's not what I meant, I just mean... I mean, I'm just asking if you, uh... you know, if you—"

"You're asking if I wanna get back together with you?" Steve asked, watching her as she hid herself in folding kids' clothes.

She hesitated, taking a deep breath. "Yes."

He nodded, smiling slightly. "Yeah. I'd love that."

"You would?"

"Yeah."

She smiled as she continued to fold some more clothes, looking out across to Robin, who was currently making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with Vickie. Not only that, but Vickie was smiling. Maybe Robin had a chance, too. "Hey, look."

Steve smiled, stifling a laugh. "Knew it. Absolutely no one pauses Fast Times there on accident, okay? Literally no one."

Kate stifled a laugh as she gave him a questionable look, but she decided not to ask any more questions for now, only sorting through clothes for those currently in need.

Steve and Kate left the high school and went to the cabin in the early afternoon.

She didn't know how to feel about going back there. The last time she had come back, it had not been too long after her father died. She, Steve, El, and Joyce had packed up anything that could have been saved, putting it in boxes to sort through later. Back then, all Kate had cared about was getting in and out of there as soon as possible. It hurt far too much to be in the place without him.

Now, though, it almost felt bittersweet being back at the cabin. Everyone had decided to help fix up the place so El could stay there for the time being. Kate didn't exactly know how this plan was supposed to work, particularly because she was supposed to go back to school in two days, but she figured Nancy and Jonathan had already worked something out. Maybe the Byers were coming back to Hawkins—Kate would have liked that outcome a lot more than anything else.

Steve and Kate had been assigned to fixing her own room up, just enough where it was livable. They hadn't had much on their to-do list but to clear out the room of any trash or leaves, board up the broken window, and start repairing the salvageable furniture.

Whenever they walked into the room, Steve closed the door behind them, grabbing Kate by the waist and flipping her around toward him. He put a hand on her jaw, rubbing his thumb across her cheek as he kissed her. He could feel her smile against his lips as she put her arm just below the base of his neck, careful not to touch where his bruises were.

She finally broke away, and he pressed their foreheads together, wrapping his arms around her. "We're not gonna get anything done if you keep doing that."

"I'm sorry," he said softly, pushing her hair behind her ear. "I like kissing you."

She stifled a laugh, her eyebrows furrowing together. "Yeah, well, there will be plenty of opportunities for that, so chill out."

He shrugged. "Fine."

Kate sighed. "This is gonna be so expensive to fix. I mean, the floors need to be redone, all the furniture needs to be replaced, I mean, this is... I'm gonna have to pay for the roof—"

"Hey, hey, hey," Steve said, putting his hands on her arms. "Baby steps, Kathy, baby steps."

She pressed her lips together, sighing again as she started putting salvageable items into a cardboard box. "It's weird, but I kinda missed this place."

"I kinda did, too," Steve said. "This place... it always felt like home more than my place ever has. I missed it."

Kate gave a tight-lipped smile. "I didn't know that."

"I mean, it's not like I ever said anything about it. Besides, I needed an excuse to get you at my house from time to time."

"You're so gross." She stifled a laugh. "Whatever. I don't know, I just... I don't know."

"What?"

She sighed. "I don't want to leave you again."

He shrugged. "You're not leaving me, you're just... going to school. It's like, what, six weeks? You'll be back home before you know it."

"Yeah, I know, I just... I want to be with you." She emphasized the last word, hoping she got her point. He gave her a confused look. "I don't know, maybe next fall, would you... I know we talked about it last year and we couldn't make it work, but..." She stopped, taking a deep breath. "I don't know, would you want to go to New York with me? We could be like... I don't know, act like a real couple for once or something?"

He smiled, his eyes almost seeming to lighten. "Really?"

"Yeah, really."

Steve tried to stop himself from smiling like an idiot. "Yeah, I mean... I mean, yeah, I'd really... I'd really like that."

"Yeah?" she said softly, pressing her lips together. "Until then, you know, maybe... maybe you could live here for a while. That way you wouldn't have to live with your parents anymore."

"Oh yeah, live with your scary sister with superpowers and shit?" he asked sarcastically, chuckling slightly. "Sounds like a great idea."

"Hey, it's something," she replied. "I mean, I'd be back before the summer, right? And besides, they... your parents treat you like absolute shit. Isn't this better than being with them?"

"I don't know, I've kinda... gotten used to it, I guess. My mom's okay."

"No, she's not either," Kate said bitterly, dumping her dustpan out of the broken window. "She lets your dad treat you like that. And you know what? Neither of them have called you a single time to make sure you're okay, and they still haven't come home. They're assholes, and I'm tired of them treating you that way."

He shrugged. "Kathy, I don't... really care anymore." Whenever he saw her pointed facial expression, he put his hands up in surrender, dropping the broom in his hands. "I know it sounds bad, okay, but I... they're not my family anymore. I'm tired of acting like I care about 'em when they don't act like they care about me. We're just civil, that's it."

"So who's your family?" she asked, somewhat worriedly.

He picked the broom back up off the ground, leaning it up against the wall. "You, Robin. The kids, even though they hate me half the time."

Her eyebrows furrowed together. "El doesn't hate you."

"Yeah, well, that's because I'm scared of her."

Kate stifled a laugh. "Does she really scare you that bad?"

"Yes!" Whenever she started laughing loudly, he threw his hands up in response. "All I'm saying is your family is horrifying. All of you."

"Yeah, we're a pretty, uh... frightening bunch, occasionally." Kate flopped back down on her bed, starting to go through some of the things she now had to sort from her desk that had seemed important.

Whenever a car seemed to drive into the driveway, Steve and Kate exchanged glances. "Hey, stay here, okay? I'll go check it out."

She nodded, letting him walk out the door and close it behind him. As she continued to sort through the random knickknacks and items on her bed that she'd left behind, she heard footsteps come through the cabin again—it must've been Steve coming back inside. She looked up whenever she heard the door swing open, only staring whenever she saw who stood in the doorframe.

Whenever she'd seen her father, her eyes instantly brimmed with tears. Not now, please not now. This was the first time that he'd looked different in an episode. He'd lost a lot of weight, and his head had noticeably been shaved, as well as the mustache he'd had when he died, even if he had been wearing a baseball cap to cover it. She squeezed her eyes shut and open again, only to find him still standing there, smiling at her fondly. "Hey, kid."

She shook her head, standing up out of bed as she looked at him. "You're not real."

"I'm here, kid," Hopper said, taking a step deeper into the room.

"Get out of my head."

"Katie, it's me. I promise it's me."

"Tell me something I wouldn't know that you'd know."

"Katie—"

"Please."

He sighed. "I, uh... I know you taught El and Sara both every curse word ever, even though you tried to lie about it. Both times."

Kate racked a sob, taking a deep breath. "Oh my God."

Her father finally walked to stand in front of her, pulling her into a hug as she began to sob more. She couldn't believe this was happening. She didn't know how it was happening, but she didn't care. Right now, she didn't care about anything leading up to this moment: she had her father back.

"How... How are you here?"

"I'll tell you later, kid. It's a hell of a story."

"I didn't forget about you," she said through her sobs. "I did everything you asked, I promise..."

"I know," he said, pulling back to look at her face. "Jesus, kid, I don't think I've ever seen you cry this much."

"Everyone told me you were dead."

"It seemed that way for a while, didn't it?"

"I mean, I just... I never stopped believing you were still here," Kate said, shaking her head. "I could feel it, Dad, I could... I knew you were still alive. Deep down, I knew."

Hopper chuckled softly. "Oh, I know. It's okay."

She nodded through her sobs.

"It's okay. I'm here. I'm here."

Kate couldn't stop sobbing. She still hadn't stopped crying whenever she and her father had gone to tell her sister of his resurrection in her own room. After El had a quite similar reaction, all three Hoppers now sat on Eleven's bed, just enjoying the fact that all three of them were here.

She didn't think she'd ever get this again. Her dad, El, and her all together like this. Kate couldn't have even imagined this in an excellent dream, one of those ones that felt so real that you got déjà vu from it.

Hopper had finally taken his hat off, revealing the shaved head that he now had.

"You look..." Kate stopped to sniffle.

"Not fat?" Hopper asked softly, making both girls chuckle.

"And your hair!" El said, rubbing her hand over his shaved head.

"My hair?" Hopper asked, his eyes swelling with tears. "Look at your hair. Katie's got more than the both of us combined."

Eleven chuckled as he rubbed his hand over her head. Kate couldn't help but smile. And to think she thought that shorter-length haircut she'd given herself a few months back was bad.

"Yeah," Hopper said, shaking his head. "I kinda stole your look, kid."

Kate chuckled, wiping her eyes again. She still couldn't believe he was here. Her father was alive.

She still hadn't been able to conceptualize how this had happened. Joyce had told her that he'd blown up inside of that bunker last July, but now he was standing right in front of her.

"So what d'you think?"

"Badass," Kate said softly, pressing her lips together.

"Bitchin'," El said, chuckling.

"Hm," Hopper said, smiling. Both of his girls had used some of their favorite expressions to describe him, and that was enough for him. He took his two daughters in for a hug, not even caring if he was slightly squishing them.

Kate pulled away whenever she heard talking outside, making El and her father pull away too. El and Kate had been the first two out the door, Hopper following closely behind them. Whenever they laid their eyes on Jonathan and Will hugging Joyce, and Mike, Nancy, and Steve standing next to them, Hopper put a hand on each one of his kids' shoulders. "You aren't the only ones that didn't stop believing."

When Joyce saw both Kate and El, Kate gave a soft smile, and El gave a small wave. They both ran down to hug her, pulling her into a big hug.

"Oh!" Joyce said softly whenever the two girls started crying again, tears swelling in her eyes. Her two girls were safe, too.

El pulled away, making Kate and Joyce do so, too. "I'm happy you went to your... conference."

"Yeah, that was one hell of a conference you went on," Kate said, looking back at her dad again.

"That was quite the experience," Joyce replied before pulling them both into a hug again. She was glad that her two girls were okay.

Hopper took his hat off, tipping it toward the government agent that had driven both Hopper and Joyce to the cabin. He put his hat back on as the agent drove away.

Steve had been the first person to approach Hopper.

"Hey," he said, smiling as he walked up to him.

"Hey, kid."

He took a look at the boy in front of him. He couldn't believe it, but somehow, he looked much more grown up than he had the last time he had seen him. He wasn't a boy anymore. He actually looked like a man, which surprised him more than anything. He thought that it might have been because of the lack of a sailor outfit as a work uniform, but it also could've been by just the way he carried himself, maybe the slight dusting of facial hair that he couldn't decide if he just hadn't shaved in a while or not, which was likely considering the past week they'd had. All of it showed him what he needed to know: Steve had grown up, too.

"You've grown."

"Not really," Steve said, shrugging slightly. "I just... I wanted to tell you that I kept my promise."

Hopper looked over to his oldest daughter, who was currently completely absorbed talking to Joyce and El. He chuckled. "Yeah, kid. You... You did it, somehow. Thank you."

Before Steve could respond, Hopper pulled him in for a hug, making him chuckle slightly. Maybe Kate had been right about Hopper always liking him.

A dark cloud seemed to come over Hawkins, and everyone turned around to look at it. Kate had watched as Will felt his neck—he must've felt something again. They watched as thunder rumbled, and particles began to fall out of the sky, almost like snow.

This, however, wasn't snow.

Kate followed her father as they walked through the woods, making their way to a meadow as Steve, Joyce, Mike, El, Jonathan, and Nancy followed behind them. The meadow in question had always been filled with flowers, but now, half of the field seemed to be dead, graying out almost as the particles flew around. Kate watched in horror as El picked up a decaying flower, one that seemed to begin to wither in her hand.

Out of the four cracks that now split Hawkins, funnels seemed to tunnel down into the earth, lifting into the dark clouds of the sky. Thunder rumbled as red lightning struck among the clouds.

As darkness came into Hawkins, Kate only grabbed Steve's hand for comfort.

Part of what Vecna had shown her was coming to fruition, and she knew the worst was yet to come.

author's note

taglist:

@thatsonezesty13 @cece5298 @thepowerstoner @alovelytardis @coolchick333 @stand-tall-pineapple @littlet-holmes @guichu @cinderellacauseshebroke @blackbirddaredevil23 @mads-weasley @ilovemarauders @pearlstiare @liableperfections @khaylin27 @girlwiththerubyslippers @cyarikaaa

#steve harrington #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington x hopper!reader #stranger things 4 #steve harrington headcanon #steve harrington x oc #steve harrington series #steve harrington stranger things

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