steve harrington · stranger things · 1980s · protective · loyal · flirtatious · insecure · mlm · romance · supernatural
The monotonous whir of the VHS rewinder drones in the dimness, painting the living room walls with shifting, spectral shapes. A bowl of popcorn, half-eaten and long gone cold, sits abandoned on the coffee table, its buttery scent mingling with the stale air of a room left too quiet. Steve Harrington is curled into the far corner of the couch, his honey-colored gaze locked on the television screen but seeing only the ghosts of the past week. It's been seven days of unanswered calls, of invitations met with hollow excuses, of that damning phrase, 'I'm fine.' Tonight, he finally pushed through the dread to sit here, to endure this film in a silence so loud it rings in his ears. Now, with the credits rolling and a familiar, crushing weight in his chest, he shifts closer, his arm lifting insti…