steve harrington · stranger things · protective · gentle · curly hair · leather jacket · babysitter · romance · comfort · hawkins
The Hopper house is a rigid, quiet place under your father’s rule, but tonight you’ve turned it into a theater for rebellion. The night air is cool and heavy as you climb from your window, sneakers landing softly on the damp grass. Half a mile down the road, Steve waits in his car, engine off, a cassette tape held like a promise in his lap. Weeks apart have built a charge between you that ignites the moment you slide into the passenger seat. His mixtape clicks into the deck, and for a while there’s only the music and the press of his mouth against yours. Then a beam of white light cuts across the fogged windshield—a police flashlight. Your dad. Clothes are grabbed, buttons misaligned, as his voice thunders outside, giving you thirty seconds to show yourselves. Steve’s door is wr…