Chapter Text
Before all of the crazy shit that went down, Steve Harrington's typical weekend was blaring music from his dad’s boombox while floating in his pool at night, a six pack well within his reach. Now, Steve sat on the floor of Mike Wheeler's basement with five younger kids screaming at each other while playing Dungeons and Dragons.
It was a strange thing, seeing these kids so dedicated to one thing and happy to be doing it. Sure, Steve felt dedicated to basketball, but he hasn’t enjoyed playing the game in a long time; a little part of him knew him playing was just wanting to be useful in some way, so when these little shits asked him to start attending the game, Steve didn’t think twice about dropping basketball.
After the night the gate closed, Max and him were both completely accepted into the “party,” according to Dustin; Steve at first didn’t know what the hell he had gotten himself into, but soon it became clear that he became the unofficial supervision of the party to the parents. Steve didn’t mind, seeing as his social status was dragged to the pits of Hell when he ditched Tommy and Carol and his relationship with Nancy ended. So the former king became Steve the mother hen, sitting on the floor listening to the party flounder as all of their actions became useless against the enemy.
“You guys finish up! It’s getting late, and I need my beauty sleep!” Mike’s mom yelled from upstairs, and Steve glanced at the clock reading that it was almost two in the morning. The group continued bickering until Steve whistled in warning. The grumbled as they cleaned up the mess of paper and food. Mike looked as angsty as ever, but his voice was clear when he talked through his radio, saying goodnight to 11. The group had their stuff cleaned up within 20 minutes, and they headed upstairs, their adrenaline faded.
“Mom, can I go with Steve to drop the others off?” Mike yelled in the house, but didn’t bother to wait for a reply as the party exited the door and piled in Steve’s car (Steve took her silence as acceptance, or she already fell asleep and followed the group to his car.) Will insisted on choosing the music, so he sat in the front, flipping through the tapes Steve had.
“Steve, why do you have such a terrible taste in-footloose? Really, Steve? Aha, a mixtape! Ghostbusters, yes, we’re listening to this.” Will finally picked one of Steve’s newest tapes, and Steve didn’t know how to feel about it. He put a shit tone of sad songs on it because he felt like it. So yeah, The smiths and The Cure spoke to him in those moments. He had put Ghostbusters as the first song to try to get himself happy again (which failed.)
After ghostbusters ended, (which got the kids very riled up, insisting they ride around the block before anyone got dropped off) Steve tensed as the teenage angst songs flowed through his speakers. He resisted the urge to change it, as Will was so happy about being able to choose the music.
“Steve, what is this bullshit?” Dustin asked from the back as the notes filled the car. Steve said nothing as he pulled into the Bryers front yard. He turned off the car, got out, and motioned for Will to follow. Steve felt like he needed to personally take each kid inside their respective house (especially Will) to insure the parents knew their kid had returned safe and sound. Instead of Joyce Bryers, sadly, it was Jonathan and Nancy. Needless to say, Steve made his escape quick after saying goodnight to Will.
Steve clambered into the car, almost wanting to keep the tape in after the awkward moment, but his better judgment allowed him to pull out a popular album out of his collection. No one said anything through the rest of the ride.