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You couldn’t sleep. Again.
Hawkins was safe again, you had your dream job, your friends were fine, but you couldn’t sleep. There was some unfinished business that you had to do, probably, but you couldn’t put a finger on it. What could possibly be?
You sighed. Well, maybe there was something, but you didn’t want to talk about it with your boyfriend, because you were afraid that you could scare him off. He was a coach, a teacher, independent, stable and you didn’t want to ruin everything that he achieved just because you couldn’t sleep at night. You didn’t want to be selfish. Still, you had to do something about it, so you actually called him on the phone.
“Steve?” You called.
“Hey, did something happen? Are you alright?”
“Yeah, I am. I’m sorry to wake you up, but I can’t sleep. Again. I figurd that maybe your voice could calm me down”.
You heard him giggling on the other side, so you rolled your eyes.
“I’m sorry, it was stronger than me. I’m sorry babe, I swear that you can talk to me all night”.
“Thanks, Steve. I wish I could avoid to do this every damn time, but I still have to understand why this is happening”.
“We will get it, sweetheart. Don’t hurt your lovely mind just to find a flaw in it, because it doesn’t have any”.
You smiled.
“You’re so corny tonight, what’s happening to you, professor Harrington?”
“God, I love it when you call me like that. It makes me so…”
“Steve!”
“It makes me so soft, darling. Wow, calm down. I’m a gentleman, after all”.
“Except for yesterday night. I still have a bruise on my upper thigh”.
“It matches with mine, now”.
“Touchè. Anyway, what can we do now?”
“I’m gonna put on some clothes, so I can show up at your door in like twenty minutes or something. Please, put on that fabulous red dress of yours that drives me crazy, because the memory of you looking so hot during our anniversary doesn’t leave me alone”.
“Okay. I’m always up for a late night drive!” You exclaimed with excitement and you heard Steve’s laughter on the phone. You loved making him laugh.
“Sorry, the line was disturbed. Did you say that you love a good late night ride?”
You held back a laugh.
“You’re a naughty boy, Steve Harrington. You deserve some time in detention,” you said, while you were replaying last night in your mind, biting your lower lip.
“Oh, please…” He begged and you could almost see him closing his eyes. “Get dressed now, I’m coming. Sorry, no pun intended”.
“Too late! Okay, bye”.
“Bye, babe”.
He was outside your door some minutes later. He was wearing a black shirt and some jeans as if it was a date, while you had the red dress on. When he saw you, his eyes scanned your entire body and you almost felt naked in fron of him. Your cheeks were burning, even after all of those years together. He was looking at you with fondness and devotion in his eyes, but you knew him too well: a part of him wanted to take that dress off of you so damn bad.
“You look ravishing, darling,” he said, while kissing the back of your hand.
“You already won my heart, Harrington, you don’t have to court me anymore”.
“Oh, trust me, I have to,” he replied and you gulped. You’ve been in love with him for so many years, since he still had to date Nancy, but that feeling was still with you. It was only when the final battle began that he confessed his feelings for you and you finally felt seen by him. It was like a dream came true.
Now he was there, in front of you and it was perfect.
“Thanks for being here. I really mean it. You have to be at school at eight in the morning tomorrow, but you’re here, on my doorstep, at midnight. You’re something else, Steve Harrington, I swear,” you said and he gave you a kiss on your forehead.
“It’s nothing, really. You’d do the same for me. Also, you’re a teacher too, so you have to be well rested”.
“Speaking of that,” you began to say, while you were getting in the car, “I wanted to tell you that everytime you come and say hi to me outside my class, the kids talk”.
“Oh, yeah? And what do they say?” He asked, a hand on the wheel.
“They know that you’re my boyfriend, Steve! The girls are jealous and the guys roll their eyes t you being so corny to me. The school doesn’t have to know it, remember?”
“Maybe things should change,” he suggested.
“What does it mean?” You asked, confused.
“Nothing. Just an idea,” he answered, a grin on his lips.
A few minutes later, he stopped the car. You were in the same spot in which the two of you watched a rom-com as your first date. It was so beautiful and romantic, even if the two of you had already shared your very first kiss… in the Upside Down.
“Duck Hunt? Seriously?”
“He’s good,” Dustin said. “Don’t mock him just because you’re not a Nerd like us”.
“I’m not… I’m not mocking him! I was just surpised, I swear,” you said, but Dustin shaked his head when he went away.
“Time to go. You ready?” He asked.
You gulped, while looking at him. The backwards cap that he was wearing was doing… something to you. You felt your whole body burning, piece by piece. He had no idea about the effect that he still had on you and it was driving you crazy once more. Pretending to be just his friend was way more terrible, though. Everytime he talked about Nancy, you wanted to throw up, instead you tried to see the situation in a good way in order to suggest him what to do. It was getting on your nerves, though, because now she broke up with Jonathan and you were scared that she could come back to Steve. The thought alone was eating you alive.
“Yeah.”
“Then why are you so nervous?”
He learned to read your face a little too well. You got caught very easily. So you sighed, making up a lie.
“I wonder what we’re gonna do after everything will be over”.
“We still have to come back alive,” Steve joked, but you didn’t laugh.
“I’ll do everything I can, but just for the record: I wouldn’t like to come back to a world without you in it,” you said. Yeah, screw the friendship, after all. If you had to die, you wanted him to know your real feelings for him, at least.
He tilted his head, surprised. It was like something clicked in his head, even if you couldn’t say what it was. He remained quiet for a few seconds, while your heart was racing in your chest.
“Well, it was about time, Y/N,” he said and you furrowed your brows.
“What do you mean?”
“Looks like I lost a bet. Robin said that you were in love with me, but I didn’t buy it for one second. I still hoped that she was right, though,” he replied. Your eyes were locked into his, looking for a piece of lie, but he was telling you the truth. “And, just for the record, of course: if it comes to pick between saving you or the world, I’m gonna choose you, no questions asked”.
“I’m not gonna let you die because of me,” you said, tears burning behind your eyes.
“You’ll have to let me, sweetheart,” he said, while getting closer to you.
“Your life means more than mine, to me,” you said, your lips wet because of the tears that were running on your cheeks. You suddenly saw a spark of burning rage into Steve’s eyes.
“Don’t ever say that again to me,” he said, angry like you never saw him before. “Your smile is what makes me feel like when can finally win this fucking war. You know why I always want to team up with you? Because I care about your safety and you should too. If you’re gonna be in danger, you can bet that I’m gonna have your back. And help me God, if you try to sacrifice your life because you want to protect mine!” He exclaimed and a sob slipped away from your lips like a prayer.
That’s when he finally erased the distance between the two of you and kissed you so hard you could finally feel all of the pieces of your world coming back together.
“That was a good first date, but that kiss wasn’t even closer to the one in the Upside Down, honestly,” you said.
The two of you were sitting the hood of Steve’s car, in front of the usual white cloth used to watch the movies. Your head was resting on his right shoulder and you thought that there wasn’t another place in which you wanted to be in that moment.
“Oh, really?” Steve asked. “What about this one?”
His lips were on yours a second later, kissing you so hard you forgot about where you were. He pulled you in, his hands all over your body: shoulders, back, thighs… You felt like drowning into him, into all the feelings you still had for a man you’ve been loving for ten years and still counting. Maybe that was how a star feels when they’re dying: burning directly from the inside, flames around their waist and legs, hands tied to the sky as if it was Steve. After all, even the Sun is a star, right? The powerful light in the whole universe. Then, his fingertips started to slide on your legs, making you shiver. A brief breath escaped from your mouth and that’s when Steve stopped.
“Was it better?”
Your head was still dizzy, so you just managed to nod. He gave you a tiny kiss next to the corner of your lips.
“Can we do it again? I didn’t catch the flavour”.
“No, I still have to places for you to see. Come on!”
“That’s unfair, coach”.
“That’s still professor, to you”.
“You’re impossible, Steve Harrington”.
“Yeah, but you love me for that,” he said with a wink, while you were getting in the car again, him already in front of the wheel.
“Sadly, I do”.
Steve was silent. He was walking up and down in his own living room, thinking about what you just said. You were sitting on the couch, regretting what you already said to him. You were just tired, even if it wasn’t an excuse for your words, but your day had already been difficult and you didn’t deserve to fight with Steve after everything you had been through.
“This doesn’t sound like yourself! I don’t recognize you anymore,” he finally spoke and you almost felt relieved.
“Steve, I would love to have kids with you, just not six and anyway not right now for sure, in this economy. What about two? Maybe I can even get to three, if you’re really good in bed”.
Steve’s eyes widened.
“If I’m…? First of all: I am. Second of all: we can’t choose how many kids we want with a compromise. They all have to know that they’re loved by their parents”.
“Well, of course, honey,” you said, standing up. You put your arms around his neck, as if you were dancing with him. “That’s why we have to think about building our own family”.
“Do you even want to marry me?” He asked, terror going through his eyes.
You gave him a chaste kiss on his lips.
“Steve, I’ve been in love with you for almost ten years, now. There’s nothing I have ever wanted more. You can believe me when I say it,” you replied and he relaxed at your words.
“Good,” he said. “Now I think that we should discuss about what you said earlier,” he whispered into your ear, a hands already on your left hip, squeezing your red dress.
“Oh, well, I would do anything to make you feel better, my love,” you said with a grin.
Steve was watching the door of his house, hands in his pockets, while you were standing next to him.
“I can’t believe that you brought me to your place, just because you wanted to have sex with me, Harrington”.
Steve laughed at your joke.
“Oh, darling, if my plan was just to have sex with you, by now you would already be screaming my name like it was a prayer”.
You felt your ear burning and suddenly last night’s memories were all over your mind again, the same way his lips were all over your body.
“Wow. Then why are we here, then?”
“There’s something I want to show you, but I wanted to relive a memory here first,” he replied and you thought that maybe he was retracing the same memory you did.
So you got back in the car, looking outside the window: the lights were off, so probably his parents were still asleep, unlike the two of you. It was probably early in the morning, because the sun was peeking out from behind the clouds.
Spending all night by just talking to Steve was something you couldn’t do anymore. Being an adult, showing up early to school, everything was eating you alive. Maybe that was the reason behind your sleepless nights.
You finally arrived to Forest Hill. You knew that Steve wanted to live there someday, but you didn’t think that he had already got the money to do so. You were even more confused when he stopped in front of a big and beautiful house with a garden. The two of you got out from the car.
“Steve, what is this?”
“A surprise, I guess,” he said and you saw that his hands were trembling. You took one into your own, a smile on your face to reassure him that he could tell you everything.
“Are you gonna live here?”
“I thought that we both could live here, actually,” he replied and your heart was pounding into yor chest right now.
“Steve, my parents wouldn’t let me live with my boyfriend without getting married, even if I have my own job and my own money”.
“That’s funny, because I spent the last three weeks by convincing them to give me your hand in marriage,” he said and before you could reply, he was on his knee, a velvet box into his hands. “Y/N, do you want to marry me?”
You heart sank. Your hands were on your face, tears in your eyes and your mind went blank for a minute. Steve’s eyes were glossy and his smile was full of hope and fear, while his lips were quivering. You kneeled down, took his face into your hands and nodded.
“Yes. A thousand times yes. Forever yes”.
He gave you the ring and then he kissed you like you were a promise he was sealing. Back when he was still dating Nancy, you said that maybe you wanted to become a teacher because you couldn’t have children with the man you loved. If your younger self could see you now having them both, she would be so proud of you.
“Can I drive you to work?”
“You already do that anyway, since we work in the same school, professor,” you replied and he sighed.
“I can’t fucking wait to shut you up in my own special way, once we’ll finally live together”.
“Well, you’re in luck, because tonight my parents aren’t home,” you said with a smirk and he smiled at you.
“Another sleepless night, my princess?”
“Yeah, but this time it’s for a good reason. I can always sleep tomorrow morning, after all”.
“That sounds like a plan”.