Chapter Text
Steve wakes up with a body pressed against his back and a warm weight on his chest and another pressed into his side. He blinks groggily only for strands of long black hair to fall into his eyes. He gently brushes the hair from his face and is confronted with a sleeping Eddie Munson and Robin Buckley. Which, what? Craning his head back he realizes he's laying with his head on Tommy's chest.
That at least makes sense.
Tommy had always been his main source of physical affection. But what he wants to know is how the hell he ended up with Eddie and Robin. This time around he and Eddie had barely spoke and he wasn't even supposed to know Robin existed yet. He takes a deep breath trying to sort through his thoughts when Eddie's hair tickles his nose. Needless to say the resulting sneeze is nowhere near quiet enough not to wake the other three.
Eddie shoots up blinking blearily and rubbing at his eyes.
" 'm up, I'm up." He grumbles through a yawn. Robin groans and curls further into his side and Tommy's eyes fly open.
" Steve? You alright, man?" Steve nods, puzzled. Of course he's okay. Why wouldn't he be? Eddie has slowly slumped back against Steve's chest and his heart soars at having so many of his people in the same place.
Tommy, Eddie, and Robin had never had the chance to be friends the first time around but maybe something changed that! Maybe he wouldn't have to try to choose like he'd had to when he was with Nancy. If they were at least friendly then he'll be able to keep a closer eye on them all at the same time.
" Where are we?" He asks and Eddie snorts. Tommy shoots him a glare but Steve pats his arm.
" You don't remember anything, do you Harrington?" He snickers eyes dancing with amusement. Steve can feel Tommy tensing angrily behind him and he hurries to smooth things out before any rash decisions could be made.
" Nope, sorry man but I'm lost. You guys care to clue me in?" Both Eddie and Tommy look distinctly uncomfortable and Robin is still half asleep and probably not really registering the conversation yet. She's somehow the first to respond though.
"You were uh, pretty out of it. Lots of tears. And snot. And cuddling." She mumbles into his shirt. Steve flushes bright red." I didn't expect King Steve to be so fucking clingy..." She rambles on until none of them can understand what she's saying and Steve is half convinced that she's sleep talking.
Tommy is glaring holes into the back of her skull. You'd think she'd shot his grandma with the levels of hate burning behind his eyes. When he opens his mouth he's snarling back that Steve had been cross-faded.
When Steve finally manages to coax the whole story out of them he kind of wants to throw himself into traffic. His face burns with embarrassment and shame. He never should have let himself get that out of control. He'll do better. He can't stop going to parties all together but he can definitely cut back on the drinking. It's one thing to get high and cuddle with Tommy but to latch onto Robin and Eddie, with whom he has no known connection, that could be dangerous for both himself and them.
An hour and a half later Steve manages to escape Tommy's house and Eddie and Robin's confusion. His head throbs behind his eyes and he's glad he kept his sunglasses in his beemer. Last night had gotten way out of hand. From now on he'd have to be a lot more careful about his alcohol intake at parties. Easier said than done, his reputation as the Keg King is still going strong so lots of booze is expected of him.
Steve is just glad Tommy's parents won't be home for a week. They'd had to take a trip out to Colorado for a funeral that Tommy had opted out of. If Tommy's dad had seen the mess that had been made of his house Steve would have had Tommy staying at his house for a while, consequences of the others being there be damned. He's glad that the rest of the parties parents are decen- his blood freezes.
Max and Billy.
Guilt bubbles in his throat, threatening to choke off his breath. How had he forgotten something so important to Max? To his kids?
Max had told him a little about Neal Hargrove and that was enough to make his blood boil. She'd told him about why they'd had to leave California and how easily his temper flared. Billy may have been an asshole but Steve had let Tommy crash at his enough times to know that nobody deserved to be smacked around by their parents. Besides Billy's a freshman, he's basically a baby and Max is just as tiny as the rest of the gang.
Shit. He's been driving around town for twenty minutes and he slowly starts to make his way back to Loch Nora. How does one even go about dealing with an asshole like Neal Hargrove? He'd ran the last time he'd gotten found out, it's why they'd moved to Hawkins in the first place, the likelihood that he'd run again is pretty high.
Not only that but Steve is technically only a sophomore, even if he'd been a grown adult before he'd died, so even if he was able to get Neal into legal trouble he wouldn't be able to keep Max and Billy.
The thought of Neal hurting either of them makes his blood boil and he thinks that maybe some people don't deserve a second chance. Some people need to be cut a way like a diseased branch from a tree. Yes, that would fix it. Neal hurt Billy and Max so Steve would hurt him, he'd make sure that he'd never hurt anyone ever again.
Finding them would take time but Steve is confident that with the little clues he'd gotten from listening to Max talk about California and knowing names he should be able to do it. He could also probably convince( read: blackmail) the lab into letting him use their resources.
The moment he closes the front door behind himself Will and Eleven barrel into his legs nearly knocking him to the floor.
"You are home!" Ellie exclaims happily smiling up at him from where she'd wrapped her arms around his leg. Steve smiles and ruffles her hair with one hand and Will's with the other. He wonders briefly if this is how other people's parents felt coming home from work.
" How was your night, kiddos? Everything go alright?" Ellie frowns.
" Will's Jonathan and Nancy tried to open a door and go but I kept them in the house." Steve's heart sinks, he'd hoped that the two high schoolers would have settled in after they'd explained but that didn't seem to be the case. He plasters a smile on his face, praying that it doesn't look to forced.
" Good job, Ellie. I knew I could count on the two of you to hold down the fort." Eleven beams at the praise and Will flushes red. They let go of his legs and Steve toes his shoes off and nudges them onto the designated shoe rug. He'll talk to Nancy and Jonathan after he feeds the kids.
Omelettes are made and Steve listens to Will and Eleven talk about the movie they watched the night before. After breakfast the kids settle down to play shoots and ladders and Steve makes his way upstairs. He hesitates briefly when he reaches the door of the room Nancy and Jonathan had claimed as their own before he placed a hand on the doorknob and swings it open.
The teens are both sitting on the bed talking in hushed undertones over a notebook, each holding a pencil. Their heads jerk up as the door opens eyes going wide at the sight of him.
Steve sighs at the wary expressions plastered on both of their faces and pushes the door shut behind him with an audible click. He pulls the wheeled chair out from it's place in front of the desk and sits. He takes in Jonathan's tense frame and the way Nancy holds herself taller trying to make herself seem more confident. Neither of them are able to fully mask the way their bodies instinctively angle closer to each other. His heart twinges at the thought that he was the cause of their reactions.
" I think we need to talk."