Chapter Text
So maybe he had gone a little too far.
An honest mistake, he shouldn't have pushed Jonathan's buttons so much. He's used to a certain type of socializing and Steve's just now learning that it doesn't work with everyone. That what he said was completely off the wall and terrible. He'll get better.
But he had still made a mistake, honest as it was, and that's why he's at Jonathan's house now, knocking on his door.
He's not sure how he feels when Nancy answers. Nor when she tells him to leave.
"I messed up." He tries to explain, like she doesn't already know, but Nancy wants him to leave and he needs to apologize. He wants to continue, but his eyes catch something and he pauses, gaze drifting down to Nancy's hand.
It's wrapped in gauze, hurt from something he doesn't know. It should've taken longer for him to notice, but he always instinctively scans for injuries- always looks someone over after he hasn't seen them, scared that they were hurt while he was gone. When he couldn't help them.
He doesn't even realize he still does it, years after it's no longer needed, but he's doing it and it's come in handy, eyes glancing between Nancy's wrapped hand and her face, trying to find any strain that would make him believe she's hiding more pain. "What happened to your hand?"
Nancy's eyes widen, something like fear crossing them, at being found out. It occurs to him that he's at Jonathan's house, that she's at Jonathan's house. While he highly doubts Jonathan actually did something (Nancy's saying it was an accident, sure-) Nancy's acting too tense and wary for Steve to just leave without trying to help her.
He wasn't expecting the nail bat. Nor the gasoline. Nor anything fucking else in the room what the hell-
He's not panicking, standing in the middle of the room, looking everything over. In fact he's pretty calm, a sense of peace has washed over him, because the smell of gasoline was familiar and the weapons felt like home. A home he didn't want to go back to, but a home nonetheless.
Nancy and Jonathan are there too, watching him warily like they're waiting for him to snap, waiting for him to panic. Steve takes in an inhale, smells the gasoline and thinks of fire, of Nine, before catching Nancy's eyes again. "Nance?"
Nancy blinks, and Steve realizes she's holding a gun. "Steve, you need to leave."
Something important's going on. Steve's face feels like alcohol on a wound and Nancy's terrified for him, like she's scared something will happen to him if he stays.
It just makes him more stubborn. "Nancy, I- whatever's going on, let me help-"
"No, Steve." Nancy cuts him off, hostile. "You don't understand, and you need to leave-"
The lights start flickering, and he's reminded of white hallways and a rainbow room. He pales, breath shuttering at the unwanted memory. Nancy whips around to look at it, shock coloring her brow as Jonathan scrambles for something. The nail bat.
And then the two are in the middle of the room, back to back, and the lights are flickering so intensely that he's tempted to turn them off, blow a fuse and throw the whole house into darkness. Something is happening, though, something bad, and they're ignoring him now and Steve feels like he should be panicking.
(He used to be a good panicker, he knows. From the little childhood memory he has left he used to be excellent at panicking. That was trained out of him, though, taken away from him so harshly that he's only just gaining his old self back.)
Steve isn't panicking, though, and he probably should be, honestly. After whatever this is happens Nancy will wonder why he wasn't scared and Nancy's too smart, if he gives her an inch she'll go fifty miles and he can't let that happen.
So he takes a deep breath and yells, "What the hell is happening?!"
It's easier, faking the panic after that. Mostly because the roof starts to cave in and Steve is a screamer, he screams when he's happy, when he's sad, when he's scared, excited, horny, whatever it is he makes noise. He attributes it to the fact that he had to be near silent for years, and now that he has a voice he'll damn well use it.
But when the roof starts falling apart and something comes out of it he's suddenly lost his voice.
Then they're running, and Steve narrowly jumps over a bear trap as they sprint into a nearby room and close the door.
Then it's silent.
They're all breathing heavily, and Steve starts to panic, just a little, when he hisses out, "What the heck was that?!"
It's quiet, a harsh whisper, but both still turn around to shush him. He allows it, because honestly he should know better. He's seen enough horror movies to know better. Never talk when something's chasing you, it's horror 101.
Nancy has her gun out and Jonathan has a lighter for some reason, and they're pressed together close, too close, and both of their hands are bandaged, strangely enough, and the lights are still flickering like a B rated horror film, and Steve wished he saved his apology for the morning.
But then it's quiet and the thing is gone and like absolute idiots they leave the safety of the bedroom and hop back over the bear trap.
"Okay." He says slowly, watches his words. Breathes in through his nose, out through his mouth. Then he breaks. Panics, just a little. "It's crazy, that was crazy."
Nancy matches forward, a determination in her step that is both scary and hot. He pauses, swallows, and watches as she walks up until they're nose to nose.
"It's going to come back." Nancy says, voice stern and commanding, eyes locked on him. "So you need to leave. Right now."
Yeah, fuck that. Steve's not going to leave his girlfriend to deal with this on her own with just a gun and some guy with a nail bat. Fuck. That.
"I'm not leaving." He keeps her gaze, a silent fight breaking out between them. Nancy's scared, scared for all of them, but she's also determined and strong and Steve loves her. "I'm not, so it'd be easier to tell me what's going on."
His mind was flashing with vivid images, and he's never seen that thing before but it's familiar in a way he wished it wasn't, reminding him of memories he had repressed years ago.
Nancy opens her mouth, either to tell him off or tell him the truth, but then the lights flicker and he recognizes that, feels dread settle in his stomach. The lights go out.
Then the thing is there, knocking Jonathan over and leering down on him. The other boy screams and Nancy's firing, gun trained at the thing. Steve watches, almost shell shocked, when the thing gets up and stares at Nancy.
Then he's moving, everything in slow motion as he drops down to pick up the nail bat. It all picks up again, time snapping back to normal as his stomach clenches and he swings.
The thing wasn't prepared, probably because he wasn't there a second ago.
The hit lands solidly and he doesn't stop, hitting the thing over and over again, and the thing would swing, would try to hit him, but then time would slow down and he'd move just a bit and when time snapped back to normal he would barely miss getting hit. It was hard, took more concentration than the monster itself, and Steve could feel the beginning of a headache starting in the back of his skull, but it did the trick and the thing fell back, getting its leg stuck in their trap.
Steve watched the thing burn, keeping his eyes on the creature until it disappeared to wherever it came from. Nancy and Jonathan were panting, obviously tired, but they weren't suspicious. They didn't see.
Which was good. He hasn't done something like that in a long time. And, as far as anyone else will ever know, he still hasn't.
"Okay." He breaks through the silence. "What, the fuck, was that?!"
And more importantly, why was it chasing his girlfriend?
Nancy spins around, eyes wide like she didn't expect him to still be there. Once she realized he was still there, she took a heavy breath and started explaining.
Not that the explanation helped at all.
"That… that was a monster. From a different dimension." Is what she says. "It took both Will Byers and Barb, and we-"
She trails off, almost unsure, but Steve gets the point. Kill the monster and save the victims. At least, in a fairytale. He nods, just to show that he's following even though he's really not.
Nancy nods with him, continues. "There's a gate, letting this thing through, and the others went with this girl, Eleven, to-"
Wait a second.
Steve blinks, and the world goes slow even though he hasn't used his powers. Nancy's still talking, still explaining, but he barely hears because -
Did she say Eleven?
His Eleven? The Eleven he left behind?
Steve had been familiar with her, back at the lab. His closest companion was Eight and Nine, but when Nine… after that, he spent most of his time with Eight both in and out of tests and Eight loved Eleven, adored her, so he made it a point to look after her whenever they were together. Which wasn't often- he doubts she would remember him, and if she did then she would remember the fact that he left. Left her, left Eight, left them. Ran when he had the chance and left them behind.
If little Eleven remembered him, all she would remember was that Seven was a coward who ran away and left her behind.
She probably wouldn't even want to see him. Still, he owes her an apology. If she remembers.
"Sorry." He cuts Nancy off, doesn't even know how long he had been zoning out. "But where are they now? Eleven and the others?"
Nancy looks curious, puzzled, wondering why he cares. Jonathan's squinting next to her. "The middle school." She says, and stares as he grabs his keys and leaves without another word.
He'll make up a decent excuse later. He had somewhere to be now.
But it was already too late when he arrived.