steve harrington hadn't lived in hawkins his whole life, he had wanted to leave who he was and what he did behind him, long forgotten- everything was going fine until a few people of his past came knocking and steve was left to face the same devil t...
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Trigger warnings for this chapter - physical, emotional and verbal abuse implied, neglect, starvation implied..
Note: I'm stuck on who to give Steve/Gator as a love interest. I'm leaning towards Billy, maybe a possible poly option somehow.. but I don't know yet :(
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Gator doesn't remember falling asleep.
He woke up still laying on the couch from the previous night of movies and eating, listening to the sounds of Tommy and Carol being grossly close to each other in the guest room.
He remembered Tommy and Carol leaving, something about Tommy's parents coming home and they raced out of the Harrington house and Gator didn't care enough to ask why the rush.
He also remembered Nancy and Barb leaving once the house had some type of power cut which unsettled Gator enough that he stayed in the living room instead of sleeping in a comfortable bed that night.
"Fuck, my legs hurt" Gator cursed at himself as he stood up slowly, wiping his eyes to snap himself awake before stretching his arms out before he walked slowly into the kitchen to grab a quick glass of water to down.
Gator sighed as he slowly walked up stairs and threw on a random stripped shirt that Gator scoffed at with some brown trousers and black shoes,
God he felt like an idiot.
It wasn't long till Gator made his way out to the red BMW and drove to Benny's diner, it was one place that reminded him of home, and he liked that memory for once.
"Hey, Ben" Gator greeted as he walked inside, seeing Benny, the owner, happily cooking away at some burgers.
"Hey there, Steven" Benny greeted back happily before looking somewhere else before he carried on with the food.
Gator spotted a kid sat in a yellow top that was clearly massive on them and decided to sit with them, they looked lonely and he didn't recognize their face.
Seeing as he'd made a mental note of literally every person he saw within the town of Hawkins,
Knowing everything used to be his job- to keep an eye out on people- so old habits die hard he guessed.
"S'up, kid. You okay?" Gator said to the girl who looked at him as if she were trying to figure him out, it definitely unsettled Gator but he brushed it off.
"She doesn't talk much, haven't got a word from her since I found her stealing food in the back" Benny said with a chuckle, he was never one to hold a grudge, that's what Gator found out at least and he couldn't help but laugh at the words.
"Ah, so a little rebel then?" Gator said back amused as the girls eyes stayed on him in the unsettling manner. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Little Rebel" Gator smiled kindly at her as he watched Benny walk over with a burger and fries for her and his usual of fried and a strawberry milkshake-
Because, fuck it.
Roy wasn't here to tell him the drink was too girly so he was gonna enjoy it, goddamn it.
"Geez. Your parents forget to feed you? Is that why you ran away? They uh.. they hurt you?" Benny asks the girl who just remains silent as she stuffs her face with the food while Gator thinks back to his own past from Bennys words.
"Okay. I'll give these back when you've answered a question, all right? Maybe even some ice cream. But you gotta answer first, all right?" Benny asks the girl as he slides the food away from her.
"Let's start with the easy stuff. My name's Benny. Benny Hammond." Benny says and shows the girl how to do a handshake as Gator watched them silent as he drank his milkshake.
The girl remains silent and Gator can't help but laugh at the awkwardness.
"All right. My name's Steve Harrington, sort of new around here too.." Gator introduces himself to her but can't see that she's doubting him,
Like she knows the truth but remains silent on the fact.
The unsettling feeling just won't go away.
Gator watches as Benny catches sight of a small tattoo on the girls left inner wrist and goes back to drinking his milkshake.
"Eleven? What's that mean? What's it mean?" Benny asks gently, obviously startled at the sight of a twelve year old having a tattoo, Gator would be too but he's seen worse so he just watches.
"No" the girl says simply and that one word perks Gator's interest up, something about that tattoo scares the girl, Gator can see that clearly, he can recognize the body language to know it's from somewhere bad.
"Well, I'll be damned. She speaks. 'No'? No, what?.. All right. I guess no more food, then" Benny says but before Gator can argue that he thinks taking away the food will just make the girl remain silent..
The girl says a simple "Eleven" and points to herself as Benny gives the food back to her before he heads off towards the phone, leaving the girl- Eleven- with Gator as they both ate away.
"Yeah, look, all I know is that she's scared to death. Yeah, I think maybe she's been abused or.. kidnapped or something. Yeah, it'd be great if someone would come by. Yeah, we're at 4819 Randolph Lane." Gator can hear Benny say into the phone as he listens in.
He stops listening when he catches Eleven looking at a fan, like she wants to kill it, so he looks back at in with a confused frown and more so when it magically stops.
He turns back to see Eleven have a face of slight smugness as Gator sits there confused but eventually goes back to eating his fries with one last thought in his mind..
"I must be seeing things.. did I get high by accident again?"
