STEVE awoke before Evelyn. Her head was still over his arm, which was now considerably numb, and her skin didn't look pale today - it seemed plump and healthy. The bags beneath her eyes were half the size and he smiled. She'd slept. He looked over her face, brushing the hair shielding her from him out of his way. Her mouth hung open a little and her chest was rising and falling in small, slow breaths. Steve grinned. They'd slept together.
Gently, he pushed himself from beneath her, pulling on some clean boxers, jeans and a t-shirt. He went to the bathroom to brush his teeth and sort his hair, finding a spare toothbrush in their cupboard for her and placing it out ready for when she needed it. He debated having a shower but the notion of her joining him flickered in to his brain and he wanted to give her the courtesy of the option.
Instead, he wanted to make her breakfast, so he jogged down the stairs humming to himself.
Had he ever been this happy?
He boiled the kettle, knowing exactly how she liked her tea from the countless times he'd been round to her home. He added the milk she liked, no sugar, and crept up the stairs. He swore, having forgotten to remove the tea bag and walked back down to throw it in the bin before starting his descent again. Each step creaked mockingly beneath his feet, as if daring to wake her. He cringed, hoping she wouldn't hear it and made it to his door, pushing it wide ever-so-gently, eyeing the cup in his hand so he didn't spill it.
He was almost at her side, ready to place the cup down, when the speakers of his alarm clock screamed Just Like Heaven from beside her head. He jumped, tea spilling over the sides of the mug and making trails down his fresh jeans. He cursed but he didn't care deeply. It was another reminder that she was truly here. In his bed.
Delirious, she craned her neck, her hair messy around her face and spiked in all directions. She mumbled something, rubbing her eyes.
"Is that the Cure?" Steve let his head roll on his shoulders as he laughed; her eyes peeling open, her mouth still crusted with drool. He doubted she knew her own name just yet, but she knew The Cure even when she was ripped from sleep.
"Yeah." It was his alarm - the local radio. Usually, it wasn't the same song on repeat. He grinned, perching in the crook her bent knees made at the end of the bed. She dipped at his weight and a smile stretched out her lips. She was still drugged from her heavy sleep, she couldn't name the last time she hadn't been haunted by a dream, and her head fell sloppy back to the pillow. She cocooned herself in his sheets, breathing in the scent of him around her, hoping to never move from this warm, delicious spot. She felt his warmth at her legs and looked to him from beneath her dark lashes. Steve pushed the mug forward and she sat up.
"I made you some tea."
"You did?" Unexpected, her eyes widened and she took the mug from him staring at the liquid like she didn't quite believe him. "Thank you." She went to take a sip, only for the sheets to fall and she spluttered a laugh, all her confidence from the night before having disappeared. She covered her chest with one arm, a small noise of surprise bursting her lips open.
"Oh, I should get you a shirt." He turned around to the drawer behind him and snatched hold of the tshirt he'd selected for her the night previously. Once it was in his hand, he left it in his lap with a mischievous smile. "Or, I could just leave you like this. I know which one I'd prefer." Now that she sat up straight, her legs were parted beneath the sheets and he leant into the space, nuzzling his face against the part of the duvet where her stomach was. Instinctively, her hand slipped to his hair and raked her nails therapeutically over his skull. He hummed against her, wrapping his arms around her spine and sighed, blissfully. "I'm never letting you leave this spot, I hope you understand."
After a gulp of her tea, Evelyn replied. "Happily." But this promise was made before they were hungry and no less than half an hour later, Evelyn had pulled on his top and tucked it in to her jeans she'd plucked from his carpet. They waddled down the stairs of Steve's home into the kitchen. They put on a pot of coffee, each activity interrupted by the affectionate kisses and small touches as they passed each other, and Steve put some bread in the toaster.
Evelyn was about to ask if they had any jam when a harrowing thump shook Steve's front door. The two of them looked at each other, as if one of them would explain the bang, bang, bang that continued.
"Harrington!" The voice was unmistakable, and Evelyn fluttered to the door with a swirl of panic mixed with blossoming confusion. Steve was at her side in an instant, unlatching it and pulling it open. Chief Hopper filled the doorway, his figure reaching the frame like a bear on its hind legs. His chest was rising and falling with his ragged breaths, something Evelyn knew meant he was unbearably stressed and in a hurry.
"Have you seen, Evelyn?" He barked it so fast, the words were barely indistinguishable. Steve started to reply and Hopper's chest oddly stilled. His eyes had moved from Steve to see the slim figure shadowing him and his panic flickered out like the dying embers of a fire. "...You're here."
He'd been called by Linda, who frantically said Evelyn hadn't been home all night - which had never happened before unless she was at the Byers' residence - and that she'd left with Steve. When she'd told the pair to be as long as they wanted, she hadn't meant two days. Nothing more needed to be said. Hopper was blind with panic, a terrible fear bubbling in his stomach. He'd needed to find her, to know she was alive and well. He'd never have been able to think straight again if he didn't truly know. Henry had been called to something on the other side of town in the early hours, but Hopper was already on his way.
He doubted Evelyn would still be with Steve so checked the small areas of Hawkins he knew she loved the most. Unsuccessful, he came here. Hoping Steve would know where she was last. He had told himself that that she wouldn't be with Steve. He'd almost hoped.
"Linda called. Said you hadn't been home. Your Uncle is on the other side of town, something to do with magnets, I had to see you were alright."
There was a heavy silence following his gruff words. Hopper had to deflect his concern immediately, and an anger built in his chest from the concern she'd created there. "You should've called. Why didn't you go home, I mean-" As he looked between the two of them, his concern disappearing knowing she was okay, he started to connect the dots. Evelyn wore a shirt much too large for her and Steve wore a very specific, subconscious goofy smile that brightened his whole face. His whole body; Hopper knew that smile - remembered the first time he'd ever smiled like that and his jaw clenched so tightly he was worried it might pop out of the socket. His fists turned hard and white, his voice rough and angry as he stepped in to the threshold of Steve's house, his chest swelling as he rose above him, a fury spinning his mind until Evelyn's words popped through to him like a needle pricking a balloon.
"I'm fine. I know, dad. I'm sorry." A completely different silence followed. Evelyn felt both sets of eyes on her and her reassurance died in her throat. She knotted her hands in the top she wore and thought she might vomit. She paled, almost green, and her eyes widened so far they became bug-like. Hopper made a noise that sounded like the grunt of an animal. His mouth hung open.
"...I'm sorry. I didn't mean it - I didn't mean to say-" but his fury was ash. He took that final step through the doorway and turned his threatening body away from Steve to scoop Evelyn up in his arms like she was a small child again. He pulled her suffocatingly close to him; a bone-crushing hug that hurt her lungs.
"It's okay." Hopper had upset Eleven. Again. She was mad at him. He'd hated that she was growing, dating a boy. Mike Wheeler, specifically. They'd fallen out. He feared she hated him. He wasn't sure he was cut out for this. He had no idea what he was doing - no idea how to be a parent. But Evelyn, a girl he'd watch grow for years, who he'd cared for; who he'd taught how to ride a bike, to use a gun; who he'd read too, who's legs he'd bandaged when she'd fallen and scraped them, who's body he'd caught when she climbed and fallen through trees; who he'd taken to work and bounced in his knee: That girl had just called him dad. Evelyn. His tiny, young Evelyn.
"It's okay. Shit really, it's okay." Evelyn wasn't sure who he was saying it to anymore.
Tears threatened to form in Hopper's eyes but instead he squeezed her tighter, even though he could smell that the shirt she wore wasn't her own. He pulled away to clear his throat and wiped his face over. Coughing, he took a step away from them. Hopper had practically forgotten Steve was there and no longer hated him as much as he had less than a moment ago.
"Do you want to come in for coffee? We just put a pot on." And just like that, it was his Evelyn in a different house and all had been forgiven. He wished it was that easy with Eleven. Maybe it was - and he just needed to remind himself of that. But Evelyn wasn't being hunted for having supernatural powers.
"Nah, I can't. I've got some stuff I need to go over. Joyce wants me to check something for her."
"The magnets?"
"Yeah." There was a strange pause Evelyn couldn't decipher. "You been round lately? I haven't seen you there."
"Why, how often are you round?"
"I'm not." The pause repeated. Evelyn looked at her hands, knitting her fingers together.
"No." She managed, her voice suddenly faint. "I haven't. I will be soon. Maybe today - I miss Will."
Steve's stomach selfishly twisted. Today? He couldn't bear the thought of her going anywhere just yet. Real life was an unwelcome reminder when he'd had such an ethereal time with her. It was as if they were the only two in the world when they were together. Hopper could see her usual concern warping her skin and he cleared his throat to wipe it away. Had he messed up so soon? "I know dad, I'm sorry" No, he couldn't have. He felt a smile pull at his lips. He placed his shades back on now that he wasn't numbed by panic and pulled a cigarette from his pocket. Evelyn crinkled her nose.
"What? I'm cutting down." Evelyn grunted with a playful smirk.
"You say that every-time." He shrugged.
"Right." He said, clicking his lighter beneath the hand that shielded his cigarette from the wind. "Call Linda, okay? Tell her you're safe." He took a step back off the porch, puffing out his first swirl of smoke. Though his sunglasses shielded his eyes from them both, Steve knew from the spiders that ran up and down his spine that he was glaring at him. If looks could kill.
"And you..." His finger pointed at Steve's chest, the kind, lightheartedness he used for Evelyn's nowhere to be found. Instead, it was replaced by a deadly growl so unsettling Steve doubted he'd ever heard anything affectionate in his voice at all. "You be careful, kid. Or I'll kill you." And with that, he threw a wave over his shoulder and walked to his truck.