Hey, so I know I ended part three on a rather depressing note, and I also just missed writing Steve and Riley, so I'm going to give you some bonus chapters. Hopefully they won't interfere with the plot of Season 4 but if they do, feel free to ignore these chapters. I just wanted more Stiley content. Stiley? Reve? I don't know, what ever you want to call them. Any way, enjoy!
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"Its a really nice apartment, considering its the cheapest in town. And the city covers the utilities so all you'd really be paying for is rent. Its perfectly catered to a couple of your income. "Steve and I were currently walking around an apartment complex, situated directly on the town square. We'd looked at several places but so far, this was the only one within our price range. "It is a two bedroom, but if you two will be sharing a room it can be a study, a dining room, whatever it is you would want to put in there."
"We haven't actually...talked about what our sleeping arrangements are going to be." Steve said quietly, glancing at me. I looked up at him. "Sorry, uh...can you give us a sec?"
"Sure. Take all the time you need." The land lord flashed us a charming smile before walking out of the apartment. I continued to look around the place, ignoring Steve's eyes on me.
"What are we going to do about that?" He asked. "Because you know, obviously we're engaged and stuff but...I understand if you need your space." I squeezed my eyes shut, hanging my head.
"Can you please stop talking to me like I'm going to break at any moment?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper. I sighed, turning away from him and going to stand by the window, looking out of it.
"I'm not," He said gently, coming to stand beside me, "I know you're not, you're tougher than anyone I've ever met, its just...I don't know the protocol here, Barbie." I smiled slightly at the nickname. "You like that?" He grabbed my waist, pulling me against him and I chuckled, leaning my forehead against his chest. "You like it when I call you Barbie?"
"I like it when you treat me like everything is normal." I said quietly, pulling back to look at him. He eyed me warily.
"I seem to recall that the last time I did that, my girlfriend got drunk and told me that she'd never loved me."
"Well I seem to recall that Nancy and I are two different people, and while she may want to feel and process her problems, I just want to move on."
"This isn't the type of thing you can just move on from, Riles. This isn't a monster or a Russian conspiracy, this is...grief. And you have to feel it or its gonna eat you alive." He said, reaching up and tucking my hair behind my ear. I shook my head, looking out the window again, but he grabbed my face, forcing me to look at him.
"I can't...not right now, I can't deal with it right now..." Tears welled up in my eyes, so I squeezed them closed, not wanting to allow them to escape.
"I get it, I do but....unfortunately, I don't think you have much choice in the matter." I sighed. "But just know, whatever you feel, I'm not going anywhere, ok? I'm gonna be right here, feeling it right along with you, and we're gonna get through it, and we're gonna get this apartment because its kind of perfect for us," I laughed tearfully," And we're gonna make a home for Eleven to come back to when the time is right." I nodded, smiling. He brushed away escaped tears with his thumbs.
"I think I like that plan." He nodded, smiling and pulling me towards him, pressing his lips against my forehead. "I love you."
"I love you too." He pressed a brief kissed to my lips before turning to look at the door. "Excuse me, ma'am?" The land lord came back in. "We'll take it."
"Perfect. I'll go get the paperwork." She left the room and Steve and I looked at each other again.
"We're moving in together." I said.
"We're moving in together!" I laughed, throwing my arms around his neck. He wrapped his around my waist and picked me up, holding me off of the ground for a moment. When he put me down, I furrowed my eyebrows as a question formed in my mind. "What? What's wrong?"
"We can't afford movers," I pointed out, "Who's gonna help us move stuff in?"
"I'll give you four guesses...give or take a couple."
~~~
"Come on man, pick it up!"
"I am picking it up! What do you think I'm doing?!"
"Well you're not picking it up enough!"
I glanced up in amusement as Steve and Dustin attempted to move the mattress into our bedroom. I was standing in the living room with Nancy, trying to figure out where I wanted all the furniture to go, and Mike, Lucas, Max, and Robin were continuously loading boxes in and placing them in their respective rooms.
"Its a nice place," Nancy said, putting a hand on my shoulder, "It'll be even better once you get everything decorated and you get unpacked." I nodded in agreement. "What are you going to do with the second bedroom?"
"Its gonna be El's room...you know, when she comes back." She nodded.
"I bet she'll like that."
"Ok...that was the last of them." Max panted, stepping up in front of us.
"Right, we promised you guys pizza, didn't we?" I asked. They all nodded and I walked over to the phone, dialing the number of the Pizza place as Steve and Dustin came out of the bedroom.
"This is it," Dustin said, "Your own place."
"Yup...it looks like it."
"You'd better be prepared, because I plan on coming over here a lot." Steve laughed, ruffling his hair. I smiled, putting my focus back on my phone call.
~~~
We all sat in the not-yet unpacked living room and ate our pizza, and then Nancy and Steve divided the kids amongst themselves to drive them home. I sat down on the floor in the living room and began unpacking boxes.
I dug through a box of throw pillows for the couch, tossing them aside until I reached the bottom. I paused, slowly reaching into the box and pulling out a polaroid book. I flipped it open, and immediately found a bunch of pictures of El and Dad. There were picture of all three of us, pictures of us individually, pictures of the two of them that I had taken. I flipped to a page that had a photo of them fast asleep on the couch, Eleven with her head on Dad's shoulder, and him with his head on top of hers. I pressed a hand to my mouth as tears began to well up in my eyes. I used my other hand to gently run my fingers over the photograph as I was reminded of the facts of my life at this point in time: El is gone for who knows how long and Dad...he's gone forever. And I'm never gonna see him again.
"Dad, please tell me you're not gonna go and get yourself killed." He sighed, reaching down and putting his hands on my face.
"I don't know, Riles, I don't..." He leaned down, pressing his lips against my forehead. "I don't know." I sighed, biting my lip.
"Do me a favor?" He looked down at me and I stepped forward, wrapping my arms around his waist and hugging him. "Don't." He sighed, wrapping his arms around me and hugging me back.
"I should've been there." I said quietly. "I don't even know where he is now, or what he's gotten himself wrapped up in, and I wasn't there-"
"Riley, your Dad is a grown man, and an incredibly capable one. You don't have to worry about him." I sighed.
"Exactly," I pointed out, "He's 'incredibly capable', which means if it comes down to it, and someone has to die on behalf of other people, it'll be him and I can't lose my Dad. He's the parent that wanted me, you know? The parent that stayed and if I lose him-"
"You're not gonna lose him." Steve said. "You don't even know if he has anything to do with where those monsters are going. He might just be working late at the office or something."
"Possible, yes...but highly improbable."
"Robin, Steve, and I will take Dustin and Erica to the radio tower." I said, stepping up to the front of the group. "But seriously, its a warzone down there, so please, please do me a favor and don't go and get yourself killed, because I will be seriously ticked off at you if you do." He smiled, pulling me into a hug.
"Do me a favor and try not to get more beaten up in the next few hours. I don't think you or your boyfriend's face can take much more abuse." I chuckled, pulling away.
"Its good to see you."
"Yeah, you too." Eleven came up to stand beside us.
"We all meet back here, ok?" I said, "Alive." He nodded, pulling us both into another hug and kissing the tops of our heads before we all jumped into action.
I pushed the book out of my lap as the memories rushed at me before I could stop them. I buried my face in my hands as sobs began to wrack my body, so much so that I didn't hear the front door open.
"Ok, lets do some unpacking..." Steve trailed off, but I didn't bother to look up at him. Next thing I knew, his hands were on me and I was being pulled into his lap. I buried my face in his t-shirt and he wrapped his arms around me, holding me tightly against him.
"They're all gone," I whispered, "My entire family."
"No...not your entire family. You still have a family here, remember? The kids, Robin and Nancy...me. We're a family too, you hear me? And we're not going anywhere."
"You can't say that." I cried.
"Yeah...maybe not, but I can say that I'm here right now. I'm here now, Barbie...can that be enough? At least for now?" I sniffed, pulling back to look at him. He reached up, putting a hand on my face and wiping tears away with his thumb. I slowly nodded, and I drew me closer to him, pressing his lips softly to my forehead. He then began planting kisses all over my face, causing me to laugh until he finally reached my mouth. I smiled against it, shifting our bodies so that he was lying on the floor and I was laying on top of him. He wrapped an arm around my waist and then trailed the other one up to the back of my neck, tangling in my hair.
He then rolled over so that I was beneath him, his hands relocating to my hip and the side of my neck as I wrapped one arm around his shoulders and tangled my opposite hand into his hair, gently tugging on it. He pulled back, breathing heavily and hovering over me, his eyes skimming over my face. I reached up and put a hand on his face, letting out short, ragged breaths.
"Thank you," I whispered, running a thumb over his cheek, "For being here for right now." He nodded.
"And I'm gonna continue to be...for as many 'right nows' as I can, do you understand me?" He tucked my hair behind my ear and I nodded. "You...are so beautiful." I smiled, pulling him back down to meet my lips again.