Steve And His Amazing Hair - Tumblr Posts

Steve Harrington x Punk!reader

!!warnings: swearing!!

(reader is said to have she/her pronouns)

📖

Steve is not having a good night. Hell, he’s not really having a good week. Max has been prodding him around the roller rink for the last thirty minutes, and the two times he’s fallen flat on his ass, she’s skated circles around him, laughing at his flailing attempts to get back up. He thinks to himself that this must be some sort of karmic retribution for all the bullying he did in highschool. 

He was supposed to be going out with Gina Hemshaw tonight, but she had canceled last minute, and that plus the rejection from the new girl at Family Video earlier in the week isn’t doing much for his ego. He supposes that’s why he got wrangled into chaperoning his little band of dipshits for the night, a distraction from the seeming reality that Steve was losing his touch with the ladies. 

After his third fall of the night, Steve decides he’s had enough, leaving Max to torment some other poor soul while he wobbles off to a bench to get these damn wheels off his feet. As he’s unlacing his skates, Robin’s scraggly converse come into view. She’s a wheezing wonder as she motions to his fanny pack. The kids had given him endless grief for the little bag he slung around his hips, but how the hell else was he supposed to keep track of two inhalers (Robin’s and Dustin’s), car keys, an epi-pen (Mike’s), and a wad of presumptuous band-aids? 

He passes her her inhaler (an “R” sharpied on the side to tell the two apart) and she’s quick to calm her gasping breaths down.

“You. are. Never. Going. To. Believe. This!” She thrusts her forearm right under Steve’s nose, barely catching a glimpse of the scribbled numbers.

“Holy shit, who?” Robin’s got a smug grin as she tells him it’s the new girl, the one that came into Family Video earlier, the very same one who had rejected him. Steve high fives his friend, doing his best to look excited for her, but on the inside, he’s a swirl of relief and horror.

Relief that now there was a very good reason for her rejection of him, namely that he was a him. Horror that he had asked her out in the first place. Sure, Steve could be clueless, but he had genuinely thought she was flirting with him. How could he not tell she wasn’t interested? Damn Harrington, you really are losing it.

Robin snaps him out of his thoughts, waving her hand in his face, “earth to Dingus. Come in Dingus, you alright?”

“Hmm? Oh, yeah. That’s awesome, Robs. Hey, I need some fresh air, will you tell the kids I’m out by the car?” She sighs, “yeah, no problem. You sure you’re ok?” He finishes lacing his own shoes back up, standing, “yeah, just have a headache.”

Robin seems to buy that answer, flittering off to get a soda and find the kids. Steve returns his skates and heads out to the parking lot, leaning up against the driver’s side of his car, letting his head tip back. He sighs and the exhale turns more into a groan. 

“You ok?” 

“Jesus christ!” Steve’s startled straight out of his skin, he whips around to see where the question came from.

“Sounds like you’re having a rough night.” He swallows hard, seeing that it’s a girl who scared the living daylights out of him, and Steve has to do a double take when she steps a little closer to him. 

He does his best not to let his eyes linger too long on her fishnet-clad legs, wandering up to a short tartan skirt that’s adorned with a dangling chain belt. 

He assumes she’s wearing a band tee, but he can’t be sure because he doesn’t recognize the name and the shirt is also cropped and chopped like crazy, neckline stretched and sliced so it hangs off her one shoulder. A denim vest to top it off, with safety pins clipped through the button holes and a few sewn-on patches mottling the sides. 

“Hey, buddy. You good?” Steve blinks hard a few times, finally focusing on her face. 

“Um, yeah. Sorry, just ready to go home I guess.” He can’t stop looking at the piercing in her nose, a thin metal cuff wrapping under her left nostril. She’s also got a hoop in the corner of her one eyebrow. Steve’s never seen anything like it. Certainly not in Hawkins. 

She kicks the toe of her Doc Martens into the ground, sidling up next to him to lean back against his car.

“Is the roller rink not really your scene?” Steve snorts, glancing over at her, “I feel like I should be asking you that.” She laughs, throwing her head back and Steve swears he sees something glinting on her tongue. Suddenly his throat feels very dry.

“Nah, definitely not. I’m just here to pick up my sister.”

“Do you always get this dressed up to pick up your sister?” Steve regrets it the moment it’s left his mouth. What the hell was he thinking? She however just laughs again, and yeah, her tongue is definitely pierced.

“I’m on my way home from a concert. Told my folks I’d grab her on the way back. So what about you? What’s brought you to this lovely roller rink parking lot?”

“My kids–”

“You have kids. Either you started way too early or you have a serious skincare regime.” Steve laughs hard at that.

“No, no. They’re not my kids, well they’re–”

“Steve! I need my inhaler!” Ah, Dustin Henderson, always a master of timing.

The young teen comes barreling up to Steve, not giving him a second to react before he’s grabbing at the fannypack still slung around his front. Steve swats at his hands.

“Jesus, man! Just, patience, alright? Back off. Here, take it.” He passes the inhaler to Dustin who promptly takes two succinct puffs.

“Thanks, you’re gonna skate some more, right? Max said you fell on your ass a bunch but you can’t get better if you don’t practice.” Steve could strangle the kid, honestly. Before he can say anything more though, Dustin’s attention is drawn to his female companion.

“Woah. Your face.”

“Henderson!” Steve is mortified. She however is cackling.

“Cool huh, kid?” Dustin nods his head frantically.

“Those had to have hurt. How bad did they hurt?” She shrugs, “eh, these two weren’t so bad. This one however,” she briefly flashes her tongue to them, showing off a metal ball right in the middle, “yeah, that one made my eyes water.” 

“Holy shit. So cool. Wait, why are you talking to Steve then?” Steve huffs, grabbing Dustin by the shoulders and spinning him back towards the rink entrance.

“Alright, that’s enough, Henderson. Go skate some more, yeah? Tell the others to come out when you’re all done.” He pats him hard on his back, more of a light shove really, and for once, Dustin seems to get the hint, shuffling back into the rink with a few mutters under his breath. 

He turns back to her, rubbing the back of his neck. She quirks her eyebrow at him, metal glinting with the movement.

“One of yours, I presume.” He sighs, mumbling, “yeah, something like that.” He tries to discreetly unclip the fanny pack from his waist, tossing it into the open window of his car. 

“Well, Steve. Since I know your name I should probably formally introduce myself,” She extends her hand out to him, telling him her name as they shake. He feels like a dope for thinking that he likes how her hand fits with his.

“I feel like I would’ve remembered seeing you around. Are you new to Hawkins?” She nods, explaining that her family just moved here this past week. A lot of folks moving here all of a sudden. She tells him that she’s just living with her parents for the summer, having graduated from college in the spring. She’ll be moving into an apartment in the fall, starting as the Hawkins Middle School music teacher. Steve does his best to not look shocked at the idea of her working with kids, but she catches his raised eyebrows and grins.

“What, you think these piercings aren’t removable?” He stutters, “No! I just– Well, I um– You–”

“I’m just messing with you man. But yeah, it’s not that hard to tone it down, you know? Just gotta go like half-punk, or maybe a quarter punk in this town.” He swallows his embarrassment, nodding.

“Well, if you’re here to stay, whatever fraction of punk you are, maybe I’ll see you around. I work at the Family Video in town.”

“Oh yeah, my sister went in there the other day, said there was a really chatty dude working, tried to ask her out.” 

She huffs out a laugh, shaking her head. Steve blanches at her words. Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit.

Just then, someone calls her name and sure enough, it’s the girl from Family Video, the one who rejected Steve and scribbled her phone number on Robin’s arm, walking out of the rink. For a moment, Steve ponders the desire to be struck by lightning, or even to spontaneously combust. Anything to get him out of this interaction. “Hey sis, good concert?” Family video girl sidles up next to her, throwing her arm around her shoulder.

“Eh, not much of a scene here in the sticks.” She scrunches her nose, pushing off of Steve’s car to walk them both over to her station wagon. Her sister glances at Steve, eyes widening in recognition.

“Hey, I know you! Steve, right?” Steve wants to say “no, wrong guy, sorry” but all he can do is sheepishly nod. He thinks to himself, great, she’ll want nothing to do with me after her sister tells her I was the creep who hit on her.

Before Family Video girl can talk, cool girl chimes in, “Steve here has been keeping me company while you stayed later than you said you would. It’s five past midnight, duck. I said 11:30.” So-called “duck” looks between her sister and Steve, seeming to decide something. She mutters a slanted “sorry” before huffing over to the passenger side and slipping into the car. Steve turns his attention back to her, raising his eyebrows.

“Yours, I presume?” She laughs, nodding, before shooting him a crooked smile.

“Something like that.” She tilts her head at him, “maybe it’s the feet fumes wafting from the rink driving me to madness, but would you wanna keep each other company again some time?” Steve’s heart kicks, he smiles.

“Yeah, I’d really like that.”

“You got a pen? Can I give you my number?”

Steve pats his pockets, panicking for a moment when he comes up empty. And then, like a strike of lightning, he remembers the fanny pack.

He mumbles, “give me one sec” as he gracelessly shoves his torso through his car’s open window, fishing around for his pack. Mercifully, there is a pen amidst the first aid detritus in the little bag. Thank god for fanny packs. He wiggles back out of the window, cheeks flushed. She’s smirking at him.

“Quite the show you just put on, Steve.” He flushes a little harder as she takes the pen from his hand and grasps his wrist, tugging up his sweatshirt sleeve and scrawling her number on his forearm. He’s never found forearms to be a particularly erotic part of the body, but suddenly, watching her black-polished nails wrap around his wrist, he’s reconsidering that stance.

She hands him back the pen, sending him one more crooked grin.

“Call me, yeah?” He smiles, “Yeah, I will.”

He rests his chin in his hands on the hood of his car, watching her get into her station wagon, sending him a little salute. Her sister also looks at Steve, and shoots him an ‘ok’ symbol with her hand. His stomach drops, but he decides to interpret that as meaning she’s not going to tell her sister about their first encounter, at least he prays that that’s what it means. 

As he watches their station wagon pull out of the parking lot, he hears Robin calling his name, turning to see the brigade coming towards him and his car. The kids all pile into the back and Robin takes shotgun, immediately turning towards Steve in a flurry of activity.

“So I did talk to phone number girl a little more. We shared a cherry cola, isn’t that rad?” Steve quirks his face at Robin using the word “rad,” but lets her continue. 

“And, I assured her that you’re not a pervert, just a very hopeless guy who isn’t good with social cues and she said it was all good which is great because that means we can all hang out and it won’t be awkward because of your painful attempts at flirting and she said she has a sister who’s also been striking out in the dating department so maybe we could set you two up and maybe one day we’d even be in-laws, oh my god, that’d be perfect we’d actually be family and she’s so cool, did I tell you that already? She said–”

Just then, Robin glances at Steve’s forearm, shirt sleeve still rucked up.

“Hey! Look, we both lucked out tonight, dingus! Who’d you pick up in the parking lot? You know, I get that you’re desperate, but honestly, Steve? That’s a new low even for you, hitting on people in the parking lot of the roller rink. You’re better than that, and honestly as your friend I think that–”

“Hey, Robs. I think there’s more tootsie pops in my pack. It’s on the floor by your feet.” Her eyes light up and she’s already forgotten the word vomit tirade she was on, digging around in Steve’s fanny pack for a sucker. He knows her too well. She obviously hadn’t taken the time to compare hers and Steve’s temporary tattoos, because if she did she would’ve found that Steve had the exact same numbers scrawled up his arm that she did, a shared landline between the two new sisters in town. Steve figures to himself that that’s on a need to know basis, and right now, there’s no need to get Robin worked up again when she’s already got another tootsie pop in her cheek.

When he gets home that night after dropping everyone off, he stops in front of his bathroom mirror. He knows it’s silly, but for a moment he wonders how he’d look with a nose ring.