Love Is A Battlefield (A Stranger Things/Steve Harrington Fanfiction)

Chapter Eighty-Six: Fears and Vows

I stood in the Wheeler's basement bathroom later that night, surveying the severity of my cut in the mirror. 

Seeing as my vision this time around had even less information than usual, aside from the whole water detail, there was literally nothing we could do, so we just headed back to Nancy's place to settle in for the night.

The bathroom door opened beside me and I looked up just as Steve leaned inside, holding up a first aid kit. I stepped away from the mirror so that he could step fully into the bathroom, shutting the door behind him. 

"What's the verdict," I asked, looking at my reflection once more, "Still pretty?"

"Pretty sure I've seen you in worse conditions than this, Barbie." He pointed out, opening the first aid kit on the counter. I turned around, using my hands to push myself up so that I was sitting on the counter.

"You didn't answer my question." He shook his head, looking away from the contents of the first aid kit to meet my eyes.

"You're always pretty," He clarified, "Even when you're covered in blood and have two black eyes."

"Ah yes. Good times." I said, looking down at my lap as I remembered our fight with Billy. He scoffed in amused disbelief, using his fingers to gently lift my chin and clean the cut with an alcohol wipe. "I see Dr. Steve has made a reappearance. Remember the last time you tended to my wounds?"

"Also known as the most frustrating nights of my life?" He asked. "Yeah, I remember."

"Most frustrating night of your life, huh?" I repeated. "That seems dramatic." He shook his head.

"I'd been crushing on you for months, and denying it, I might add, and I finally get the opportunity to not only accept my feelings, but act on them, and you totally cut me off!"

"Yeah, because I was certain that you could never have a thing for me, so I must just be a placeholder for Nancy! I explained this to you, if you recall!" I pointed out as he placed a couple of thin bandages vertically across my cut.

"Oh, I recall. That doesn't make it any less frustrating," He pointed out, putting his hands on either side of me on the counter, "Its like...when someone has to go to the bathroom during the climax of a movie and you have to pause it." I chuckled, shaking my head. "There. You should be all good."

"Thanks." I replied, reaching up and adjusting his shirt collar with my fingers. 

"So um...how are you doing?" He questioned. "With all of the flashback stuff about your sister and Vecna taking another Victim." I bit my lip, my smile falling.

"I don't know...I mean, I feel extremely guilty, realizing how little I've thought or spoken about Sara in the past few years...but at the same time, realizing that I was giving the love I have for her to someone that needed it...its strangely therapeutic, I guess? Like she would be ok with it because it wasn't all for nothing?"

"And the new murder?" He pressed, pushing my hair lightly out of my face with his pointer finger "You don't know who or where he is?"

"Nope...just water. It was dark, he was high in the air, outside of my viewpoint so...I don't have anything to go on really." I explained. "Which I hate. I really hate having this ability and not being able to use it when it matters most."

"You still saved Max," He reasoned, "That's still a pretty big deal. That's one more person that's still alive today."

"And three who aren't," I argued, "And...I'm still terrified that one of us is going to join them."