Stranger Things - Imagines

Steve Harrington X Byers!Reader - Walking on Sunshine

A/N - This chapter was inspired by the song Walking on Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves. Reader is Joyce's daughter/Jonathon's twin sister. I hope you all enjoy it.

It was safe to say that you had always had a bit of a thing for Steve. Call it a crush or whatever, but you'd always thought he was cute, and then you had been thrown into a whirlwind of madness together and it turned out he was actually pretty sweet too. 

You'd started hanging out not long after the whole Demodog/Mindflayer situation, cruising around in Steve's car whenever you both got some free time. In fact, his was one of the only phone numbers that you knew off by heart, and you were well aware that whatever the situation, he would always drop something to come and pick you up when you called. He was a good friend, and part of you felt guilty that you were so desperately in love with him.

When he'd started working at Scoops, you would show up unannounced, hiding out in the back of the store whilst he and Robin worked, keeping them entertained between customers. And it was possibly the best part of your summer. Especially with it becoming increasingly clear that your mom wanted to leave Hawkins. 

You'd watched in horror as she had redecorated the house to make it presentable to prospective buyers. You'd tried to ignore the fact that she'd been looking through brochures about California. It's not like you didn't understand. You'd all been through so much in Hawkins, it made sense to need a break, but moving across the country seemed like a pretty extreme solution. 

You had a life here. Jonathon had Nancy. Will had his party. And you- well, you didn't technically have Steve, but you were growing increasingly certain that maybe your feelings weren't as one-sided as you had once thought.

And then, just as you thought that maybe Hawkins had calmed down enough for you to convince your mom to stick around in town, at least until you had graduated, everything had gone to shit again. Whether it was the undercover Russians hidden in the mall or some oversized meat monster made up of a handful of people from town, it didn't matter. Neither was exactly a good look in terms of a safe town to live in. 

After that, there was no point in actually arguing. Hopper was gone. El needed a safe home. The best thing to do was move. 

You'd gone straight to Steve when your mom had finalised the plans, in need of comfort that you knew he would be able to provide. 

"You could always just move in here," he murmured, stretched out on the couch with you resting on top of him, your head buried in his chest. He'd been running his fingers up and down your back as soothingly as possible for the last hour or so, letting you calm down just enough to explain exactly what was happening. "Mom and Dad are barely here anyway. And we've got a spare room."

"I-" you paused, letting out a soft sigh. "I couldn't do that to Mom. It's been, what, a year? She lost Bob and then Hopper. I can't just ditch her to stay here."

"But I'd miss you."

You felt your heart clench in your chest, lifting your head to look up at him. "Jonathon will need to come back to see Nance and El will want to see Mike-"

"And you'd come back to see me?" 

"Yeah," you breathed out. "I can get a job; save up for flights. And you can come to us too." 

He sighed, lifting one of his hands to brush your hair back out of your face. "I'll still miss you, though." He closed the space between you, pressing his lips to yours in a delicate kiss. "I'll really miss you," he pressed on, his lips still brushing yours. "Like, a lot." 

You took in a shaking breath. "You just kissed me," you murmured.

"Yeah, I did, didn't I?" You nodded. "Was that okay?"