After All This Time (Steddie)

Ch. 29: Steve the Brave

A/N; 1 more to go. I'm so sad to be getting to the end of this story. But! Good news! I am going to write a sequel. <3

TW; emotional moments

Dustin charges into my apartment, arms full of Dungeons and Dragons boxes, and books. He's been working his ass off on campaigns since Eddie graduated, having to take his spot as the DM of Hellfire. The kid who does everything, I swear to god.

Mike, Lucas, Will, El, and Max follow closely behind him. Each of them hugging me tightly on the way in. "Hi Mom!" Max smugly smiles at me after the hug.

"I'm a little surprised to see you here to play D&D, Max."

"Maybe I'm just here to watch you all fail massively."

"I cannot believe that you're actually going to make me play..."

"Oh come on Steve! It's the last time we can all play together! Of course you have to play. And it's totally okay if you die." Dustin sets everything down on the table.

"Thanks Henderson... that makes me feel sooo much better about it."

"It'll be fun baby, don't worry I'll protect you." Eddie winks at me with a big grin. I can't even begin to tell you how to play this game. They all came up with my character before, a high elf. Eddie said it would be a perfect fit, and me not fully understanding what that meant in the moment just went with it. Elves are otherworldly, graceful, and undeniably beautiful. Thinking about our friendship before now, I should have seen all the times he thought this stuff about me. It crushes my heart a little that he was pining and I had no idea.

The boys set up the game, all the pieces carefully laid out on my kitchen table. Amongst a lot of boxes, it's the last real piece of furniture that we haven't broken down or moved into the back of the moving truck that we have already rented for the next couple of days. Max decided to tag along, even if she doesn't really want to play. Her and Mike argue back and forth about the validity of what the hell a 'zoomer' is. I am taking it that, that doesn't really exist. But in a game that's completely made up anyway, why can't she make up her own thing?

My apartment is full of loud voices, and perfect chaos.

"You ready to play?" Dustin sits at the head of the table, behind a huge partition covered in demon looking creatures, red and black and orange.

"I guess but if I die right away I'm personally blaming you, Henderson."

"Oh c'mon Steve it's not my fault you try to fight everything right off the bat!"

"I do not try to fight everything..." All of them laugh. It's not true! It's not my fault that there's so many things that seem like they're going to fight you, even if they aren't going to... Everything seems like a threat.

The game starts, everyone watching Dustin unveil a story specifically laid out for us to play through today. We start outside a large cavern, making our way carefully inside to find a large wooden door.

Mike: "Is the door locked?"

Dustin: "No."

Steve: "So we open the door?"

Eddie: "Babe, no we shouldn't just open the door."

Lucas: "It seems suspicious. Maybe we should check for traps."

Will: "Right? We shouldn't just open the door, Steve."

Steve: "Look you're the ones who told me not to fight things, and now you want to hunt around to see if there is anything to fight?"

Dustin seems like he's amused already by all of us bickering about a damned door. We haven't even played a full 15 minutes. We finally all come to the conclusion that we should check around the cavern to make sure there isn't hidden traps, Eddie finds a skull shaped key, which is vaguely threatening in some kind of way, I guess? How a key is threatening, I have no idea, but the way that Dustin describes it, it does seem like I should throw it into a volcano.