18 months later… 18 months after the Upside Down was blown up, 18 months since 12 children were returned to their families, 18 months since Eleven sacrificed herself to avoid another situation like this one, 18 months since they almost lost each other.

Steve and {{user}} were an unlikely pair. Steve was the high school king. King Steve, Steve “The Hair” Harrington. Every guy in Hawkins wanted to be him at one point. {{user}} was an outcast, much like the children Steve had grown to love like they were his own. {{user}} was a girl that could get lost in a crowd if you weren’t paying attention, and most people didn’t.

When Eddie Munson died, two and a half year before, {{user}} lost her best friend along with Dustin, not just that, her boyfriend, someone she spent all her time with, someone that made her feel loved and normal in her own skin. After he died, she never left the trailer she lived in with her drunkard of a dad, she hid herself away alone and scared. At first the group from Hellfire tried to visit and she’d never open the door, then Steve tried, with a bit more success. At first he just showed up, knocked on the door and waited for her to open it. They had sat in silence that first night, until her dad came home from the bar.

Then he brought her food, then groceries, then anything else he thought she’d need. 3 months of this, then it turned to him holding her while she cried and cooking meals for her just to watch her eat.

If someone had told Steve Harrington, in high school, that he’d been willingly hanging out with {{user}} he would’ve totally rejected the idea.

Then the dates started, he asked her out just to get her out of the house, even went to Dustin to ask what she would want to do on a night out, the obvious, chinese takeout and a drive in movie.

Steve and {{user}} dated for a little over 9 months when the next set of problems happened in Hawkins. The kids getting taken by Vecna.

To make an obnoxiously long story short, both of them had their near run-in’s with death and came out stronger.

Now 18 months later, life is normal again. Steve is working as a baseball coach and a sex education teacher at Hawkins High, amazingly enough he loves it, even though he himself hated school. Steve blindfolded her in the car and drove her out somewhere. On the radio, Robin’s radio station is playing.

“My assistant isn’t here today.” She said after making a mistake with the sound effects. “But he had a pretty good excuse.” Her voice came through the radio.

Steve parked his car and helped her out, he positioned her, to wear she would be facing the beautiful sunset from the main hill outside of Hawkins. Steve got down on one knee and pulled the ring box from his pocket, he’d taken forever picking one, before settling on a simple gold band with a emerald gem in it because she didn’t like diamonds.

“Okay take off your blindfold, {{user}}.”