wolfish_willow (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
wolfish_willow) wrote2023-07-19 07:35 am
wolfish_willow) wrote2023-07-19 07:35 am
Fic: Choose Me Instead
Title: Choose Me Instead [subject to change when posted to AO3]
Author:wolfish_willow
Pairing: Steve/Nancy, pre-Jonathan/Steve/Nancy
Rating: T
Word Count: ~3,000
Summary: While sifting through the junk in the Byers' backyard, Steve asks Nancy to choose him instead of Jonathan.
Author’s Notes: Written for July Break Bingo.
Prompts:
Steve bends at the waist to sift through the stack of junk in the Byers' yard. Between the both of them, they've found a couple heaters already. They're stacked carefully out of the way of the rest of the mess, waiting for anything else they might find. Hard as he tries to keep his attention on what they're supposed to be doing, he can't help but repeatedly glance in Nancy's direction.
The next thing he picks up to inspect slips out of his hands, crashing back into the pile with a startling crash. Nancy and Steve both jump in surprise. He doesn't know whether he dropped it due to nerves or the way his palms have begun to sweat, but heat rises up his neck all the same. Nancy's relieved laughter helps smother some of his initial embarrassment.
She meets his eyes and they seem to glitter in the porch light.
"Choose me instead."
He doesn't know where the words come from. Or he does. They've been turning over and over again in his mind since Tommy first told him about Nancy skipping school with Jonathan. It's only gotten louder since finding them in the woods, seeing how they looked walking together. Watching how they work together; how comfortable Nancy seems with him when she's been anything but with Steve for longer than he wants to admit.
So Steve knows where the words came from. But he never meant to say them out loud.
Selfishly, it's not even that he doesn't want to make Nancy choose. He likes to think that he's a better person now than he'd been when they first started dating, but he hasn't changed that much. Of course he wants her to look at him, to choose him. Like she chose him last year, came back to him a month after Will Byers went missing, but really mean it. Steve wants her to look at him, to choose him, to love him, and not regret it or resent him like she apparently has for the last year.
The real reason he'd meant to hold those words inside until they stop hounding him is that he doesn't want to hear her answer. Doesn't want her to look up at him with pity—or worse—on her face and tell him, gently but no less painfully, that she can't. That Steve is the last person she would choose after spending the last year dealing with his bullshit.
But they're out there now. Hanging in the air between them. Nancy looks at him with wide, unblinking eyes, her fingers clenching and unclenching around the piece of junk in her hands.
"Steve, I—"
"I don't mean—you should still go with him. Help him with his brother, I can stay here with the kids."
He shifts his weight from one foot to the other, arms hanging loosely at his sides for lack of knowing what to do with them.
"I may have been a shitty boyfriend, but it turns out, I'm a pretty good babysitter," he says with a crooked shrug, one corner of his mouth tipping up at the thought of Dustin and the others. It feels weird to have been vaguely aware of Nancy's little brother for so long now only to wind up dragged back into the whole monster-fighting gig by one of his friends. Steve hadn't really known the kid's name before tonight, but he can't help but like him.
Even if he did only come to Steve because he was in the right place at the right time and there wasn't anyone else around. As much as it hurts to know that Nancy wasn't home to hear Steve's apology, he can't help but be relieved Dustin wasn't stuck dealing with Dart on his own.
Nancy opens her mouth to speak, but Steve's chest goes tight in fear of what she means to say. This could be his only chance to try and convince her to give him another chance. If she says no, that's it, they're done, because he won't push her. Not when she's said the words.
He hopes like hell she won't.
"Wait, just. Hear me out, please?" he says quickly. Nancy watches him closely as she brings her lips back together and waits.
Steve swallows. Now that he's here, he realizes he hadn't expected her to stop. Anxiety and hope swirl inside him in a fight over which one will take over. But he can't screw this up, not again. Not when Nancy is willing to hear him out.
"I'm asking too much." Steve takes a step towards her, avoiding the stuff on the ground. Nancy doesn't move, doesn't tense up or hold onto the thing in her hands harder like she'd been doing before. He decides to take that as a good sign. "I messed up my second chance already. People don't... they don't get third chances."
There's a softness on her face as her eyes trail over his that makes him feel worse for trying. For putting this on her when he should have left it. Told her that she should go with Jonathan—that it was okay.
But the cat's out of the bag already. Even if she's only listening because she's just that kind of person, he can't stop now. Not when there's still hope stirring in his chest.
"But I swear, I swear, I can learn how to be better. If we would need to take things slow, start over from the beginning or—if you need proof that I'm not bullshit, I'll find it."
His heart swells when Nancy reaches out, her hand curling around the side of his. Her grip is loose but reassuring.
"Wouldn't it be weird," she starts softly, eyes seeming to search his face for something, "if we just... pretended it didn't happen?"
The reminder hurts, but not as badly as it had when he and the kids had found Nancy and Jonathan together in the woods. It isn't a surprise this time; doesn't cut through him the way it had only a few hours ago. Instead, he lets it stoke the fire of hope a little more.
If she's asking, then she must be considering it, right?
"Not really," he says, careful to keep his tone even. All he wants to do is lurch forward and wrap her in his arms, tell her how much he doesn't care if it means that she'll choose him. "My parents do it all the time."
Her eyes go wider, shining that little bit brighter and Steve's chest goes tight, worried that he said the wrong thing. "But I can handle it better than my mom, I promise."
Nancy bites her lip, her eyes getting shinier by the minute and Steve... He squeezes the fingers he can reach, lips stretching into a reassuring smile that he can't quite feel.
"You don't have to answer now," he tells her, hoping to delay the inevitable. If she doesn't say anything right now, he can get through the night thinking she might actually consider it.
"And whatever you decide, I'll respect it. No matter what, even if"—when—"you choose him. Just. Tell me when all this shit is over, okay?"
Nancy opens her mouth and Steve braces himself for rejection. But she closes it again, biting her lip and giving his hand a final squeeze before letting go.
"Okay," she says, holding his gaze for one more beat.
Then the both of them turn to awkwardly start picking through the pile for more heaters. And Steve goes back to glancing at her more than he should, hoping for the first time that this whole mess doesn't end too quickly.
He wants the kids to be safe, wants the monsters to go back to wherever the hell it is they came from. Wants things to go back to normal. But he doesn't want to figure out what that will look like for him without Nancy.
Steve stands out on the porch with the kids, watching while they all say their goodbyes. It feels too final. Like the little girl, El, might not make it back—again—or like they might not be able to save Will.
Nancy sticks close to Jonathan, except for during a quick hug with her little brother after El has gone to Hopper's truck. It hurts to watch, but Steve can't help watching. Figures he should try to get used to it.
Some of that hope from earlier clings to him when he catches Nancy watching him back more than once. He doesn't know if it means anything. Maybe she's looking at him and trying to decide how to let him down more gently this time. Maybe she's thinking about what he said. Maybe he made it worse; ruined whatever chance he might have had to even be friends with her after tonight.
He has no way of knowing and tries not to dwell on it too hard. There are more important things to worry about right now than his love life—even if the possibility of losing Nancy feels a bit like the end of the world, monsters or no monsters.
Before they leave, Nancy meets his eyes on purpose and smiles. It's small, maybe a little uncomfortable, Steve isn't sure. Nothing like she used to smile at him, but then she hasn't looked at him like she used to for a year.
Not since they got her best friend killed.
His throat locks tight around the words that want to come out. She couldn't say them before, even when she insisted she didn't remember their fight. There's no reason she would say it back now, when she's leaving with the one person she will probably be able to say it to without that strange upward lilt in her voice that Steve had never let himself think about too hard.
It's hard to watch her leave and not tell her that he loves her, just in case, but he manages. He's done enough speaking without thinking for one night.
"How's your head?"
Steve shrugs, careful not to wince when the movement aggravates the bruises on his chest and stomach. He's pretty sure that he managed it, but Nancy doesn't stop staring at him with her eyebrows drawn together in concern. It warms him to know that she cares; that even if she's come to his house to tell him that she's chosen Jonathan, she doesn't hate him.
After everything she said at the party, Steve hadn't been sure. What if once all of the craziness was over, Nancy would remember all of the reasons that she was angry with him? He wouldn't blame her if she had. But instead she's here, standing in his living room, making sure that he's okay.
If that's all he ever gets, it will be enough. He'll make sure of it.
"Face is a pain," he tells her truthfully. There's hardly a reason to lie, but even if there was, he wouldn't. Not when his pretending that everything was okay, was normal, is part of why she's been so angry with him. "Doc said the concussion should go away in a few more days."
Nancy nods, some but not all of the tension leaving her face.
"I've thought about it."
No need to ask what "it" is. Steve braces himself for whatever she's going to say next.
His skin feels stretched thin while he waits, but he holds himself still. Reminds himself that no matter what she says, he's going to respect her choice. As much as he wants her, what he cares about the most is that she's happy. If that can't be with him, he'll figure out how to deal with that.
Nancy bites her lip, her hand curled into a loose fist against her chest. Steve wants to reach out, to pull her hand to him and hold it between both of his. When her eyes start to shine like they had the other night, filling with tears that she doesn't let fall—yet—Steve gives in. He moves close enough that it's easy to wrap his fingers around her hand and hold it gently.
"Hey, it's okay," he tells her, lips stretching in a smile that hurts. "Had to try, but I know how you feel about—"
"What if I can't decide?" she asks in a rush, a big tear falling free and sliding down her cheek. His chest goes tight; not at what she's asked, but at how upset she sounds, looks. He hates seeing her upset; hates even more that he's the reason why.
Steve takes a chance, pulling her into a hug. She curls into him so fast that he's sure he made the right call. It isn't long before his shirt grows damp from her tears, but he doesn't care. Steve rests his chin on top of her head, holds her tight, and waits.
"What if," she mutters into his chest, "my feelings are too big? I don't know how to choose—there isn't—I can't—"
"Then don't," he says. She freezes against him in surprise. Considering he'd been the one who asked her to choose at all, he's not surprised. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked you to."
"No," she shakes her head, pulling her head out from underneath his chin and meeting his eyes. Hers are pink around the edges, eyelashes sticking together in places from crying on him. It's the worst possible moment, but Steve can't help being struck by how beautiful she is all over again. "You were right, we're... we're not the people we were, but that isn't all bad is it?"
"I don't think so. I like to think it's a good thing, actually."
Her lips curl in the ghost of a smile before her expression becomes serious again.
"When we came back and you were... I didn't care about any of that. I only cared that you were hurt and I wasn't there."
She brings her hands up to rest gently on either side of his face. Steve's heart aches.
"I do love you," she says, nearly taking the entirety of the floor out from under him. Steve blinks, mouth falling open and closed all the while he can't make a sound. "I was upset before, that I couldn't remember what I said, what we... fought about. Those things you..."
She leans back into him, arms wrapped tight around his middle. Slowly, Steve lets himself hold her back.
"But..." Nancy turns her head to hide it in his shirt. Her voice is so quiet, Steve has to strain to hear her, "I think I love Jonathan, too."
It doesn't hurt nearly as bad as Steve thought it would to hear those words. He'd already known; there was a reason he's been so sure she couldn't possibly choose him. Nancy's feelings for Jonathan have been an open secret for the last year. Steve thinks the only one who hadn't known was Jonathan himself—it's one of the main reasons Steve never tried harder to let the guy stick around when he slunk off every time Steve showed up.
But now he knows for a fact that Nancy loves him, too, and suddenly her feelings for Jonathan don't matter. Or, they do. But how can he fault her for having such a big heart that there's room for more than one person in it? His parents can't manage enough for one. Neither can hers. This, he thinks, this he can handle.
"So don't choose," he says again. He can feel her gearing up to argue and now that he knows a little better where he stands with her, Steve is filled with fondness rather than apprehension. "You'll—we, if you want—have to talk to Jonathan, but..."
Steve is the one to pull back this time. He wraps a hand around each of Nancy's arms and meets her eyes. "If Jonathan agrees, I'm willing to find a way to... make it work."
Her face scrunches up in confusion before smoothing out in surprise. Something like hope dawns in her eyes while the corners of her mouth begin to rise.
"You would do that for me?"
Steve cups her face in his hands, grateful beyond words that he gets to, and kisses her. "I love you."
"I love you, too."
Hearing her say it so readily is like a balm, mending the cracks left in his heart the day she couldn't. Until a minute ago, Steve had been sure he would never hear it again. He's never been so happy to be wrong.
"If this is what you want," he tells her, keeping hold of her face because he can—because she's letting him, "then yeah. I just want you to be happy. If talking to Jonathan, if you dating both of us, can do that? I'll do it in a heartbeat."
"It's not exactly... normal."
"It's not," he agrees with a nod. "A week ago, I might have cared about that."
"But not now?"
Steve shrugs. "Pretty sure normal went out the window the moment Dustin Henderson turned to me for help."
Nancy bursts into surprised laughter. Steve can't remember the last time he heard her do that, let alone was the cause of it.
"Not the monsters, not the girl with superpowers or the shady government..."
Steve shakes his head. "Nope, Henderson is definitely the weirdest thing that's ever happened to me."
He laughs next when Nancy shoves at his shoulder. Holding his hands up in surrender, Steve says, "I didn't say bad! To be honest, kid's kind of grown on me."
"Yeah, he's kind of like that."
There's a fond look on Nancy's face when she says it. Steve's chest aches again, but it's a good ache. He doesn't think he'll shake his relief for a while. No matter how the talk with Jonathan goes, whether he takes it well or not, Steve will always have this moment.
He'll always know that Nancy Wheeler loves him and nothing can take that away.
Author:
wolfish_willowPairing: Steve/Nancy, pre-Jonathan/Steve/Nancy
Rating: T
Word Count: ~3,000
Summary: While sifting through the junk in the Byers' backyard, Steve asks Nancy to choose him instead of Jonathan.
Author’s Notes: Written for July Break Bingo.
Prompts:
- "Choose me instead."
- Word: Bravery - Antonyms: Cowardice, Timid, Fear, Hesitate
- "We aren't the same people we were."
- "Why don't you look at me the same way you used to?"
- Calling someone 'Dad' or Not Saying 'I love you'
- Word: Accept - Antonyms: Refuse, Fail, Deny, Reject
- Lip Biting or Playing With Their Hair
- "Wouldn't it be, I don't know, weird... if we just... pretended it didn't happen?"
Steve bends at the waist to sift through the stack of junk in the Byers' yard. Between the both of them, they've found a couple heaters already. They're stacked carefully out of the way of the rest of the mess, waiting for anything else they might find. Hard as he tries to keep his attention on what they're supposed to be doing, he can't help but repeatedly glance in Nancy's direction.
The next thing he picks up to inspect slips out of his hands, crashing back into the pile with a startling crash. Nancy and Steve both jump in surprise. He doesn't know whether he dropped it due to nerves or the way his palms have begun to sweat, but heat rises up his neck all the same. Nancy's relieved laughter helps smother some of his initial embarrassment.
She meets his eyes and they seem to glitter in the porch light.
"Choose me instead."
He doesn't know where the words come from. Or he does. They've been turning over and over again in his mind since Tommy first told him about Nancy skipping school with Jonathan. It's only gotten louder since finding them in the woods, seeing how they looked walking together. Watching how they work together; how comfortable Nancy seems with him when she's been anything but with Steve for longer than he wants to admit.
So Steve knows where the words came from. But he never meant to say them out loud.
Selfishly, it's not even that he doesn't want to make Nancy choose. He likes to think that he's a better person now than he'd been when they first started dating, but he hasn't changed that much. Of course he wants her to look at him, to choose him. Like she chose him last year, came back to him a month after Will Byers went missing, but really mean it. Steve wants her to look at him, to choose him, to love him, and not regret it or resent him like she apparently has for the last year.
The real reason he'd meant to hold those words inside until they stop hounding him is that he doesn't want to hear her answer. Doesn't want her to look up at him with pity—or worse—on her face and tell him, gently but no less painfully, that she can't. That Steve is the last person she would choose after spending the last year dealing with his bullshit.
But they're out there now. Hanging in the air between them. Nancy looks at him with wide, unblinking eyes, her fingers clenching and unclenching around the piece of junk in her hands.
"Steve, I—"
"I don't mean—you should still go with him. Help him with his brother, I can stay here with the kids."
He shifts his weight from one foot to the other, arms hanging loosely at his sides for lack of knowing what to do with them.
"I may have been a shitty boyfriend, but it turns out, I'm a pretty good babysitter," he says with a crooked shrug, one corner of his mouth tipping up at the thought of Dustin and the others. It feels weird to have been vaguely aware of Nancy's little brother for so long now only to wind up dragged back into the whole monster-fighting gig by one of his friends. Steve hadn't really known the kid's name before tonight, but he can't help but like him.
Even if he did only come to Steve because he was in the right place at the right time and there wasn't anyone else around. As much as it hurts to know that Nancy wasn't home to hear Steve's apology, he can't help but be relieved Dustin wasn't stuck dealing with Dart on his own.
Nancy opens her mouth to speak, but Steve's chest goes tight in fear of what she means to say. This could be his only chance to try and convince her to give him another chance. If she says no, that's it, they're done, because he won't push her. Not when she's said the words.
He hopes like hell she won't.
"Wait, just. Hear me out, please?" he says quickly. Nancy watches him closely as she brings her lips back together and waits.
Steve swallows. Now that he's here, he realizes he hadn't expected her to stop. Anxiety and hope swirl inside him in a fight over which one will take over. But he can't screw this up, not again. Not when Nancy is willing to hear him out.
"I'm asking too much." Steve takes a step towards her, avoiding the stuff on the ground. Nancy doesn't move, doesn't tense up or hold onto the thing in her hands harder like she'd been doing before. He decides to take that as a good sign. "I messed up my second chance already. People don't... they don't get third chances."
There's a softness on her face as her eyes trail over his that makes him feel worse for trying. For putting this on her when he should have left it. Told her that she should go with Jonathan—that it was okay.
But the cat's out of the bag already. Even if she's only listening because she's just that kind of person, he can't stop now. Not when there's still hope stirring in his chest.
"But I swear, I swear, I can learn how to be better. If we would need to take things slow, start over from the beginning or—if you need proof that I'm not bullshit, I'll find it."
His heart swells when Nancy reaches out, her hand curling around the side of his. Her grip is loose but reassuring.
"Wouldn't it be weird," she starts softly, eyes seeming to search his face for something, "if we just... pretended it didn't happen?"
The reminder hurts, but not as badly as it had when he and the kids had found Nancy and Jonathan together in the woods. It isn't a surprise this time; doesn't cut through him the way it had only a few hours ago. Instead, he lets it stoke the fire of hope a little more.
If she's asking, then she must be considering it, right?
"Not really," he says, careful to keep his tone even. All he wants to do is lurch forward and wrap her in his arms, tell her how much he doesn't care if it means that she'll choose him. "My parents do it all the time."
Her eyes go wider, shining that little bit brighter and Steve's chest goes tight, worried that he said the wrong thing. "But I can handle it better than my mom, I promise."
Nancy bites her lip, her eyes getting shinier by the minute and Steve... He squeezes the fingers he can reach, lips stretching into a reassuring smile that he can't quite feel.
"You don't have to answer now," he tells her, hoping to delay the inevitable. If she doesn't say anything right now, he can get through the night thinking she might actually consider it.
"And whatever you decide, I'll respect it. No matter what, even if"—when—"you choose him. Just. Tell me when all this shit is over, okay?"
Nancy opens her mouth and Steve braces himself for rejection. But she closes it again, biting her lip and giving his hand a final squeeze before letting go.
"Okay," she says, holding his gaze for one more beat.
Then the both of them turn to awkwardly start picking through the pile for more heaters. And Steve goes back to glancing at her more than he should, hoping for the first time that this whole mess doesn't end too quickly.
He wants the kids to be safe, wants the monsters to go back to wherever the hell it is they came from. Wants things to go back to normal. But he doesn't want to figure out what that will look like for him without Nancy.
Steve stands out on the porch with the kids, watching while they all say their goodbyes. It feels too final. Like the little girl, El, might not make it back—again—or like they might not be able to save Will.
Nancy sticks close to Jonathan, except for during a quick hug with her little brother after El has gone to Hopper's truck. It hurts to watch, but Steve can't help watching. Figures he should try to get used to it.
Some of that hope from earlier clings to him when he catches Nancy watching him back more than once. He doesn't know if it means anything. Maybe she's looking at him and trying to decide how to let him down more gently this time. Maybe she's thinking about what he said. Maybe he made it worse; ruined whatever chance he might have had to even be friends with her after tonight.
He has no way of knowing and tries not to dwell on it too hard. There are more important things to worry about right now than his love life—even if the possibility of losing Nancy feels a bit like the end of the world, monsters or no monsters.
Before they leave, Nancy meets his eyes on purpose and smiles. It's small, maybe a little uncomfortable, Steve isn't sure. Nothing like she used to smile at him, but then she hasn't looked at him like she used to for a year.
Not since they got her best friend killed.
His throat locks tight around the words that want to come out. She couldn't say them before, even when she insisted she didn't remember their fight. There's no reason she would say it back now, when she's leaving with the one person she will probably be able to say it to without that strange upward lilt in her voice that Steve had never let himself think about too hard.
It's hard to watch her leave and not tell her that he loves her, just in case, but he manages. He's done enough speaking without thinking for one night.
"How's your head?"
Steve shrugs, careful not to wince when the movement aggravates the bruises on his chest and stomach. He's pretty sure that he managed it, but Nancy doesn't stop staring at him with her eyebrows drawn together in concern. It warms him to know that she cares; that even if she's come to his house to tell him that she's chosen Jonathan, she doesn't hate him.
After everything she said at the party, Steve hadn't been sure. What if once all of the craziness was over, Nancy would remember all of the reasons that she was angry with him? He wouldn't blame her if she had. But instead she's here, standing in his living room, making sure that he's okay.
If that's all he ever gets, it will be enough. He'll make sure of it.
"Face is a pain," he tells her truthfully. There's hardly a reason to lie, but even if there was, he wouldn't. Not when his pretending that everything was okay, was normal, is part of why she's been so angry with him. "Doc said the concussion should go away in a few more days."
Nancy nods, some but not all of the tension leaving her face.
"I've thought about it."
No need to ask what "it" is. Steve braces himself for whatever she's going to say next.
His skin feels stretched thin while he waits, but he holds himself still. Reminds himself that no matter what she says, he's going to respect her choice. As much as he wants her, what he cares about the most is that she's happy. If that can't be with him, he'll figure out how to deal with that.
Nancy bites her lip, her hand curled into a loose fist against her chest. Steve wants to reach out, to pull her hand to him and hold it between both of his. When her eyes start to shine like they had the other night, filling with tears that she doesn't let fall—yet—Steve gives in. He moves close enough that it's easy to wrap his fingers around her hand and hold it gently.
"Hey, it's okay," he tells her, lips stretching in a smile that hurts. "Had to try, but I know how you feel about—"
"What if I can't decide?" she asks in a rush, a big tear falling free and sliding down her cheek. His chest goes tight; not at what she's asked, but at how upset she sounds, looks. He hates seeing her upset; hates even more that he's the reason why.
Steve takes a chance, pulling her into a hug. She curls into him so fast that he's sure he made the right call. It isn't long before his shirt grows damp from her tears, but he doesn't care. Steve rests his chin on top of her head, holds her tight, and waits.
"What if," she mutters into his chest, "my feelings are too big? I don't know how to choose—there isn't—I can't—"
"Then don't," he says. She freezes against him in surprise. Considering he'd been the one who asked her to choose at all, he's not surprised. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked you to."
"No," she shakes her head, pulling her head out from underneath his chin and meeting his eyes. Hers are pink around the edges, eyelashes sticking together in places from crying on him. It's the worst possible moment, but Steve can't help being struck by how beautiful she is all over again. "You were right, we're... we're not the people we were, but that isn't all bad is it?"
"I don't think so. I like to think it's a good thing, actually."
Her lips curl in the ghost of a smile before her expression becomes serious again.
"When we came back and you were... I didn't care about any of that. I only cared that you were hurt and I wasn't there."
She brings her hands up to rest gently on either side of his face. Steve's heart aches.
"I do love you," she says, nearly taking the entirety of the floor out from under him. Steve blinks, mouth falling open and closed all the while he can't make a sound. "I was upset before, that I couldn't remember what I said, what we... fought about. Those things you..."
She leans back into him, arms wrapped tight around his middle. Slowly, Steve lets himself hold her back.
"But..." Nancy turns her head to hide it in his shirt. Her voice is so quiet, Steve has to strain to hear her, "I think I love Jonathan, too."
It doesn't hurt nearly as bad as Steve thought it would to hear those words. He'd already known; there was a reason he's been so sure she couldn't possibly choose him. Nancy's feelings for Jonathan have been an open secret for the last year. Steve thinks the only one who hadn't known was Jonathan himself—it's one of the main reasons Steve never tried harder to let the guy stick around when he slunk off every time Steve showed up.
But now he knows for a fact that Nancy loves him, too, and suddenly her feelings for Jonathan don't matter. Or, they do. But how can he fault her for having such a big heart that there's room for more than one person in it? His parents can't manage enough for one. Neither can hers. This, he thinks, this he can handle.
"So don't choose," he says again. He can feel her gearing up to argue and now that he knows a little better where he stands with her, Steve is filled with fondness rather than apprehension. "You'll—we, if you want—have to talk to Jonathan, but..."
Steve is the one to pull back this time. He wraps a hand around each of Nancy's arms and meets her eyes. "If Jonathan agrees, I'm willing to find a way to... make it work."
Her face scrunches up in confusion before smoothing out in surprise. Something like hope dawns in her eyes while the corners of her mouth begin to rise.
"You would do that for me?"
Steve cups her face in his hands, grateful beyond words that he gets to, and kisses her. "I love you."
"I love you, too."
Hearing her say it so readily is like a balm, mending the cracks left in his heart the day she couldn't. Until a minute ago, Steve had been sure he would never hear it again. He's never been so happy to be wrong.
"If this is what you want," he tells her, keeping hold of her face because he can—because she's letting him, "then yeah. I just want you to be happy. If talking to Jonathan, if you dating both of us, can do that? I'll do it in a heartbeat."
"It's not exactly... normal."
"It's not," he agrees with a nod. "A week ago, I might have cared about that."
"But not now?"
Steve shrugs. "Pretty sure normal went out the window the moment Dustin Henderson turned to me for help."
Nancy bursts into surprised laughter. Steve can't remember the last time he heard her do that, let alone was the cause of it.
"Not the monsters, not the girl with superpowers or the shady government..."
Steve shakes his head. "Nope, Henderson is definitely the weirdest thing that's ever happened to me."
He laughs next when Nancy shoves at his shoulder. Holding his hands up in surrender, Steve says, "I didn't say bad! To be honest, kid's kind of grown on me."
"Yeah, he's kind of like that."
There's a fond look on Nancy's face when she says it. Steve's chest aches again, but it's a good ache. He doesn't think he'll shake his relief for a while. No matter how the talk with Jonathan goes, whether he takes it well or not, Steve will always have this moment.
He'll always know that Nancy Wheeler loves him and nothing can take that away.