Chapter Text
The next day Steve woke up with a huge headache. He planned on taking the day off and not dealing with any of the crap he was bound to get at school, but his children had other ideas.
Steve got some ice, put it on top of his face and laid down on the couch with a groan.
The house phone rang making him jump. He got up as quickly as he could to stop the shrill noise that was making his headache worse.
“What!?” He answered the phone annoyed.
“Well good morning to you too Steve.”
Steve could practically see Dustin’s eye roll through the phone.
“Henderson, you and your friends are gonna have to catch a ride with someone else. I’m not feeling so good today.”
“What’s wrong?” Dustin asked actually sounding concerned.
Steve sighed debating whether or not he should lie but didn’t. “I got into a fight with Billy and Tommy yesterday.”
“Did they kick your ass again?”
“First of all it wasn’t a fair fight but yes, my eye is swollen shut and I would like to go back to sleep and ignore the world for the rest of the day.”
“Alright, alright I get it. Feel better man.” Dustin said as he hung up the phone.
Steve sighed and went back to the couch. He plopped down put the ice back on his face and fell asleep.
Hours later Steve was woken up by banging on his front door. He stumbled to the front door half awake and cracked the door open squinting in the sunlight.
“Hey Steve.” Dustin greeted him with a big smile that turned into a grimace. “They really did kick your ass huh.”Dustin winced at Steve’s face.
“What are you all doing here?”
“We figured we would come by and help make you feel better.” Dustin said pointing to Max who lifted up a bag from Family Video to show Steve. “We also brought you food.” Dustin pointed behind him where Lucas was holding up a paper bag of what looked like Chinese food.
Will was also there looking embarrassed, just trying not to be in the way, and Mike was next to him looking like he would rather be anywhere else.
Steve looked at all of them confused for a second before speaking. “What?”
“Ugh just let us in.” Dustin said pushing passed Steve.
“Guys, I don’t really want any company right now.”
“Steve, you can’t just hide from the world. This will be fun. I brought the Star Wars trilogy so you can finally catch up and we got you some egg drop soup since we weren’t sure if eating would be difficult after what happened to your face.”
The little rugrats were actually… really thoughtful. Steve didn’t want to think about how this is probably the nicest thing anyone has ever done for him.
H smiled softly feeling touched. “Thanks.”
Dustin gave him a knowing look.
“The living room is right through there. “Steve pointed towards the room with the huge sectional.
The kids all made their way into the living room and made themselves at home. They emptied the bags onto the coffee table and Dustin popped Star Wars into Steve’s VHS player.
“Here you go Steve.” Will said handing him the pint of soup.
“Thanks Byers.” Steve said as he took the soup and God was he starving.
“Okay, you have to pay attention Steve. This is going to be life changing!” Dustin said excitedly.
“He’s not even going to like it.” Mike said from the other end of the couch with his arms folded.
“It’s got guns, spaceships and laser swords why wouldn’t he like it?” Max asked.
“Whatever.” Mike said rolling his eyes.
“Don’t be like that Mike. Steve’s cool, he’ll like it.” Lucas chimed in.
The movie began and as the opening scroll rolled passed the screen Steve admitted to himself he was excited to watch it.
The movie was a success. Steve was into it shouting at the TV and the kids laughed at his reactions. Even Mike.
“Obi-wan No!” Steve shouted when Obi-wan let himself be killed.
“I knew Han was coming back!” Steve shouted while punching the air when Han saved Luke at the end.
“What is he waiting for!? Use the force!” Steve yelled at Luke for taking too long to shoot the Death Star.
“Don’t tell me Darth Vader gets away. How can he when he literally has nowhere to go. His base is destroyed and Han and Luke are right there why wouldn’t they stop him!?”
“Because then there would be no sequels genius.” Max said exasperated.
Steve rolled his good eye at her.
“Alright, I’m ready for Star Wars 2.” Steve said clapping his hands and rubbing them together.
All the kids face palmed. “It’s called Empire Strikes Back!” They yelled at him.
“Okay, okay. Jeez. No need to go full nerds on me.”
Steve actually enjoyed Empire… whatever it’s called even more than the first one and even though his head still hurt he didn’t feel nearly as bad as he did this morning.
Steve got up and went to the fan that was sitting on the table against the wall and began to talk into it. “Luke, I’m your father.”
The kids all laughed at Steve’s distorted voice and Dustin joined him. “You don’t know the power of the dark side.” He said in his best Darth Vader impersonation.
“Alright last one Steve said pushing Dustin out of the way. “Join me and we shall rule the Galaxy as father and son!”
“I’ll never join you!” Dustin yelled.
Steve and Dustin laughed and then pretended to have lightsabers and made the swooshing noise as they pretended to duel.
“Guys we need to hurry up and put in the last movie if we want to finish it tonight. Nancy said she was going to pick us up at 10pm sharp.” Mike said from the couch.
Steve stopped mid lightsaber strike. “Nancy’s coming here?” Steve asked surprised.
“Jeez can you at least try being a little more subtle?” Mike said with a disgusted look on his face.
Steve snapped out of his daze. “What? Subtle about what?” Steve asked like he had no idea what Mike was talking about.
“Come on Mike you don’t have to be so mean just because Steve’s in love with your sister.” Max said.
“Hey, who said anything about being in love with Nancy?”
Lucas ignored Steve’s comment and spoke to Mike. “Yeah, it’s not like you aren’t the same way with El.” Lucas put on a voice mocking Mike. “Oh El, I love you. I can’t lose you.”
“Shut up!” Mike shouted. “It’s just gross to watch everyone drool over my sister.”
“I wasn’t drooling okay. I’m over Nancy. That ship has sailed my friends.”
Everyone looked at him like they didn’t believe him.
“Who’s everyone?” Steve asked trying to sound like it didn’t matter to him.
“What?”
“You said everyone drools over your sister, so who is everyone?”
“Well obviously you and Jonathan and then there’s those other idiots like Keith and Fred.”
“Who the hell is Fred?” Steve asked crossing his arms.
“Some nerdy junior.” Dustin shrugged.
“Whatever, the point is I’m not drooling over Nancy. Don’t lump me in with Jonathan, Keith, and Fred.” Steve said looking offended.
“Looks like King Steve is actually King Nerd.” Max said with a smirk.
“Your sister does attract a lot of losers.” Steve admitted.
“Yeah, I can see that.” Mike gestured to Steve.
“Bite me Wheeler. Anyway, we are losing time. I wanna see what happens to Han Solo.” Steve said sitting back in the couch.
“Worried he’s gonna die?” Lucas asked.
“Nah, he’s too cool to die. Plus he has to live so he could end up with Leia.”
“I guess we’ll see about that.” Lucas said.
Dustin put the last VHS in the VCR and turned to Steve. “Can we order a pizza? I’m starving.”
Steve rolled his eyes but called the pizza place anyway.
The movie ended at 9:55pm.
“So, what did you think?” Dustin asked Steve.
“It was a pretty perfect ending. What are those teddy bear things called again?” Steve asked.
“Ewoks!” Mike, Will, Lucas and Dustin shouted back while Max just rolled her eyes.
“Right. I’ll remember that.”
A knock on the door drew everyone’s attention. Steve froze knowing it was Nancy Wheeler.
“You might want to answer that.” Max said with a laugh.
“You all just…stay here for a minute will ya.” Steve muttered as he walked to the door.
He opened the door and there she was, the girl he couldn’t get out of his head. It didn’t help that he saw her all the time and was now basically her brothers babysitter.
“Hey Nance, they’re not late are they?” Steve asked checking his watch as if he didn’t know exactly what time it was.
“Oh no, I just, I figured I’d say hi. I wanted to see how you were doing after last night. I know you weren’t in school so…”
“Oh, yeah… no I’m fine. I just had a headache this morning nothing major.”
“Your face doesn’t look as swollen. That’s good.”
“Yeah I put ice on it practically all day.” Steve said and Nancy nodded. So, ummm… how are you?” Steve asked awkwardly.
“I’m good.” Nancy said nodding and looking at the ground.
Steve nodded too. “That’s good. I’ll uh… go get the kids.” Steve said leaving her at the door.
“Hey guys come on your ride is here.”
“We know that genius.” Max said sharply.
“Yeah, we’ve been standing here listening to your painful attempts at small talk.” Mike added.
“Whatever, just hurry up. Don’t keep your sister waiting.”
The kids barged passed Nancy and went to the car. Steve came back out to say goodbye.
“Thanks for keeping them occupied. I don’t know how you do it without wanting to strangle them.” Nancy chuckled.
“Believe me I do, but they’re also nice to have around the house sometimes.” Steve shrugged.
Nancy nodded in understanding. Steve’s huge house always intimidated her and she can’t imagine it being very fun to be in it all alone.
“Yeah, I get it.” Nancy said softly.
“Well, have a good night Nance.”
“You too Steve. Take care.” Nancy said as she turned and went back to the car.
Steve sighed in the doorway and waved at the car as they drove away.