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Steve should've known that everything had been too ordinary, lately. That the other shoe hasn't dropped yet and he was too stupid to not look for it.
For one, he was working in the mall wearing nothing but a blue sailor ensemble, white tube socks, and a stupid floppy tie. (When Jonathan first saw it, he called it "cute" with the expression of a man that was trying and failing at hiding a laugh).
Secondly: Robin Buckley.
Steve knew he wasn't the kindest person in high-school, and a lot of that can be blamed on his severe lack of self-awareness and forced emotional repression surrounding his relationship, but sometimes he could be just plain mean. However, he can't remember what the hell he could've done to offend Robin of all people.
"Dingus! I'm going on break." Robin calls him from the counter, and as he walks out from the back, she drops a washcloth on his head.
But given her general demeanor and over-usage of that whiteboard they kept in the back, Steve wouldn't be surprised if it was just because he existed.
Steve sighs, and takes his place behind the counter. He looks over the tubs of ice cream with vague defeat. It was a slow Wednesday, and Steve didn't know if that was because it was a weekday, or if he was being impatient for Jonathan to get out of work so they could hang out later.
Organizing their time together has never been their strong suit. Considering that for years they had to wait until it was dark out to see each other, and now that they had more freedom? It was strange. Of course, Steve loved every minute of it. If he didn't, he wouldn't be with Jonathan in the first place.
The problem was they were working for most of the day now. (Part-times only worked for scheduling time with your boyfriend if your schedules lined up.) Jonathan had that job with Nancy at the newspaper and Steve was stuck here. In the mall. In a sailor costume.
Fuck he was freezing.
Finally, a couple comes in for a sundae, followed by a mother and her kids. Steve is distracted long enough away from his profound boredom (entertaining kids has always come easy to him), and he gets a better tip than usual from the mother. As he waves away the group, he turns to wipe down the counter.
"Ahoy?" The voice was nervous and a little in awe, but Steve knew it well.
He whips his head up to see his boyfriend, clad in a button up and adorable suspenders, looking incredibly amused. "Jonathan?"
Due to their schedules, Jonathan hasn't been able to actually visit him at work. If they were lucky, they were able to meet up outside of Starcourt mall and go driving for a little bit. Otherwise, Jonathan was sentenced to morning-afternoon shifts and Steve was regularly put in for afternoon-evening hours. So, this was a surprise.
From behind Jonathan, Will trails in looking around. "Hey, Steve." This wasn't Will's first time here, though.
Mike Wheeler and the rest of them took advantage of Steve's job here the moment they heard about it, "Hey kid. The rest of them aren't here, are they?" He groans.
Will smiles, guilty but gentle, "No, but Mike said something about showing up tomorrow."
Jonathan rolls his eyes, "If he ever pulls himself away from El, you mean. The way you talk about the two of them I'm surprised you see him at all."
The teenager doesn't say anything about that, only nodding and letting his gaze fall to the floor. Jonathan shares a look with Steve.
Will's crush on Mike was obvious, if only because they realized it was a possibility for two boys to like each other. Jonathan had expressed his concerns in the past, because of how long Mike and Will have been friends; Steve generally agreed, but emphasizing that it was Michael Wheeler and not someone like Dustin. Dustin was great! Mike was an asshole.
It was also among the reasons Jonathan and Steve had considered coming out to Will in the past. Combining Jonathan's suspicions about Will knowing something was up with the two of them, and his potential queerness, it wouldn't be a bad idea to open up to him like that. Especially if he is feeling alone in it, but they never figured out the right way to go about it. If Jonathan should talk to him first, or if Steve should be there for moral support. But between their conflicting schedules and everything with the Upside Down, they have been admittedly putting it off.
Maybe soon, if Steve ever managed to get the hell out of this Mall.
"What can I get for you two?" Steve un-holsters his scooper and gestures in their direction.
Jonathan grins, leaning against the counter. Steve knows he is going to get so much shit for this later. "What does the Captain recommend?"
Steve feels like he is going to keel over and die, "Ahem, well. Chocolate Pudding is a fan favorite."
"Ick." Will tunes back in. "Pudding's gross. Can I get Mint cone?"
"Mint is gross." Jonathan ruffles his brother's hair, smile bright and unyielding. Steve stifles his own smile. "That sounds good, Steve."
"Coming right up." He nabs a dish and cone and sets the dish aside to get Will's order. "Did you get off early?"
Jonathan sighs, "Tom and the others were being assholes more than usual. Only this time, they decided their teenage employees weren't needed today."
Steve winced. "Nancy?"
"Not happy."
Steve hands Will his cone. He didn't imagine that Jonathan was happy about that either, less hours meant less pay, but Jonathan was likely tamping his own frustration down for Will.
"Thank you." Will says, licking at his cone. "Nancy is usually annoyed, what's so different about it now?"
Jonathan shrugs, taking his dish when Steve hands it to him. "We handle conflict differently. She had mentioned braining Tom with his sandwich so many times over the last week that I'm starting to believe her."
"Of course she's serious. It's Nancy." Jonathan scoffs lightly, and Steve watches as he starts to reach for his wallet. "Ah-ah, on the house, Jon."
Jonathan glares at him. "Steve."
Steve ignores the reaction he knew he was going to get. "We are hanging out later, yeah?
"Yeah. But—"
From behind him, a door opens and Steve turns to see Robin in the window hauling a new tub of Vanilla over it. "Catch, dingus." Steve rolls his eyes, but grabs it anyway. "Oh, hey there Byers."
"Hey Robin." Jonathan says from behind him while he opens the hull and swaps out the ice cream tub. Out of the corner of his eye, Jonathan quickly pulls a couple bills out and stuffs them in the tip jar. "Later, Steve!" He calls as he hurries out of the parlor with Will laughing beside him.
Fumbling to put the tub down and grab the (10 dollars? Jesus Christ—), he groans. "Jon!" But his boyfriend was already rounding the corner.
"Don't take them out of there, I split those tips with you!" Robin tosses her washcloth at him. Steve sighs, putting them back and turning to face Robin. She considers him for a moment, "I didn't know you were friends with Jonathan Byers."
Jonathan had mentioned having a class with Robin once before—Health, maybe—when Steve first took the job and started complaining about it, so he wasn't surprised that Robin remembered his boyfriend. She was crazy smart, and remembered the strangest things that Steve's brain wouldn't dare make room for.
But she really has no idea. "I've known him for years. Babysit his brother on occasion, too." That last part was a little bit of a stretch, considering Will was rarely without Joyce, but he was still in the group of kids Steve has looked after. Anything to make Robin stop looking at him like he was a puzzle.
Robin clicks her tongue and disappears somewhere in the back. Steve figures that Jonathan's apparent 'friendship' with Steve didn't interest her anymore, but is wrong when she pulls up the infamous YOU RULE! / YOU SUCK! whiteboard.
Steve's stomach falls to the floor when she puts the first tally in the YOU RULE! category. Quickly, he asks, "I thought this was for flirting, Robin."
"Figured I'd expand, because watching you try to talk to girls was getting too sad." She shrugs. "Now that I know you don't completely suck at human interaction, you get a tally for friendship. Isn't that nice?"
Friendship. Okay, good.
Steve just rolls his eyes. "Whatever."
Ignoring the fact that Jonathan had blatantly flirted with him ('Captain'? Shit—), Steve hoped he knew how to talk to his boyfriend of almost four years (Four whole years! In August! Holy shit). Half of him wants to cheer at the tally, but the other half knows he needs to shut his big mouth.
Robin looks at him strangely, but closes the window looking into the back. He sighs, turning back to the empty parlor, and waits.
Steve races inside his house, desperate for a shower. His parents were out of town again, because of course they were, and he was finally free of his minimum wage job. The sooner he got ready, the sooner he could pick Jonathan up before Joyce asked him home.
Sadly, Steve had also been unable to crawl through Jonathan's window as of late. After the second Upside Down-related accident, Will has been easier to wake up, and therefore made Joyce even more nervous at night. The couple times he had tried, Joyce barged into Jonathan's room and Steve was just barely able to roll under the bed. Jonathan's quiet laughter at his antics notwithstanding—it wasn't a great situation. Sleepovers also had to be spaced out as to not attract attention, because even if they've known each other for the better part of their lives, not even the Party was as clingy with their friends as Steve and Jonathan were. Sure, they had an excuse. But if Jonathan was nervous about coming out to Will, Joyce Byers was off-limits for the days to come.
Steve wasn't going to push him into anything, either; but that meant he needed to haul ass and get ready.
Steve bypasses his bedroom in favor of his bathroom, stripping off his uniform and jumping into the shower. Quickly yet thoroughly, he goes through the motions of a usual shower (skipping over a step in his hair routine, because he loves his boyfriend and he can just do it later). In record time, he is patting himself down with a towel and thinking about what he is going to wear as he walks to his room.
If he was correct, Jonathan would have dropped Will off at the Wheelers 10 minutes ago, giving him—oh Jonathan.
Jonathan was already in his room. "What the—how did you get in?"
His boyfriend laughs, "The pool door was open." He wasn't in his work clothes anymore, and even though Steve mourns the loss of the suspenders, he is glad to see Jonathan comfortable in an old band t-shirt and worn denim jeans.
Steve doesn't bother with his towel, letting it fall and striding over to where Jonathan was sitting on his bed. When Steve collapses on top of his boyfriend, he huffs out. "You broke into my house. God, I love you."
"You better, I got a stupid amount of mosquito bites walking through the forest." Jonathan looks at him with a fond gaze, kissing him sweetly before letting his head fall on the bed. "You think we're getting too old to be going through the forest? I mean, we both have cars."
Steve gets up on his hands to hover over Jonathan, jaw dropped. "Who are you and what have you done with Jonathan Byers?"
Jonathan giggles. "I can't take you seriously when you're naked."
"I'm not taking you seriously now!" Steve smiles down at Jonathan, even through his fake offense. "I mean, really? The forest is how we connected in the first place."
"We met because you threw a basketball at my head."
"Hey, I apologized for that. Also, that wasn't on purpose!" Steve shakes his head. "You're distracting me—we've shared that forest backyard all our lives and you want to ignore it now?"
Jonathan's shoulders are shaking with unbridled laughter, "Okay, okay. I'm just kidding!"
"Good." Steve leans down and peppers kisses along the stretch of Jonathan's neck, dragging his teeth along Jonathan's jaw as his boyfriend keeps laughing. When their lips meet, it is as perfect as it has always felt. From their first kiss when Steve was 15 to now, it has never stopped feeling right. Before they could get any further, Steve presses them together firmly and pulls away. "What's the plan?"
Jonathan looks up at the ceiling. "I need to get Will at 8:30, so we have around an hour and a half. You could get dressed and we can get some food, or…"
He quirks a brow, "Or?"
Jonathan looks at him, a smile spreading across his kissed-lips. The next thing Steve knows, he is flipped onto his back and is being pressed into the mattress by Jonathan's body and lips. When Jonathan gives him a moment to breathe, he slides his hands under Jonathan's shirt and pants, "Yeah, yeah. Okay, I choose 'or'."
His boyfriend laughs into his mouth, diving in for another kiss.
He loves Dustin. He really does, because the twerp is nerdy and excitable. It makes Steve think that this is what it was like to have a little brother.
But he really would like to stop getting stuck in shit situations like this.
Robin and Steve had just yelled for Dustin and Erica to run away. Steve got his head busted (again) and was getting his shit rocked (again—) by a Russian interrogator. After repeating "Scoops Ahoy" for the fiftieth time, they looked like they had enough with him; he could only hope that Robin was having better luck than he was. He bet she was. She could probably talk her way out of most situations, but Steve only knew how to talk with his fists, most of the time. And his hands were tied around his back.
So, he was knocked out again. Waking up was unpleasant as it has ever been after a concussion—unfortunately, that was a feeling he knew immediately by now—but this time he was sitting up in a metal chair.
Steve has been floating in and out of awareness, but was able to retain most of what Robin has said to him about their time in highschool. He couldn't be surprised that Robin had been some form of pissed at him, but it was shocking that she had seemed so fixated on him. He didn't get much of a chance to react fully, though, because the Russians had come back in on their failed attempt to escape, and they had just been drugged.
They made him floaty in a way he has never been before—not by weed or Jonathan's touch—this was a realized stupor. He knew he was still awake and present, but only to the extent of his fingertips and eyes; anything else was overwhelming and fumbling confusion.
He particularly didn't appreciate the bald guy aiming those plier things at his hands, because how was he meant to hold Jonathan's hand if he was hurt? Shit. Jonathan was going to be so mad—
A blaring noise comes from down the hall, and Steve and Robin can't help but to laugh. Did he summon his friends by talking about them? That's so cool.
And Dustin—Dustin was in front of him, telling him to run. He would tell Dustin about his power to summon him later, for now he was stuck in whatever cloud he… he liked it a lot.
"Have you… ever been in love?"
Robin's question catches him so off guard, that he almost laughs. He catches himself though, and instead intones, "Yeah. Still am."
The stall next to him scoffs, "Oh, yeah? What girl has caught the attention of King Steve this time?"
Steve winces, "I haven't been that guy in a long time, y'know."
"Yeah. Maybe I do." A pause. "What about… the girl?"
This was an interesting crossroads. Telling Robin about Jonathan could be good. Nancy didn't have an issue with it after they explained everything to her; no, it wasn't like she was going to understand entirely. But she wasn't a gay guy in the 80s. Steve didn't expect her to get it right away. So, it could be like Nancy. But it could also be a one-way ticket to hatecriming and an even worse coworker relationship than they had before. (Not that Russian Torture really made anything better, but y'know, silver-linings).
Steve should definitely have Jonathan's input on this though, right? But if he could be real sneaky, not saying any names, then…
He clears his throat, chest hammering until he figures he can't do this staring at a stall's wall, and he slides under it to get to where Robin is.
"The floors disgusting." Robin frowns.
"Yeah, well, I've already got a bunch of blood and puke on my shirt, so…" Steve knows he is stalling. He already admitted to having feelings for someone, so it was either lie or keeping it vague. Maybe deflection.
The look on Robin's face is confused, but a little judgemental. Yeah, scratch saying anything of value. Deflection's… good.
Robin sits up a little straighter against the wall, "You look like you're going to throw up again. Are you okay?"
"It's not a girl." He blurts out.
Well, so much for his (extremely well-thought out) plan. Fuck.
Robin stares at him, unblinking and mouth open like a fish. Steve thinks he could blame it on the truth serum. That is why they were doing this, right? To see if it was still in their system? Then maybe it's telling that he couldn't help blurting that out. Oh, Jesus Christ—
"Are you—wait…" Robin squints at him, like she's seeing him up close for the first time. "Really? You're being serious?" Steve's face must twist in a weird way because her hands fly up like she is trying to ease a scared dog. "Not that it's a bad thing! I don't think it's a bad thing—I just—I never. It's you, Steve Harrington, the guy that every girl wanted but couldn't get. You were infamous for turning people down. At some point I just thought you were just an asshole with high standards—but you're—you're gay?"
"I think it's bisexual." Steve hazards, surprised that this was somehow working out for him in a twisted sort of way. "I've just been with my uh. My boyfriend for several years… and. Yeah."
"Boyfriend." Robin sounds like she is in awe, on a cloud that she hadn't reached while high. And then she says, "I used to have a crush on Tammy Thompson."
And everything is okay for a little while.
Reuniting with Jonathan, Nancy, and the rest of the Party was something they couldn't celebrate for long because of El's leg. Even when that was fixed and Hopper, Joyce, and a half-bald guy came along, Steve and Jonathan didn't have a chance to focus on the other. There wasn't time, and this wasn't the place; but Jonathan still saw his bloodied up face and looked utterly devastated. He wanted to tell his boyfriend that he was alright. That he was still kicking (but not even he knew if he was okay or if he was purely running on adrenaline; this was way worse than Billy Hargrove's beat-down last October.)
First, they had to get through even more Upside Down bullshit. Courtesy of the Starcourt Mall's basement. Great.
Being on top of a hill with Dustin, Erica, and Robin was arguably the safest place to be right now. Success felt a little more accessible when they were able to get in contact with Bald Eagle (Martin? Matt? Steve didn't catch his name—). But leaving Jonathan behind with the remaining group didn't feel great, especially when he saw how Jonathan had been limping. He was hurt—they both were—but he couldn't do anything about that with everything happening right now.
Steve pulls himself away from the radio, feeling restless and useless now that his job of getting Dustin and Erica to this make-shift radio tower was done. He looks out across Hawkins from the vantage point they were given.
At night, their dumb little town looked just a little smaller. Steve had never hung around the crowd that made it quiet, and he never planned to, but even now it was eerily dull under the night sky.
From here, he could see the large block Starcourt took up. A ruthless way of taking up space that Steve was steadily hating more and more as minutes wasted away.
The moment lights started flashing from the Mall's translucent ceiling, Steve knew something was wrong. Over his shoulder, he calls, "Uh, guys!"
When the rest of them see what Steve was, Dustin rushes back to the radio. "Griswald Family! Come in, confirm your safety."
The thought that Jonathan, Will, El, Nancy—fuck—all of them hadn't made it out of there was sickening. Steve stands, seeing where the "Toddfather" had failed them coming up the hill, but he could still go down, he bet.
He runs down the hill. Erica's voice shouts after him, "Where are you going?!"
"To get them out of there!" Steve couldn't live with himself if something horrible happened if he was away and safe while they were in the danger zone. "Stay here! Contact the others."
He sprints down the hill and jumps into the convertible, unsurprised when Robin follows suit.
Cranking the car in reverse, he gets out of the field as fast as possible.
"What is happening?" Robin shouts over the wind.
Steve doesn't want to imagine what could be happening—flashing lights were never a good sign. "I don't know! Nothing good. If Jonathan and Nancy didn't get the kids out, and they're still there? Fuck!"
He slams his hands down on the wheel and keeps driving, taking the shortcuts he ignored the first time around because he knew cops were weird about sharp corners. But he couldn't care, not this time.
Robin puts her hand on his shoulder, "We'll make it." It isn't They're okay or They made it out, but it was what he needed.
Steve floors it.
Pulling up to the vast and empty parking lot, Steve watches Nancy shooting at a car with the sort of defiance Steve envied. It took a second for him to recognize the car, and another to see how it wasn't planning on stopping as it drove unflinchingly toward Nancy and the Station-wagon.
Steve yells, "Robin?"
Out of the corner of his eye, Robin looks to him, nodding, "Do it!"
The moment Nancy is out of bullets, Steve braces himself for the crash. Knowing it is going to be hell on his body, but not caring as he crashes full throttle into Billy Hargrove's car.
They spin out a little, the convertible groaning with the effort of effectively t-boning another car. Steve sucks in several deep breaths before turning to Robin, "Are you okay?"
Shaken, but still in one piece, his friend looks at him with wide eyes, "Ask me tomorrow?"
When a large shadow monster fucking thing hovers over the Mall, Robin and Steve book it into the back of the Station-wagon. With Billy's car on fire, and that thing gunning for them, Jonathan gets them out of there the moment Steve closes the back door.
They spend a couple horrible minutes getting onto the road before they hit smooth ground, but Steve can't relax as they watch the monster run at them with unnerving speed.
In Steve's hand, the Walkie Robin handed to him crackles to life. A voice of a young girl that Steve doesn't recognize comes through it, but they know who it is meant to be. Suzie.
After Dustin tries and fails to convince her to give them a math equation Steve had no idea existed, the next couple minutes are spent in true astonishment as Dustin and Suzie fucking sing. Steve looks to Robin in disbelief before looking to the side of him where he sees Will in a similar state. The boy shrugs, but says nothing else on the matter. A moment later after Dustin finally gets what he needed, Steve realizes.
"Wait, where are the other kids?" Steve looks to where he would have thought Mike, El, and Max would be, but the seats next to Will and Lucas were completely empty. Next, to his abject horror, the monster turns around. "It's turning around." He says, panicked.
Nancy whips around from the passenger seat. "What?"
"It's turning around. Jon, it's turning around!"
Lucas looks back at him, "Maybe we wore it out?"
Jonathan shakes his head from his place in the drivers seat. "I don't think so, hold on!"
Numbly, Steve thinks that this car can't handle much more, and that he really hopes they're going to survive what ever they're driving back into.
Steve thinks he definitely burned the side of his left hand with a firework, but that is the least of his worries.
He was driven in one of the several ambulances with Robin, considering she grabbed a hold of his arm and wouldn't let go. That was fine with him, because through his hazy mind and the several people that needed medical attention, he was glad to have something grounding him.
When he was called back first to be treated, they didn't let anyone go back with him. His nerves screamed when Robin let go of him, but he wasn't about to cause any real problems yet. His head was still messed up enough to not fully register the exam and diagnoses, but it didn't surprise him when concussion and bruised ribs were somewhere in there.
Being finally released back into the waiting room was a godsend, because Robin was there huddling by Joyce and Will as Jonathan introduced them. (A distraction, Steve thinks, because Jonathan was a good brother, and an even better friend).
Robin sees him first, and she bounds toward him with the energy of someone who didn't just fight for their life. She hugs him, loosening her grip when he winces in her ear. "I'm okay."
She laughs, senseless, "We finally got the last of the drugs out of our systems, did we?"
A minute later, she lets go of him, and Steve turns slightly to see Jonathan.
Steve didn't care that they were in front of a crowd of people that they all knew and kept their relationship from, he gathered Jonathan into his arms without hesitation. He briskly laughs when they both hiss ouch when they wrap their arms around the other, but he doesn't dare let go. He nudges his face into Jonathan's neck, breathing in the smokiness from fireworks and the tinny blood from his own nose. Steve closes his eyes and lets him feel Jonathan's warmth, because they survived another goddamn disaster.
"Y'know," Jonathan rasps next to his ear. "I'm getting sick of you getting beat up."
Steve's ribs hurt when he laughs, but he doesn't care. He opens his eyes, looking up to see Robin. Robin, who stands a polite distance away and is potentially (and unintentionally) blocking Joyce and Will's view of the two of them. Robin, who looks at Steve and Jonathan with an indescribable softness. Robin, who's expression is full of dawning realization.
"Oh. He's your…" She trails off in time, but Jonathan still pulls away to look at her.
Jonathan looks a little terrified, so Steve jumps in because he can't take that look again today. "Robin's great, Jonathan. She ever tell you about, uh…"
He looks to her, and she seems to understand immediately, "Tammy! Remember her? Maybe you don't, because you weren't in Click's class, but I always wanted to, y'know be friends with her."
Jonathan looks between the two of them, and sighs. "Oh."
Steve grins, "Yeah. Oh."
Sneaking into Jonathan's room is a task he is well familiar with by now, it takes almost no effort anymore.
Tonight, however, was the result of Joyce not wanting to leave Steve alone for the night after getting bruised and bloodied. She invited him back to the Byers abode, and insisted he make himself at home. Steve only agreed when he was able to make sure Robin got home okay. Even if Robin's parents were confused on why their daughter's coworker insisted on seeing Robin home, Steve was glad he did it anyway.
El was also staying with them, the loss of Hopper too much to bear alone, and Joyce took her in without hesitating. Steve knew from the soldiers that came into the parking lot earlier that the losses amounted were all going to be blamed on some fire or gas leak. It still didn't make it any better, though.
Steve was relegated to the couch, as El took the guest room, but when the house was quiet and he couldn't stay away any longer, he crept into Jonathan's room.
He was already wearing his boyfriend's clothes. The Smiths shirt was tight around his waist and the sweatpants cut off above his ankles, but he didn't care. Steve's face was thoroughly cleaned by Jonathan, the hospital's job not cutting it this time, apparently. The painkillers he was given were doing their job, but the bone deep exhaustion and how sore he felt weren't going away.
Jonathan lets him in without a word. They crawl into Jonathan's twin bed gingerly, and situate themselves with minimal wincing and pain. They lay facing each other, Steve on his side that didn't push his swollen eye into the pillow, and Jonathan off his messed up back.
Fingers that always ran cold traced the lines of Steve's face, carefully applying little to no pressure. The cut on Steve's lip was going to scar, and his brain might never be the same if he gets another concussion, but he was here. Breathing.
In an effort to be closer, but not hurt Jonathan, Steve places a hand on his boyfriend's hip and slides closer. He feels Jonathan's breath on his face, and he can't take it any longer. A broken sob shakes his chest, "Fuck, you were in the car. When—when Billy was—"
"Steve." Jonathan's voice is not reprimanding or offended, but shaking and watery because Jonathan has always been a sympathetic crier. It was one of the things that amazed Steve, because years prior, he couldn't fathom having that much care and love in one person. But of course Jonathan did, and, god, he was so fucking lucky.
Tears fall down both of their faces, and Steve leans in to kiss him, but Jonathan hesitates. "Steve, your lip—"
"Jon, baby, please. I could give less of a fuck about my lip if you don't kiss me right now—"
Jonathan laughs through his tears and kisses him. It doesn't stop being perfect, but it was more painful than usual. Jonathan was gripping his hair, like he was trying not to pull it, but was failing. Its a mess of tears and teeth, and Steve thinks he has never had something greater than kissing Jonathan to know he was alive. He was here, and he didn't die in that stupid fucking building where Steve worked his stupid fucking summer job.
He whines when Jonathan pulls away, but his boyfriend rubs at his lip with a thumb. Jonathan is petting the butterfly bandage on his lip, making sure it is in place. "We're okay." He breathes it out, shaky and real.
"Okay," He says, "okay."
Jonathan tucks Steve's head into his neck, and Steve can finally unwind for the night.