Three days! That was the longest break I've ever taken between chapters for this fic. Sorry it took so long, I had a pretty bad case of writers block at the same time as not really feeling the fic anymore. But I'm back and ready to write now!
I'm trying to make it up to you guys with a 2,000+ word chapter, is that good enough?
So here, have some Apologetic Steve and Vicious Lilith!
Dedicated to 3CHOES for their sweet reviews and overall niceness. All of it makes me feel better when I'm down on myself and this fic. Thanks to you, sweetness!
She's aware of the pain before she's even awake.
She ignores it for as long as she can before it wakes her up completely, and she gets out of bed to go check her face in the bathroom mirror. Sure enough, the spot where Steve's hand connected with her cheek is a dull purple. It looks more like she had an accident than someone hit her. She touches the light purple splotch and winces.
Whatever he had been fighting in that nightmare must have been terrifying to make his flail that hard.
She rubs her tailbone, trying to work out the soreness from the fall that came after the fist. Her current bruises aren't as bad as some of the stuff she's been through before but it still hurts quite a bit. She stretches as well, hands on her hips as she twists the top half of her body left to right, then arches her back until it pops in a good way. She sighs in relief. Steve's extra comfy bed is way too soft compared to the shitty mattress in her trailer that she's used to, and her sore back after sharing it with him is proof of that.
"Lil?"
She turns to find a very dejected looking Steve in the door of the bathroom, staring at the towel bar on the left wall. She smiles when he finally looks at her, but it falters when a look of shock crosses over his face.
"Oh my God..." he whines when he sees the barely-there bruise, "Does it hurt? Do you need ice?"
It hurts a little but she doesn't think it requires ice, and Steve needs to calm the Hell down. She's a big girl -if you ignore the 'crawling into bed with him when she has a nightmare' thing- and she can handle herself just fine.
"Dude, chill." She says softly, taking a few steps towards him. "I'm fine."
"But-"
She gives him a look and he stops talking instantly. Arguing over something like this will get them nowhere, they both know that.
He closes the gap between them with one long step forward, looking at her for a second before he takes her face between his hands. She stops breathing, the cogs in her brain stops working and her face heats up as internal panic alarms start blaring. She closes her eyes, hoping that it might help her calm down a bit.
Too close, too close, too close!
He brushes his thumb over the bruise and despite how it barely made contact with the discoloured skin, she still feels a twinge of pain.
Shit, shit, shit, shit...
She opens her eyes. He's looking down at her with puppy-dog eyes and a half smile that makes her melt in a weird way, and she lets out a content sigh.
Cute, cute, cu- No, stop it!
She clears her throat awkwardly. His hands drop to his sides. Both of their faces are red now.
"You really wanna make it up to me?" She asks, just to get rid of the awkward silence; she doesn't actually want anything.
"Definitely." He replies.
"Buy me breakfast."
He smiles down at her, "That's it? You're not guna, like, hit me back or something?"
"You get beat up at least once a year, I think that's enough." She smirks at him, "Plus, I don't believe in 'an eye for an eye'."
"One breakfast doesn't make up for a bruised face!"
"You're letting me live rent-free in your house, risking an eternal grounding because the 'rents aren't in on it." She shrugs, "I think that and a really good breakfast would even it out."
He gives up with a sigh, and tells her to go get changed. "We leave in twenty."
She gives him a double thumbs up and a wink as she walks into his bedroom backwards to get some fresh clothes. He follows her to get his own, stopping dead in his tracks when he catches her in the middle of undressing. He backs out and closes the door. She didn't even close the door! What kind of girl does that with a guy in the house?!
The wait for his turn isn't long. She comes back out ten minutes later in clean clothes and fresh make-up.
Why she she always wears baggy sweaters, ripped jeans, and thick black eye make-up Steve will never understand, but she rocks it every time. And who is he to mess with what works?
He doesn't take as long to change and then they're off, two minutes down the road from his house when he asks her where she wants to go. She just shrugs. There are only three diners in or around Hawkins to choose from! How can she not know or care about where they go?
The diner Lilith used to work at is a no-go on account of her punching the boss before she quit. And the place that used to be Benny's is okay, but the new guy just isn't as good as Benny was. Plus, it's a few minutes outside of Hawkins and Steve doesn't want to go that far just for food. With the other options crossed off his mental list they end up at a small place in the downtown area. It's cute and almost completely empty, and he knows they serve some pretty wicked food. Especially on slow days, when they don't have to rush through making all the food.
They grab a booth in the back, order four different kinds of pancakes, and relax while they wait.
Steve goes back to staring at the bruise next to Lilith's mouth, guilt suddenly heavier in his chest than before. How were pancakes supposed to make up for that? He saw her cringe when he barely even touched the darkening spot earlier. It hurt, of course it hurt, he was swinging full-force at a lunging Demodog but hit Lilith instead.
Lilith has her sketchbook out in front of her as usual, etching out the starting lines of the waitress across the room as she cleans a table. He guesses that most of the time her sketches are done just to keep her skills sharp, and that the others are more special; like she planned them or spent hours on them. He isn't sure if he's right but he likes the idea.
Her hand stills and she looks up to get another eye-full of the waitress. But instead of looking back down to resume her drawing, her now wide eyes focus on something else and follow it along the room. She looks one part scared and another part surprised.
"What's wrong?" He asks.
She's staring at five fairly familiar faces. She can't remember the names of two of them, but the other three she will always recognize. They're on her list. The list of people she can't stand.
Tommy and his girlfriend Carol are sitting next to Billy, along with the two nameless girls that followed them in.
Steve starts to turn so he can see what she sees, Lilith now realizing just how grateful she is that Steve took the seat with it's back to the door. She stops him by leaning across the table and grabbing his chin, turning his face to hers.
"Don't." she orders, her voice dropping an octave. "This morning has been good so far and I want it to stay that way."
"Who's back there?"
She lets go of his chin and sits back down, "Hargrove and the usual pricks."
He grumbles something she doesn't quite understand, then sighs.
"That just means we get to hang here for a while, at least until they leave. And here is better than home with your little brother."
He cracks a smile again, "True."
Apparently 'a while' meant 'two hours' because that's how long they waited. They ate the original four orders of pancakes, then ended up getting another out of sheer boredom. Lilith goes through the last few pages of her sketchbook practicing inanimate objects, as well as trying to teach Steve how to draw less like a four year old.
She slides into the spot next to him, boxing him in, to make it easier for her see what she was teaching him. Niether of them were going to complain about to the new closeness; shoulder to shoulder and sometimes Lilith's hand around Steve's to guide it.
"Awe, how cute." A voice coos.
They both freeze, then look towards the owner of the voice. Of course it's the people they were actively avoiding by loitering in the back for so long. And the first of them to speak had been the open-mouth gum-chewing Carol. The noise grates on Lilith's nerves, and she isn't sure she'll be able to control herself if it continues.
"New girlfriend already, Stevey?" She asks, Tommy coming up to rest his arm over her shoulders and laugh along.
Lilith clenches her fists under the table, counting to ten in her head and taking deep breaths. Steve huffs and looks away from his former best friends.
"You're being sorta rude, Harrington." Tommy sneers with a smirk.
Billy, being the biggest ass of them all, slides into the empty bench that used to be Lilith's seat and smiles at them. It's a disgusting smirk that makes her skin crawl, which she guesses was his intention.
"She's cute, gotta admit that." He says, voice sickly sweet. "What're you two doing back here?"
Before either of them can respond or protest, Billy slaps his hand down on the sketchbook and slides it towards himself. Lilith has to hold back the animalistic growl that threatens to come up, clenching her jaw as hard as she can to keep everything in. Steve glares at him and clenches his own jaw as Tommy and Carol slide in too.
Billy is already flipping through her book with that nasty smirk still on his face.
"Woooow," he gives a low whistle as he turns another page, "These are pretty good."
Carol leans over to see what he's looking at, "Looks like nobody knew they were posing for these." She smack her gum again and it makes Lilith twitch.
Tommy laughs, "So, first Byers and his camera, now girly over here and her pencil. This town is full of stalkers, huh?"
"I'm actually kind of insulted that you didn't draw us." Billy says, gesturing to the three of them.
Steve grabs her wrist under the table as if to say 'it's fine, stay calm' but she isn't listening. She narrows her eyes and unclenches her jaw, pushing Steve's hand away so she can bring her fists up and slam them hard against the tabletop.
"There's a list of people I wont draw for a bunch of reasons. You're on that list, Hargrove." She looks to the couple and nods once, "You guys, too. And the only time I've really seen you, Billy, is when you're being a downright douche to everyone around you. Same with them. I'm not wasting paper or led on people like you."
Their smirks disappear, turning into glares and frowns.
She rips her sketchbook out from under Billy's hands, then leans over the table to grab her bag from between him and the wall and stuffs the book inside it. She stands to leave, but stops suddenly and slams her hands down on the table. Her glass of water falls over and splashes Billy's chest and lap, even though the table never shook. The syrup container copies the glass, tipping over to pour it's contents all over the gross 'love-birds' next to him.
So she didn't control her temper very well, but they deserved that and much worse.
"You ever screw with us or your little sister and her friends again, and I'll be on your ass so fast you won't know what hit you." She lowers herself a bit, hands still on the table, and stares right into his eyes. "You hear me?"
He glares back at her and flicks some of the water on his hands at her. She doesn't blink or flinch, even when some of the water hits her face.
"Glad we understand each other, King Dipshit."
She grabs Steve by the arm and drags him out of the diner, leaving the three assholes at the booth to pay for their food. Sticking the bullies with the bill wasn't intentional, but she knew they wouldn't be allowed to leave until money was left for the order. And the waitress was sort of Lilith's friend, a nice older woman that sometimes gave her free food when she was short on cash when she was younger. She wouldn't be too mad as long as Lilith went back later to explain.
They get in the car and speed off before anyone can chase after them.
"Jesus, Lil." Steve says, seemingly exasperated. "School is guna be Hell now."
"Well-" She starts, but her thoughts are too jumbled to continue.
She doesn't have an excuse anyways. All she can think about at that moment is that her quiet life is about to get pretty Goddamn loud. There are going to be rumors and probably some bullying, and it was going to be her fault. She was the one who retaliated, the one who covered the three of them in whatever she could find on the table, the one who gave in to her stupid fucking feelings.
She also might have just made Steve's life worse...
She groans and drops her head onto the dashboard, hard.
She really needs to work on her anger management somehow. Maybe take a class or get some pills to even her out. She knows why her emotions are unstable. Who wouldn't be after everything she went through when she was little? She's sure the others are just as mood-swingy as she is, if they're even alive.
"I'm sorry..." she grumbles, head still resting against the dash.
He shrugs, "I can take it. But I know you like being invisible."
She nods.
"Are you guna be okay?"
"As long as you don't abandon me when it gets tough."
He smiles, holding back a small laugh because he feels like it would be rude to do that right now, then tells her he isn't going anywhere anytime soon. She smiles too, finally lifting her head to stare at him for a minute. Then she turns to the windshield and watches the houses pass by as they drive up the road to his place.
The 'Billy and Crew' drama is necessary for some stuff later on in the fic, I promise.
:D
I hope y'all enjoyed the chapter. I'll be back within the next week with another one.