Author's Note: We're almost at the end of the road my friends, 5-8 more chapters left! Hope you enjoy this one!

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Jonathan ask, his fingers brushing Nancy's elbow carefully.

Nancy sucked in a breath and shook her head. "Nope. But we're doing it anyway."

"Okay." Jonathan said, bouncing from foot to foot anxiously. "He might be drunk."

Nancy bit her lip and grabbed Jonathan's hand, squeezing briefly. "He will be drunk. He's been every single day at school, when he has come to school."

"Yeah," Jonathan said. "He'll be drunk. You sure you want to do this?"

Nancy swallowed and nodded. "We're here, aren't we? Let's do this."

Jonathan nodded and reached forward, pressing the doorbell once.

They were in front of Steve Harrington's house, intent on attempting to mend their relationship and offer their friendship to Steve. They had both noticed Steve's ungraceful decline, and felt guilty about it. He may not have been the best in the past, but he had tried to fix things, and that counted for something.

The door slammed open, and Steve's little brother Troy stood in the door frame. Though he was smaller than Jonathan and Nancy, his presence was large, and fairly pissed off when he saw Nancy and Jonathan.

"You broke up with my brother." Troy stated, crossing his arms.

Nancy shifted. "Well… yes."

"And you haven't talked to him since. That's just rude. And you," Troy changed his gaze so he was glaring up at Jonathan, who had the decency to look a bit shaken. "You're Will's brother. Has he…" Troy's cheeks pinked, but his gaze sharpened as if pretending he wasn't blushing. "Has he mentioned me? Troy?"

Jonathan hesitated for a moment, then said, "I… don't think so? Are you friends?"

Troy broke his gaze with Jonathan to look at his own shoes. They were sneakers, clean and blackish blue. "No, we aren't friends. Maybe soon though."

Nancy exchanged a glance with Jonathan. Understanding passed between them.

"You like my brother?" Jonathan asked carefully, softly.

Troy stiffened. He stepped out of the doorway. "You can come in. Steve's in his room, you know where it is. Knock or you might regret it." Troy turned on his heel to go, but then turned back to say, "I don't like your brother. Not like that."

"It's okay." Jonathan said. "I won't tell him."

Troy frowned and sit onto the floor once, bitterly, as if he hated that everyone could just know except for the one person he wanted to. Then he walked away.

"C'mon," Nancy squeezed Jonathan's hand, tugging him gently toward the stairwell. "His room is this way."

"Should we go after Troy?" Jonathan asked, a little confused by Troy's behavior.

Nancy shook her head. "That boy just needs a good think. Let's go talk to Steve."

"Okay." Jonathan said, and allowed Nancy to pull him up the stairs. He tried not to think about how Nancy knew where Steve's room was. She had chosen him in the end, after all, and he was nothing if not grateful for that.

Nancy was the one to knock. She rapped the door with her knuckles. "Steve?" She called.

"Come in… ya know, if you really want to." Steve's voice came, gravelly with alcohol and sleep deprivation.

Jonathan pushed open the door, and the door swept empty cans and cigarette butts across the floor. The room smelled overwhelmingly of beer and smoke. Steve was sat on the floor directly across from the door, his back against the crease of the wall. His hair was greasy and disheveled, and his eyes were bloodshot, and he wore only a left sock. In his right hand he had an empty bottle, and in his left, an unlit cigarette.

Jonathan and Nancy cautiously entered the room, both in a bit of a shock at just how far gone Steve was. The ceiling was smudgy with soot.

Steve regarded them for a moment, then looked down at the cigarette. He put down the bottle, and held the cigarette reverently between his fingers. With fascination, he said, "It's nice, isn't it? Pretty? I don't want it though." He snapped it in half and threw it on the floor. "I'm tired, guys. So tired."

All the pride and power seemed to have been sapped from Steve. Was nothing sacred? Jonathan and Nancy both looked down at Steve with sadness and pity.

"Let's get you cleaned up, okay?" Nancy said, voice soft.

Steve said nothing, just nodded. He was done.

Nancy turned to Jonathan. "You take him to shower, alright? I'm going to get Troy to help me clean up this room."

Jonathan nodded, then let go of Nancy's hand and instead offered it to Steve. "Let's go, yeah?"

Jonathan pulled Steve up, and Steve leaned on him the entire walk to the bathroom. Nancy watched them go, then called out, "Troy!"

She heard the trudging of feet until the boy stood in Steve's doorframe. "Yeah?"

"We're cleaning this up. Where are your cleaning supplies?"

"Downstairs. Why?" Troy asked.

"We're gonna fix your brother, that's why."

Troy smiled, tears pricking in his eyes. "Took you long enough."

Jonathan lead Steve to the bathroom, and lucky it was separated into two sections, so the shower was not in view from the other room. Jonathan didn't think that Steve would be able to be alone without at least some emotional support, but the last thing he wanted was to see his girlfriend's ex-boyfriend's genitalia.

"Steve. Steve, I'm going to turn on the shower for you, okay?" Jonathan spotted a cup on the counter, and he rinsed it before filling it up and handing it to Steve. "Drink this, okay? We need to try to somber you up."

Steve acknowledged Jonathan by taking the cup and starting to sip.

Jonathan started the shower, the hissing of the water cut through their silence.

"Do you hate me?" Jonathan asked quickly, half hoping Steve wouldn't hear him with the water running.

"No." Steve croaked. "Do you hate me?"

Jonathan shook his head. "No."

"I'm…" Steve interrupted himself by taking a sip. "Wow. Water is good. Okay. I'm happy for you two, really. It's just a little hard, you know? 'Cuz it reminds me that I don't have anyone."

"I get that." Jonathan murmured, remembering back to before he had met Nancy and even Steve.

"No, no you don't. You always had Will. That's someone." Steve said.

"Well, you have Troy. We both had someone. That doesn't mean we couldn't be lonely, though." Jonathan said. "I'm not lonely anymore, though. You won't be either, okay?" Jonathan frowned, rubbing his elbow. "I don't really like people. In general. But even when you were being a mega-asshole, I could never really hate you. I understood you too much."

Steve took another long sit and set his empty glass on the rim of the counter. Then, he stuck out his hand for Jonathan to shake. "Friends?"

Jonathan raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Don't expect me to do any lovey-dovey shit, Byers. Shake it or leave it."

Jonathan cracked a grin and shook Steve's hand. "Friends."

"Now, get out. I'm not taking a shower if there's a chase you can see my junk." Steve said callously. Jonathan smiled and left, happiness seeping in. Some of Steve was returning to him, and for some reason, Jonathan enjoyed having the cocky side of Steve back. It was amusing.

They were going to get along just fine.

Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed this chapter! See you soon guys!