Here's chapter four to my stranger things fic, hope you enjoy it and remember I don't own Stranger Things :)

Dustin

Dustin could hear the guys still laughing over how nervous Violet was as he went to get the door. He opened it, expecting some jock or pretty boy to be standing there, (although Steve is technically both) but it was Steve standing there, he had his hands behind his back so the flowers were hidden. "False alarm!" Dustin called to the living room. It's just Steve." Dustin laughed.

"Uh hey Dust-"

"What are you doing here man? I thought you were busy tonight" Dustin asked, leaning against the door

"That's the thing...I didn't realize I had plans with you..." He gestures meaninglessly to try and get out his rapidly building nervous energy, accidentally shaking the flowers in Dustin's face.

"What's with the flowers?" Came Lucas's voice as he got up and stood in the doorway to the living room. Understanding dawned on Dustin's face and he looked at Steve with slightly wild eyes. "Tell me you didn't man"

Steve rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand. "Listen Dustin. We didn't do anything...she just spent the night and we got to talking. That's all"

"She spent the what?!" Will and Mike were now peering over Lucas's shoulders as Dustin looked over his shoulder at them. "Why don't I believe that? Steve 'The Hair' Harrington didn't do anything with a girl when he spent the night with her" He turned back to Steve. "That's my sister!"

Steve nodded looking completely out of his element "Yep...I'd figured that much at this point Dusty."

"Don't call me that! She's so excited and worked up over my FRIEND. Not cool dude!"

"I know and I'm sorry! Had I known you had a sister I would have gladly asked your permission to ask her out but I didn't know you even had one!" He says, exasperatedly. "Any help from the peanut gallery?" he asks looking to the silent three.

"Nope, we're just here to watch you dig the hole." Mike mutters

"Are you guys ok down there?" came Violet's voice as she came to the top of the stairs.

"Vi! Are you dating Steve?!" Dustin called, his voice cracking as he did. She traipses down the stairs looking wary of the scene taking place in front of the still open door. "Um...yes. Do you know him?"

"Yes. Why didn't you tell me?!" He looks at her accusatorially. Violet rolls her eyes "How am I to know that you are friendly with some random senior at my school that I hadn't even met before Dustin?" Dustin has the good sense to look a little sheepish before turning to Steve. "What's your excuse?"

Steve sighs "Well first off, I didn't know you had a sister at all, let alone one that's so pretty." He flashes Violet a grin before returning his eyes to Dustin "And I didn't know her last name either. So I had no clue that she was your sister...although she did mention her nerdy little brother in middle school...I should have guessed it was one of you four" He grins.

Dustin scowls at him but moves backwards "Come in and shut the door. The neighbors don't need to hear about you and my sister...doing things" He muttered. Steve shut the door behind him as Violet looked at her brother in shock "Dustin!" she says in a deadly whisper "What I do or don't do with my date is none of your business."

She comes the rest of the way down the stairs and turns to Steve "Are those for me?" She asks with a smile at the now slightly wilted flowers. He nods wordlessly and holds them out to her, rubbing the back of his neck. "This is more awkward than I was expecting."

She rolls her eyes "I should have known it was going to be weird. I just thought it would be because my brother's friends wouldn't leave...but I guess you know all of them already don't you?"

"Yeah, but most of the time I feel like the babysitter." He laughs earning rolled eyes from the younger teens.

"Well thank you for the flowers Steve, it's really sweet of you" She smiles shyly as she takes a whiff of the flowers.

"Do not get all gushy in front of us please!" Lucas teases, turning to return to the living room. "You didn't have to stay!" Violet hisses, turning to go to the kitchen. Intending to put the flowers in water to save what life they had left since Steve had shaken them all over the place.

Steve followed her into the kitchen as she fussed with the flowers "Did you cook?" he asks looking at the pots on the stove.

"Nothing fancy, just spaghetti. I hope I made enough, I didn't expect to feed the neighborhood plus us. Do you mind?" She asks as she fills a glass pitcher with water.

"No...I just don't know why they all wanted to stay, they didn't know it would be me" He chuckles

"Well...they all knew me before I moved away with my dad. I was actually the one to introduce D&D to them...I can't believe they're still playing. I thought for sure they'd quit after I left...anyway...we were all pretty close. I felt like they were all my baby brothers, I just didn't know they thought similarly." She arranges the daffodils in the pitcher with misty eyes, a smile ghosting over her lips.

"So...they just wanted to gang up on the boy you were going out with?" Steve smirks at the thought, they could certainly handle most...after that fight with Billy...

"That's what it seemed like. More like they wanted to see me struggle to flirt." She laughs, "I'd better feed them before they get rabid though. So how do you know them?" She asks, opening the cabinet with bowls and beginning to portion the pasta.

"Uh, well I used to go out with Mike's older sister. Then when she and I broke up she got with Will's older brother."

"Jonathan?"

"Yeah, you know him?"

"Well enough, he and I weren't friends but I think he's nice. He kept to himself when I was here" Violet shrugs "Anyway, continue"

"Well...they got together and somehow...I got roped into babysitting these four knuckleheads on...outings."

She looked at him "Outings? What...like camping?"

Steve struggled to find the words for a moment "More like field trips, you know arcade, the mall, taking them up to the lake..."

"Oh that's sweet...so like an older brother kind of thing?" She hands him a bowl of pasta with a grin, him nodding to her assumption. "Well I'm glad my baby brother had someone like you looking out for him" She kisses his cheek and hands him another bowl. "Deliver food to the gremlins?"

"Yeah I'd better feed them before midnight" he laughs. He heads into the living room, Lucas was sitting in front of the tv, readying the vhs player for the movie. He hands off the bowls to Mike and Will on the couch.

"Shouldn't you be buttering up her little brother?" Dustin sniggers.

"Well according to her she's got four, and here I am with only two hands" Steve laughs. Before long the whole gang is sitting in the living room, dinner in hand, and The Thing beginning to play on the screen. Violet was sitting on the couch with Steve and Dustin, Will had taken over the old easy chair, leaving Mike and Lucas to sit on the floor to watch. They made it a third of the way through the movie before Valerie got up to put her dirty dishes in the sink and use the restroom. She'd hardly left the room before Lucas sprang up and took her spot on the couch.

"Dude?" Steve groaned "Come on, she was sitting there"

"She got up, seat was for grabs, besides there will be no hanky panky anyway. So you might as well sit with us guys" He laughs. Mike smirks from his spot on the floor "I guess she's banished to the floor with me"

It was only a few minutes before she was back, she entered and rolled her eyes at the boys antics "Every time." she mumbles but she has a mischievous edge to her smile now that only Steve notices. She walks up to the end of the couch where Steve was sat, she slides into his lap and looks back at him, their noses almost touching. "This ok?"

"No! NO" came the scandalized boys.

"What?!" She giggles "Lucas took my spot! I didn't want to sit on the floor, and Steve had a spot for me!" She's grinning even as a blush rises in her cheeks yet again. "As long as he's ok with it right?" She looks at him again and he gives her a small nod with a smile.

"Of course he thinks it's cool" Will mutters. "Here Violet you can have my seat." Will gets up and gestures to the chair.

"You guys are nuts" she rolls her eyes but gets into the easy chair all the same. Will takes a seat on the floor with Mike and they watch the rest of the movie without too much incident. The credits began to roll and Violet begins cleaning up dishes with the help of Steve. Once in the kitchen he looks at her seriously "I can do those if you want..."

"Nah, I'm always cleaning up after them. It won't be the first time I'm left to do dishes. Besides, you're a guest Steve, you've done too much already. I'm a terrible hostess" She smiles gently at him and goes to turn on the water when she feels him wrap his arms around her middle, setting his lips at the crook of her neck.

"You're good with them you know..."

Violet leans her head onto his and lets her hands rest over his "You are too...I didn't know that was a requirement in a boyfriend...sorry...date"

"I don't know, I like that title. Boyfriend...at least for school I should don that name...right?" He kisses her neck as he speaks, causing Violet to shiver slightly.

"Outside school could be nice too...you'd be my first...my first boyfriend" she rubs her fingers along the back of his hands thoughtfully. He continues to press gentle, almost feather light kisses on her neck and shoulder. "Well I'm honored."

"Hey! Not in the kitchen!" Came Will's voice, Steve stepped back with a sheepish smile and turned to him. "Sorry..." Will rolls his eyes and picks the phone off of the receiver and dials. Violet rolls her eyes and begins washing the dishes, missing the warmth of Steve's arms around her already.

Steve returns to the living room and sits down awkwardly, hearing Will's muffled phone call home. Dustin is sitting on the floor, rewinding the vhs tape and looking thoughtful. "Out with it Henderson" Steve says quietly

"I was just...listen the fact that you're dating my sister still kind of bothers me. But I'm not going to do anything about it. You'd just...you'd better be better than you were with Nancy. OK?"

"Duh..."

"AND...and I was going to ask you this anyway...even if you weren't dating her. I'm going to camp in a couple weeks. I'll be gone for a while and with mom working so many hours she's going to be alone in the house a lot. After dart...after dart I worry about what could happen if I'm not here. So i want you to check up on her ok?"

"Yeah...of course. I'll make sure she's ok"

"That does NOT mean you're going to do gross things to her man...just keep her safe." Dustin isn't looking at Steve, keeping his eyes trained on the ground. "Promise?"

"I promise" Steve says soberly

"What are we promising?" Violet walks in the room, drying a bowl with a small hand towel.

"Just that I won't be gross and gushy with you in his highness's presence. Nothing too harsh" Steve gives his most charming smile, running a hand through his hair.

"You're doing on purpose now I know it" She grins "Trying so hard to be hot but trying to be cool about it." She turns, shaking her head as she goes back to the kitchen. Dustin shoots him a warning look but then smiles slightly "You make her smile...just keep that part up...I guess"

"So...why'd she move back?" Lucas and Mike look up from the couch and their eyes drift to Dustin who's stiffened on the floor, looking at the vhs in his hands.

"Our uh...our dad kicked the bucket. And she's not 18 so I guess she had to come home. I haven't really asked." His tone is eerily even as he speaks, putting the vhs back in it's box.

"Oh...I'm sorry man..."

"Don't be. I haven't seen him since I was 8. He was a dick." Dustin stood and dropped the tape on the coffee table. "I don't know how she feels about it...she may have actually liked him." He mutters "Night guys, I'm going to head to bed. Jonathan is picking you guys up right?" He asks, turning to the two other boys on the couch. They nod and Dustin leaves without another word, his footsteps thudding up the stairs slowly and stop over their heads. The soft shutting of a door was heard just as a set of headlights illuminates the front windows.

"That must be Jonathan." Lucas says quietly, looking to Steve. Violet and Will come into the room laughing over something but stop as they enter the room. "Everything ok?" Violet asks

"Yeah, Steve just asked Dustin about your dad. That's all" Mike says as he pulls on his jacket. "He's fine I swear Vi." She nods and ushers the boys out, waving to Jonathan from the front porch. When she steps back in and turns off the porch light she turns to Steve. "Do you want to know the ugly truth or would you rather wait for it?" She's got her arms crossed as she seems to stare through his soul.

"Are you comfortable telling me?"

"Yes...I...I haven't talked to Dusty about it. And I know mom won't. So that's an ugly thing I'll have to deal with." Violet sighs, moving to sit on the couch before she looks back into Steve's face. "It started when I was 11...he walked out. Clean enough break from the family, just packed a bag and moved out. Mom was rough for a while but she had us and she got over it. He never called, he never wrote, and he never visited. It was like he died. Not that Dusty or I were upset. He was an awful...mean spirited person. But around my 12th birthday he finally called mom. They'd already gotten a divorce and he was paying child support for the two of us...he was tired of paying it to be short. So he told mom that he didn't want to pay it anymore and mom couldn't afford the payments if he got custody...so he came up with a solution. He takes one kid, mom takes the other. Parent trap style" Violet laughs wryly before going on.

"That way the payments would cancel each other out. In his head I guess. He wanted Dustin to go, a father and son idea probably...but he was still so young in his way. He was being bullied by then for all of his little quirks. But he had mom and his friends to help him through. If he'd gone he never would have...he'd have had no one. He would have been bullied at home too." Mom knew she couldn't afford to go to court over it and so...I volunteered to go. I couldn't let Dustin go...and it's not like I had many friends keeping me here. So a few months later I moved in with him."

Steve sits next to her and slides his hand into hers "So he doesn't know that you left for him to stay?"

"Nope. He knows I volunteered to go...he knows that I didn't write or visit much, he knows I called even less. I was so scared he would hate me for that...I think he resents me a little for it...but not hate. His hearts' too big for him to hate me." She's misty eyed again. "God what a downer for your first day as my boyfriend. This is your out Harrington." She looks at him with a watery smile

"I don't need an out...it's a lot for anyone to deal with. So when you need to talk...I'm here. And if you need a shoulder to cry on...I've been told I have sexy shoulders" He waggles his eyebrows playfully making her giggle. "But seriously...you should probably talk to him about it if you're so worried about it." She nods and lays her head on his shoulder. "I really like you Steve"

"I like you too Violet. I'd better go before your brother threatens me though...I've got to be a total gentleman for a bit." She giggles and leans up, pressing her lips to his cheek.

"Doesn't seem to be much of an issue for you" After one or two more silent moments Steve leans over and kisses her, just a sweet chaste kiss before he gets up. "Thanks for dinner and a movie, how about I take you out next Friday? First night of summer...we could go do something fun."

"Sounds perfect" Violet walks him out to his car and watches from the porch as he drives off into the earily quiet night. Normally by this time of the season crickets were singing their nightly songs...odd.