Will's turn! While everyone's sleeping, Will has a nightmare. He finds Steve in the kitchen and brings out Will the Wise wisdom.
Will shakily walked down the hall.
He really hated the Mind Flayer.
It was only a few hours ago when he was still possessed, but that honestly felt like a lifetime.
Will cringed when he stepped on a creaky floorboard.
He had to be quiet. From what he could tell, everyone was asleep.
When he'd woken up, El was asleep in his room. Passing his mom's room he heard snoring. And, even though the light was on, he knew Nancy and Johnathan were sleeping.
Will peered out in the living room, he saw that his friends were asleep. He smiled when he saw that Lucas and Max were turned towards each other. They must have been talking before they passed out.
So, like stated before, everyone was asleep.
Except one person.
Will shuffled into the kitchen and nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw someone sitting at the counter.
Steve also looked startled, but put it aside and apologized.
Will tried not to grimace when he looked at Steve's face. It did not look good.
Steve noticed this and chuckled.
"It's not as bad as it looks." he rasped.
"It's worse?" Will guessed, raising his eyebrows.
Steve gave him a small smile and a shrug.
Will walked to the fridge, rummaged through it for a moment, and took out the milk jug.
Ignoring Steve questioning look, Will went to the cupboard and moved packages around, emerging with a package of cookies.
"Want some?" he asked.
Steve nodded, getting up and helping Will pour the milk.
Once the two of them had a plate full of cookies and glasses of milk in front of them, Steve glanced of at Will.
"So, how was your day?" he asked.
Will snorted into his milk. "Did you seriously just ask me that?"
Steve shrugged. "Just trying to start conversation."
"Well then, my day landed on the list of worst days ever. How bout yours?" Will asked.
"Up there with yours. But maybe a couple down on the list." Steve replied.
Will nodded.
The two fell in comfortable silence.
"Steve?"
Steve hummed.
"Do you think anything will ever be normal again?"
Steve stopped mid bite and sighed. "No."
Will looked down into his milk.
"But." Steve clapped his hand on Will's shoulder. "We can make a new normal. It'll look messy, no doubt. But we'll make it work."
Will shot the older boy a small smile.
Steve studied the boy for a moment. "So, how are you doing?"
Will paused, cookie halfway in his mouth.
"You don't have to tell me. Just wondering. I mean I'd be freaked out. Like, why target me? Of all people?" Steve rambles.
Will shrugged. "I guess. I mean, I'm totally freaked out, and... probably not okay. But- well, I'm not glad I got targeted. But if one of us had to be targeted, I'm glad it was me. I wouldn't one of my friends going through what I went through. I wouldn't even wish it on someone like Troy. And, it's not like I'm alone in all of this. I have Mom, Johnathan, Mike, Lucas, Dustin, Hopper, El, Max, Nancy, and you."
Steve raised his eyebrows at the mention of him.
"Yes, I know. We barely know each other. But you're here, talking to me about this stuff. Some of my friends try to float around it." Will shrugs for the umpteenth time that night. "Makes me feel lucky that I have everyone supporting me."
Steve blinked. Once. Twice.
"You sure you want to be an artist? You could be a inspirational speaker." Steve joked.
Will gives him a small chuckle. "I am called Will the Wise for a reason."
They eat some more cookies before Will speaks again, "I meant to thank you before, for protecting them."
They both know who them are. Steve simply nods. "Of course.
"No, not of course." Will exclaims. "Listen, we all know that King Steve was a complete jerk. We've all heard the stories. Especially me cause Mike kept ranting to me about you being with Nancy. And if this was a year ago? When you were all that? Well, let's just say I'm not 100% sure that you'd do the same thing you did tonight."
Steve winced not liking this part of the pep talk much
"And you know, we all make our mistakes, we all learn from them. And I think you've learned a lot from your mistakes. A lot. You saved my friends and got yourself beat up for them. You're like the world best babysitter." Will finished.
Steve laughs. "Yeah, I think the babysitter thing was a one time deal."
"Uh-huh" Will mumbled, clearly not believing him.
"But, thank you. For the pep talk and everything." Steve tells him.
Will gives him a small smile and picks up one last cookie. "Anytime." And with that, Will leaves the kitchen, going to try to fall back to sleep.
Steve sits there in thought.
Yeah, he was a giant jerk the past few years, but like Will said, he changed. Somewhere in this whole thing, he changed. Maybe it was when he told Dustin his hair secrets, maybe it was protecting the kids from the demodogs, or from Billy, maybe it was when he went along with the crazy plans in the tunnels. Whenever it was, he changed. He changed for good.
And Steve was lucky for that.
AN: There we go! For some reason, this one was really hard to write! Hope you liked it! I definitely think that Steve doesn't get enough recognition in the show that he got his face pounded in. At least he gets the recognition of being the world's best babysitter!