SO

It's the summer before everything changes, and Steve Harrington is running from something he can't name. After the Nancy breakup cracked something in him he never fixed, Steve fills his nights with empty roads and nowhere to be. Then there's Y/N — bright, warm, impossible to ignore — who climbs into his car without a question and never asks what he's running from. What starts as late-night drives and no-strings comfort quietly turns into something neither of them has the words for. He's grumpy. They're sunshine. He pushes. They stay. And somewhere between the fogged-up windows and the gravel road under the trees, Steve stops pretending he's annoyed — and starts falling in a way he's terrified to admit. A slow-burn, friends-with-benefits-to-more Stranger Things AU about two people who finally stop dancing around it, one late-night drive at a time.