Work Text:
1.
One thing about Steve Harrington was that he loved giving you gifts. Whether it be a flower he saw on the ground on his way to work that reminded him of you, or a pretty necklace he had caught you eyeing, Steve loved giving you things.
So when Eleven and Max came to Family Video one day to return a bunch of movies they had rented out for a sleepover they had the day before, and Steve noticed the small paper rings they had sitting on their fingers, he begged them to teach him how to make a few, spending most of his break in the back of the video store as the girls taught him where and how to fold the paper to get the desired results. Five paper rings with an, albeit wonky, heart in the middle of each. All of them made for you.
It was a Saturday evening when Steve decided to give you the first of the paper rings. You had decided you wanted to do something, anything, you just didn’t want to be stuck in the walls of your shared apartment for a moment longer, causingSteve to suggest a small walk after telling him you wanted some fresh air.
Throughout the entirety of the walk, Steve had his arm wrapped snugly around your shoulders, holding you close to him as he walked you through the route he usually went on every morning for his morning run. Ever the gentleman, he made sure he stayed on the side closest to the road throughout the entirety of the walk.
You’re in the middle of telling Steve about your day at work when his arm around you loosens before ultimately disappearing as he bends down to tie his shoe. You move to push some fallen hair out of his eyes as he rises to his full stature before presenting you with a small pink paper ring.
“What’s this?” You ask with a smile as Steve takes your hand in his, fitting the ring snugly onto your ring finger. The finger where a wedding ring would go. Hopefully, his wedding ring one day.
Steve raises your hand to his lips as he presses a kiss to the back of it. “A paper ring,” he responds softly. “I made it for you, do you like it?”
He lets go of your hand, letting you raise your hand to your face so you can get a better view of the craft. You can’t help but let out a small laugh with a nod of your head, moving to give Steve a quick kiss as his arms wrap around your waist, pulling you closer to him.
“I love it,” you say with a wide smile when the kiss finally breaks.
Steve smiles at your affirmation before placing a hand to your chin, gently tilting your head so he could kiss you again. “I love you, ” he replies before moving to kiss you again.
2.
One monthly ritual Steve loved, was to spoil you by taking you on a fancy date to Enzo’s. Half of it was to give you both an excuse to get dressed up, and the other half of it was so he could lovingly stare at you as you sat across the table from him. Steve always thought you were gorgeous, the prettiest girl he’d ever seen, but something about the lighting at Enzo’s just made you seem even more gorgeous than usual. Stunning. Breath-taking. Radiant. Heart-stopping.
“Baby, can you hand me the car keys?” He asked, knowing you had stuffed them in your purse after he had locked the car.
You nod, already looking through your bag when you notice a small purple something that you don’t remember seeing before. You pull it out only to notice it’s another paper ring. Identical to the first one Steve had given you just a few weeks ago, minus its color.
Steve is already looking at you with an expectant smile when your eyes meet his in confusion.
“When did you sneak this in there?” You question with a laugh.
Steve’s arm snakes around your waist, pulling you closer to him as he presses a kiss to your temple. “I’m a ninja,” he mumbles before pressing another kiss to your skin, this time to your forehead, before gently taking the ring from you and putting it on your ring finger. He squeezes your hand before dropping it, and waving his fingers in the air, silently asking for the car keys again.
You shake your head with a laugh, looking for the car keys yet again, while also checking to see if he happened to sneak anything else into your bag without you noticing.
“Cmon, let’s get you home. I just wanna lie down in bed with you for the rest of the night,” he murmurs, unlocking the car and opening the passenger side door for you when you hand him the keys.
You kiss his cheek as a thank you. For the door and for another paper ring to join the first one he had given you that was currently sitting on your nightstand, next to a framed picture of the two of you.
3.
The minute the two of you are home from your date at Enzo’s, you collapse onto the couch, causing a laugh to escape Steve. You love the fancy dates, you love seeing your boyfriend dressed up, and you love dressing up yourself. You do not, however, love the ache in your feet from your heels.
“Tired?” Steve questions with a small laugh, leaning against the wall as he lovingly watches you.
You nod, already moving to take your shoes off your aching feet. “These shoes are killing me,” you reply.
Steve shakes his head with a small chuckle before striding towards you, bending down, and gently taking your leg to undo the strap on your shoes, taking them off for you.
He digs through his pockets before he moves onto the next shoe, handing you a blue paper ring. You take it with a small laugh, noticing the small “I love you” written around the band.
“How many of these do you have on you?” You question with a smile, placing it snugly on top of the purple ring he had given you earlier that night.
“Well, there’s one way you can find out,” he teases with a wink, ducking his head to undo the strap of the next shoe, taking it off and placing it on the floor before pressing a quick, soft kiss to your ankle. You’re thankful he misses the flustered look that is undoubtedly on your face from both his teasing and his kiss.
Steve moves to sit next to you on the couch, wrapping his arm around your shoulders, gently squeezing one, as he pulls you closer to his side, like two puzzle pieces fitting perfectly together. You let him, of course, moving to rest your head over his chest as Steve flips through channels on the TV, looking for something for the both of you to watch.
“I swear, you have a collection of these things hidden somewhere,” you say with a smile, looking at the two paper rings stacked nicely against each other.
Steve only shrugs with a smile before moving to press a kiss to the top of your head as he toys with a piece of your hair. “Maybe I do, maybe I don’t,” he teases, pulling you even closer to him, like there being any space between the two of you was a crime that had to be rectified immediately. Like he couldn’t bear to not be as close to you as possible. But, you also knew you couldn’t bear to not be as close to him as possible as well.
"I told you there's a way to find out," he says with yet another wink.
4.
You woke up to a cold bed, an unusual feeling as you were used to waking up to Steve’s warm body every morning. Usually, when the other side of the bed was cold, it was due to Steve going for a run or making the two of you breakfast, but you didn’t smell any type of food, and by this hour, he would be back from his run.
You sit up with a yawn when something catches your eye. You turn to your nightstand when you notice a green paper ring with a note lying under it. You smile at the thought of adding another paper ring to your mini collection. You plop the ring onto the jewelry dish Steve had gifted you specifically for the paper rings he had been gifting you before picking up the note.
Gone fishing with the guys, miss you already. Love, Steve
You sigh at the idea of not being able to spend the morning with your boyfriend, but the sight of the new green paper ring nestled with the other matching ones is enough to bring a smile to your face.
5.
You’re not sure whose idea it was to head to the local park and take a hike in the middle of the summer, but right now you’re really regretting ever agreeing to the plan.
“You know, I really hate whoever planned this. I’m way too sweaty, and the sun is too hot, and I feel like I’m going to die,” Robin tells you, voicing your own thoughts out loud.
You nod your head with a sigh, taking your millionth sip of water as you walk up the trail. “I know,” you tell her, “I feel like my legs are gonna give out soon,” you joke.
“It’s not that bad,” you hear Dustin say from behind the both of you, though you’re pretty sure the only reason he’s not having as much trouble with the trail as everyone else is because he used to walk up a hill almost every day in the summer to use his cerebro machine to talk to Suzie, as Max had once told you.
What follows after Dustin’s comment is some bickering between Steve and Dustin, causing you and Robin to roll your eyes and laugh at their behavior. All these years later, and they still regularly “argued” with each other, though you knew it all came from a place of love.
“Hey, babe, I think you dropped something,” Steve comments, causing both you and Robin to turn around as Steve presents you with a yellow paper ring and a smile.
Despite the glaring sun and the tiredness in your feet, you can’t help but smile at the ring, letting out a small laugh.
You hear Dustin mutter a “gross” as you move to kiss Steve’s cheek, though, he turns his face so you catch his lips instead.
“Shut it, Henderson,” Steve comments when the kiss breaks, before placing the ring on your ring finger, just like all the others. “Love you,” he whispers to you, squeezing your hand before letting go so you could continue the trail.
You move to kiss him again, his cheek this time, before continuing the trail with Robin again.
“You know he got Max and El to teach him how to make those,” she comments, nodding to the paper ring nestled on your finger.
You smile at the thought, a warm, fluttery feeling in your chest. “Really?” You ask.
“Yup,” Max, who was walking in front of you with Lucas, replies, slowing her walk to walk in stride with you and Robin. “We made matching ones, and he noticed when we went to return some movies at Family Video, so he made us teach him how to make them.”
“He was not very good,” El comments from ahead, causing you to laugh.
You raise your hand to look at the paper ring again, noticing a few small hearts doodled along its band. “I think they came out great,” you reply, meaning it with your whole heart. The thought that he put so much work into them just made you want to kiss him stupid. “I think they’re perfect,” you finish, not able to see the wide grin that overtook Steve’s face as he trailed along behind you.
+1
“Hey, honey, can you wait a second? I gotta tie my shoe,” Steve mutters, dropping your hand as he bends down to fix the laces on his shoe.
It was a beautiful day out. Far too beautiful to spend the day cooped up inside, so you and Steve decided to take a small stroll around the park.
You were looking around the park, looking at the pink and orange sunset and the squirrels a few feet away that were scurrying up a tree, when you noticed something out of the corner of your eye – Steve was pulling something out of his pocket.
You smiled, already expecting another paper ring. It had been a while since he had given you the last one on the hike you had taken with your friends, and you couldn’t help but miss the rings. They might have been pieces of folded paper, yes, but you loved them, loved that Steve wanted to make them for you, wanted to keep giving them to you.
He clears his throat softly, calling out your name.
“Yeah,” you say, humoring him as you turn to face him, wondering what color this paper ring would be. But when you face him, he’s down on one knee, holding a velvet box in his hand, and oh–
It hits you all at once.
“I’ve loved you for as long as I’ve known you,” Steve mutters, reaching to take one of your hands in his free one, his thumb rubbing at your knuckles. You could already feel the tears springing to your eyes. “You’re the best thing that's ever happened to me, honey. I love you so much, and I love getting to tell you that every day, and being able to wake up next to you every morning and fall asleep with you in my arms every night. I love seeing you smile and hearing you laugh, and when I think about the future, all I can really think about is how badly I want you in mine. I can’t spend another day without asking you this, so,” he pauses, opening the box to reveal a beautiful diamond ring. “Will you make me the luckiest guy in the world, and will you marry me?”
You barely give him a chance to finish his question before you’re nodding your head with a laugh and pulling him into a hug, covering his face in kisses, mumbling the word “yes,” in between kisses as Steve’s arms wrap around your waist, pulling you closer.
He pulls away from your barrage of kisses just enough to catch your lips with his, a hand gently holding the side of your face, the other still holding the ring.
When the kiss finally breaks, he takes the ring out of the box, sliding it onto your ring finger, where all the paper rings once stood, before raising your hand to his lips and pressing a kiss to the back of your hand.
“I love you,” he whispers, voice hoarse with emotion.
“I love you too,” you reply through a small, teary laugh.