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They have a quiet moment, for the first time in what feels like forever. After escaping the Upside Down, reuniting with the others, learning that Will has fucking superpowers and El has a whole sister, they all need to take a breath. To plan their next move. To figure out where the hell Vecna’s taken those kids.
Steve leaves the others to do that though. Right now, he needs a smoke.
Stepping out of The Squawk shack, he breathed in the cold night air, letting it fill his lungs. After the sour, freezing smog of the Upside Down, it feels like breathing in pure sweetness.
He tramps over to the radio tower, sitting down and leaning against one of the metal legs. The ground is hard and dusty underneath him, but he’s bone tired, and for a moment, he thinks he might just take a quick nap here and now.
Instead, though, he digs around in his jacket for the pack of cigs he knows is in there somewhere. For a moment, he fears he might have lost them in all the chaos of getting out of the Upside Down, but eventually he finds them, and soon enough he has one dangling between his lips, ready to be lit up.
He doesn’t smoke much anymore. He doesn’t have a clear reason why. It’s not for his health; he runs into fights with Russians and monsters too much to care about what a few cigarettes are going to do to him. Maybe it’s because he doesn’t want to be a bad influence on the kids, Dustin especially. As if most of the adults in their lives don’t already smoke like fucking chimneys.
Well, Steve doesn’t. Not anymore. Now, he saves them for when he really needs something to calm his nerves, and booze isn’t an option.
He’s got the lighter in his hands, he’s trying to get a spark out of the old fucking thing, when there’s a sharp cough to his left. Steve looked around, readying himself for a lecture from Nancy or Joyce or one of the others for slacking off when things are so incredibly fucked right now, but instead… It’s just Robin, looking at him with that smirk on her face that he’d once found so goddamn annoying.
“Smoking, Steve? Don’t you know they’re gonna kill you?”
“Eh, I’d rather these things do it than Vecna”. He lights the cig, takes a drag and breathes deep.
The smoke leaves his pursed lips and drifts up into the night sky as Robin walks over and sits down next to him. He holds out the pack to her. “Want one?”
Robin wrinkles her nose like he’s offered her a dead rat. “Ew, dude. Ever heard of “just say no?””
“Pretty sure that’s for heroin, Robs”. He chuckles, weakly. “What’s going on in there? Anyone have a plan yet?”
“I honestly have no idea, it seems like everyone has a point they wanna make and no one’s waiting their turn to say it”. Robin shook her head. “I felt like my head was gonna explode with all that shouting, so I got out of there”.
“Shit”.
Steve looks out to the distance, where the MAC-Z still burns hot and red on the horizon, a whole fleet of military choppers swarming above it. They’re like us, he thought briefly, licking their wounds, coming up with what to do next. The big difference was, the military had reinforcements, resources. Guns and tanks and helicopters and soldiers. They had a couple dozen kids and teenagers and a middle-aged mom (granted, three of them had superpowers, but the point still stood). And Vecna had… God knew anymore, seemed like that bastard always had some new trick up his rotting sleeve.
Thinking about it all, the enormity of what the fuck they were up against, was making him dizzy. Steve dipped his head back, closed his eyes and tried to steady his pounding heart. He couldn’t afford to freak out right now, not when things were like this. Not when there were people counting on him. But just thinking about it…
He suddenly feels the warm solidness of Robin’s shoulder, pressing into his own, and then she’s chuckling. The sound of that fully breaks him out of whatever little doom spiral he’s about to go on, because the next second he’s looking over to her and asking, “What’s so funny?”
Robin bites her lip. “I was just thinking… You can just about see Starcourt from here”.
He follows her gaze and… Holy shit, yeah, you can. It’s just a slightly bigger blob of darkness in the distance, but it’s there. Hawkins first and so far, only mall, what’s left of it after the fire Dr. Owens and the rest of his G-men set to cover up everything that happened two years ago.
Two years. Jesus. It felt like twenty.
“Oh yeah”. He says, chuckling himself now. “I still see that sailor suit in my nightmares”.
“Come on, in retrospect, it was kinda cute!” Robin protests with a laugh.
“Yeah, for you, maybe! You have any idea what that hat used to do to my hair after a whole day?”
“Oh my God, you and your hair”. She sighed, halfway between exasperation and fondness (he likes to think more towards the latter).
“Still…” He goes on. “Best summer job I ever took, easily. Besides the whole, getting tortured by Russian part”.
“The drugs were fun though”.
“Yeah, yeah, they were. Coulda done without the puking at the end though”.
“I dunno”. Robin shrugged, and she was looking straight at him now, into his eyes, with her own big blue ones he’d stared into from his side of that bathroom stall, the taste of vomit still lingering on his tongue. “I think… Even that part had some positives”.
The two of them just stare at each for a few moments, just smiling in a way that probably makes them look dumb to anyone observing from the outside. Not that they care. Whenever they talk like this, it’s always like they’ve got their own little bubble around, and it takes a hell of an interruption to burst it. Usually, it’s whenever a cute girl approaches.
“I mean it, by the way”. Steve doesn’t know when his voice got so soft. “Best summer of my life. Because… I met you…”
And somehow Robin’s smile gets even bigger and, God, he loves that smile. It always sends a hot rush through his heart every time he sees it. She deserves to smile like that. She nods slowly. “Yeah? Yeah, me too”.
Steve has never been more certain about the next few words he says. “You’re my best fucking friend, you know that?”
He expects her to say it back, or say yes, or just keep smiling, the words not needing to be said. They’d known each other long enough now, had spent enough time around each other absorbing all the other’s little quirks and eccentricities, to be able to know what either of them was thinking without the need for words. Like their own little version of Eleven’s mind reading.
Steve knows what Robin will do.
He thought he did. But what he doesn’t expect is for her to lean in and kiss him.
It takes a few seconds for him to even register what’s happening. To recognise the feeling of another pair of lips pressed against his. They’re soft, slightly chapped, with the faintest hint of what he thinks is strawberry lip balm (he’s seen her applying it sometimes, usually before she went to visit Vickie at the hospital).
The Steve of 1985, the Steve of Scoops Ahoy and Russian spies and not even knowing what the fuck a Vecna is, the Steve before that fateful chat in the bathroom stall, would’ve already been punching the air in victory by now. He isn’t that Steve though, not anymore. He’s the Steve of 1987, who has hung out with this girl way too much and watched her pining for Tammy Thompson and Vickie Dunne and probably a dozen other girls who’ve come into the video store. The Steve that knows that this is wrong.
This is so, so wrong.
He grips her shoulders and quickly pushes her away, trying to be gentle, but he can’t hide the shakiness in his hands, the slightly panicked gasp as their lips separate with a moist smack. Robin stares at him, all honey gold hair and freckles, confusion in those big blue eyes now, but then another smile. She grins at him like she hasn’t just upended everything he thought he knew about their relationship.
“What’s up, dingus?” Her voice almost sounds amused.
All he can come out with at this point is a stammered, “W-What the hell was that?”
She looks at him like he’s the one who’s gone crazy. “A kiss, Steve. That’s what people who really like each other do, remember?”
“Y-Yeah, I know, of course I know, but… But not you, not us, we’re not like that!” God, he sounds terrified. “We established that in our little… bathroom chat, remember?”
Robin just rolls her eyes, like he’s just being dumb. “Yeah, and people can change, Steve. I thought you’d know that better than anyone”.
And then she’s leaning in again, and Steve is scrambling away like her lips are radioactive. “Jesus, Robin, no!”
Robin rises with him, still just smiling at him, and then she laughs, a short, sharp bark of a giggle as she sees how wide his eyes are, the look on his face. He could’ve sworn it was mocking. “Holy shit, are you scared of me? Is Steve “the Hair” Harrington actually scared of a girl trying to kiss him?”
“Yeah, because it’s you!” He snaps back, trying not to let his voice shake. “Robin, just… Just stop, okay, just talk to me! What’s going on?”
“Oh Steve…” She sighs, but doesn’t answer, at least not for a few moments. Instead, she’s looking off, back towards the little blob of Starcourt. “You know what I thought when I saw you working behind the counter at Scoops, when I went there to apply?”
“What? Robin, what does that have to do with you suddenly having make out fever? Just-”
“I thought…” She interrupts him, like she always does. “Good. It’s good that this is what he’s been reduced to. Great, actually! It’s amazing that Steve Harrington, the King of Hawkins High is stuck scooping ice cream for little kids!”
She looked back to him. She was still smiling, but there was something else to it now. Something more biting. “Because you were such an asshole”.
“Yeah…” Steve nods weakly, trying to pretend like that doesn’t sting coming out of her mouth. “We talked about that. I was the ultimate douchbag, I know, and I-I’m sorry, but-”
“Awww, but you’re so much better now!” Robin cups her hands together and quirks her head, sticking out her bottom lip. “You’re gentle and you’re sweet and you’re dorky and…”
She straightens up suddenly, glaring at him right in the eyes, and Steve flinches. He could swear she was staring right down into his soul. She spits out her next words with more venom than he’s ever heard Robin give anything. “You’re a fucking loser”.
Ah. Okay. So that’s what this was.
He starts to back away. He’s trying to listen out for the ticking of a grandfather clock, just like Max and Nancy had described, but all he can hear so far is the crunch of his sneakers on the dirt.
“Robin” steps towards him, that big grin still plastered on her face, but by now all the warmth and love that he knows her real smiles have is completely gone. All that’s left is malice and spite. “I mean, seriously. A grown man, and the best way you think to spend your time is babysitting a bunch of kids who don’t give a fuck about you!?”
“Alright you can cut the bullshit!” Steve tries to keep the tremor out of his voice but fails because shit, shit, shit this isn’t good. “I know this isn’t real!”
But she just ignores him, going on. “Still pining over a girl you dated in high school, a girl who moved on a long time ago and doesn’t want anything to do with you! You know why, Steve?”
“Shut the hell up!” He snaps and it hurts to say that to her, even though it’s not really Robin, just a monster wearing her face. He turns on the spot, looking up at the sky, like he’s about to beg forgiveness from God or some shit. “HENDERSON! NANCY! ELEVEN!”
“They can’t hear you Steeeeve…” “Robin” says in a sing song voice as she takes a few more steps towards him. “And even if they could… They wouldn’t help you anyway. Because they know you have nothing for them”.
“I said shut up!” He still doesn’t look at her, he can’t bear to see her face, but she just laughs another evil cackle.
“You’re a walking, talking dead-end, Harrington! Just a dime-a-dozen, small town asshole who peaked in school and never had anything afterwards! That’s why Nancy broke up with you! That’s why every girl you’ve ever met can’t stand to be with you! Because they know you have no future!”
“Shut UP!”
“You’re just gonna stay in this same little town, working the same little jobs, getting older and fatter and sadder, until one day your heart goes pop, and you die on your couch, alone!”
“SHUT UP!”
He whirled around, anger flushing across his face, but “Robin” didn’t even blink. She started to laugh again, real manic fucking giggles, like she’s just heard the most hilarious joke in the whole goddamn world. “And the best part is, the one girl you thought you could actually love… Turns out to like girls! It’s like the whole universe is just conspiring to make sure everyone sees just how fucking pathetic you are! It’s SO! GODDAMN! FUNNY!”
Steve makes a break for it. It’s the only thing he can do, he sure as hell can’t fight this thing. So instead, he sprints for The Squawk shack. He’ll get inside, barricade the door and then… then… He doesn’t know. Wait for someone to notice him zoned out in the real world, slam a pair of headphones on his head, blare some Van Halen and wake him up with the power of happy thoughts. Yeah, yeah, that sounds like a plan.
He barely makes it a few feet though, before he’s tackled to the ground, “Robin” leaping onto his back and dragging him down into the dirt. He hits the ground nose first, drawing a pained gasp and muttered “shit” from him, before he hears her voice again. She sounds delighted, like she’s having a fucking blast. “Hey, why are you running, dingus! Don’t you like me anymore?”
She grabs his shoulder, rolling him onto his back, with her sitting on his chest with her full weight pressed down on him. And goddamn it, she’s still smiling, like this is all just another prank like the ones the real Robin sometimes pulled on slow days in Family Video. She let out a little chuckle as she started to lean her face down, her lips locked in for a head-on collision with his own. “Come on, Steve… I know you want to…”
One of his arms is pinned beneath her knee, but he uses his other free hand to grab at her face, shove her away, do anything to stop her before she kisses him again. In this blind frantic grasping, he feels a few of his fingers accidentally slip into her mouth, and instantly “Robin’s” lips were suckling on them and oh fuck this was bad-
He wrenches his hand away, as fast as he can, but his fingers hook on her bottom teeth, and he feels something else come with them. There’s a crack and a squelch and there’s a spray of something warm and coppery across his face. Steve looks up and…
“Oh God…”
And her jaw is hanging onto her face by a fucking thread, by a little scrap of skin, and Robin, Robin is looking down at him with those big blue eyes just filled with betrayal and instantly he wants to apologise, to babble that he’s sorry and he didn’t meant to hurt her and hold her jaw to the rest of her face and carry her to the nearest hospital.
But then she’s grabbing her fucked up, barely there jaw and ripping it off completely, spraying more blood across him. And before he can even begin to register what the fuck just happened, “Robin” is ripping at the corners of her mouth, tearing them open with just her fingernails, and then her top lip, until the whole bottom half of her face is hanging open and flapping around like a… a… a Demogorgon.
There are teeth, way too many fucking teeth sprouting from what seems like every red, raw part of her mouth flaps, and the Demo-Robin is roaring at him, and before Steve can even blink it’s lunging down and sinking those teeth into his throat-
“Steve?”
Steve jolts awake, a short, sharp gasp escaping his lips as he looks around blearily. His cigarette sits on his chest, still unlit, and he’s slumped up against the radio tower. Just like he was before…
“Hey, ground control to Major Steve, you reading me?”
He looks up and… and it’s Robin. The real Robin. She’s looking at him, amused to have caught him napping but rapidly becoming confused and a little concerned when he just stares dumbly at her. She starts to reach out a hand, but he flinches away, and now she’s looking full on worried.
“Steve, what’s going on? Are you okay?”
He realises he’s breathing hard, almost hyperventilating. Before he knows what he’s doing, he’s wrapped his arms tight around her and is hugging her for everything he’s worth. Although she makes a confused kind of yelp at first, she’s soon hugging him back, pressing her face into the crook of his neck. Both of them just holding each other in the cold night air. Steve reassuring himself with her familiar scent, the warmth of her body, the feel of her hair tickling his nose. Reassuring himself that this is the real Robin. The one he’d take on a fucking Demobat swarm for.
“You’re my best friend”. He says, quietly.
“Yeah…” She says, just as softly. “Yeah, you’re mine too”.