Chapter Text
Steve Roger Harrington had never planned to become a physics teacher, moreover he hadn’t ever liked or understood physics. It was just one of those subjects that were beyond him, where all he had to do was try to pass, and that was all he could aim for.
Sure, he’d befriended Dustin, who was a bit of a know-it-all when it came to every form of science - even more ever since he graduated as an engineer (who expected that, certainly not Steve, ha), but that didn’t change his aversion to it.
The change started after Derek had graduated. No one connected to the Upside Down was left in Hawkins, and Steve was tired. He didn’t mind coaching the baseball team, and he liked the small town, but it was no longer home. He drove around, patrolling every night, and he still couldn’t handle flickering lights. He’d long given up on relationships, no one willing to put up with his nightmares and PTSD, and he was lonely.
Derek, Holly, and their friends weren’t people he was close to, but they were people that connected him to the present, anchors as his therapist would later call them. Seeing them grow up gave him the feeling that everything was safe, everyone was safe, no supernatural dangers lurking around the corner. Ever since the start of everything with the Upside Down, he’d been looking after children, being there as they grew up, and now those children had all grown up and left.
He’d been in a funk ever since, to the point that it was mentioned to him quite often -from nosy mothers to awkward phone calls-, but no one seemed able to help. They had all moved on, and contact had watered down by a lot. Still, Dustin called regularly and tried to encourage him to move.
- - -
Eventually, it was Dustin who had gotten Steve out of Hawkins, albeit a bit forcefully. A coaching job had opened at Midtown, where one of the PhD students under Dustin graduated from, and the younger man - wasn’t he still a boy? - had promptly offered up Steve for it.
As everyone well knew would happen, despite a few token protests, he’d given in to Dustin's machinations, accepted the job and moved to New York City. It was a large change, but it brought him closer to everyone else, and gave him the opportunity to start over, as Roger.
Going by Roger instead of Steve (he couldn’t quite handle the echo of ‘King Steve’ anymore, carried by Eddie's voice), he created a new personality, someone who hadn't been through hell and back, someone normal and well-adjusted. He threw himself into his job, teaching P.E and becoming a trusted person to his students. All of which weren’t that different, except that they were because this was New York City and not Hawkins. None of the names were familiar and no one whispered about ‘peaked in high school’ or ‘suspicious activities’, he was just a man to them, and not even a remotely interesting one.
Teacher shortages and bad hiring practices led to Roger taking over as a sub from time to time, which evolved into being one of the designated subs - a choice that would forever bewilder him -, and eventually a tutor too, as a consequence of apparently being a decent enough sub. He wasn’t smart or good at anything academic, and yet he was a good teacher? The credit for that partially went to Dustin, not that anyone figured it out. The younger’s simplified science explanations to Steve enabled the latter to easily help his students, and if he didn’t understand, Dustin would get an email (“old-fashioned”, the man would mutter the moment pagers were released on the market) with a request for a different explanation.
It worked out for Roger, this life, even if it wasn’t what he wanted. Even if it would never quite be what Steve wanted, not that he mattered much. He only came out to communicate with the Party, something exceedingly rare as everyone built their own lives. Roger -Steve- was content, and safe, and that was enough for him. It had to be.
- - -
2012 came and brought the Chitauri with it. Being a teacher during an alien invasion, especially one teaching in New York City, he was caught up in evacuating students and running from aliens. It was chaos, and nowhere was safe, but other people were handling the threat so he handled his students. He ordered them around, kept them safe, whispered reassurances that felt like lies on his lips as he checked the streets for movement, and corpses - no child should see a corpse. Most of the time he was running and sneaking, high on adrenaline as he looked for stragglers. Didn't they understand that it wasn't safe?
The adrenaline felt familiar. He despised it.
The school loved him for it. He was praised, and he got a raise, yet it still made his skin crawl. Roger wasn't familiar with adrenaline, he wasn't supposed to have a natural instinct to protect, as the principal called it.
The one good thing about the invasion was that the Party's communication became a lot more frequent. There were no full group meet-ups, but group chats were established and -anonymous- social media exchanged. Apparently, they had been going crazy calling each other when the network in New York was down. Steve had been unreachable until long after the aliens had gone, and they were scared he was going to risk his life for his students, which led to a lot of exchanges of information. Nothing useful about his survival though.
He called Robin first, because of course he did, and she cried on the phone about how he wasn't allowed to play the hero or risk himself, and that she was so happy he was alright. He ended up using all his phone credit reassuring everyone that he was fine and that he did not perform any "stupid sacrificial plays”, but it was worth it
(He did, not that he would ever tell them that.)
- - -
The reveal of heroes and the existence of people with powers that walked amongst them didn't phase Steve much, he'd long since been aware of it. However, Roger was not Steve, he had no history with any of it. Mr. Harrington was a rather simple science teacher after all, so he feigned excitement even as dread settled in his gut.
Nancy even reported on some of it, however buried her articles were because of the cautious criticisms about policy she wove into them. With the entire Party combined, information was gathered at an alarming speed, detail and accuracy, everything from policy to appearances of powers and heroes to the most benign little facts. (No one admitted just what they were looking for, they didn’t need to)
It wasn’t the heroes or the powers that had truly phased Steve, it was SHIELD. Every time he saw or heard of the government organisation, he had to think of Eleven, and he had to stop. Anti-SHIELD sentiment wasn’t safe in this political climate, so he remained cautious. He never fully approved, yet kept his criticisms to himself. There was no knowing what the government, or the military, would do in the face of that.
- - -
Shield’s data dump was both a relief and a disaster in one, according to Steve. Everyone had combed through the information, and combed through it again for info on Eleven, although no mention of her was made. Hawkins didn’t appear at all, except for their inability to infiltrate it (that had them all feeling a little smug, even if they despised dr. Kay). Still, the consequences this information being freely available could have were horrifying. Roger might not be that smart, but he wasn’t dumb enough to believe that this fixed anything more than it killed innocent people. Not that he would ever dare say that out loud.
Even Nancy had -eventually- agreed to keep from being too scathing in her articles as to avoid unwanted attention. Between Shield, the Avengers, and the government they didn’t want to bring Hawkins into any kind of spotlight.
- - -
Teaching had become a routine, new kids to guide and updated curriculums to teach but Roger began to feel like him, not merely a skin he wore to shed the ashes littering red skies.
And then Peter Parker joined his class. Remarkably smart, with a sense of sass that made Roger smile whenever he picked up on it, but also a sadness that he knew all too well. He was special, and babysitable Robin joked once he told her about him, about his sad doe eyes, sarcasm uttered beneath his breath and not quite alarming skittishness.
However Peter changed all of a sudden, Steve couldn’t tell when, but something was definitely different. Somehow, he was reminded of Eleven. He wasn’t sure what happened, the student was suddenly more cautious, aggressively whispering with Ned and the level to which he held himself back, as well as the disappearance of some of his ailments was alarming.
As was his ‘internship’ with Stark Industries, Parker was smart enough for it, and the paperwork was entirely up to snuff, but the why was alarming. There was no record of an established high school internship program, not even Dustin had heard about it when asked. Was the company connected to his powers, because powers were all the teacher could come up with (especially because he once saw him accidentally walk up a wall with zero effort)? Or was SHIELD up to something and were they using SI as a cover?
Still, Peter was rarely injured, nor did he look drained or drugged. He was, however, eternally tired, and in a worse state than university student Dustin who lost sleep to research binges, he was more like a frantic Joyce Byers.
Keeping an eye out for the boy wasn’t that difficult, even though covering up for him was. He suddenly felt for Hopper trying to protect Jane, it was almost worse than babysitting. Finding out he was Spider-man wasn’t a shock (not that Peter knew that he knew), and it allowed him to be more lenient when needed. Never let it be said that he didn’t care about his students.
Still, all of it blurred the lines between Steve and Roger a bit, and he found himself reaching out to the others more, unwilling to share the boy’s secret identity but needing the support as he was slowly becoming more and more unmoored.
And then, the field trip to Stark Industries happened and
it
all
fell
apart.
Roger vanished as Steve once again took centre stage.