Chapter Text
Slow days were almost worse than busy days. Steve leaned against the counter, playing with the yo-yo Robin had brought in at the start of their shift. Every few bounces, it whacked him in the knee, making him swear and lose his grip. It was a stupid toy, anyway, and whoever invented it was obviously some kind of sadistic, evil genius with a personal vendetta against Steve Harrington's kneecaps. It wasn't fair that Robin was great at it. For an uncoordinated band kid, she had a way with the damn thing. She could do all these cool tricks and never kneecapped herself in the process. The closest she came to a yo-yo related injury was bouncing it off of Steve's nose by accident, but she'd managed to duck just in time, leaving her unscathed and leaving Steve with a nasty bruise and a shallow cut that bled like crazy.
"Steve."
Steve bounced the yo-yo petulantly.
"Steve?"
Robin's voice barely registered.
"Steve."
Steve looked up, startled. "Can I help you?"
Robin rolled her eyes, holding her hand out for the yo-yo. "Give it. You're hypnotizing yourself over there."
Reluctantly, Steve dropped the yo-yo into Robin's open hand. "Fine, Mom."
"What were you thinking about, anyway?"
"Nothing!" Steve said, though he wasn't sure why he felt the need to say it so quickly and insistently. He wasn't even sure what he was thinking about, just little flashes of images in the back of his mind: demobats descending on him, an oar cutting through the air, and the glint of silver in the shadows. If he focused hard enough, he thought he saw the hint of a smile, too, and dark, curly hair that probably belonged to Nancy. It was hard to tell in the dark, but the smile didn't look like Nancy's, not if Steve really thought about it. Nancy's smiles were more reserved and sweet. But if it wasn't Nancy and it wasn't Robin, then Steve was probably just making things up, right? Maybe it was trauma. He'd read somewhere that trauma could do that kind of shit.
Robin's eyebrows shot up. "Nothing?" she asked, sounding skeptical. "Or 'nothing'?"
"What's the difference?"
"Air quotes," Robin said, demonstrating again. "Nothing... or 'nothing'?"
"Okay, got it. Why wouldn't you just do the air quotes in the first place if that's what you meant?"
"Because I thought I made it totally clear in my voice!"
"Well, you didn't."
"Sorry. Next time, I'll spell it out for you."
"Thank you." Steve's voice dripped with sarcasm. "You're a real sweetheart, Robin. You know that?"
Robin grinned at him. If he were still into her, it would have made his head spin. "Is it Nance?"
Steve's eyes widened so much, he thought they might fall out of his skull. "What about Nance?"
"You got that look in your eyes. You know, the one you get when you're about to start gushing about how amazing and smart and talented and beautiful Nance is."
Steve crossed his arms, his face hot. "Shut up. You know I don't like her like that anymore."
Robin shrugged, bouncing the yo-yo a few times. "I don't know. She seems like the kind of girl you don't just get over." Off of Steve's raised eyebrow and what he hoped was a knowing, wise half-smile, she quickly added, "I just think she's pretty cool. Don't make a thing out of it, okay?"
"Okay." Steve hoped his tone conveyed that he was already making a thing out of it and he didn't believe Robin's insistence that Nancy was just pretty cool.
"If you don't drop it, I swear, I'm going to make you talk about your new crush."
Steve felt a flash of panic. "What new crush? I don't have a new crush. Don't be an asshole."
"I'm not!" Robin protested, her voice higher than usual. "I'm just saying, you've got that dreamy, distant look in your eyes and your face is bright red, dude, like, unbelievably red, and you kind of look like you're trying to find an exit. Steve? Are you trying to find an exit?"
"From Family Video?" he clarified. "No. From this conversation? Yes. I don't have a new crush."
"Wait, are you serious? You don't?"
"No!"
To Steve's surprise and horror, Robin burst out laughing. "Listen, Steve. I've said it before and I'll say it again, but I think you're a great guy. You've got a million talents—singing, fighting monsters, basketball, babysitting, getting bagel crumbs everywhere—but lying is not one of those talents, so I believe you."
"Thank you," Steve said, bringing his hands down flat on the countertop.
"I believe you," Robin repeated. "You don't have a new crush... as far as you know."
Steve threw his hands up in exasperation. "Robin, seriously? Seriously?"
"Totally!" She reached out, grabbed his hand, and held it in both of hers. As she spoke, she emphasized every few words by patting the back of Steve's hand like a grandmother fussing over her favorite grandkid. "As far as you know, you don't have a crush, but you do absolutely have a crush on someone and I'm not going to rest until I figure out who. She. Is."
Steve didn't know why it bothered him so much, but his stomach flipped, his palms got sweaty, and he wanted nothing more than to turn and run out the door, the rest of his shift be damned. At the same time, strangely, he wanted to stay. Maybe Robin was right, maybe he did have a crush on someone, and maybe she was the exact person he needed to help him puzzle out who it was.
"All right," he said after an uncomfortable silence. "I'll play."
Robin's whole face lit up like a Christmas tree. "Really?"
"Yeah, but you make this weird and I'm walking out that door."
"Got it! No making it weird. Promise!" To emphasize her point, Robin drew an X over her heart with her index finger. "Are you sure it's not Nance?"
"I'm pretty sure it's not. I think I'd know if I had a thing for Nancy again. I mean, I thought I did, but I don't know... Something about it just doesn't feel right, you know?"
From the look on Robin's face, she wasn't sure. "Uh... yeah?" It wasn't very convincing.
"I keep thinking about what happened in the Upside Down. The bats, mostly." Subconsciously, his hand drifted to his side, feeling for the mostly-healed wounds under his shirt, and winced as the fabric slid across the fresh, too-sensitive scar tissue. "And Nance patched me up and we had this—I don't know—this moment, but I'm not sure it meant anything."
Robin, who had been nodding along with a dreamy look on her face, didn't seem to find Steve all that convincing, either.
"What?" he asked, somewhat defensively.
"Nothing, just, how fucked up are our lives that ripping up her shirt and using it as a makeshift bandage for some monster bat bites counts as a romantic moment?"
Steve couldn't help laughing. "Pretty fucked up, I guess."
"Anyway, it sounds a lot like it was Nance. Maybe you're just being a gentleman. You know, 'cause she's got a boyfriend?"
"Maybe." Definitely, he told himself. It has to be that. "I didn't think of it like that."
Robin grinned a wide, devilish grin. "That's why you have me."
"Yeah..." Steve shook his head as if to wake himself from a dream. "Maybe Eddie just got in my head."
"Eddie?" Robin sounded incredulous. "I didn't know you guys were close."
"We're not," Steve said quickly. Too quickly, if he stopped to think about it, which was precisely why he didn't stop to think about it. "We just had this... conversation. Chat. It wasn't a big deal. He just said some things that got me thinking."
The yo-yo bounced off of Steve's knee, making him jump back with a yelp of pain. Wrapping the string up as fast as she could, Robin apologized profusely. "Shit, Steve, I'm so sorry. I totally didn't see that coming."
Steve rubbed at his knee. "No shit."
"Sorry," she said again, sweetly. "Anyway, you had this little chitchat with Eddie."
"Yeah."
"What was it about?"
"I..." Steve didn't know why he hesitated. Something about it just felt so private, almost like he wasn't supposed to share it, but this was Robin, his best friend, and he wanted to share everything with her, just like she'd shared everything with him. "Mostly Nancy, but he also said some stuff about me."
"Was it bad stuff?" Robin asked. "Eddie's nice and all, but I'm not above homicide."
"No, it was fine! Really. He said I was, like, metal or something." Steve turned his eyes toward the ground, afraid that Robin might see something in them that he himself didn't recognize. She was observant. Scarily observant. "'Cause I bit one of the demobats."
If Robin's eyebrows traveled any higher, they were going to disappear completely. "He said you were metal?"
"Yeah." Steve picked at the skin on his thumb. "What about it?"
"Nothing," Robin assured him, obviously lying. "Just... Do you think he likes you?"
Steve shrugged. He didn't think about it much, to be perfectly honest. They'd saved the world together, an experience that left little room for animosity, but it wasn't like they were super good friends or anything. They were just a couple of guys sharing custody of a herd of high school freshmen and one eleven-year-old. Aside from the odd conversation about Dustin's grades or which kids needed to be driven where, they didn't talk much. The last conversation Steve remembered them having was about whether or not they should let the kids try marijuana under heavy supervision and a strict order of silence. They're what, fourteen? Fifteen? They're going to get into that shit regardless of whether or not we "let" them. At least this way, they'll have nonjudgmental adult supervision and copious amounts of snack food and water.
"I don't know," Steve admitted. "I mean, I guess we've gotten to know each other, but I don't know if I'd call us friend friends. Know what I mean?"
"Uh-huh."
Steve felt strangely defensive, almost like he'd felt in the car with Dustin pestering him about Nancy. "Yeah. We're friendly, but I don't think either of us considers us friends."
Robin shrugged, tugging at the hem of her vest. "I think saving the world together makes you friends, but maybe I'm just crazy."
"You're definitely crazy, Robin," Steve agreed, "but not necessarily wrong. I guess we're friends; I just didn't really think about it that much, to be perfectly honest, and I'm not sure he'd call me a friend. I'd call him my friend. I'd do it in a heartbeat! I just don't know if he would and I don't want to presume or anything. You know?"
The bell on the door chimed, making Steve and Robin jump. The old woman pushing her walker looked startled, too.
"Oh! I didn't mean to frighten you two," she said, chuckling and shaking her head.
Robin put on her brightest customer service smile. "No problem. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask one of us." She grabbed Steve's arm, tugging him toward the back of the store. "Hey, can I talk to you over here for a sec?"
Steve followed, dragging his feet a little. "What? Why? Can't we talk over there?"
Robin gave him an exasperated look. "Technically, yes. Practically, I don't think you want to have this conversation in front of Mrs. Bailey. Unless I'm wrong? Do you want to have this conversation in front of Mrs. Bailey?"
Steve didn't even know what this conversation was, but he was almost certain he didn't want to have it in front of Mrs. Bailey, so he stopped dragging his feet and let Robin pull him into the back room.
"What?" he asked once the door was shut behind them.
Robin looked stunned, like she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Seriously?"
"Uh, yeah. I think so. Dead serious." Steve started toward the door, but Robin stopped him with a hand on his elbow.
"Hey," she said gently. "I didn't mean to freak you out or anything. I just didn't know you were into dudes."
Steve's jaw dropped. "What?"
"What?" Robin's eyes widened in horror. "Oh, shit! Shit. Shit! You didn't know, either?"
Not, You're not. Not, I guess I read you wrong. Just, You didn't know, either. As if she had no doubt that Steve Harrington, her best friend, the one-time king of Hawkins High, was interested in guys. Not just guys, though: Eddie Munson. Robin thought that Steve Harrington was interested in Eddie Munson.
The weirdest part was, she was probably right.