Chapter Text
“Harrington, what the fuck is that?”
Usually, Robin would try to ignore Keith and his absolute hatred for Steve. No one liked Keith and Steve wasn’t bothered by the other man’s words so it was more often than not just easier to ignore. Plus, she had many movie (or films as Keith insisted they should be called) similarities so they always had something to talk about.
However, Robin was also nosy as hell. And given that today was Steve’s day off, she wants to know just what movie he brought back that makes Keith lose all sense of responsibility in front of customers. She looks up, just seeing Steve’s top half. He looks scattered and he’s obviously looking around for her.
“Buckley, your boyfriend is here.” Keith calls, she finishes putting the last few movies up and walks down the aisle to tease Steve about whatever movie it is now. She doesn’t bother to correct him, if he still thinks they’re dating after they have mentioned being capital P platonic, he is never going to get it. Besides, he just does it to be annoying.
Except, Steve isn’t holding a movie. He’s holding a baby carrier with a live baby in it. If the pink blanket is any indication of the baby’s gender, the baby is a girl and an unhappy one at that.
“Whose kid have you befriended now?” She manages to tease, Steve turns to her frantically enough that she actually takes a step forward to place a hand on her shoulder. She waits a beat and he doesn’t say a word. This is how he got after he was attacked by the Russians and began to go into shock. Except this isn’t a secret Russian base, it is the middle of Family Video with actual customers inside it. And here was Steve Harrington, who most knew, looking like he was dead to the world while holding a baby carrier in his hand.
“Jesus, get out. You owe me.” Keith rolls his eyes. If Robin was a nicer person, she would have made sure he was alright with working alone before grabbing her things and quickly leading Steve out of the store. In the cold February air, the baby begins to sniffle and then she lets out a miserable wail. Robin winces at the noise and waves at her, feeling awkward. Steve starts his car and blasts the heat. Her cries almost instantly die down, whether from the warmth or the steady hum of Steve’s car, she doesn’t know. Robin side-eyes her a few times but mostly focuses on Steve, who is staring at the empty business beside the Family Video for a long time. Robin can practically hear the wheels in his head turning.
“Okay, so I know something is going on, but I can’t read social cues for shit and even I’m pretty sure you haven’t given me a single one. Whose baby is this?”
“Mine?” Steve croaks.
Robin can’t help it that her jaw drops almost clean down to the floor. Steve glances over at her, almost looking pained.
“ Yours ?” Robin relays back to him. He shrugs.
“How are you unsure?!” Robin blinks. Steve groans and leans his head on the steering wheel.
“I don’t know, Rob. I woke up to someone ding dong ditching a baby at my door.” Steve runs a hand through his hair. That was like, five in the morning and I had to go to Melvald’s like first thing to buy formula and that blanket and diapers. I tried to call Nancy but she must be in class. Then I remembered that you also have that baby cousin.”
Yeah, Nancy would have been the better option. She has two younger siblings. Robin’s “baby cousin” was nearly three and while she could probably do the bare minimum to keep a baby alive, she wasn’t skilled in any sense of the word.
Steve clears his head by shaking it, like his mind was an etch-a-sketch. He pulls out of the parking lot and begins to drive to his house, she assumes.
“Soooo…” Robin starts after the dead silence starts to get to her. “Who did you sleep with, let’s say, nine months ago?”
Steve gives her a sideways glare. “I don’t know.”
She groans and buries her face in her hands. “You gotta start writing names and dates down or something.”
“No one does that.”
“Maybe you should.”
She doesn’t want to push him too much, he did just find out that he potentially had a kid. However, she honestly thinks he should make receipts or something and isn’t going to keep it to herself. If she had sex with half the amount of people he did, she would have an entire chart on each person, complete with ratings and additional notes.
Steve’s house is shockingly empty as always. Last year, his parents decided to move to Florida, citing that the warmer weather was doing wonders for their health. Robin just knows they were trying to leave Steve in a large house so that he gets lonely enough to find wife material. Not that she was complaining, his house made for an amazing meeting spot and Steve reveled in letting people crash at his house, or host their nerdy games there, or sponsoring movie nights.
She sets her things on the large and empty table. Steve sets the baby on the counter in her carseat. She kicks the blanket off of her and it almost falls to the floor before he catches it. He looks at the kid with a soft expression, she’s confused by the look but when she peers over his shoulder, she sees just how much the kid looks like Steve. She has brown hair and the same brown eyes that Steve has.
She opens her mouth to suggest that Steve just leave her at the fire department or police station and let them give her to CPS and then to a couple looking to adopt. But then she looks at Steve’s expression again and realizes that there’s no way he’s leaving her at the police department. It’s the same look he has when any one of the boys gets him something just because it reminded them of him or when Dustin names a D&D character after him for the millionth time.
Heart eyes
, her brain supplies.