Chapter Text
“ Steve please! ”
Steve sighed, cradling the phone on his shoulder and ignoring an amused glance from Robin as she placed movies back on shelves. “What, hang out with you and Eddie ‘the freak’ Munson? I’ll pass.”
On the other end of the phone, Dustin groaned. “Come on! It’s one session, just one!”
“And that one,” Steve leaned back against the counter, waving acknowledgement to a pair of kids who entered the family video store. “Is all I would need to ruin my reputation.”
“Screw your reputation, Steve! What about our friendship, huh? Come on, you basically owe me this.”
“Owe you?” Steve straightened. “the hell do I owe you for?”
“Remember last year, the whole incident with Emily? And how I covered for you? I’m just saying man…”
“Okay! Jesus.” Steve smacked a hand down on the counter, startling one of the kids who dropped his chosen movie on the ground, shooting Steve a glare as he bent to pick it up. “I will come to one, just one, of your dumb little game sessions. Alright? But that’s it, don’t ask again.”
Steve hung up the phone with an admittedly unnecessarily violent slam, reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose. Robin pushed past him with a muttered “move dingus” under her breath to talk to the kids at the counter.
Wasn’t this just perfect? Steve originally had plans to go to the basketball game this evening, and while he wasn’t particularly upset to be missing out, he still considered it a more enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours than hanging out with the Hawkins high reject club.
One evening, and then never again.
“Hey,” Robin appeared on the other side of the counter, waving to get Steve’s attention “What was that about?”
Steve frowned at the floor. “Dustin’s little weirdo club needs an extra or something and apparently that’s me. God knows why, he knows I’m not into that whole thing.”
“Didn’t seem like you needed much convincing, just saying.” Robin said, turning to flash a smile and a thumbs up to a man who yelled across the store asking whether or not she had enjoyed the movie ‘The Fog’.
“I don’t want to go, but he’s got blackmail and apparently I owe him.”
“Uh huh.” Robin grinned, continuing to tease Steve. “And definitely not because you’re secretly a huge nerd who wants to play little games with all the other nerds?”
“Oh, absolutely not.” Steve scoffed. “Just doing the little shit a favour.”
“Try to look at it positively, you just might enjoy it. Now,” Robin grabbed a stack of movies from the return cart and dropped them on the counter. “How about you do me a favour and put these away?”
Steve just rolled his eyes in response, flitting through the stack of returns and starting off towards the action section to reshelve them. He glanced towards the clock hanging over the door to the staff room, the ticking hands counting him down towards when his shift ended, and he would have to face the freaks. Steve could admit that there was a chance that maybe, just maybe, tonight wouldn’t be horrible. After all, Dustin, Mike, and Lucas always seemed excited about it, Dustin especially, he would go on tirades and rants about the latest challenges they faced. Steve never really bothered to listen, but it didn’t seem to deter him. Of course, it wasn’t really the game itself that Steve was apprehensive about, as much as weird board games were far from his personal cup of tea, it was the people, especially Eddie.
Eddie had been in the year above Steve in school, and they could not have been on further opposite sides of the school social ranks, but that didn’t stop Steve from knowing who Eddie was. It was rather impressive how someone could be such a nobody, yet positively infamous at the same time. Everyone knew who Eddie Munson was.
When Eddie got held back a year, and then another, his reputation as the biggest loser in Hawkins only grew, and to Steve, there wasn’t a person for miles that he wanted to associate with less. He couldn’t figure out why Dustin spoke so highly of him at all.
Steve was broken out of his thoughts by the ringing of the bell above the door indicating someone new entering the family video. Three girls, two of whom promptly began browsing the romance section, the other who claimed that she needed something as far from romantic as possible to get her mind off her now ex-boyfriend, and headed directly for horror.
Steve glanced at the clock again. Three more hours until his fate was sealed.
The Hawkins high parking lot was packed. Sport games, especially the basketball championship that Hawkins had a chance to win for the first time in longer than Steve had been alive, always had a tendency to draw in a crowd. Steve didn’t pull into the parking lot, however, and instead parked on the street, half a block from the school. The reason he gave himself was that all the students, ramped up from the energy that would undoubtedly be brought from either winning or losing, were a bad combination to be near a car that Steve didn’t have the money to fix if someone kicked it in frustration, or fell into it in their excitement. It was a bullshit reason and he knew it. In reality, he worried that if someone saw his car but didn’t see him at the game, they’d think he was associating with Eddie’s lackeys and their stupid club, who were known to gather on Thursdays. They’d be correct of course, but Steve still didn’t want them thinking it.
Steve glanced around the parking lot. There was hardly anyone around, it seemed most people were in by now. It wasn’t too late, he considered for a moment, to skip on Dustin and go watch the game instead. Not out of malice, but certainly Dustin could have found someone a bit more keen to participate than himself. Just as Steve turned to head towards the gym entrance, a shout from behind him called out.
“Steve! You came!”
Steve spun around to face Dustin, who had an absolutely overjoyed look on his face at the fact that Steve had bothered to show.
“Uh, yeah. I’m here. Did you think I’d just skip on you?” Steve left out the part where he was planning on skipping on him.
“Yes, actually.” The smile on Dustin’s face was replaced with his trademark ‘brutal honesty’ face. ‘I’m kinda shocked you’re here in the flesh right now.”
Steve blinked. “Ok, rude. But I forgive you for now, can we maybe get a move on before someone sees me out here?”
Dustin’s smile returned. “Ha ha, yeah! Come on, follow me, let's go!”
Steve bit back a groan. This was it, the end of his social life.
Dustin led through a side door in the school and through the now mostly dark hallways, reaching a closed door on the other side of the building. The window was taped over with a piece of paper on it that had a hand drawn picture of some sort of a skull or demon, with ‘Hellfire Club’ messily scrawled below it.
Dustin went to open the door, but Steve reached out to grab his arm. Dustin turned to Steve, confused and waiting for him to explain.
“Look,” Steve hesitated. “Just promise that no one knows I was here and that none of your club members mention me ever, kay?”
Dustin looked mildly annoyed but nodded, opening his mouth to give some retort, but before he could say anything, the door swung open. There, leaning against the doorframe, and looking a little too pleased to see Steve, was none other than the freak himself, Eddie Munson.
“Well, well, what have we here?”
Behind where Eddie stood, looking Steve over, the rest of hellfire didn’t bother to hide their shocked stares, or their laughter.
Dustin, oblivious to the stares and jeers, grabbed Steve’s arm. “Hey, Eddie! I found us a sub for tonight! Steve’s gonna help us fight the cult of Vecna!”
Eddie smiled. A mocking sort of smile, that added to Steve’s immense dislike of the situation. “Steve Harrington, never thought I’d see you around here. The king of Hawkins himself, and to play with us? What an honour.”
Steve shook his head, looking anywhere other than at Eddie. “Dustin dragged me here, alright? Can we get this over with?”
“Get this over with?” Eddie gasped dramatically, holding a hand over his heart. “You mean to say that you weren’t looking forward to this? Is this a chore for you, Harrington? You know we can only accept the best players into the campaign.”
“Well, great, I am certainly far from the best player, so,” Steve clasped his hands together and nodded to Eddie, then Dustin, turning to walk away. “I certainly won’t be any help here, so I will be off and leave you to it.”
“Steve…” Dustin started, before Eddie placed a hand on his shoulder and pushed past to jab Steve in the back.
“Not so fast, Harrington, as much as I hate to say it, we do need that last player, and I am looking forward to watching you play.” Eddie smirked, extending a hand out to Steve. “So, you in?”
Steve looked to Dustin, who gave an encouraging thumbs up, then back to Eddie, who cocked his head slightly to the side. “Fine.” Steve grabbed and shook Eddie’s hand, who’s smile only grew.
“Good choice Harrington, welcome to Hellfire.”