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One would think, on the way to prepare for battle against the forces of evil, that boredom would be the last thing one is feeling. Most people clearly haven’t had to prepare for battle against the forces of evil by sitting in the back of a Winnebago listening to Steve Harrington ramble on about nuggets, which hopefully means chicken nuggets and not children, because that’s just embarrassing.
So, basically, Robin is bored.
In the driver’s seat, the aforementioned idiotic nugget ramble continues, in such an obvious attempt to get Nancy back that it’s not even funny. Way in the back, Max and Lucas are deep in their own awkwardly flirty conversation, in the way only fifteen-year-olds can pull off. Dustin appears to have fallen asleep. Robin envies him.
Next to her, Eddie will not stop fidgeting. His leg is bouncing rapidly in a manner that makes the whole sofa shake. He’s got a hunk of hair in his mouth, chewing on it with a fierce concentration, dark eyes round and thoughtful.
“Dude,” Robin says to him, having been feeling his rather excessive nervous energy rubbing off on her for the past while, “You okay?”
The movement ceases all of a sudden, and those big eyes snap to her like a deer in headlights. He mumbles something unintelligible, then seems to remember his mouth is full of hair and spits it out.
“Um,” he says, “Yeah. Yep. I’m good. Doing- doing just fine here. You?”
Robin opens her mouth, but before she can say anything he jumps back in. “Actually, no. I’m terrified. Absolutely terrified. This is insane.”
Robin can’t help but let out a little snort at the rather obvious observation. “Yeah, pretty much.”
Eddie scratches at the back of his neck, looking slightly embarrassed and more than a bit out of his depth. “I mean, I thought the biggest obstacle in my way this year was gonna be graduating high school. Now I’m fighting monsters? I don’t- in D&D, sure, I can kick ass as well as the next guy, but in- in real life? I’m just a DM, man. Shit doesn’t even compare.”
He glares furiously at the floor for a moment, running the tip of his tongue over his top lip, then continues. “Look. I’m not a hero. That’s what I’m trying to say. Harrington? Sure. Wheeler? Why not. Henderson? Shit, man, I’d believe it. Look at them all, bound and determined to win whatever the cost. Running isn’t even an option to them. They make it look easy, y’know? But it’s not- it’s not easy to be a hero. It’s easier to just… say you’re not and turn the other way. And heroes- heroes aren’t meant to survive, y’know?”
Listening to him ramble, watching him play with his hair and fiddle with his rings, Robin is struck by the sudden realization that she doesn’t really know this guy. She’d assumed he was going to be kind of like Steve, honestly, based on how Dustin had latched onto him, but at the moment he’s reminding her a little more of herself. Minus the D&D.
She must be smiling, or have made some sort of sound, because Eddie glances at her warily. “What?”
“Nothing,” Robin shakes her head. “It’s just- all of Hawkins thinks you’re some sort of twisted, violent serial murderer, when you’re actually just sitting here scared shitless, thinking about graduating, for fuck’s sake.”
A tiny smile tugs at the corner of his mouth, and he draws one leg up onto the sofa and tucks his knee under his chin. “Shows what they know, huh?”
“It’s funny, actually,” he adds. “Looking at me, you would think I try hard to be, I don’t know, different, right? Thing is, I don’t try at all. Everyone just assumes, y’know? It’s like- you don’t really have to be anything, because they’ll make you something just by looking at you. And sure, yeah, I pride myself on not being normal, but what the hell is normal, anyway? We’re all freaks, really. Everyone’s got something a little outside what’s ‘socially acceptable’. Some of us just choose to flaunt it instead of stuffing it away.”
Robin finds herself suddenly very interested in staring at the camper van’s shitty carpet. Yeah, she knows what that’s like.
“Everyone’s got something,” she murmurs, not realizing she’s speaking aloud until the words are out.
She is painfully aware of those big brown eyes on her, clocking her reaction, and she prepares to shut down the conversation, but then he scoots a little closer to her and ducks his head in. “Can I tell you a secret, though?”
Robin narrows her eyes, but doesn’t say no.
“There is one way,” Eddie begins quietly, twisting one of his rings around his finger, “In which I am painfully, embarrassingly just like everyone else. You see, everyone- with few exceptions that I have yet been able to find- everyone has a crush on Steve Harrington.”
Robin’s head snaps up at that, her eyes meeting his. He grins sheepishly.
“I know, I know,” he says. “Edward Munson, notorious ladykiller-” he grimaces. “Okay, awful choice of words there- is attracted to men. Surprise, surprise.”
“It’s nothing to be ashamed of,” he continues, leaning back against the worn cushions with a shrug. “Men are hot, y’know? So are ladies. Just a fact of nature, that. And if it makes me a freak, then what the hell. No one ever said freaks can’t have fun.”
“You’re not,” Robin blurts out, turning fully to face him, heart in her throat. “You’re just- it’s just people who like other people. That’s all anyone is. It’s just- people.”
Eddie is looking at her with a slightly startled, quizzical expression, and she knows she’s not making sense, she’s the one rambling now, there’s no way for her to save unless she either shuts up forever or-
“I like girls,” she admits, the words coming out in a near-breathless rush. “I’m a girl who likes girls. Just girls. I’ve literally only told one other person this. But it’s true.”
Eddie simply stares at her for a moment, and then a huge infectious smile spreads across his face. He holds out a hand, and it takes Robin a moment to figure out she’s supposed to shake it. She does so, and Eddie nods, apparently satisfied.
“Freaks gotta stick together,” he says by way of an explanation. Then, after a brief hesitation. “I’m glad you’re gonna have my back out there. All of you. Uh. Just. Thanks, I guess.”
Robin shrugs. “Yeah, well, I hear someone’s trying to graduate. Wouldn’t want to miss that.”
“And for what it’s worth,” she adds before she can think better of it, “you don’t have to be a hero. You’re here, and you’re going to fight. That’s enough. And, um… whatever else you may have run from, you don’t run from yourself. That’s… pretty cool, dude.”
Then, of course, because she will never, ever, be over this: “But Steve Harrington? Really?”
Eddie flushes slightly, glancing away with a shy little smile on his face. He shrugs very slightly.
“He’s so stupid. He is so fucking stupid, Eddie.”
He waggles his eyebrows. “Ah, but do you know that, or do you just think it?”
“No, I fucking know it! He’s a dumbass! A pure and total dumbass!”
“A cute one, though.”
“Not even slightly!”
“What are you two giggling about back there?” Steve calls suddenly from the driver’s seat, causing Eddie’s ears to turn bright red and Robin to dissolve further into pure cackling.
“He wants six kids,” she whispers once Steve has turned his attention back to driving.
Eddie’s horrified look sets her off again, and she can’t help but marvel at the sheer amount of laughter she’s managed in just the last few minutes.
One would think, on the way to prepare for battle against the forces of evil, that happiness would be the last thing one is feeling. Most people clearly haven’t found an odd sense of comfort and solidarity in the back of a Winnebago listening to Steve Harrington ramble on about nuggets.
Here’s to freaks, and having fun.