Work Text:
One of the things Steve has always underestimated ever since being thrown into the madness of monsters and alternate dimensions is just how jarring it is going from the life or death type situations of the upside down back to mundane real life. So when he and Robin lose their jobs at Family Video, it seems like a trivial problem in comparison to everything they’ve faced in the past week.
It’s not like they didn’t see it coming. They ditched in the middle of the busiest day of the week and showed up a week later with poor excuses and no evidence to back them up. What were they meant to say? Oh, sorry about that, we were busy fighting monster bats from another dimension in an attempt to prove our friend didn’t commit a violent murder.
They manage to hold down a job in the coffee place on the other side of town for the better part of a month, but that eventually comes to an end. After that, they hop between whatever odd jobs people will offer them until the end of summer comes and Robin goes off to college.
She decides to go for a linguistics course at a community college about 30 miles out from Hawkins. Her classes are only 3 days a week and it’s close enough that she can continue living with her parents, though most of the time she just crashes in one of the many spare rooms at Steve’s. He insists on driving her. She argues with him at first, but he knows how to stand his ground once he has his mind set on something.
3 weeks after classes begin, Robin is bogged down with more school work than either of them expected and Steve’s dad is starting to get on his ass about the fact he’s still unemployed. He needs to get a job and for the first time, he won’t have Robin by his side.
He knew this day would come, she was always destined for more than the shitty dead-end retail jobs they had been working. Still, he’s not sure he even knows how to function without Robin by his side, he wouldn’t have even gotten the job at Family Video if it weren’t for her. They’ve relied on each other for so long, even back in the early days of Scoops when they were both adamant that they disliked each other.
As reluctant as he is, he knows there’s no other option. He needs to try to get a job on his own. He’s faced down literal monsters and gone toe to toe with a demogorgon on more than one occasion this should be nothing in comparison.
The record store is a small indie thing, closer to Robin's school than it is to Hawkins. It’s more of a pro than a con if he’s being honest with himself, it saves him from having to drive all the way back to Hawkins and worry about being there on time. He soon finds he quite likes the thought of working somewhere and not seeing the same handful of faces he’s seen for the last 20-plus years of his life day in and day out, of not bumping into old high school classmates who are oh-so-happy to remind him of days he’d much rather put behind him. It’s perfect and he can’t quite believe it when they actually hire him.
It seems like relatively simple work, not all that different from Family Video. The owner meets him there for his first day, shows him the ropes, tells him his co-worker will be in any minute now if he has any issues, then leaves him to it. He’s sorting through a box of records in the stockroom, his back to the door when he hears a voice. It’s one he recognizes, though he hasn’t heard in a while.
“Harrington?”
He turns slowly and doesn’t quite believe his eyes when he sees Eddie Munson standing in front of him. The last time they saw each other Eddie was still in the hospital, pale from blood loss and covered in bandages. He looks different now, healthier, happier, it’s a good look on him. The wounds on his neck and face have healed into patches of raised pink skin, gnarled and twisted like the ones hidden beneath Steve’s shirt.
“What’re you doing here?” Steve blurts out after he’s managed to pick his jaw up off the floor.
“I work here.” Eddie doesn’t take his eyes off him, as if he’s worried Steve might disappear if he looks away for even a second. “And I’m guessing you’re the new hire?”
“Yeah, I uh- yeah I am.”
“So, what brings you all the way out here?” Whatever spell Eddie was under previously breaks and he’s finally able to look away when he moves to grab one of the crates Steve had been sorting through, “Finally get tired of Hawkins?”
“Robin goes to college nearby, I drive her most days anyway,” he explains, following Eddie out onto the shop floor. “What about you?”
“Feds wanted us out of Hawkins, for obvious reasons. This was as close as they’d let us stay.” He’s quiet for a moment, but Steve can feel the unspoken words hanging in the air, “I wanted to call, but-”
“I know.” He gets it.
He knows Dustin and some of the other kids call, but that was different. Steve and Eddie were never friends. They were two barely acquaintances with a handful of mutual friends forced to trust each other in a, frankly, insane situation. It was difficult to know where they stood after it was all over and with Eddie no longer in Hawkins, presumed dead by the majority of the town who didn’t know any better, it was easy for Steve to ignore that nagging voice in his head that wasn’t ready to let him go just yet.
“Well, looks like you won’t be getting rid of me that easily after all.” Eddie smiles and bumps their shoulders together before moving off through the rows of shelves.
“Hey, Eddie,” He calls and Eddie turns to look, “It’s good to see you again.”
“You too.” An unreadable expression flashes across Eddie’s features, gone almost as soon as it appears, “Now what do you say about helping me with some of these boxes, big boy?”
The nickname shocks him for a moment, just as it had the first time he used it, but it’s followed by a wide smile. He may not have Robin by his side, but he thinks he’s going to enjoy this job just fine.