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"dude, we're slinging it right now!" robin called out.
"we're totally slinging it." you echoed.
"we're slinging so hard."
"we're so slingin' good at slinging."
"will you two please shut up?" steve interjected.
silence came between you and robin for only a moment as you shared a glance with two sets of pursed lips.
"but we're slinging so hard right now, steve!"
"we couldn't be slinging any harder!"
steve groaned from the back room. "you guys make taking my break like hell!"
"that's the goal, dingus."
steve stomped up to the door to look out at us from the back room. "no one is even here! you're not slinging shit!"
your scooper seemed to gather ice cream in itself on it's own. you placed your scoop into a cone and took a bite that stuck needles into your teeth and all the way up your skull.
"i slung that."
"oh, you slung it so well!" robin cheered for you while steve groaned again.
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"you're really slacking with the ladies, man." you taunted with a smile as you watched claire robbins walk away with a grimace on her face.
"yeah, well i don't see you pulling any." steve groaned.
"oh, i could if i wanted!" your eyes danced as you found an opportunity to play your favorite game: teasing steve harrington.
"prove it."
"i will!"
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"i love that necklace, angela! where'd you get it?" you spoke over the counter to the blonde you had no real interest in.
"it's sick how he can just ... look at her like that." steve's narrowed eyes watched your laughing back. how you could conjure a sparkle in your eye like that was baffling.
"what, are you jealous, harrington?" roving smiled at the glaring man next to her.
"jealous of what?" the venom in his voice told robin all that she needed to know.
"jealous that he can charm any girl in a mile radius and you can't even get one? or that he's not looking at you like that?"
"shut up." steve pouted his way into the back room of the ice cream shop.
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robin kept a count on her whiteboard.
steve: 0
you: 9
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"what's up, lover boy?" you cheesed at steve as you climbed in his car through the window. when you would use the door like a sane person - he'd never know.
"w-watch the seats!" he groaned watching your dirty shoes leave marks on the leather. "i just cleaned this car."
"sorry!" you mindlessly apologized as you pulled a map out of your bag and unfolded it. several bright sticky notes that you had plastered on to it fell on to the floor of the car.
"where are we going?"
"you'll see when we get there!"
"it better not be like the gas station from last time. shit was creepier than the monster dogs."
"it'll be fun for me, at least."
"yeah, you said that about the gas station..." steve mumbled to himself seeing you were too entranced by your map of excitement.
he noticed that your collection of road trips around indiana (that you were keeping for you two to travel to had grown from not just a green (the scary gas station), yellow (a river in south indiana that you wanted to show him), and blue (wherever you two were to be headed today) route. now, various shades of reds, purples, pinks and browns littered the page.
"what are those new ones?" he asked, his eyes trailing from the road to you.
"you'll see when we go! don't get ahead of yourself." you folded the map onto your lap and pulled out one of the many cassette tapes from you bag and popped it into the car radio.
'oh! darling' began humming from the speakers. steve rolled his eyes. you had abbey road on repeat for far too long. he didn't need to know every single word in the album.
though, he didn't hesitate to start screaming along with you and your air guitar by the time the third section of the song came along, of course.
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steve's car couldn't seem to fight off the summer heat. sweat dripped down both of your foreheads. the windows rolled down allowed the blue sky and fluffy clouds to leak in and fill your noses with hot humidity. your shirt clung to you and constricted your breathing.
"there it is!" you shouted, nearly falling out of the window after steve slammed on his breaks.
a green sign with white print read 'hoosier hill - indiana's highest point - elev. 1257'.'
"pull over, pull over!"
"oh, you gotta be shitting me," steve grumbled under his breath. you heard it very loud, of course. you always heard him loudly. you were also always very aware that his complaining meant next to nothing when it came to you, though.
you climbed out of the car before steve could turn the car off, "c'mon, steve!" you practically whined for him.
"is this really it?" he questioned as if he were going to leave you there if you said yes.
"no, there's stuff up there!" you pointed up a hill amidst the trees and green bushes to a faded trail that looked as if it were going to blow away in the summer breeze.
steve huffed, preparing himself for the short walk that would feel like miles in the heat. you didn't take a second to wait for him, though. you ran up the hill even with the heat filling your lungs and making them as small as could be.
steve watched your frame stop. "this is it!" you called to him.
he shrugged after arriving next to you and catching his breath. "it's a little underwhelming but at least it's not that gas station."
you both stared at a wooden sign that restated what the green sign said. steve plopped down onto a bench that sat on the same small plot as the wooden sign.
you looked at it for a moment more.
then ran down the hill and back to steve's car. he stuttered out a call for you, but found his attempts fruitless.
you returned a moment later, out of breath and more sweaty, but with your bag. you fished out a push pin with white fabric on it and a black marker.
you tossed the bag to steve, scribbling your name down on the fabric.
"the hell are you doin'?"
you scooted the pen over to him with the fabric, "write your name."
"what? no, what is this for-?"
"steve," you watched him with a look he knew all too well: 'just do it for me'.
he rolled his eyes and participated, "i swear to god, if this is going to put my name into a cult or something i'm never forgiving you."
you snatched the fabric and pen back and finished what you wanted to write, then went to pin the fabric to the wooden stick.
steve and y/n were here.
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"you have to bring extra shoes," you scolded in through the window of his car. your backpack begged you to set it back down in his car but you needed to go home for the night.
"what the hell do i need extra shoes for?"
"you should bring some you don't care about,"
"i'm not bringing extra shoes, alright?"
"if you say so. you're going to regret it, though." you turned and began taking your steps toward the door.
"why would i regret it?" he called to your retreating figure.
"eight a.m, harrington! we need to go before work!"
steve watched your door shut.
"god-dammit!" he muttered to himself as he began driving home into the newly born night.
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"we're going to milltown, you should probably get gas," you choked out while you climbed into the car. dirty feet all over the seats (once again).
"milltown? dude-,"
"no complaining! i'll pay for your gas if your going to have a hissy fit about it."
"maybe you should try driving for once."
"no thanks," you plugged a cassette in to the car radio, 'come on eileen" started playing from the middle of the song.
steve mindlessly nodded his head along to the songs, listening to your mindless humming.
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"you know what? this one is actually kinda cool." steve admitted.
"right!"
you two stood admiring what looked to be several trees that had been covered in shoes with their laces tied so they hung off the branches.
you plopped down on to the grass. the cold morning dew seeped through your clothes and pinched your legs. you tugged your dirty reeboks that were too small off of your feet. "you brought extra shoes, right?"
steve let out an extended breath as he watched you tug a pair of converse out of your bag and pulled them onto your feet.
"i told you to bring some!"
"yeah, i know!" he rolled his eyes but sat next to you and pulled his own pair of reeboks off.
you both tied the laces of your pairs together, tugging to make sure they'd stay on with the rest of the hanging shoes.
and off they flew as you both tossed your pairs in the air together. the summer breeze carried the two pairs of reeboks onto the branches, shaking the tree and it's leaves and shoes.
"dude, you didn't get yours anywhere near mine. how will the people know that we came together?"
"'the people' wont give two shits about where our shoes are on the tree. they're all in that pile."
"i will care!"
"alright, well you can get a ladder and go move the shoes." steve said as he sat on the ground and leaned back onto the soft grass. "i will be right here whenever you're done with that."
you glanced from the lounging man with his eyes closed to still swinging shoes in the sky.
you decided it wouldn't matter in the long run, and at least he had done it with you despite having no extra shoes to wear (maybe it'd be nice if you offered yours to him but, also, maybe he should have just listened to you!).
you laid down next you him with your hands behind your head and stared up at fluffy white clouds that swam in the sea of blue above. the breeze moved the blades of grass to dance along your cheeks and neck. your hair danced with them.
you watched the clouds mold into their own shapes and pointed out different things you saw to steve:
"that one looks like a turtle!"
"that's a fucked up turtle."
"that one looks like a shark!"
"it looks like it's swimming after the turtle to eat it."
you both continued on like that for seemingly forever. the midday heat began to creep in and making it to work began to clog your mind but steve was in no rush, so you pushed the thoughts away.
"i gotta ask you for advice about something." steve began out of nowhere. he dressed his words in formal attire. "i've gotten really close to someone recently, like a lot closer than we've ever been before."
steve doesn't get serious with you (or anyone) often. so, of course, you listened with every fiber in you. you treated his concerns with upmost importance.
"and i've - i don't know. i've started to-to like this person. a lot. but, well, i don't even know if they'd feel the same way about me."
"that's never stopped you before," you smiled, glancing to the side to read his features.
"yeah, but this person is just... different."
"what do you mean?"
"well, for one, i can't even imagine what other people would think. my dad for sure. he'd kill me. but, i also just actually like this person. and like... care about them and our relationship, and what would happen if they didn't end up liking me, too."
"does it really matter what your dad thinks?"
"i mean, i don't really care. i just always imagined he'd be at my wedding and it would be pretty shitty if he wasn't there."
"you're already thinking about marriage with this person and you haven't even asked them out yet?"
"yeah, is that bad?"
"i think that just proves that it shouldn't matter what your dad thinks if you really are already thinking about marriage with them. since when does steve harrington think about marriage with a girl?"
"i-i mean, yeah! that the dream, you know?"
"really?"
"i'd love to have a bunch of little harrington's runnin' around."
"so what advice do you need from me? it sounds like you already know what you want, you just gotta get the balls to go get her."
"sure, sure. you're right. thank you."
"'course man," a nervous silence overwhelmed you. you could never tell if you said the right thing, especially with steve. he was so difficult to read.
"that one looks like a squirrel that can't get open an acorn," steve pointed to a cloud above with a smirk over his features as if he knew he just said the stupidest thing in the world.
"no it does not, you idiot,"
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your name echoed from the street outside of your house that night. your eyebrows shuffled together in confusion as you scurried to your window to see what - or who - could be causing all that noise.
you peaked your head out to see steve harrington holding roses, 'i just called to say i love you' blasting through his car stereo from one of the cassette's you had given him.
you couldn't help but let a smile creep onto your face at how absolutely sweet he looked with his nervous feet and fingers tapping. his eyebrows were sewn together and his lips looked licked raw. he motioned for you to come down stairs and that's exactly what you did.
"what the hell are you doing?" you laughed as you ran out in your pajamas, sandals, and a sad excuse for a jacket.
"listen to me,"
"you are so lucky my parents aren't here right now, harrington, they'd kill you for being so loud!" you reached in his car and turned the volume down to a reasonable volume. the smile never left your face, though.
steve spoke your name again, and grabbed your arm to turn you around. "listen, i-" his eyes searched your face for the words he wanted to say. he couldn't find them, though.
"i'm listening," you smiled, leaning against his car as stevie wonders continued to play.
he rolled his eyes (at himself) and found his answers away from your face. "i-i-i-i've just- i've been talking to robin a lot more lately and she's helped me understand that i-i, you know, i like you and i think you're really cool but i've never liked a guy before you, ya know? i don't know how to do any of this shit," he mumbled to himself. "here," he shoved the flowers into your hand.
the smile never left your face, "steve,"
he looked up at you. he hadn't realized how close he had come, practically trapping you against his car.
"is it okay if i kiss you?" you whispered into his ear.
his cheeks went as red as could be. you'd never seen him so flustered (or flustered at all, for that matter).
his mouth opened but no words came out. just an eager nod.
the hand that wasn't holding the roses found its way to his cheek and pulled him in to meet your lips. it was short and sweet, the smallest bite of chocolate. it drew steve in and let him know what he was in for in the coming future with you.
and steve was absolutely in love.