Chapter Text
Steve Harrington, which was not a household name whatsoever unless you lived in Hawkins Indiana from the years nineteen eighty-one to nineteen eighty-three, was an asshole.
Was, he was .
He’d come to the realization about two years ago when he was pressing a cold cola to his eye after a run-in with Jonathan Byers. He knew he’d been harsh, he knew the word he’d called him, queer was not quite meant to be used like that. He knew the way Ben and Phoebe, two of his respectively gay family members, would react upon hearing the news. Steve knew that the camera breaking was petty, and shitty since the Byers couldn’t afford a new one, and they were having a bad week as it was.
His fucking baby brother, who had been missing, was just declared dead.
Somehow, the thought of how ‘even if Jonathan was in the wrong, he was too ’ strikes him only in that moment.
The moment where Carol and Tommy, the assholes they absolutely were, had started gossiping, calling Nancy Wheeler a slut, and Jonathan Byers a fag who just wanted to get his dick wet with a woman once in his life.
The moment where he snaps to life, tells them both to ‘ shut the fuck up’ .
It was then that he realized that, Steve Harrington? Was not a good guy.
But, but,
His one saving grace was that he could change. So, when he turns back to the Byer’s house after a monster came out of the wall?
He decided to change.
That’s what kept him going during the freaky shit, change.
When Dustin dragged him to find his lost creature, when he fought them with a baseball bat in a junkyard to keep kids safe, when he got beat to high hell and back by Billy Hargrove?
Well, the first one was to change, the others were a result, the monumental shift in his head when Dustin handed him a bag, talking about how he promised Nancy that he’d keep them safe, so “ Keep us safe.”
He realized as he guarded Dustin so the boy could go up the rope, what that shift was. He wasn’t doing this for Nancy, or himself, or whatever.
It was because he wanted them safe.
And afterwards, he wanted to do more than just throw himself into danger to be better. Because seriously, the crazy shit? All over, they had shut the gate, basically exorcized the boy, and yeah, he hadn’t gotten the girl but it was fine.
He could absolutely move on, Jonathan and Nancy had, and they were great together, kudos to them!
His first step had been to get a job. It wasn’t really his decision in the first place, but his father used it as a punishment when he drank actual elixirs of alcohol after the ‘ tunnel’ incident.
Which was fine, he needed one anyway, and actually , it would be nice to meet people, and get away from his parents when they were home. He never got out, except on dates, and now that he’s graduated, he had a lot of empty time on his hands that he wouldn’t be using to just cart a half-a-dozen middle-schoolers slash newly freshman around.
It just so happens the mall had opened and had an open position at one Scoops Ahoy Ice Cream Parlor.
And he’d even been hired! The freckled girl, Robin , who definitely knew him seemed less than ecstatic about everything he was doing there, but seemed particularly giddy at the shitty hat and uniform that slid too far up his asscrack.
She was very vocal about the fact that they may be co-workers but they would never be friends,
Which Steve,
Steve might be able to work with this.
He has no fucking clue what he did to her to have her this pissed, probably dated a friend of hers, or his reputation was enough, but by the end of the summer, Steve may be able to convince her he changed.
Steve spent the entirety of his first five days being laughed at by Robin for every rejection that he’d acquired. She even found a whiteboard in the ‘ captains’ quarters’ and started tally marking away.
Five ‘you suck!’s, zero ‘you rule!’s.
Make that six, he thinks, hearing the squeal of the dry erase marker as the girl in front of him gives her most pouty look. “ Sorry, sweet thing. I’m not interested, you’ll find someone though.”
She licks at her sherbert as she walks away, collecting her friends at the door like some sort of multiplier.
‘ Whatever, only psychos get sherbert in a cone.’
He cringes, scrunches his nose because he’s supposed to be nicer for fucks sake. That very much included in his head, when he could.
“ Awh, at least she was polite, shall I remind you of number three?” Robin’s voice drones, tutting her tongue on the roof of her mouth.
Number three had been the reason he’d had to change uniforms, she’d thrown her vanilla shake at him and screamed she had a boyfriend.
Steve turns, rests his elbows on the counter behind him. “ No no, trust me, I remember . But I’m sure you’ll remind me.”
She grins, an arm reaching behind her back to grab the polaroid of him trying to use water and paper towels from the employee bathroom to scrub off the substance. She waves it around, tight in her two finger grip. “ Bru- talẽ.” Her head shakes to both sides, and along with it that dirty blonde bob.
That was the third polaroid the girl had taken since he’d got hired, and since he started his shifts. The girl had a thing about them, apparently. One of her with a raggedy haircut and outfit with random stars glued on sat in the breakroom that he never cared to question.
Steve turns around to hide his scowl. “ It’s this hat, I swear . They gotta let the lion’s mane free!”
Robin hums from behind him, finally leaving the breakroom. Her raspy voice flows to the other register as she starts it up. “ You know that’s the only reason Ned hired you? The hair? Guess he realized you look shit with and without the hat.”
“ Thank you for that delightful input, Robin.” He stretches a faux grin along his face as he cleaned off his scooper by dipping it in the water hole they’d been mandated to use. Honestly, it wasn’t much cleaner after.
She gasps, “ Awh, baby’s first big word, congratulations!”
He rolls his eyes, takes the order, scoops the ice cream, and hands the man in front of him his rocky road or whatever the fuck the Scoops Ahoy name for it was. Probably the ‘ rocky boat .’
He looks down.
‘ Rocky seas.’
His was way better.
Scoops should hire him.
The mother in front of him fake coughs to grab his attention.
‘ Oh yeah.’
He very much does work for Scoops Ahoy.
He almost quits the second the gaggle of children he herds around walk in the door.
Minus Dustin, of course, if that nerd was here he’d actually be excited .
But, with the slim pickings, his favorites were the snarky redhead and her boyfriend that was wearing a karate kid shirt?
The group spots him, and Max bursts out laughing. She grips El’s wrist and drags her to the counter as the rest of the group catch up.
She uses her free hand to point at him. “ Oh this is fucking hilarious .” Nevermind, maybe she wasn’t one of the favorites of this selection.
“ Language.” He tries half-heartedly.
“ Oh fuck language, this is great . You know, when you said you had a new job, Lucas thought it would be a sports store but I said no, no he’s gonna get the dorkiest one.”
Robin’s voice sounded from beside him, “ And uh, Harrington? Who are these little pockets of sunshine?”
He glances at the group of tweens, and back at Robin.
How could he say this without sounding like he’d gone insane…
Oh them? These are just the kids I saved from monsters that came out of another dimension, and also from Billy Hargrove, who is the older brother to this freckled ginger in front of me.
“ These shit-heads?” He gestures to save time from whatever the hell he’s gonna come up with in this moment -
“ I babysit their asses, I haul them around in my car like some sort of shitty taxi service where I don’t get paid for gas.”
Mike screws up his face and Steve has to resist the urge to say ‘ I fucked your sister.’
And he does! Because he’s mature like that.
Robin eyes him warily, and the children in front of him. “ You. Babysit.” She turns to him. “ People trust you with their children?”
He scoffs, crosses his arms like a petulant child which, okay, he’s allowed to be offended by that right? “ I’m very trustable.”
She shakes her bob, “ Let me rephrase.”
Her arm throws out to point at Will, who only slightly flinches, but he mostly just breaks out into a bludh. Robin’s tone is disbelieving when she speaks. “ Joyce Byers trusts you to babysit?”
She turns to Will, flushed,“ No um, no offense but!” She looks back to Steve and shimmies her hand in a kind of ‘ ehh?!’ way.
If in a ‘ ehh?! ’ way is completely manic and confused.
“ Hey! His mom only slightly distrusts me. That’s uh, given the whole reputation and Jonathan incident but… I’m getting better!”
Mike makes a noise that pretty much translates to ‘debatable’ and Steve shoots him a look.
“ I have a job.”
Lucas gets a nudge from Max and pipes up, “ Oh! Uh, he got beat up for us?” Max pinches the bridge of her nose and Lucas puts his hands up in an indescribable gesture.
El from where she's stood next to Max and Mike, speaks, “ I would like a double scoop of strawberry in a cone.”
Steve, suddenly remembering that this is his job, perks up. “ One double scoop strawberry for the lovely lady, what can I get for Will the Wise?” He asks, because he’s pretty much done with Robin doubting his ability to properly babysit.
Will looks over the options. He points, but respectfully doesn’t touch the glass, at the toothpaste colored tub that was unfairly mostly full. “ Uhm, pint-sized mint.”
Steve raises a brow, “ You sure? The company pays.”
Will blinks, crosses his arms. “ Uh, the medium then. Thanks Steve.”
He nods, points at the next kid, Max, who gets a USS butterscotch to share with Lucas, and Mike gets triple scoop chocolate in a cup because the kid didn’t read the sign.
“ Okay so just to refresh, double scoop strawberry in a cone for El, triple chocolate in a cup for Michael which-“ He grabs the largest cup they have. “- classifies as sailor-sized, Lucas and Max are sharing a USS butterscotch, which-“
He sends the two a grin, “-Cute. And for Will a mint mer-medium.” He finishes, and El gives him an enthusiastic thumbs up.
Steve starts getting to work making the ice cream for all the brats as they stand to the side.
As he hands over the last round of treats, he finds Mike peering to look through the employee’s room window.
He obscures his view, and sets a hand on his hip, letting a brow quirk. “ What are you doing?”
“ Does that connect with the movie theater?”
Steves hands El and Max their stuff. “ What?”
He rolls his eyes, points at the door. “ That . The break room, how you get in this place, does it connect to the theater?”
He looks back, thinks, and shrugs. “ I mean, yeah, probably if you go far enough.” When he turns to face the children again, Mike and Max are grinning like the cat that got the- something. Milk?
“ What ?” He asks, because he hates the look the dorks are giving each other. Max start, the troublemaker that she is, with the fattest smirk she could probably manage. “ So we could hypothetically, oh I don’t know, get through without paying?”
He blinks. They cannot be serious.
El’s eyes widen and she says something about that being bad, and Max reassures her it’s not, it’s just a bit of fun.
“ No.” Steve states, tone flat. Then he repeats again, “ No,no no no, no. I just got this job guys.” Lucas it seems, has caught onto the idea, and is smilling.
“ Steve, please . They’re supposed to be replaying Halloween, and they wouldn’t let us in cause of our age!” He begs.
“ No .” He hisses, but he feels his resolve dissolving by the minute.
“ Steve.” Max stares, “ No rides for the next…” She looks to Lucas who mutters ‘ week…?’ She nods, turns back to the man in the ridiculous sailor get up. “ Week , no impromptu arcade visits, no rides to the video store, and that goes for all of us.”
He stares, blinks, and huffs. “ Whatever, fine. ” He lifts his hand, flicks Mike on the head from where he’s stood just because he’s the one who mentioned it. “ Anyone finds out though, you’re all dead.” He glances about, seeing Robin busy and nobody paying attention. He opens the two doors and shoos them on. “ Be quiet though, shit-heads!” He whisper-shouts at them.
Will smiles at him from the back, mouthes a ‘ thank you’ for catching up to the group.
Steve knows that they were still definitely gonna ask for a ride or two this week, and he honestly wouldn’t be mad. He’d play up the bitchy-ness, sure, but in the end it doesn’t matter if they could get there just fine on their bikes, his car was just so much cooler to pull up in.
He should know, that’s why Tommy and Carol only ever drove around in his car, and also because they absolutely sucked at driving.
He goes back out front to the registers, and is greeted by Robin grinning. “ Steveee Harrington got wore down by a bunch of middle-schoolers.” She snickers, resting her elbows on the counter. “ Wow, what’s next, is a pig gonna fly in here? Order a double scoop of choc-o-chunk?”
“ Har har,” He says before turning to the group of women in front of him.
“Ahoy ladies, how’d you like to set sail on an ocean of flavor! I’m Steve, I’ll be your captain…”
He doesn’t see so much as feel the intense eye roll Robin throws his way.
Sixth shift day, as he opens up shop, not in that ridiculous get-up for once cause he can change before the place opens, he hears the scuffing of sneakers stopping beside him.
He turns to find big brown eyes and a gaping mouth staring at him. Both of the features belonging to the renowned drug dealer of Hawkins, Eddie Munson.
His eyes are darting from Steve to the sign above the door,-( which is just the black and white version of the actual shop’s )-keys to the Hot Dog on a Stick place hanging from his fingertips. He lets out a shocked laugh. “ Oh please tell me you’re not breaking in, and actually work there .” He’s got this big wide-grin that reminds Steve a bit of Garfield.
“ Oh, uh.” He glances at his own set of keys, raises them in a ‘cheers’ motion, “ Yup. Wasn’t my first choice but they hired me so.” He shrugs.
Eddie’s smile never dims, even as he turns away to unlock the door, and the scent of old fryer oil fills the air. “ Well, now I know where to go to if I wanna grab a cone from the ‘King of Hawkins .’ ” He looks back to Steve, hair giving a manic kind of vibe but no doubt played up due to the humidity outside frizzing it up. “ Seeya, Harrington.”
Steve waves, feeling a tad stupid when he almost drops his keys. “ See you later, Munson.”
The man nods, like assuring himself this is actually real, before he pushes through the door and lets it click shut behind him.
Steve blinks at the spot no longer inhabited, before looking back at his keys, which.
Fuck ,
He forgot which key it was.
True to his word, the metalhead does actually drop by, only he waits till the next day. He’s in an absolutely joy-ius mood as he takes in the Scoops Ahoy mandated uniform, and Steve regrets his oath to becoming a nicer, stand-up guy.
The man in front of him, in his own Hot Dog on a Stick attire-( Which was just an apron with a cartoon corndog and a visor, lucky bastards .)-Has to stumble his order through his own giggles. When Steve turns to grab the sundae bowl, and Eddie notices the little ice cream embroidered on his sleeve, he starts back up.
“ Holy shit, this is fucking great. And uh, how long have you been working here?” Steve’s brow raises and he almost doesn’t want to answer so he doesn’t have to hear the remark.
“ Todays the seventh shift, but like two weeks.” He shrugs, “ Usually Ned, the owner, and Amanda, some highschool chick from Carmel take over some days. The other days it’s just me and Robin who,”
Steve turns to squint through the window, and finds Robin on her lunch break, digging into a box of chow mein. It's likely the most foreign food in Hawkins. He looks back, nose scrunched. “-does not like me. So, yay for hopefully figuring that out eventually.” He throws his hand in the air and does a singular jazz-hand, trying to make it as sarcastic as a jazz-hand could possibly be.
Eddie grins, all cheshire cat-like as Steve spins to actually start on the order. He rests his chin onto his palm. “ Do you want some suggestions? Freak here might have some ideas as to why this girl hates your guts.” His other hand taps his pointer against his temple.
Steve frowns, though Eddie can’t see it, as he snaps off a banana from the bunch to unpeel. If he were mean, he’d pick the one with the most enzymatic browning,-( A term he learned from Dustin. It just means it’s getting too ripe. )- But since he’s not a dick, he picks one with only one or two brown spots. “ Yeah no, I know that shit was bad. I’m uh, trying to get better though.”
The metalhead huffs, raising a brow. “ You waited till after you graduated to start all that kumbaya shit?”
And if only to make it awkward and make the guy feel like an ass, he hums. “ It actually started when Wheeler dumped my ass and Hargrove started a selectively spread rumor amongst the girls and jocks that it was because I was giving head to her deadbeat dad,-” He shifts his face so Eddie could see the grin he was giving him. “-But nobody really talked to me after that shit so I haven’t really had the opportunity.”
If Steve hadn’t had all those NDAs, he would’ve mentioned the girl dying in his pool and almost dying via dog-creatures in a tunnel with his nerdy best-friend, who is a fourteen year old.
Nevertheless, Eddie gapes, mouth clicking open and shut, before it forms into a thin line. He glances around, trying to find something to change the topic with, and points at the banana boat in progress.
“ How much was that again?”
“ Two-fifty.”
“ Great.”
Steve finishes slobbing butterscotch, sherbert, and mint onto the sundae for the fucking pyscho infront of him, which he thinks but doesn’t say. As he passes him the boat, he watches him grab a fork, eat both the bananas, and then, on the way out, chucks it into the trash bin.
He scrunches his nose at the waste of product. The dude couldn’t have bothered to atleast try it, and Steve could’ve just given him the banana.
Honestly Steve can’t tell if that's worse than eating that combo of flavors or better. And that’s coming from a dude that loves butterscotch and mint when they’re separated! They’d be downright horrific together, and with sherbert ?
He just doesn’t get it.
Robin seems not to have noticed, finally back from her meal break. She's got a noodle sat atop her ascot and Steve points it out.
Her nose scrunches, “ Ewh.” She picks it off but a tiny brown sauce stain stays behind. Robin sighs, flicks the noodle somewhere in Steve’s direction and heads to the counter.
“ Any more notable losses since I’ve been gone? Just so I can, oh, narrow down what I’m putting on the board. There’s not a ton of space.” She asks, smirk ripping across her face like she knows the answer, and is waiting for Steve to say something dumb like ‘ Oh I complimented a girls tits and she threw her shark attack shake at me! I wonder why??’
Steve huffs, hopes people don’t think of him like that and shakes his head. The Scoops loosens from the spot it was in and he adjusts the stupid thing.
“ Contrary to whatever belief you’re beholding, I can go thirty minutes without flirting or asking someone out.” Her eyes widen and she faux gasps. “ Amazing, a man with self-control? I’ve never heard of that before!”
Steve’s reminded of his aunt Phoebe, his father’s sister. She was a very ‘ punk’ woman who always pushed around his dad when they were little. She was gay, with her partner for life, Whitney.
They weren’t married, not like any gay person could get married in the U.S of As, but they were close enough to it that she was like Steve’s aunt as well.
Since young both Phoebe and Whitney were absolutely set on Steve not becoming a non-progressive, ‘God says it’s not right so it’s not’, homophobic, and assholish guy when he was older.
Which,
They would both fucking hate him if they knew about highschool.
Whitney would be sweeter about it, ‘ people make mistakes ’, and would support him as he owned up to it,
Phoebe however, would stop going to family gatherings he would be attending until Steve’s mother, Gracie, her best friend, gave her the all clear.
Steve snaps back to present, where Robin is still blabbering on. It’s funny how expressive this girl is, and how much she’s really laying into the bit.
“ Oh we have got to tell the press. This is gonna go international! Quick, before the line starts up!-“ She grabs her red converse and lifts her knee to her chest. “-Sign my shoe Steve Harrington!” She snorts.
Steve laughs too, but it’s not at the little play she’s doing.
“ Dude… Did you draw boobies on your shoe?” He whispers even though there’s no customers nearby. He leans on the counter with a grin.
He watches her smile quickly fade, and as she stomps her foot to the ground. Her eyes are wide and she looks cornered.
“ Uhm.”
His own grin fades. He brings a hand up, waves it around quickly. “ It’s fine, I’m not trying to like- make fun of you! I’m fine with it !” He quickly whispers, looking around. “ Just, uh, you seriously wear your porn around with you?” He laughs, tries to make a joke.
She looks delirious as she lets out her own chuckle, unable to hold it back. “ Oh what the fuck .”
His brows knit together, lips in a thin line.
“ Are you okay? You can, uh, take another break?” He suggests, but she shakes her head. “ No, no. I can’t sit by myself in that room, just,”
She stares, eyes earnest and pleading. “ Please , Harrington. Don’t tell anyone.”
Her voice wobbles and she looks like she's about to barf. Like she’d just gotten caught doing something that could get her killed.
Which, being in the deadsmack of Hawkins-fucking-Indiana? It could, or would at least ruin her future.
He’s reminded of the rumors of Mr. Hauser, his old English Lit teacher. Dash Montague, some guy who dated a band nerd, had started spreading a rumor he was having relations with the female students, which was automatically debunked when he also had another one cooked up about him being gay.
Honestly, what Steve thought about the whole thing?
The guy just really loved his students and teaching. He never looked at any of the students with anything other than respect, and all those rumors were fucking dumb. If the guy was gay? Good for him. He’s probably off with the love of his life now, or at a school that would actually appreciate him.
He blinks at the girl, ‘ Actually .’
“ You were one of Hauser’s kids!” He snaps, realization dawning on him. “ Oh shit I ran into you in the hallway that one time looking for Nance-…-Y. Nancy. Man,-” He holds his hand up. “-You were just a tiny random freshman.”
Her eyes widen. Shocked, no doubt. Her voice is eerily flat as she speaks. “ Sophomore , Harrington. I’m a Senior when school starts up, Sorry-“ She shakes her head viciously, bob flying.
“ Are you going to tell anyone? Cause, y’know, I’d really prefer it if you didn’t. I mean, if you did I could always move to France and live there for eternity. I know the language so it’d be fine but also not because that would so not be cool of you if you told anyone. Shitty , even. It’d be so shitty of you.” Her brows furrow more as she continues speaking.
“ Like so, crazily shitty. And if I couldn’t get out on time? Hawkins High would hang me on town-square and throw flaming pitchforks at my body, you know? And you’d have to live with the guilt that you killed a girl by-“
“ Robin. Buckley . ” He grabs her shoulders, shakes her a bit as he spies people actually coming into the store from the corner of his eye. “ I won’t tell anyone, sorry that I like, forced that out of you or whatever. If you wanna keep talking about Hawkins hanging you then we should probably wait until after our shift is over. Capiche ?”
She nods, shaky. “ Yeah, uhm, capiche, er… Ca- posh even!” She gives a wonky smile and turns to her register to greet the family in front of her.
After accidentally scaring the shit out of Robin and convincing her Hawkins High and all it’s ancestors were going to hang her like it’s the Witch Trials, they actually start becoming friends. The end of shift had come, and after explaining why she had been so pissed when he started working here, Steve kinda got it.
Well, not that Tammy Thompson was her choice, especially since her singing was a part of it, but he got why she didn’t like him.
And she actually, like, listened when he spoke about changing. Didn’t think that shit was stupid.
Now they’re friends! And he can say proudly that he doesn’t only hang out with half-middle-schoolers-almost-freshmans.
Which is actually really fuckin’ sad that it took so long.
And, honestly? So far they’d only hung out outside of work when he was giving her rides to work.
But, even in the freezing cold, constantly too bright, kiddy germ filled palace that was Scoops Ahoy, they’d had some bonding moments.
Kinda?
Steve’s called from his break when he hears the constant dinging of the service bell.
Now, nobody rings it that much unless it’s Erica and her friends, an asshole complaining about their vanilla tasting of chocolate, or the group of children that constantly abuses his access to the backrooms. ( Seven times now, with varying groups.)
The glass panel to view the parlor slides open, and Robin's face fills the previously occupied space. “ Hey dingus, we’ve got a, uh.” She glances behind her, eyebrows scrunched together. “ Special? Request for you.” She shrugs.
Steve instantly wonders if it’s Henderson, but he wasn’t meant to get back from camp for another three weeks. Did something happen? Was the Upside Down back?
He shoots up, and pushes through the door.
Eddie bristles, dings the bell again with a pleased look. Steve frowns, a little disappointed but this would surely make for a good conversation.
He leans onto the counter, in front of his designated register. “ Munson.” He greets with a nod.
The metalhead huffs, grins. “ Come on! Where's that company mandated ‘hello’ that good ol’ Buckley gave me when I walked in?”
Robin, cringing, turns to him. Her face tells him whatever the fuck she said was gonna be hilarious .
“ I did the normal slogan, and when he asked for you, I told him to not drown while he waited.” She states slowly, going over her own words like she rehearsed them.
“ Well,” He tuts, looking at the man in the grease stained apron in front of him. “ He didn’t drown, so .”
He perks a brow. “ Order?”
Eddie sighs, “ Down to business, no time to talk.” He surveys the options, tuts distastefully, and shrugs. “ I’ll have what I got last time.”
If only to humble him and nothing else, Steve feigns forgetfulness. “ That was three weeks ago.”
“ And?”
“ I’ve served two-hundred sundaes since then, I’m gonna need a refresher.”
He begins picking at his nails, clearly disinterested. “ Don’t remember either, it wasn't really that good.”
Steve scrunches his nose, looking to Robin to see if she's hearing this.
But the girl with the dirty blonde-ish brown bob is busy staring at the girl in front of her in disbelief because she’s complaining her ice cream gave her a stomach ache.
He turns back to Eddie who’s suddenly closer. Steve huffs, “ You decided yet?”
“ Mhm,” He steps back letting his hands rest on his hips. “ Regular sundae with banana, sherbert, and sea monster. On top I want pirate-butter cups and cherries.”
As if the order couldn’t get worse from last time.
He gets to work putting the stupid thing together, watching Robin squint at the monstrosity as he throws the combo together. He doesn’t try to make it pretty because he assuming that like last time, it’s ending up in the trash.
He passes it to Eddie, watches as he nibbles on the bananas. “ Two dollars sixty-three cents.” He forks the cash over, and after eating the bananas and some cherries, he throws the carton in the trash.
Robin approaches from his side. “ Did he really just?-“
“ Yup .”
“ Huh, that’s just. Huh.”
Two days later, when Steve is set to open the shop, he finds Eddie fumbling with his keys in the door lock. He looks up and grins. “ Hell- o , sailor.” He glances down, and his grin turns sheep-ish.
“ So uh, this is definitely the right key, but the door is stuck.” He laughs, “ Can you uh, help get it un-stuck so I don’t have to call the janitor? He does not like me.”
Steve huffs, shoos him to the side. He pushes the key into the door a bit harder so it’s actually locked into place, and keeps that pressure as he twists it.
The lock releases with a click and the door goes forward when he pushes it.
“ Open sesame.” He waves his hands just for the hell of it, and Eddie claps a hand on his back.
“ Thanks Harrington,” He winks and salutes. “ See you later!”
He leaves behind the door, and Steve sighs.
“ You forgot your keys.”
“ Shit .” Eddie hisses, pushing back through and scrambling to get the keychain out. Steve, meanwhile, tries each of his keys and pushes through his own door without much fanfare.
Four weeks in,
The AC stopped working.
The AC stopped working in an ice cream shop.
With a quick caution note from Ned to keep the least popular flavors in the fridge, and only put out butterscotch, vanilla, chocolate, sea monster, and strawberry, they were sent on their merry way for the shift.
Which was probably the second closest experience Steve has gotten to actual hell.
With the first one of course being the Upside Down in its many aspects.
The dining room was full of hot sweaty workers in sailor costumes and just as hot and sweaty teens, adults, and children.
Fun for all ages.
Their only relief was that the mall closed early today for ‘repairs to plumbing.’
They’d both thrown the sailor caps, ascots, and in Robin’s case, jackets to side since their shift started.
All accessories sat in the ‘ Captains’ Quarters’ which was, for some reason, worse than the dining room.
Robin said it was because the mall AC flowed through their open door which, probably.
Erica and her friends had come in for a solid ten seconds before realizing none of the cool flavors were left, and they were both more miserable than any of those kids could make them, so they got bored and went to Claires.
Shop was empty and as soon as people saw the sign on the door expressing their situation, they turned and went to grab a diet coke from some other food court shop.
Midway through the shift the janitor finally showed up to fix it.
When they hopped up to look at it, and deduced it would take an hour or two, Steve and Robin gave each other one look before flipping the front door sign to closed and leaving their guy, James, to fix it.
They surveyed their options because, while they both had money, they didn’t really wanna spend it right now.
They could sneak into the theater for free, but jack-shit was playing that the both of them would want to watch.
Steve’s eye catches on the door next to their and grins as he spies Munson deep-batter frying a hotdog.
He grabbed Robin’s arm and turned her toward the shop. “ Wanna see if we can use their breakroom? Bet he’ll let us.”
Her nose screws up in disgust. “ Blegh .” She twists to face Steve. “ I can smell the grease from here.” He shrugs, “ Suit yourself, but uh, that cheerleader girl, Chrissy works there. I’d say she’s pretty cute. Oh, and look ,” He coos as she leaves the breakroom, visor holding onto her head and not an ounce of sweat. Steve can’t say he’s not jealous.
“ She’s on shift!” Robin’s eyes are blown wide, flush dusting over her cheeks and nose. “ Steve, oh my god you aren’t gonna make me do this.” She hisses.
“ Cute girl and AC, Rob.” He sing-songs, shoves her a little. “ Only price is grease smell, and a little teasing from Munson that I can handle.” He grabs her shoulders and rotates her to face him.
“ Please .”
Her lips are curled but Steve can tell she’s giving in.
Finally, she huffs, “ I hate you.”
He grins, leading her to the line.
Eddie finishes with his current costumer, and upon seeing them, gets a wicked smile on his face. “ Well what are you two doing in my neck of the woods?” He turns directly to Steve. “ Tired of Casa De Icecream?”
The jock’s lips purse. “ Not really, our AC broke and we wanna seek refuge in your backroom while they fix it.”
“ It’s like satan’s asshole.” Robin supplies, and Steve nods.
“Hmm…” Eddie hums, “ Now that does seem like a problem, but why would I let you in my place of work? You could be thieves, you know.” His gaze flicks between the two like a cat following a laser-pointer.
Steve’s already only slightly done with this. He wants that air conditioning and he knows Eddie is gonna give in at the end, but that doesn’t stop him from being annoyed by the process.
Eddie’s still waiting, leaning onto his palms, waiting for the next chess piece to move.
Steve studies him to see what the hell he could possibly want to hear to let them in.
“ I’ll get you a free dinner tonight, that’s if you don’t have plans.” He finally decides. Eddie’s eyes widen a bit, and his brows raise.
Slowly, like he’s thinking, he says, “ I’m vegan.”
That explains the ice cream thing, but he could also just not get ice cream. Also, why work at a hotdog stand? He has no fucking clue what’s in the franks aside from some part of a pig, probably it’s anus.
Whatever it is, it’s definitely not vegan.
“ I’ll find something vegan.” He counters.
Eddie’s face goes from surprisingly flat for the guy, to a big fat grin. “ Well, that’s all right then! Chris, Chris .”
The redhead turns to him, her smile sweet. “ Yeah?”
“ I will be right back, I’m taking these lovely sailors back to the pirates’ den. Their winds not’a whipping like it used to.” He sighs, shaking his head sadly, before perking right back up. Chrissy snorts as he scrambles to the gate for the shop.
“ Alright, follow me!” He announces like a tour guide, as Steve pushes it open, waiting for Robin before letting it close behind him.
He hears Chrissy speak to Robin, greeting her, she’s got this slight honeyed sound to her voice and Steve hears how Robin stumbles on her words. Can hear the flush as she talks.
He knows once that their ‘ shift’ ends, and they’re back in his car, he’ll be getting a full debrief of the twenty second interaction.
As soon as Eddie twists the knob to the backroom, which doesn’t have a stupid name like ‘ Captains’ Quarters ’, Steve can feel the AC rushing over him.
He steps inside and full-body sighs as the cold engulfs him. “ You guys have got the good air conditioning.” He practically melts into the nearest chair, and Eddie chuckles.
“ Yeah, guess the other employees complained about the smell of the corn dogs being worse with the heat, so their solution was to make the backroom into fucking Antarctica.” Eddie points to the lockers, “ Uh, if it get a little too cold, my locker is on the left, feel free to use my vest or leather. Or both.” He shrugs.
Quickly, almost as if he just remembered, he goes, “ Oh yeah, by the way. No plans so, tonight is good. There’s a really good burger place with vegan options in Indianapolis. I’m fine with driving, it’s only at the edge but still thirty or forty minutes out. I’ll swing by and grab you at eight?” He looks nervous almost, which is so out of character he almost asks what’s wrong.
Instead, he smiles reassuringly. “ Yeah, sounds great man. Do you know my address or should I-?” Steve inquires. Eddie shakes his head. “ No, I remember it. I, uh, delt at a couple of the Harrington parties.”
Steves nods, he knew the dude had a side business that was, well, a lot less than legal. He actually recalls going by a couple times to score some pre-rolls after particularly rough games.
A lot of money was spent when Hargrove joined his team and started shoving him around.
He moves out the way, and Robin ducks into the room, pausing as the cold absorbs into her.
She fell onto another nearby chair with a huff, laying her face flat on the table and using her arms as cushions.
Eddie glances at her, then behind him when there’s a thing from their own bell. “ Alright, well then, I will leave you two to be. Have fun, and uh, if you need anything we’re-“ He knocks on the wooden slab. “-just a door away. Or I guess for you two a hop, skip, and boat-ride away.” He grins, clearly proud of himself.
Steve merely raises a brow, and Eddie coughs.
“ I’m just gonna… Yeah.”
He leaves the room, and as soon as the doorway shuts behind him, Steve lets out a snort. He turns to Robin who’s clearly still awake and pretending.
“ What’d you do?”
Robin huffs, glaring as she raises her head. “ Nothing . She was just so- sweet .” She sighs, lets it roll back down into her arm cushioned. This time when she speaks it’s slightly muffled. “ We’re on opposite sides of Hawkins’ hell and she was so sweet. And pretty. Oh my god she laughed at my dumb joke about fryer grease being my worst fear.” She groans, and Steve hums along.
“ Did you check her shoes?” He jests. Robin shoots up, smacks him across the table. “ Shut up , oh my god.” Her nose crinkles and there’s a slight flush dusting her face. “ You’re so annoying.”
He shrugs, “ We’ve all got our qualities, now -” He stands, a chill suddenly shaking striking his spine. He shivers, feeling that cold Eddie was talking about finally overtaking him.
He shrugs it off, he’ll grab the jacket in a minute. Robin doesn’t seem affected, but the woman was overly built for the cold, and not meant for the heat.
“-What game do we wanna play while we wait? They’ve probably got cards. Maybe.” Steve squints. “ Shit, maybe not.”
Robin chewed on her inner-cheek. “ Actually, Steve. As much as I’d love to beat your ass at cards. This girl,-” She taps her temple.”-would like to sleep until it’s time to go back to Scoops. Card games always get boring after ten-to-thirty minutes anyways, and with one person? Sorry, dingus.” She clicks her tongue, thinking. “ You can wake me up in an hour though, and we can bug the absolute shit out of Eddie before we leave.” She suggests.
Steve grins, rounds about to Eddie’s locker to grab both jackets cause yeah, that cold has really started to hit . “ Alright, well then, I will be shaking you awake in an hour. Enjoy your nap, grandma.”
She rolls her eyes, doesn’t question what he’s doing. “ Night, Steve.”
It’s only two PM, but he doesn’t correct her.
The locker door swings open, only creaking a little bit. Inside sits, like the metalhead said, a leather jacket and a denim vest that has patches stitched and pins sticking onto it.
He carefully grabs the sleeve of the leather one, shrugging it on over his shoulders. It’s only a little tight on them, but it’s definitely better than going without it. He slides the vest on next because it’s still so damn cold.
It does the trick for his upper body, and since there's nothing else he leaves his legs to be, prickling with goosebumps.
He settles back in his chair, ruminating on what to do for the next hour. His eye catches a little behind Robin on the table and quietly, he reaches out to grab the book.
‘ Cujo’ , it states on the front cover. A dog's bared teeth, drops of slobber coating down them, floats in the middle of the sleeve.
He flips to the back, only to see the enlarged face of a man.
Steve never understood why they didn’t always put the description back there. Nevertheless, he flips it open to the first page.
He wasn’t much of a reader. It wasn’t that he couldn’t, he just despised all those school mandated ones that he never tried to read one outside of them. But he was fucking bored, so this would have to do.
‘ Once upon a time, not so long ago …’
He’d gotten to around page forty or fifty when he turned to the clock and the hour had passed. He set the thing down and pushed it to where it originally resided before shaking Robin awake.
She groaned, eyes bleary and blinking the sleep out of her eyes. Her arm cushions fell to her sides, and from under them a puddle of saliva had collected.
His nose scrunched. “ Gross, Robin.” She squinted at him, looked down, and whined. “ Ehww , I thought I stopped that habit…”
“ Maybe your pillow just,-” He makes a noise that kind of resembled a blender. “-Soaked it all up.
Her face screwed up, mouth in a sour expression. “ Uh, yuck , I gotta wash my sheets tonight.” She states, before her face relaxes. “ Where’d you get that.”
Steve’s brow raised, pointing to the lockers in the corner, “ Uh, Eddie’s locker? Thought you saw me grab it.” He shrugged. “ He said it was fine, and it got a little too cold, sorry Snow Miser.” He huffs.
Robin’s lip puckers in thought, but she rolled her shoulders and stood, turning to him. She’s got a mischievous smirk across her face. Unwillingly, it spreads to Steve too.
“ Ready to bug the hell out of him?” She asks.
“ Do dogs fly?”
Her brows furrow. “ What?”
“ Fuck-“ He shakes his head. “- Birds , do birds fly? God, let’s just- Yeah let’s go bug him.”
There's no line when they walk out, lunch rush long being over. Eddies indicting the random people still left after the last ‘ closing early in five minutes ’ announcement, and spewing some nonsense about them probably forgetting their girlfriend’s birthday and that's why they have jewelry. Chrissy frowns, “ Or they could just like jewelry.”
Eddie shakes his head like a dog after a bath, not that Steve would have the exact picture in his mind cause he was never allowed to have a dog, but he knew they did that. “ Nah, that dude looks like the pinnacle of normality, he’d think watches are too girly.”
“ Wow , Munson.” Robin tuts, and both heads turn to Steve and Robin. “ And I thought you didn’t believe in throwing stereotypes upon people.” She gasps. “ Eddie, are you a hypocrite ?” She whispers the last word like it’s a slur.
Steve sadly shook his head back and forth, slowly and painstakingly. “ Think you might be right, Robs.”
“ Har har,” Eddie rolls his eyes as Chrissy giggles from beside him. “ You know, I was wondering what you two were doing back there, you were so quiet I was about to check on you.” His eyes dart down and back up. “ I see you got cold.”
“ She was napping,-” Steve states, using his thumb to gesture at the girl beside him, before bringing it toward him. “- I got bored and started reading whoever’s book was on the table. And yeah, it was still better than no AC in Scoops though.”
Robin looks to him, mock shock written on her face. “ You can read?”
The jock pinches his nose. They were meant to be bugging Eddie, not him.
“ Anyways,” He grits out, pivoting back to the other two. “ We’re about to head back to check on the situation, either of you want ice cream as a gift for lending your break room?”
Chrissy shakes her head, “ No, I’m okay, thank you though.” She shows off her pearly whites. Eddie squints. “ Uh, yeah . I’m good too, uh, you know what vegan means, right?”
“ Mhm, yeah. But I thought you’d wanna pick the bananas out before throwing the rest of the sundae away again.” He shrugs, tilting his head considerately. “ Oh well. Was just checking.” Steve and Robin turn to push out the gate. Not waiting to see Eddie’s gaping mouth and Chrissy’s quirked brow.
“ Oh, wait, Steve! The ve!- Ehm .”
His turns his head.
“ What?”
“ Nothing.” Chrissy laughs, waving her hand. “ Just- Check the vents if the AC still isn’t working, maybe there’s a block?”
His blinks, and nods with a smile. “ Alright.”
“ See you tonight, Munson. Bye Chrissy. ” He called, hearing as Chrissy says her own goodbyes to Steve, before calling Robin back over.
“ Sorry, I’ll let you get back to work in a second, but we should make plans to watch ‘ Anne of Green Gables ’ sometime soon!”
“ Oh! Uhm, yeah. Yeah ! Sounds good, uh, do you need my number?”
“ Yes please.”
Steve leaves them to be and heads back into Scoops. Already, it’s notably cooler than it had been before, and he sighs in relief. He feels like fucking Goldilocks, just right.
He’d never actually liked Goldilocks, like, the girl just got away with breaking their shit, and eatting their porridge? He’d be pissed if he was excited for his food and some random ass kid came into his house to eat it.
The bell rings and Robin walks inside, slightly flushed. She glances around. “ Oh, good. They fixed it.”
He nods, “ Yeah.”
Overhead the intercom pings on.
“ Starcourt Mall is closing for the day to do some repairs. Come back tomorrow for a day full of much more fun! ”
Steve rolls his shoulders. “ Okay, we can leave, good.” He turns. “ You changing back first?”
“ Uh, doy .” She conceded, practically skipping by him to get to the break room. He snorts, following after her.
He settles into a chair as Robin occupies the bathroom to change, and when she finishes they swap places.
Upon looking in the mirror he notices the jacket and vest and groans. He swivels his head, door still open and looks at Robin. “ Hey, can you run these over to Eddie?” He requested, and she blinked.
“ Oh, I watched him leave when I was talking to Chrissy.” She stated, blush reappearing. “ Just give it to him when he picks you up.”
He nods, “ Alright.” He lets go of the door and it falls shut, allowing him to change in peace.
Steve checked his watch.
‘ Eight thirty-five .’
It wasn’t like he wasn’t fine with waiting, that wasn’t it.
But a heads up would’ve been nice.
Steve scrunched his nose. Scratch that actually. He really couldn’t have gotten a heads up unless the guy brought out a phone book.
So, he resigns himself to going back to waiting.
At eight fifty-six, his first warning was the metal music blasting outside. Then, the screech of tires stopping.
Finally, there’s a honk of the horn and he’s up, denim and leather in arms, wallet in his back pocket.
He shuts the door behind him, and is greeted by probably the dimmest fucking headlights he’s ever seen.
Seriously, not even a deer would stop for those.
He approaches the passengers side, where the windows already rolled down.
Which, should’ve been a given for how loud the music was.
“ You’re late.” He states, arms crossed. Eddie taps his finger on the steering wheel. “ Time is relative.” He yawns out.
Steve presses his lips together into a thin line. “ Dude, is that even how that phrase is meant to be used?”
The metalhead scoffs. “ What do you know about Newton?” The other man leans closer, his eyes narrow. “ Enough to know Newton didn’t invent that theory. It was Einstein.”
Eddie’s nose wrinkled, and he honked the horn.
Steve jumped. “ Shit dude. You’re gonna wake the neighbors.”
“ Just get in.”
The jock sighed, grabbing the handle of the car door and pulling it open.
The floorboard is covered in old cups, blown through cigarette tips, tissues, and fast food trash, so carefully as he can manage he sets his clean white sneakers down. In contrast, he throws the vest and jacket combo into the back.
As soon as he shuts the door, not even waiting for Steve to buckle in, Eddies off, backing out of the driveway.
“ Jesus .” Steve hisses, quickly strapping his seatbelt on.
“ Hold on!” The frizzy-haired man beside him laughs. Well, it was more of a manic cackle than anything. Steve couldn’t tell because as soon as the music flicked on, all thoughts began to mush together till they disappeared and just became the screams from the radio.
His ears began ringing a toll-bell noise, and his neck pulsed. Steve’s stomach suddenly felt full.
He reached for the volume button, patting around until he finds it and turns it all the way down.
Fuck.
He clicks his tongue to the top of his mouth and lets his arms fall into his lap. Loosely, he lifts his head. “ Hey, uh. I know this your car and all but can we keep the music down like, alot? Uh, I get migraines like, super easily.”
Eddie’s eyes are wide and round, dotting around his face before shooting back to the road as her narrowly avoids a car. “ Oh shit - Man I’m so sorry, I’ll- Here. Uh, red toolbox, by your feet. There should be a joint in there, freebie for your troubles.” He ends it with a laugh, but it’s a little strained.
Steve leans down to grab it. “ Yep, got it. Just uh, if you decide you want music, keep the volume lower.”
“ Haha ,” The man twists a curl around his finger, before letting go and looking up. “ Well and recieved man.” Despite his words, Eddie doesn’t make to turn the radio back on, and silence fills the air.
It’s not a bad silence, it’s just quiet.
His hands wrap around the handle of the box, carefully setting it in his lap. He flicks the latch open, eyeing the tiny baggies of what’s clearly weed, pre-rolls, and scattered pills in more bags with ominous initials on top.
He picks up a pre-roll, eyes glancing around for a lighter and the top to the box shuts down.
Steve was about to ask if Eddie had one, when a red flame danced from the corner of his vision. “ Looking for this?”
The light was cheap, probably bought at Melvalds. He could imagine that the man never refilled them, just bought the next next zippo replacement. Steve himself would have probably done that had his asshole junior self not decided to get the most expensive fucking zippo on planet earth. It wasn’t even pretty, because if he had wanted to get one of the nice ones with flower engravings Tommy would've been right on his ass about it.
He holds out the stick, watched as the flames began to lick at the other end before it begins smoking. The light snaps shut and Steve inhales. A cloud slowly begins to float over his brain as the car slowly moves out of it’s spot. This time, as they pull onto the road, the van goes at a reasonable speed.
He offers the blunt to Eddie, who carefully grabs it, taking a long drag. The smoke comes out of his nose and Steve snorts at the resemblance of a dragon. When the paper is brought back to him, the edges are wet.
Somehow he knows if Robin saw she’d never share anything with anyone orally again. She would buy a new cup and dish for every meal, or at least have the other dishes be washed three times before she could even use them.
She can’t even wash her dishes, the wet-food grosses her out too much. That's probably why she chose Scoops Ahoy as her place of employment. No plates, bowls, or dinnerware, all their utensils were strictly one time use. Even their tiny sample spoons.
Tiny, tiny spoons.
He sits, Melting into the seat and occasionally handing the weed back to Eddie. Soon, his headaches almost entirely gone, leaving him with only the spontaneous twinge, and the blunt has burnt down to a nub. He throws it out the open window, the sound of the wind whooshing past him as it goes on to hit the concrete behind them.
The street lights start to become more abundant, and Steve adjusts from his slouch to look out the window.
“ Here?” He asks, his mouth dry. Eddie grins, knocks a fist lightly into his shoulder. “ Yup, just round the corner. Now Harrington, I haven’t had their actual burgers, but if they’re anything like the vegan ones? That shits gonna be the best beat-the-munchies meal you’ve ever had.” Steve grins loosely. “ Mhm, sounds good.”
The car slows to halt, before gradually backing into a spot.
He rolls up his window before stumbling out of the door, gaze darting around.
The lots not full whatsoever, only four cars, including the one they arrived in, are scattered around in various spots. The grass is patchy, balding, with cigarette butts and crumpled foil literring different spots. He wonders if any belonged to Eddie, who was already ambling over to the door.
As he goes, his gaze catches on the bandana in his back pocket, blinks.
‘ Jesus Christ, is he seriously trying to get laid while we’re out? ’
It was really only barely a secret Eddie Munson was gay. Barely, because despite the fact the jocks called him a fag to his back or to his face, he never actually did anything to confirm it.
Except, apparently, wear the BDSM bandana in his back pocket while they were down in Indy.
Which, it wasn’t a big deal. He knew gay guys, and he was as fine with them as he was with gay chicks. Hell, his cousin Ben was gay too, however on his mom’s side, and he was plenty fine with him. He was actually how he found out about the whole flagging system.
“ After you,” The man himself purrs, dramatically bowing as his ankle keeps the door open.
Steve snorts, rolling his eyes. He messies Eddie’s hair and walks inside, hearing the “ Hey!” The other man manages out as he swifty brings himself to Steve’s side. He hip bumps the younger man, “ Asshole . This mane takes hours to brush out.”
The way his mouth crinkles at the edges betray him, and Steve knows he’s just playing it up but he goes along with it anyway. He reaches out to grasp a curl, inspect it, and then flicks it back at his face. “ Nothing to write home about.” He concludes, and the metalhead squawks, shoves him backwards with a palm to the forehead.
There's the thump of footsteps as a man appears at the host’s stand. His heads buzzed, but he’s probably got the best beard he’s ever seen. And isn’t that really always the tale for bald men?
“ Eddie, ” He greets gruffly, and the man in question’s head snaps to meet him. He grins a wicked grin. “ Barry! Table for two.” He accentuates by raising two fingers in a peace sign.
Barry nods slowly, taking in Steve uncertainly. “ Who’s he? This ain’t Wayne, I know that much.”
Eddie wraps an arm around Steve’s shoulders, bringing him in close. The smell of stale cigarettes and the smell of the heavy application of cologne surrounds him. His head twinges at the strong smell, but he doesn’t make a move to get away, enjoying the physical affection. “ This is Steve, he’s a friend.”
“ A friend?” He sounds disbeliving, and he supposes Eddie might’ve brought a couple dates here in the past.
“ Yes .” The boy beside him insists, his other arm sliding to his pocket.
Barry shrugs, grabbing two laminated menus and heading off to a booth. Eddie lets go of him, waiting for him to start walking before following.
The cushions on the booth have clearly been scribbled on with sharpie and pen. Some are quotes, others are of dicks, and there's at least twenty ‘ name was here ’s. He’d never got the whole graffiti thing, half the shit written down wasn’t that important, and he could go his entire life without hearing it and be absolutely fine.
The menus are set infront of them and Steve slides his closer to his body so he could read it.
“ Drinks?” Barry asks after about a second or two.
Almost like he was predicting it, Eddie is quick to get out a “ Fanta,” before looking to Steve.
He blinks, kinda having wanted to look at the milkshakes, but he just spurts the first thing that comes to mind. “ Oh, uh, coke.” The man nods, and walks away.
The menu is mostly full of grease injected meat-y food, with a section of about five vegan options, all of which having ‘ impossible’ somewhere in it but one, which is literally just a plain salad. He eyes the chicken sandwich and after deciding that that was what he wanted, he leaned back and looked up at Eddie.
“ So, how’d you find this place? Or, like, knew that had shit you could eat?” He asks, eyes darting around.
The walls are full of framed black and white photos. Some are of famous people, others cars, and on wall is what looks like a series of employee of the month pictures, but it just keeps alternating between Barry and some other guy.
Eddie messes around with the napkin his utensils were wrapped in, ripping the corners into tiny pieces as he speaks. “ Went to a bar and complained that the only shit I could get that was vegan was french fries and salad, my, uh, one-night stand brought me here.” He stumbles on the words, like he was struggling to say the right ones.
Steve doesn’t question it, pursing his lips in thought. “ Huh. Honestly? Did not peg you as a take ‘em and leave ‘em type, Munson.” He states. He expected dates, and yeah, sure, that might make sense with the hanky, but still.
The man’s nose wrinkles. “ I’m not. Just- They didn’t want more than sex. That’s it. We could’ve done more but they weren’t interested in more than getting their di-“
“ Drinks.” Barry announced, loudly slamming them on the table. The outside of the glasses are cloudy with condensation and it may be the most refreshing coke he’s ever seen. It looks straight from an ad.
Steve smiles, “ Uh, thanks man.”
Barry nods, pulling out a note pad taking his attention off Eddie who had a wide-eyed kind of look as he stares at his rings. “ What do you wanna eat? Eddie, I’m just assuming you’re getting what you always get.” He states, dismissing.
Eddie flickers back to life, huffing, “ You wouldn’t be wrong.”
“ I’ll take a chicken sandwich with mashed potatoes. And uh, the onion ring appetizer.” He flashes a grin at the metalhead. “ Says they’re vegan, so we can share if you want.” He questions as Barry walks away.
The older-man blinks, before bringing his nails up to his mouth to chew on. Each one is coated with speckles of black polish, likely days to weeks old. “ Erh , yeah, sounds good.” He grits, only slightly muffled.
Lightly, Steve smacks him. “ Dude, that's how you get pinworms.” His nose wrinkles and he squints.
Eddie huffs, “ Haven’t yet, and I’ve been doing it since sixth grade.” The jock rolls his eyes, grabs the man’s wrist and pulls up from the seat. “ Come on, you gotta wash your hands.”
There's a groan as Eddie slumps further idown. His voice becomes high-pitched and whiny.
“ Eugh , I can’t get up. My bones are gone. I’m destined to melt into this booth until I die.” He lamented, letting a hand fall to his forehead.
Steve scoffs, moves his hand up higher to grasp the other’s palm, and pulls him up and out of the seat. He lets it go once he's up, placing it on the small of his back to guide him.
“ Let’s go.”
He pushes open the bathroom door, and lightly shoves the man to the sink. Meanwhile, he looks into the mirror.
His eyes are red, and his hair messy. He frowns deeply, adjusting the strands until they’re mostly presentable. He licks his lips, and turns to Eddie who’s finished washing and has started grabbing paper towels to dry them.
He turns, making a shoo gesture. “ Happy now? Go sit down.”
Steve sighs, taping his finger on his thigh. “ Yeah, whatever, but you’ll be thanking me when the little bastards show up.” He had a thing with worms. Normal ones were fine , he used to pick them up and ‘ save ’ them when he was little. However, the idea of tapeworms makes his skin crawl, and maggots make him want to wretch until he can’t breath.
“ Uh-huh, sure Steve.” Eddie rolls his eyes, grinning as he shoves open the bathroom door.
“ Trust me, you will.” He glances to the table where their shit has already been laid out.
‘ Jesus this place was fast.’
They both slide into their seperate sides, and immediately Eddie snatches an onion ring from the middle.
His face morphs into what Steve imagines pure serotonin looks like. “ Shit, that's the good stuff.”
They finish, Steve pays, just like he said he would, then they’re off to the van again. Eddie turns the music on again, but keeps it at a low volume.
“ So…” The metalhead starts, wetting his lips. “ I’m not like, doubting your ability to not be dumb cause you graduated so you’re obviously- Uhm. How’d you remember it was Einstein earlier?” He asks. His hand thumps up and down on the wheel to the beat.
Steve shrugs, leaning back. “ Uh, my friends are all nerds, and I remembered Dustin talking about it.”
“ Dustin? Does he go to Hawkins?” He questions. His brow was raised, casually glancing at the younger man beside him.
“ Yeah… You wouldn’t know him, he’s not in highschool.” Steve winces. “ I mean, he’s gonna be a freshman when school starts up again, but-“ He lifts his hands in front of him like they'll help him explain. “-Him and Mike, uh, Nancy’s brother, Will Byers, the Sinclair’s oldest, Hargrove’s sister, and the chief’s foster are all friends.” He stumbles.
“ Wow , that is…Quite the group.”
“ Yeah.” The jock sighs. “ Uh, but I drive them around places, and Dustin, he’s like, my favorite, but you can’t tell him that. He rewards me with his science talk. He’s actually at a camp for it right now.”
“ Sounds fun?” Eddie tries. Steve scoffs, “ He’s probably running the place by now, so yeah. Fun .”
“ And you found these kids how ?”
The jock’s fist tightens.
‘ We found eachother when I had to babysit them while Will got exorcized with a heater, then thats when Hargrove beat the shit out of me, and his sister stuck a needle in his neck. Then she drove us to these underground monster tunnels where I was dragged in beaten and bruised because I can’t let these fucking kids die, and I just got stuck with Dustin while these crazy scientist dudes patched me up, so now I babysit all of them. All the time.’
He shrugs for show, “ Like I said, Mike is Nancy’s brother, and they were all hanging out while I was over so…” He trails off, let’s whatever thoughts Eddie has complete the sentence for him.
He raises a brow, gaze trained onto the road infront of them as they go what is definitely atleast ten over the speed limit. “ And that wasn’t awkward after either of the fights, or the breakup?” He inquires. His hand is still tapping steadily to the beat, and Steve’s eyes are drawn to the rings, before snapping out of it.
“ No, not really. Max and Mike don’t treat me differently, they’re sarcastic with everyone. Will, we don’t talk much one on one so I can’t really tell. That kid’s been through alot.”
The rest of the ride is quiet, the only true thing released to the public hanging between them.
Will got lost, died, and came back.
Zombie-Boy.
They pull into the Harrington driveway, and Eddie turns to face him.
“ Thanks man, uh, sorry about the music again.” He winces, “ I had a good time.”
Steve nods, “ Yeah, me too. We should figure something out for another day.”
The metalhead’s eyes widened. He bites his lip and looks down. “ Yeah, definitely. Uh, see you when I see you?”
The younger cocks his head, eyes darting over the other man’s face. It’s reminiscent of the girls stopping him in the hallway, the looks they’d give him.
Something clicks somewhere in Steve Harrington’s brain, and he has a sort of ‘ Oh ’ expression on his face and he knows it.
Eddie likes him.
Despite this revelation, he puts on a grin, nods. “ Seeya, dude.” He pushes the car door open, and as soon as he gets safely inside and hears the rumbles of tires backing onto the main road, he leans his back against the door.
His hands reach to run through his scalp, and he slowly slides to the floor. He lets out a groan that echoes through the empty corridors of the Harrington household.
He wasn’t gonna freak out on the guy, definitely not, however it was piss-poor luck one of the two friends his age hes made likes him. And yeah, Eddie was a cool dude, but he’s still a dude and Steve’s only into chicks and, well.
His bestfriend is inlove with his bestfriend, so he hopes it fades or they’re on good terms, because if it goes well for Chrissy and Robin? They’re pretty much stuck together. They pretty much are now anyways, working next door to eachother and all.
And despite the fact Eddie wasn’t a complete douche, he’s reminded of Tommy because no shit that the guy hadn’t liked him. It had only taken till he started getting a little too touchy when staying the night after parties. The excuse of ‘ I move alot in my sleep. ’ Had been used too many times to count.
His lips pressed together, and he breaths out through his nose.
He’s thinking too far into the future, maybe he won’t even make a move. Maybe he won’t realize. Maybe Steve’s just overthinking and making an ass of himself for no reason.
Because really, it should be a small thing. Carol and Steve dated before Tommy and her got together, and that was fine. Nancy and him were still acquantanices after they broke up, and him and Jonathan were cool despite their fight.
Still, he can’t help but think, and he wishes he just couldn’t.
His eyes dart to the kitchen, to the fancy liquor cabinet with the pretty stained glass exterior.
God his dad would be pissed.
He stands, staggers his way towards it, swings open the door and decides ‘ Fuck it.’
He could be cool, be so cool. He just needed this first.