Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Eddie liked Robin a lot. She was cool, she was funny, she was a lesbian. She was probably the only person in Hawkins who understood him on that level. Not that Eddie was a lesbian but still. There was just this little hiccup that Eddie really couldn’t get over. Robin’s best friend - her closest companion in the entire world - was Steve Fucking Harrington.

Against all reason of the universe, Robin Buckley was attached at the hip to Steve Harrington. Eddie knew that they had been coworkers the previous summer but, like everyone else in Hawkins, he’d assumed that that was all they’d ever be. Even after they’d inexplicably become coworkers again after Starcourt shut down (blew up, a gas leak if you believed the news), nobody had thought that Steve Harrington would end up driving Robin to school every morning and picking her up after band practice. If Eddie didn’t know better, he’d think they were dating but as it was, he did know better and he just thought Robin had been dropped on her head as a child.

Much like the new freshmen in Hellfire club, she insisted that there was more to Steve than met the eye. Eddie had to wonder what kind of Kool-Aid they were all drinking. Sure, Harrington hadn’t ever directly bothered Eddie but it’d never been because he thought it was wrong. No, it was more along the lines of Steve was under the impression that bullying people was below him. Outside of an isolated incident with Jonathan Byers (something that Eddie had come to understand had been an issue on both sides that’d been resolved), Steve Harrington never directly dealt with anyone.

He watched as Tommy H and Carol tore down those around him, clearing a path for their king to walk through, with little more than a slight smirk and a bored gleam to his eyes. Steve thought very little of people like Eddie. They weren’t worth his time and effort so, no, Steve never pushed him in the halls or sneered at him as they crossed paths but in no way did that mean they were on friendly terms.

Truth be told, the main reason Eddie couldn’t stand Steve Harrington was because of the unbearably fake way he conducted himself. Everything about Steve was carefully curated. His hair was meticulously styled every morning into that same, identifiable quaff. His jeans were designer, each thread carefully put together to match the carefully pressed designer polo he paired them with. Every smile, every smirk, every flourish of his hand was carefully thought out. His success in both basketball and swimming (captain of both teams with no sign of a wavering performance in either) was planned and perfected since he was a child. Even his title as King Steve seemed to be something he’d thought out and put into motion. Subtly and surely, Steve Harrington had cemented himself within the community and Hawkins grew to thrive around him. If one cared to look close enough, they’d notice that Steve had perfected the ideal mix of social, academic, athletic, and charismatic to come off as the perfect person. It would almost be impressive if Eddie didn’t find it so off putting.

Beyond the general sense of wrong that Eddie got from being in the presence of King Steve, there were also the obvious reasons that Eddie didn’t necessarily like him. He hung around homophobic jackasses. Or, at least he did. Nobody had seen much of Tommy H or Carol since their miraculous graduation. Despite the fact that Eddie had never heard word of Steve himself being homophobic, he knew he was. Nearly everyone in Hawkins was and King Steve most certainly was. Just look at him.

Which brought him back to why in the hell Robin Buckley, lover of women, would ever want to hang out with him.

“When is Robin supposed to get here?” Gareth asks, putting the cover over his drum set now that practice is over. He’d always preferred the guitar and, truthfully, he wasn't the best at drums, but when he’d joined the band all the guitar positions had been filled and he’d settled for drums. He wasn’t bad, per se. He was just not great. They were working on it.

Eddie finishes placing his amps in the back of his van. “Soon. She said her boss sometimes makes her stay late so she might be a little late.”

“What an ass,” Jeff mutters. They’d all become closer with Robin when she and Eddie had started hanging out which was why they’d invited her to join them for post-band practice burgers and shakes. “Hey, how is she getting here? She doesn’t have a license, right?”

“Nah. Our luck, she’s hitching a ride in Taxi Harrington,” Eddie replies, nose scrunching.

Gareth, Jeff, and Marcus (though he preferred to go by Freak, said he was reclaiming it) exchanged looks. “What’s up with that?” Jeff asks.

“I really don’t get it,” Gareth agrees, taking a seat on the couch they’d dragged out into the garage about a year ago when they’d started practicing there. “What in the hell does she see in him?”

“Hey,” Freak chimes in. “Maybe she just really digs the polos.”

The band dissolves into giggles, listing the ridiculous things that Robin could be attracted to with increasing hysterics. The rest of the band didn’t know that Robin was as straight as the cul de sac Gareth lived on and Eddie wasn’t about to go around divulging her personal information. As it were, everyone knew that Robin and Steve weren’t dating, seeing as they’d both vehemently denied it, citing that they were strictly platonic (capital P, claimed Buckley).

The gentle rumbling of Steve’s beemer reached their ears before shutting off as the man pulled into the driveway. Astonishingly, he stepped out as well as Robin, both holding tupperware.

“Hey, guys!” Robin chirps as she bounces forward, Steve following like a country club member shaped shadow.

Eddie looked between them for a moment. “Uh, hey, Rob. How’s it goin’?”

“Good!” she chirps. “Work was easy today and my mom made cookies!” She shakes the tupperware container in her hand as proof.

Steve snorts. “Yeah, a metric shit ton of cookies. Anywhere you want me to put this?” he asks, eyes flickering from Gareth to Eddie to Jeff to Freak like he wasn’t sure who to address. He somehow managed to not look like he was unsure of himself despite that. Asshole.

Gareth hesitantly holds out his hands. “I can take them inside.”

“Cool. I dunno about allergies but that top one has peanut butter,” Steve recites, pointing to the box in question once he’d been relieved of his cargo. “Rob, call me if and when you need to be picked up but if it’s later than two, just know that’ll I’ll want to kill you just a little. Have fun guys.”

With that, Steve pushes his Armani sunglasses further up the bridge of his nose and turns to slide back into his car and drive away. Now that Steve was gone, the others could process the frankly astronomical amount of cookies that Robin had decided to grace them with. “Buckley, did you open a bakery?” Eddie asks, gaping at the amount of boxes in her hands.

Between the two of them, Steve and Robin had just dropped off at least twelve boxes of cookies. Robin grins. “There’s more at home. I figured you guys could, like, divide them up and all take some. Mom is going through some weird phase where she wants to bake more cookies than Martha Stewert or something. I already unloaded four containers onto Steve and made the gremlins take eight. I’m drowning in cookies and I’m not above begging you guys to take them.”

“No begging necessary as long as you promise Harrington didn’t poison them,” Freak mutters, taking a box from her and tilting it to see what kind of cookie was inside.

Robin frowns at him, all traces of her good natured jovial mood gone. “Hey, I know you guys don’t like him and everything but he’s my best friend. So either get cool with it or stop talking about it ‘cause I will put him first.”

And, well, Eddie could respect that. He may not like Steve but everyone deserved a best friend who would defend them like that. “She’s right,” he confirms. “We knew they were friends when we invited her to hang out.”

Freak squirms uncomfortably under Robin’s heavy stare. Eddie couldn’t blame him, she had a way of staring straight into your soul when she wanted to. “Sorry, Robin. I won’t bring him up anymore, scout’s honor.”

“You were a boy scout?” Robin asks.

“I mean. No,” he mumbles sheepishly and Robin just laughs in response.

“Okay, weirdos. Let’s put these cookies away and grub,” the girl chips, brushing past Gareth to bound into the house, wavy hair bouncing around as she goes.

Gareth follows her, taking the box Freak had stolen with him, leaving the other three to wait for them. “I still don’t get it,” Freak admits. “But maybe there really is something we aren’t seeing.”

“For her sake, I hope so,” Jeff replies. “It would suck if she put all this effort into defending him and spent so much time with him just for him to turn out like we all think he is.”

Eddie hummed his agreement. “That would blow.”

Robin and Gareth reemerge moments later and pile into Eddie’s van to head to the diner on the outskirts of town. “You work at Family Video, right?” Jeff asks Robin on the way, turning around to face her from the spot he’d claimed in the front.

“Yeah,” she confirms. “It’s kinda boring and Keith is a dick but it’s not too bad.”

“It’s cool that you get discounts on movies,” Gareth adds. “I’d do movie nights all the time if I worked there.”

Robin snorts. “Trust me, I do. Sometimes the kids join us but that’s only on the weekends when they take over the house.”

“Us?” Eddie asks, knowing who the likely addition was but seeking confirmation anyway. Sue him, he was curious.

The girl’s eyes meet his warily in the rear view mirror. “Yeah. Steve and I. The kids invade his house on the weekends.”

“And he lets it happen?” Freak asks. “I dunno that I’d let a bunch of twerps walk on me like that.”

Robin grins. “Steve lets the kids walk on him all the time, it’s a little sad. He’s such a pushover.”

“I never would’ve guessed,” Jeff says. “Not in, like, a negative way or anything I just wouldn’t guess that anyone would just let a bunch of freshmen invade their house like that. Do his parents care?”

At this, Robin seems to get a little uncomfortable. “Uh, no, they don’t.”

Eddie and Jeff exchanged a look and the group unanimously decided to move away from the topic all together. “How’s band?”

Robin groans. “Tone deaf, I think,” she complains. “Honestly, the flutes are going to give me an aneurysm.”

“That bad?” Freak asks, letting out a low whistle. None of them were in the marching band and they all avoided sporting events so they never really heard them play.

“Worse. You guys had band practice today, right?”

Eddie nods, flicking his blinker on. “Yeah. We’ve got a gig next month, you should come.”

“Sounds cool!” Robin enthuses and because she was so wonderfully, bluntly honest Eddie knew she was being serious. “I’ll have to check my work schedule and all that but I’ll definitely try!”

Sitting in the diner, they did their best to keep the conversation away from Steve. However, with him being Robin’s best friend that she spent 90% of her time with, it was a little hard.

“Is it true you had to wear a sailor costume at your last job?” Gareth asks, making a face at the mere idea.

Robin’s head hits the table. “I wish the memory of that would die.”

“Oh, no. That’ll live on forever,” Eddie teases.

“Ugh, I know. Small consolation is that Steve looked way worse in his than I looked in mine. Everyone thinks his charm is in the hair but, trust me, it’s in the polos.” The others couldn’t help but snicker at the sheer absurdity of the statement but thankfully, Robin didn’t seem offended. “I’m serious! He got zero play at Scoops Ahoy, I almost felt bad.”

“Almost?” Freak asks curiously, swirling a couple fries through the absolute mountain of ketchup sitting in front of him.

Robin nods. “Yeah. We didn’t get close until the very end of Scoops so while we were still working together, I still thought he was a monumental douchebag.”

“What ended up changing your mind?” Gareth asks. “If you don’t mind me asking.”

“We kinda trauma bonded. Got super high and watched Back to the Future and then threw up in the bathrooms and I came out to him, mostly ‘cause I was still a little high but also because I really needed someone to know. Then we, you know, almost died when the mall exploded and have been super tight ever since.”

It’s silent for a moment. Eddie points his fry at her. “I have…several questions. One, I thought you didn’t do drugs?”

“I don’t. We were drugged but it’s fine and I don’t like talking about it.” No follow up questions, then.

“Okay, got it. Two, you were there when the mall exploded? I thought everyone was cleared out by then? Except for Hargrove, obviously.”

Robin winces. “Er, yeah. We’re not supposed to talk about it. A couple of us were there. Me, Steve, Nancy, Jonathan, and the kids.”

“Oh shit,” Jeff gasps. “You mean Max…?”

Robin's face darkens. “Yeah,” she whispers. Then, forcing a smile back to her face, “Any other pressing questions?”

“Yeah,” Eddie agrees quickly, hoping to change the subject before any of them could dwell on it too much. “You told Harrington that you’re…y’know?”

Robin looks at him blankly for a moment before his meaning clicks. “Oh! That I- yeah, no, totally. He was a total moron about it, obviously, didn’t get what I was getting at at all. I basically had to spell it out for him.” She scoffed, rolling her eyes fondly. “And then the first thing he did was make fun of my crush.”

“Who was it?” Freak asks.

“Tammy Thompson,” Robin murmurs quietly, eyes flicking around for a moment. Eddie makes a face before he could stop himself. “Yeah, yeah, I know. Steve says she sounds like a muppet and, damn him, I can’t unhear it.”

Gareth almost chokes on his drink in his laughter, coughing into his elbow while his bandmates laugh in equal measure because of his misery and Steve’s comparison. “He’s right,” Jeff wheezes.

“Ugh, I know. He’s so smug about it, too. Asshole. But, yeah, he was actually a total sweetheart about it. Look-” she holds out her wrist, showcasing the bracelet she wore. “He commissioned this bracelet for me for my birthday. See this?”

Eddie grasps the bracelet to get a better look at the rainbow engraving that sat against her skin, hidden from the outside. “Damn.”

“Yeah, he thinks he’s funny,” Robin snorts. She rolled her eyes but her eyes were fond and sweet around the edges. The gesture clearly meant a lot to her.

Honestly, this was a lot to take in. Eddie felt a bit like his entire worldview had shifted on its axis. Steve Harrington didn’t care that Robin was gay. Steve Harrington embraced that Robin was gay. Steve Harrington paid probably insane amounts of money to get Robin a custom made bracelet to show his support for her gayness. Eddie felt a little like he’d entered an alternate dimension.

And like the universe was laughing at him, Steve Harrrington entered the diner just then. He held the door open for Mike Wheeler, Max Mayfield, Dustin Henderson, and Lucas Sinclair to walk in after him, clearly having been placed on babysitter duty.

He didn’t seem to notice that Robin was there, eyes trained on the kids. Robin waved her hand. “Earth to Eddie? What are we staring at?”

“Harrington just walked in,” Eddie replies, nodding over to the other man.

Robin turns in her seat and laughs when she spots their group. The kids were gathered around Steve, tapping him on the arm every two seconds to point out something else on the menu, and he nodded dutifully along with each of them. When the woman behind the counter returned to take their order, Steve’s hand on their shoulders quieted the kids while he rattled off their order. He appeared to have memorized it.

The woman nodded and told him how long it’d take. Steve smiled back and moved his herd of children away from the counter. “Psst!” Robin hissed at him, fully turned around in her seat. “Steve-o!”

Steve looked over, eyebrows raised in a way that indicated he didn’t know they would be here. He walked over nonetheless, gaggle of gremlins in tow. “Hey, guys.”

He didn't get any other words out before the freshmen were shouting over him to greet them. “Eddie! We’re starting our new campaign tomorrow, right?” Dustin asked eagerly and Eddie winced.

“About that,” he starts, feeling awful for the way all the younger boys start to droop instantly. “The school needs the club room tomorrow for some deep cleaning thing they’re doing. We’ll have to push it back.”

Steve frowns at the near devastated looks on the kids’ faces and doesn’t seem to think twice before blurting, “Use my house.”

“What?” Eddie asks, looking at Steve like he’d grown a second and third head. It was one thing to host sleepovers and movie nights for a bunch of preteens. It was another thing entirely to invite the entire Hellfire Club over to play Dungeons and Dragons.

Steve shrugged, not seeming to find an issue with his impulsive decision. “The kids did their campaigns at my place all the time in middle school. I have the room for a few more and more than enough food to go around because these assholes keep making me buy them more snacks.” Dustin and Mike erupt into protests that Steve ignores outright. “You can play in the living room, basement, pool house, wherever really.”

Eddie turned raised eyebrows on the Jeff and Gareth, seeing as Freak wasn’t in the Hellfire Club. They both gave wary shrugs and Eddie flashed Steve a crooked grin. “Sure thing, Stevie. We’ll play a round at Chateau Harrington.”

He wasn’t sure if Steve’s answering scrunched nose was in response to the nickname or what he called his house but either way, it was funny. The kids erupted in cheers sans Max who just frowned. “I don’t have to come, do I?”

“Me, you, and Robin can watch movies or something,” Steve tells her.

Robin scoffs. “Excuse you, who says I wanted to hang out with you?”

“I did,” Steve deadpans. “I’ll kidnap you Buckley, don’t try me.”

“I’m calling the police.”

“Jokes on you,” Steve snorts. “I can pay off the police.”

Robin dissolves into incredulous laughter as Steve walks away to grab his order and then herds the freshmen out of the diner. “Ugh, I hate him,” she sighs, calming down from her laughing fit, speaking in that fond tone that only siblings could really achieve.

“Well. Tomorrow should be interesting,” Jeff says, a little wide eyed.

Eddie shrugs. “Hey, Robbie and the kids both vouch for him plus he’s apparently 100% less homophobic than we thought he was so I’ll give it a shot.”

Robin scowls. “Call me Robbie again and I’ll shove this milkshake up your ass.”

“Ooh, violent,” Eddie coos and screeches when Robin throws the last bite of her burger at him. “That was a waste of perfectly good burger, you hellion.”

“It was vengeance, is what it was,” she sniffs.

Chapter Text

It felt a little bit foreboding pulling into Steve Harrington’s driveway in Loch Nora. All the houses around him were picture perfect and silent. Like paintings with their perfectly manicured lawns and freshly painted exteriors. Eddie almost doubted that there was anyone in the houses at all. It was like a movie set, built to set the scene for King Steve and his castle.

And castle it was. Two stories high with a garden in the front yard, a visible pool house out back, three garage doors, and a half-circle driveway straight out of Gareth’s mom’s magazines. Steve’s beemer sat at a diagonal angle in front of the garages, he clearly didn’t expect anyone to use them. Eddie half expected the car to start spinning, on display as it was.

Jeff gives Eddie an unsure look, hesitating near the van. He couldn’t blame him, walking into the den of the lion was worse than simply encountering him out in the wild. King Steve may have all of Hawkins under his thumb but this was well and truly his territory. Eddie gave a jaunty shrug and sauntered up the porch steps to bang the side of his fist against the solid oak door. There was some muffled shouting on the other side of the door and a figure could be seen approaching through the frosted glass window at the top.

Steve swung the door open, leaning against it by his shoulder as he offered a small smile. “Hey, guys. The kids haven’t gotten here yet, Nancy and Jonathan are dropping them off in a bit. Robin’s in the living room.”

Not sure what he was supposed to say, Eddie just salutes and moves into the house with his stuff tucked under his arm. Gareth pauses in the foyer (of course Steve Harrington had a fucking foyer) where the hardwood turned to the soft carpet of the living room. “Uh, shoes?”

Steve blinked down at their feet like he’d only just realized that they were wearing them. “Oh, yeah, you can kick them off over here.”

Eddie toes his beat down converse off and kicks them against the wall so that none of the little shitheads would trip over them when they arrived. He noted the presence of Robin’s clunky boots with their bright blue laces and smiles a bit.

The living room was every bit as pretentious as the outside of the house with a spotless gray-white couch and matching armchair, polished coffee table, a television the size of Eddie’s bed, and not one but two fireplaces. Robin was sprawled across the armchair, legs crossed over the arm and mismatched socks waving in the air. She tilted her head back to look at them as they entered, smiling brightly.

“The nerds are here!” She cheers.

Jeff raises an eyebrow at her. “If we’re nerds, what does that make the freshies?”

“Nerdlings,” she replies sagely, swinging her feet around to meet the floor and sitting up properly. “Where are you setting up?”

Eddie turns to Steve, leaning against the side of the couch with his hands in his pockets. He’d forgone polos and denim today in favor of gray sweatpants and a loose Hawkins basketball t-shirt. “Well? Where shall we set up the nerd den in Castle Harrington?”

The wrinkled nose he received in return let Eddie know that it was the reference to his house that he had reacted to yesterday rather than the nickname. “Wherever,” Steve shrugs. “The dining room has a table you can use or the pool house and living room both have plenty of room.”

“Where did the minis set up when they did their campaigns?” Jeff asks, looking vaguely uncomfortable at the thought of sitting down on the couch. Things that clean were off putting.

Steve tilts his head, soft brown waves falling across his brow bone. “The living room, usually. But their party was smaller, then. Just Dustin, Mike, Lucas, and Will.”

Eddie bit back his surprise that Steve Harrington knew what the term “party” meant and nodded. “Gotcha. Dining hall, then?”

Steve glances at the other two for confirmation that they all agreed and tilted his head as an invitation to follow him. His socked feet made nearly no noise as he led them to the set of doors to the left, stepping through and holding the swinging door open with his elbow. “Table is in here, the kitchen is right through that door. If you want anything to eat, go ahead and grab it and if you want to order anything just let me know. If me and the girls have the movie up too loud, let us know and we’ll turn it down.”

He laid out the rules like a seasoned host. His easy confidence kind of made Eddie want to sucker punch him. “Sounds like a plan, boss,” Eddie chirps, grinning in the face of discomfort. “Same goes here, if we get too rowdy just holler.”

Steve huffed out a gentle laugh, waving his words out of the air. “Nah, I know how it goes. The boys get really into it. We’ll just turn the tv up.”

Gareth snorts. “Got it.”

“Anything else?” Eddie prompts.

The other boy shrugs. “I don’t think…” he trails off for a moment before his eyes light up and he straightens. “Oh! You guys know Will Byers?”

“Not personally,” Jeff replies.

Eddie cocks an eyebrow, curious. “But we know he was friends with the kids.”

“Well, I’m planning on surprising the boys by flying him and their other friend El in next weekend. Would it be totally fucked for me to ask you to do a one shot or something with him? He hasn’t played with the rest of the party in forever.”

The request shot the room to silence. “Uh,” Gareth manages.

Steve runs a hand down his face. “Right, definitely overstepping. Don’t worry about it, honestly.”

“No, no,” Eddie protests. “We can set something up for Baby Byers.”

“Seriously, it’s not a big deal,” Steve refutes, shaking his head. “I can take them to the movies or the comic book store or something. Don’t sweat it.”

Even in the face of a perceived social faux pas, Steve Harrington was annoyingly put together. “I’m already putting ideas together, Stevie, you can’t take this away from me now,” Eddie pouts. “Any chance you know his class?”

“Wizard? I think? Is that a class?”

“It is.”

“Great. That’s him, I’m pretty sure. He has a few pictures of his character around here somewhere, I can grab them if you need.”

Eddie shakes his head, a ringed finger coming up to fiddle with his hair. “Nah, not necessary. Just make sure he brings everything he needs. Is El joining?”

“Nah, she’s gonna catch up with Max. Thanks a lot, Eddie.” The use of his first name almost made him jolt. “You can use the house again, if you want.”

“If you insist,” Eddie sighs dramatically, making it clear that he was joking. Steve smiles brightly in return. “Just one question.”

The other’s eyebrows quirk up curiously. “Shoot.”

“Why have us do it? Why not just have the boys play together?”

Steve takes a second to look at Eddie like he was a bit slow. “Dude, the kids damn near hero worship you. Will’s wanted to meet you guys since the other boys joined Hellfire.” Before the others could reply, someone knocks on the front door. “That’s the kids. I’ll send ‘em back, let me know if you need anything!”

“This sucks,” Jeff remarks casually. “He wasn’t supposed to be cool.”

Eddie scoffs. “It’s Steve Harrington, he’s never been anything but cool.”

Gareth grumbles something about keeping it in his pants, earning himself a smack to the back of the head with Eddie’s Dungeon Master binder. The kids came filing into the room soon after, each of them turned to call out to Steve. Eddie was pretty sure that if the baby nerdlings hero worshiped anyone, it was Steve Harrington.

Mike was a little asshole but even he pushed for Steve’s attention. All of them clambered over one another to get Steve to look at them now, to get him to answer their question or smile at their joke. Greedy little sunflowers all turned to the sun of Hawkins.

It would seem that the attention of a declawed, dethroned King Steve was still just as addictive as it had been in his prime.

Eddie was starting to believe that Steve Harrington’s whole life was his prime.

Steve corralled the kids into their seats, instructing them not to break anything before taking his leave. The kids watched him go, little baby sunflowers following their sun. Only once the door had shut behind Steve did they all turn to give their attention to Eddie and the others. He was a little gratified to note that their bright grins didn’t waver one bit.

“Alright, sheepies,” Eddie claps his hands together, sweeping them out dramatically. “Are you ready?”

Overall, the session went well. It wasn’t quite as dramatic as Eddie would’ve liked. Harrington Manor was too well lit to offer the theatrics Eddie preferred. That could be rectified for the surprise session for Baby Byers pretty easily. Turn off the evil big light and bust out a few candles (unscented so that Dustin didn’t throw a bitch fit about getting a headache) and they’d be set.

For a while, Eddie almost forgot that they were in Steve Harrington’s house. The television wasn’t up loud enough for them to hear and nobody came into the room for almost forty-five minutes. It was Robin who pushed her way into the room, leaning precariously on the door handle. “Hey dork wads,” she greeted, significantly nicer in her name calling than others would be. “Mama Steve says it’s snack time.”

The kids whoop, shoving one another to get out of the room first. Robin only just barely manages to escape being swept up in their stampede, giving their backs a disgruntled look. “Think they’re hungry?” Gareth asks dryly.

Robin snickers. “Oh, you’re not getting out of this.”

“What?” Jeff asks, startled.

“Steve’s a terrible mother hen and you haven’t eaten since you got here,” she says sagely. “That means he will come in here and force feed you if you don’t go eat something.”

Eddie scoffs a bit just out of shock. “We haven’t even been here a full hour!”

“Doesn’t matter,” Robin declares. “If you’re in the house you’re required to let him fuss over you. Makes him feel useful and all that.”

Eddie wasn’t sure why Steve Harrington of all people needed to feel important. The guy was important. He was probably single handedly supporting Hawkins’ hair gel industry. Robin’s expectant gaze and the threat of Steve coming in armed with mini pretzel sticks had them getting up and leaving the room anyway.

In the kitchen, the kids were all gathered on the side of the island furthest away from Steve, like there was some kind of invisible barrier they weren’t allowed to cross. Behind them was a smaller dining table (what kind of rich nut job had more than one dining table?) and in front of them, Steve was piling bite-sized pizza bagels onto a large serving tray. Robin stepped closer to him and the moment she crossed the invisible barrier, Steve whirled around to point a spatula at her threateningly.

“Get out of my kitchen, Buckley,” he warns.

Robin raises her hands in surrender, backing up so that she stands in line with the freshmen. She gives Eddie, Jeff, and Gareth a look like ‘Get a load of this guy’.

Steve shifted his gaze to them, frowning a bit while he scrutinized them. He bounced his spatula in his hand lightly before landing on a decision and zeroing in on Jeff, who stiffened a bit. “Jeff, would you mind grabbing the bowl of salsa?”

The other moves forward stiffly, picking up the bowl and setting it on the island with the rest of the snacks that Steve moved over. “Wha-” Dustin protests. “Why does he get to go behind the island?!”

“Because he’s the least likely to burn my house down,” Steve tells him simply, clapping Jeff on the shoulder in thanks. Jeff looked a bit like he was going to pass out. Eddie couldn’t blame him, this entire situation was surreal.

Lucas squawks. “I wouldn’t burn down your house!”

“Hush,” Steve scolds. “Eat your chips and salsa.”

Lucas grumbles, scooping up a bunch of salsa grumpily before shoving it into his mouth. Dustin snickers, biting into his pizza bagel. Mike rolls his eyes at the both of them but seems far more focused on wrestling Max for the bagel tray. Max was a vicious little shit, gnashing her teeth at Mike’s arm whenever he got too close. “Ow! Fuck you!”

“Play nice,” Steve intones, seemingly on reflex.

“Sorry, mom,” both kids drone at him, just as reflexively.

Robin raises an eyebrow at them, catching Steve’s attention. Eddie is pretty sure he’s dreaming when he pouts at them, like they were ganging up on him. There’s no way any of this was real, he was sure of it. Eddie had had some pretty weird dreams before but this topped them all.