Chapter Text
The sweet scent of ice cream hung thick in the air as Alaina crossed the threshold from the mall into the Scoops Ahoy. The nautical themed ice cream shop was somewhat busy, with about three people in line and half of the seats filled. Alaina walked up and stood in line, peaking past the heads of the people in front of her. Steve wasn’t there but she knew he must be working because Dustin had told her to meet him here, though, he too was nowhere to be found. Working the store was a girl who looked about Alaina’s age with freckles and short dirty blonde hair topped with a small sailors cap, presumably apart of the Scoops Ahoy uniform. Alaina was certain she had seen her around school but wasn’t sure of her name.
When she finally reached the front of the line the girl, didn’t bother to look up before speaking, greeting Alaina with an unenthusiastic, “What can I get for you?” Alaina noticed the name tag pinned to the front of her sailors uniform read 'Robin.' The girl finally lifted her gaze from the cash register to meet Alaina’s eyes when she looked somewhat surprised. Her demeanor changed as she registered who was in front of her, “I-I mean, would you like to sample anything? The banana pudding is really good but if you don’t like bananas then don’t get that because the flavor is really strong.” Robin clearly realized she was rambling, clamping her mouth shut following the last sentence.
Alaina put on her sweetest smile, feeling somewhat bad about not coming in to order anything, “I do love bananas and will definitely remember your recommendation but I actually was wondering if Steve was working?” Robin’s face turned to bitter disappointment but she quickly hid it and turned to walk towards the back wordlessly, but before she could the sliding window panels behind her opened revealing Steve and her brother Dustin.
“Alaina!” Steve said excitedly. He disappeared from view to come to the front but Dustin stayed put at the table, listening to something intently. Steve made his way around the counter and pulled Alaina into a quick hug. “You have got to see what your brother has going on back here,” Steve said as he waved her back. After helping them wrangle the demodog that ate their family cat, Steve became a bit of a regular at the Henderson residence. He also grew to become one of Alaina’s closest friends which was something she never in a million years would have anticipated but her life had been full of much bigger surprises over the last couple of years.
Robin had been watching intently when she finally spoke up, “are you throwing a goddamn party back there Harrington?” Steve had already guided Alaina into the back room before either of them could answer, promptly shutting the window panels.
“Aren’t you like, on the clock?” Alaina asked, feeling slightly guilty as she looked towards the window.
“Trust me, she’s fine-“ Steve said before getting cut off by Dustin.
“Laina this is way more important than the ice cream shop I promise you,” Dustin said matter-of-factly.
“So then please! Fill me in!” Alaina responded as she sat in a chair at the small square table in the center of the room.
“Okay so, remember how I was assembling Cerebro to talk to Suzie,” Dustin started. Steve shot Alaina a look when Dustin’s girlfriend was mentioned but she chose to ignore it and simply nodded. “Well, I accidentally intercepted a secret Russian broadcast,” Alaina stared at him blankly for a moment processing what he told her.
“Dustin… you said you needed my help urgently, I called out at the diner for this,” Alaina said slowly, sounding more confused than frustrated.
“I do need your help! This is the type of shit you’re good at, you know because you want to be an English teacher and everything,” Dustin said.
Alaina let out a shocked laugh, “Yeah, an English teacher Dustin! I know absolutely nothing about Russian, they don’t even use the same letters as us,” She said exasperatedly gesturing towards the white board on the wall which they had detailed with the entire Russian alphabet.
“Alaina, I know it sounds crazy but I promise I wouldn’t have asked you here if I didn’t think this was important and if I didn’t think you could help,” Dustin insisted. “It’s not about knowing Russian as much as it is about pattern recognition, context clues, analytical skills, and all the other things you’re good at.” Outside, the sound of more customers, presumably a group of young girls based on the voices, caught Alaina’s attention.
“Does she know?” Alaina asked with her voice lower, gesturing towards the front.
“No,” Steve said quickly.
Alaina rolled her eyes, “Fine. Let’s hear it then!” Dustin began the recording and the three sat in silence as they listened intently. As soon as it finished Alaina spoke up “Yeah I got none of that.”
Steve, who had helped himself to a banana spoke between bites, “That music at the end, I recognize it.”
“Why the hell are you listening to the music-“ Dustin began when suddenly Robin burst into the back holding an ice cream scoop.
“Alright you need to get in there- hey my board! That was important data shitbirds,” Robin said, clearly frustrated. Alaina sat looking kind of stunned but couldn’t hide her slight smile.
“I guarantee what we are doing is way more important than your data,” Dustin replied.
“Yeah? And how do you know these Russian’s are up to no good anyways?” Robin retorted.
Dustin’s jaw fell slack before he turned to Steve and half whispered “How does she know about the Russians?”
“You guys do have a tendency to be loud, and not to mention anything but subtle,” Alaina spoke up, drawing Robin’s eyes to hers.
“Indeed!” Robin agreed, “I can hear everything. You think you have evil Russians plotting against our country on tape, and you’re trying to translate but you haven’t figured out a single word because you didn’t realize the Russians use an entirely different alphabet than we do, sound about right?” The four sat in silence, Alaina turning to face Dustin and Steve, amused by the shock on their faces. Suddenly Robin lunged towards the table. Steve jumped up and grabbed the tape before Robin could.
“Woah woah woah, what do you think you’re doing?” Steve asked.
“I want to hear it,” Robin said innocently.
“Why?” Steve and Dustin asked exasperatedly in unison.
“Oh come on,” Alaina piped up, no longer content observing the situation “let her hear it, maybe she can help!”
“I’m fluent in four languages you know,” Robin said.
“Russian?” Dustin asked.
“Ouyay areyay umbday,” Robin replied. Alaina immediately giggled but Steve and Dustin let out sounds of awe. “That was pig latin dingus,” said Robin.
Steve slapped Dustin with the banana peel, “Idiot,” he mumbled.
“But I can speak Spanish, and French, and Italian, and I’ve been in band for twelve years. My ears are little geniuses trust me,” Robin said. Steve laughed humorlessly, while it was Alaina’s turn to be in awe. Who was this girl and how the hell was she so smart? Alaina stared at her, her mouth slightly agape as if she were preparing to speak. Robin’s deep blue eyes turned to meet hers once again and she felt a shiver run down her spine. She quickly broke the eye contact and turned to Steve and her brother.
“Steve you can’t slack off forever if you want to stay employed, just let her listen. If we want to crack this we’ll need all the help we can get and no offense but I guarantee she’s more capable than you are.” Alaina said.
“Hey!” Steve replied, but it was lackluster, he knew she was right.
“I don’t even want any credit I’m just bored,” Robin followed, leaning across the table towards Steve offering the ice cream scoop in exchange for the tape. Steve contemplated for a second before finally giving in and taking the scoop before walking to the door way. The bell on the front counter began to ring incessantly indicating impatient customers. He turned over his shoulder and shot the group one last bitter look before opening the door and returning to work.
Alaina turned to face Robin and smiled sweetly, “Hi, I’m Alaina, I’m Dustin’s older sister. Are you seriously fluent in all those languages? I had trouble just trying to take a second one.” Robin smiled back, finally getting the chance to get a good look at the girl across from her. The first thing she noticed when she had walked up to the counter was her blonde curly pony tail, her bangs just long enough that she had to keep brushing them out of her eyes. Her eyes were the next thing she noticed, a mix of green and brown and maybe even gold. She was immediately drawn after that to her lips which were a soft, cherry chapstick red, curled into a contagious smile. And then she had asked for Steve, and Robin was immediately hit with a wave of familiar jealousy because it’s always him. But here she was now, sitting in front of Alaina who had sent Steve away in favor of Robin helping her instead.
“Robin, and oui! Once you know one of the romance languages it’s a lot easier to pick up the others. Now as far as Russian… I guess I’ll find out.” Robin said, trying her best to maintain her cool.
“We’re wasting time! The Russians could be sabotaging us as we speak,” Dustin piped up impatiently from the seat next to Alaina.
“Let’s hear it then,” Robin said, sliding the tape to Dustin. Alaina looked over at the girl who shot her back a mischievous smile. Her heart rate increased suddenly and she found herself immediately averting her eyes to her hands as she began to fidget with her rings. Alaina had always been a little more reserved, but she rarely found herself feeling particularly shy. Her stomach churned and a wave of anxiety rushed over her.
What if I am embarrassing myself and she thinks I’m stupid because I can’t figure any of this out. She couldn’t particularly place this feeling, but what she did know was that suddenly nothing mattered more than Robin’s opinion of her. She was pulled out of her trance when the tape began replaying the Russian message.