Chapter Text
After everything - after all the dust settles - they return to an uneasy sense of normalcy.
Steve and Robin go back to their day jobs at Family Video. Steve puts Robin in charge of formulating an excuse about why they suddenly disappeared for a couple of days, which she spends a red-faced 15 minutes explaining to Keith over the phone, the cord twisting tight around her fingers. Luckily, out of the two of them, she is the most convincing liar and if their story contains some holes, Keith doesn’t notice them.
After a stern talking-to and the very clear warning that this is their very last chance and that the ice they’re on is so, so thin, they get to don their green vests with only the minimal amount of fuss.
The first shift feels weird; they never had to go back to work after, before. Robin avoids the horror section for the entire first week. So they trade responsibilities, which means that Robin spends most of her week in the back office rewinding tapes while Steve is left in charge of restocking the returns. He’s staring at a newer movie, the cover showing what must be a zombie tenderly holding a girl in a prom dress, when the bell above the door jingles.
He looks up from the VHS and puts up his hand to wave to Eddie. Eddie, who still sports a swelled-shut eye the color of overripe grapes. Even from over here, he can see that the edges of the bruise are only now starting to turn green and yellow.
Eddie returns his wave, and Steve can see that his middle and ring finger are still splinted together. At least the bandages look a lot fresher than the last time he’d seen them.
Eddie walks up to join him among the horror movies. “Hey man.” Eddie says and he takes a quizzical look at the movie Steve’s still holding.
“Killer party,” He supplies, and he turns to put it back on the shelf, between Just Before Dawn and Lifeforce. “Keith says it’s good, but people don’t really rent these kinds of movies here.”
Eddie scans the titles along the shelf, before looking back at Steve. “No?”
“Nah, they all just go for the latest rom-com. So don’t ask me what it’s about.”
“I wasn’t going to.” He says.
“I can give you other recommendations, though. Like, uhm, Wildcats. That just came in. I think it’s pretty funny.” He falters. Now that he can see Eddie from up close. It’s not pretty; there’s a barely closed cut on his lower lip and even the eye that isn’t swelled shut has the same sickly purple color.
Steve sobers up, he knows that looks. “You’re not sleeping, are you?”
Eddie lets out a rough breath, runs a hand through his hair. “Not really,” he says, looking at Steve. “I mean, I must fall asleep sometimes, since I’m still kinda standing. But I keep - ”
“Seeing it.” Steve adds. “Yeah, I know the feeling.” He takes Eddie by the arm, moving them away from the horror section, towards the front of the store. There is a group of tweens giggling at the comedy section that he needs to keep an eye on.
“Look,” he says, once he’s back behind the counter. “I wish I could tell you that it gets better, but it kinda doesn’t. I mean, I still have the - .” He stops himself there, even Steve knows it’s not the best idea to talk about the bat still in the back of his trunk, or the lights he is unable to turn off at night or the nightmares he still wakes up from, with other people hanging around.
Eddie nods, however. Like he knew exactly what he was about to stay. “Yeah, I get it.” he says and he leans his arms on the counter, his hair falling down over his shoulders. “I just wanted to talk to someone who was there. Who saw it, too. Because I’m starting to feel like I'm going insane, man.”
“You’re not. Trust me, after a while you kinda get used to it.” Steve shoots Eddie a sardonic smile. “But you’ve got us now, too: Robin, me, Nance, the kids. We’ll make sure to keep you on the straight and narrow.”
Eddie lets out a small laugh at that. Then, seemingly getting back to himself, slaps the counter and straightens back up. “Thanks, Harrington.” he says, ”so you said you’d have recommendations?”
“I’m here to serve.” Steve says, “Let me show you our latest selection of movies guaranteed to give you a good time.” he waves a hand towards their ‘employee favorites section’.
He watches him leave five minutes later, holding an old western that Robin had put on there, only because she liked the cover. Steve can’t remember its name, though. Westerns have never really been his thing.
He hears Robin come up behind him. “Munson?” she asks and she hops up on the stool next to him.
He hums noncommittally.
“How’s he holding up?”
“Well, considering the whole, you know,” he says, waving a hand around that encompasses the whole Upside-down business, the almost dying and the actively being chased for a murder he didn’t commit thing. “Not great.”
“It must suck to have to live in that place now, too.” She says. Steve has to agree with her there. He still avoids his swimming pool ever since Barb died there, as long as he never looks through those glass sliding doors, he’s pretty much fine. But Eddie has to cross the place where Chrissy died every time he leaves his home, has to walk past the place where he almost bled out after Dustin pulled him back through the gate. Steve feels a chill run up the back of his legs, whenever he thinks back to it.
“We’ll have to get him out there sometime. I don’t think he has anywhere else to go.” Robin says. Then, her eyes light up, sliding over to Steve. “We can invite him for pizza day!”
Pizza day was their platonic date night. Once a month, when their meager salary comes in, they buy the biggest pizza they can find, borrow one of the new releases and spend the night at Steve. Robin will spin the virtues of her latest crush and harangue Steve for his complete lack of romantic success. It’s great.
`
They started the tradition back at Scoops Ahoy, but it only really became a fixture in their lives after the ussian secret lair nonsense. You don’t go through something like that together and then go back to your own lives, afterwards. So yeah, they’ll have to invite Eddie.
“I’ll invite him.” Steve says. “Next time I see him, I’ll invite him.”
\\
It takes him another week before he gets the chance. He doesn’t know his phone number and showing up unannounced at his trailer just feels wrong. So he waits, until the opportunity arises one evening, when he’s picking up the kids after school.
He’s leaning against his car, smoking a cigarette, when he sees Eddie coming out of the school. He’s finally lost the splint holding his fingers in place, but he is still walking carefully.
“Munson!” Steve calls, raising his hand.
Eddie looks up, wide-eyed, straightening up immediately. He relaxes only when he locks eyes with him. He raises his own hand and moves towards him.
“Harrington,” he greets, once he’s close enough. “What are you doing scaring the innocent high-schoolers of Hawkins?” He gingerly leans against his car next to him.
“Babysitting duties.” Steve says, “my driving skills were required.”
He holds out his smokes to Eddie, who takes one gratefully. Steve holds out his lighter and Eddie leans in to light his cigarette. He drags deeply and Steve can see his shoulders relax gradually. This close, he can see that his black eye has finally lost its purple bruising and that it’s now a rather sickly-looking green. The split lip is definitely going to scar, Steve knows.
He looks away, raising his own cigarette back to take a drag, the smoke curling around his teeth. “Do you have any plans for this Friday?” He asks.
“You know I don’t.”
“Right,” Steve says, letting out a laugh even though he knows Eddie isn’t joking, “right, well, Robin and I are going to get a pizza and watch some movies. At my place. So, if you want, you could join us?”
Eddie looks at him, lowering his cigarette. He looks at him. “Okay.”
\\
It's finally Friday. Robin has been sweeping the aisles with a manic look in her eyes, herding the last couple of customers to the counter and out of the door with the passion only a girl with pizza in her future can have.
“Bye! Thanks for your continued patronage at Family Video!” she waves at the back of the last couple, “Don’t forget to rewind!”
The door falls closed and Robin lets out a sigh. She turns around to face Steve, a grin on her face. “C’mon, hurry up! I can’t wait for this day to be over. Have you picked out a movie yet?”
He has, thankfully, which means they won’t have to stand and bicker in front of the new releases. “Got your favorite right here.” he says, waving the copy of Fast Times at Ridgemont High. She flips him off, laughing.
“You’re an idiot, Steve Harrington.”
15 minutes later the store was cleaned up, they had put away the register and locked the door. Robin settles into the passenger seat of his car, already rummaging through his cassette tapes. “When are you going to get something that isn’t shit, Steve?” she says, looking disparagingly at the selection.
“What’s wrong with Tears for Fear?” He turns the ignition and the beamer springs to life under his hands. “You just don’t appreciate their genius.”
“Genius.” Robin huffs, but she puts the tape into the player anyway. They pull out of the parking lot to the starting jingles of the first track.
15 minutes later, they pull up to Steve’s house. He turns off the car; the tape stops abruptly in the middle of the song. The engine ticks softly as they get out, Robin carrying the pizzas they picked up along the way.
Steve holds open the door for her and they both move towards the kitchen and he turns on the lights on the way. She puts the pizzas down on the kitchen island and grabs herself a beer that she knows is there from the fridge, passing another to Steve. Together, they toast to the end of another week.
\\
The doorbell rings, followed, oddly enough, by three knocks on the front door. “That must be Munson.” Steve says, already walking to the door, “Can you bring the pizzas to the living room?”
“Aye, aye, captain.” Robin salutes.
Steve opens the door. For a moment, it is the strangest sight, to see Eddie standing on his doorsteps, here in Loch Nora. He can just imagine his neighbors tutting at how he’s dressed - ripped jeans stuffed into scuffed boots, a t-shirt with some monster on it, covered by his leather jacket. He could not look more out of place if he tried.
Eddie holds up a six-pack of beer, “Thought I’d bring provisions.”
Steve moves out of the way to let Eddie in. “Come in, we’re right through here - in the living room.”
But Eddie doesn’t follow him. He sees Eddie take it all in and he feels out of place, suddenly, standing in his parents house, surrounded by their stuff.
“I knew you had money, Harrington.” Eddie says, taking a closer look at a family picture sitting on a side table. It’s an old one, he must have been around 10 when they got it taken.
“Well, it’s not really mine, is it?” he grumbles.
Eddie looks back at him, nodding. Then, “Can you hold these for me? Don’t wanna get trailer park gunk all over your nice floors.” He hands over the six-pack and bends down to untie his boots , kicking them in the corner. They look out of place next to Steve’s sneakers and his dad’s brogues.
He follows him into the living room, where Robin has already started the movie.
She’s taken the left corner of his couch, holding the remote in one hand and a slice of pepperoni pizza in the other. “Hi Eddie!” she says, her mouth full. “Hope you like pepperoni or tuna.”
\\
The credits roll in the background - the pizza boxes long empty on the coffee table. Robin is snoring softly against his shoulder and his eyes feel heavy. Next to him, Eddie stretches his arms above his head and yawns widely, his shirt riding up.
He blinks at Steve lazily. “I think it’s time for me to head out. Do you want me to drive Robin home?” he says, untangling himself from the couch.
“You don’t have to; she’s going to sleep here. I’ll bring her home tomorrow.” Steve says, moving out carefully from Robin. He doesn’t want to wake her.
“Of course.” Eddie says, “that makes sense.” He has to lean against the wall to put his boots back on, struggling to tie the shoelaces with uncoordinated fingers.
“Are you sure you’re okay to drive? You can crash here too, if you want.”
Eddie looks up at him from beneath his hair, his hands stilling on his shoelaces for a moment. “Thanks, Harrington. For the offer. But I should be alright; it’s late, so the streets should be empty.” His boots tied, he stands up and gives him a small, tired smile. “Really, I’ll be alright. This isn’t my first rodeo.”
He’s almost out of the door, when Steve stops him. “Listen, the offer stands, you know. If you ever need a place to crash.” And he can see that Eddie understands that it’s not just about driving after a movie night.
“I -,” Eddie starts. “Yeah. Thanks.”
And then he opens the door and walks out of the house. Steve watches him climb into his van, waving one last time as the van sputters alive. He waves back, and watches the tail lights slowly disappear into the night.
He closes the door, making sure to lock it securely. Robin blinks at him from the couch. “Did Eddie leave already?” she says, her voice raspy from sleep.
“Yeah, just now.” Steve says. “Didn’t want to wake you up.”
“Hmm.” She rests her head on the back of the couch. “Am I sleeping here or do you want me to come up with you?”
Sometimes, when Steve’s nightmares get particularly bad, Robin sleeps in his bed. It helps keep the terrors at bay. The first time she suggested it, he had been weirded out by the idea. Sharing a bed with a girl had always meant something more, something else. But with Robin, everything is different.
Tonight she won’t have to though. He feels calm, comfortable even in his own skin.
“I’ll get you a pillow and a blanket.”
“Thanks, Steve.” She yawns.
He gets her blanket and pillow from the linen closet, ruffling her hair as she makes herself comfortable. “You know where to find me,” he says. “Sleep tight.”
“G'night.” she mumbles, her face pressed into the pillow, already half way to sleep.
Upstairs, he does his customary round - turning on the lamps stashed in his room, making sure his window is closed and locked. He undresses as he goes, his clothes landing on the floor. He’ll have to put those in the laundry tomorrow, when he remembers. He’s running out of clean socks, anyway.
He lies back unto his bed, wrapping his blanket around himself.
He does not remember falling asleep.