Chapter Text
Steve wandered out on the grass near The Squawk. Robin had graciously allowed him to take a 15-minute break. His wandering was aimless; he was simply taking in the fresh air and the view. As he walked, he started to hear voices. Being nosy as he was, he walked towards the sound. Jonathan and Nancy soon came into view and Steve leaned against a tree that was within earshot to eavesdrop. They were too engrossed in their conversation to pay him any mind.
“Jonathan….”
“I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?”
“Oh Jonathan… Oh I’m so sorry I can’t do this. I can’t settle down yet. I have so much of my life to live still. Jonathan I’m so sorry. I just can’t marry you. Not now. You deserve someone who will settle down with you and have that white picket fence life. I don’t think I will ever be that person. I am not traditional. I never have been. You know this. Jonathan, I’m so sorry.”
“…”
“Jonathan please say something.”
“Nancy…. I…. I would never force you to do something you don’t want to do. If you can’t settle down yet, I understand. I don’t want you to feel trapped. I care for you so much and I would never want to hurt you. I am willing to wait for you.”
“I don’t know if I will ever want to settle down. But you deserve to. You will make a great father one day. I can’t hold you back from that.”
“Are you saying this is the end? How long have you felt this way?”
“I just figured it out, I swear. I’m sorry I led you on. You deserve better than this.”
“We just want different things. I suppose. That’s not your fault. I’m upset but not with you.”
“I don’t want to lose you from my life. But I can’t be in a relationship with you.”
“I understand.”
“It’s a very pretty ring. It’s a shame it won’t be used.”
“I’m sure I’ll find another purpose. Maybe El would want a ring. Or Hopper will want it to propose to Mom. Whenever he finally gets around to it.”
“He really is taking forever with that.”
“He’s stressing the whole household out about it.”
“Okay, well, I have to get to work. I really am sorry about all of this Jonathan. I’ll… see you around?”
“Yeah, I’ll see you around.”
Steve watched as Nancy walked away to her car, as Jonathan slumped down into the grass. Naturally, Steve took this as his cue to enter. He sauntered towards Jonathan’s hunched over figure. The other boy didn’t notice his approach as he was turned away from Steve and was too engrossed in his feelings to pay any mind to the world around him.
“Well, that was hard to watch.” Steve said as he sat near Jonathan in the grass.
Jonathan whirled around to face Steve.
“Jesus man! A little warning next time before you sneak up on a guy. And thanks so much for the words of comfort.” Jonathan shot back at Steve, his head still slightly lowered, probably to try and hide that he was crying. It was an unsuccessful attempt. Steve decided to not tease him about that anyways.
“Thought you would’ve heard me walk up. I wasn’t exactly quiet.”
“Yeah, well I was a bit preoccupied.”
“I can tell.”
They sat in silence for a few moments, listening to the wind rustle through the grass. Then Steve decided to break the silence.
“That really sucks though man. Friendzoned by the girl you’re proposing too? That’s gotta sting.”
“Your sympathy is overwhelming Steve. I feel so cared for.” Jonathan replied, deadpan.
Steve’s hands shot up defensively. “Hey, our whole thing is competition, not comfort. I’m at least trying.”
“Yeah well, I guess you won the competition. She’s yours for the taking.” Jonathan sighed.
“Dude, I meant what I said in the car. I’m not into her. Haven’t been for a while. Competing with you just feels natural at this point. It’s how we operate. I’m not in it for her attention or affection.”
“Oh. I didn’t know that.”
“More like you didn’t listen to the words that came out of my mouth.”
They lapsed back into silence. Steve scooted slightly closer to Jonathan.
“So, what does the ring look like?” He inquired.
Jonathan fished the ring back out from within his pocket and held it out in his palm towards Steve.
“Jeez you proposed with that? No wonder she said no.” Steve laughed and leaned back, bracing himself against his hands.
“Y’know I don’t think it really had anything to do with the ring. I’m fairly certain it had everything to do with me.” Jonathan let his hand drop into the grass, ring still in his open palm.
“It may have also been the ring though.”
“I’m not enough for her.” Jonathan continued, ignoring Steve’s comment. “She’s tasted adventure and wants more. I’ve had quite enough adventure for one lifetime and can’t fathom more. I don’t know anyone here who would want to settle down. Not after everything that has happened. Everyone is all fired up and ready to take on the world.” He lamented.
“I don’t know, settling down seems pretty good to me.”
“Oh fantastic. Because you’ll totally marry me. Thank you, Steve. That really solves all my problems.” Jonanthan said sarcastically.
“Sure. Why not?” Steve shrugged. He then snatched the ring out of Jonathan’s hand and slid it effortlessly onto his left ring finger. He admired it in the light for a quick second and then looked over at his new fiancée.
Jonathan stared at him, mouth agape. His eyes were still a slight bit red from crying, but the shock was mostly over taking him. Steve grinned at him.
“See? Problem solved!” Steve said cheerfully.
“Okay so first, how does the ring actually fit you? I had it sized to Nancy perfectly! Do you have weird woman hands? Also, you cannot be serious Steve! Give that back!” Jonathan made a lunge for Steve’s hand, but Steve moved away and swiftly got up.
“Oh, I am perfectly serious. I’ll get the kids to send a message to you when I’ve found some free time we can use to plan the wedding.” Steve leaned down and grabbed one of Jonathan’s hands with his right hand, so that the ring wasn’t within Jonathan’s reach, and gave Jonathan’s hand a quick kiss before turning to walk back to The Squawk.
“I’ll be seeing you around, fiancée.” Steve called back over his shoulder, smirking. He left Jonathan sitting, astounded, in the grass there and swiftly made his way back to work. He knew he had taken more than his allotted 15 minutes, and Robin would be furious with him, but he also figured that Robin would be satiated with this fantastic story.
“Roobinnnn~” Steve called out as he entered the building.
Robin burst out of the studio door and immediately launched into a tirade.
“Steve! Where. Have. You. Been! I told you; you could have 15 minutes. No more. I meant it. What part of no more did you not understand? I needed you back here so that I could go back on air. I have been here, running this all by myself. Do you know how difficult that has been? I’ll tell you! Incredibly difficult! Because I don’t have four arms! I have two! Just in case you didn’t notice. I also can’t clone myself. Despite everything, that hasn’t been invented yet. At least that we know of. But if the government hid El and the others from us, who knows what else they could be hiding...” Robin trailed off as she noticed Steve had been standing in front of her with a shit eating grin while admiring his left hand. She paused for moment and looked him over before her eyes locked on the ring on his finger.
“Steve… are you wearing a ring?” She asked carefully, as if scared of the full story. Steve’s grin only widened.
“Yes, ma’am it sure is. An engagement ring to be specific.”
“An enga- WHAT!?” Robin completely exploded. “The one fucking time I let you actually have a break you galivant off to god knows where, don’t come back until thirty-five minutes after I let you leave and when you do finally return you’ve managed to get fucking engaged!?”
“That would be correct!” Steve affirmed, still grinning like a madman.
“Okay then.” Robin turned around and went to lean on one of the nearby tables. “The broadcast can wait. Mind telling me the full story?”
Steve went and sat cross-legged on the table beside her and she sat opposite him. He relayed the full story of his accidental engagement to Jonathan and his intentions to go through with it.
“Wow. Nance really turned him down? Good for her to put herself first.” Robin remarked.
“Yeah, I thought so too.”
Robin sat there and pondered for a moment, no doubt thinking a million miles a minute.
“Wait, so why are you actually going through with this? Is there something you need to tell me?” Robin asked.
Steve shrugged. “It makes perfect sense to me. You see I was thinking about it on the way back and it’s totally unfair that you and Vickie have to hide from the world and can never get married. So why don’t I protest that? We obviously can’t get legally married, so when Jonathan finds the girl for him, they can properly settle down and not have to worry about the legalities of divorce. But in the meantime, we can pave the way for people like you and Vickie,” Steve paused for a moment, just long enough to breathe. “I’m going to lay all of this out to him when we meet up. I obviously won’t name your name. I’ll be general. And I can hint at Will. I mean Jonathan has to at least have a suspicion about the kid being a bit bent. It’s not exactly well hidden.”
Robin laughed. “Well, that is one way to put it, I guess. So, you are sure this is 100% for ulterior motive and for no other underlying reasons?”
“Yeah? What would my other reasons be?”
“Oh nothing. I was just making sure.” Robin jumped off the table and grabbed Steve’s hand, dragging him back to the booth.
“Okay we really do need to get back to work now,” Robin insisted. “Get to your station, boy.” She gave him a light shove towards his post.
Steve grinned and got ready to work.
“Alright Hawkins, I am back on the air. Hope you didn’t miss me too much during my impromptu break. Anyways, onto the next track which just so happens to be…”