Chapter Text
It was terrible, Steve felt awful.
The pain in his face throbbed, his guts twisted, and he had the worst headache he had ever had.
"The ceiling stopped spinning for me. Is it still spinning for you?" he asked the girl in the cabin next to him.
"Wait," there was a pause, Steve assumed she was checking. "No."
The boy couldn't help but sigh with relief. "You think we puked it all up?"
"Maybe. Interrogate me?" He could easily picture her tilting her head as she asked.
Steve couldn't help but shudder at the question, a memory of a voice with a Russian accent yelling at him for hours.
"Okay, interrogate you... Sure," he replied feverishly. "Um... When was the last time you, uh, peed your pants?"
"...Today."
Steve blinked. "What?"
"When the Russian doctor took out the bone saw, I peed myself..." He could hear laughter in his voice, nervous but still there.
"Oh, my God," he replied, letting out a laugh, too.
"It was just a little bit, though." Steve could heard her moving as she spoke, probably making a small gesture with her hands.
He couldn't help but respond with a bark of laughter. "Yeap, it's definitely still in your system!"
The two of them burst out laughing in the old, filthy toilet, forgetting about the Russians, the drugs, or the torture. Just them.
Their laughter was interrupted by groans from both sides of the stalls. A groan of pain from their returning headaches, probably from laughing too hard.
"Ow..." he heard her groan, but before he could ask her how she was, she spoke again. "All right, now my turn!"
Steve chuckled. "Alright, hit me!"
"Have you... ever been in love?" she asked apprehensively.
It was a complicated question. A while ago, he would have shut down at that question and would have preferred to jump out of the window than answer it. But now... "Yeah. Nancy Wheeler. First semester, senior year."
"Oh, my God. You really loved her? She's such a priss!" Robin replied, slightly... outraged?
"Hm..." Steve couldn't help but think of Nancy, one of his best friends, a badass who would do anything for the people she loved. Ready to wear a title that wasn't hers to protect the people she loved. "Turns out, not really," he replied fondly.
She scoffed on the other side. "Are you still in love with Nancy?"
"No," was his answer without hesitation.
"Why not?" she asked, genuine confusion in her voice.
"Because I found someone who's a little bit better for me." Steve couldn't help the chuckles that came out of his mouth. "It's crazy. Ever since Dustin got home, he's been saying, 'You know, you gotta find your Suzie! You gotta find your Suzie!' without knowing that I DID find my Suzie!"
"Wait, who's Suzie?" she interrupted.
"It's some girl he met at camp, I guess his girlfriend. To be honest with you, I'm not one hundred percent sure she's even real. But that’s not… that’s not really the point." Steve pulled his knees up to his chest. He wasn't afraid or embarrassed by who he was, and no matter how many times they warned him, he didn't see the point in hiding. But now that he was telling Robin, he felt a certain pressure, he didn't want to lose her. "The point is, there this person, you know, the one that I... Love, and it's somebody that I didn't even talk to in school. And I don't even know why... Maybe 'cause my 'friends' would've hated me? And I wouldn't have been the king anymore?" A laugh of self-deprecation escape him. "It's stupid. I mean, Dustin's right, it's all just a bunch of- bullshit anyway..." He shuddered at the word. "I know now I should've been hanging out with who I wanted without thinking about stupid reputation. In particular them."
Steve let out a dreamy laugh. "First of all, they're hilarious, so funny. I feel like, ever since I met them, I've been happier than I've ever been in a really long time! And they're smart. Way smarter than me. You know, they can read people like no one else, and... You know? They're honestly unlike anyone I've ever even met before..." Steve finished his tirade with an enamored sigh.
A silence greeted his statement, which immediately made Steve uncomfortable. "Robin?" He tapped on the wall to get her attention. "Robin, did you just OD in there?"
"No." She sighed. "I... am still alive..." Another sigh. "The floor's disgusting."
Steve let out a nervous laugh, "Yeah, well, I already got a bunch of blood and puke on my shirt, so..." He released his knees. "What do you think?"
"About?"
"This... Person."
"They sound awesome."
"They are awesome. And what about... The other person ?"
"I think he's on drugs, and he's not thinking straight."
Steve began to wring his fingers, growing more and more stressed. "You think? 'Cause I think he's thinking a lot more clearly than usual."
"He's not. Look... he doesn't even know this person." ...What? "And if he did know them, like... like I really know them, I don't think he'd even want to be their friend."
Steve's confusion only intensified. "No, that's not true. No way is that true!"
Her voice was a little erratic. "Listen to me, Steve. It's shocked me to my core, but I like you, I really like you. But I'm not like your other friends. And I'm definitely not like Nancy Wheeler."
"Um, yeah? Robin, that's exactly why I like you...?" Steve wasn't sure how they got here.
Robin scoffs. "Do you remember what I said about Click's class? About me being jealous and, like, obsessed?"
"Yeah..." Was that...?
"It isn't because I had a crush on you," Oh thank God. "It's because... she wouldn't stop staring at you."
Steve tilted his head even though she couldn't see him. "Mrs. Click?"
He heard her laughter in the next stall. "Tammy Thompson. I wanted her to look at me. But... she couldn't take her eyes off you and your stupid hair! And I didn't understand, because you would get bagel crumbs all over the floor. And you asked dumb questions. And you were a jerk. And... And you didn't even like her! And I would go home and just scream into my pillow."
"Tammy Thompson is a girl."
"Steve..."
"Yeah?"
Finally, the information reaches Steve's brain.
"Oh!"
"Oh."
"Holy shit!"
"Yeah."
"Robin!"
"Yeah...?"
"That's so nice!"
"What?" She sounded dumbfounded.
Steve slid under the stall to join Robin, with a smile that only grew wider.
"You didn't have to come out to make me feel better about mine, but you did! That's really nice, thank you."
"For you- wait! You were coming out??"
"Yes?" He tilted his head.
"I thought you were confessing your feelings for me??" She said, pointing at herself.
Robin looked utterly confused, and Steve felt as confuse as her.
"No?! I was coming out to you!"
"Oh. So you were talking about a man?"
"Yeah!"
"Damn, so were both stupid?"
"Apparently." He wanted to burst out laughing. "But seriously, Tammy Thompson? Really? You know, she's cute and all, but... she's a total loser!"
Robin gave him her best offended look. "She is not!"
"Hun, yes, she is!"
She pouted in his direction as she crossed her arms. "She wants to be a singer! She wants to move to Nashville and shit, she has dreams!"
Steve rolled his eyes. "She can't even hold a tune, she's practically tone-deaf. Have you even heard her?"
Robin chuckled. "Shut up!"
He began to sing, imitating Tammy's Muppet-like voice. "You see me now tonight~"
"Steve!"
"You see me~"
"She does not sound like that!" she teased humorously, pushing him lightly with her hand.
"She sounds exactly like this! I'm doing a great impersonation of her!"
"Absolutely not, you sound like a Muppet!"
"She sound like a Muppet!"
The two began to laugh as Steve resumed his song.
"And if you could hold me tight~"
Robin joined him and the two began singing, imitating Muppet voices.
"We'll be holding on forever~"
They had just been tortured, they still had drugs in their systems, and the Russians were hot on their heels. But at that moment, they were alone in the world, laughing together, feeling more comfortable with someone else than they had in a long time.