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Robin was maybe one of the smartest people Steve knew. She spoke three languages, played four instruments, and she had an endless wellspring of random trivia. She was also kind of a mess.
Like a messy person. She was kind of a germaphobe, so not a dirty person, but Steve couldn’t count the times that he’d started to drive away after dropping her off at school only to turn around half a block away because something had fallen out of her backpack.
Steve didn’t really care, it was funny. Robin was funny in general, and he liked listening to her ramble and lecture, and when she started leaving trails of hair clips and books and cassette tapes behind in her wake, he liked teasing her about them. It was even funnier when he saw her hours later, looking for whatever she’d lost.
Her room at his house really became her room because Steve just wanted to consolidate all the stuff she’d left around his car and house (and the diner one time, when she ran out early and left a sweatshirt behind).
"Have you checked your room?" he asked one day when she couldn’t find her favorite sneakers, the ones with all the drawing of boobs on them. She’d taken them off in his car after their shift the day before, changing into sandals she'd had in her bag when he dropped her off at her house.
"I just came from my room," Robin snapped, digging through her backpack on Steve’s couch.
"Your room here," he said, folding his arms and raising his eyebrows. "There was so much crap here I assumed you moved in."
Then she started leaving things at his house on purpose.
He didn’t realize that there was something all the stuff she left had in common. Because yeah she'd leave homework over too, but for the most part it was her shoes with the boob drawings, and her books about drag queens, and angsty poetry books about sad women being in love.
Stuff that, if someone were to find, they would think was pretty gay.
It made sense why she didn’t want it at her house, and Steve’s parents would never pay enough attention to notice, so it was fine. It just would have been nice to know before he invited Eddie to spend the night in her room after his concert and a few rounds at the Hideout.
Eddie started the night in the formal guest room, the one that Steve’s dad used for his business associates. And also his "business associates," because it had mirror tiles on the ceiling. Steve had tried to talk Eddie out of it, to convince him to stay in his den; it had a futon and a door to the balcony that he and Eddie smoked on when Steve was still buying from Eddie. His tipsy guest was firm that the mirrors weren’t creepy.
Clearly Steve was right, though, because come morning Eddie walked out of the den rather than his dad’s mistress room.
"The mirror got to you after all, huh?" Steve guessed, leaning against the wall outside his bedroom.
"It was your fault for talking about your dad so much," Eddie said, still in the den doorway. "Killed the mood."
"You’re sick," Steve said simply, without any heat.
"I’m gay," Eddie said, and Steve’s heart stopped, because no way had he just said something so insensitive in this moment. This was an important moment. Eddie had been his drug dealer for years, but Steve hadn’t bought anything since his unwanted truth serum trip, so they had months of silence before it was broken only recently. Steve had cut off their whole friendship just because he couldn't think of a reason to call him that wasn't buying weed. They should have still hung out, still been friends, and it was Steve’s fault they weren’t, and he didn’t want to ruin any trust he’d managed to rebuild by calling Eddie sick.
"Um…" he said, wracking his brain for something to say to show Eddie how important he was to Steve. Shit, especially after watching Eddie perform the night before! Steve was so used to seeing his former drug dealer lounge on his patio chair making smoke circles, it was shocking to see him play guitar. To see his head bent, with hair barely hiding focused eyes and a devilish smile. Eddie was talented and interesting and a little magic and Steve was lucky to be his friend.
"That wasn’t like, about what you said!" Eddie rushed out, and Steve heaved a big sigh of relief. "I read some of your books in there last night. Queens, and I mean, Carmilla is fucking sexy as hell, like it’s just so gay I still get it even if it’s two women instead of men. I mean, you know…I just, I snooped but I get it."
He was holding a musty old book in his hand. One of Robin’s.
"It’s…fine…" Steve said carefully, eyes darting to the nondescript book he was holding. "I, uh, didn’t think those books would be so…" Sexy as hell?
"Sorry!" Eddie interjected. "Sorry again. I don’t think, they’re like…obvious, they just, reminded me you’re like…the least predictable person I know. I’m—I’m glad we’re friends, Steve, is what I’m trying too say."
"I’m glad we’re friends, too," Steve smiled, open and true. That’s all that mattered. Steve was a magnet for gay people, he guessed, but whatever, because he and Eddie were friends again. "Really, and thanks for telling me. I’m glad you trust me."
"Fuck, man, me too!" Eddie laughed. "I’m completely fucking blindsided by how much I trust you, Steve Harrington. Even if you didn’t like my show last night."
"I didn’t not like it!" he said quickly. "I just didn’t really…get it? Like you looked awesome playing, but the sound was kind of like dying cats?"
"I looked awesome, huh?" Eddie teased. "So you don’t like metal music but you like metal musicians?"
Steve felt his face flush, his eyes shot to the book that had made Eddie decide to tell Steve he was gay. Shit, what was in that book? Eddie giggled at him, and the heat spread to Steve’s ears.
"Oh come on," he forced out around a laugh. "You know you’re hot, or whatever. That’s not…"
"I’m hot now?" Eddie took a step forward boldly. "Is that your type, Stevie, dark and mysterious and just a little violent?" He waved Robin’s apparently sexy as hell book around, Steve’s wide eyes tracked it. What the hell was in that book?
"You’re not violent," Steve said, because that was the only thing he knew for certain in this roller coaster of a conversation. "You’re weird, but it’s your best quality. You’re like…the nicest guy I know."
Time to take stock of the situation. First, Eddie definitely thought Steve was gay. If he corrected him, would that make Eddie feel bad about coming out? How gay were these books, anyway? Would Eddie wonder whose they were, if Steve clearly had no fucking clue what was in them? Eddie was gay, but Steve couldn’t exactly out Robin to him anyway; they only met each other yesterday.
"I really want to kiss you right now, Steve," Eddie brought Steve out of his own head. His eyes widened, and immediately went to Eddie’s lips.
Passionate, weird, and wild Eddie wanted to kiss Steve? Eddie bit his lip when he played guitar, Steve remembered from the night before, and the idea of biting them himself burst in Steve’s mind. Could he even really blame the books for this, when Steve was the one who called Eddie hot and couldn’t stop looking at his lips?
"You should go for it," Steve said before the words even registered in his mind. He didn’t want to take it back though, because Eddie’s smile had dimples as he finished crossing the hall and his fingers on Steve’s cheeks were slightly callused in an unfamiliar way that vibrated on his skin like ripples on water.
Eddie’s lips pressed against Steve, a little bit chapped, but soft as they caressed Steve’s lips. Steve pressed back. He opened his mouth, sucking lightly on Eddie’s lower lip, brain overloading with trying to take in too many sensations at once. Eddie’s hands found their way into Steve’s hair quickly, which wasn’t fair because that was Steve’s weakness. How had he known? It wasn't the only thing Eddie seemed to just know. His friend had a way of seeing through Steve's bullshit in a way that always made Steve either self conscious or decide to do away with the bullshit altogether and take a random risky leap.
Taking a leap, Steve moaned and wrapped his arms around the other man's waist.
It was a Wednesday morning, and Eddie was still in high school, and Steve had no idea why he was so into making out with his former drug dealer. Eddie had to get to class, and once they finally parted he slapped Steve’s ass and skipped back the van that Steve had parked for him in his driveway.
Steve couldn’t take his eyes off him.
Eddie was always going on about role playing and character depth; was how much Steve wanted to kiss Eddie just a part of him really leaning into his role as a closeted gay guy? A few cute girls came into the video store during the first half of his shift, and he flirted with them just to see what happened and yeah, he got the typical butterflies he was used to. So he still liked girls!
Then the second half of his shift came around, and Robin got dropped off for the start of her shift by Eddie, and he didn’t even need to say anything to Steve to cause way more butterflies. So he definitely liked Eddie, too. So!
So they flirted a bit. And he invited Eddie to his house for a date that night, but they didn't say it outright because the store was full of other people and Steve was asking Eddie out on a date.
By the time Eddie left, Steve thought he was bursting at the seams with everything he wanted to say to Robin, to say out loud in general. It was just the damn customers he needed to get rid of.
It took over an hour for the afternoon rush to die down, with middle and high schoolers filtering in and out of the video store and the arcade next door. Steve did a circuit around the aisles when the bell rang after a group of Robin’s band friends left, checking that they were actually alone.
Robin watched him with raised eyebrows and a gently mocking smile.
"Something on your mind, Steve-o?" she said, crossing her arms at the cash register.
Steve finished his lap, and stood on the other side of the counter. Robin leaned down to her elbows on the counter, so Steve copied her on the other side. After a moment of expectant silence, she tilted her head, so Steve sighed and thought about where to start.
"Have you ever kissed a guy?" Steve asked.
"No," Robin scoffed immediately. "Why would I ever do that?"
Steve shrugged and said, "I don’t know; spin the bottle, or just to see if you’d like it?"
"Just to see if I’d like it?" Robin narrowed her eyes at him.
"Not that you need to!" Steve rushed to say. "I just…I don’t know…everyone likes kissing, right? How much does it matter who it’s with?"
"How much does it matter that I like the person I’m kissing?" Robin asked, in that slow way that meant she needed Steve to actually hear how stupid he sounded.
"Okay," he gave. "Okay obviously you need to like who you kiss, but like lips are lips, right? And—"
"Have you ever kissed a guy?" she snapped.
"Yeah, of course."
"Of course?!"
Steve leaned back, rolled his shoulders, crossed his arms, scratched his nose, and uncrossed his arms to rest them on his hips. Robin meanwhile, stared at him wide-eyed and slack-jawed, the only movement she made was shaking her head.
"Spin the bottle, you know," he said with forced ease. It was easy! Closing his eyes and pressing his lips against Lionel Franklin had been easy, because it was an uneven game so everyone who wasn’t spinning was wearing blindfolds and giggling quietly. The important part was practicing kissing since they were all in middle school. He'd had one kiss before that and he had no clue who it was with. Could have been a boy, too, for all he knew. Easy.
It was way easier to keep his eyes open as Eddie pushed him against his front door, easy to shove his tongue in the other man's mouth to taste him.
"Uh huh," said Robin slowly. "Well good to know you’ve kissed a guy before I kissed a girl." She scoffed and stood with her hip leaning heavily on the counter. There was an important look on her face, curious and hopeful. "So you don’t see a difference, huh?"
"No, I—uh, guess I don’t." Steve said.
"Well," Robin exclaimed, eyebrows high. "I kinda feel like I’d see a difference."
Steve heaved a big sigh and nodded. Because well, yeah. That was it, huh. There wasn’t anything but to say, "Well, I guess I don’t. I guess I like girls and guys both."
Robin grinned at him, and then reached up to ruffle Steve’s hair. Steve ducked his head leaning into her hand, feeling his shoulders relax. He bent back down over the counter onto his elbows, and Robin copied him on her side, smiling fondly at him.
"Your hair has been looking a little more Ziggy Stardust lately," she said.
"How fucking dare you," Steve said hotly, still relaxed overtop the counter. "His hair looks like a sea urchin."
"Yours looks like a peacock," Robin laughed, flicking one his more curly fringes.
The bell rang behind them, and they turned in unison to greet the young family that came in the door, with slowly falling snow behind them outside. It was the start of the slow but steady stream of customers in the last hour of Steve’s shift. By the time there were only two customers in the store (carefully circling each other to never be within two aisles of each other), the snow had stopped, but the clouds were darkening overhead.
Steve watched the light coating of snow that hadn’t quite melted on the ground. Compared to Steve’s childhood in Toronto, Hawkins winters had never bothered him. Until his experience in the tunnels last year, with all the spores that had infected through from the Upside Down, and suddenly Steve had to look for clues that the world wasn’t going to start rotting around him every time it snowed.
"Hey," he said, as he and Robin watched the customer’s dance around while both refusing to just pick something. "Can your dad pick you up tonight?"
"Nah," she answered around a Twizzler. "He’s got a shift. Are you gonna make me bike?"
"In this weather?" Steve bumped their shoulders together. "Course not." He didn't like her biking in the dark with good weather, but with snow? Absolutely not. He'd probably have a nightmare that night just from how long he'd been looking at it fall out the window, and driving in it would be even worse. Even if his date with Eddie went really spectacularly well, he'd have to kick the guy out of the house to avoid kicking him out of bed and probably bursting his eardrums with screams. He definitely wouldn't be much fun without knowing Robin was safe away from the weather.
His best friend chuckled and bumped him back, saying "I love having a private chauffeur."
He hovered in the back room at the end of his shift, anxious about leaving and then anxious about coming back in a few hours. Between now and then, he had a date with Eddie. Eddie would meet Steve at his house, and they’d watch Valley Girl and make out and maybe more. Steve barely knew what else there was to do with a guy but he’d always enjoyed sex, and if kissing felt as good as it did with Eddie, Steve couldn’t imagine how great more would feel.
He wanted more, and he wanted less, because he wanted anything, and he paced around on bouncing feet to settle his nerves until Robin and all the customers in the store wouldn’t point and laugh at him as he walked to his car.
The snow held back on his drive, but Steve kept his eyes on the pink sunset on the horizon still, thinking it looked even more hopeful than normal.
Eddie’s van was waiting in Steve’s driveway, and his heart skipped a beat. Steve watched Eddie step out of his van, leather jacket big around his shoulders, legs wiry as he jaunted toward Steve’s car. Steve unlatched his door, but he let Eddie pull it open and reached a hand out for quote-unquote-help standing out of his seat.
"Hope I didn’t leave you waiting," Steve smiled up at him.
"Oh yeah," Eddie laughed. "I’ve been counting down the seconds."
"You too, huh?" Steve smiled back at Eddie as he led him to the front door, his face warming when Eddie caught his eye right away.
"Yeah, Stevie," Eddie smiled, and Steve’s steps stuttered, letting Eddie bump against his back. He continued breathing against Steve’s neck. "So let’s head inside."
-
Robin took her time closing the Family Video, darting around turning off different TVs. Steve watched from his car as she left the store just to pat down her pockets and then run back in to get her keys from the break room.
He had his eyes closed and was chuckling to himself when Robin finally threw her stuff into the backseat and herself into the front.
"That was four minutes of running," he said. "That’s almost a workout."
"Oh ha ha, Harrington," Robin said, and once she was buckled in Steve started reversing out of the parking lot. He slammed on the brakes when she gasped dramatically, and Steve looked around for what he could be about to hit.
"Steven James Harrington!" she exclaimed.
"What? Jesus Christ!" There wasn’t anything outside that he could see, but the snow was starting to pick up.
"What is on your neck!" Robin shrieked. Steve let all of his breath out, and turned to see her gawking at him, focused just under his chin, where Eddie had chewed Steve up and spit him back out, and he said that with an enormous amount of affection.
With his face flushed red, Steve squeaked, "That’s not even my name."
"Wait—" Robin said, "don’t distract me. You tell me about all your dates! Spill!"
"Even if I told you that Steven is actually my middle name?" Steve raised his eyebrows, face darting between Robin and the road.
"Oh, you’re actually trying to hide this from me," She scoffed at him and crossed her arms. Talking about girls was favored pastime for them, it was probably only fair to include boys too.
"I’m not hiding, I’m just trying not to be a kiss and tell for once."
"Uh huh."
"Okay, I might have done something stupid." Steve wasn't exactly known for his resolve.
"I’m shocked."
"Don’t be mean, I think I really hurt his feelings!" Steve used a stop sign to look at her, both of them lowering their shoulders. He bonked his head back on the headrest, and Robin smiled incredulously at him.
"Oh Dingus," she cooed. "Are you striking out with guys already?"
Steve flexed his bruised neck at her as he finally left the intersection, ignoring her "ew", and bragged, "Clearly not striking out."
"Yeah, must have been real stupid," Robin teased, and Steve could only shrug along.
"He looked kinda upset when I left to come get you," he admitted.
"Think he’ll trash your house while you’re out?" Robin asked.
"He’s not there. I asked him to leave. I mean, I don’t really share beds well, you know."
The snow was picking up outside, sure to stick through the night. Robin looped her arm through the one he had on the gear shift, and they listened to her Madonna tape play in his speakers.
"So you didn’t put out on the first night," she sighed. "If he’s mad, he’s an asshole who doesn’t deserve you."
"O-oh, I-uh, kinda put out," Steve stuttered. Giddy laughter filled the car, and Steve sputtered defensively at her. "I mean only kinda! I don’t know how it’s scored now!"
"Shut up," Robin screamed. "'How it’s scored'? You’re such a pig, it’s unfair how hot people think you are."
"I’m taking that as a compliment." Steve pulled in front of Robin’s house, but wasn’t surprised when she didn’t make any moves to get out. "I think I might have hurt his feelings."
"Not everyone is as clingy as you," Robin said. "Call him tomorrow, be a slut again, you'll be fine."
"Screw you," Steve said, without a lot of heat. He sighed as he admitted, "I don't want to screw anything up. I don't even know how I pulled him to begin with."
"What do you mean you don't know how you pulled him?" Robin twisted to the side, resting her back against the door window and pulling her feet up onto the seat. "You're not a subtle flirt."
How many times had he told his nosy best friend to not ruin his upholstery. Steve swatted her shoes, and admitted, "It's really embarrassing."
Robin kicked at his hands and snarked, "Okay, well I’m burning with so much jealousy I could stand to see you embarrassed," before finally lowering feet.
"He assumed I was gay and I didn't want to correct him," Steve sighed
"Steve you absolute dingus!" She cackled. "What did you do that was so gay? Ask to kiss just to see if you’d like it?"
Steve flushed bright red, embarrassed that she was basically right, but also mortified that it was Steve’s carelessness with Robin’s things that was the queer-baiting culprit. As much as Robin’s room started as a a joke, it was still kind of true. It was just also kind of Eddie’s room, at least his balcony. And, you know, Steve’s house. Hell, it had been Tommy and Carol's room once upon a time. Still, Steve had invited Eddie into Robin’s space without care that her stuff could have outed her, and it could have gone very wrong.
"He—uh, saw me with some of your books. Carmina or something, and I think a royal biography?" He winced. "I’m sorry! I know he was like, actually coming out to me but I didn’t want to just be like 'Oh no, that’s my friend Robin’s, you don’t really know her, but she’s the lesbian'." He held his breath.
Robin head-butt Steve’s shoulder, muttering, "Thanks, Steve," as Steve rubbed her back and sighed.
"I didn’t think pretending to be gay for like 10 seconds would make me gay," Steve said, pulling a piece of Robin’s hair off his nose.
"Wait, okay," Robin pulled back, reeling up for a ramble. "You said earlier you didn’t really see a difference. So do you think you’re gay, or do you think you’re bisexual?"
Steve furrowed his brow. "Is there a difference? Shit, I’m gonna have to learn a bunch of new slang, aren’t I?"
"Dingus Steven Harrington, I will be your tutor in your new queer life. I’m so proud of you, and even more jealous of you. You tripped and fell into a whole new dating pool." Robin pulled her feet up to sit cross-legged, and Steve swiped at her shoe again. "No pressure on labels, I was just asking."
"Of course you want to start studying," Steve shook his head. "Sure, yeah I guess I’m bisexual? I definitely still like girls. Just also at least one guy."
"You lovestruck dork," Robin giggled, and they just smiled for a moment before she finally opened the car door. "Well, you can’t tell me who he is anymore, because you were too good about protecting me. I can be patient until he says it's okay, I swear. Welcome to the club, Steve. I love your stupid lucky ass."
"Well you two have that in common!" He smirked back to her, and she slammed the passenger door and opened the backseat.
"Don’t be gross," Robin called up to him while she halfway got back in the car to collect all of her stuff. "I’m picking the movie of the day for the next week for making me hear that."
Steve’s cheeks ached as he watched his best friend walk back into her house, and they waved at each other before she closed the door and he started his drive back home.
-
Closing shifts on Sundays were, unquestioningly, the best shifts at Family Video. Plenty of customers stopped by, but it was always a quick stop; it was the day everyone decided to return tapes. No one wanted their rental start day to be Sunday, so no one browsed the aisles or came up to the counter to do anything but pay a late fee.
Monday openings were technically better, because absolutely no one came in at all, but Robin couldn’t work Monday openings with Steve, so Sunday closings were his favorite. He could still look forward to one even after an amazing second date with his new boyfriend.
His boyfriend who had dimples in his smile when Steve had accidentally called them boyfriends without actually checking that’s what they were, because contrary to what Robin thought some people were exactly as clingy as Steve was. He couldn’t wait to rub it in her face. Not in a mean way, just enough to make her start taking his advice finally, because clearly he was doing something right.
Steve idled outside of Robin’s house for ten minutes after dropping Eddie off at home, listening to the Quiet Riot tape he had made Steve get (even as he’d also made fun of Steve for getting it; he was so rude). She ran out in a whirlwind, carrying her backpack from her elbow and juggling two thermoses, so Steve pushed the passenger door open for her and held his hands out to take some of her load.
"Mine is coffee," she said handing the thermoses over, "and yours is soup for dinner since I know you just got back from your date. Now," with her backpack kicked to her feet, and back straight, Robin adopted the tone of one of Steve’s old teachers as she continued, "how was it?"
Steve’s face broke out into a wide, instinctive smile.
"Oh wait, ew! You were in Indianapolis all day! Did you do it in the car?" She jumped in her seat, butt on the very edge and looking at all the surfaces of the car like there was an imprint of Steve’s dick waiting to be discovered.
"Sit down!" Steve scolded. "I’m not driving until you let the seat belt do its job." He valiantly ignored Robin rolling her eyes and muttering, "Okay, Mom," because in the end she did sit back.
"We didn’t have sex in the car, jeez," Steve said, pulling out onto the road. "I mean to be clear, I have had sex in this car, but always the back seat and with a blanket down. I care about my upholstery."
"Gross," Robin shuttered, not shaking her expectant look.
"It was amazing," Steve finally gushed. "We spent the whole day at this busted record store where all the tapes were recorded in someone’s garage. I heard a washing machine in one, I swear."
"Aww?" Robin cooed around a laugh. "Sorry, is that a good thing? You just made fun of bad music together?"
"No, it was fun! He loves that kind of stuff, underground bands and recording studio gossip, and he’s got this way of talking about it, you know." Eddie had moved slowly through the store, eyes bright and eager to tell Steve story after story. He wore a lot of rings, and watching them dance over records and tapes had hypnotized Steve all day.
"You’re so corny," Robin simpered, and scratched behind his ear like he was a dog. If he wasn’t such a careful driver, he would have worked harder to smack her hand away, and it had nothing to do with him leaning into it and laughing along.
"Well my boyfriend likes it, so screw you." Steve bit his lip around another face-splitting smile and looked at Robin at the intersection before finishing the drive.
"Boyfriend, huh?" Robin teased. "Sounds serious."
"Serious enough that I can tell you I’m dating Eddie," Steve smirked, proud and bragging, even though obviously Robin wouldn’t be envious of getting to date Eddie Munson.
"Eddie?!" Robin yelled, "I knew it! You were so weird at his show last week. You came out the next day! I can’t believe I didn’t see this coming!"
"Yeah, shows how smart you are, Buckley," Steve laughed.
"I should have guessed," Robin shook her head, "you dragged me to a metal concert." He did, because Steve had wanted to support his good buddy Eddie, and also Robin thought she was cooler than him even though she spent her weekends at marching band competitions. A fun concert with friends, just to get out of the house and experience a new kind of party scene. Well it was new alright.
"He did look pretty hot on stage, right?" Maybe being completely mesmerized by Eddie on stage should have been a hint to Steve. He just hadn’t thought he was like…lusting. He thought he was just admiring his very talented friend who was a total badass behind a guitar.
Robin laughed at him, predictably, but she at least allowed, "yes, Steve, even though I’m a lesbian I can acknowledge that your boyfriend is objectively attractive."
"He is," Steve sighed dreamily.
Robin groaned loudly before grumbling, "I hate you happy, this is insufferable."
He could only park the car and smirk at her, knowing that with no people coming in and out all day he’d find plenty of opportunities to revel in his newfound annoying happiness. They multi-tasked opening with drinking their dinners rather than talking, and then some grandmas were through the door within minutes of Steve unlocking it, but they just dropped their returns and left.
"So I realized," Robin jumped on the counter the second the door was shut behind the little old ladies. "We have like, a pack now."
"A pack of what?" Steve asked, as confused by her as her choice of movie for the day. It was a Steve Martin movie that only came out a few years ago, but it was in black and white, because it was trying to be an old timey mystery, and Steve couldn’t follow a bit of it.
"Friends of Dorothy, Harrington." Robin scolded, and Steve turned away from the movie to catch the lecture she was gearing up for. Out of high school and still taking lessons; Steve had the patience of a saint. "You, me, and Eddie. Hawkins is a small town, but thanks to some evil scientists we all managed to find each other."
Steve and Eddie hadn’t met in any kind of way like he and Robin had, but he couldn’t deny that he had upped his weed-buying exponentially since dealing with so many evil science experiments. So they had at least gotten a lot closer because of evil scientists.
"Who’s Dorothy? Is that a movie evil scientist?" Steve asked.
"Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. Judy Garland was a gay hero."
"Woah, Judy Garland was a lesbian?" Steve asked surprised.
"No, she was just awesome, and gay guys loved her. So in like, the 60s or something, people started using 'friends of Dorothy' as a euphemism." Class was in session. Steve sat next to Robin on the counter as she continued. "So they could find each other, and know each other. Because community is important!" she said with a gesture. "That’s what I’m saying! You, me, and Eddie. If you like Eddie, I’ll probably at least tolerate him. No way he’s worse than Dustin, and I can stand him. I had a really fun time at the concert, and I can talk to him at school. We should be friends."
"Are you," Steve scrunched his eyes up, "asking my permission to be friends with Eddie?"
"No, I’m just like, giving you a heads up that I’m going to start talking to him behind your back."
The bell rang overhead, and with it came a father-daughter pair carrying a handful of tapes, each with late fees. When Steve finally finished up with them and turned back to Robin, he told her with finality, "I give you permission to befriend my boyfriend."
She threw a balled up receipt at his head.
"We’re going to start a book club," she threatened, like a nerd. "He read my books right? Was one Queens? Who does he think Pickles is?"
"I have no idea what you’re talking about right now," Steve looked at her blankly. "I think he said that one? And someone called Carmina? Who the hell is Pickles?"
"Nobody knows! It’s a pseudonym."
"A synonym for what?"
"No a pseudonym," Robin corrected. "Like a pen name. There’s this, like, debate about who the writer behind Pickles is, because their book Queens is this raw telling of all sorts of queer folks in New York."
Steve nodded, brows furrowed trying to commit the words to memory. Robin was, after all, one of the smartest people he’d ever met. She hung out at libraries and book fairs and theatre shows. Robin didn’t get along with her parent much more than Steve got along with his, and they’d both dove into extracurriculars to keep them out of the home, just on the opposite spectrum.
He seemed to have surrounded himself with motormouths who were all fixated on things Steve didn’t even know existed before he met them. He mostly worked by collecting an approximate knowledge all the things Robin, Eddie, and Dustin talked about nonstop. Just enough to parrot words back to let them know he was listening. This would be a rant that could at least help with Robin and Eddie both, just like how a lot of Eddie and Dustin's monologues overlapped.
"You should be friends," Steve said. "You and Eddie. You’ll drive me totally crazy, but I bet you’d have fun doing it."
"Yes!" Robin exclaimed. "Exactly! I need someone to sit at the adult table with when you run off with grade schoolers."
"You’re the one who actually goes to school with Dustin and them!" Steve argued. "You and Eddie both! I’m the only actual adult here, alright!"
When Robin didn’t want to admit she was wrong she did this thing where she waved her hands in the air and blew raspberries. Steve wiped her spit off his chin with a look he hoped displayed his annoyance. And she called him immature.
"We’re your queer elders," she said confidently. "You had your bi awakening like a week ago; Eddie and I have wise knowledge to impart on you. Sacred texts to pass down. Rites of passages."
Hands held firmly on Robin’s shoulders, Steve looked her in the eye and told her from the heart, "You’re talking like the biggest nerd right now, and I spend time in Mike Wheeler’s basement."
"Community is important! Have you even heard of Rocky Horror Picture Show?"
The answer was clearly no, so he didn’t dignify Robin with an answer and just went, "Pshh" and waved her away.
"Eddie and I can compare our itineraries," she was practically bouncing in her seat at the thought of making Steve learn the secret history of gay people. Steve had to chuckle at her enthusiasm, and debate which days were going to be taken over by his new schoolwork.
"Eddie thinks I already read a bunch of gay books; he’d rather teach me about metal music and board games. Do you want in on those lessons? Because I could definitely use company at the adult table once the nerds bust out a dozen different shapes of dice."
"No thanks," she said flatly. "Once you tell Eddie my books weren’t yours I’m sure he’ll come up with a reading list. You said he liked Carmilla? He would."
As Robin had noted a few times, Steve liked Eddie a frankly embarrassing amount. The only saving grace really was that Eddie liked Steve first, which was also embarrassing but for a different reason (how could Steve have just never noticed? When now he literally couldn’t stop thinking about him naked).
"Why would he like Camilla," Steve asked. "What’s it about?" Steve would simply have to learn about the books Eddie thought he was already into.
"CAR-milla. It’s about this girl, Laura, and her father who are visited by another girl, Carmilla, but she’s secretly a vampire. Carmilla lusts and hungers for Laura, and it’s scary and kinda sexy, like there’s this bit about biting her breast." Robin said, biting her lip, as Steve raised his eyebrows. Oh, okay, 'sexy as hell' indeed.
"Okay what about the room book. Joe something. Italian, I think," Steve asked.
"Um…" Robin thought, "Sorry, that’s not enough for me. Ask Eddie."
"No," Steve said. "No, I’m gonna just let him keep thinking I’ve read the books."
Robin snorted knowingly at him, crossed her arms, and said, "You just don’t want to tell him he turned you bi."
"Hey! No one can turn anyone gay; you said that." Using her words against her almost always worked on Robin.
"Ugh," Robin grumbled. "Fine, you don’t want to admit how whipped you are."
Yeah, a little bit. That kind of mixed with how much Steve felt like he had to play catch-up. Not so much in terms of experience, even though Steve had no idea how he would be able to give a blowjob half as good as Eddie did (probably ask for tips, Eddie seemed to like teaching things), but in how much they liked each other. Or how long they knew that they liked each other.
"I’m a normal amount of whipped," he said weakly. Just like he was a normal amount of clingy and a normal amount of slutty. Robin was just rude and enjoyed his embarrassment.
Maybe letting her and Eddie be friends was actually a really bad idea. He’d already been noting the bad influence on Dustin, as if the kid could get any more arrogant. Clearly, his growing attitude was all Eddie, and Steve thought it looked way better on him than it did on Henderson.
The next people to come in didn’t even look Robin or Steve in the eye, just set their tapes on the counter and turned back around, arguing about dinner the whole time.
"So what’s Rocky Horror?" Steve asked once they were alone again. Eddie didn’t think he had anything to teach Steve but how to not be a preppy jock (and maybe how to give a blowjob), but Robin was still adamant about becoming Dorothy’s friends, or whatever. He had a whole shift to listen to her information dumps.
The rest of the shift was spent in the classroom of queer history taught by his gay elder best friend.