hey_dingus | Sleepwalking into the open palm of the empty sky [August 4]

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Sleepwalking into the open palm of the empty sky [August 4]

"Are you okay?"

Is she okay? In the last twenty-four hours, she's hurtled who knows how far down underground to a Russian base beneath the mall, been drugged out of her mind, watched Alex P. Keaton try to bang his mom, spilled her literal and metaphorical guts, and watched a middle-schooler throw a car with her mind. And now they've just crashed the stolen Toddfather into another car on purpose and she's wondering if this is blunt force trauma because how is any of this real?

No. She is not okay. She's pretty sure this is going to fuck her up for life and the weirdest part is that Steve only barely seems fazed by mini-Carrie.

"Ask me tomorrow," she stumbles out, proud to at least sound kind of quippy about it given the circumstances.

It lasts approximately half a second before she's thrown for yet another loop by the sound of shattering glass as some kind of...something leaps up onto the ceiling. It's huge and toothy and has way too many legs and Robin thinks she's got to be hallucinating. "Oh shit!"

Scrambling to unfasten her seatbelt, Robin leaps gracelessly from the car. In the corner of her eye, she sees a station wagon pulling up and starts to run toward it–and nearly straight into a glass door.

It's suddenly bright and Robin's eyes go wide as she glances around, trying to process. It's daylight. The cars are gone. Through the glass door she almost smacked into, she can see the courtyard of a mall but it's definitely not Starcourt.

"Holy shit," she says again. "I'm in Hell."

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Steve stares at Robin in confusion, wondering what any of this even means, until it finally clicks. If Robin wanted Tammy to look at her, really look at her like she looked at Steve, then there’s really only one thing that could mean.

“Oh,” he breathes out, furrowing his brow a bit as he processes it all. Steve has been rejected by plenty of girls, more than he could even count, and this feels like sort of a distant cousin to that. He didn’t even put himself out there, for one. Or maybe he did, because why else would she tell him this huge thing on a sticky bathroom floor.

He’s still thinking, but Robin is looking at him like maybe she’s scared, and Steve hates that. In his month here in Darrow, he’s met all sorts of people who are gay and he’s fine with it all. Back home it wasn’t something that someone could really be open with and yeah, Steve was an asshole, but never about that. He doesn’t really get it, personally, but how could he? He’s not the one living it.

“If I sounded like a Muppet then it was a good impression, because her singing sounds like Kermit on a bender,” Steve says with a small smile. He can’t imagine that he would have reacted poorly back home either, but she’s looking at him like she doesn’t know what to expect. “Your taste in women is terrible, but I guess that leaves more for me.”

Steve looks at her for a long moment, smiling softly, and then gestures at the chair across from him. It’s his turn to be vulnerable now, and he swallows hard before looking at her again. “So, I’m guessing you didn’t just tell me this because you felt like sharing.” He huffs out a small laugh and feels his cheeks heat up a bit. “Did I make a complete fool of myself?”

"Oh," Robin says back. Relief creeps back into her and she knows she had no reason to be scared in the first place but Steve is the first (and second?) person she's ever told. There are still days when Robin can barely admit it to herself, much less accept it, but here's Steve Harrington.

Robin slouches into the seat across from him and matches his nervous smile. "I guess this means you don't remember singing Total Eclipse of the Heart in a Kermit voice." That's tragic on its own level because it had been so comfortably, intimately, the opposite of Steve trying to be cool all the time. They'd been idiots on the bathroom floor.

But not a fool.

Letting out a breath, Robin shakes her head no. "You were talking about me like this great girl you'd met. It was some of the nicest stuff anyone's ever said about me, really." It's why she'd been honest, why she'd felt like she'd owed it to him. "I owed you the truth."

"No, but that does sound like me," Steve says with a small huff of laughter. It sounds like the real Steve, the kind he let himself be around Dustin, when he didn't think he had to act cool.

Being in Darrow is kind of freeing in that way. He really has no reason to keep up the act.

Robin sits down and Steve shifts nervously, preparing to be let down easily after a confession he doesn't even remember making, but that isn't exactly what happens. He finds himself smiling because he can picture it, him spilling his guts out on some dingy bathroom floor and her doing the same. It sounds like a pretty good ending to that disaster of a day.

"You are a great girl," Steve tells her, pausing a moment to try and gather his words. "I haven't seen you in a month, right? And-- when I thought of you, and how much I missed you-- shut up, I did-- I just." He takes another breath and shrugs. "I missed just hanging out with you and giving each other shit. I didn't miss you like I thought I would."

He looks over at Robin helplessly, and then in his very best Kermit voice asks, "Does that make any sense to you?"

"To be fair, neither of us were at our best," Robin says, echoing Steve's little laugh. She doesn't remember everything with perfect clarity but she remembers enough to know she'd been totally slaphappy, laughing like a fiend and unable to keep a single thought in her head for too long. It's nice, at least, to be clearheaded about it this time around.

She wants to fire off some joke about how he can't have missed her after seeing her pretty much every day since the middle of May but he's clearly serious. Maybe for her, no time has passed, but it's obviously not the same case for him. Then he makes that Kermit voice again and she cracks a little bit, laughing into her hands for more time than the joke deserves. It's just such a goddamn relief that she's maybe a little bit hysterical.

When she can be serious again, Robin reaches across the table and pats Steve on the shoulder. "I'm not entirely sure, myself, but I'm pretty sure that's what having friends is like." She hasn't exactly had that many of her own but if she's really looking at it, that's what they are, aren't they?

Robin laughs and Steve finally feels himself unclench. He relaxes back in his seat and watches her giggle into her hands like an idiot, and he thinks about how he doesn't want to kiss her or try to get her in bed or anything. He never thought about that, not while he missed her or thought back on her time together.

He really just wants to make her laugh, and to see her happy. She pats his shoulder and Steve smiles at her, even as his brows furrow slightly in thought. It's probably pretty pathetic, but he's never actually had real friends who actually gave a shit about him. He wasted so much time on fucking Tommy H, that asshole, who probably wouldn't have even pissed on him if he were on fire.

So maybe he was confused, because if he was a guy who had fond feelings for a cute girl, he obviously wanted to bang her, right? God, he's such a fucking idiot. But at least he's getting better. Being in Darrow helps, because this is such a different world. Things are better here, not just for straight white assholes like him but for everyone. He thinks about Robin and how she likes girls, and he can't help but to be excited for the world she's about to experience. He wants her to be happy, wants to make her laugh, and yeah. That must be friendship.

"Friends, then," Steve says as he holds his hand out to her for a shake. "Dingus."

"Dingus," Robin agrees. She shakes his hand like they've just made some kind of oath and then relaxes in her seat. "God, it's been a weird week." Sitting in Steve's apartment feels like the first time she's had a chance to catch her breath ever since Dustin showed up, ate a U.S.S. Butterscotch, and announced he found a Russian code. Before this, the bathroom floor was the first time she'd felt any kind of normal and it's the same feeling now.

Robin squeezes his hand and lets go at last, standing up with the towel still in hand. "So, good talk, but I still smell like Evil Russian Lair and butterscotch. I'm gonna take that shower now." Because she's exhausted and gross and right now nothing in the world sounds better than taking a nice hot shower and then eating pizza with her best friend.

"You know, I thought it was trippy as hell that I might die in that room with Steve 'the Hair' Harrington? But this whole friendship thing? Even trippier." She grins. "I like it."

"I mean, I wasn't going to say anything," Steve says with an amused smirk, watching their hands until she lets go of him. He stands up and then gives her a smile that's more genuine.

Friends. He does like the sound of that, even if it's nothing near what he would have expected.

"I like it too," he tells her, looking over his shoulder when the door buzzer sounds. "Go take a shower, nerd."

He answers the door as she disappears down the hall, grateful for the moment to just process everything that just happened. He sets the pizza on the coffee table and gathers some plates and napkins, trying not to wonder over how easily he settled into living on his own. Steve was a latchkey kid pretty much his whole life, so he's used to making his own food and cleaning up after himself. He's used to being on his own. This is just that, but on a bigger scale.

The shower is still running, and Steve goes into his room to change into a pair of sweats, because he feels pretty done with the day. He grabs another pair and stands awkwardly in front of the bathroom door before opening it just a crack and turning his head away.

"Robin!" He calls out as he slides his arm through the narrow crack to toss the pants in the direction of the counter. "I brought you comfy pants!"

"I'm going, nerd!," Robin shoots back. "Don't eat all the pizza without me!" She disappears into the bathroom and is relieved to see that even though the decor taste has changed, everything still works like she'd expect. The faucet is just a faucet and the water comes out hot or cold.

She doesn't feel remotely guilty about the length of shower she takes, trying to get off as much grime as possible and stealing a generous portion of Steve's soap and shampoo (she'll replace it sometime, really). A rush of cold air slips through with Steve's voice and she makes a surprised noise, flinging a handful of soap foam at him on instinct.

They are, however, comfy. Robin had known she needed a shower but she hadn't realized just how badly she needed some clean clothes too.

"Sorry about the soap."

“Ah, what the hell,” Steve says, yanking his arm through the door when something wet splats against it. “I’m not gonna look. Shit, hold on.”

Steve goes back to retrieve a plain black tee and shoves it through the door, tossing it on the counter before pulling the door shut. He walks back to the kitchen to rinse his arm and thinks about how he really was off base on his feelings for Robin. If he really wanted her, like to be in a relationship with, it would be killing him to know that she’s naked in his bathroom right now.

Instead, he just wants her to get out before the pizza gets cold. He grabs a few cans of soda and sets then on the coffee table before flopping back onto the sofa. “Hurry up!” He calls out. “I want to blow your mind with some 2019 technology!”

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Robin says, although she can't really get herself to a speed above 'mosey.' Now that she's clean and not in imminent danger, her ability to hurry is pretty much gone. In a pretty good imitation of Steve, Robin flops down to join him, happily unconcerned about the fact that she's pretty much in pajamas with her hair all wet. Steve has now seen her in far worse and she's seen him in his Scoops Ahoy uniform.

"How mindblowing are we talking? Because I want you to know it's been a very long day and I'm not sure how prepared I am." Truthfully, Robin's tired but her mind is active, buzzing with all the new information she's had to taken in, both in Hawkins and Darrow. "But you know what they say. And knowing is half the battle!"

Grabbing a slice of pizza, Robin turns in her seat so that she's sitting crosslegged, facing Steve expectantly.

“Oh, your mind is gonna be so blown,” Steve promises as he loads up a plate with some pizza. He looks over at Robin and he’s filled with a sense of guilty relief. He hates that she’s going through this but he’s happy to have her here with him. Hopper’s cool, and so is Bev and a lot of other people he’s met, but this is his friend. Probably his first actual friend his own age, as sad as that shit may be.

“First, behold the television,” Steve says as he grabs the remote and thrusts it out towards the TV. “No thicker than that bullshit book from Click’s class.”

He hits the power button on the remote and checks to make sure it’s still on the background for the streaming service before he turns to face Robin. “But wait, there’s more. Television,” he says as he presses the voice command button on the side of the remote and brings it towards his mouth. “Play Back to the Future.”

A few moments later, the opening credits for the movie appear on the screen and Steve drops the remote before thrusting both hands in the air. “We live in the future!”

Okay, that's kind of impressive. Robin had sort of understood it was a television, if only based on the fact that it had a screen and it was placed where a television should be, plus all the other unbelievably thin glass screens at the mall. It's still another thing to take a close look at it and another thing all over again as she takes in the picture quality. It's almost unbelievably crisp and clear, even from just the menu, which Steve moves around like he's playing an Atari.

And then he goes all Captain Kirk, talking right into the remote control and ordering it around.

"Holy shit," she agrees. "Okay, you were right. The future is even better for laziness. You didn't even have to get up to put in a video tape." Wait. "Does the future even still need videos?"

“Not really!” Steve laughs and kicks his bare feet up onto the coffee table as the movie starts, taking a big bite of pizza. This is the fun part, the look at all this cool stuff part, but he knows that he’ll have more to explain later, once Robin decides that she’s ready to start asking questions.

He’s never said out loud all that he’s been through thanks to the Upside Down, and he gets a small knot in his stomach just thinking about it. After a few weeks here, Steve no longer was of the mind that Darrow is connected to it. He can’t rule it out entirely, of course, but he thinks Darrow would be a lot more terrifying if it was.

“Oh, and pot? Totally legal,” Steve says with an amused huff, trying to delay the inevitable a little longer. “Well, for me it is. You’re still a baby.”

The movie starts to play but Robin doesn't recognize any of the scenes yet. She thinks they must have come in at the beginning of the movie but she hadn't been lying when she said she couldn't really follow any of it. They definitely watched a significant portion but it's basically all new to her anyway.

"Didn't Nancy Reagan tell us to Just Say No?" Robin deadpans. Like she cares what they have to say. But what does she know? If there are actually drugs in Hawkins, Robin's never been invited to the parties that have them.

Steve seems as if he's ninety percent cool and collected but Robin thinks she can detect a little bit of uncertainty beneath his skin. Something she wouldn't even have known existed a few months ago. "Do I need to check your pupils?"

"I should have known that you'd be a narc," Steve says, but it's obvious that he's teasing. Robin never really struck him as the type to go to the parties where pot and beer were passed around freely, and that was sort of the only place to get weed in Hawkins. Steve didn't smoke very often, and when he did it came from a friend of a friend, or some other vague bullshit. It just blows his mind that he can walk into a shop and buy it here without having to deal with any shady people.

Robin's question makes him realize how tense he is, and be blows out a breath as he runs his fingers through his hair. "No, no, I'm fine. I've just never really had to tell anyone all this shit before, and I'm trying to figure out where to start."

He could just go into it, let himself ramble about Nancy and demogorgons and how he got wrapped up in all this drama with kids and monsters, but he realizes that he should probably start with the more pressing issue.

"Darrow first, yeah?" Steve asks as he lifts himself up to pull his wallet out of his pocket. "Unless you want to just watch the movie and eat pizza and let me off the hook for a bit, but I know you and don't really think that's an option."

"If you actually think I'm going to ever take Nancy Reagan's advice, then it's like you don't know me at all." Not that she's a conspiracy nut or anything but Robin is pretty sure that there's got to be some kind of agenda if they're making it all about 'saying no' instead of actually doing something about there being drugs to say no to in the first place. Although maybe she should start believing in that kind of thing, given what she's seen.

"If it helps, here's what I already know. Eleven can move things with her mind. There's another dimension. It has monsters. And people keep thinking that trying to open it is a good idea." She raises her eyebrows, silently asking if that's about the jist of it.

Watching him and wondering what his wallet has to do with it, Robin pulls her legs up to her chest and wraps her arms around them. Not making herself small, exactly, just keeping herself a little bit protected. "We could let ourselves both off the hook. I'm not exactly having the best day either." Steve is right in that she wants answers but her normally dogged pursuit has lost some of its bark in the circumstances.

"Those are pretty much the highlights," Steve says once Robin is done talking. There's more to the story, including how he got wrapped up in it all, but Robin's suggestion doesn't sound like a bad one. They have time.

"You're right. It can wait until tomorrow," Steve tells her, scooting a bit closer and patting her knee before reaching over to grab a piece of pizza. "You can stay here tonight. Get some rest. And we'll figure it out together, yeah?"

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Sleepwalking into the open palm of the empty sky [August 4]

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