Featuring Steve Harrington and Robin Buckley.
Lucas Sinclair, Erica Sinclair, Dustin Henderson, Nancy Wheeler, Jason Carver and Max Mayfield.
1,101 words and only speaks of canon somewhat. Takes place some time after Prompt 001.
“I’m so tired of life altering events. Can’t the group of us still in Hawkins go one year without a monster infestation for once?!” Steve asks Robin, as he kicks a stone across the dirt. Robin looks up at the moon shining down on them. “I know how you feel, Steve.” She places a hand on his shoulder, and he sniffs. “I can't lose any of the kids, they've relied on me to protect them, and the one time I'm not there, Lucas gets his face busted up and Max goes into a coma! Hell, Erica was tackled to the ground, Rob! She's only eleven years old!” He falls to his knees, getting his pants dirty, but that was the least of his concerns. He hits the ground with his fist, knowing that it would do nothing, but it also was the only thing he could think to do. “She'll be okay, Steve.” Robin says, kneeling down beside him. Steve rubs his eyes, avoiding the tears to make any form of descent down his cheeks.
“But the doctors said—” Steve starts, but Robin shoves her hand over his mouth, stopping his thought process before it could really get going. “No, we'll find a way, I mean, if we kill One/Henry/Vecna, well, Dustin thinks we might be able to wake her up.” Steve shakes his head, running his hands over his face. “We can't possibly know that, besides, El has seen no sign of him, so how the hell will we stop him? And El wasn't even enough to stop him the first time! It's why Max is in this situation!” He curls up in a ball, covering his head with his arms. Robin pulls him into a hug. “Look, I know you're scared Steve—” He swallows. “I read her note she made me, Robin.” He says, and her eyes widen. “She said to only read them if she died, but I needed to hear some semblance of her voice, so I opened mine. That might have been the wrong choice, because now I only feel worse.”
Robin rubs his back, as he starts to rock back and forth. She hates to see him like this, so broken and ripped apart on the inside. She made a silent promise, however, that she would be there for him because he spent all of his energy on others and never on himself and his feelings. She decided it best to let him say his piece and then steer him on a more constructive and healing path. “If I had been there, Jason wouldn't have smashed the tape, and Max would have been fine. You and Nancy didn't need me there, not really.” He continues, his voice getting shakier by the second. “Nancy could fight a whole battalion with that shotgun of hers, and you are one of the smartest people I know. But the kids needed me.” He sniffs, wiping his nose with his hand. “The fact of the matter is the main reason I went with you and Nance was because I didn't want to get stuck being the babysitter again. But now I see how selfish that was.”
Robin bites her lip, not sure how she could even begin to combat that thought. “I was so selfish, and it put Max in a coma. It left Lucas and Erica at the mercy of some horrible people, and it's all my fault for not being there for them.” He takes a breath, and she sighs. “Steve, you aren't a psychic or fortune teller, you couldn't have known that was going to be the end result. Besides, it would have been you getting beat up by Jason, how is that better?” He looks up at her with a scowl, and she knows immediately she said the wrong thing. “MAX WOULDN'T BE IN A COMA. THAT WOULD ALREADY BE BETTER!” He yells, making Robin flinch, and inch back. He reaches a hand out, biting the inside of his cheek. “Sorry,” he says, noting her grimace, “I shouldn't have yelled. But even if my face was black and blue, that is still a better outcome than a coma.” She grabs his hand. “Maybe for her, but you have been hit in the head so many times, Steve. When will it be okay for you to think about the effect this will have on you for once?” He sneers.
“My face doesn't matter. The kids need to outlive my dumb ass. They deserve a full life. I am just some loser who happened to be useful once or twice.” Robin's heart snaps in two at hearing her best friend say that. She had theorized that was his line of thought for a while now, but actually hearing him say it broke her heart. “Sure, they should get to live long lives, and do everything they want to do, but you deserve it too. They aren't better than you, nor should you hold them on a pedestal because they may know more science or math than you.” She squeezes him tighter. “You're my best friend, Steve. You know everything there is to know about me, and treat me with the same decency that everyone should. Even knowing the truth about me, you love me as is, and I will appreciate that until my deathbed.” His rocking slows, and he watches her, his lip trembling.
“I love you, man. And having said that, I wish for you to also grow old, find someone who you can spend the rest of your life with, no matter who they are.” She digs her nails into his shirt, tears spilling from her eyes. She inhales, and looks him dead in the eyes. Her eyes sting from tears and lack of blinking, but she had to place this into his head with the seriousness of everything she has. “You are not a loser in my eyes, you aren't a tool to be used and discarded, you are a person, whom I love, that should be able to do whatever he wants to do. Don't you EVER say that you are anything but a person who deserves the world, because that is the furthest thing from the truth! So stop beating yourself up with the what ifs and pinning the blame on yourself, when it was not your fault, okay?” He lays down on the ground, looking back up at the moon. “Okay.” Was all he said, but Robin was okay with that for now. He had stopped his spiel, at least for today, and that was all she could ask for.
