Archive of Our Own

Family Video was quiet. As per usual, there was nobody in the store aside from Robin. She was slouched behind the counter, fingers absentmindedly tapping on the surface. So far, she had had zero customers. Absolutely zilch. She hadn’t even seen a shadow of someone walking by the door, that’s how slow the day had been. 

At this point, Robin was waiting for Steve to show up. For some reason, Keith had decided to stagger their shifts rather than schedule them for the same times. This meant that Robin’s first two hours of work was sitting in absolute boredom until Steve showed up for the last three hours. He hadn’t been able to drive her to work after school, something about his parents being in town, so she had biked over. Robin didn’t want to say she was eager to see him but she really was. She hadn’t seen him in a few days due to marching band practice eating up all of her free time. 

The bell above the door jingled, startling her from her thoughts. She looked up to see, not Steve, but Dustin. 

“Hi Robin,” Dustin said, walking right up to the counter. 

“Hi Dustin.” Robin was suspicious. Dustin didn’t usually come to Family Video when it was just Robin working and he never came to rent a movie unless he brought his mom. Surely he was up to something.

“What’s up?” he tried to ask, like he hadn’t been the one to enter the store where Robin was working. 

“What do you want, Dustin?” she asked drily. He was definitely up to something. 

“Okay, so. You know how Steve’s parents are in town?” Dustin started, looking just to the left of Robin’s face. He was nervous.

“Yes?” She replied, unsure of where the conversation was going.

“He’s being weird about it but like, in a concerning way,” Dustin blurted out, steamrolling past Robin’s thoughts. “He hasn’t been doing his normal checking-in calls, he hasn’t been able to drive me places, I haven’t even seen him anywhere. Like genuinely I haven’t seen him this entire week.”

Robin paused. She thought back to the past few days and, yeah. She hadn’t seen him, not even his car, not since before his parents came to town. She genuinely couldn’t think of a time in their friendship that they had ever gone this long without speaking. 

“Shit.” She muttered, covering her mouth with her hand. Something must be wrong. 

“I’ve tried calling his house phone but it never picks up. I think the phone is unplugged. Robin, I think something’s wrong.’ Dustin emphasized. He had a worried slant to his mouth that Robin never saw, because… because Steve was always there to reassure Dustin.

“Fuck. Okay. Keith will actually murder me if I leave my shift three hours early, but I’ll go check on him after my shift. Do not go to his house by yourself, we don’t know his parents and I don’t want to put Steve in an awkward situation of trying to introduce you to them. Do not make that face at me, you know what I mean,” Robin half-heartedly frowned at Dustin. 

Dustin huffed a sigh but nodded. “Doesn’t he work today?”

“Yeah but I have no idea if he’s going to show.” Robin thought for a minute. “If he does, he’ll probably bring his car and if so, I’ll steal his spare walkie to let you know he’s here, how about that?”

Dustin did not look like he liked the idea.

“Dustin, you cannot stay here waiting for him. I know you’re busy. Let me worry about Steve, okay?”

“Fine. But you have to call me about updates, okay Robin?”

“Yes, I already promised that. Okay? Trust me for once?”

Dustin narrowed his eyes at her, before nodding and marching out the door.

Robin knew before the door opened that the next person to enter Family Video was going to be Steve. She tried not to look too anxious or eager when she sat up, ready to greet him. All attempts surely fell flat as soon as she saw his pale, tightly drawn face. 

“Hey dingus, what’s wrong?” she asked, catching his arm to drag him into her side.

“Nothing’s wrong,” he lied. Badly. Both of them knew he was lying by the way he immediately winced and tried to pretend he didn’t. 

Robin studied him for a long moment. She stared into his eyes as he shifted uncomfortably, scanning his face, only to find–

“Is that a bruise?” she asked, alarmed, one hand raising to examine it further. Steve closed his eyes, resigned. She carefully tilted his head to the side to get a better look. High up on his cheekbone, half hidden by his hair, was an angry welt already turning bright purple.

Robin decided then and there what she was going to do. She let go of his face, stepping away from him to march to the front of the store and flip the sign to close, Keith be damned. She then marched back to Steve, who was looking more and more bewildered at every step she took. Silently, she held out her hand, waiting until he hesitantly placed his hand in hers, before dragging him from behind the counter and into the employee’s bathroom. She locked the door behind them, before sitting down on the (disgusting) bathroom floor. 

“Sit down,” she instructed, pointing at the tile below his feet. He sat down. 

“Steve. I’m worried for you. You’ve been MIA all week and now you show up with a bruise on your cheek. What’s going on?”

Faced with Robin’s worry, Steve broke. 

“I– I’m so tired, Robs. I haven’t slept in days, ‘cause my parents keep trying to bond with me but then every time they see me doing something that implies I have a life that they don’t know about, they lash out. I practically had to beg to go to work today.”

“What do you mean, ‘lash out’? Is that bruise from–” Robin asked, but Steve started shaking his head, cutting her off.

“No, no, they just, like. Yell and stuff.”

“Where did you get the bruise, Steve?”

“Robin, please don't do this.” Steve was avoiding looking at her, his eyes cast down at the tiles to the left of her.

“Steve, I just want to help you. Can you stay with me tonight? My parents will let you, I promise. or you can go stay at the Hendersons. I just don't want you to go back to that house,” Robin waited for a reply. Steve didn’t move. “How long are they staying in Hawkins?”

“I have to go back. They're expecting me for dinner,” he finally replied, oh-so-softly. 

“Since when have you been expected for dinner? They're never here. Go with me to my house or I will call Claudia.” Robin threatened. Steve wilted before her eyes, sinking into the floor and covering his face with his hands. 

“Okay,” he finally muttered. “Your house.”

The rest of their shift went by very quickly. 

When Steve was stuck helping a customer, an older woman whom neither had ever seen in their lives, Robin snuck out and radioed Dustin to explain the situation. 

Of course, when Dustin heard about the bruise, he freaked out.

“I’m coming over–” he tried. Robin shut that down immediately. 

“Dustin, absolutely not. He’s panicked as is. You coming here won’t help. I will call you later, I promise.”

Dustin was not happy about that but finally coincided. 

For the rest of their shift, Robin spent about 10% of her energy directed towards taking care of the customers and the rest of it worrying about Steve. When the clock struck six, the two were out the door immediately, not even waiting for Keith to show up like they usually did. 

Steve drove slowly, as if wanting to savor the drive. He had flipped on the radio as soon as they left the parking lot and who was Robin to say anything, not with him tapping his fingers on the steering wheel, an anxious tone to it rather than to a specific beat.

Once at Robin’s house, she watched slightly bewildered, as Steve meekly allowed her mother to fuss over his bruise. He accepted a bag of frozen peas to press over his cheekbone. He even allowed Robin’s father to give him a pat on the shoulder. Throughout dinner, he hardly spoke a word, only speaking when spoken to, very obviously not like his normal self.

Robin could feel her parents send her worried glances from across the dinner table and she did her best to send them a reassuring look of I've got this. She didn’t feel like she had this, however Steve was likely nearly at his limit of accepting help from adults and she didn’t want to push it.  

When they were finally dismissed from the table, Robin dragged Steve up to her room. Her parents didn’t even attempt to get them to help clean the table or wash the dishes, thank the Lord. Robin and Steve stumbled up the stairs to her room, Steve sinking down on her plush carpet as soon as he was inside. She left the door open just a crack, almost too closed for her parents liking, but by now her parents were well aware the two of them weren’t involved at all.

Robin sat down in front of him, her legs crossed while her hands rested on her thighs. 

“Steve, what do you want me to do?”

“Robin, I told you. I'm fine. I'm serious. I just want to go to bed,” Steve looked tired, weary in a way she hadn’t ever seen before. 

“Okay well, if you go downstairs to leave, my parents are going to ask you questions that you know you don't want them to ask. So it's either me or them.”

Steve thought for a long moment. He thought so hard and so silently that a tear slipped down his face unacknowledged. Robin gently reached up and wiped the tear away but more kept falling. 

“I'm sorry,” Steve blurted out. “I, I don't know why I'm crying.”

“It's okay, Steve. Don't apologize. Please just tell me it's going on. I'm worried about you.” And those words undid whatever was going on inside Steve’s mind.

“My parents fucking suck, Robin,” Steve’s voice broke on the first syllable but he continued, telling Robin about his nightmarish childhood that he was still trapped in now, even at the age of nineteen. How he was left alone for the first time when he was only five years old, how he saw his parents maybe five times a year, and they didn’t even show up to his graduation. 

“I haven't had anyone hug me since, I actually don't remember. When I was younger they never hit me, but my mom would pinch me and as long as my dad didn't see it then it never went acknowledged. My dad's not the one that hit me or my mom, but my dad was cornering me, and I accidentally slammed my face into a cabinet.” At this, Robin gasped sharply. 

“I don't know what to do Robin. They don't know about my injuries due to the Upside Down, they don't know about the migraines. They don't know about the nightmares. They just think I'm being fucking lazy and they can't know about this but I can't keep living in that family.”

“Oh Steve, it's going to be okay,” Robin muttered, gathering him up in a hug. She pressed her fingers into his bag, holding him tightly as he wept.

“I love you, okay? You’re like my brother, and we’re going to figure this out,” she whispered, gently rocking them back and forth.

“I love you too,” he said softly, finally tilting his head to meet her eyes.

Steve was safe here, in her arms. Soon, he would have to face his parents again, would have to face the realities of life here in Hawkins, but for now, he was safe with Robin.