#1 Dredge Fan

hes so strong look at those arms oh god oh god guys i am so not well. hes so fuckint strong look at him arms oh my god what do i even do

This might be the second time Hopper has ever seen this kid with his parents and he’s bruised up. Hopper frowns but then Steve spots him and announces loudly across the busy diner, “Hi, Mr. Hopper! Look at my cast!”

He’s shushed almost as soon as he opens his mouth and it is rather unfortunate for the Harringtons (and for Hopper) that one of the only open tables is near him. Steve is thrilled, talking a smidge quieter when he tells Hopper, “Isn’t it cool? Mama says that people can’t sign it ‘cause that’ll make it ugly but you can write your name in my notebook and it’s almost the same thing.”

That’s - god, that’s sound genuinely sad but Hopper signs his notebook anyways and asks, “How’d you break it?”

“Dad hit me with a car.”

Hopper freezes. Angela freezes. Richard freezes and then breaks, and says, “Steven, don’t word it like that.”

“I got a new bike and I was riding it real fast,” Steve tells Hopper, barely acknowledging his dad at all. “And Dad pulled out of the driveway real fast ‘cause him and Mama were fighting again,”

“Steven-“

“I couldn’t stop in time so I ran into the car,” Steve continues. “I flipped over the hood and Mama screamed like in a scary movie. It was awesome.”

“Awesome,” Hopper says flatly.

“I dented the car,” Steve adds. “Dad was real mad about it.”

“I was ang- I was more upset about the broken bone, Steven.”

“Now I get to have ice cream for dinner ‘cause Dad hit me with the car,” Steve says. “Do you want some? Dad is buying.”

Robin thinking that Steve must’ve went on all these extravagant trips and did a lot of cool stuff, is like, “Why, all your friends jealous?”

“No,” Steve says, distractedly restocking sprinkles. “Everybody kept being like, ‘ that’s messed up. Are you okay? You should tell an adult about that.’ It was really annoying so I stopped saying stuff.”

Robin just stares at him because, what?

After a second goes by, and then another, and then another… Steve looks up and frowns, “Hey, space cadet. You with me?”

Robin blinks.

She decides he’s joking. He has to be. No one is that casual about shit and he doesn’t even look serious so she tells him as she walks back out to help a customer, “It’s messed up to say things like that.”

He watching his new recruit talk on the pay phone outside through the window, contemplating. He’s not too sure about this Callahan kid.

He’s not sure if he’s just getting older or if it’s because he has a daughter now, but Christ. Callahan still had braces last year and they just handed him a gun. The kid is nineteen.

Hopper must have been too deep in his musing because he doesn’t notice Steve slide into the booth across from him until Steve is halfway through telling him that they make him sit at the bar when the diner is busy. He doesn’t like that because people touch his hair when they go past so, “Can I sit with you, please?”

He shoves Callahan’s half-finished hash browns to the side and says, “Don’t worry, I’ll be really quiet. You’ll forget that I’m here. Mama says I’m really good at that.”

Yeah. Somehow Hopper doesn’t think he’ll be forgetting much of anything. Especially after Patty Martin, the only waitress in the building today, comes over to top of Hopper’s coffee. She gives Steve the sweetest smile Hop has ever seen on her face and asks, “Pancakes again, kiddo?”

“No thanks,” Steve says, pulling some crumbled up dollars and a handful of coins from his pocket. He slides it towards her and says with a gap-toothed smile, “One big sundae with two bananas, please.”

She looks at the money, “That’s a bit more than what you got here, kid.”

“Not of it’s your birthday.”

This is a game, Hopper realizes when Patty asks, “Is it your birthday? You had a birthday last year.”

“I have a birthday every year!” Steve giggles, and Hopper is slightly amused until Patty leaves and Steve informs him, “Mama and me come here every year on my birthday and get a big sundae. We share it. It’s tradition. I’m seven.”

Hopper scans the room and finds it lacking, “Where is your mom?”

Steve pauses. He can see the gears turning in the kid’s head. He knows that Steve must’ve heard his dad say that you don’t lie to the police but you don’t got to tell them the truth because he predictably gives a non-answer, “She’s not here.”

Descriptive, Hopper thinks but he also thinks this whole scenario is so damn sad. Instead of an interrogating, he asks, “Hey, kid. How about after you finish your ice cream, I take you for a drive in the truck. You can turn the siren on.”

Steve gives him a look like he not only thinks that suggestion is stupid but that Hopper is too. He says gently, like he’s letting Hopper down easy, “No thanks.”

Yeah, she thinks he’s cute but there’s more to a relationship than that.

“Since when?” Steve complains at lunch, replaying this conversation to his friends. “And what’s there to improve? I’m an alright guy, right?”

“There’s nothing to improve,” Tommy replies.

“Your grades for one,” Carol says at the same time. She rolls her eyes at the blank look they both give her, “Wheeler is a nerd. Straight A’s probably get her horny. I don’t know what you see in her anyways.”

“She’s a total wet blanket,” Tommy agrees, and then after Steve mutters that he could get good grades, adds, “Yeah, you can. Easily, but you don’t have to. Anyone would be lucky to date you.”

And now?

Now Steve’s got an A in geometry and going on a second date with Nancy Wheeler, and what?

“She just lost her self-respect?” Tommy asks bitterly, stabbing at his lunch while Steve is across the cafeteria with Nancy. “I thought she had standards.”

Hopper does not roll his eyes when he looks away from his wife’s empty chair to six year old Steve Harrington next to him, “Yes?”

The kid is in a suit. Should Hopper have worn a suit?

“I’m okay, Mr Hopper.”

Well, that got Hopper’s attention. His eyes flicker from the kid to the table with his clearly whisper-arguing parents. Steve certainly looked okay so, “Good?”

“I’m gonna ask Mama if I can get ice cream,” Steve tells him. “If she says no, I’m going to cry real loud ‘til she gives up. I’m not really sad, Mr. Hopper. I’m just really good at crying. Please don’t arrest my dad. He didn’t hurt me.”

Hopper gives him a bewildered look so Steve compromises, “Okay, you can arrest my dad but after I get ice cream.”

Hopper barely manages not to smile at this ridiculous kid when he says, “Are you telling me about a premeditated tantrum?”

One time he was at her house and her mom asked if he was staying for dinner. Robin answered that he was but, “Don’t put green onions in the food. He doesn’t like those.”

He asked her how she knew that because he’s never said anything about it, and she was like, “You literally pick them out of your food every time.”

She made tea exactly how he likes it when he had strep throat. Always buys him sour gummy worms even though he’s never said they were his favorite. Reads out loud on days his dyslexia feels worse without him ever mentioning he even has dyslexia.

She remembers his birthday. He’s never even told her when his birthday is.

“Be real with me, Robin,” Steve says one day. “Are you psychic? How do you know all this stuff about me that I’ve never brought up.”

“I noticed it?” She replies. “You’re my best friend. I notice things about you. You do the same for me all the time.”

“Yeah, but that’s different.”

“How??”