u die i die

Season one:

Quarry hug

Hospital hug

Season two:

El, Lucas, and Dustin reunion hug

Group hug after Billy threatened Lucas

Not a hug but close enough

If you're going into the season completely blind with no prior knowledge that Robin is a lesbian, like most of us did when it came out in 2019, the you're already sort of primed by narrative conventions to root for Robin and Steve to end up together, or at least expect them to. By s3 we know that steve is a Good Guy, and therefore he deserves a girlfriend. But we're not supposed to root for steve and nancy anymore, because nancy is with Jonathan now and Jonathan is also a Good Guy. So enter Robin, who is paired exclusively with steve for the entire season, and the solution becomes obvious.

And the thing is, they do seem to hit all the standard tropes for a romance arc. They have chemistry! They act like they don't like each other but they have funny banter. They hold hands during a tense moment. Dustin repeatedly encourages steve to go after her. Robin admits that she was obsessed with him in high school.

And then the reveal comes and it turns out there actually is a platonic explanation for everything, at least on robin's side. And even as a queer woman myself, when I watched it for the first time I was almost disappointed for a second, because I love steve and want good things for him.

And that's part of why it works so well for me, because it did piss people off (not everyone - iirc it was actually pretty well received at the time, but there were definitely factions of both shippers and reddit bros who hated it, some of which still remain in denial to this day) and because it works as a sort of meta commentary on what it's like to be a gay woman in real life even forty years later. Because unless you're openly and visibly queer, people will assume that you're available to any guy that's interested and jump to conclusions about your relationships with close male friends. Straight is automatically assumed as the default, and by keeping the audience in the dark about Robin's sexuality until the crucial moment, our own subconscious biases are exposed. There's nothing to suggest that she's gay before she says it, but equally there's nothing to suggest that she's straight, it's just the conclusion we jump to because that's what we've been trained to expect.

Stevolution. He went through a lot

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VS 2020 VERSION

Just wanted you to know that I appreciated and read all your replies to them. I am so glad to call you and @kingdustin my friends and to get to read all things you two write together and separately! You both inspire me so much.

What a treat to check my ao3 and see all these comments from you on dilf dusteve!!! I can't wait to read through all of them and you KNOW I'm going to reply to each comment, so thank you for always reading and enjoying my replies!

I love hearing how you respond to the way that I write Dustin because you're such a big fan of his character. It's cool to see what resonates with you and your interpretation of things, so I always appreciate that. I often wonder, how is Aud going to respond to this choice I've made?

Her name was Jessica, and Hannah hated her. She'd make a point of laughing at everything Hannah enjoyed, everything she drew, what she looked like - all of which Hannah shrugged off. Hannah knew she was smarter than Jessica, she knew she was more talented than Jessica, and she damn well knew she was cuter. She'd just roll her eyes, and move on with her life.

"Kind of weird that your dad is talking about an underaged girl, Jess." Hannah shot back, bored, chin in her palm. Carrie to her left giggled, and even Caroline Hagan shot a grin at Jessica.

Jessica just turned a bit red as the other girls quickly changed subjects, to some vine they'd seen.

"He said your dad is a sodomite, and your other dad was a devil worshipper. He told me that Dustin Henderson helped that one serial killer, the Munson Murderer." Jessica pushed, leaning in.

Hannah took a long sip from her water bottle, eying the other girl up. Hannah did not get her father's height, she was still one of the shortest in her grade. Jessica, was already about 5'7 at 12. She loved to tell all of them how she was scouted to be a model once.

"Eddie Munson was a murder victim, who was blamed because he liked heavy metal. Read a book sometime, jesus." Hannah said, trying to ignore her. She had no idea why the girl insisted on sitting with them, maybe to try and make herself seem more popular than she was.

"Your dad is still a faggot. He shouldn't be coaching kids, he probably touches them, that's why your mom abandoned you." Jessica said, and the entire lunchroom around them got quiet, and it seemed to spread as more kids caught wind of what was happening. Hannah finished her drink slowly, not wanting to waste it.

Then she turned and socked Jessica right in the nose.

In a matter of seconds, it was a brawl on the ground. Jessica had gotten a couple of good hits in, Hannah's nose was bleeding, her lip was split, but she'd gotten ontop of the other girl and began to wail on her.

Eventually, she was pulled off. "Hannah Harrington!" It was Mrs Plaver, a shrill old woman who never seemed to age, but was never young.

"Henderson," Hannah spit out some blood onto the group, wiping at her face. "My name is Hannah Henderson-Harrington."

Steve wasn't really expecting to get called into the principles office for his kid. Hannah had good grades, she had a big friend group, and she was active in an art group. She had a bit of a mouth on her, which he entirely blamed on his husband, but otherwise she'd never caused trouble. He wasn't expecting to see said husband in the office with Hannah either.

"Hey handsome, come here often? Maybe we can spend detention together." Dustin asked him with a small smile, and Principal Clark groaned.

"Not now, you two - Hannah got into a, well... Hannah, do you want to tell them?" Clarke asked her, from where she was sitting on a cushy chair, looking petulant.

"Jessica Colton was being homophobic. I thought there was a zero hate policy here?" Hannah shot at the principal, sure, she'd known the man most of her life, but that hadn't stopped Dustin from getting an attitude with him sometimes too.

"Hannah," Steve said softly. He wanted to chastise her, but his stomach turned over seeing his baby girl hurt. It made him actually physically sick to see, and he just wanted to wrap her in a blanket and listen to Dustin read her books for forever.

But, she wasn't 5 anymore.

She'd tried to defend them.

"Did you win?" Steve asked, and Hannah blinked in confusion, one eye still a bit swollen, before she sent him a toothy grin.

"I won."

"That's my daughter," Dustin ruffled her hair, to the absolute dismay of principal Clarke.

"Kids, please. Take this seriously. I'm already grey, don't make me bald too." Clarke sighed, running a hand down his face. "I'm going to have to contact her family as well, and we need to try to work this out civilly."

Steve and Dustin exchanged a look, and Hannah crossed her arms in front of her.

"Yeah," Steve said. "Of course. I'm all about civil."

"I'm sweet as a lamb," Dustin added, with a plainly fake saccharine smile.

"I won't do anything, if she keeps her mouth shut." Hannah told him.