I love the idea that after he gets beat up the first time, Steve just- starts going deaf.
He notices obviously but itās not like his parents are around to take him to get checked out, and then he just thinks that thereās so much else going on that itās not the most important thing to bring up. They have bigger issues.
By season 3 heās completely deaf in one ear and HoH in the other, (i also head canon him as having chronic migraines)
now lip reading is a hard art form to master (itās mostly just guesswork) but he figures it out by talking to himself in a mirror and memorizing how certain sounds look, he gets books on body language to help with the guesswork and gets really good at reading peopleās emotions because thatās all he has to go off of. He learns sign language from a book but never really uses it since no one else seems to know the language but it comforts him to have that in the back of his head.
he doesnāt really try to keep it a secret, itās just that heās always been known as an āairheadā so when he seems to not know whatās going on people just assume itās that. Steve doesnāt really realize that no one knows, like it never crosses his mind that heās never said anything. And Robin only really started hanging Out with him after he lost the majority of his hearing (he loses the rest of it from the Russian beating/mixing that with side affects from the unregulated drugs theyāre slipped ) so she has nothing to compare it with, so despite her and Steve being platonic soulmates, she just doesnāt clock it. Anything she does notice she just assumes is part of his migraines, which are much harder to hide so she knows about that.
It ends up being Argyle who figures it out (because he may be high out of his mind but that guy is SMART,) because Argyle notices that Steve only responds verbally to conversation when heās facing the person talking, and he tilts his head so that his left ear (that can still pick up on things like tone) is towards the presumed sound. (He also notices that Steve seems WAY TO FOCUSED on eddieās lips compared to everyone elseās but heās really good at keeping secrets and Steve is a Bro, Argyle wonāt tattle)
He reveals it to the group in a very casual way. Argyle doesnāt make a big deal of things and he does also just assume that since he knows, it must be common knowledge. The group wants to have a movie night and argyle being the sweet sweet loving man that he is offers to get movies with captions because
āone of the guys I give weed to lost his hearing to a sickness and heās super smart so he found a way to make themā (idk if thatās actually possible in the 80ās so letās pretend it can)
and Dustin or something just sits there like āwhy would we need captionsā and argyle just smiles and goes
āwell itās not gonna be fun for your babysitter if he canāt understand half the sh*t thatās happening, manā
And Dustin just looks around like āwhy would Steve not be able to understand the tv?ā So argyle shrugs and goes
āthe man canāt hear anything dude, I just assumed heād get tired of it. Do you usually just get him a copy of the script somehow? Oh your girlfriend probably gets them, doesnāt she? Yeah that explains it, manā
And now everyone is paying attention like āwait he cant hear??ā And argyle obviously doesnāt know that heās revealed some Top Secret Information, and now everyoneās talking about it like ādid you know??ā āNo- did you know??ā And before Steve can enter the room, they start planning how to figure this out without asking Steve because Maybe Heās Embarrassed and thatās why he hasnāt said anything.
Cue Dustin getting Susie to add captions to a movie and paying super close attention to steve, and watching as steve seems to actually pay attention to a movie for the first time since Dustinās known him- and heās just sitting there all angry at himself for not realizing- obviously steve wouldnāt get his references even though heās watched all the movies- steve Cant HEAR whatās going on in said movies, and then Dustinās all upset because heās been doing stuff like this with steve for YEARS why was he just sitting there even though he has no clue whatās going on?? (Steve just really loves Dustin and wants him to be happy, wants to hang out with him, so if that means staring at a silent screen for a few hours, heāll take it. He enjoys the drive home, when he can see that Dustin is smiling and ranting about what happened in the film, even if he only catches a few words)
And Robin starts having really outlandish conversations with Steve during work when he has his back turned. It starts with stuff like āhey Iām thinking of learning Russianā and āme and Vickie got together finally and hey, Iām pregnantā and it evolves into the weirdest sh*t she can think of on the spot, like once she confesses her undying love for him, and when he doesnāt notice anything weird until he turns around and sees her kneeling on the floor, that pretty much confirms it. She also does start to notice that he never really says anything to someone until heās facing them. She always just thought he didnāt care about the conversation or was being annoying.
Nancy gets really upset because she was DATING THIS MAN for a while and never once thought that hey maybe thereās a reason he was failing in school and didnāt know when he had an assignment half the time, (itās because sometimes teachers donāt write important things in the board!!) and now it makes so much sense, how he would sometimes write essays on things that didnāt have anything to do with the topic presented- he misread the teacherās lips and context clues
And Eddie, who previously thought steve hated Eddieās music, realizes that Steve likes the music he already knew before going deaf because he could time when the words were being sung and use the vibrations to sing along,
And when they hang out Eddie starts playing his music (which he always played but more quietly, because of Steveās migraines) but just Louder this time and Steve actually reacts to it, which heās never done. Before, Eddie would ask Steve what he thought of the music and Steve would just go āeh, could be betterā when in reality steve didnāt even know music was playing and got nervous. He didnāt want Eddie to get mad at him, because Steve CAN concentrate on the music and pick up small parts of it if he tries really hard so he thinks Eddie is gonna call him lazy if Steve admits he didnāt pay enough attention to āhearā it, but once Eddie starts playing it louder, so it makes the walls shake, Steve starts enjoying it much more,
And eventually the group figures they have to have an intervention, like- heās their friend, why did he never tell them this ?? And when they do, Steve just goes āyou didnāt know???ā
If I were a better writer, I would make it super comedic but Iām terrible at that. Feel free to take the idea and run with it.
Edit: you have permission to use this idea in a fic!! A few people have asked!! I cant write so Iād love to read anything yall create!!
(Also- the first time Eddie tells Steve he loves him, he uses sign language for the first time and Steve cries)