#bad cops

"Why do you care?"

Steve winced at the other boy's hoarse voice as he looked through the bars at him. Jonathan looked way too small in the cell, black eye and split lip accompying his bloody knuckles and making it clear that whatever fight he landed himself in had been much more evenly matched than the one they had nearly two years ago. But still, "You were the one who called me, remember? Not the kind of call I like to get in the middle of the night." Thankfully, it happened to be one that Robin wasn't there with him. She and Steve had been nearly living in each other's pockets since Starcourt, but band camp was apparently a type of hell that had Robin crashing at her parents instead.

Jonathan blinked, clearly confused by that. Steve really needed to get him to the hospital or something. There was no way Jonathan had recovered enough from July for another fight not to rattle his brains. Steve sighed as it became clear that Jonathan wasn't going to explain himself without prompting, "Look, you didn't tell me anything on the phone except that you were being held all the way in Indianapolis. And the bozos up there told me you were being held for attempted hijacking of a car and attacking a police officer. Which I told them was a load of horseshit because pretty sure you wouldn't hijack anything outside of Upside-Downy reasons and if that is back already, I'd like to know cause I'd rather just join you in there than go back to Hawkins and deal with that shit again so soon."

Jonathan blinked at him, silent for just long enough for the awkwardness to start creeping in, before bursting into laughter. He wrapped an arm around himself, the sound just slightly too wheeze-like for Steve's comfort, but he was smiling. Genuinely. Steve was terrified.

"No, it was a fight," Jonathan finally contained himself long enough to explain. "A stupid fight is all."

"A fight? Why would they lie?" Steve turned slightly to look back through the door to the main room. No one was hovering, but it wouldn't be long before they came back to ask if Steve was really posting the bail.

"Because they're homophobic bastards is why," Jonathan growled, mouth clearly running faster than his brain. He went extremely pale the moment he appeared to realize what he said, hunching over on himself even more. That could not be comfortable.

Steve blinked at the absurdness of that last thought before shaking his head to fully take in the weight of the moment. He took in Jonathan and how small he was making himself, the way he and Nancy had fallen apart so spectacularly in the aftermath of Starcourt. Steve thought of Robin looking so scared on that bathroom floor, making herself as small as possible as well in that moment before Steve reached out to her. He thought of how pissed his dad would be at Steve using the money he still sent for something like this, even if he never found out. And Steve thought of the last three years, even before everything began that connected them. How he was partnered with the strange quiet boy in his math class and how it pissed him off back then in a way he couldn't quite reason out other than there was something strangely appealing about someone who refused to fit themselves in past-Steve's worldview but also was genuinely helpful in a bizarre sort of backwards way. How he then always orbited on the outskirts of his vision before being forced to confront each other once again. And again. And again. And... Oh.

"Well," Steve tried after failing the first time and having to clear his throat. "Those bastards are the real idiots. Seriously hijacking your own car? Couldn't even come up with something more creative. Losers."

Jonathan jerked his head up, eyes wide with something Steve couldn't quite parse out but the warmth filling him gave him a clue. He opened and closed his mouth a couple of times before Steve took pity and said, "Seriously, give me a few. We'll get that bail paid and get you on your way back home. We can work out how to get your car back later, I promise."