haplesshairpile | this may as well happen (debut)

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debut,
hopper

this may as well happen (debut)

Russian torture really isn't so bad.

Okay, well, it's actually fucking awful. Steve's swollen face is throbbing in time with his pulse and he's pretty sure at least one of his ribs is cracked, but he'll be fine. He gets his ass kicked on a regular basis at this point. What's one more black eye?

The drugs though, man. The fucking drugs. He doesn't even care that he might have internal bleeding because he feels fantastic. They're out of that weird bunker and the kids are okay, so he tries to ignore that they're still being chased and just takes a breath. It's actually really easy to do with how high he is. Whatever they injected him with makes him feel like he's floating, like he just smoked ten of the world's finest joints, and holy shit, he is starving.

He and Robin sneak out of the movie theater in search of food, and Steve gets distracted by the mall's glass ceiling. He really hated this place, after spending all summer here scooping ice cream in his stupid little uniform, but he kind of likes it now. Yeah, sure, there's a Russian bunker a mile underground trying to crack open a hole to an alternate dimension full of hideous monsters, but the ceiling is nice. And the company. He guesses that's pretty nice too.

"Robin, come look at this," he calls out, but his vision sort of swims and after he blinks a few times, he realizes that he is no longer staring up at the bright, fluorescent lights of the ceiling. Instead he's blinking up at a night sky full of stars and while that's pretty cool too, he has no idea how he got here. And why would he come outside when they were so dead set on going to the food court? Corn dogs, man. That was the new mission!

"Robin? Stop messing around. I'm fucking star--" Steve blinks as he finally turns around in a slow circle and realizes that nothing looks familiar. He is definitely not in the parking lot of the Starcourt Mall, and he doesn't even think that he's in Hawkins anymore. "--ving. What the hell?"

Steve stands there in the middle of an unfamiliar street, hands on the hips of his red, white, and blue striped Scoops Ahoy uniform, and lets out something like a giggle. It isn't the proper response to blinking and finding yourself somewhere completely unexpected, but that's all Steve really has in him right now. He just has to laugh. He'll laugh and laugh, and panic later once he's himself again.

But for now-- "This place has corn dogs, right?"

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"Yeah, well, I knew your dad growing up," Hopper answers. "He was always kind of a dick."

He doesn't say anything for a minute and instead focuses on getting most of the blood off Steve's eye before he moves onto his mouth. Most of what's left behind now is a big ass bruise, but at least he's a little clean than he'd been before. This is where stuff gets complicated and he knows it, but it's not like he can just leave Steve to figure it all out on his own.

"Nah," he says. "I've been here for, uh... about a year and a half. And I know that sounds messed up, but time is messed up. That's part of this place. It messes with time. Last thing I remember happening back in Hawkins was El closing the gate. She did it and those demodog things all died and when we went to step back into the lab, I ended up here instead."

"Yeah, he really is," Steve says with a sigh, furrowing his brow a bit. After some introspection after all that shit with Nancy, Steve had realized that maybe part of the reason that he acted like such an asshole for so long was because he thought his dad might actually be proud of him, in some way. Not to completely shift the blame, because ultimately it was his own fault that he was such an asshole, but that sure didn't help.

Now he couldn't really be bothered to give a shit what his dad thinks of him and it seems like it doesn't even matter anymore anyway, because his dad isn't here.

He listens to Hopper while he speaks and lets him clean up his face, because it feels kind of nice to be taken care of, even if it is by some guy he doesn't even know all that well.

"But you were in Hawkins that whole time," Steve finally says, looking up at Hopper in confusion. "So-- you were there and here? Does that mean that I'm still back home too? God, this hurts my brain."

"Doesn't get much easier," he answers, then nods. "Yeah, the way it's told and the way I figure, we're here and we're there. Somehow. Different versions of ourselves like there's a different version of Hawkins in the Upside Down. Hell if I know how it works, though, 'cause I don't think there are any Russians running around this place conducting experiments with lasers."

Not that he can say that with absolute certainty. He doesn't know a damn thing about how Darrow works.

Explaining this place to Steve is important, but there's something he needs to know first. Above everything else.

"El- she's doin' okay?" he asks.

Steve's mind is reeling as he tries to process all of this, but Hopper's question snaps him out of it immediately. Shit-- if he's been here since the gate, he doesn't really know anything at all.

"Oh, yeah. Yeah, man! She's good," Steve assures him as he pulls himself up into more of a sitting position. He doesn't interact too much with Hopper and El directly, but he hears enough from Dustin, and from Mike, who never shuts up about her. He knows enough to alleviate Hopper's fears, at least.

"Uh, let's see. She's like, yours. Legally. That doctor from the lab pulled some strings with a birth certificate or something?" He blinks and reaches for the glass of water he brought from the bathroom and takes a few sips. It still tastes a little like blood, but he assumes that will be the case for a few days. "She's still dating Mike. I mean, in as much as kids that age can date. And like I said, I saw her at the mall the other day. I don't know if she was supposed to be there, but she was with Max and they looked like they were having fun. She looked happy."

After a pause, he takes another sip and gestures at his face. "She wasn't involved with all this. None of you guys were. At least, you weren't when I was-- I don't know, interdimensionally snatched, or whatever."

While Hopper doesn't love the idea of Eleven dating anyone, he figures Mike's actually a pretty okay kid, all things considered. He cares about his friends, he clearly cares about El, and Hopper might not be great at being a guardian all the time, but he knows people who care about his kids are pretty much the thing that matters most.

"Good," he says, then exhales slowly. "Yeah, that- that's real good." He has the birth certificate here, he knows she's his, but it's good to hear about her going to the mall and being a regular teenager.

"You're gonna be okay here, too," he adds a second later. Maybe he doesn't know Steve Harrington well, but the way he is with the kids in Hopper's life, he figures he's a hell of a lot better man than his father ever was. He's not just going to leave him to figure this place out on his own. "We'll get you settled. It'll be okay."

Steve stares up at Hopper, whose face is creased with worry, and he blinks a few times as he realizes that he may end up the same way. If he really is stuck here, he'll just have to hope that they managed to stop the Russians from closing the gate, but he'll never really know for sure. Not unless someone shows up from later, like he did for Hopper.

Hopper's voice snaps him back before his thoughts can spiral too quickly, and Steve gives him a wan smile at the reassurance. "Thanks. I mean, it's not like I had a lot going for me back home, anyway."

Except maybe he had something. Someone. But now he'll never know. "There was this girl-- but, I don't know. I think she might have been too cool for me. Not that I'd ever let her hear me say that."

"She was too cool for you," Hopper answers, even though he doesn't know the girl in question and he's pretty sure Steve was always considered one of the cool guys in school. It's just a fact of like. Women in general are too cool for men, because men are idiots. Hopper is a damn idiot and he well knows it.

"Especially if you let her see you in your uniform," he adds. "C'mon, I'll get you a shirt. I- shit. Beverly."

He huffs out a breath and says, "I got a kid living here with me. Beverly. She's a good kid. You'll probably fit one of her shirts."

"Yeah, she really was," Steve says with a huff of laughter. There was a time not so long ago that he probably would have aruged with that, because he was the coolest of the cool, after all, but now he knows that it was pretty much all bullshit.

He really doesn't want to be one of those people who peaked in high school, but he probably already is. Before he can think on that too hard, Hopper distracts him with the mention of another kid.

"Are you collecting them or something?" Steve asks, but it's not like he can talk. When Hopper mentions giving Steve one of her shirts, however, his mouth drops open and Steve gives him an affronted look. "Why can't I just borrow one of yours? Look at this bullshit I've been wearing all summer. You really want to add insult to injury?"

"No one'll know it's a girl's shirt," he answers. "I won't give you somethin' pink and frilly. Hell, I don't think Bev owns anything pink and frilly. It's just a shirt. It'll fit you better than my clothes will."

Hopper's about twice as wide as Steve is. He's pretty sure three of him could fit into one of his shirts without much trouble. Beverly might be a bit shorter than Steve is, but he still figures one of her longer shirts will be a better fit for him than anything in Hopper's closet.

"You're gonna have a package waiting for you," he says. "An envelope with a bunch of stuff in it. A place to stay, some ID. A cell phone. It's weird as hell."

"Yeah, okay. Thanks," Steve says, feeling like a bit of an asshole for complaining when he could be here all alone, puking on the street with no idea what was going on. "Anything without my blood and sweat on it is an improvement."

Hopper starts talking about a package and Steve eyes him warily, feeling something like fear curl coldly in his belly. There really is no leaving this place, and it's starting to sink in.

"A place to stay? Like, by myself?" Steve asks, feeling entirely unequipped without really knowing why. He was a latchkey kid for most of his life. He's used to being home alone, but still. This is different. This is really being alone. "Where do I get the envelope?"

He blinks again, brows furrowed. "And what envelope is big enough for a mobile phone?"

"Yeah, but you can come around here if you need. Don't think Beverly'll mind much," he says and he figures she's too young for Steve to even contemplate trying to hit on. Even if she isn't, Hopper figures he's not stupid enough to do it anyway, knowing it wouldn't go over well.

"And, kid, you've got a world of culture shock comin' your way," he says as he fishes his slim cell phone out of his pocket and holds it out to Steve. "Calls, messages, games, a fuckin' step counter. You name it, that thing can do it. It'll all be at the train station most likely. I can take you there once you've had a chance to rest up a bit."

Edited 2019-08-09 16:18 (UTC)

"Thanks. I'll probably take you up on that," Steve murmurs, because he's too tired to act like he isn't scared. He lets out a deep sigh and rubs under his good eye, pausing when Hopper holds a slim object out in front of his face.

"Shut up, this isn't a phone," Steve says with a scoff, giving Hopper a skeptical look as he reaches out to take it. The screen lights up without having any buttons at all, and Steve's eyes widen. "Holy shit."

He fiddles with the phone for a bit, utterly fascinated, until the bright light of it makes his head pound even harder. Hissing, he holds the phone back out. "Has medicine come that far too, or is it still just good old Tylenol?"

"There's about thirty different varieties, but it's still mostly the same," he answers as he takes his phone back. "Get comfortable, I'll bring you some painkillers and more water. You can rest up a bit."

Hopper still has a lot of questions for Steve, things he wants to know about going on back home, but he can give the kid a break. Those questions can wait until the morning, when he's had some time to recover. Right now, Hopper won't be terribly surprised if he comes back with the painkillers and Steve is already asleep.

Hawkins has a way of screwing people over in the past few years. He can only hope Darrow doesn't prove to be just as good at it.

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